Nice story, but the USSR has been gone for more than twenty years. What value does this add to HN’s audience, beyond stoking more russophobe hysteria? There are plenty of other awful things that could be covered - ranging from lynchings to police brutality...and all of this is largely irrelevant to the tech community.
This story is important from both a historical as well as philosophical standpoint. Historical, so as to understand what those in the STEM field endured in the Soviet Union. Philosophical, in that there are those who thirst for knowledge and may not have the luxury others do of unlimited information (for a variety of reasons, whether that be logistical or political).
I hope this helps! Knowing history helps us prevent repeating it. Think of growing wiser as hacking yourself ;)
This article has nothing to do with russophobia. It just explains very clearly why we, Russians, lose the cold war. When you restrict knowledge exchange and set up artificial barriers between scientists you are going to fail the competition.
