The remote 'democratic' oasis of Soviet Russia - BBC REEL 

It was a 'scientific oasis', not a 'democratic oasis'

That's where they breed the friendly red foxes 🦊

We shoildn`t mess democratic values with a state-sponsored scientific city

Thank you so much for such an interesting story. It was like looking down a microscope, not cells but history. Beautifully done!

I was in Akademgorodok for a few hours one day in late 1992. Funnily enough I'd forgotten about it. Kind of weird to forget such a specific and probably (for a westerner) unusual thing. I was studying in St. Petersburg and a fellow student and I decided to get the train to lake Baikal. He wanted to break the trip with a stop in Novosibirsk, thus we spent a few days there, and took a car to Akademgorodok one day. We wandered about aimlessly, went in a bookshop and ended up with excercise books as souvenirs, then went back to Novosibirsk. There was a fuel crisis at the time, so the trains were full and we couldn't get tickets further, so flew back to Moscow, for about the equivalent of 3GBP. It was an odd trip in many ways, as was being in Russia and travelling around it at that time. I got to Baikal eventually in 97, up to Severobaikalsk even.

A similar 'democratic' oasis was the city of Dubna. It was another naukograd (city of science) in the USSR. It's not a surprise that many scientists, especially physicists, mathematicians from this type of the cities took the lead in the democratic reforms of the 80s during the perestroika and glasnost.

The city features prominently in Francis Spufford‘s great book ‘Red plenty’. Recommended.

I wish the documentary was longer

1:53 get the translation right for the date

I was there by chance and saw a protest. I was wondered because protests are strongly restricted in Russia. This place has absolutely unique environment of freedom and enlightenment

Yeah, but as you write, it was less than 10 years after established, until it grew big enough.

The lab mouse looks like Leon Trotsky.

Didn't really see any democracy in the whole thing

see DAU; Regeneration for correlation.

Did Ayn Rand know about this city?

I love how this whole thing is bashing the Soviet’s, when in fact none of this could have existed without the soviet gov

This is great place. Very calm and peaceful, and a very friendly atmosphere in research institutes. One of rare places where they sustained 90-s collapse. A lot of young scientists; of course, many have plans to immigrate westwards, but not everybody. I hope in future this place will retain its leading position in Russian science, and, maybe, will be a centre of world significance.

By the way, communism not conflict with democracy. Communism only conflict with capitalism.

I still don't really want to go there.

Bring back the Soviet Union

Nothing left of Soviet science though, thanks to Putin 🙏🏼

Talking about democracy? Lets talk about TV Licence. BBS.

Товарищи академики, называйте вещи своими именами: заповедник советского, сталинского духа в хрущёво-брежневском совке.

Hey BBC and UK, this barbaric USSR saved your ass.

Leave Russia the way they are and mind your own business. (UK) You are slipping down. Someday soon your situation will be same as of USSR.

"soviet russia" ok boomers

Slava Russia

Russia is poor broke country

I am proud to have lived a chapter of my life in this beautiful place. In the middle of nowhere, so I used to think, 3 years ago I started my master’s degree in financial economics in Novosibirsk, lived for 2 years in Akademgaradok and met people whom I consider till this day to be one of the greatest I’ve met - from colleagues to professors. Siberian people are built different. Don’t want to m as with them. One of the best decisions I’ve made in my human life. Warm wishes from Egypt to the icey part of the globe. 🤍🇪🇬🇷🇺