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How science cities are similar to monasteries, why they were needed in the Soviet years and how Russian science is being promoted today – in the Trends review
It is known that European science was born in the space of monasteries fenced off from the world. Their harsh walls, sedate internal way of life, comfortable conditions of economic existence at that time – all this was very suitable for concentrated intellectual work.
It is no coincidence that later many universities were either born around monasteries, or, in their internal regulations, were similar to them. In fact, it was the medieval monasteries that became the first place of concentration of intellectual capital. And subsequently, its fruits turned out to be extremely in demand from fast-growing cities, which needed lawyers, managers, artisans and new technological solutions.
A similar principle lies in the idea of modern Russian science cities. By attracting the best scientific and entrepreneurial personnel, as well as investments, they are turning into autonomous centers for the production of new knowledge and innovations necessary to complicate value chains and economic growth. While isolation from the outside world turns them, in fact, into a secular version of a medieval monastery.
As noted in a conversation with Trends, the director of the non-profit organization “Union for the Development of Science Cities”, a corresponding member of our national academy of cosmonautics named after K.E. Tsiolkovsky Mikhail Kuznetsov: “We can say that for our scientific world, science cities are “prayed” places, growth points that are able to generate everything necessary for innovative development.”
Municipality with status
The term “science city” itself was introduced in 1991, and the corresponding federal law (“On the status of the science city of the Russian Federation”) was adopted in 1999. According to him, a science city is a municipality with a city-forming research and production complex.
In other words, a science city of the Russian Federation is a status that is assigned to a municipal territory in accordance with certain criteria: the number of researchers, the volume of production of scientific and science-intensive products, etc. At the moment, about 70 settlements are classified as such centers in our country. They are mainly concentrated in the Moscow region and the Central part of our country. But it is worth noting that only 14 of them formally have the status of a science city, nine of which are located in the Moscow region.
Most science cities are complex, i.e. work with a wide range of more or less related research and development. In terms of industries, the most common specializations are aviation, space, nuclear research, automation and instrumentation.
Despite the fact that the term “science city” itself appeared already in our post-Soviet country, the very idea of building such cities was implemented back in the USSR. True, in the Soviet years in science cities, mainly science joined industry, and today the emphasis is more on synchronizing science and business.
The fundamental similarity between Soviet and post-Soviet science cities lies in the fact that both then and now they are aimed at creating the most comfortable environment for the development of a scientist. And not only from the point of view of his specific competencies, but also from the point of view of the ability to cross different disciplinary approaches, revealing new abilities and skills in him.
“Urban Elite”
In the Soviet years, science cities arose after the end of the war as a tool for the implementation of major military government projects in the aviation, nuclear, missile and biological industries.
Those. Initially, they were, firstly, focused on the military-industrial complex, and secondly, in the conditions of the unfolding Cold War, they were supposed to make quick breakthroughs in a number of high-tech technologies.
To do this, the Soviet leadership had to solve three problems:
At first, the first science cities were engaged in the creation of nuclear weapons and the improvement of the aircraft industry. For example, the village of Sarov, which during the war years was engaged in the production of shells for rocket-propelled mortars, was transformed into a design bureau for the implementation of an atomic project. And in the village of Stakhanovo, which in 1947 became the city of Zhukovsky, they were engaged in developments in the field of aviation construction.
Soon, settlements of this type began to actively develop in the Moscow region, and then in our Central country and Siberia, covering ever new areas of scientific knowledge. Thus, the centers of the Academy of Sciences were organized in Novosibirsk, Apatity, Pushchino, Troitsk, Chernogolovka; Academy of Agricultural Sciences – in Krasnoobsk; biological centers – in Koltsovo and Obolensk; Dubna was built around the project of a charged particle accelerator – a synchrophasotron.
For the construction of these cities, individual urban plans were developed, implemented by the best Soviet architects and construction organizations. “In the family of Soviet (and post-Soviet) cities, science cities are the urban elite,” scientists Georgy Lappo and Pavel Polyan note in this regard in their article on science cities.
As a result, the idea of such scientific cities turned out to be very effective, providing the USSR with a leading position in world science. In the already mentioned article, Georgy Lappo and Pavel Polyan, for example, note: “Dubna became the city of nuclear physics, Korolev became the space capital of the USSR, Sarov and Snezhinsk became the “cradles” of the Soviet atomic and hydrogen bombs, Obninsk became the birthplace of nuclear energy.”
And, perhaps, the main factor of this success was that the very environment of such cities contributed not only to the mutual enrichment of scientists and engineers, but also to the disclosure of new skills and talents in them. An illustrative, but far from isolated example: the famous scientist Vasily Grabin, who during the war years was a successful artillery designer, returned after the war to Kaliningrad near Moscow (became Korolev already in the 1990s), then with the same success he designed nuclear reactors and rockets.
By the way, often the children living in these cities, then stayed in them and contributed to their development.
Fiber lasers, neutrino telescope and new vaccines
Of course, along with the collapse of the USSR, science cities, like all Russian science, went through a difficult era. They were forced not only to re-defend their right to exist, but also to look for new ways of economic survival. Not to mention the fact that Russian science itself experienced at that time a powerful outflow of personnel, which was also strongly felt by science cities.
However, according to Mikhail Kuznetsov, “with all the reorganizations that have taken place over the past years, the main resource in Russian science cities has been preserved. It is important to continue to stimulate their activities, because the intellectual potential accumulated within these cities can already be directed to many breakthrough scientific and technical areas.”
For example, in the science city of Protvino, which specializes in energy and biotechnology, a complex of ion beam therapy has recently been developed to treat cancer patients without damaging surrounding healthy tissues. And one of the world’s largest laser companies is located in Fryazino, producing fiber lasers necessary for metal processing and cutting, surfacing, and diagnostics. Today, this company controls more than half of the global fiber laser market.
According to Alexander Rats, director of the non-profit partnership Center for Assistance to the Development of Innovative Territorial Clusters in Dubna, the city has managed not only to create many new enterprises, but also to maintain two important organizations that occupy leading positions in the world in a number of areas.
The first is the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), the largest civilian scientific organization in the country.
“In recent years, one of the world’s largest neutron sources, the IBR-30 pulse reactor, has been put into operation at JINR after a deep reconstruction and is actively used by scientists from more than 2 countries,” says Alexander Rats. – Work is underway on the synthesis of new chemical elements – No. 119 and No. 120 – at the newly built factory of superheavy elements. Together with the institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a project is being implemented to create the largest neutrino telescope in the Northern Hemisphere on Lake Baikal. In cooperation with leading research centers around the world, a Mega-Science facility, the NICA collider, is being created.”
The second organization that managed to be preserved in Dubna is the missile design bureau Raduga. According to Alexander Rats, it “creates and delivers the famous X-101/102 cruise missiles to the Tu-160, Tu-95 and Tu-22M3. New cruise missiles are also being developed here – the ultra-long-range Kh-101, the “aircraft carrier killer” Kh-32 and the Ostrota hypersonic missile.
A special example among modern science cities is Koltsovo. This, in fact, an urban village has managed to become one of the main centers of Russian virology. For example, after the collapse of the USSR, the All-Union Institute of Molecular Biology, created in Koltsovo in the Soviet years, appeared as a research and production association “Vector”. In particular, it was in it that vaccines against Ebola and Hepatitis A were developed, and most recently, test systems for detecting coronavirus and the EpiVacCoron vaccine.
In addition, the Innovation Center, the Biotechnopark Shared Use Center, the Business Incubator, the Biotechnopark-Expert Center for Certification and Declaration of Medicines, Dietary Supplements and Medical Devices are located in Koltsovo. In addition, the construction of one of the largest projects of the Mega-Science program, the Siberian Ring Photon Source, has begun in the Science City.
“Once we started with a budget of ₽12 million. Now it has already gone to the second billion,” Nikolay Krasnikov, mayor of Koltsov, tells Trends. — We have registered 492 small and medium-sized companies and more than 650 individual entrepreneurs. We managed to create good conditions for the life of scientists and entrepreneurs. Every year we build 2,5-3 sq. m. m per person. 100 grants for young scientists were established from the municipal budget, and we make municipal additional payments for postgraduate scholarships. And now we are starting a large-scale construction of the Congress Hall – a kind of home for scientists, which will receive scientists from abroad and other regions of our country who come to us.”
More empowerment, more reward
Experts are sure that the further development of science cities is more than justified. But for this, it is necessary, at a minimum, to remove three main obstacles that hinder their qualitative growth:
First, according to Nikolai Krasnikov, it is necessary to provide science cities with more opportunities so that they can fully support research developments. “What we are doing now at the level of municipal government is on the verge of the law. For example, the money that is in the municipal budget of the science city, according to the law, we can only direct it to various city problems, but, strictly speaking, we cannot directly spend it on supporting young scientists, ”he adds.
Mikhail Kuznetsov agrees with this: “We constantly say that science cities should be given broader powers. Skolkovo and innovative science and technology centers have them. They were also provided to the federal territory “Sirius”. But if science cities are given the same powers, then, I assure you, they will only increase tax revenues and give more returns.”
Secondly, according to Alexander Rats, “the vulnerability of science cities is the constant need for an influx of young people inclined towards scientific or engineering creativity. Otherwise, it is impossible to reproduce a high level of competencies in science and technology in the next generations.”
According to him, at the initiative of the Ministry of Education and Science with the participation of Dom.RF, studies are already underway to form a program approach to attracting talented youth to science cities and other cities with high scientific and technical potential, including issues of targeted housing construction. “The fate of science cities and, to a large extent, the future level of competitiveness of the high-tech sector of the Russian economy depends on whether solutions can be found,” he is sure.