ABSTRACT
Domestic dialogue among Russian researchers was destroyed because conceptual conventions had eroded and a common language was lost. Western sponsorship played an enormous role in the survival and development of the Russian research community in the 1990s. There is hardly one even slightly prominent Russian researcher who is not indebted to some Western foundation—and often to several. True, two noteworthy Russian funds did appear that used funds from the Russian budget to finance and support basic research: The Russian Basic Research Fund and the Russian Humanities Research Fund. Thanks only to Western donors, who more than graciously assumed not only their own obligations but the obligations of the Russian side, could the project proceed successfully, with only six months' delay. Russian philanthropic institutions are weak and themselves are looking for foreign grants. True, a special type of noncommercial organization has arisen—political parties, which are accumulating tremendous assets.
