Адрес: https://polit.ru/article/2007/11/06/ssu/


06 ноября 2007, 17:45

The pre-election purge turned into an ethnic one

A new turn in the case of the Saratov State University, about which polit.ru has ready written. The persecution of disagreeable continues, but methods have changed.

The scandal became famous when the dean of the Faculty of History Velikhan Mirzekhanov ventured to argue openly with the vice-speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. April 13, 2006 he was illicitly discharged. Under the court decision he was reinstated, but the head of the University, member of the regional political council of the United Russia did not rest on his laurels. Disagreeable lecturers of the faculty are intimidated. The university administration shows some lists and threatens those who don’t support the struggle against the dean with dismissal. The faculty is split into parts. During the last session of the Academic council it was decided to separate from it one of its departments.

Last week a new argument appeared; this time a nationalistic one. 2006 in the report on the activity of the human rights commissioner of the Russian Federation the notorious newspaper “Zemskoe obozreniye” was called an edition which propagandized openly “race, national or religious hatred” and advanced xenophobic slogans. October 24, 2007 the vice-principal of the university published in “Zemskoe obozrenie” an article “Defeat of the mirzekhanovschina on the historical faculty”. In the article the disagreeable dean is accused of the whole bag of tricks, beginning with shortcoming during the study in the University and finishing with embezzlement of public funds.

Generally speaking dragging opponents through the mud with the help of mass media is not a new method. The administration of the SSU considered it possible to publish for a fee articles in Saratov newspapers, in which it slings mud at its opponents without any constraint. And this new opus of Mr. Chernyshevsky would be below notice if there were not two symptomatic features.

First, articles in the newspaper and in the Internet are not identical, that is we deal with a forgery, an attempt to deceive the University audience. Second, this forgery is concerned both with gross outrage of standards and with violation of the law of the Russian Federation. On the site of the SSU the opinion and activity of the disagreeable dean are explained with his origin.

The vice-principal Chernyshevsky states: “the policy of Mirzekhanov, native of Dagestan turned an important centre of the historical science into a channel of infusion of the West ideology”. A “small warm mountain principality” was created of the faculty. And further word for word from the site: “the willingness to fry own small omelet on the universal conflagration is a characteristic feature of one originate from a small people which has never had its own state. It turned Mirzekhanov into a pawn in a strange game for power”. And now, claims Chernyshevsky, there is “a cleanup of the faculty from the mirzekhanovschina”. One can suppose that the rector of the university and other university administration share the opinion of Mr. Chernyshevsky, since otherwise this article with such nationalistic insertions would not have appeared on the official site.

Thus, the conflict of the SSU administration and the Faculty of History exceeded the administrative bounds. According to the Article 13 of Constitution of the Russian Federation “fueling of social, racial, national or religious strife” is prohibited. There is also the Criminal Code, an Article 282 of it says: “Actions aimed at the incitement of hatred or enmity, as well as abasement of dignity of a person or a group of persons on the basis of sex, race, nationality, language, origin, attitude to religion committed with by a person through his official position” shall be harsh punishable right up to “deprivation by of liberty for a term of up to five years”. In this case we deal with a frank Black-Hundred agitation, conducted by the Saratov State University administration in the pre-election period. Well, we can rely only of the law.

Oksana Kiyanskaya
Doctor of Historic Science, Professor of the Russian State University for the Humanities.

See also:
Pre-election purge. History today
The pre-election purge goes on. New scandal in the Saratov State University