Science, Higher Education and Turkey Unit of the Institute of Oriental Studies Russian Academy of Sciences during the Presidency of Boris Yeltsin, 1992-2000
Ali BaşaranThe purpose of this research is to determine the status of science, research institutions, and researchers in the post-USSR Russian Federation. For the determination, the reports of official institutions, statistics of the Russian Federation Federal State Statistics Service, the statements of the academicians, the publications of the Oriental Institute, publications of the Institute for the Study of Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISS RAS), the documentary prepared for the 200th anniversary of the Oriental Institute, and the theses about Turkey registered in the Russian State Library were used. After determining the status of science, research institutions, and researchers in the USSR during the Yeltsin period, the place and role of the Oriental Institute Turkey unit in the Institute of Oriental Studies, the staff structure, the publications, the quality of the publications, the number of publications were determined. The influence of the RF administration on the research of the Turkey unit of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences was evaluated. Research in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation were not left to the usual flow and researchers did not follow an independent course. The structure and research of the Oriental Institute of Turkey unit were guided. Research institutions and researchers have been compared before and after the Yeltsin period. The number of employees working in research institutions was almost halved. The most important reasons for the decline in the number of employees are the non-payment of salaries, the decrease in salaries compared to the USSR period, the lack of opportunity and value to researchers, the employment of researchers abroad, the privatization, liquidation, bankruptcy of enterprises, and other institutions, etc. reasons can be listed. While the number of researchers decreased, the number of academic staff working in public institutions increased slightly. The rate of increase in the number of students in public institutions is quite high. This article contributes to the state of science, research, and Oriental studies in Moscow during the Yeltsin period. It will also contribute to the joint projects of Turkish studies institutions and research of the two countries in the long run.
Boris Yeltsin’in Başkanlığı Döneminde Bilim, Yükseköğrenim ve Rusya Bilimler Akademisi Şarkiyat Enstitüsü Türkiye Birimi, 1992-2000
Ali BaşaranAraştırmanın amacı SSCB sonrası Rusya Federasyonu’nda bilim, araştırma kurumlarının ve araştırmacıların durumunu tespit etmektir. Resmî kurumların raporları, Federal Devlet İstatistik Hizmetleri istatistikleri, akademisyenlerin beyanatları, Şarkiyat Enstitüsünün yayınları, Bilim Tetkikleri Enstitüsü yayınları, Şarkiyat Enstitüsünün 200’ncü kuruluş yıldönümü için hazırladığı belgesel, Rusya Devlet Kütüphanesine kayıtlı Türkiye hakkındaki tezler kullanılmıştır. SSCB’de ve Yeltsin döneminde bilim, araştırma kurumlarının ve araştırmacıların durumunu tespit edildikten sonra Türkiye biriminin Şarkiyat Enstitüsü içindeki yeri ve rolü, personel yapısı, yayınları, yayınlarının niteliği, yayınlarının sayısı belirlenmiştir. Türkiye biriminin araştırmalarına RF yönetiminin tesiri değerlendirilmiştir. Sovyetler Birliğinde ve RF’de araştırmacılar özgür, araştırmalar olağan akışına bırakılmamıştır. Türkiye biriminin yapısı ve araştırmaları yönlendirilmiştir. Araştırma kurumları ve araştırmacılar Yeltsin dönemi öncesi ve sonrası ile karşılaştırılmıştır. Araştırma kurumlarında çalışanların sayısı yaklaşık yarıya düşmüştür. Düşüşün en önemli nedenleri arasında maaşların ödenmemesi, maaşların SSCB dönemine nispeten çok düşmesi, araştırmacılara imkân ve değer verilmemesi, araştırmacılara yurtdışında iş verilmesi, işletmelerin ve diğer kurumların özelleştirilmesi, tasfiyesi, iflası vb. nedenler sayılabilir. Araştırmacıların sayısı düşerken kamu kurumlarında görevli öğretim elemanlarının sayısı az da olsa artmıştır. Kamu kurumlarındaki öğrenci sayısındaki artış oranı ise epeyce yüksektir. Makale Yeltsin döneminde bilim, araştırma ve Moskova’da Şarkiyat araştırmalarının durumunu hakkında katkı sağlamaktadır. Ayrıca uzun dönemde iki ülke Türklük araştırma kurumları ve araştırmacılarının ortak projelerine katkı sağlayacaktır.
The transformation of Russia into an empire started with the annexation of a Turkish rooted society. Russia has grown by adding the countries, seas, and lands of Turkish rooted nations to its country for about 550 years. The joining of Turkish rooted societies to the Russian Empire, the increase in the number of Turks in Russia, and relations with Turkish-rooted independent societies formed the core of Orientalism. The Russian central government and local administrators had to learn Turkish and about Turks. Turkish studies in Russia was born with these needs.
Orientalism, Turkish studies, and Turkey studies in the USSR after the Russian Empire were shaped according to the priorities and needs of the USSR. The “Comintern school” was in favor of conducting research according to the goals of the USSR. Among the orientalists and Turkish researchers who grew up in the Russian Empire, those who did not comply with the USSR were subjected to the wrath of the administration. The structure and place of Turkish studies and Turkey studies was changed once again in the 1930s, the 1940s and the 1950s. There were different reasons for the corresponding change. Among these, the war, the demands of the KGB, the Foreign Ministry, and the Communist Party Central Committee have been influential.
After the USSR, the RF experienced an economic crisis. RF has proceeded to regulate its production and distribution structure according to the free market economy. There were problems in meeting the costs of science, research, and higher education institutions. Like all researchers, members of the Oriental Institute were also subjected to severe economic difficulties. Researchers went abroad with the hope of working and living in better conditions. The number of researchers that the RF took over from the USSR decreased by about half over time. Solzhenitsyn’s description of the circumstance of science in RF is important. “For three hundred years in Russia, science has not been left to such neglect and poverty, …” Soljenitsyn said.
The economic depression made it impossible for academic staff to survive with their salaries. The economic crisis increased diploma fraud. Due to the economic crisis, researchers worked in other public or private institutions besides the institutions they were assigned to. Researchers established private higher education units or worked in established private higher education units. The balance between the number of students and academic staff in higher education was disrupted. While the number of employees in RF higher education institutions increased slightly, the number of students increased remarkably. In these circumstances, the quality of teaching decreased.
Compared to the USSR, scientific and research institutions opened their doors abroad during the Yeltsin period. Collaborations increased. Researchers had a rare chance in the USSR era for research in Turkey. Compared to the USSR orientalists, research possibilities opened to Western Orientalists in Turkey. Furthermore, Western research institutions invited many researchers from Turkey. Few researchers were invited to the USSR from Turkey. Another shortcoming was the scarcity of researchers of Turkish origin working in the Turkey unit of the Oriental Institute. This situation could have been a conscious policy decision of the administration of the USSR or the administration of the Oriental Institute.
Compared to the USSR, during the Yeltsin period, researchers from Turkey and the number of students in the RF increased. For the first time, a Turkish citizen prepared a thesis at the Oriental Institute. The number of theses prepared by Turkish citizens at the Oriental Institute increased. Despite this positive trend, bilateral relations, bilateral research, and publications were insufficient during the Yeltsin period.
Despite some differences, the aims of Western and Russian Orientalism, Oriental studies and publications were similar. That similarity was having authority over the Orient. Said’s determination was partially correct even for the Russian Empire, the USSR, and the Yeltsin period.
The colonialists succeeded in imposing local (oriental) researchers to the mechanism of producing information in a manner suitable for the West, they followed a policy of research and knowledge production in line with their interests.2 The determination of Edward Said is also true for the USSR and partly for the RF. Said emphasized that knowledge production and dissemination is not objective but political.
Western Orientalism and Russian Orientalism are not exactly the same. The USA and the West saw the orient societies overseas separately and applied separate rules of law. For Russia (Russian Empire, USSR and RF) the east (orient) was also itself. Russia was adherent to the orient. The adherence was in the land and in the Russian soul. After the USSR, Russia called its own soul from the west. It did not come.
