More on European University in Petersburg closing

[Denis Akhapkin]

An open letter from Artemy Magun, (Associate Professor, Department of
Political Science and Sociology, The European University at
Saint-Petersburg):

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Dear friends,
Many of you have been asking me of what's going on with the European
University at Saint-Petersburg.
       I decided to write to all of you in English, and  explain the
present situation.
       As you know, the University is under an attack analogous to the
one launched by Lukashenko in 2004 against the European Humanities
University in Minsk. The "fire guards" closed the building for three
months - a scheme typical of the "raids" of property capture in the
post-Soviet Russia. In our case, this raid comes after months of legal
claims against the University, because of a project of the electoral
monitoring that was paid by the European Union, and run by our University.
       This move is a part of an anti-Western offensive of Putain's
administration (along with the closing of the British Council).
Our current rulers are convinced that all the Western support is
self-interested, and all Western-paid people are agents of Western
influence. However, they do not close the collaboration with the West in
business and technology. They know this would be suicidal for their
capitalist oligarchy. However, they are ready to close the collaboration
in social science and culture. They took the line towards the further
marginalization and destruction of intelligentsia, the further national
isolation of the state-run academia (where the quoting of international
literature and international publishing is by now minimal), and the
imposition of a nationalist (but American in its style) mass culture, at
the expense of all other cultural forms. This is a policy entirely new
for Russia historically, and if it succeeds, it will have disastrous
results for the future of its people.
   Today (18.02), the court upheld the decision of the fire squad and confirmed
 that the university remains closed, until we fix most of the "fire" problems
(to fix some of them is just technically impossible). This means that we are
opening a public campaign in support of the university. Any support is
most welcome,
particularly the one that would confirm the academic stature of the university,
its role in representing the Russian scholarsgip abroad, etc.
    In truth, the University is indeed an agent of Western influence,
and it is true that the Western influence in Russia is far from being
always disinterested, but:
- Russia needs some Western influence if it wants to successfully
compete with Western countries in economy, culture, and influence
- The character of support of the Western charity funds for an
educational institution is not direct influence; in fact,
it creates an academic autonomy larger than in any institution in a home
country (USA or Russia).
- As such an enclave, the University is a unique space of intellectual
creativity which freely combines Western and Russian perspectives.
        This said, I think the situation shows that an uncritical
liberal, or even neo-liberal, stance of many of my colleagues  (who
think that social science is "objective", who practice a normalizing
social research of the everyday life, and who mainly orient the
university to business which is, in their view, the main modernizing
agent of Russia) proves inadequate. If even such politically conformist,
albeit liberal, universities as the EU are ultimately closed, social and
human scientists should take a more firm political, democratic stance,
elaborate a critical theory that would aim at both the Western and the
Russian socio-political systems, and help educate politically active
subjects, capable of solidarity.
   We know that in countries like France, and other European countries,
universities come under pressure, too - for
other reasons (need to earn money) but with the same effect of losing
the academic autonomy and replacing universalistic thought
by ideology.
       Against this, we should not only defend the existing
institutions, but think how to create new, better ones.
I'll keep you posted,
My very best wishes,
Artemy Magun
Ph.D. (Political Science), The University of Michigan,
Docteur en philosophie, University of Strasbourg,
Associate Professor,
Department of Political Science and Sociology,
The European University at Saint-Petersburg

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