International Association “ZNANIE”

Millions of Soviet nationals were proud members of All-Union Society “Znanie”. More than 200 million residents of the vast country in cities and villages, in workshops and construction sites could attain to Knowledge. We say that without any irony or joke. The mysteries of the universe, religion, politics, health – just to name a few. «Knowledge to the masses!» — is not a slogan, but an actual practice. And it should be treated with reverence, as if it were our own history.

Now «Znanie» is a special brand. International Association Znanie enjoys active general status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and the Department of Public Information of the UN Secretariat (DPI).

After the collapse of the Soviet Union this brand along with its philosophy of adult education was «on its last legs». Real estate, publishing houses, printing houses, and  sanatoriums, resorts and vacation homes in Russia and abroad, the knowledge-bearing icebreaker «Krasin» — properties of the society, acquired over decades, were stolen and, more often than not, without a trace.
Fortunately, the Znanie brand has not only been saved but also became a  popular and  recognised brand in the world. But the main thing — to breathe a new life into adult education, to create in fact new, modern mechanisms for the dissemination and updating of knowledge, to gain from the authority of the UN, to be included in programs and the UN agenda for the XXI century.

The society “Znanie” was established in response to the rise of the worldwide scientific and technological revolution, which presented fundamentally new requirements to education, professionalism and the general culture of the workers. The foresight of the leaders of Soviet science and the state arouses involuntary admiration: in 1947 it was impossible, as in our days, to read about the beginning of scientific revolution  in any encyclopedia.

In the middle of the 20th century, humanity, unknowingly, began marching toward information future. Whereas at the beginning of the last century, knowledge was renewed once every 20-30 years, then by the end of XX century the total planetary knowledge was completely renewed once every 6 years — five times faster.

In the 21st century the rate of knowledge renewal continues to grow rapidly, by 20% annually. And hence the important conclusion follows: people are either developing or degrading, there is no middle ground. If in a day or two you have not learned anything new, then you inevitably fall behind.

After all, humanity for the same period had comprehended new secrets of the universe, moved on, thereby increasing the «surface of contact» with the unknown.

This, incidentally, is the meaning of the Socratic paradox: “I know that I know nothing”.

According to Socrates, knowledge in the form of a sphere was surrounded by ignorance. The larger the knowledge, the larger the surface of the sphere, and as the sphere grows, the surrounding area of ignorance grows. The vast knowledge Socrates possessed opened his eyes to the abyss of the unknowable — to his own infinite ignorance.

But that is not enough. The very knowledge contained in the wise Socratic head was imperfect, untrue, not absolute. As a matter of fact  it had been accumulated and existed without regard to the boundless ocean of ignorance.

The common saying «Live and learn» was replaced by the conceptual formula «Education never ends. Continuous acquisition of knowledge is no longer associated only with young people, it is now the fate of adults — all without exception.

.Academician Efim Malitikov

To endorse the request of a group of scientists and public figures to all the workers of Soviet science and culture for the establishment of the All-Union Society for the dissemination of political and scientific knowledge, and once decided to publish the appeal in the central press — was stated in the decree, signed by the Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Joseph Stalin on April 29, 1947: «To approve the organizational committee of the All-Union Society recommended by the initiative group of scientists …».

On May 1, 1947 the request l appeared in the Soviet press, and the whole country learned about it. And on May 12, at its first meeting the organizing committee decided to create branches of the Society in the Soviet republics, the largest regional centers of Russia. Among initiators there were such celebrities as the writer Konstantin Simonov and the ballerina Galina Ulanova, the physicist Nikolai Bruyevich and the geologist Kanysh Satpayev, the mathematician Nikolai Muskhelishvili and economist Evgeny Varga, the historians Evgeny Tarle and Isaac Mints.

All of them were naturally united by the true leader of the intellectual elite, the president of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Sergey Vavilov. Famous for his discoveries in physical optics, this internationally renowned scientist was also an outstanding historian of science and its propagandist. As early as 1927, S. I. Vavilov translated Newton’s Optics from Latin, and in 1933 he headed the commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences for the publication of popular science literature and the series «Results and Problems of Modern Science». Ten years later saw the publication of Vavilov’s book Isaac Newton, about the 4th edition of which in 1989 the future Nobel laureate Vitaly Ginzburg said:

«Even 50 years after it was written, the book as a whole is not outdated and remains the best of the short and popular biographies of Newton.» The Eye and the Sun,» «On Warm and Cold Light,» and other works by Sergei Ivanovich are also recognized as masterpieces of popular scientific literature.

Opening the Constituent Assembly of the All-Union Society for the Dissemination of Political and Scientific Knowledge on July 7, 1947, at the Bolshoi Theater, S. I. Vavilov said: «Sciences are taught, knowledge is passed from one person to another — this is the special meaning of that Russian word… We hope that all the advanced scientific intelligentsia of the Soviet Union will be in the ranks of our Society.»

930 participants of the Assembly, including 578 persons from 15 Soviet republics adopted the Statutes, elected the Board and the Auditing committee of the Society; Sergey Vavilov himself became the Chairman of the Board.

Shortly afterwards, 14 republican societies «Znanie» were established and in 1957, the 15th All-Russian Society was opened.

According to Efim Malitikov, the current leader of the «Znanie» movement, the All-Union Society rapidly became «the most powerful factor in the formation of social ideals and values in the USSR. Being an engineer and engaging in research work became prestigious, the youth rushed to technical universities.

And the «lyricists» began to praise the «physicists». This was most vividly demonstrated in the cinema, where the image of an intellectual worker was born: it was created by the venerable director Iosif Kheifits and the young actor Alexei Batalov («Big Family», 1954).

As reminded by Academician E.M. Malitikov, the massification of knowledge by the Society’s lecturers has contributed to the progress the country has made, from being barely recovered from the ruins of war to becoming the first to launch an artificial earth satellite.

This event caused a shock in the U.S.: Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (1958) and greatly increased appropriations to the knowledge industry. At the same time, the West took up the study of Soviet higher education, which unexpectedly turned out to be exemplary for that time. But the All-Union Society increased its activity, and soon an idol of the Soviet people moved from the factory shops to scientific laboratories: In the movie «Nine Days of One Year» (1962), actor Batalov played nuclear physicist Mikhail Romm.

In 1963, the All-Union Society for the dissemination of political and scientific knowledge was renamed the All-Union Society «Znanie». By this time an average Soviet adult listened to four to five lectures a year. In 1964 the IV Congress of «Znanie» decided to create people’s universities, thus paving the way from scattered lectures and pamphlets to a systematic special education. Enterprises not only improved the qualifications of their personnel at the people’s universities, but also involved the academic community in solving applied problems.

And the leaders of higher education were able to open and fine-tune the most advanced departments (e.g., cybernetics) in these universities, which only years later would appear in higher education institutions. «World history knows no other example of such a large-scale program to engage millions in scientific knowledge,» emphasizes E.M. Malitikov. — Achievements in science were in many respects overshadowed by crying shortcomings in public administration: so impressive were the successes in the development of nuclear power, aviation, astronautics.

In the early 1990s, more than 25 million lectures were given annually to 280 million people all over the immense Soviet Union by the Znanie Society. The Society included 2 thousand academicians, over 25 thousand doctors and professors, 383 thousand engineers, 208 thousand doctors, 184 thousand specialists of agricultural complex.

The material base of the «knowledge workers» included not only the Polytechnic Museum, Central Polytechnic Library and icebreaker «Krasin», but also thousands of science houses, houses of scientific and technological propaganda, lecture halls, libraries, as well as folk universities, planetariums, printing houses, health resorts, vacation homes.

The publishing house «Znanie», founded back in 1951, annually published over 200 million copies of brochures, books, magazines, visual aids, including such popular periodicals as «Science and Life», «Knowledge is Power», «International Life», «Arguments and Facts»… In just one cyclus «New in Life, Science, Technology» alone, books were published in 34 series, and in million copies.

After a number of republics left the Soviet Union following the events of August 1991, it became clear that the Soviet Union had only a short time left and, consequently, the All-Union Society had to be restructured. In November of that same year, the 11th Extraordinary Congress of the «Knowledge Workers» after heated debates decided, for the sake of maintaining contacts between intellectuals of the sovereign republics, to transform the All-Union Society into the International Association «Knowledge», headquartered in Moscow.

This Association remains to this day the successor of the All-Union Society «Znanie». Accordingly, the congress was proclaimed a constituent congress, and the MA founding treaty was signed by all the heads of the republican societies «Znanie», except for Lithuania. Alas, this measure did not save the powerful and widely branched infrastructure of the Society from losses, which, according to academician Malitikov, «suffered irreparable damage, becoming the object of indiscriminate privatization and embezzlement.

For several years the International Association had been in decline until June 29, 1995, when it was taken over by E.M. Malitikov, an experienced industrialist, a great scientist, and an incredible workaholic. Above all, he succeeded in lifting the staff out of despondency by giving them new goals and thus sharply raising their morale. «Yes, we have lost many buildings and classrooms,» the new director admitted and insisted: «But at the threshold of the third millennium, the true assets of our Association are not at all about real estate or lecture equipment. They lie in the ever-growing importance of global information exchange, in the latest telecommunications, which make it possible to distribute information in fundamentally new ways, above all by means of space.

Then began the «positional battles» of the president of the MA Znanie with the «magnificent» bureaucracy — both in Russia and abroad. About this, Efim speaks frankly and scathingly as usual: «I cease to respect myself when I am repeatedly forced to recognize the irresistible power of bureaucratic absurdity.

The audience of MA Znanie consists mainly of adults. Meanwhile, the global financial turnover of education of this category of students is 2.5 times more than states spend on standard budget-constitutional education. However, the attitude of state machines to adult education, to put it mildly, is not very favorable. Here E.M. Malitikov draws a parallel with kulaks, who were robbed by the Soviet regime, and tsekhoviki, who were imprisoned by the same regime. According to the calculation of the President of the MA, it is necessary to invest about 6% of GNP in the education of adults, while allocating in each branch of the economy (industry, agriculture, health, etc.) a share of its budget and considering the cost of adult education as an investment in production in each enterprise — investment in the future.

His speech, like poetry, is filled with vivid metaphors — «old world», «digital abyss», «laboratory work of the United States»… His monumental athletic figure combined with his boiling energy evokes memories of giants of the past — Alexander Nevsky, Peter the Great…

He recalls about his work as Deputy Minister of the USSR: «Officials in ministries and apparatuses profess formal, dogmatic, deadening principle of planning, deaf to the real needs of the case. I constituted a rare exception.» His enemies are ignorance, bureaucracy, treachery. His friends are like him — they are «people fiercely resisted by the environment.» Well, meet Academician Efim Malitikov.

– Efim Mikhailovich, make it clear first. How are educational institutions and «Znanie» societies differentiated: where does the competence of colleges and universities end, and where is the area of responsibility of «Znanie»?

— States guarantee secondary education to citizens and provide the opportunity to obtain higher education on a competitive basis as well, which is supported by appropriate budgetary allocations.

In this fiscal-constitutional space, human life includes three phases: a quick, sprint-like study to get a decent place in society; a long, Everest-like ascent to work in order to exist decently; and a short, though indefinite, retirement to retire with dignity. Yet the word «dignified» in all three phases remains a dream for most of humanity.

— But why, because it is precisely universal education that is supposed to ensure universal well-being?

— First, the classroom-lesson form of education is morally obsolete. Today’s teachers are students unaccustomed to learning. If a teacher gives the same lecture for several years in a row, from useful it becomes harmful: according to it you can create not the future, but only the past. For «digital» children such teachers are not an authority, with the buzz of voices the teacher is listened to by only a few people in the class.

Secondly, there is a severe shortage even of «analog» teachers in the world, for example, in the Russian countryside in elementary schools you can still see milkmaids out of work teaching. Thirdly, guaranteed education applies only to young people, while adults are in a much greater need for continuous feeding of knowledge — they have to provide for their families, bring up children, make careers, govern the country…

— This reasoning is perfectly logical, but it is just as unusual!

— As a result, the budget-constitutional and classroom-taskwork forms of education have created a deep rut from which many generations, governments and nations cannot get out. This is the «territory» of the International Association: education in fundamentally new technologies beyond budgetary-constitutional profanation.

— In 2006, on the pages of our special issue devoted to the reform of Russian education, scientists and officials talked about these technologies in a hypothetical way. And you are already using these technologies-how exactly do they work?

— For centuries, knowledge has been represented as a limited volume that can only be mastered within the school or university walls. But in the information society, this volume is no longer enough for the rest of our lives; there are no pipelines of knowledge through all of life. Today knowledge is a kind of medium that flows from «growth points» — universities and academies, laboratories and design offices.

There is little chance to educate oneself while floundering in this environment, since knowledge producers are rarely able to present their knowledge in a popular, intelligible way, hence the multitude of bad textbooks. This was the reason for the emergence of the Soviet Znanie Society: its founders felt that the country needed millions of people, at least in part, wrested from ignorance, more than a few Nobel laureates.

It was not from the Academy of Sciences of the USSR that knowledge should have been disseminated, nor from the schools of Landau and Kurchatov.

— Perhaps this is simply not their function?

— Of course, they have other tasks. But thanks to outstanding scientists, today we can communicate with main points of concentrated knowledge from space altitude. From the same satellite, we also offer all of humanity a video signal that allows us to meet with outstanding popularizers of knowledge in the remotest corner of the Earth. For example, professors teach a course on European law in English in Cambridge. And from their studio — a small teleport — a signal with subtitles in the relevant language is transmitted via the satellite teleport of the Modern Humanitarian University to 400 settlements all over the world.

— So you are literally talking about adult education as a «new supranational super-branch of the planetary world order»?

— This is the only way we will change the approach to education: not people will go to the local mediocre school, but the best schools in the world will come to people on the wave of the digitized signal. The poorest billion earthlings, who live without transportation, schools, electricity, and other benefits of civilization, will finally have an elevator of social mobility. No educational «temples» with columns need to be built, just a snow-covered slope in the mountains or a lawn where shepherds graze their cattle.

A diesel generator will power a television set that will receive the signal of our World University of Distance Learning through a $150 satellite antenna.

This technology alone will become the «train of life,» on which entire tribes, millions of people, will break through to the information society, jumping several socio-economic formations at once

Active Learning

— Are there other new technologies that have been created?

— Another conceptual solution to the educational problem is that we have moved away from a passive form of education in which people, regardless of their abilities and aspirations, absorb knowledge from a single program. Our knowledge distribution center offers an active education: not only does a person choose courses in specific disciplines, but for each of these courses he or she chooses a teacher.

— It’s still quite hard to imagine how this happens…

— You see, the university is not just an educational institution, but a worldwide knowledge exchange where the content of the best universities and professors is flocked. For example, hundreds of physics popularizers from different countries have deposited their content in our repository, and every student has the opportunity to «flip through» it to choose the one he or she likes the most or learns best.

This is roughly how we choose audiotapes or movies in a store — a «natural selection» takes place. Pay attention — I take, I choose, not I am given. And in this case virtuality supports the well-known synergetic effect inherent in the face-to-face form of communication between the student and the teacher.

— Apparently, students themselves sometimes find it difficult to choose. Maybe in this case the tutor’s help is needed?

— Of course, tutoring is one of our tools. But tutors in usual higher educational institutions are of little help — there students still have to tolerate their «analog» teachers who give the same lectures for 30 years. Instead of education, some students are interested only in passing «dinosaurs» exams and getting a diploma. And others drop out of school altogether. A «Loser» is not always the one who is stupid. This is someone who at first did not understand, and then was too embarrassed to ask, so as not to appear retarded.

Often it is not the loser who is at fault, but the untalented course, but no teacher will admit it. With us, everyone has the opportunity to choose an exciting course in a subject to which they feel a pull, an affinity. Our formula: regardless of starting conditions, a person in any field can grow from zero to professor in 15 years.

— At the World University will there be entrance exams or is it enough to submit USE results?

— You know, our free education is a bitter smile of fate. It’s all the same, it’s not free. And the final exams and admission to the budget place became a competition not so much knowledge as parental connections and wallets. All of these tests create stress and corruption and at the same time exacerbate inequality.

Millions of the most gifted people remain forever deprived of a quality education — millions of distorted destinies. Is it their fault that there is no university center in their homeland, that their parents have no money for tutors and bribes? Admission to parole is made on the basis of an interview, during which teachers find out that the applicant: first, is adequate; second, is motivated to study; third, is ready to cover the minimum expenses by personal labor.

— What sums are we talking about, and what about someone who is not able to pay at all?

— In contrast to the Internet, space technology exponentially reduces the cost of training as the number of users grows. For one person, a space teleport is unthinkably expensive. For 100 people, it’s very expensive. But the cost for one in millions of users is asymptotically close to zero. In addition, the cost of training is tied to the average salary: for example, in Moscow the training costs $900 a year, and in Kyrgyzstan — $300. And if a person is very poor, our foundation «Culture and Education in Extreme Situations» will pay for the education.

Poverty is one of these conditions. By the way, among the founders of the fund we should mention the deputy of the State Duma and the outstanding artist Iosif Kobzon.

— Let me ask you this, but how can one pay less than 2000 rubles a month to cover the costs of the best professor from all over the world?

— Indeed, the cost of our 45-minute lecture exceeds the monthly salary of a Russian professor. This is the reason why Russian universities do not invite world-class luminaries to their auditoriums. Soon UDO’s audience will come close to 200 thousand people, and if each of them will pay only 50 cents, the luminary will receive a very good fee.

Perpetual Students

— Tell me, how is student feedback and testing done?

— The exams are taken over the Internet with a test that consists of hundreds of questions; the results are evaluated by the author of the corresponding course with his assistants. But first, the student has to take a self-test, trying to get as many points as possible and re-watching the video with the recorded satellite signal. If a student doesn’t understand something, he or she also asks questions over the Internet, and the answers come back within 24 hours. And answers to frequently asked questions are posted on the University portal. «In earnest» the student will begin to pass the exam after he or she feels ready for a high grade.

— What opportunities are open to your graduates — what, so to speak, is the weight of such a diploma?

— There is no higher education in the usual sense. Without leaving your home country or even speaking English, a student receives a certificate from Cambridge, California, Princeton or another reputable university for each course studied, depending on the origin of the chosen content. These certificates are recognized by other institutions and employers. For example, a student at an SGU from Kazakhstan, where there are 27 educational centers, or from Kyrgyzstan, where there are more than 15 such centers, can get a job in any of the countries of origin of the content by presenting a certificate.

— Meanwhile, diplomas from the above-mentioned foreign universities are not recognized in Russia?

— And similarly, diplomas from «ordinary» domestic universities are not recognized in most countries. When other knowledge is needed, the student will resume his studies, choosing new courses. This continuity cancels the concept of «graduate» and is also a new technology. But if you have a diploma from, say, Chelyabinsk Industrial University, then adding our certificates to it will give you a globally recognized VUDO diploma.

— Is it possible to predict when mankind will accept all these innovations on a mass scale?

— The new education is quickly making its way. For example, in Kaliningrad, where the former commander of a nuclear submarine works as the rector of a branch of HUDO, the number of students in two or three years has reached eight thousand. However, this process can be accelerated significantly, if it is made a priority of state policy and if the necessary legal framework is supported by the constitution.

What is the International Association «Znanie» today? Having inherited from its legal predecessor a wealth of experience in disseminating knowledge, the Association has ensured the continuity of this experience during the period of economic transition. And the best traditions of enlightenment laid down by the All-Union Society «Znanie» are not just carefully preserved but multiplied many times over.

Toward the Future. A Solid Brand — MA Znanie Today

What is the International Association «Znanie» today? Having inherited from its legal predecessor a wealth of experience in disseminating knowledge, the Association has ensured the continuity of this experience during the period of economic transition. And the best traditions of enlightenment laid down by the All-Union Society «Znanie» are not just carefully preserved but multiplied many times over.

Today, MA Znanie is a solid transnational brand that unites almost 30 international and national non-governmental organizations. Among them are nation-wide, regional and international organizations in the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Moldova and Mongolia, the United States and a number of other countries.

MA Znanie has general consultative status in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations, in the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), in the UN Department of Public Information (DPI), is the coordinator for Eastern Europe and the CIS countries of the non-governmental organization network of the UN system «IRENE».

Thanks to this, the Association actively participates in the development of the global agenda and programs of the UN for the XXI century. Only in the last year and a half the president of «Znanie» and the chairman of the CIS Interstate Committee for Extension of Knowledge and Adult Education E.M. Malitikov made speeches in Kemer (Turkey) and Geneva (Switzerland), Valencia (Spain) and Amman (Jordan), Santa Clara (USA) and Vienna (Austria), in many other capitals of the world and the CIS.

High authority of the UN has allowed the «knowledge workers» to breathe new life into the process of adult education, making it high-tech, permanent and universally accessible. The old words «Knowledge for the masses!» from a slogan turned into a real practice of our days and our contemporaries.

Non-governmental institutes and centers founded by national societies Znanie make it possible to learn to become financial auditors and accountants, managers and insurance agents, lawyers and marketers. In courses and seminars adults learn the basics of medicine and foreign languages, ethics and rhetoric, even beauty lessons and housekeeping.

But MA’s most important achievement has, of course, been to fundamentally address the quality and productivity of teaching. The opening of new superuniversities — the World University of Distance Education (WUDE) and the Modern Humanities Academy (MHA) — marked humanity’s transition to a new way of disseminating knowledge, in which the audience of the world’s best educators becomes virtually unlimited.

Тraditional education, due to its inertia, has not kept up with the changing world. A global social problem has arisen — each generation underutilizes its resource, experience, energy of creation. Having received higher education by the age of 22-23, young people are carriers of already outdated knowledge. During the next 5-6 years they are usually carried away by career «boost» and sometimes (depending on talent and purposefulness) achieve considerable success.

So many of them often turn out to be high-ranking intellectual bankrupts. If we remember that our activity is usually different from the one we were trained for in the university, then it is not surprising that we live in a society where, like in a madhouse, the stairs start to be cleaned from the bottom rung.

As a result, the man in his prime is forced to «step aside,» making room for the younger bearer of more modern knowledge, which, in turn, is also noticeably behind the general intellectual baggage of humanity. Thus the effective time of each new generation is tragically reduced, a complex of backwardness and worthlessness is born, spiritual exhaustion and biological aging are accelerated, and, accordingly, the departure into oblivion.

In turn, the new generation will also find itself in the suffering bond of educational imperfection and will be pushed to the sidelines even faster by the next generation of young people, saddled with more modern technologies and approaches to solving all kinds of financial, economic, scientific and technological problems.

The familiar education system has fallen behind, creating a growing «digital» chasm. There are almost a billion completely illiterate people in the world, and the rest are largely deprived of modern knowledge. As a result, billions of people can neither properly earn, nor adequately participate in scientific and technological progress and cultural life.

Growing competition in the labor market, structural changes in industry associated with the liquidation of entire industries and the closure of a large number of enterprises, the military reform, as a result of which a huge number of military personnel are forced to acquire new professions, lead to increased social tension and instability in society.

Precisely, illiteracy and — as a consequence — lack of competitiveness have resulted in half of the world’s population living on one or two dollars a day. And hundreds of millions more live in complete and hopeless poverty, not even reaching these numbers, which are hardly compatible with the civilized norm.

Compounding this is the global teacher shortage: only 45 million of the 59 million full-time positions are filled. Existing teachers themselves need a broad renewal of their knowledge, a rejection of conservative views on education, and the adoption of new technologies to transmit knowledge.

Socrates once taught individually, while Plato created an academy with only a few students — they learned by talking on their walks. Students «made life» from their teacher, imbibing his ideas about the world and copying even his way of thinking. As the centuries passed, society needed thousands of educated professionals, and the classroom-lesson system replaced Plato’s.

Teachers today are a product of the «analog» past and hostage to this system—limited in technology and performance, utterly unsuitable in a globalizing world. In the hopelessly outdated educational tools lies the cause of unsustainable development—a disease of civilization whose incubation period is as yet unknown.

Here, too, are the roots of armed conflicts around the world: the seeds of war mature from unequal and unequal development; the prevention of hatred is in education and knowledge. The old system insisted that the main factor in a successful education was direct contact between student and teacher. But in the third millennium, this factor is no longer effective: teaching tutelage suppresses the natural qualities of the individual, who needs an independent search for truth, profession, purpose. We need to overcome the mental ego of educators-educators who pass off their compilations as «my knowledge,» «my lecture,» «my course,» «my content.»

What they miss is that their lectures and content exist for all knowledge-hungry humanity. In the language of financiers, uneducated people are a «red balance» and a burden on the shoulders of the world economy. But with access to education, they become the positive balance of the economy. Knowledge is not spread evenly across the planet, like butter on bread. Sometimes you can get it only from the hands of a unique scientist from a distant continent.

But counting on a personal conversation with the author of a course is an increasingly unaffordable luxury. With the current shortage of teachers, a modern professor needs not a classroom, not a 40-seat auditorium, but an army of half a million listeners.

Betting only on the Internet also does not justify itself to the necessary extent — it is comparatively expensive and not available everywhere. But there are catalysts to help keep up with the rapidly changing world of knowledge: the latest technologies. Modern educational content, adapted to virtual export-import transportation, should be sent from university television studios via satellite teleporters on target request to anywhere on the planet.

And such education is already a reality. Super technological educational structure — Modern Humanitarian Institute, Modern Humanitarian University and Modern Humanitarian Academy (SGI, SGU, SGA). This triad was born in Russia and has its own space teleport, covering more than 400 cities in 14 countries.

The CIS Interstate Committee for Knowledge Dissemination and Adult Education and the UN General Consultant International Association «Znanie» together with the English company SatEduNet put forward the idea of an «island of the future» — the World Distance Learning University (WDLU). The technical center of VUDO is provided by the Space Systems Research Institute with the support of the Tsiolkovsky Russian Academy of Cosmonautics. Knowledge for export!». — is the new theory of success for all educational and university centers of the world, its social and economic component.

As a planetary distributor of modern knowledge, HUDO becomes the guarantor of providing the world economy with a highly qualified workforce at the national and international level.

Between Science and Life lies Knowledge

The European Commission concluded in the late 1980s, that without a competitive adult education system, there can be no competitive workforce, and without the latter, there can be no competitive economy. That is why the primary task in the raging currents of information of daily life is generally accessible education for people throughout their conscious life (two-week training courses — this is not adult education, and bureaucratic eyewash).

First, it is necessary to change the old formula on the mental level: «Knowledge — for life!» to the modern request and attitude: «Knowledge — through life!» Secondly, it is important to achieve a real and not declarative inclusion of adult education in the policy priorities of states as a supranational extrabudgetary super-branch of the planetary world order.

Access to applied knowledge will prolong the mentoring function of adults and the elderly, relieving them of the replenishment of a doomed army living in legalized suffering pledge on the pension sidelines, waiting for «their time. Genuine, not «etiquette» respect for the elderly will benefit their health and longevity, resulting in lower health care costs.

The intelligence, experience and wisdom of elders will provide a leap in the quality of life, reduce embitterment and crime in society. Continuous education is the tool, the rod that will stop the outstretched hand of poverty, create jobs, and minimize chaotic migration. Proof of this assertion is the 15-year experience of the SGU, whose virtual audience is 4,000 times larger than the classical one.

Training of 175 thousand students in 68 specialities is provided by 2.5 thousand professors using satellite technologies. The cost of education per person is $5 a year, while the cost of remote study via the Internet is more than a hundred times higher. The cosmic «doors» of HIG and the SGI-SSU-SGA triad are open to residents of capitals and distant villages, hot spots and mountainous auls, regardless of their citizenship and nationality, level of material wealth and proficiency in foreign languages.

In the coming decades, the economy and politics will be entirely determined not only by «black gold,» but also by such a resource as «gray matter. Investing in education yields a far greater return than in any other field. A global family of educated and constantly learning adults will not make strategic fateful mistakes.

Yefim Malitikov, Academician, Professor

The intelligence, experience and wisdom of elders will provide a leap in the quality of life, reduce embitterment and crime in society. Continuous education is the tool, the rod that will stop the outstretched hand of poverty, create jobs, and minimize chaotic migration. Proof of this assertion is the 15-year experience of the SGU, whose virtual audience is 4,000 times larger than the classical one.

Training of 175 thousand students in 68 specialities is provided by 2.5 thousand professors using satellite technologies. The cost of education per person is $5 a year, while the cost of remote study via the Internet is more than a hundred times higher. The cosmic «doors» of HIG and the SGI-SSU-SGA triad are open to residents of capitals and distant villages, hot spots and mountainous auls, regardless of their citizenship and nationality, level of material wealth and proficiency in foreign languages.

In the coming decades, the economy and politics will be entirely determined not only by «black gold,» but also by such a resource as «gray matter. Investing in education yields a far greater return than in any other field. A global family of educated and constantly learning adults will not make strategic fateful mistakes.

Yefim Malitikov, Academician, Professor

Еврокомиссия еще в конце 1980-х пришла к выводу, что без конкуренто­способной системы образования взрос­лых не может быть конкурентоспособной рабочей силы, а без последней – не мо­жет быть и конкурентоспособной эконо­мики. Вот почему в бурлящих информа­ционных потоках повседневности перво­очередной задачей становится общедоступное образование людей на протя­жении всей сознательной жизни (двухнедельные курсы повышения квали­фикации – это не образование взрослых, а бюрократическое очковтирательство).

Во-первых, необходимо на менталь­ном уровне изменить старую формулу: “Знания – на всю жизнь!” на современ­ный запрос и установку: “Знания – через всю жизнь!” Во-вторых, важно добиться реального, а не декларативного включе­ния образования взрослых в приорите­ты политики государств в качестве над­национальной внебюджетной суперотрасли планетарного мироустройства.

Доступ к прикладным знаниям про­длит наставническую функцию взрослых и пожилых людей, избавит их от попол­нения обреченной армии, живущей в уза­коненном страдательном залоге на пен­сионной обочине в горестном ожидании “своего часа”. Подлинное, а не “этикет­ное” уважение к пожилым благо­творно скажется на их здоровье и продолжительности жизни, что обернется снижением расхо­дов на медицинское обеспечение.

Интеллект, опыт и мудрость ста­рейшин обеспечат скачок каче­ства жизни, снизят озлоблен­ность и преступность в обществе. Непрерывное образование – это и есть тот инструмент, та удочка, которая остановит протя­нутую руку нищеты, создаст ра­бочие места, минимизирует хао­тическую миграцию. Доказатель­ством данному утверждению слу­жит 15-летний опыт работы СГУ, чья виртуальная аудитория в 4 тыс. раз больше классической.

Обучение 175 тыс. студентов по 68 специальностям обеспечи­вают с использованием спутнико­вых технологий 2,5 тыс. профессо­ров. Затраты на обучение одного челове­ка составляют 5 долл. в год, в то время как стоимость удаленной учебы через Интер­нет дороже в сто с лишним раз. Космические “двери” ВУДО и триа­ды СГИ-СГУ-СГА распахнуты для жите­ лей столиц и далеких деревень, горячих точек и высокогорных аулов независимо от их гражданства и национальности, уровня материального достатка и владения иностранными языками.<

В ближайшие десятилетия экономика и политика всецело будут определяться не только “черным золотом”, но и таким ресурсом, как “серое вещество”. Инвести­рование в образование дает гораздо боль­шую отдачу, чем в любую другую сферу. Глобальная семья образованных и посто­янно обучающихся взрослых не допустит стратегических судьбоносных ошибок.

Ефим Малитиков, академик, профессор

Today, eyewitness accounts of the «pre-digital» life of the Znaiye Society seem like «ancient legends» — especially when you are sitting in the newsroom at the keyboard of a laptop and megabytes of data are being swept across the broadband Internet. It is useful to remind ourselves and others that without that «preinformation» knowledge, there would be no powerful knowledge of today: as Voltaire subtly noted, «books are made of books. Let us heed those who remember: a word to you, esteemed veterans.

New Boots

I still remember my first lecture-conversation, which cost me new chrome boots. I had prepared some good material on «Komsomol and Youth during the Great Patriotic War. I was given a ticket to read this lecture-talk in the places around Blok — for young people in the village of Tarakanovo, 15 km from Solnechnogorsk.

It was the end of March 1953. I set out early in the morning, while the ground was still somewhat frozen. I decided to cut the forest road, but in the end, on the contrary, I went far away. The sun warmed up, the ground thawed, and the road turned into a solid mess. My new chrome boots were still wearing galoshes, which was even fashionable at the time. First I drowned one boot, then the other. After drying in the village furnace, the soaked boots had curled up, and I couldn’t put them on anymore.

In gratitude for my good performance, the boys put on my old, war-worn haystack boots, and the next day I was back in town on a hitchhiker. Of course, my mother-in-law did not approve of this «feat,» as she had bought me those elegant boots at the market the day before.

Or another memorable event. On the «permit» I was commissioned to make a speech about the 40th anniversary of the Great October Revolution before the collective farmers of the village Ozhogino, 10 km away from the city. The potato harvest was coming to an end, so the meeting took place late in the evening. The mistress of the hut where the conversation was held offered to stay:

— Where you, my son, will go at night in the dark woods? God forbid, you will get lost, the place is deaf.

But I answered proudly that during the war I walked in the German rear, undermined bridges and railroads, but did not get lost, found my way. And I paid the price for my self-confidence: I failed to find the road that led to the city. Wandering through the woods at night, I remembered more than once the words of that grandmother. I came home only in the morning.

After the performance in the club in Talaevo, the fork of the front wheel of my trophy bike «Simson-Sul» which I brought from Germany after my demobilization broke. The German equipment could not withstand the potholes of the Talayevo road, and the bicycle rode on me all the way back.

That’s how we young people, newly minted lecturers, speakers, and talkers, former frontline fighters tried our hand at a different, peaceful ideological front. Later I became head teacher and taught history and social studies at Solnechnogorsk Secondary School ¹ 7.

And in 1962 I was invited to the city party committee to head the propaganda and agitation department. Here I had not only to give lectures on general political and international issues, but was also responsible for the entire lecture propaganda in the district. After all, the board of the «Znanie» society was in the system of our department. The district was a pioneer in a number of endeavors.

For example, every fourth Friday of the month, the entire party-soviet and economic activists, headed by the 1st Secretary of the City Committee, went to the labor collectives with lectures on a particular topic, which was planned and prepared by our department. It was not easy, troublesome and responsible. Then Lenin’s Fridays were organized in some other districts of Moscow region.

Why Lenin’s? Well, it was on Friday, August 30, 1918, when Lenin was assassinated in his speech to the workers of the Mikhelson plant. There were so-called «Brigade Days» and «Livestock Days» in the activities of the Solnechnogorsk «Znanie», when agricultural specialists went with their word to the toilers of the village.

With gratitude I call today the coryphaei of lecturing skill, who left their good imprint in the minds of residents of Solnechnogorsk. They are D.V. Polyarinov, D.D. Ustyukov, M.I. Kazakov, N.A. Leontiev, A.N. Teplov, A.A. Doroshenko, V.I. Kholod, S.P. Zayakin…

With especial gratitude I remember Viktor Vasilievich Samarov, the first chairman of the board of the «Znanie» in Solnechnogorsk. A retired major and a veteran, he was in love with his work, and he was loved by the lecturers. And, of course, I call Nadezhda Mikhailovna Volodina, who did her job successfully for more than 30 years and was always on top of her game.

By the way, the current president of MA Znanie and chairman of the Interstate Committee for the dissemination of knowledge and adult education, academician, professor E.M. Malitikov is a fellow countryman, a former pupil of mine. A personality gifted by nature! Back in the 1950s, at school his eyes shone with joy whenever he learned something new. He loved sports; he was good in athletics and excellent at skiing.

Now one can only marvel at the breadth of his views on the world around him, the vast scope of his activities and the variety of his hobbies. Yefim Mikhailovich is known not

Illarion Mikhailovich Ilyin,

An honorary citizen of Solnechnogorsk,

Honorary Veteran of the Moscow Region

“AiF”

Millions of Soviet citizens had a membership card of the All-Union Society «Znanie» and were proud of it. It was very important that the boards of republican, territorial, regional and district organizations, scientific-methodical councils and bureaus of the Society’s sections were headed by authoritative, well-known in scientific and social circles people — rectors and heads of departments, doctors of sciences and professors.

Scientific-methodical councils or sections were, in fact, associations of lecturers in their specialty. There were sections on foreign policy and international relations of the Soviet state, economics, philosophy, legal, pedagogical, natural-technical knowledge, medicine and sports, culture, literature, etc.

The councils regularly examined the subjects of the lectures, approved the plans of work, solved personnel questions, organized the training of personnel, consultations and seminars for lecturers, discussed concrete lectures, prepared reviews of lectures, recommended additional literature, and monitored the material incentives for lecturer’s work.

Approximately two-thirds of the lectures were paid lectures, and companies remitted an honorarium to the lecturer. The rest of the lectures were called «patronage lectures» and were given free of charge. The greater the demand from the audience for a lecturer, the more lectures he was able to give, and the higher percentage of lectures he was paid for.

Society raised a whole galaxy of brilliant orators, commentators, and propagandists. Until now, Vadim Zagladin and Alexander Bovin, Gavriil Popov and Nikolai Shishlin, Roman Mikhnev and Valentin Zorin, Leon Onikov and Gleb Tsvetkov, Nikolai Shmelev and Ivan Laptev, Mikhail Sergeev and Yuri Buzulukov are still remembered everywhere with great respect and gratitude…

A real lecture is a dialogue, a discussion. Interesting and difficult questions that came up during the lectures, «Znazhnevites» passed them on to the lecture group of the CPSU Central Committee. From there, the most acute questions were sent for information and action to the governing bodies of the Party and the state. For the most difficult of questions, standard answers were prepared and sent to the party organizations of the country in the form of a newsletter — with arguments and facts, figures and assessments.

The extraordinary demand for this product led to an increase in the circulation of the newsletter, and as a result, it was decided to turn it into a weekly. This is how the printed organ of the All-Union Znanie Society, Argumenty i Fakty, came into being. The demand for this newspaper was growing so fast that already in a year or two its circulation reached 30 million copies, which became a Guinness Book record.

Other «instruments» of the Society also enjoyed enormous popularity. The planetarium was in full house mode, schoolchildren «occupied» the Polytechnical Museum, the Polytechnical Library for the engineering community, the Central Lecture Hall almost daily held scientific conferences, meetings with prominent writers, poets, scientists, cultural workers and artists.

But there was another side to the work of the Society. Not a single complaint, and there were quite a few of them, went unanswered. Every lecturer considered it his duty to help a man in his trouble. Complaints, as a rule, were reported to the party and Soviet authorities, and personal control over the execution of the task and the adoption of specific measures to eliminate shortcomings was established.

Of course, today the technological and hardware equipment of «knowledge workers» is quite different. It allows effectively spreading the light of knowledge via satellites all over the world, including high mountains and remote northern regions. No wonder the International Association «Znanie» is headed by Yefim Malitikov — an active promoter of distance education. Purposeful, mobile, multi-sided gifted man, he embodies a scientist’s mind, a businessman’s acumen and an administrator’s talent.

Nikolay Kononovich Golovko,

Honorable member of the Presidential Council of MA Znanie,

1st Deputy Chairman of the Board of the All-Union Society «Znanie» in 1983-91,

Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Commander of the Battle Orders and Medals,

Candidate of Historical Sciences

Once, the transformation of the Znanie Society into an international association seemed forced by the «parade of sovereignty. It was only years later that the deeper meaning of this event became clear. It was 1991, when the main protocol for transporting files over the Internet — HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) — was invented.

Thus began the information era — a stage of human development, characterized by the growing value of knowledge and technologies created on its basis compared with the traditional products of industry and agriculture.

Knowledge began to accumulate and spread with unprecedented speed, «without noticing» state borders. Today MA Znanie is armed with super-advanced IT, but at the same time it carefully preserves the memory of the past: we offer for your attention the memories of prominent «knowledge workers» from different countries.

We are also offering you the memories of the prominent «knowledgeable» people from different countries. Chairman of the Board of I. Chavchavadze International Scientific-Cultural and Educational Union «Tsodna Society» of Georgia, Honorable Journalist of Georgia, Member of the Presidential Council of the MA MA «Knowledge», Professor

Followers of Chavchavadze

The first literacy society in Georgia was created in the 19th century by the prominent writer Ilya Chavchavadze. And his student and public figure from Ajara Memed Abashidze said: «It is necessary to see each other through education, to distinguish enemies and friends… And in this case, education, dissemination of the printed word, public reading and listening to lectures and essays our brothers-Georgians can help us a great power…».

Not surprisingly, the establishment of the All-Union Society «Znanie» was enthusiastically received in Georgia. In the same year of 1947, Ivan Beritashvili, Akaki Shanidze, George Akhvlediani, Niko Berdzenishvili, Niko Ketskhoveli, Konstantin Gamsakhurdia and other representatives of culture, science and technology founded the republican society «Znanie», Georgian for «Tsodna».

The first president of the Georgian Academy of Sciences, full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, mathematician and mechanic Nikolai Muskhelishvili was unanimously elected as chairman of the society, which underscored the need for strong interaction between the two national institutions. In subsequent years the heads of the already famous and celebrated society were chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Georgia academician Georgi Dzotsenidze, president of the Georgian Academy of Sciences academician Evgeni Kharadze, academician Angia Bochorishvili, former president of the Georgian Academy of Sciences Albert Tavkhelidze, the first Georgian academician of the Turkish Academy of Sciences and the first Georgian ambassador to Turkey professor Nodar Komakhidze.

The society «Tsodna» united 44 thousand members, 500 staff members worked here, there were solid organizations in the autonomous republics and regions, cities and districts. During the year 200 thousand lectures were given, 120 titles of brochures and books were published with circulation up to a million copies, 155 national universities, 21 scientific and methodical councils and much more worked.

«I am the oldest member of this society and I am glad that among its founders in Moscow and Tbilisi I stood at its cradle,» emphasized poet, academician Irakli Abashidze. — I am glad that during many decades of its long journey Tsodna has worthily served and continues to serve its great and noble cause».

And academician Vakhtang Parkadze recalled: «Even in any village … our lecturer entered with a torch of knowledge. Many prominent scientists who actively cooperated with «Tsodna» were awarded the medal of Academician S. I. Vavilov, the highest award of the All-Union Society: Academicians G. Dzotsenidze, I. Vekua, G. Akhvlediani, V. Gulisashvili, V. Kupradze, P. Zhgenti, A. Baramidze, N. Javakhishvili, F. Davitaia, A. Zurabashvili, M. Lordkipanidze, E. Sekhniashvili and others.

During the change of social conditions in Georgia and the well-known turmoil, the Society’s activities were sharply disrupted and many began to characterize it as an organization spreading communist ideas. However, after studying the archives critics discovered that so-called «ideological» lectures did not even constitute 0.5 percent of the Society’s activities.

Today, the honorable mission of enlightenment is continued by the International Ch. I. Chavchavadze Scientific, Cultural and Educational Union «Tsodna Society» continues its honorary mission of enlightenment. Organizations of Abkhazia, Tskhinvali region, Adjara have been preserved and are working; organizations of Tzodna of Tbilisi, Imereti, Kartli, Guria and Racha are engaged in interesting and useful for people organizational and educational activities.

The Tsodna Society has a Tbilisi-based university named after I. Chavchavadze and a Tbilisi-based university named after I. Chavchavadze. Tbilisi I. Chavchavadze University, Tbilisi Therapeutic Institute, Institute of Journalism and Humanities in Chiatura, Sachkhere Humanitarian University. Colleges and specialized secondary schools have been opened in Tbilisi, Batumi, Dusheti, Tianeti, Akhalkalaki, Oni, Martvili.

The «Tzodna Society» operates under the auspices of the Tbilisi University named after I. Chavchavadze. I. Chavchavadze, Tbilisi Therapeutic Institute, Chiatura Institute of Journalism and Humanities, Sachkhere Humanitarian University. Colleges and specialized secondary schools have been opened in Tbilisi, Batumi, Dusheti, Tianeti, Akhalkalaki, Oni, Martvili.

The Society’s educational projects mostly cover highland areas, which helps to retain young people there, and for which we are deeply grateful to the local residents. A printing house has been reestablished and modernly equipped to produce many interesting books and pamphlets, as well as the Society’s printed organ, the thematically diverse magazine «Sitkva» («The Word»).

In 1991 the society «Tsodna» became a full member and one of the founders of the MA «Znanie» — the legal successor of the All-Union Society «Znanie». The Association unites similar institutions of many countries, which provides ample opportunities for strengthening contacts and cultural interrelations.

Valentin Andreevich Glushko, 1st Deputy Chairman of the «Znanie» Society of Ukraine, member of the Presidential Council of the MA «Znanie»

Main force

The greatness of the nation depends not on the sword and sword, not on currency reserves, but on its enlightenment, on the ability to rely on the main force in society — the human mind. Not without reason the Ukrainian «Knowledge» society has a symbolic emblem — an open book with a torch, illuminating the broad road to knowledge, along which thousands of our lecturers have been walking for 60 years.

Ukrainian «Knowledge» dates back to 1947, when the organizing committee headed by the President of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Academician A.V. Palladin was established. The constituent Assembly of the Society on January 16, 1948 was in essence a meeting of the republican scientific elite: the number of 423 delegates included 61 academicians and corresponding members, 117 doctors of sciences and 186 candidates of sciences. By the way, almost half of them were non-party. Alexander Vladimirovich Palladin was Chairman of the Society.

Later on the Society was headed by the leading scientists: academicians V. P. Komissarenko, F. D. Ovcharenko, I. I. Lyashko, corresponding members of the AS of UkrSSR N. E. Sivachenko and I. I. Kondylenko. A special role in the life of our public organization belongs to the outstanding philosopher of world renown, academician V. I. Shinkaruk, who was its chairman for about 15 years and then its first president. It was under his leadership that the founding congress of the Ukrainian «Knowledge» Society was held in November 1990.

At the turn of the century, the Society was headed by Minister of Education and Science, President of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, academician of NAS of Ukraine V.G. Kremin. His initiative and competence contribute to increasing the effectiveness of traditional and the development of new forms of scientific and educational work.

In the work of higher collegiate bodies of management of the Society are actively involved famous scientists — academicians of NASU A.S. Onishchenko, L.V. Huberski, K.M. Sytnik, academicians of APN V.P. Adrushchenko, V.M. Madzygon, Doctor of Philosophy V.I. Kusherets, Doctor of Medicine Y.G. Grigorov, Doctor of Economics V.I. Mishchenko and others.

The basic organizations of «Knowledge» operate in all regional centers, Kiev and Sevastopol. Ukrainian House of economic and scientific and technical knowledge, the Ukrainian Center of Spiritual Culture, Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkov and Kherson planetariums founded by the Association work fruitfully.

Mastering modern educational technologies in order to organize continuous education for adult population which consists of 29 million people capable of working is one of the priorities. Activity of many scientific-educational centers of the Company operating on self-supporting basis is subordinated to this task.

With the purpose of exchange of experience, including in the sphere of implementation of educational technologies, the Center successfully operates, which together with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine organizes and conducts international exhibitions «Education and Career». Over the past few years at least twice a year in such exhibitions participate over 100 universities, more than 50 publishing houses, as well as dozens of international educational and scientific institutions in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and other countries.

With the support of public authorities, the society creates a network of Ukrainian Studies Universities. The leading professors and experts of the Research Institute of Ukrainian Studies, the Kiev National Taras Shevchenko University, the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy give lectures.

In 2002 the «Znanie» society of Ukraine together with the MA «Znanie» and the Modern Humanities University (Rector M.P. Karpenko) established the University of Modern Knowledge. Its main task is training specialists with higher education in economics, management and the humanities, including the use of modern technologies of distance learning.

In order to promote educational services to the places where students live, the University creates a network of branches in the regions, often using the material base and personnel potential of the regional organizations of the Company.

Publishing house «Znanie Ukrainy» founded in 2000 made it possible to revive the issue of scientific, popular scientific and scientific-methodological literature under market conditions. Great interest among the readership, in particular, has caused the encyclopedic publication «Philosophy of Politics», which combines a textbook, brief encyclopedic dictionary, four volumes of philosophical works, as well as a two-volume «Diplomatic Encyclopedia».

All in all, in 2006 alone 110 books, textbooks and manuals were published with the total circulation of over 400 thousand copies. To this we should add the editions, which are prepared under the aegis of Ukrainian Center of Spiritual Culture: «The Ukrainian Historical Novel» (30 volumes), «Spiritual Treasures of Ukraine» (50 volumes), «The Ukrainian Sociological Thought» (15 volumes), «History of Religion in Ukraine» (10 volumes).Throughout the whole independent history of the country the flagship among periodicals of the Society is the all-Ukrainian socio-political and theoretical magazine «Tribuna», which gained great prestige thanks to the highly professional and dedicated work of the editor-in-chief and veteran of the Society, honored journalist of Ukraine Valentina Menshun. Recognition of the importance of our scientific and educational activity was the Decree of the President of Ukraine «On measures of state support for the development of scientific and educational activities of public organizations» and the relevant order of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Fazil Takhirov, Chairman of the Board of the Znanie Society, Director of the Institute of State and Law of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, Academician

In 1947, the organizing committee for the creation of the Tajikistan Society «Znanie» was headed by Academician Evgeny Pavlovsky, a scholar of world renown. He was the first chairman of the Society, which later was headed by the most prominent scientists — academicians Alloutdin Bogoutdinov, Muhammad Asimov, Soli Rajabov, Khurshed Karimov, and Sabzali Sufiev, Honored Worker of the Republic.

Among the most active members of the Tajikistan Znaja were prominent representatives of different branches of science — academicians Zarif Rajabov, Abdugani Mirzoev, Gulyam Aliev, Makhmadkul Narzikulov, Oleg Dobrovolsky, Vyacheslav Krasichkov, Konstantin Poroshin, Muso Dinorshoev, Rahim Masov, Abdurashid Rakhimov, Bobo Sanginov, Yusuf Nosirov, Rustam Yusufbekov, Pulat Bobojanov, world famous poets Mirzo Tursunzade, Mirsad Mirshakar, Satym Ulugzade, Professors Karim Abdulov, Abdusattor Mukhtarov, Faizi Zikriyev, Usmon Karimov, Fakhritdin Mirzoahmedov, and many others.

A few years after the establishment of the Association there were over 5,000 active propagandists, and by January 1, 1976 the number of members made up to about 26,000.

An important form of educational activity in the Republic were folk universities at enterprises, organizations, and educational institutions. In 1985 over 10 thousand members of the «Znanie» Society attended 1200 folk universities in 20 disciplines; the Society had its Central Lecture Hall, the House of People’s and Technical Propaganda, and other educational institutions.

About 40 commissions for international education functioned under the Society’s organizations. Only in Kurgan Tyube region in 1980-85 about 10 thousand lectures were given, and in the whole country — more than 90 thousand.

The regional scientific-practical conference on improving the forms and methods of international education in the labor collective, which was held in the collective farm named after Lenin in Kumsangir, had a great resonance. Lenin Kumsangir district. Delegates from all districts of the Vakhsh valley were invited.

Representatives of almost 20 nationalities working in this largest multi-industry farm were united by creative work and friendship. The chairman of the collective farm board was a Tajik, his deputy — an Ukrainian, the chairman of the local committee of trade unions — a Russian, the chief engineer — a Latvian, the chief accountant — an Uzbek, the chairman of the women’s council — a Bulgarian.

By 1986, more than 21 thousand representatives of the intelligentsia, specialists and eminent production workers were members of the Znaia Republican Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. Annually up to 200 thousand lectures in different branches of knowledge were given, almost 10 thousand theme meetings with scientists, conferences, question and answer evenings, debates and other events were organized.

The best activists of the Society received state awards, for example, the lecturer from Kanibadam district Tukhta Temurov was awarded the Order of Lenin, and lecturer Shodmon Shokhnavruzov from Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast — the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

A number of «knowledge workers» of Tajikistan were awarded the commemorative medal named after S. I. Vavilov. They were included in the Book of Honor of the All-Union Society. Today Znanie is one of the leading non-governmental organizations, a member of the Public Council of the country and the Movement of National Unity and Revival of Tajikistan, as well as a founding member of the authoritative International Association «Znanie».

Various forms of lectures and other educational activities are conducted by 30 academicians, about 150 doctors of sciences, more than 250 candidates of sciences, hundreds of researchers, about 100 specialists of various branches of industry and agriculture.

The Company attaches special importance to language teaching, first of all to the state language — Tajik, but also to Russian, English, Farsi and Arabic. A new direction is the training of professional staff: there are courses for programmers, system administrators, accountants, hairdressers, beauticians, nurses for medical massage, etc.

In the Republic, 93% of whose territory is located in the mountains, distance learning has a great future. Special classes have already been set up with the appropriate equipment, but to introduce distance learning into practice we need all-round support, which we expect to find from the MA Znanie and personally its president, Academician Yefim Mikhailovich Malitikov, a great enthusiast of new educational technologies, especially for adults.

Sambalhundev Khash-Erdene, Chairman of the «Znanie» Society of Mongolia, Academician of the Chinggis Khaan World Academy, member of the Presidential Council of «Znanie» MA, member of the Executive Committee of «Znanie» MA, Professor

A significant milestone

The vast territory with low population density and scattered settlements made it difficult to cover the population of Mongolia with education and information services. Therefore, the founding congress of the Society for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge in Mongolia was held on May 25, 1960 on the initiative of prominent Mongolian scientists Academician B. Rin-chen, C. Damdinsuren and educator O. Namnandorj.

So a whole army of educators arose, whose lecturers and volunteers reached the remotest yurts of any corner of the country: they reached cattlemen and hunters, workers and geologists, arats (villagers) and border guards. From the day of its foundation the Society has closely cooperated with the All-Union «Znanie».

Through lecture exchanges prominent Soviet scientists gave lectures in scientific and educational auditoriums and met with ordinary toilers of the countryside, with the workers of the enterprises. The Society’s magazine Nauka i Zhizn (Science and Life) served as a great tribune for the dissemination of knowledge.

When the All-Union Znanie Society was transformed into the International Association in 1991, we had an opportunity to participate in the founding congress of the MA Znanie. But for several following years the MA activity was rather curtailed than developed.

Therefore, a significant milestone of that period was the election of Academician E.M. Malitikov, a highly experienced practical scientist and talented top-manager, as the President of the MA.

Following our first exchange of letters and personal meetings, Efim Mikhailovich and I came to a deep understanding of common development issues and cooperation for the sake of the global idea «Through Knowledge — to Progress». The «Znanie» Society of Mongolia began to systematically participate in the activities of the MA, a permanent contact with the leadership of the Association was established, through membership in its governing bodies our organization is actively involved in the development and adoption of decisions.

Particularly noteworthy was the VI Congress of the MA «Knowledge» in 2006. It was distinguished by its businesslike approach, friendly atmosphere, and maximum efficiency in tackling all problems. This is the modern style of work of the Association and its leadership. Until now the majority of our citizens live in rural areas, where access to information is very difficult.

Due to the remoteness of settlements, equal access to education is not ensured either, and this fact ultimately has a negative impact on the standard of living. Full coverage of the population with knowledge can be provided only by using the opportunities of the World University of Distance Education, on the creation and expansion of which the IA «Znanie» is actively working.

This is very relevant for Mongolia. For more than 20 years of my life I have been associated with the Mongolian Znanie Society, and for the last 10 years I have been directly leading it. We perceive the 60th anniversary of the All-Union Society «Znanie» as a common holiday, and on this occasion we assure you that within the framework of the MA «Znanie» we will continue to worthily carry the banner of enlightenment and education.

I wish all our colleagues, the Presidential Council and the Executive Committee of the MA Znanie, and its President, Academician E.M. Malitikov, great success, happiness and prosperity.