Unique in its own way

(Ending. Beginning in No. 5)

On literature, history and vital issues

Coronavirus does not leave the topic of the Conference "Mathematics. Computer. Education XXX". A.A.Romanyukha (Institute of Computational Mathematics RAS, Moscow) outlined an extended model of the epidemic developed by a team of authors that took into account the complex of its consequences and the properties of individuals (immunity, the state of the hormonal system, the central nervous system, the occurrence of chronic diseases) in his report "Covid-19 and mental illnesses. An extended model of the epidemic". The first year of the pandemic showed that the severity of Covid depended on age, gender and the occurrence of chronic diseases. By the end of 2020, there were many Western publications about the occurrence of a large number of cases of major depressive disorder, the third most common mental disorder in the world by 2017. The occurrence of depression aggravates the course and outcome of the underlying disease. By August-September 2020, Western publications reported an increase in the number of depressions by 27.6%, anxiety - by 25.6%. The developed model shows dependence on the severity of quarantine: as quarantine becomes stricter, Covid decreases, yet depression increases. Modeling was based on Covid statistics for Moscow and WHO interpolated data for major depressive disorder in Hungary and the UK, since there are no open data on mental illness in Russia. The negative role of Covid in mental illness was a surprise to the speaker.

Within the framework of the Conference, the traditional round table "Cultural space of Russia" and the round table "Why do we need Russian literature?" were held. Head of the Department of the History of Modern Russian Literature and the Modern Literary Process of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University M.M.Golubkov made a speech at the second round table with the same topic. He noted that literature had recently lost its status. Is it important as a school subject? The number of hours in literature decreases, the number of those wishing to take the Unified State Examination also decreases and the formalization of this exam is a strange thing. As to the speaker, today, literature has lost its most important quality: to form historical memory, involvement of a person with history, an understanding of why we live. Previously, everyone read and read the same things. Today, everyone reads something different. The writer, too, has changed and today, he is neither a master of destinies, nor a thinker. M.M.Golubkov recalled that the writer S.P.Zalygin stopped the project of transferring the northern rivers to Central Asia. At present, the writer is a private person and this is largely due to the disappearance of political censorship, yet due to the occurrence of market censorship.

300 new books are published annually in Russia. 2-3 new names are randomly plucked out and start to be promoted. Literary criticism has lost its sense, it is also aimed at commerce. A phenomenon of the second book by new authors has occurred that always turns out to be noticeably worse than the first one. There is varied, interesting literature, but there is no literary process, there is no critic that could survey the entire literary space, so that literature would perform the very functions that it loses today.

As always, the programme for the section "Museum in the modern world" was rich and diverse. It recalled poets and prose writers, artists and sculptors, the fate of the unique Leon Theremin and the diplomatic pages of Fyodor Tyutchev's biography. On his double anniversary and this year marks 220 years since the birth and 150 years since the death of F.I.Tyutchev, on 27July, the Muranovo Estate Museum will host an exhibition "Tyutchev and Aksakov. What is the power of Russia?" A.A.Sakhno (Museum-Reserve "Manor Muranovo" named after F.I.Tyutchev) told the story of his diplomatic service in the Russian mission in the capital of the Bavarian kingdom of Munich, the cultural capital of Europe at that time, where he kept company with F.Schelling, was friends with H. Heine and got happily married. The mission was not busy, Tyutchev was not promoted. When he was entrusted to carry out a responsible task, circumstances prevented him from doing so and he wrote his report in the form of a fairy tale. The report was not accepted. Some time later, Fyodor Ivanovich was transferred to Turin, a backwater in Europe at that time. Returning to Russia, Tyutchev served in the censorship department. "Perhaps if Tyutchev had become an outstanding diplomat, we would not have had a great poet," A.A.Sakhno concluded his speech.

On 25 January, V.M.Komarov remarked that the middle of the Conference fell on Tatyana's Day that was in fact the beginning of MCE, since its organizers were from Moscow State University. He congratulated everyone, wished the Conference to be held in future and expressed great thanks to Galina Yurievna, whose fortitude he always admired. G.Yu.Riznichenko in response expressed her gratitude to everyone for keeping the Conference alive.

At the final meeting, Chairman of the Conference Organising Committee G.Yu.Riznichenko (MSU) noted that all plenary meetings were held at a good level, interesting reports were given, questions were asked. The meetings were attended by 40 to 60 participants that is less than in full-time format, but this is clear. "The Conference was a success, so we need to hold this activity in future and we will hold it. Next time, we hope to organize the Conference in a hybrid format," Galina Yurievna noted. The Conference was held remotely, but it was broadcasted from Pushchino and its Co-chairman V.M.Komarov (Institute of Cell Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino) expressed his gratitude for the maintained high intensity of all meetings: "Thanks to the Organizing Committee, everything goes as it should" and expressed hope for meetings in the future. Galina Yurievna thanked her fellow Organizing Committee members, first of all, S.S.Khrushchev and all the section leaders. See you next time!

PS from the author. The Conference was held remotely, not because of coronavirus restrictions, but because Pushchino had lost its hotel. And in the days of the Conference, the optimization of science cities that was opposed by many of its participants, took place, Pushchino and Protvino were merged with Serpukhov into Bolshoy Serpukhov. Fortunately, the optimization of museums, at least those near Moscow, turned out to be a rumour. And one last remark: a long-time participant of these conferences N.D.Gernet (Ukraine) passed on her thanks for the excellent organizational work and as always interesting presentations in advance, as in the last hours of the Conference in Kharkov the power supply was cut off.

Olga Tarantina