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

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I want to thank the people at InterTec for their permission to use this "role and scope"
statement.
Part I
The Academy of Sciences in Moscow--where the Presidium of the academy meets.
Brief history of the Academy of Sciences: The forerunner of the Academy of
Sciences of the USSR, founded by Peter the Great in 1724, opened its doors in
1725 as the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and during its early years foreign
scientists dominated its activities. In 1803 it was the Imperial Academy of Sciences
and, in 1836, the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. From 1917 to 1925
it was the AN SSSR, and from 1925 until 1991, it was the Academy of Sciences of
the USSR or the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. It is now the Russian
Academy of Sciences. 1
The Academy after Lenin: In the early years the academy controlled few scientific
research institutes and did not select its own president until 1917. Lenin established
the principal directions of scientific research. The academy became an appendage of
the new government. Soviet scientists investigated the resources of the state, and as
time went by, assisted in the development of the economy and the industrial base of
the new socialist state. In 1925, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of
the Peoples' Commissariat officially recognized the Academy of Sciences of the
USSR as the nation's supreme scholarly institution. In 1927, a new charter for the
academy declared its activities vital for the development of the national economy and
the culture of the country. Academy membership spread to persons outside
Leningrad.
1 Vucinich, Alexander. The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. Stanford, California;
Stanford University Press. Series E: Institutions, No. 3. January 1956. 170 PP.
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