Improving higher education is impossible while the school system remains at a dead end. Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University consistently draws the attention of the public and the country’s leadership to this problem—thereby provoking dissatisfaction within the tutoring community: a high-quality school system would deprive them of their “bread and butter.” At times, open resistance emerges from education entrepreneurs. A recent example is an appeal to the President of the Russian Federation by a Saint Petersburg Russian-language tutor, Roman Minasyan.
Minasyan Roman Razmikovich. Studied in the bachelor’s program at Saint Petersburg State University (SPbSU) from 2008 to 2011. Registered as an individual entrepreneur by the Interdistrict Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service No. 16 for Krasnodar Krai. Provides tutoring services in Saint Petersburg, both in person and online. Hourly rate: 2,000 rubles.
From his letter to the President of the Russian Federation:
«Russian is the state language of the Russian Federation and the foundation of national culture and education. Its de facto exclusion from the list of significant criteria for admission to a higher education institution looks especially alarming, given that one of the reasons for the start of the SMO (special military operation) was the suppression and abolition of the Russian language in Ukraine».
The author criticizes Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University for changing its 2026 admission rules regarding how Unified State Exam (EGE) results in Russian are taken into account. Within the presidential pilot project, since 2023, the university has been developing and implementing a new model of engineering education, which allows it, as an experiment, to depart from general regulations. One of the innovations for the 2026/27 academic year provides that, in the admissions competition, only the minimum threshold of 45 points on the Russian-language EGE will be considered—on a pass/fail basis. The actual score on this exam is not included in the total competitive score. In this way, the university increases the weight of the EGE in mathematics, physics, chemistry, geography, and a number of other disciplines that are profile subjects for specific enlarged directions of specialties of basic higher education.
Roman Minasyan writes that the Mining University’s initiative “will trigger a wave of abolishing the Russian language in other higher education institutions as well.” The wording itself contains a distortion: this is not about abolishing the subject, but about adjusting the weight of the exam in the overall admissions score. Moreover, the Mining University—again on an experimental basis—will also take into account applicants’ average school certificate grade (from 2026, this indicator will account for 33% of the total score). In other words, proficiency in Russian is assessed twice: through the school certificate and through the minimum Unified State Exam (EGE) threshold, which has been set five points higher than the nationwide minimum.
The tutor’s main—and essentially only—argument is to equate the Mining University’s innovation with the suppression and abolition of the Russian language in Ukraine. Here, he commits a clear logical fallacy of false equivalence—comparing incomparable phenomena. In admissions, the university allocates weight to subjects based on their applied relevance, whereas Ukraine pursues political and cultural censorship of language. This is comparable to the kind of manipulation involved in likening a dietitian to a torturer who deprives a person of food. It appears that the tutor is attempting to exploit a sensitive and painful political topic for rhetorical effect.
The initiative of Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University did not emerge out of nowhere. A similar proposal was advanced following the III All-Russian Congress of Physics Teachers. It was supported by the heads of nationally significant technical universities such as the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and Bauman Moscow State Technical University. In favor of treating the Russian-language EGE on a pass/fail basis, the head of Russia’s Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Valery Falkov, also spoke as early as 2023.
A general position in support of the initiative was expressed, for example, by Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences Lyubov Dukhanina:
«For a future engineer, the value of two or three EGE points in physics and mathematics versus Russian is different. Yet often it is precisely these points that determine an applicant’s professional fate.».
The pass/fail format of the Russian-language EGE for technical universities is now being actively discussed in the media and on social networks. Notably, even among school teachers of Russian language and literature, there are supporters of this initiative. One of their arguments is that the Russian-language EGE can include, for instance, questions on stylistic devices such as anaphora, parcellation, epiphora, and metonymy—elements that are essential for a philologist, but not necessarily for an engineer.
Applicants to technical universities must be able to write and speak correctly, and to confirm this level of language proficiency, it is sufficient to meet the increased threshold score on the EGE. During their studies, students must add to general literacy both professional terminology and command of the scientific register. All of this is included in the curricula of leading technical universities, including Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University.
Mining University researchers and educators pay close attention to humanities disciplines. In October 2025, for example, the university hosted—together with the Russian Academy of Sciences—the 10th International Scientific and Practical Conference titled “Current Issues of Humanitarian Knowledge in a Technical University.” The event addressed the specifics of teaching languages, history, philosophy, and sociology. Alongside deep theoretical knowledge in core disciplines and enhanced practical training, these subjects are an essential component of shaping a professional worldview within the framework of the six-year foundational engineering education program. The university holds such a conference every two years.
Let us recall that in the Soviet period, the Leningrad Mining Institute had its own literary association (LITO). It was one of the very first and most prominent literary circles to emerge during the era of the “Khrushchev Thaw” in Leningrad. Among its alumni were such well-known writers as Andrei Bitov, Alexander Gorodnitsky, and Alexander Kushner.
In 1997, on the initiative of the Department of Russian Language and Literature, Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University became the first technical university in the city to open a postgraduate program in the specialty 10.02.01 “Russian Language.” Today, students actively participate in the university’s clubs, including “Project-Theatre” (playwriting and drama), “Debates at Mining” (public speaking), and “Media Mining” (journalism). In short, for Mining University students, the Russian language is no less a treasure than the subsoil itself.