Subject: Russian protest over lack of science support
Author: VOLCANO at NOTE
Date: 10/8/96 5:20 PM
FROM THE STATEMENT FOR THE PRESS
by Academician V.N. Strakhov, General Director of UIPE RAS and
I.I.Naumenko-Bondarenko, Chairman of the Trade Union Committee
of UIPE RAS
On September the 30th, 1996, we, academician Strakhov Vladimir
Nikolaevich, General Director of UIPE RAS and Naumenko-Bondarenko
Igor Ilyich, Chairman of the Trade Union Committee of UIPE RAS
started a hunger strike in a protest against the policy of the Government
of the Russian Federation with regard to Russian science in
general and to the Russian Academy of Sciences in particular.
This policy which has been conducted since 1992 has virtually
resulted in a collapse of the Russian science, first of all of a branch
one. Non-payments of budget financing in 1996 put a final and
irrevocable elimination of the Russian science including the Russian Academy
of Sciences on the agenda. The main features of the process of
the agony of the Russian science are being defined by the
following:
a) a criminally low level of wages for an overwhelming majority of
scientists, including Candidates (Ph.D.) and Doctors of Sciences
(Prof.) which does not provide even a subsistence minimum;
b) a heavy moral state of a majority of scientists caused by
a miserable level of wages;
c) a quick loss of professionalism of a higher level by
a majority of scientific staff due to enormous stress;
d) absence of young specialists inflow;
e) a moral and physical wear of the material-technical basis of science;
it is not possible to obtain the results of the world level
without modern experimental equipment and modern computer
technique;
f) absence of a necessary level of informational supply of science
(by books, journals, telecommunications, work-shops, conferences
etc.)
At present a lag from a level of the world science for 5-7
years is equal to a complete death of science. Russian
science has been already lagging behind for five years.
To develop a common state plan of reorganization of science it
is necessary to be guided by long term considerations relating to
a steady development of the country and its population:
a) expenses for science should be transferred to a number of
protected items of the budget;
b) special programs on technical re-equipment of science, and
first of all - the kept RAS Institutes, should be envisaged;
c) a general level of expenses on science should annually grow,
making 4% of the expenditure part of the budget in 1997,
according to the recently adopted law.
*******************************************************************
September 30th, 1996
United Institute of Physics of the Earth,
Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.
TO ALL AND EVERYBODY !
The staff of UIPE RAS fully shares the demands of academician
Strakhov Vladimir Nikolaevich, Director of the Institute, and
Naumenko-Bondarenko Igor Ilyich, Chairman of the Trade Union Committee,
came forward with an extreme action, dangerous for their health, and
appeals to the scientific community of Russia and the whole world
to support this action by all the possible ways of a civic protest.
Would you, please, convey this information on the present events to
all the public and scientific collectives, to all people
capable of influencing the policy conducted by the government.
Would you, please, inform us about your support and actions
of protest carried out by you through
E-mail: strakhov@dir.iephys.msk.su
Fax of V.N.Strakhov: +7/O95/255-6040 or +7/095/254-9088
Fax of the Presidium of Russian Academy of Sciences:
+7/095/938-1928
|