Belimov Victor N.

INTERVIEW WITH THE FIRST DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE MUNICIPAL UNITARY ENTERPRISE “VODOKANAL”

What are the generic signs of Yekaterinburg patriotism? Can a factory dugout from the last century cultivate a sense of pride? Why does a depressed territorial space reproduce strong witty personalities with enviable regularity? Does a comfortable urban environment always ensure the growth of patriotic sentiments and, conversely, how long can one remain a patriot in the face of the decline of the economy of one's native land? These questions relate to a wide variety of fields and industries - economics, geography, psychology, sociology, and history. But the unifying principle is the humanitarian factor and the production of impressions. The influence of imagination on the local patriotic feelings of citizens cannot be overestimated. And literature is a recognized generator of images. Therefore, we invited Maria Litovskaya, Doctor of Philology, Professor at Ural Federal University, to talk about patriotism. She is also a professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Zhengzhi State University (Taiwan). Over the years, she has been able to personally experience the power and specificity of Ural patriotism on an island far from the Urals.

This interview with the Head of the Verkhnyaya Pyshma Urban District, Ivan Solomin, took place before the start of the special military operation and sanctions that followed it, already strongly impacting the economy, public sector, consumption patterns, investment policy in our country in general and in each separate municipality. However, the format of the conversation on almost philosophical topics has made the text no less relevant even after February 24, rather the opposite: today it has become obvious as never before, that nobody - neither the implied West, nor the illusive East - but us can solve a range of systemic social problems which Ivan Viktorovich brings up responding to questions. The internal world order of Russia woven from hundreds of such towns as Verkhnyaya Pyshma - is strictly our deal, and we all again and again have to learn to negotiate, reduce intergenerational barriers, increase the level of mutual understanding between people and local authorities, support each other in any situations and be patriots in real life, not on paper. The conversation also covered the main topic of the given issue, which can be easily explained regarding Verkhnyaya Pyshma. The town is actively growing younger. And in Ekaterinburg, for example, it is not at all embarrassing to admit working in the capital of the Urals and living in a satellite town - Verkhnyaya Pyshma. What characterizes the modern young generation, how to save young citizens from nihilism and what is a true patriot of the “small motherland”? Ivan Solomin’s exclusive interview to the “Municipality: Economics and Management” scientific journal is on this and much more.

This conversation with the senior teacher of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography Tamila Bulgakova took place during one of the educational intensives of the “Golden Ratio” Fund for supporting gifted children and youth of the Sverdlovsk Region. Such an eminent practitioner (Tamila Vladimirovna used to be a ballet soloist of the “Classical Ballet” Moscow State Academic Theater for over ten years), moreover, the author of the method of teaching “Acting”, is a real find for an educational institution at regional level. However, as the “Golden Ratio” admitted, there is no need to persuade Tamila Vladimirovna Bulgakova: she is happy to spend her own leave working with provincial Ural children in the out-of-Ekaterinburg educational center. Why? As it turned out, there is a long-standing “sect” of the “Acting” subject proponents in the Russian theatrical environment. They believe that acting should be taught from an early age: if not to everyone, but to many. This will help to avoid the sometimes terrible suffering that mature actors experience. Public professions are a difficult test for individuals, and training should start from an early age. Tamila Bulgakova is of such opinion, as are some of her colleagues. Their position seems to be logical, the arguments are substantial, but ... Both in Soviet times, and today “Acting” as a subject is available only in specialist vocational institutions, and even here it appears only in the middle of training. Our talk with Tamila Vladimirovna Bulgakova is on what early development of acting techniques gives a child, on difficulties of working with gifted children and on how to help a child from a remote province feel like a “globally minded person” and at the same time maintain love and devotion to the “small homeland”.

Our editorial staff is happy to receive any response to the publication. Especially when it comes to clarifications or constructive criticism. So, in response to an article by Andrey Syrov, Candidate of Economic Sciences, an employee of the Lyubertsy City District Administration of the Moscow region, "The organizational and economic basis for the disposal of surface wastewater in a municipality" (2021. № 1 (34)), We have received a letter from Viktor Yurovitsky, Deputy Chairman of the Yekaterinburg City Administration Improvement Committee. The author notes: "The article by A. N. Syrov provides an example of cities that lack approved schemes for surface water disposal. Yekaterinburg is listed as one of the cities. This statement is not true. The rainwater drainage scheme was approved by the Yekaterinburg City Administration Resolution No. 2052 dated 30.10.2017 "On Approval of the Rainwater drainage Scheme of the Yekaterinburg City Municipality until 2026. The reference to information from other sources does not exempt from the need to verify the facts stated in the article." At the request of the dear reader, we publish his updated data in the order of refutation. Moreover, they are confirmed by reference to an official document. However, the letter also contained the following message: "The article is generally informative. It helps to systematize some issues of the relationship between organizations that maintain apartment buildings and organizations that divert rainwater. I consider this issue to be insufficiently elaborated and requires further research." Based on this public position, we asked Viktor Vladimirovich Yurovitsky for an interview, during which he would share his experience in organizing rainwater drainage in the capital of the Urals. The conversation revealed a number of new nuances in the problem raised by Andrey Nikolaevich Syrov. Vladimir Bersenev, head of the profile department of the Improvement Committee, also took part in the conversation.

November, 2022 will be the sixth time for Ekaterinburg to host "Cities of Russia 2030" the all-Russian strategic development forum. The agenda for this year’s discussion platform has been shaped by the turbulent processes of the external environment, so the burning issues on the agenda involve measures of protecting economy and social sphere from the negative consequences of sanctions pressure, labor market trends analysis, the future of the long-term development projects and previously formed territorial strategic plans. Anyway, on the eve of its 300th anniversary Ekaterinburg is part of the project, which organically generated from the Ural capital’s past, its geographical location features and economic specifics. This means the so-called Ekaterinburg agglomeration, which enjoyed a very bright and meaningful presentation at the Innoprom International Industrial Exhibition this July, when a series of joint operation agreements between Ekaterinburg authorities and the satellite towns was signed. The focus on unity, efficient joint work, convergence of resources and mutually beneficial exchange of management practices is highly timely, say urban experts. Actually, as for today, the civil society needs cohesion and coherence more than ever. In this sense, the Ekaterinburg agglomeration is meant to give a good example of addressing the challenges of time and place: no pressure, but respect; no "strong" and "weak" categorization, but clear understanding of the value of each structural element; no edification, but considering best practices, regardless municipality size. Nevertheless, the dominant paint for this giant "puzzle" canvas is chosen by the current metropolis. How the administrative center of the region determines its integration role, what the Ural’s capital sees itself in 50 years, Alexei Orlov, Head of Ekaterinburg told in his exclusive interview with our publication.

This interview with the head of the Berezovsky City District Evgeny Pistsov took place on July, 5 at the Innoprom International Industrial Exhibition in Yekaterinburg. Immediately after the meeting of the coordinating council of the Yekaterinburg urban agglomeration and the signing of a number of agreements with colleagues - the mayors of Yekaterinburg and its other satellite cities - Evgeny Rudolfovich told us in detail about the management strategy of one of the most dynamic cities in the Sverdlovsk region, which he has been leading for the past ten years. It should be noted that in a recent survey of our magazine, several heads of municipalities at once named Evgeny Pistsov as the first in the list of leaders of the municipal level, whose experience is of the greatest interest. Especially in terms of organizing interaction with the local population and visiting investors. Well, as they said in the recent Soviet past, "responding to the requests of the working people".

This conversation with Dmitry Niskovskikh, the head of the Sysert urban district, was put off time and again. The year 2022 was quite challenging. Against the backdrop of global processes, government officials had to solve problems at both local and regional levels - "Innoprom" international exhibition, the election of the governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, "Cities 2030" All-Russian forum... And on New Year's eve Dmitry Andreevich managed to find time for a thorough conversation - about which management skills are acquired through sports, factory checkpoint and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, about the value and risks of working with creative fellow-thinkers, about the resistance of the environment and victories over one's own doubts. In a word, about what explains today's phenomenon of Sysert as a town, which has tested a new model of municipality management - based on the power of public opinion.

"Smart city". Today this collocation can be found in almost any scientific journal, in the program of various forums, symposia and conferences. But these two beautiful words do not explain why in the real life, the management of the public (national) economy, everything is not reasonable in any way. The “smart cities” issue might be percieved as a certain “visitor from the future”. This is how we will live. But, on the other hand, we all see that technologies already exist, and so do the positive examples. What do we lack? And how do scientists see the problem of the disappointing gap between "is" and "will be"? Explanations on the issue were given by Evgeny Popov, one of the best experts on “smart cities” in our country, the director of the Social and Economic Research Center of the Ural Institute of Management - branch of RANEPA, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

On November 23-26, 2022, the Ural Institute of Management - Branch of RANEPA will traditionally host the "State. Politics. Society" International Symposium. This year, the national leading scholars in such fields as public administration, economics, political science and sociology, and legal support for social development processes will highlight the issues of territorial planning, poor quality of life, low development rates of individual municipalities and inefficient interregional cooperation. Generally, the symposium will have an additional focus on "integrated territorial development". In its framework the symposium will schedule sectional and plenary sessions, scientific papers contests, round tables on practical methods of integrated development of territories, foresight session on "Interdisciplinary scientific directions in the field of integrated development of territories". One of the members of the program committee of the Ural branch of the RANEPA for the event is Abel Aganbegyan, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. On October 8 this year, Abel Gezevich celebrated his 90th birthday. But even with the jubilee chores on the occasion it was a tremendous coup for the Municipality, Economics and Management journal to get an exclusive interview with the renowned scholar, economist, expert in industrial production, labor productivity, econometrics and management.