Refuge in Science

It may well be that the Russian economy is in decline, independent media is under pressure, and protest rallies are all but extinguished, but there is a flourishing field that defies the current sour public mood and is attracting ever increasing crowds of young people: education.

Over the past few years there has been an explosion in open-source education and popular science projects. Russians are gathering by the hundreds in trendy new lecture halls to hear speakers talk on everything from British theater to the last Ice Age. And new websites are offering online courses, jumping on the edutainment and online learning bandwagon initiated by TED and Coursera, but with a Russian twist.

Here are some projects to explore (if you speak Russian).

Arzamas Academy Launched by former magazine editor and opposition activist Filipp Dzyadko, Arzamas sets enlightenment, rather than education per se, as its goal. Its main focus is the humanities, the website publishes experts’ video lectures on subjects from daily life in Paris to the Russian avant-garde and love in the time of Catherine the Great. The lectures are compiled into courses and intermixed with traffic-building pop quizzes. arzamas.academy

Post Nauka One of the first popular science websites, Post Nauka employs the more old-fashioned approach of 15-minute monologues by scientists who attempt to explain an idea to a wide audience. Launched in 2012, it has since produced some 1,500 lectures and was proclaimed by the Education and Science Ministry to be the best internet project in science last year.  postnauka.ru

Kurilka Gutenberga A project that launched as a small book club for friends to discuss their latest non-fiction reads, “Gutenberg’s smoking room” is now a popular organizer of large lectures in cities all across Russia. Speakers cover topics from quantum physics to classical philosophy, although the organizers have banned political discussions. In 2015, the crowdfunded group (which has 80 volunteers) organized some 100 free lectures. facebook.com/kurilkagutenberga

Lektorium Reputedly the largest Russian MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses), this “Enlightenment Project” is based inside St. Petersburg’s prestigious Lyceum 239 and offers 4,000 hours of video courses in the humanities and sciences and boasts 50,000 students. They have also captured and archived over 3,000 lectures on the full range of school courses.  lektorium.tv

Open Library Dialogues This discussion-based project selects two public figures, puts them in St. Petersburg’s Mayakovsky Library, and then ignites a debate on various Russian cultural and social issues. Since 2014, the usually tightly-packed venue has hosted discussions on Russian television, love, Wagner, and Orthodoxy, among other topics. Discussions are livecast on the group’s website. open-lib.ru

Otkritaya Kafedra A Siberian project based in Novosibirsk that launched in 2015 and is aimed at popularizing science done by the region’s researchers. The site offers courses and movie showings and organizes public events with well-known scientists. For those who miss the lectures, organizers post lecture notes online.  ok.academy

Also check out:

Cherdak –  The online science hub run by TASS news agency. (chrdk.ru)

Universarium – Run by RIA-Novosti news agency. (universarium.org)

N+1 – Run by former journalists from Lenta.Ru who quit in 2014 amid a controversial sacking of its editor. (nplus1.ru)

Theory and Practice – A guide to scientific goings-on in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and the web. (theoryandpractice.ru)