#7 - JRL 7286
Pravda KPRF
No. 90
August 12, 2003
[translation from RIA Novosti for personal use only]
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER ZHORES ALFYOROV GIVES AN INTERVIEW
TO PRAVDA KPRF
Question: The first question, which will, surely, be of
interest to our readers, is as follows: why are you a member of
the KPRF faction? Why do you side with Communists? Does this
mean that you have something in common with them?
Answer: No doubt, I have something in common. I did not
intend to be a State Duma deputy. However, when my care about
my institute and domestic science as a whole prompted me to
become a deputy of the State Duma of the second convocation, I
finally got convinced that precisely the KPRF faction
safeguards most consistently the interests of science and
education in our country. So, when the KPRF turned to me on the
eve of the elections to the State Duma of the third convocation
with a proposal to join its central list, I, naturally, gave my
consent.
Now I am not a member of any party. However, I can work in the
State Duma only within the KPRF faction. This is because its
decisions and ideology are most of all close to me.
Science, both applied and fundamental, can develop
successfully only in a country where the economy is based on
the use of science-intensive technologies. However, a severe
blow has been dealt to this direction in the past few yeas.
Naturally, it is easier to destroy than to create. Restoration
is always a considerably more complex and difficult task. I
personally believe that my main task today is to revive the
science-intensive sectors of industry by any method, including
the involvement of the private sector.
First of all, I mean such sectors as electronics, the
production of new materials and some others. It is very uneasy
to carry out this work. However, if we fail to do that, our
country will both turn into a raw materials appendage (it has
already embarked upon this road) and actually train personnel
for foreign countries.
Already today we speak about brain drain. However, our
educational system will also be destroyed as a whole because it
is impossible to train modern specialists without a relevant
base, a relevant industry and relevant sectors of the economy.
Question: What will be required for that? What does it
depend on?
Answer: We speak about simple things. The classics of
Marxism said the following: the capitalist first of all thinks
about profits. Therefore, it is actually impossible to make
oligarchs, the domestic bourgeoisie, spend considerable funds
on the development of new sectors of industry and new
technologies and forget about their profits for some time.
Question: They want to derive profit tomorrow and even
today.
Answer: Today! Let me give you an example. Two years ago
I was in Singapore where a large congress on the science of
materials was held and I had been invited to deliver a report.
I visited two institutes there: the microelectronics and the
information technology institutes. They are not big according
to Russian standards; however, their budgets were quite
substantial.
I asked the directors about how the budget was formed. They
said that the state financed 90 per cent and the industry only
10 per cent of all expenditures. I was surprised. I requested
them to explain why their institutes engaged in applied rather
than fundamental science received only 10 per cent of all funds
from the electronics industry, which was quite developed in
Singapore and was directly interested in their developments.
They answered to me in the following way: "Esteemed professor!
The owners of industrial enterprises pay only for what they
need today and will never pay for what they will need tomorrow.
Meanwhile, our work involves applied developments, which will
be required tomorrow.
That is why, the state pays for that."
Aug. 12, 2003:
#7285 • #7286 • JRL Home
- Back to the Top -