There are two fewer science cities in Russia

The information bomb exploded early last year. It has become known: two science cities near Moscow – Pushchino and Protvino – want to deprive them of their status. They were proposed to be merged with Serpukhov as part of the so-called administrative reform, with all the levers of government transferred to Serpukhov. If this reform is based on a document (it was leaked to the Internet on the eve of the adoption of the law), which “promises” residents of science cities the deployment of large-scale construction in their specially protected natural areas, then people’s fears are quite understandable. And, of course, Serpukhov should become, according to the initiators of the reform, a new science city, which means that those articles, scientific results and those crumbs of funding that Pushchino and Protvino received in recent years will be “spread out” over the entire city district Serpukhov, which, for a second, now includes 141 rural settlements with a total area of ​​more than a thousand square kilometers! What kind of new buildings are there for institutes, campuses for young professionals in Pushchina or Protvina? And this is at a time when the country is concentrating resources to ensure a technological breakthrough and sovereignty!

“MK” wrote about the struggle of Pushchino and Provincial residents against the merger at the beginning of January last year. The fact is that on the eve of the adoption they were not shown a single document justifying the future association (except for the project mentioned above). Even then, it was clear to everyone that, according to the current laws, after such a merger, the status of the science cities of Pushchino and Protvino would be lost along with the local government system itself, which meant the liquidation of councils of deputies and city administrations in these cities.

People who feared for the fate of their cities, for the future of their children, demanded honesty and transparency, demanded a legal referendum, in the end… But they were refused. Public hearings were held, but with many violations. For example, in Pushchina these hearings were held without the majority of those who wanted to take part in them – people were simply left on the street, and in Protvina people had to force their way into the conference hall, since the hall was filled with specially brought people.

Some deputies promised then that, together with Serpukhov, Pushchino and Protvino would turn into one big and beautiful science city, without depriving the Pushchino and Protvino residents of their full-fledged administrations and, most importantly, scientific status. But people did not believe them and, as it turned out later, they were right.

The law on the inclusion of two science cities in Greater Serpukhov, despite protests from residents of science cities, including more than 20 percent of scientists, was adopted by the Moscow Regional Duma at the end of January last year. Neither single rallies, nor appeals to the courts of various instances, the media, the State Duma of the Russian Federation, the Russian Academy of Sciences helped… Scientists, representatives of the Council of Nuclear Industry Veterans of the city of Protvino wrote to President Putin himself, but whether their message reached him or not remains unclear clear.

As a result, what scientists feared happened: first (at the beginning of 2023) the status of urban districts was removed from Pushchin and Protvin, and in November the Ministry of Education and Science sent it to the regional Ministry of Investment, Industry and Science, and then, in turn, to the administrations of Pushchin and Protvin requirement for the return of “science city” subsidies for March–December 2023 (a copy of the document is available in the editorial office). It turns out that in this way the Ministry of Education and Science recognized the loss of their status by these science cities, the telegram channel of the RAS workers’ trade union reported the other day.

This decision was certainly unpopular, especially on the eve of the Decade of Science announced by Vladimir Putin!

“If this is not the liquidation of the science cities of the Russian Federation Protvino and Pushchino, then euthanasia for sure,” this is how Mikhail Kuznetsov, head of the Union for the Development of Science Cities, put it in a conversation with an MK observer. — Because urban districts—subjects that were given the status of science cities—have disappeared. Now, as simple cities inside Greater Serpukhov, they cannot legally have the status of science cities.

There is a violation of the Federal Law “On the Status of the Science City of the Russian Federation”! It states that a science city can be deprived of its status only as a result of the city’s failure to achieve the required indicators. But in Pushchina and Protvina all indicators were met and exceeded!

Pushchino and Protvino were created as points of concentration of intellectual, material and technical resources in the field of modern physical and chemical biology, biotechnology, radio astronomy and physics. The Pushchino Scientific Center unites nine biological institutes and the radio astronomical observatory of the PRAO AKC FIAN, the Faculty of Biotechnology of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov and a branch of the Russian Biotechnological University. The center’s scientists have carried out a number of major fundamental studies that have received international recognition. There are more than 20 operating industrial enterprises and 150 small businesses in the city. The main activities of small businesses are related to the implementation of the results of fundamental research institutes of the PSC RAS ​​in medicine, biotechnology, and agriculture. In Protvina, the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” is creating a new physical installation “SILA” – a “synchrotron laser”, which will allow obtaining unique data on the structure and properties of substances at the level of individual atoms. The cost of the project is more than 140 billion rubles. Its design is expected to be completed in 2024.

Protvin and Pushchin received the status of “science cities” until 2034 and 2032, respectively. So for what sins were they essentially deprived of him? Who benefited from destroying the scientific infrastructure that had existed for decades, especially in such an unstable time?

Recently, Bolshoi Serpukhov submitted an application for recognition as a new science city. But the public of Pushchin and Protvin doubts that this is possible. After all, one of the main criteria for granting status is the presence of at least 20 percent of the employees of the research and production complex of the number of all employees.

Before the merger, for example, in Pushchina there were 15 scientists per 100 people of the population of this urban district – it was the leader in this indicator among all science cities in the country. In Bolshoi Serpukhov there are now an order of magnitude fewer scientists – about 1.5 people…

The other day another sad news came: Pushchino and Protvino, in addition to depriving them of the status of science cities, are going to deprive not only their administrations, but also their territorial departments. That is, with one stroke of the pen, someone equated two science cities in terms of management system to ordinary villages, which will be managed from Serpukhov by officials who are not familiar with the specifics of the development of knowledge-intensive territories. Since the 90s, our country has already faced a number of consequences of the collapse of the scientific and technological development management system. At the high stands they constantly talk only about the need to “increase the scientific and technical potential” of the country. But in reality, what?!

Help “MK”.

How the amount of subsidies for science cities has varied since 2008

In 2008, 1,503,180.5 thousand rubles were allocated for all science cities in the country.

In 2011 – 576,702.7 thousand rubles.

In 2020 – 382,319.1 thousand rubles.

In 2023 – 308,601.1 thousand rubles.

For 2024, 309,075.2 thousand rubles have been allocated.

For 2025, 309,442.6 thousand rubles have been allocated.