Philosophers showed non-resistance – Newspaper Kommersant No. 241 (7442) of 12/27/2022

The Scientific Council of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IPh RAS), Russia’s leading specialized institution, has published a statement about the “defamation campaign”. “Groups of pseudo-patriots” from the Tsargrad TV channel and from the Zavtra newspaper accuse the institution of Russophobia, working for Western intelligence agencies and studying the “ethics of non-violence,” the letter says. In Tsargrad, they really regularly accuse the directorate of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences of “sabotage activities”, and in the publication “Arguments of the Week” they even reported that the institute’s employees are implementing an “LGBT program”. The Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences says that the accusations are built around foreign internships of employees and often appeal to the times of the USSR. There, what is happening is called persecution and a witch hunt.

The statement of the Academic Council of the Institute of Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (it includes 41 people) is published on website institutions. It reports on the attempts of a “group of pseudo-patriots” from the Tsargrad TV channel and from the publications Zavtra and Argumenty Nedeli to accuse the institute of “anti-state political activity, Russophobia and work for foreign special services.”

Claims are built around the participation of employees of the Institute of Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in international conferences and internships abroad, that is, “usual forms of scientific activity,” the letter says.

“For lack of arguments,” the accusers, according to scientists, refer to the events of 20-25 years ago and the times of the USSR. “Cooperation with foreign colleagues is supposed to be a government task. Our ill-wishers accuse us of fulfilling these requirements, which are at the same time the conditions for the effectiveness of scientific research, ”scientists are indignant.

Specific materials are not indicated in the appeal, but the mentioned media do often feature the Institute of Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. So, in April 2022, in the article “Secret letters from “saboteurs” in robes” on the website “Tsargrad” the activity of the leadership of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences was called “malicious and ideologically subversive”, and the foundation of the American John Templeton, associated with the “Jewish republican lobby”, was called the “main sponsor” of the philosophy of religion sector of the institution. In a newspaper publication “Tomorrow” dated September 16, 2022, it is said that the employees of the Institute of Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences are under the influence of “civilization of the West” and promote “an ideology designed to demolish the load-bearing structures of the building of Russian statehood.” In November 2022 in text IP RAS and MI-6 The same publication said that the deputy director of the institute, Yulia Sineokaya, had an internship in the UK and “throughout her career” was in contact “with British structures.” December 2022 edition “Arguments of the week” accused Ruben Apresyan (included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign agents) by the Ethics Department of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences Ruben Apresyan of introducing an “LGBT program” at the institute. In this publication and on the website of Tsargrad, Mr. Apresyan got it for researching the ethics of non-violence, including the works of the “ideologist of the Orange Revolutions” Gene Sharp.

The IP RAS confirms that the ethics of non-violence is one of the research topics. But the academic council reminds the “pseudo-patriots” that “the doctrine of non-resistance to evil by violence” occupied, in particular, the attention of Leo Tolstoy.

Employees of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences call what is happening persecution, recalling the times of the “witch hunt” in the United States in the 1950s, when “under patriotic slogans, a wave of persecution of workers in science and culture was organized.”

Scientists believe that the campaign falls under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on inciting hatred, but they call for discussing any “discrepancy of opinions” at seminars and conferences.

Note that at the end of 2021 at the institute flared up scandal: instead of the acting director of the institute, academician Andrei Smirnov, chosen by the team, the Ministry of Education and Science appointed Anatoly Chernyaev, candidate of philosophical sciences, head of the history of Russian philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to this position. However, Mr. Chernyaev was not accepted by the team, and his candidacy was not agreed upon in the Russian Academy of Sciences, as required by the regulations. The Scientific Council of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences then issued a statement that Anatoly Chernyaev participated in the campaign “to discredit the institute and its leadership”, and the Tsargrad TV channel of entrepreneur Konstantin Malofeev was called the center of such a campaign. After numerous collective petitions to the Ministry of Education and Science, Mr. Chernyaev was removed from his post. The scientific director of the institute, 83-year-old academician Abdusalam Huseynov, was appointed acting director. The letter of the Academic Council states that the current campaign against the Institute of Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences is being waged by “the same forces and individuals that provoked the crisis of management activity a year ago.”

Konstantin Malofeev redirected Kommersant for comments on the editors of Tsargrad. The editor-in-chief of the publication, Daria Tokareva, advised me to seek clarification from the head of the ideological department of the Tsargrad TV channel, Mikhail Tyurenkov. Mr. Tyurenkov, in turn, sent the following comment to Kommersant: “For us, the conservative patriotic media, it is very important that all state institutions, including academic ones, act in the Russian national interests. That is why in our publications we have repeatedly drawn attention to examples of openly liberal, Westernizing ideology of the institute’s leadership. Of course, confirming the materials with facts and quotes. But I would like to hope that the time of Soros from science in our country is already ending.”

In 2021, the reason for the campaign in the media was the desire to change the leadership of the Institute of Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Andrey Smirnov, acting first deputy director for scientific work of the institute, told Kommersant, but now the reasons for what is happening are not clear to him: “The accusations that sound go beyond reasonable and permissible.”

At the same time, Mr. Smirnov believes that the media indicated in the letter of the Academic Council are concerned “not with patriotism, but rather with narrow departmental interests.”

The head of the Logic Sector of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Shalak, called Kommersant the goal of the campaign “to raise the question of a complete reformatting of the institute by completely unreasonable discrediting of its employees”: “I can assume that this is preparatory work for a new attack.”

Alexander Voronov