Say what you like about the Sovs, they glorified engineers and scientists. Modern Russia both treats and portrays them as trash (as opposed to just treating them as trash) without the slightest bit of respect for their trade, and then are confused when all the smart lads and lasses go to the degenerate globalhomo West.
At least in the Soviet Union the risk of GULAG was balanced out slightly by the prospect of getting legit accolades from the government for being good with the designing and the thinky-numbers. In modern Russia, all you get is poisoned tea, shit pay, and no respect.
Say what you like about the Sovs, they glorified engineers and scientists.
I’m gonna have to disagree with you there. When engineers and scientists couldn’t do what Stalin asked he convicted them of sabotage and espionage and threw them into gulags. And it happened a lot. Also, much like the US, most of the Soviet engineering knowledge was gained from the Nazis during their version of Operation Paperclip.
Oh, my point wasn’t that they were treated WELL, especially not considering the arbitrary nature of the Soviet state apparatus. My point is that the Soviets, as a society, considered those to be prestigious and worthy careers, and pronounced that very loudly. Like how the US culturally puts a high value on military veterans in reaction to the horrific behavior towards troops returning from Vietnam, making respect for modern veterans essential in decent society, but practically speaking, the government still treats them like shit. By contrast, the modern Russian Federation doesn’t give a single good goddamn about engineers and scientists, and often actively scorns them.
The nice words and shit treatment are hypocritical, but as anyone who’s ever been scorned for their choice of career will tell you, it’s still better than shite words and shit treatment.
“We are who we pretend to be, so we must be careful who we pretend to be.” The stated values of a society are very often violated, but that they are stated usually influences behavior in that society.
The Sovs definitely put a lot of effort into telling engineers and scientists that they were HEROES OF SOCIALIST LABOR and emphasizing the same to the general population. Engineers and scientists were socially valued professions. A scrap of paper in congratulations or a bit of metal and a ribbon may not be much, but as Napoleon once noted, men will do a lot for that little bit of recognition. By contrast, modern Russia has adopted a very ‘thuggish’ attitude towards academics, especially from state media, and it is oligarchs and ultranationalists who are glorified instead.
In Soviet society, really only military officers and higher government functionaries had it better than scientists and engineers. “You get the nice apartment, access to the good stores, and a little dacha in the countryside” may not be much by Western standards, but treatment is relative to the society in which one lives - scientists and engineers were getting the good upper-middle class life. Modern Russia says “You can make as much with a doctorate as some idiot in a real country with an associate’s” and siphons the rest off for megayachts. Not very inspiring.
Say what you like about the Sovs, they glorified engineers and scientists. Modern Russia both treats and portrays them as trash (as opposed to just treating them as trash) without the slightest bit of respect for their trade, and then are confused when all the smart lads and lasses go to the degenerate globalhomo West.
At least in the Soviet Union the risk of GULAG was balanced out slightly by the prospect of getting legit accolades from the government for being good with the designing and the thinky-numbers. In modern Russia, all you get is poisoned tea, shit pay, and no respect.
I’m gonna have to disagree with you there. When engineers and scientists couldn’t do what Stalin asked he convicted them of sabotage and espionage and threw them into gulags. And it happened a lot. Also, much like the US, most of the Soviet engineering knowledge was gained from the Nazis during their version of Operation Paperclip.
Oh, my point wasn’t that they were treated WELL, especially not considering the arbitrary nature of the Soviet state apparatus. My point is that the Soviets, as a society, considered those to be prestigious and worthy careers, and pronounced that very loudly. Like how the US culturally puts a high value on military veterans in reaction to the horrific behavior towards troops returning from Vietnam, making respect for modern veterans essential in decent society, but practically speaking, the government still treats them like shit. By contrast, the modern Russian Federation doesn’t give a single good goddamn about engineers and scientists, and often actively scorns them.
The nice words and shit treatment are hypocritical, but as anyone who’s ever been scorned for their choice of career will tell you, it’s still better than shite words and shit treatment.
The USSR did at least attempt to do the right thing by it’s citizens most of the time. Or at least they cared enough to pretend.
It was just propaganda though. USSR didn’r treat their scientists and engineers a lick better than Russia does. It was just lip service.
“We are who we pretend to be, so we must be careful who we pretend to be.” The stated values of a society are very often violated, but that they are stated usually influences behavior in that society.
The Sovs definitely put a lot of effort into telling engineers and scientists that they were HEROES OF SOCIALIST LABOR and emphasizing the same to the general population. Engineers and scientists were socially valued professions. A scrap of paper in congratulations or a bit of metal and a ribbon may not be much, but as Napoleon once noted, men will do a lot for that little bit of recognition. By contrast, modern Russia has adopted a very ‘thuggish’ attitude towards academics, especially from state media, and it is oligarchs and ultranationalists who are glorified instead.
In Soviet society, really only military officers and higher government functionaries had it better than scientists and engineers. “You get the nice apartment, access to the good stores, and a little dacha in the countryside” may not be much by Western standards, but treatment is relative to the society in which one lives - scientists and engineers were getting the good upper-middle class life. Modern Russia says “You can make as much with a doctorate as some idiot in a real country with an associate’s” and siphons the rest off for megayachts. Not very inspiring.