A Guide to the Russian Academy of Sciences - University of Texas ...

Membership of the Philosophy and Law Department--administrative
responsibilities: In 1987, 90 percent of the academicians and corresponding
members of the Department were members of the CPSU; in 1989 that number had
dropped to 76 percent--or 29 of the 38 members of the Department. One person was
on the GKNT Board; one was Chairman of the Governing Council of the
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna; one was Prorector of
the A. A. Zhadanov State University in St. Petersburg ; one was Vice President of
the national academy's Social sciences Section; two were members of the national
academy's Presidium; one was President of the Tadzhik SSR Academy of Sciences;
one a member of the Azerbaiian, and one a member of the Ukrainian academies. One
member was Vice President of the International Union of Psychological sciences .
Five served as Directors of subordinate SRIs, and one served as a Deputy Director
of an SRI. The prestige of such a small group of scientists in and out of Russia is
great.
Academicians--age and schools: The birth dates of all 12 of the academicians of the
philosophy and law Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences are known.
One person was in his 90s; three in their 80s; one in his 70s, and the average age of
the other seven was 67 in 1991. Eight of the 12 academicians received degrees from
the following six institutions: the N. K. Kurpskaia (aya) Academy of Communist
Upbringing (undergraduate) and the Communist University of Teachers of the
Social sciences (graduate)--one; the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute; the Gorkiy
Pedagogical Institute (one); the Moscow State University (two); the Moscow
Institute of International Relations (one), and the Institute of Red Professors (two).
Corresponding Members--age and schools: The birth dates of 20 of the 26
corresponding members is known. Among the 20, four are in their 90s; two in their
mid-80s; four in their 70s, and the average age of the ten remaining was 64.5 years
in 1991. The educational background of only 10 is known. Institutions from which
they graduated include: the Alisher Novoi Uzbek University; the Higher Party
School of the CC CPSU ; the Academy of Communist Education; the Leningrad
State University (three); the University of Kazan'; the V. I. Lenin Moscow
Pedagogical Institute; the K. Liebnecht Moscow Pedagogical Institute, and the
Moscow Institute of Law. While a number of the other corresponding member hold
advanced degrees the institutions from which they graduated is not known at
present. Again, as in the other social sciences, many of the academicians and
corresponding members of the Philosophy and Law Department of the Russian
Academy of Sciences have strong academic backgrounds in the orthodoxy of
Communism. In the case of members of this Department and the role played by law
as developed and taught by many of these individuals, they become particularly
important for an understanding of the development of the modern Soviet State.
Academician Secretary
Topornin, Boris N. Born in 1929. Corresponding member of the Philosophy and Law
Department of the Academy since 1987; academician in 1993. The State and Law
Institute in Moscow is under the direction of Boris N. Topornin, It traces its
beginnings back to the establishment of a section on Soviet Construction at the
Socialist Academy--the Communist Academy--in 1923 and was initially organized as
the Soviet Construction Institute in 1925. It passed through several name changes
and reorganizations until in 1960 its present name was finally adopted. Its research
directly affects Soviet legislation. It has a staff that includes over 100 scientists who
hold the doctoral degree and over 120 who hold candidate degrees. It counts one
academician and three corresponding members of the national academy among its
members. The four Departments of the institute include: (1.) theory of the state and
the law; (2.) legal problems of economic and social development; (3.) international
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