Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union
The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union).
Abbreviation
In 1991, by the decree of the President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Russian Academy of Sciences was established on the basis of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.
History[edit]
Creation of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union[edit]
The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was formed by a resolution of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union dated July 27, 1925, on the basis of the Russian Academy of Sciences (before the February Revolution – the Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences). In the first years of Soviet Russia, the Institute of the Academy of Sciences was perceived rather ambiguously as a closed and elite scientific education. However, in 1918, after negotiations with the then leadership of the Academy of Sciences, which had already been renamed from "Imperial" to "Russian", cooperation began with the new government. The financing of the Academy was entrusted to the People's Commissariat for Education and the Central Commission for the Improvement of the Life of Scientists. In 1925, its 200th anniversary was solemnly celebrated. A new charter was adopted for this date.
The first president of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the well-known scientist, geologist Alexander Karpinsky, who previously held the presidency of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Attempts to establish state and party control over the previously independent Academy began in the mid-1920s: in 1925 the Academy was subordinated to the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union, in 1928, under pressure from the authorities, a number of new Communist members were elected to it.
In January 1929, the academicians defiantly failed the three Communist candidates, Vladimir Fritsche, Nikolai Lukin and Abram Deborin, who were running for the Academy of Sciences, but already in February, under conditions of extreme pressure, they were forced to reconsider their decision.
In 1929, a government commission headed by Yuri Petrovich Figatner was sent to Leningrad to "cleanse" the Academy. In June–December 1929, by its decision, 128 full-time employees (out of 960) and 520 supernumerals (out of 830) were dismissed from the Academy of Sciences. Sergey Oldenburg was removed from the post of the permanent secretary of the Academy at the end of October 1929, defending her independence. After that, the party-state bodies established full control over the Academy. A new Presidium of the Academy of Sciences was elected. Even before this, on February 25, 1929, the Politburo issued a special decision: to leave Alexander Karpinsky as president, Gleb Krzhizhanovsky, Nikolai Marr, and Vladimir Komarov as vice-presidents, and Vyacheslav Volgin as the permanent secretary.[1] Thus, for the first time in the practice of the Academy of Sciences, its leading core was directively appointed at a meeting of the highest party body with subsequent automatic approval at the General Assembly, and this also became a precedent for subsequent practice.[2]
During the period from December 1929 to December 1930, over 100 people were arrested under the "Academic Case" (mainly experts in the humanities, primarily historians).
In February – April 1930, a new charter of the Academy of Sciences was developed and approved. The development of the project was entrusted to an academic commission approved by the plenary session of the Committee for the Management of Scientists and Educational Institutions of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union, headed by Vyacheslav Volgin. The first meeting of the commission to draw up a charter and reorganize the Academy of Sciences was held on February 28, 1930. The draft of the new charter was discussed and approved by the session of the Academy of Sciences on March 31 – April 5, 1930, and it approved the first work plan of the Academy of Sciences for 1931–1932. On April 4, 1930, the charter was adopted at the General Assembly.
In 1930, in connection with the reorganization of the Soviet government, the Academy of Sciences was transferred to the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union.
By the Decree of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union of December 14, 1933 "On the transfer of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union to the competence of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union" (before that, it was subordinated to the Committee for the management of scientists and educational institutions of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union).
The objectives of the activities of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union were to promote the full implementation of scientific advances in the practice of communist construction in the USSR; identification and development of the most important and fundamental areas of science. Coordination was also conducted through regional offices and republican academies of sciences.[12]
The research activity of the Academy was conducted in a network of institutes, laboratories, observatories. The network of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union included 295 scientific institutions.[13]
The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union had its own publishing house, a research fleet, a network of libraries. The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union awarded awards to scientists who have made significant contributions to the development of science.
The total number of active members of the Academy of Sciences on January 1, 1936 – 98 people.
In 1989, the Academy consisted of:
The organs of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union were formed exclusively on an electoral basis. The supreme body is the General Meeting of Academicians and Corresponding Members. To guide the Academy in the periods between sessions of the General Assembly, it elects every 4 years the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.
Presidents of the Academy of Sciences in the Soviet period:
The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union consisted of fourteen (from 1956) republican academies (the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic did not have its own academy)[14] and three regional branches in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic: Siberian (1957), Far Eastern (1987) and Ural (1987).
Criticism[edit]
Critics noted that, despite the broadest powers and formal responsibility for the state and development of all science in the Soviet Union, during its existence, the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union did not come up with any serious project reforming Soviet science.[7]
