Not so long ago, two Russian organizations on the list of the most criticized in the country were headed by people with the same surname Fursenko. The eldest of the two brothers, Andrey, was the Minister of Education and Science of Russia for several years. And the youngest, Sergei, headed the RFU, the Russian Football Union. After leaving their posts, both officials with a solid track record did not disappear, but quickly found themselves new prestigious and highly paid positions.
Sons of the academician
The Fursenko brothers are connected not only by blood kinship, good education, current high positions and love for sufficiently “loud” public statements, but also by the fact that they grew up in an “academic” family. Their father, Alexander Fursenko, was a well-known scientist in the USSR who specialized in the history of the USA in the 18th-19th centuries, and was an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Brother-1
Andrey Fursenko was born in 1949 in Leningrad. In Soviet times, a graduate of the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of Leningrad State University worked for a long time at the Ioffe Defense Physics and Technology Institute. Under the leadership of the future Nobel laureate Zhores Alferov, he dealt with the problems of gas dynamics and shock-wave processes.
Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Andrei Fursenko made a serious contribution not only to theory, having written over a hundred scientific papers, but also to practice. He, in particular, took part in the preparation for the only flight in November 1988 of the orbital spacecraft "Buran".
Sergei Fursenko was also a member of the group of engineers involved in the space "Buran". The younger brother, in particular, ensured the automatic landing of this ship at the cosmodrome in the Crimea.
The minister
After the collapse of the USSR and permission for almost any commercial activity, the talented scientist began, and also successfully, to combine science and business. And at the beginning of the XXI century, Andrei Alexandrovich became a government official. The first high-ranking position in the Russian government for the eldest of the Fursenko brothers was the post of Deputy Minister of Industry, Science and Technology.
He took it in June 2002, and in October of the next year, Andrei Fursenko was appointed acting minister. The main achievement of one of the heads of the ministry is considered the appearance in the federal budget of the country of a line on the financing of scientific support for the most important state innovation projects.
The Skolkovo innovation complex in the capital has become the top priority scientific and technological project. Andrei Fursenko began to exercise control over him, moving in the spring of 2012 to work as an assistant to the president of the country.
Before being transferred to the President's office, Fursenko managed to stay in the role of a full-fledged minister. From March 9, 2004 to May 21, 2012, he headed the Ministry of Education and Science, and in three offices in a row - Mikhail Fradkov, Viktor Zubkov and his current boss Vladimir Putin. Fursenko was remembered by many as an active participant in the reform of the country's education system and a supporter of the integration of universities and research institutes.
He is also remembered as a minister who managed to achieve the implementation, and as a priority, of the national project "Education". It was under Andrei Fursenko in 2007 that the system of the Unified State Examination, the Unified State Exam, was finally introduced in the country. Although at first the Minister of Education criticized her harshly. But his idea of dividing school subjects into primary and secondary ones did not find support.
In the same year, the government approved a bill, being developed, among other things, by the Fursenko apparatus, on Russia's accession to the Bologna Declaration. Its essence lies in bringing domestic higher education to European standards, the appearance of bachelors and masters in Russian universities.
Among the most reasonable proposals of Fursenko is, for example, studying in schools not the basics of Orthodoxy, but the history of all world religions, which, by the way, met with angry condemnation from the Russian Orthodox Church. He also advocated reforming the Academy of Sciences with the transfer of some of its employees to contracts.
One of the interesting reform proposals of Andrey Fursenko is considered to be the introduction of additional qualification exams for graduates of law schools of the country wishing to work in law enforcement agencies.
Brother 2
A graduate of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, Sergei Fursenko is five years younger than his brother. Before the onset of the Russian period of his history, as a specialist in electrical devices, he also took part in equipping the military-industrial complex with new weapons. He worked in his hometown as an engineer and head of the laboratory of the Research Institute of Radio Equipment.
Fursenko Jr. received his first serious fame at the beginning of the 21st century, when he went into business and became the producer of the sensational documentary series "Secrets of Sunken Ships", dedicated to the ships lying at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The sponsor of the series, which received the prestigious status of "Russian National Film" from the Ministry of Culture, was Gazprom, where the academician's son was soon invited to work.
Fursenko in football
In December 2005, Gazprom, which actually owns the Zenit football club (St. Petersburg), sent one of its top managers to lead the FC's Board of Directors. And after the abolition of this position, Sergei Aleksandrovich became the president of the club, which in the spring and summer of 2008 won the UEFA Cup and Super Cup. However, formally, Fursenko has nothing to do with these achievements of the Fursenko team. After all, shortly before the most striking victories of Zenit, he left the club, after which he headed the Russian Football Union.
Sergei Fursenko left the RFU, criticized by fans and experts, after the unsuccessful performance of the Russian national team at the 2012 European Championship and communication on this matter with Vladimir Putin, who supported the fans.
The most memorable projects of the third president of the RFU were the invitation to the national team of the Dutch coach Dick Advocaat, the later transition of the national championship to the European autumn-spring system, the adoption of an unviable Code of Honor, as well as a verbal promise to win the 2018 World Cup at home for Russia.
Currently, a member of the UEFA Executive Committee, the Union of European Football Associations and the Presidential Council for the Development of Physical Education, Fursenko Jr. again works in the Gazprom system. At the same time, he is trying to implement a new idea. This time - in the fashion industry, where he decided to help Russian women who dream of dressing and looking like real Italians.
Brotherly
The only joint project of brothers Andrey and Sergey Fursenko, which was never completed, was an attempt to introduce football lessons into the compulsory school curriculum and prepare qualified football teachers for secondary educational institutions.
