Ideas and Ideals

The article is devoted to the study of the main aspects related to the radical reform of the Russian academic science. An empirical basis was the materials of interviews conducted with scientists in the scientific centers of Siberia - Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk. Much attention is paid to the analysis of the organizational and ideological prerequisites for reform, as well as the content of discussions in the parliament and the media, which led to its implementation. It is shown that the main reason for the beginning of the reform was, on the one hand, the desire of the country's leadership in the conditions of a shortage of necessary resources to make the sphere of fundamental research more compact and effective, aimed at meeting the needs of the economy and society, primarily in terms of the development of new technologies; on the other hand, the desire of the relevant Ministry to rebuild the sphere of intellectual production through the patterns of the Anglo-American neoliberal model, and to remove the academic leadership from the administration of the property complex of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was an equally important motive for the reform. An analysis of the opinions of Russian academic scientists showed that in the overwhelming majority they critically evaluate the methods and interim results of the reform, while recognizing the urgency of its implementation. It is shown that the adaptive potential accumulated by the domestic academic science so far allows successfully damping the negative consequences of the reform, but it is not boundless, moreover, a noticeable part of scientists is simply tired of constant changes.