The route covers five cities: Moscow, Uglich, Myshkin, Yaroslavl and Dubna. The "expedition" format involves fieldwork, with researchers stopping in each city to ask residents about their anxieties and their views on the future.
According to expedition leader Ruslan Shkuta, the method works in stages: participants first discuss challenges, then move to dystopias, use those as a starting point for utopias, and from that synthesis assemble an image of the future for society, the state and the individual. The final document is to include options for the country's development across the economy, politics, religion and other spheres.
Shkuta acknowledged that the trip is often compared to the 1922 "philosophers' steamer," which carried members of the intelligentsia out of the country. The difference, he said, is that those philosophers were sent away for good, while "our philosophers will return."
Lectures aboard the ship will be delivered by Alexander Kharichev, head of the presidential department for monitoring and analysis of social processes; Archbishop Savva; Abbot Nikolai; and State Duma deputy Oleg Matveychev. Philosopher Alexander Dugin will speak online.
Kharichev read out a greeting from Sergei Kiriyenko, first deputy head of the presidential administration. Kiriyenko called work on the image of the future an "important and responsible mission" and singled out three challenges: artificial intelligence, the platform economy, and unmanned systems with robotics.
Rosmolodezh head Grigory Gurov said the authorities need expert support on the question of what works and what does not, how to change course and redistribute available resources. Andrei Betin, general director of the "Russia — Land of Opportunities" platform, called young scientists "the support that will create at least a confident future for Russians."
Political scientist Alexander Nemtsev recalled that LDPR founder Vladimir Zhirinovsky organized something similar, sailing on a ship with party activists. The event itself, in his view, looks more like team-building for humanities specialists who rarely take an interest in the lives of their colleagues and fellow citizens.
The "Digoria" forum of young political scientists was already held in August 2022. At its opening, Kiriyenko urged participants to satisfy society's need for pride in the country, work toward consolidation and convince Russians that a crisis is a time of opportunity.