Thus, lawyer Ivan Pavlov is sure that Dmitry Borisovich Zimin was alone doing what the state should have done, but did not: supported and developed science, inspiring young scientists to stay in Russia:
“The Enlightener Prize, scholarships and grants to scientists, scientific conferences, scientific projects and civil initiatives - all this he spent his fortune and his strength.
And in recent years, he has actively supported us, lawyers, defending scientists in courts against the insane and baseless accusations of the FSB.
Financing science is also a very important issue, he often said, but the atmosphere in the country, the atmosphere of creativity and freedom are no less important. In recent years, the repression of scientists has increasingly plunged the academic environment into an atmosphere of fear. And with the departure of Dmitry Borisovich, dark, gloomy times will come for Russian science.
Bright memory to an incredible and completely irreplaceable person!"
Historian and public figure Andrei Zubov recalls that this amazingly whole person came from an old Old Believer merchant family:
“Like his ancestors, he created powerful capital from one ruble not on the trade in resources, but on the resource of his own intellect. VimpelCom has become a project aimed at the future - a communication project so necessary for the world. And he brought Dmitry Borisovich money and fame. And this money, like his ancestors, he used not for himself, but for the benefit of society, supporting intellectual diversity in the Dynasty Foundation *, and the sprouts of democracy in Russia. He fully deserves a name that is rare for modern Russia - a philanthropist.
I remember once he inquired, what area of Moscow do you live in? - In Khamovniki. - Then I present to you my album of old and new photographs of Khamovnikov as a keepsake. Such albums were published by his Foundation throughout Moscow. He loved his city very much, and we were unanimous in our desire to preserve the rapidly crumbling old Moscow - better in nature, but at least in photographs. “To let the kids know what we’ve lost,” he said. I asked Dmitry Borisovich to sign the album. It was already difficult for him to do this - his right hand almost did not obey. But he signed it all the same. And she is immensely dear to me.
I also remember celebrating him on his 85th birthday. This was our last meeting. Very cordial. It's all over now. As his son, Boris, wrote, Dmitry Borisovich left in full consciousness, with sadness and relief in the arms of his son. He lived the right life and he had someone to transfer his business to, as his ancestors, the past generations of the Zimins, passed from father to son the business.
Dear Dmitry Borisovich, thank you for everything you have done for Russia and for me. The hand of the giver does not fail - this is an old truth. But it is even more important that the heart of the giver opens into the abyss of the being of the One who gave us our being and this world that you made more honest and more beautiful ... "
Sociologist Konstantin Sonin believes that Zimin was a truly outstanding philanthropist, a man who entered the modern history of Russia, doing more than anyone to ensure that Russian science not only flourishes, but that everyone, all Russians, understood what and why scientists are doing:
“I don’t know if he spent the most money on education and enlightenment. Maybe someone in the history of Russia and more. Maybe not. But definitely - no one in the history of Russia has ever thought about this so structurally, did not set an example and did not create a model, as Zimin. There was no one like him in recent decades - and it will be happiness if someone appears who will make life out of him.
Dmitry Borisovich came to my public lectures several times and every time I thought - this is what I can know, what he does not know? He was not just an upstart who won the lottery in the 1990s - he was just the first super-rich whose wealth had nothing to do with privatization. He didn't just want to help enlightenment - he knew how to do it, he did it better than anyone else.
Like every great person, there are days of defeat in Zimin's history. The whole point of the Dynasty Foundation was to support science not by the will of one person, but systematically, structurally. When idiotic laws made this project impossible - for me, this is comparable, in Russian history - with the murder of Kondratyev, Vavilov, persecution of Yegorov - he closed it. And he himself remained the same smart, positive person.
Blessed memory, Dmitry Borisovich! Great, good life..."
Political scientist Dmitry Nekrasov recalls that Zimin was an outstanding Soviet scientist, laureate of various awards, then a man who, at a very middle age, without privatizing anything, from scratch, created Beeline - at that time, even by world standards, an advanced company:
“He was also an entrepreneur who, being 30 years older than most of the pioneers of Russian business, nevertheless, was the first to implement a completely innovative story for the post-Soviet space - the first IPO of a Russian company on the American stock market.
But the main thing is that he was the first of the major Russian entrepreneurs to spend most of his money on charity - to support Russian science and culture. Thanks to him, many educational programs were implemented, young scientists and writers received support, and much, much more. And it's not even about his money, but about the advanced approaches and methods that are so scarce in Russia.
It so happened that in recent months in Cyprus we crossed paths and talked several times. He even managed to read my just published book. Was one of the first readers. And he gave me his. Autobiographical. And it so happened that I read a detailed account of his interesting life just a couple of weeks ago. Still lying by the bed.
I am not a sentimental person, but sadly and sincerely sorry ... "
Political scientist Alexander Morozov contrasted Zimin's position in life to all Russian "yacht owners" in Nice:
“Having become rich with them in the late 90s, and this happened simply because he was part of a generation, a participant in great circumstances, he considered himself a“ patriot ”(but not in the sense that Pyotr Tolstoy and Prokhanov and other clowns). Zimin proceeded from the idea that he could support the best of what is "at home." And he did it. His contribution to the preservation of humanitarian knowledge in Russia is invaluable. He was a very broad-minded man. We have lived in the last decade, knowing that such a person as he is among us. Zimin was the person about whom we could tell for sure, his internal position in relation to Russia is opposed to this entire domestic hop-company. And it worked salutary. All that remains is to pray ... "
Writer Viktor Shenderovich cites an entry from his diary dated February 14, 2017:
“Meeting with Zimin. His monologue about scum in dogs and monkeys, about the place of scum in the pack. About Stalin, who staked on the scum - and defeated the intellectuals. About the age of the Russian Catastrophe. About the date for the national minute of remembrance (September 5, the day of the declaration of the red terror). Grandpa is such a grandfather; traditionally in home clothes, soft classical music in the study ... It gives the impression of a Martian in the middle of the Moscow zoo.
This was supposed to be a man as a species, but the scum won ... "
* included in the register of foreign agents