Lets talk about catastrophes. Almost three decades ago a multinational empire and a global superpower spanning across two continents ceased to exist. A lot can be said about the nature and history of former USSR, but one would be hypocritical if ignored both scientific and technological achievements of the now gone union. A non-exclusive list consists of putting the first man in space, launching the first artificial satellite, building the first electronic computer on the European continent, design and construction of the largest fixed-wing aircraft in the world (An-225), the biggest nuclear weapon to date (the “Tsar” bomb, which was also one of the “cleanest”), development of Gazprom – a massive natural gas extraction, storage and delivery system which still supplies most of Europe, and the list goes on…
With the collapse of Soviet Union many hardships befell the former republics. Cuts had to be made in all but the most essential sectors of the economy, and scientific domain was amongst the worst struck. Vast numbers of scientists fled to Western States looking up to foreign governments who had the capacity and will to fund their expensive research. Amongst them was my mother – at the time a young and ambitious Soviet immunologist, now a British citizen, conducting cancer research and overseeing clinical trials.
In the years that followed, money laundering and corruption spread hand-in-hand with inflation and organised crime, as a narrow circle of opportunists amassed monumental riches at the expense of the public, out of the fruits of public’s labour, both physical and intellectual. Most projects that were frozen due to lack of funding are still… frozen. Permafrosted by now, with little hope of ever been completed without outside funding. Forgive me if I sound nostalgic, for I have no reason to be. Life goes on, and I look to the future more often then to the past.
So what does future hold for the University of Sussex? I wish I had facts and figures to prove my point. I don’t, but having grown up in Kyiv in the 90′s, I have an acute smell for corruption. Someone is making money at the expense of the University, someone is making cuts without thinking about implications on the academic potential of the establishment. At least I pray they are not thinking, for if they realise what the long-term effects of cuts may be and are still going forward with them, then they are committing a serious crime. In former USSR, such crimes were met with capital punishment with no right of appeal.
As an attentive reader may have gathered, I’m drawing an approximated analogy. For times and locations may differ, but the consequences stay. I would like to round off my blog entry my quoting a great man of the past, King of Prussia, Frederick the Great: “He who defends everything, defends nothing”. It’s a student’s job to learn, and I’ve learnt enough to categorically state that cuts for profit are a sure symptom of catastrophe, a preventable and hugely unnecessary one.
Val Redchenko,
Third Year Undergraduate,
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
I don’t think this article is really very helpful. The point you are making is too vague and unsubstantiated to really add to this campaign.
If you’re accusing Sussex Uni managment of corruption, then it is certainly worth pointing out how they have employed more and more fellow managemrs and upped the VC’s wages, while deciding to cut frontline staff. But I don’t see how your analogy with the Soviet regime really adds up.
Yeah sorry I was a bit messed up when I wrote that. I guess what I was trying to say is that the best thing that came out of USSR was the level of education that citizens had access to. Speaking from my own experience here.