The perestroika in the "human dimension": the activities of minister V.I. Chernoivanov in defence of agrarian science

The article deals with the activities of V.I. Chernoivanov, the minister of agriculture and food of the USSR, who defended agrarian science at the final stage of the perestroika. The primitive-market views of the initiators of the perestroika on the problems of research and production integration in agriculture had the effect of worsening the situation both directly in science and in scientific and production structures. The shift of the focus in financing the science towards market mechanisms in the face of the increasing economic entropy created the danger of destroying the scientific potential. At the same time, the unjustified reorganisation of scientific and innovative structures significantly limited their opportunities. V.I. Chernoivanov as a scientist who headed the agrarian ministry actively resisted the destructive tendencies. He demanded an increase in the budgetary funding of science from higher authorities, proposed measures to improve the material and technical supply and staffing of scientific and production structures (sectoral pavilions of the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy, educational and experimental farms of universities, research production and production systems), considered it necessary to abandon the questionable reorganisation. In order to improve the financial position of institutions of science, to maintain the functioning of innovation departments, he repeatedly appealed to the top leaders of the country, including the president of the USSR, M.S. Gorbachev. As a rule, these appeals remained unanswered. Participating in the discussion of the draft of the new union treaty, V.I. Chernoivanov strove to ensure the preservation of the "single scientific and technical space", the structural and scientific ties between the republics of the "renewed" Union, which was in the interests of science; he opposed the destructive processes in relations linked by the historical destiny of the peoples. The situation was complicated by the confrontation between the two centres of power - the Union and the alternative Russian. In the author's opinion, the top management structures of the USSR and the RSFSR, absorbed in the struggle for power, were not interested in the scientific support of agriculture, their attention to science was purely situational in nature, it was determined by political opportunistic considerations. Therefore, the selfless work of the last soviet agrarian minister V.I. Chernoivanov, as a rule, did not lead to the desired results.

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