The USSR Academy of Sciences is the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union, which existed from 1925 to 1991. Under his leadership, leading scientists of the country united. 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 on its basis the Russian Academy of Sciences was created, which operates today. The corresponding decree was signed by the president of the RSFSR.
Scientific Institution
The USSR Academy of Sciences was formed in 1925 on the basis of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which until the February Revolution had the status of imperial. A resolution on this 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 USSR Academy of Sciences, the attitude towards it was very ambiguous because of its status as an elite and closed scientific institution. However, her active cooperation with the Bolsheviks soon began, funding was entrusted to the Central Commission for the Improvement of the Life of Scientists and the People's Commissariat of Education. In 1925, the new charter of the USSR Academy of Sciences was adopted, it celebrated its 200th anniversary, as it traced the history of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences, established by decree of Peter I.
The first president of the renewed scientific institution was geologist Alexander Karpinsky. In the mid-1920s, obvious attempts began to establish party and state control over the academy, which in previous years remained independent. She was subordinated to the Council of People's Commissars, and in 1928, under the pressure of 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 at once three candidates from the Communists, who ran for the Academy of Sciences, but in February were forced to obey in the face of increasing pressure.
"Cleansing" at the Academy
In 1929, the Soviet government decided to arrange "purges" at the USSR Academy of Sciences. For this, a special commission was created under the leadership of Figatner. By her decision, 128 full-time employees and 520 freelancers were dismissed, in total there were 960 and 830, respectively. Oriental scholar Sergei Oldenburg, one of the main ideologists of her independence, was removed from the post of secretary.
After that, state and party bodies managed to establish full control and choose a new presidium. At the same time, the Politburo decided to leave the president of Karpinsky, Komarov, Marra, and Lenin's friend, power engineer Gleb Krzhizhanovsky, as his deputies. The historian Vyacheslav Volgin was chosen as the permanent secretary.
This was the first time in the history of the USSR Academy of Sciences and its previous formations, when the leadership was appointed by directive from above with subsequent automatic approval at the general meeting. This became a precedent, which was subsequently regularly used in practice.
Academic Affairs
Another blow to the academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences was a criminal case, in 1929 fabricated by the OGPU against a group of scientists. It began to be prepared immediately after the failure of three candidates from the Communist Party, who were elected to the number of new academics. After that, the press appeared demands to reorganize the scientific institution, and in the political characteristics of the current academicians constantly appeared information about their counter-revolutionary past. However, this campaign soon ceased.
In August, a new reason appeared for a “purge” when the Figatner commission arrived in Leningrad. The main blow was inflicted on the Pushkin House and the library of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In late 1929, real arrests began. This mainly affected archivist historians. 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 in the so-called “Academic Affair”, more than a hundred people, mainly specialists in the humanities, were under investigation. To give weight to the fictitious clandestine organization, provincial branches were brought in and arrests of local historians took place throughout the country.
An open trial in this case has not been conducted. The verdict was issued by the OGPU extra-judicial collegium, which sentenced 29 people to various terms of imprisonment and exile.
The "academic affair" dealt a serious blow to historical science in the Soviet Union. The continuity in the training of personnel was cut short, 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. Its consideration was carried out by a commission on the management of scientists and educational institutions, chaired by Volgin. Then 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 CEC department. In 1933, a special decree was issued reassigning it to the SNK.
The next year, the Academy itself and 14 subordinate research institutes were transferred to Moscow from Leningrad. The corresponding decree was signed by Molotov. Researchers noted that this was one of the most important steps towards turning it into the headquarters of Russian science, while it was actually carried out in an emergency.
In 1935, Volgin, the permanent secretary of the academy, addressed a letter to Stalin asking for his resignation. He noted that the difficult work was done all the time by one, while the rest of the party group members presented useful and completely fantastic ideas. In total, he stayed in this position for five years, failing not only to continue scientific activity, but even to read books in his specialty, to monitor the development of his own scientific field. He said that he wants to return to active work at 56, since soon it will be too late to do this. Moreover, he admitted that he no longer feels a positive assessment of his work among party members. As a result, he was dismissed from this post, and his place was taken by the former Governor of the Council of People's Commissars Nikolai Gorbunov. The new leader did not stay at this place for very short time, since in 1937 the post of permanent secretary was abolished. Since then, these duties have been performed by administrative employees.
The 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-technical employees was more than four thousand.
Over the following years, their number has increased many times. By 1970, the total number of scientists has grown seven times. By 1985, given the research staff and faculty, one and a half million people worked at the academy.
Presidents
In total, seven people were the presidents of the USSR Academy of Sciences in its entire history. Its first leader, Alexander Karpinsky, died in the summer of 1936 at the age of 89. Most of the country's leaders participated in his funeral, including Joseph Stalin, and the ashes of the scientist rest in the Kremlin wall.
His place was taken by geographer and botanist Vladimir Komarov. He was considered a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from the very beginning, since he received this degree back in 1914. He developed the principle of model groups to determine the origin of the flora. Komarov believed that to know any flora can only be exploring its history. Already in the status of the president of the academy, he signed a letter demanding to deal with the traitors Bukharin, Trotsky, Rykov and Uglanov. He was a deputy of the Supreme Council. He died at the very end of 1945 at the age of 76.
The third president of the academy was Sergey Vavilov, the younger brother of the famous Soviet geneticist. Sergei Ivanovich was a physicist, in particular, he founded a scientific school of physical optics in the Soviet Union. In this post, 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, remains so until now.
His health suddenly worsened dramatically in 1950. Diseases of the lungs and heart, transferred during the evacuation, played a role. He spent two months in a sanatorium. Returning to work, he chaired an extended meeting of the Academy Presidium, and two months later died of myocardial infarction.
From 1951 to 1961, the president was an organic chemist Alexander Nesmeyanov. He headed the Lomonosov Moscow State University, was the director of the Institute of Organoelement Compounds, promoted veganism. He resigned as president at the age of 62.
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 space rocket systems, space exploration, but he did not enter the Council of Chief Designers under the leadership of Korolev immediately. 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 in Soviet science. In particular, it was then that conditions were created for the development of quantum electronics and molecular biology. In 1975, he resigned. Soon after, he became seriously ill. In the summer of 78th, his body was found in a Volga car in a garage at his summer house 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 fumes due to a deep depression caused by poor health 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 post on a non-alternative basis. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 became his personal tragedy. In the same year, resigned as president. He supported the version that the culprits were representatives of the station’s maintenance personnel, 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 Guri Marchuk. He worked in the fields of atmospheric physics, computational mathematics, and 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 at the Academy were founded in 1932. They became the Far Eastern 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-technical sciences;
- biological and chemical engineering sciences;
- earth sciences;
- social sciences.
There were also more than ten commissions. The most notable were the archaeographic, Transcaucasian (engaged in work around Lake Sevan), the polar, for the study of natural productive forces, the comprehensive study of the Caspian Sea, the tribal composition of the population of the USSR and neighboring countries, the Uranium, Mudflow, permanent historical commission and many others.
Scientific activity
It was believed that the main objectives of the academy were to fully contribute to the implementation of scientific achievements in the practice of communist construction in the Soviet Union, to develop and identify 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 USSR Academy of Sciences 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 were printed as early as the 17th century. As part of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, the publishing house was founded in 1923. Initially based in Petrograd, its first leader 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, is regularly criticized by the commission for the fight against falsification of scientific research and pseudoscience for publishing monographs of dubious content on a paid basis. It is currently on the verge of bankruptcy.
At the same time, in previous years authoritative journals were published here, having the common name "Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences." In their areas they were published by various branches and sections of the USSR Academy of Sciences. This was one of the Academy’s traditional periodicals, dating back to the journal Comments (it was published from 1728 to 1751). For example, the section of social sciences published two series of "Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences" devoted to literature, language, and economics. Four series were published in the Earth Sciences section: geological, geographical, ocean and atmosphere physics, and Earth physics.
In Soviet times, the Academy was considered the largest center for the development of basic research in the field of social and natural sciences, carried out general scientific guidance in various fields, coordinating the work in the development of mechanics, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, science about the Universe and the Earth. The studies made a great contribution to the development of culture, the organization of technological progress, strengthening the country's defense capabilities, and the development of its economy.
At least, that is how the Academy of Sciences of the USSR positioned itself in Soviet times. In modern reality, its activities are 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, for the entire time of its existence, the USSR Academy of Sciences has not been able to come up with any really serious and significant project that could reform the whole Soviet science.
Awards established by the USSR Academy of Sciences
Outstanding researchers and scientists regularly received prizes and medals for their works, inventions and discoveries, which were of great 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 outstanding scientific works, as well as for a series of works united by one subject.
At the same time, the big gold medal named after Lomonosov, which began to be awarded since 1959, was considered the highest award, and foreign scientists could also receive it. The first winner of the medal was Peter Kapitsa for his work in low-temperature physics. Also among the laureates were Alexander Nesmeyanov, the Japanese Hideki Yukawa and Sinichiro Tomonaga, the Englishman Howard Walter Flory, the Iranian Istvan Rusnyak, the Italian Giulio Natta, the Frenchman Arno Danzhua and many others.
Institutes
The institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences played a large role in the development of this institution. Each of them specialized in a particular area, which he sought to comprehensively develop. For example, in 1944, the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences was founded. The idea of its creation belongs to George Miterev and Nikolai Burdenko.
The concept proposed by Burdenko reflected the views of the country's scientific medical elite that existed at that time. Its main tasks included the scientific development of problems of practice and the theory of medicine, the organization of joint scientific research, including international research, and the training of highly qualified scientists in the field of biology and medicine.
The academy had 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 Life Sciences.
The current department of chemistry and materials science of the RAS used to be the USSR Academy of Chemical Sciences. 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”, “Advances in Chemistry” and many others.
The USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences united the most prominent scientists in the field of education. It was created in 1966 after the transformation of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR, which existed the previous two decades. Its headquarters was located in Moscow, while it was part of the Ministry of Education.
The academicians decided to develop and carry out research in leading areas of psychology, pedagogy, and age-related physiology. There were only three departments in the academy system. This is a branch of private methods and didactics, general pedagogy, age 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 USSR Academy of Sciences. It included in its structure the historical-archaeographic institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the institute of history of the communist academy. Since 1938 there is 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 the resonant book of Alexander Nekrich, "1941, June 22nd." In 1965, she was literally at the epicenter of a political scandal. Immediately after the release of this volume, the book was immediately sold out from stores, stolen from libraries, and speculators sold it 5-10 times more expensive than the nominal 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 conducted with the knowledge of Stalin and the Politburo. Nekrich expectedly expected that he would be supported by the anti-Stalinist lobby, but he was mistaken. Senior military officials criticized her.
The position of Nekrich himself was dismantled several times in the Party Control Committee. This case was not limited to party showdowns: the institute of history was divided into two institutions. Nobody dared to dismiss the scientist, since he was too famous abroad. Therefore, he was sent to the Institute of World 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 the loyalty of the existing government, the ability to choose the “right” topic that would be adequately perceived by the leadership. Moreover, the leadership of not only the academy itself, but also the country as a whole.