A professor in Moscow’s famous university that specializes in foreign relations was fired for doing his job and speaking about foreign relations. He criticized the invasion of Ukraine and was fired. The authorities cited the immorality clause of his contract to get rid of the professor.
I hope there will be no more questions why absence of tenure spells death to scholarship.
If somebody doesn’t want to read the link, here are the main points:
Andrei Zubov warned against war, saying: “We must not behave the way Germans once behaved, based on the promises of Goebbels and Hitler.”
The Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), a diplomatic school with ties to the foreign ministry where Zubov has worked since 2001, said it had dismissed him for criticising Russia’s foreign policy.
“Let the inappropriate and offensive historical analogies and characterisations lay on Zubov’s conscience, the leadership of MGIMO view it as impossible for A.B. Zubov to continue working at the institute,” MGIMO said in a statement.
If it’s “a diplomatic school with ties to the foreign ministry”, it seems to be more of a political institution with the aim of serving the country than a university with main goal of pursuing objective research.
By mentioning Hitler, he made it easier for the leadership to fire him. 😦 Even if he would be fired anyway, it would have made the officials to look worse (than now).
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There are few institutions of higher learning in Russia that are more prestigious than MGIMO. If these profs can’t speak, then who can?
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Forgot to add, may be your post’s title is true for USA, but in Russia he would be fired somehow in any case. With tenure, or without.
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Yes, of course, I’m writing this in hopes that the US will learn something from this story.
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Sadly, what U.S. politicians will learn from this story is to envy the Russian politicians. “I wish we could just fire any professor who says something we don’t like!”
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Very true. I’m hoping, though, that those among academics who have started to wish for the abolition of tenure think twice.
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Sixty some years ago, tenure frequently did not protect professors whom the HUAC or the McCarthy committee felt might be Communists. It needs to be much stronger.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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