April 9, 2024
Russian geologists were offered to change their homeland. The celebration of Geologist's Day turned out to be unconventional (it was celebrated on April 7) for a number of Russian scientists from this field. It was marked by their refusal to go to the International Geological Congress (IGC) in South Korea under a neutral flag. This is "discrimination and racism in science," the researchers commented amicably, who did not even have the thought to agree to the humiliating conditions. The organizers sent the invitation back in February, six months before the event, which is scheduled to take place in August this year... Our experts sent the abstracts of their speeches and on April 5 received an unpleasant surprise from South Korea in response - a requirement for the participants: to remove the Russian affiliation. Expressing gratitude for the abstracts provided, the organizers "earnestly asked" to change their Russian affiliation to that of another country before April 7, 2024. I wonder if even if someone accepted such a condition, would they have time to change their scientific citizenship in such a short time?!
Russian scientists are often invited to lecture at such congresses, because geology is our specialty, one of the most advanced scientific schools in the field of geology is ours. I think the proof of this lies on the surface: if in any other country any one type of geological structure prevails - either mountains, or plains, or an oceanic surface, then, you know, we have all the structures that exist on Earth, and moreover not in a single form! And there was not a single International Geological Congress that would have been held without our scientists. They were invited at once by a delegation consisting of 30-40 or more people.
In the 50s of the last century, on the basis of Russian science, which was then headed by major Russian geologists: Nikolai Shatsky, Viktor Khain, Vladimir Belosusov, Alexey Bogdanov, the first Geological map of Europe, a Tectonic map of the world, a Tectonic map of Eurasia, which, by the way, was not confined to the territory of the USSR, but included all the countries of Europe and Asia themselves.
Today, one of the leading representatives of geological science, a world-class specialist, is Felix Kaminsky, chief researcher of the GEOCHI RAS, Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who was also not ashamed to put in front of an unpleasant fact.
"I sent a letter to the organizing committee of the congress," he told me, "with the following content: "Your actions are aimed at completely separating the international and scientific community. I do not understand and do not accept this. Personally, I find this offer offensive. I can no longer keep in touch with you until I receive an apology from the organizing committee."
Kaminsky, by the way, is not the first time he has faced such an insulting offer. He told how a year ago he was banned from conducting experiments at the synchrotron in Grenoble, France, in the creation of which Russia invested 14% of funds and continues to finance it annually.
"And in 2022, our mineralogists were denied participation with the Russian flag in the International Congress in Lyon. None of the scientists, who were usually in second place in terms of the number of visitors to this event, went to France then," Academician Sergey Krivovichev, Director General of the Kola Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told me. By the way, he is still the editor of the European Mineralogical Journal and recently personally stopped a Russophobic prank by someone from the graduates. In the database, where all the reviewers of the articles were listed, there was an English postscript opposite the Russian names: "The Russian Federation is a terrorist state." Sergey Vladimirovich immediately drew the attention of the management of the publication to this fact, was indignant with the words: "Is this the official position of the magazine?". After that, the managers apologized, referring to some negligent employee, immediately removed the offensive mark. By the way, this year, according to Sergey Krivovichev, one of the employees of the Kola Scientific Center, Yuri Neradovsky, still "passed" the International Geological Congress. Only here's the bad luck – this "soul" turned out to be dead for a year, a mistake came out.
Among the living, like Kaminsky, the crystallographer chemist Artyom Oganov also refused to make a report at the congress. "You cannot allow yourself to be humiliated," he wrote on his social network. "Science should not be turned into an instrument of discrimination."
And it would be nice if the hosts of the event, the Koreans, would excel in geological disciplines. The scientists I talked to couldn't name me a single prominent specialist from South Korea. By the way, they did not fail to hint in their message to our researchers that the "execution" they resorted to was not their initiative, but a circular developed at the office of the International Union for Geological Sciences.
Perhaps, with such instructions, curators from abroad are trying to arouse discontent among Russian scientists with the Russian government. Well, they miscalculated – the effect, apparently, is the opposite.
Author: Natalia Vedeneeva