Critical Thinking is ‘Applied Russophobia’ and Must Be Stamped Out in Russian Universities, Moscow Professor Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 15 – The Russian government must work to exclude courses that promote critical thinking and fact checking because these contradict Russian traditional values, were imposed by the West and in fact are little more than “applied Russophobia,” according to Dmitry Vinnik.

            The professor of humanities at the government’s Finance University says that this is necessary to ensure that Russia is not dominated by collaborationist and comprador elements who will work on behalf of the West but against the interests of Russia and Russians (nauka.tass.ru/nauka/19734913 and  ehorussia.com/new/node/30307).

            Vinnik’s proposals are supported by Leonid Polyakov, a research professor at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics and represent an attempt to operationalize the complaints of Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev and SVR head Sergey Naryshkin (tass.ru/politika/18556335 and tass.ru/politika/18696599).

            As such, Vinnik’s proposal is less a voice crying in the wilderness that can be dismissed than a harbinger of where things are no headed in Russia’s once proud network of higher educational institutions.