The USSR Academy of Sciences is the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union, which existed from 1925 to 1991. Leading scientists of the country united under his leadership. The Academy was directly subordinate to the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and since 1946 - to the Council of People's Commissars. In 1991, it was officially liquidated, and the Russian Academy of Sciences was created on its basis, which still operates today. The corresponding decree was signed by the President of the RSFSR.
Education of a scientific institution
The Academy of Sciences of the USSR was founded in 1925 on the basis of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which before the February Revolution had the status of an imperial one. A resolution to this effect was issued by the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Executive Committee.
In the first years after the formation of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the attitude towards it was very ambiguous because of its status as an elite and closed scientific institution. However, soonher active cooperation with the Bolsheviks began, funding was entrusted to the Central Commission for the Improvement of the Life of Scientists and the People's Commissariat for Education. In 1925, a new charter of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was adopted, it celebrated its 200th anniversary, as it led history from the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, established by decree of Peter I.
The geologist Alexander Karpinsky became the first president of the renewed scientific institution. In the mid-1920s, explicit attempts began to establish party and state control over the academy, which had remained independent in previous years. It was subordinated to the Council of People's Commissars, and in 1928, under pressure from the authorities, many new members of the Communist Party entered the leadership.
It was a difficult time in the history of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Many of its authoritative members tried to resist. So, in January 1929, they failed three communist candidates at once, who ran for the Academy of Sciences, but in February they were forced to submit under mounting pressure.
Purges at the academy
In 1929, the Soviet government decided to arrange "purges" in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. For this, a special commission was created under the leadership of Figatner. According to her decision, 128 full-time employees and 520 freelance employees were dismissed, in total there were 960 and 830, respectively. Orientalist Sergei Oldenburg, one of the main ideologists of its independence, was removed from the post of secretary.
After that, the state and party bodies managed to establish full control, elect a new presidium. At the same time, the Politburo decided to leave Karpinsky as president,Komarov, Marra and Lenin's friend, power engineer Gleb Krzhizhanovsky, were approved as deputies. Historian Vyacheslav Volgin was elected permanent secretary.
This was the first time in the history of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and its previous formations, when the leadership was appointed by directive from above, followed by automatic approval at the general meeting. This became a precedent that was subsequently used regularly in practice.
Academic business
Another blow to the academicians of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was a criminal case fabricated by the OGPU in 1929 against a group of scientists. It began to be prepared immediately after the failure of three candidates from the Communist Party, who were elected among the new academicians. After that, demands appeared in the press to reorganize the scientific institution, and information about their counter-revolutionary past constantly appeared in the political characteristics of the current academicians. However, this campaign soon ended.
In August, a new reason for the "cleansing" appeared, when the Figatner commission arrived in Leningrad. The main blow was de alt to the Pushkin House and the library of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. At the end of 1929, real arrests began. This mainly affected historians and archivists. The Leningrad OGPU began to form a counter-revolutionary monarchist organization from scientists.
In 1930 historians Sergei Platonov and Yevgeny Tarle were arrested. In total, by the end of 1930, more than a hundred people were under investigation in the so-called "Academic Case", mostly specialists in the field of the humanities. To give weight to the fictionalunderground organization, provincial branches were involved, arrests of local historians took place throughout the country.
A public trial in this case was never held. The verdict was passed by the extrajudicial collegium of the OGPU, which sentenced 29 people to various terms of imprisonment and exile.
"Academic work" de alt a serious blow to historical science in the Soviet Union. Continuity in the training of personnel was interrupted, research work was practically paralyzed for several years, moreover, works on the history of the church, the bourgeoisie and the nobility, and populism were banned. Rehabilitation took place only in 1967.
Moving to Moscow
In 1930, the academy developed a new charter, which was approved by the Central Executive Committee. It was considered by the commission for the management of scientists and educational institutions, chaired by Volgin. At the same time, a new work plan for the near future was approved.
In connection with the reorganization of the Soviet government, the academy was transferred to the department of the Central Executive Committee. In 1933, a special decree was issued reassigning it to the Council of People's Commissars.
The following year, the academy itself and 14 subordinate scientific institutes were transferred to Moscow from Leningrad. The corresponding decree was signed by Molotov. The researchers noted that this was one of the most important steps towards turning it into the headquarters of domestic science, while it was actually carried out in an emergency order.
In 1935, the indispensable secretary of the Academy Volginwrote a letter to Stalin asking for his resignation. He noted that the complex work was carried out all the time by one, while the rest of the members of the party group submitted either useful or completely fantastic ideas. In total, he stayed in this position for five years, unable not only to continue his scientific activities, but even to read books in his speci alty, to follow the development of his own scientific field. He stated that he wanted to return to active work at the age of 56, as soon it would be too late to do so. Moreover, he admitted that he no longer feels a positive assessment of his work among party members. As a result, he was relieved of this post, and Nikolai Gorbunov, ex-manager of the Council of People's Commissars, took his place. At this place, the new leader did not stay long, since in 1937 the post of indispensable secretary was abolished. Since then, these duties have been carried out by administrative officers.
Number of academicians
At the beginning of 1937, 88 academicians were considered full members of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the number of scientific and scientific and technical employees was more than four thousand.
Over the following years, their number has increased many times over. By 1970, the total number of scientific workers had grown sevenfold. By 1985, including the research staff and faculty, the academy employed one and a half million people.
Presidents
In total, seven people have been presidents of the USSR Academy of Sciences throughout its history. Its first leader Alexander Karpinsky died in the summer of 1936 at the age of89 years old. Most of the country's leaders, including Joseph Stalin, took part in his funeral, and the ashes of the scientist rest in the Kremlin wall.
He was replaced by the geographer and botanist Vladimir Komarov. He was considered a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR from the very foundation, since he received this degree back in 1914. He developed the principle of model groups to determine the origin of floras. Komarov believed that it is possible to know any flora only by examining its history. Already in the status of president of the academy, he signed a letter demanding to deal with the traitors Bukharin, Trotsky, Rykov and Uglanov. He was a member of the Supreme Soviet. He died at the very end of 1945 at the age of 76.
The third president of the academy was Sergei Vavilov, the younger brother of the famous Soviet geneticist. Sergei Ivanovich was a physicist, in particular, he founded the scientific school of physical optics in the Soviet Union. In this position, he proved himself as a popularizer of science, was the initiator of the creation of the All-Union Society for the dissemination of scientific and political knowledge. Thanks to his efforts, the name of Lomonosov at that time became a symbol of Russian science, and remains so to this day.
His he alth took an unexpected turn for the worse in 1950. Lung and heart diseases suffered during the evacuation played a role. He spent two months in a sanatorium. Returning to work, he chaired an extended meeting of the presidium of the academy, and two months later he died of a myocardial infarction.
From 1951 to 1961 organic chemist Alexander was presidentNesmeyanov. He headed the Lomonosov Moscow State University, was the director of the Institute of Organoelement Compounds, and promoted veganism. He left the presidency of his own accord at the age of 62.
For the next 14 years, the academy was led by a Soviet mathematician, one of the ideologists of the space program, Mstislav Keldysh. He was engaged in work on the creation of rocket and space systems, space exploration, but he did not immediately enter the Council of Chief Designers under the leadership of Korolev. He developed the theoretical prerequisites for flights to the moon and to the planets of the solar system. The time in which he led the academy was a period of significant achievements of Soviet science. In particular, it was then that conditions were created for the development of quantum electronics and molecular biology. In 1975 he retired. Shortly thereafter, he fell seriously ill. In the summer of 1978, his body was found in a Volga car in a garage at his dacha in the village of Abramtsevo. According to the official version, the cause of death was a heart attack. However, the version that Keldysh committed suicide by poisoning with exhaust gases due to deep depression caused by poor he alth is still very popular. He was 67 years old.
After Keldysh, the physicist Anatoly Alexandrov became the President of the Academy. Considered one of the founders of nuclear energy, his main works are devoted to solid state physics, nuclear physics and polymer physics. He was elected to this position without any alternatives. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 was his personal tragedy. In the same year, he stepped down as president. He supported the version that representatives of the station's maintenance personnel were the culprits, although the report of the state commission confirmed that general technical reasons were of great importance.
The last president of the Soviet Academy was the physicist and mathematician Gury Marchuk. He worked in the field of atmospheric physics, computational mathematics, geophysics. In 1991, he was replaced by mathematician Yuri Osipov, already in the status of president of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Structure and branches
The first departments based on the academy were founded in 1932. They were the Far East and Ural branches. Research bases have appeared in Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. In the future, the Transcaucasian branch appeared with branches in Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Kola Research Base, the Northern Base, branches in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The academy included 14 republican academies, three regional branches (Far Eastern, Siberian and Ural). There were four sections:
- mathematical and physical and technical sciences;
- biological and chemical engineering sciences;
- Earth Sciences;
- social sciences.
There were also more than ten commissions. The most notable were archaeographic, Transcaucasian (worked around Lake Sevan), polar, for the study of natural productive forces, a comprehensive study of the Caspian Sea, the tribal composition of the population of the USSR and neighboring countries, Uranium, Mudflow commissions, a permanent historical commission and manyothers.
Scientific activity
It was believed that the main tasks of the academy are full-scale assistance in the introduction of scientific achievements into the practice of communist construction in the Soviet Union, the development and identification of the fundamental and most important areas of science.
Research activities were carried out through a network of laboratories, institutes and observatories. In total, the structure of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR included 295 scientific institutions. In addition to the research fleet, a network of libraries, there was its own publishing house of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It was called Science. As of 1982, it was the largest not only in the country, but also in the world.
In fact, its predecessor was the printing house of the Academy of Sciences, in which academic publications have been printed since the 17th century. As part of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, the publishing house was founded in 1923. Initially based in Petrograd, its first head was the Soviet mineralogist and founder of geochemistry Alexander Fersman. The publishing house moved to Moscow in 1934.
By the end of the 80s, the annual circulation was almost 24 million copies. In recent years, the publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR is going through hard times, regularly being criticized by the commission for combating the falsification of scientific research and pseudoscience for publishing monographs of dubious content on a paid basis. Currently on the verge of bankruptcy.
At the same time, in previous years, authoritative journals were published here, which had the general name “Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR”. By their owndirections they were published by various departments and sections of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. It was one of the traditional periodicals of the academy, going back to the Commentaries magazine (it was published from 1728 to 1751). For example, the section of social sciences published two series of "Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR" devoted to literature, language and economics. Four series were published in the Earth sciences section: geological, geographical, oceanic and atmospheric physics, and physics of the Earth.
In Soviet times, the Academy was considered the largest center for the development of fundamental research in the field of social and natural sciences, carried out general scientific leadership in various areas, coordinating work in the development of mechanics, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, sciences about the Universe and the Earth. The ongoing research has made a great contribution to the development of culture, the organization of technological progress, the strengthening of the country's defense capability, and the development of its economy.
At least, this is how the USSR Academy of Sciences positioned itself in Soviet times. In modern reality, her work is often criticized. In particular, some experts note that even despite the formal responsibility for the development and state of all Soviet science and the broadest powers, throughout its existence, the USSR Academy of Sciences has not been able to come up with a single really serious and significant project that could reform the entire Soviet science.
Awards established by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR
Outstanding researchers and scientists regularly received awards and medals for their work,inventions and discoveries that were of the utmost importance for theory and practice.
Gold medals of the USSR Academy of Sciences were awarded for outstanding scientific achievements, inventions and discoveries. There were also prizes that were awarded for individual scientific outstanding works, as well as for series of works united by one theme.
At the same time, the big gold medal named after Lomonosov, which began to be awarded in 1959, was considered the highest award, and foreign scientists could also receive it. The first recipient of the medal was Petr Kapitsa for his work on low temperature physics. Also among the laureates were Alexander Nesmeyanov, the Japanese Hideki Yukawa and Shinichiro Tomonaga, the Englishman Howard W alter Flory, the Iranian Istvan Rusniak, the Italian Giulio Natta, the Frenchman Arno Danjoy and many others.
Institutions
Institutions of the USSR Academy of Sciences played a great role in the development of the activities of this institution. Each of them specialized in a particular area, which he sought to comprehensively develop. For example, in 1944 the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR was founded. The idea of its creation belongs to Georgy Miterev and Nikolai Burdenko.
The concept proposed by Burdenko maximally reflected the views of the country's scientific medical elite at that time. Its main tasks included the scientific development of problems in the practice and theory of medicine, the organization of joint scientific research, including international ones, and the training of highly qualified scientists in the field of biology and medicine.
BThe academy consisted of three departments. The Department of Microbiology, Hygiene and Epidemiology united seven institutes, 13 institutes were part of the Department of Clinical Medicine, and finally, another 9 institutes were subordinate to the Department of Biomedical Sciences.
The current Department of Chemistry and Materials Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences used to be the Academy of Chemical Sciences of the USSR. This structural unit appeared in 1939 after the merger of the technical chemistry group with the chemistry group of the Department of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. The employees were active, in particular, a large number of magazines popular at that time were published: "Inorganic Materials", "Journal of General Chemistry", "Chemical Physics", "Progress in Chemistry" and many others.
The Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR united the most outstanding scientists in the field of education. It was created in 1966 after the transformation of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR, which had existed for the previous two decades. Its headquarters was located in Moscow, while it was part of the Ministry of Education.
As their goal, the academicians decided to develop and carry out research in the leading areas of psychology, pedagogy and developmental physiology. There were only three departments in the academy system. This is a department of private methods and didactics, general pedagogy, developmental physiology and pedagogy, as well as 12 research institutes.
The Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences appeared in 1936 after the liquidation of the communist academy. She transferred all her institutions and institutes to the system of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. It includedthe Institute of History and Archaeography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Institute of History of the Communist Academy into its structure. Since 1938 there has been a Leningrad branch.
In 1968 it was divided into the Institute of World History and the Institute of History of the USSR. This happened after the release of Alexander Nekrich's resonant book "1941, June 22". In 1965, she was literally at the epicenter of a political scandal. Immediately after the release of this volume, the book was instantly sold out from stores, stolen from libraries, and speculators sold it for 5-10 times more than its face value. Already in 1967, it was included in the list of banned literature. The reason for this excitement was that the author, for the first time in Soviet history, spoke about the unpreparedness of the Soviet army for the Great Patriotic War, including the extermination of command personnel, which was carried out with the knowledge of Stalin and the Politburo. Nekrich, as expected, expected that the anti-Stalinist lobby would support him, but he was mistaken. Senior military officials criticized her.
The position of Nekrich himself was analyzed several times in the Party Control Committee. This matter was not limited to party disassembly: the Institute of History was divided into two institutions. No one dared to dismiss the scientist, since he was too famous abroad. Therefore, he was sent to the Institute of General History, so that he would no longer do anything that would be connected with domestic affairs. In 1976, he emigrated from the country.
All this once again proves that in Soviet science, first of all, it was not facts, arguments and evidence that were valued, but loy alty to the existing government, the ability tochoose the “right” topic that will be adequately perceived by management. Moreover, the leadership of not only the academy itself, but also the country as a whole.
