We’re refining the route: from the era of robots to the era of man

Sovetskaya Rossiya, September 26, 2025 —

On Friday, September 26, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) faction in the State Duma held a roundtable discussion, “From the Age of Robots to the Age of Humanity: Artificial Intelligence and Socialism,” at the House of Unions in Moscow. Chairman of the CPRF Central Committee Gennady Zyuganov participated in the discussion.

Also present at the round table were: members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPRF N.V. Kolomeitsev and N.V. Arefyev, secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPRF I.N. Makarov and A.A. Yushchenko, members of the Central Committee of the CPRF V.I. Sobolev, L.A. Zyuganov and Ya.I. Listov, scientists, economists and philosophers.

The scientific forum was opened and moderated by G.A. Zyuganov. He delivered a welcoming address to those gathered:

“Dear comrades, welcome. Today we are holding a roundtable discussion on a very interesting and relevant topic: ‘From the Age of Robots to the Age of Man.’ In my opinion, this topic isn’t just for a roundtable; it should be discussed both at the State Council and in Parliament…”

If we don’t respond to the challenges posed by NATO and the Anglo-Saxons, we will fail to achieve the objectives the president outlined in his address: to achieve victory, to liberate our lands from Nazism and Banderaism, to do everything possible to unite society and move decisively forward. Especially since three years ago Putin declared that the country and capitalism had reached a dead end and that new solutions must be sought.

The topic we’re examining today allows us to find such solutions. First and foremost, we must turn to the great Soviet era. It was this era that placed people, knowledge, science, industry, and industrialization at the center of social development. This is what allowed us to overcome our backwardness in a matter of years and peacefully reunite the country, the USSR, at a congress. And this allowed us to create the foundation that ensured victory over fascism. Even during the Civil War, more than 30 scientific studies were conducted in the country. A commission was created to combat illiteracy and homelessness. Curriculums were developed and textbooks were prepared. Back then, we relied on the best achievements that shaped human beings.

On the centenary of Pushkin’s death, a high-level memorial meeting was held nearby, at the Bolshoi Theatre, with the participation of all the best forces who understood perfectly how great Pushkin’s poetry is, how great the Russian language is.

After the war, despite enormous losses, we managed to invest enormous amounts of money; every fifth ruble in the 1950s went to education and science.

It’s no coincidence that exactly 70 years ago, Korolev created the world’s first ballistic missile, the R-11. It was a product already being developed by robotic systems and the finest mathematicians. At the end of the Soviet era, Buran was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was the finest product, incorporating all modern technologies. Buran orbited the planet twice in automated, unmanned mode, and, in a strong crosswind, landed on the pad with an accuracy of 3 centimeters. When the Americans and the director of NASA saw this, he sent our specialists a congratulatory message with just two words: “Hats off.”

And when I had to fly on a joint mission between our cosmonauts and the Americans, his successor, also a NASA director, was nearby. I asked him what distinguished our cosmonaut program. He said, “Soviet cosmonauts were 15 years ahead; your specialists are top-notch engineers; your mathematicians and programmers are setting the tone for the entire planet today.”

It’s crucial for us to draw on such unique experience when addressing this issue. Our tragedy of the 1990s lies in the fact that those who betrayed the country, the Soviet regime, who shelled the parliament, who preferred to obey Uncle Sam and the CIA, who sold off property for less than a third of its true value… They betrayed everything. They weren’t guided primarily by national interests, but instead pocketed everything. Traitors who killed science and education.

When Fursenko and Livanov brought their proposal to the Duma regarding education and core subjects, I was simply stunned. It lacked anything that fosters scientific thinking. There was no literature, no history, no anything that shapes citizenship. They brought in an education system for a colonial country, whose purpose isn’t to develop creative individuals, but to train yet another batch of obedient executors. Thank God, we’ve managed to overcome this, but far from completely. Although our team is doing everything possible to achieve this. These are talented people who have a brilliant understanding of education: Kashin, Kolomeitsev, Afonin, Novikov, Ostanina, and those who themselves have undergone a vast educational process. But to this day, the “Education for All” law hasn’t been passed, although certain parts of it have.

I’m holding today’s newspaper, “Soviet Russia,” in my hands. I’d like to draw your attention to something without which we won’t make any progress, neither in the field of robotics nor in the field of human development and artificial intelligence. Here’s the investment in education by the United Russia party and our government over the past 20 years. In 2006, it was 5% of the federal budget. This year, the lowest, 3.8%. In 1943, when the Nazis were at the edge of Moscow, we invested 5-6%. When the Germans were routed at the Kursk Bulge, we made a special decision to create vocational schools and professional schools, Suvorov and Nakhimov schools, giving orphaned children the opportunity to receive an excellent education and bolster the engineering and blue-collar workforce. We managed to invest every fifth ruble in this area in the 1950s. And it produced amazing results.

I want to say that in Moscow alone we had 19 machine tool factories that had automated lines and supplied their CNC machines to all countries of the world.

When I arrived at the factory, the boxes had Japan, Switzerland, and Germany written on them. We were good at that. And Zelenograd, a city built specifically for electronics, boasted the best institutes and manufacturing facilities. We produced 26% of the world’s electronics. When I arrived at the submarine factory, there wasn’t a single foreign product. And everything on the spacecraft was domestically produced.

The situation is extremely difficult right now. I spoke in the Duma. I want you to see “The Time Demands Responsible Decisions,” published in Pravda and Sovetskaya Rossiya. Kolomeitsev turned to our deputies and said that President Putin will now propose extending the New START Treaty. We agree; two generations, a third of the national wealth, have invested in strategic parity. And that’s the right thing to do.

But I want to point out: Americans will listen to you if you’re smart, strong, combative, and successful. Trump had only just taken office in the White House, and exactly one week later, he signed an executive order creating the “golden dome.” It’s a system that, according to their estimates, costs $830 billion. It will completely devalue our nuclear missile potential. Hundreds of robotic satellite systems will obliterate everything.

At the same time, they’re planning to allocate 500 billion to artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, the Europeans have already invested 170 billion in aggression in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Trump has forced NATO to spend a full 5% of its GDP on weapons. If you’re going to win, compete, and compete, you must understand that you must have comparable capabilities.

The Soviet Union had greater potential—every third passenger in the world flew on our planes. We produced 1,500 aircraft at 15 factories, but now nine out of ten aircraft are foreign-made, and we’re not getting spare parts. We’ll have to solve all our own problems.

And about artificial intelligence. I watched Musk’s conversation with Carlson. It was very interesting. Carlson asked: “You’re working on artificial intelligence, what do you expect?” The answer: if you feed it dishonest algorithms, humanity will perish. He gave two examples. Who founded America? Considering that the Democrats were extremely interested in African-American and Latino votes, they fed it into an artificial intelligence program and pressed a button. Out came the Founding Fathers with the same last names, but with darker complexions. They asked a second question: what did the Waffen-SS look like during the war? A man appeared in an SS uniform, also dark-skinned.

There’s another side to the issue, I recommend watching it. Natalya Kaspersky, her talk. She said: no one yet knows what will happen to children as a result of the rise of artificial intelligence. Memory narrows, imagination disappears, people can’t add double-digit numbers in their heads. As a result, they can’t concentrate for long, think, or deeply understand problems. As a result, they degenerate. Only a small group of people will know and understand, and they will dictate their terms to you.

Now Trump is trying to dictate terms to us. He didn’t mention President Putin’s initiative, but he did say that Russia is a paper bear, although a bear is never made of paper.

But we must understand that if we don’t concentrate resources, if we don’t revise our financial and economic policies… And production doesn’t survive with a 17-20% interest rate. If they raise taxes, try to impose taxes on your pockets, and export capital abroad without giving those who seized property what they deserve, especially in a wartime environment, then no miracles will happen and will not happen. We will have to consider the next budget through the prism of what our government has prepared.

Academician Kashin and his team prepared a development budget. We formed it after holding three major international economic forums in my homeland, the Oryol region. A major discussion about the future of our country took place at my home university.

I want to say this represents progress. Congratulations! For the first time in history, the best harvest wasn’t achieved on Kuban black soils. Nor on the magnificent soils of Voronezh, but on Oryol podzols and sandstones. The average yield was 152 centners. And the best yield was achieved by wheat—I’m proud it was named after me, “Zyuganovka.” 185 centners per hectare, 5 centners more than the European champion variety, which was grown throughout Europe, by all the research institutes and laboratories.

So, it’s possible to solve this problem. But to do so, we need to study, promote, and support it. As we open our roundtable, I’d like to once again ask all speakers to take this issue seriously, as this is a topic for the future.