The year of foundation of the Academy of Sciences. Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). Management of the Academy of Sciences E. Dashkova

Our country has given the world a lot of scientists who have made the most important scientific discoveries, which in many ways have changed the life of not only their country, but of all mankind. Scientific potential Russia is great, which has been repeatedly noted by the Nobel Committee and other prestigious international awards (read about the Russian Nobel Prize winners in our article). Russian Academy Science has existed for almost 300 years and unites under its wing thousands of scientists who work for the benefit of people and make our life more comfortable, safe and interesting. How much do we know about RAS? How, when and by whom was the Russian Academy of Sciences created?

Like many other grandiose events in Russia, the foundation of the scientific academy is associated with the name Peter I, and he approached this issue with all his scrupulousness, meticulousness, "greed for knowledge" and thirst for change.

At that time, many scientific societies in Europe were called "academies". I must say that then already existed: the Italian Academy dei Lincei (Accademia dei Lincei); academies in Turin and Bologna; the French Academy, which dealt with problems of language and literature; the German Society of Naturalists, which laid the foundation for the modern National Academy of Sciences "Leopoldine"; in London and Oxford, the greatest scientists of England founded the "invisible board", which became in 1660 the Royal Society of London (The Royal Society of London); the Royal Academy of Sciences (Académie des Sciences) was opened in Paris, etc. The plan for the creation of the Academy of Sciences was formed by Peter I during his travels abroad. During his trip to France in May-June 1717, he visited the Cabinet (library) of the King in the Tuileries, the Royal Printing House, the Observatory, the Sorbonne, the Academy of Writing and Literature, and even took part in a meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris.

Six months after this trip for participation in the compilation detailed map The members of the French Royal Academy of Sciences unanimously elect Peter I as a foreign member of their academy, and its permanent secretary, Bernard Boyer de Fontenelle, writes a letter to the tsar asking his consent to accept this membership. In his response, Peter I wrote: “We want nothing more than to bring science to the best color through the diligence that we will apply, to show ourselves as a worthy member of your company.”

Map of the Caspian Sea and its coasts, for which Peter I received the status of a foreign member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of France in 1717.

Meanwhile, Peter visits the Royal Society of London, and Greenwich, and Oxford, numerous museums and laboratories. Coming to Holland, he closely communicates with Dutch thinkers and other prominent foreign philosophers. What he sees and hears makes a big impression on him. After such meetings and trips, the idea of ​​organizing scientific and educational centers in Russia, similar to the universities and academies of Western Europe, never leaves the tsar.

Pyotr Alekseevich Romanov, 05/30/1672 - 01/28/1725, founder of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the last Tsar of All Russia and the first All-Russian Emperor

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 06/21/1646 - 11/14/1716 Saxon philosopher, logician, mathematician, mechanic, physicist, lawyer, historian, diplomat, inventor and linguist

A special place among the Western European philosophers who influenced the activities of Peter was occupied by the great German philosopher, mathematician, organizer of science Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Peter met Leibniz in 1711 during his stay in Germany, they met several times. And since Leibniz showed a very great interest in Russia and in the greatest possibilities of its scientific progress, in 1712 the tsar appointed him a secret legal adviser, instructing him to patronize science. It was on the advice of Leibniz that Peter began to create an academy and, on his advice, invited prominent foreign scientists to work in it. Leibniz was the author of the draft of the first Charter of the Academy. Thus, the idea of ​​the need to "establish sciences" in Russia was not only accepted by the Russian monarch, but also received the most qualified intellectual support from leading European scientists.

In accordance with the project, the Russian Academy of Sciences was to differ significantly in its structure from Western European academies.

Firstly, it actually formed an inseparable unity with the Academic University and the gymnasium, which were created under it. Formally, these were separate institutions, but the members of the academy and the teaching staff of the university included the same people (i.e. new academy should combine the functions scientific research and learning). Each academician had to draw up a study guide for the benefit of the student and each day to engage in public teaching of his subject for an hour. The academician had to train one or two pupils who could eventually take his place, and Peter expressed the desire "that such people be chosen from the Slavic people so that they can teach Russians more conveniently."

In the definitions of the Academy and the University, Peter I made a clear distinction:

"The university is a collection learned people who teach high sciences, like feology and jurisprudence (rights to art), medicine, philosophy, that is, to what state they have now reached, they teach young people.
The Academy is a collection of scientists and skilled people who not only know these sciences in their own way, in the degree in which they are now acquired, but also strive to complete and increase them through new inventories (publications), and there is no care for the teachings of others Dont Have".

Secondly, the academy was a state institution (unlike private and public Western European ones), which was financed from the state treasury, and its members, receiving a salary, were supposed to provide scientific and technical services to the state. The duties assigned to academicians (professors) were varied: follow the scientific literature and compile summaries of scientific results in their specialty, participate in weekly meetings and annual public meetings of the Academy, give scientific references and check new discoveries proposed by the Academy, compile courses for students on their science, as well as to lecture.

M.I.Makhaev, G.A.Kachalov. Copper engraving “Prospect down the Neva River between the Winter House of Her Imperial Majesty and the Academy of Sciences” St. Petersburg. 1753

The first house in which the Russian Academy of Sciences settled, then called the Academy of Sciences and Arts in St. Petersburg, was the building of the Kunstkamera on Vasilyevsky Island. This building is known to everyone who has ever visited this beautiful city on the Neva. Its design and construction began in 1718, first for the exhibits of the museum, and then for the Academy of Sciences and its library.

As you know, without a book there is no science. Peter I understood this like no one else. The tsar's idea to form the Library was formed, apparently, spontaneously, based on the experience of his own training and what he saw abroad, as well as from communication with scientists and statesmen. However, one thing was clear - the new royal library had to belong, as before, to the sovereign and at the same time be public. Giving great importance role of the Library in the enlightenment of the country, Peter I sought to open its doors to visitors. When Peter was asked to set an entrance fee to the Library and the Kunstkamera, he declared that no one would go there for money. " I still order, said Peter, not only let everyone in here for nothing, but if someone comes with company to look at rarities, then treat them at my expense with a cup of coffee, a glass of wine or vodka, or something else, in these very rooms". In pursuance of the order of the king, the librarian was given 400 rubles annually to treat visitors.

The significance of this fact, even today, can hardly be overestimated. From a small announcement in the St. Petersburg newspaper "Vedomosti" dated November 26, 1728, the most important rule of library work is fixed in Russia - ensuring the public accessibility of the national book depository for all readers.

Built on the banks of the Neva in the Peter the Great Baroque style, this building housed the Kunstkamera, the Academy of Sciences and its library and was adjacent to the most important buildings of the capital - the house of the Twelve Colleges, the Stock Exchange, the palaces of the closest associates and members royal family. The Kunstkamera is considered to be one of the earliest museum buildings in the world.

The building of the Kunstkamera is still the symbol and logo of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Modern logo of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The Academy was founded on January 28 (February 8), 1724 in St. Petersburg by decree of Emperor Peter I, and its grand opening took place on December 27, 1725 (January 7, 1726) - unfortunately, after his death. The creation of the Academy was very important political significance: it demonstrated Russia's desire to meet the European level not only in the military-technical field, but also in the field of education. The Academy was opened under the presidency of Lavrenty Lavrentievich Blumentrost.

The first president of the Academy of Sciences, Lavrenty Blumentrost, was born in Moscow in 1692. His initial education was given by his father, Lavrenty Alferovich Blumentrost, a leading specialist in medicine of the pre-Petrine era, a reformer and organizer of the Pharmaceutical Order. His father taught him Greek and in Latin. Then your knowledge foreign languages he honed from German professors who lived and practiced in Russia. He graduated from school, showing outstanding abilities, so that at the age of 15 he listened to medical lectures in Halle and Oxford. Then Blumentrost went to Holland, where, under the guidance of the famous Dutch scientist Hermann Boerhaave, he defended his dissertation and received a doctorate in medicine. Peter the Great appointed him a life physician at the court, and he was also entrusted with the management of the Imperial Library and the Kunstkamera.

Christian von Wolf (1679-1754) - German encyclopedic scientist, philosopher, lawyer and mathematician, founder of the language of German philosophy.

In detail the role of science in Russian history was described in the Charter of the Academy of 1803, approved by the Russian Tsar Alexander I, in which he outlined the main milestones of its creation.

“The main duties of the Academy follow from the very purpose of its appointment, which is common with all academies and learned societies: to expand the limits of human knowledge, to improve the sciences, to enrich them with new discoveries, to spread enlightenment, to direct, as far as possible, knowledge for the common good, adapting theory to the practical use of and useful consequences of experiments and observations; her in short words the book of her duties.”

More than two centuries have passed since the utterance of these words, and their relevance has not faded to this day. For my long history The existence of the Academy has known ups and downs, successes and failures, but despite various political, economic and social changes in the country, the Academy of Sciences remains the main scientific center in Russia and one of the leading centers in world science.

The names that the academy has had throughout the history of its existence:

1724 - Academy of Sciences and Arts in St. Petersburg;
1747 - Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts in St. Petersburg;
1803 - Imperial Academy of Sciences (IAN);
1836 - Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences;
1917 - Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS);
Since July 25, 1925 - the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (AN USSR);
Since November 21, 1991 - Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).


Inna Syrus

Linguist, specialist in intercultural communication. Because of the love for your hometown and annual participation in international projects, she loves to show Moscow to foreigners, talk about Russian culture, traditions, cuisine and the broad Russian soul. He likes to gather friends at the dacha and treat him to jam, which he tirelessly brews every autumn.

The oldest and largest scientific institution in Russia. D acts to organize and conduct fundamental research aimed at obtaining new knowledge about the laws of development of nature, society, man and contributing to the technological, economic, social and spiritual development Russia.

The Russian Academy of Sciences was established by order of Emperor Peter I by decree of the ruling Senate of January 28 (February 8), 1724. It was recreated by the Russian Academy of Sciences by decree of the President of the Russian Federation of November 21, 1991.

Structure of the Russian Academy of Sciences before the 2013 reform

It was a self-governing non-profit organization with state status. The RAS was built according to the scientific-branch and territorial principle and included 11 branches of the RAS in the fields of science, 3 regional branches of the RAS, as well as 15 regional scientific centers of the RAS.

The Academy consisted of scientific councils, committees, commissions. The order in which they are organized was established by the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences: draft law

At the end of June 2013, it became known that a draft law was introduced that would provide for a large-scale reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The bill caused outrage and protest from many respected scientists in Russia and the world, as well as many ordinary people advocating for Russian science. Its provisions destroyed the RAS in its former form of an independent organization. According to the new law, the RAS became a public-state association endowed with the functions of a scientific advisory and expert body. The RAS was deprived of the right to dispose of its property and the property of subordinate organizations - this right was transferred to a specially created Agency. The title of Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences was abolished, and all of them automatically became academicians.

Protests by scientists, outraged by the new reform, took place throughout the country. The President of the Russian Academy of Sciences met with and conveyed to him the extreme concern of the scientific community about the reform in the version proposed by the government. By August, when the bill was supposed to go to the third reading in the State Duma, a special commission under the Board of Directors of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences created a list of fundamental amendments.

In September 2013, the law, in which some amendments were made, was adopted.

Reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences: the law in action

On September 27, 2013, the Decree of the President was adopted Russian Federation N 735 "On the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations" and Federal Law of the Russian Federation N 253-FZ "On the Russian Academy of Sciences, reorganization state academies sciences and amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation".

Short review

  • Now the RAS receives the status of a federal state budgetary institution. The right to dispose of the property of the RAS and its subordinate organizations is transferred to the newly formed Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (FASO).
  • The RAS is vested with the powers of the founder and owner of the property of its regional branches in the manner and to the extent that are established.
  • The academy also remains the main manager of budget allocations to regional departments.
  • Such regional branches as the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been left with the status of legal entities, namely "federal state institutions".
  • The Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (RAMS) and the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (RAAS) lose their status as separate organizations and merge with the Russian Academy of Sciences.
  • Numerous RAS institutes are now under the jurisdiction of FASO. It will also approve state assignments for institutes to conduct scientific research, taking into account the proposals of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
  • Scientific and educational organizations must annually submit to the RAS reports on the activities carried out at the expense of funds federal budget research and the results obtained.

Muscovite Russia before Peter, of course, was not an uncultured country - we see in it a peculiar, perhaps rich cultural life that has developed over the centuries, but scientific creative work was not part of it, and Russian society first entered world scientific work with the reform of Peter. ..

Peter did not scientific discoveries. Outstanding scientists in the field exact sciences never been among the big ones statesmen. But Peter belongs to the history of science because he laid a solid foundation for the scientific creative work of our society.

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL SERVICE OF THE STATE

The creation of the Academy of Sciences is directly related to the reform activities aimed at strengthening the state, its economic and political independence. Peter understood the importance of scientific thought, education and culture of the people for the prosperity of the country. And he began to act "from above".

According to his project, the Academy differed significantly from all related foreign organizations. She was a government agency; its members, receiving a salary, had to provide scientific and technical services to the state. The Academy combined the functions of scientific research and teaching, having a university and a gymnasium in its composition.

On December 27, 1725, the Academy celebrated its creation with a large public meeting. It was a solemn act of the emergence of a new attribute of Russian state life.

The Academic Conference became the body collective discussion and evaluation of research results. Scientists were not bound by any dominant dogma, they enjoyed the freedom of scientific creativity, actively participating in the confrontation between the Cartesians and Newtonians. Opportunities to publish scientific papers were practically unlimited.

The physician Lavrenty Blumentrost was appointed the first president of the academy. Concerned about the conformity of the Academy's activities to the world level, Peter I invited leading foreign scientists to join it. Among the first were mathematicians Nikolai and Daniil Bernoulli, Christian Goldbach, physicist Georg Bülfinger, astronomer and geographer Joseph Delisle, historian G.F. Miller. In 1727 Leonhard Euler became a member of the Academy.

The scientific work of the Academy in the first decades was carried out in three main areas (or "classes"): mathematical, physical (natural) and humanitarian. In fact, the Academy immediately joined in the multiplication of the scientific and cultural wealth of the country. She received the richest collections of the Kunstkamera at her disposal. The Anatomical Theatre, the Geographical Department, the Astronomical Observatory, the Physical and Mineralogical Rooms were created. The Academy had a Botanical Garden and tool workshops…

The activities of the Academy from the very beginning allowed it to take an honorable place among the largest scientific institutions in Europe. This was facilitated by the wide popularity of such luminaries of science as L. Euler and M.V. Lomonosov.

Osipov Yu.S. Academy of Sciences in History Russian state. M., 1999

REGULATIONS ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND ARTS, 1724

Two images of a building are usually used to describe the arts and sciences; the first image is called the university, the second - the Academy, or the Society of Arts and Sciences.

The university is a collection of learned people who teach high sciences, like feology and jurisprudence (rights to art), medicine, philosophy, that is, to what state they have now reached, they teach young people. The Academy is a collection of scientists and skilled people who not only know these sciences in their own way, in the degree in which they are now acquired, but also strive to complete and increase them through new inventories (publications), and there is no care for the teachings of others Dont Have.

Although the Academy is made up of the same sciences and consists of the same members that the university is made up of, however, these buildings in other states for many learned people, from which different collections can be composed, have no communication with each other, so that the Academy, which only she tries to bring the arts and sciences to a better state, by teaching in speculations (reflections) and her own searches, which is why both university professors and students benefit, she had no insanity, and the university was not diverted from learning by some witty searches and speculations, and tacos young people were left.

FIRST PRESIDENT

Blumentrost Lavrenty Lavrentievich - the first president of the Academy of Sciences, was born in Moscow in 1692. For 15 years he had already listened to lectures in medicine at the University of Galle, from where he moved to Oxford, and then, soon, to the famous Boerhaave in Leiden, where he defended his dissertation, for which he received his doctorate. In 1718, the title of physician passed to Blumentrost; in addition, he was entrusted with the management of the imperial library and the cabinet of curiosities, in which Schumacher was his closest assistant. In February 1721, this latter was ordered to go abroad, among other things, “to compose a societet of sciences, like in Paris, London, Berlin and other places,” and he had to submit to the Paris Academy, of which Peter the Great was a member, a letter the latter with a map of the Caspian Sea. Peter the Great approved at the beginning of 1724 the project on the establishment of the Academy of Sciences, drawn up by Blumentrost together with Schumacher, and made an order to invite foreign scientists to St. Petersburg. For various reasons, the business with scientists was delayed at first; nevertheless, towards the end of 1725, meetings at the academy began, although its existence had not yet been officially recognized. These meetings were attended by those scientists who had arrived in St. Petersburg earlier than others. The president had not yet been officially appointed, although Blumentrost, in whom everyone saw the future president, was in charge of the affairs of the academy. Muller, a contemporary and eyewitness of everything, praises his polite and friendly treatment of academicians; and after Catherine I appointed him president on December 21, 1725, he did not change in his treatment of his colleagues, he was loved and respected by everyone. In her short reign, Catherine I showed attention and favors to the academy, which she herself often visited. But with the accession to the throne of Peter II, new faces appeared around the sovereign with new views on things, and the academy began to be forgotten; and its president, carried away by the general stream, placed it at the complete disposal of the librarian Schumacher, whose ambitious and power-hungry character soon turned almost all of his colleagues against him ...

By encyclopedic dictionary Brockhaus and Efron

The idea of ​​creating the Russian Academy of Sciences belonged to Peter I.
The example of the Paris Academy, the conversation of Peter I with many scientists abroad, the advice of Leibniz, the repeated representations of many foreigners, Peter's associates in his reforms, convinced the emperor of the need to establish an academy of sciences in Russia as well. This was also facilitated by the fact that the Paris Academy of Sciences elected him a member.

Peter wrote: “Make an academy, and now look for Russians who are learned and have an inclination for that, and also start translating books of jurisprudence.”

I. Nikitin "Portrait of Peter I"

In fact, all the prerequisites for the creation of the Academy were: there was no need to think about personal funds, since there was already experience in attracting foreigners for business government controlled- those could be obtained for the composition of the academy. Funds - it was assumed - could also be allocated from the state treasury, and some supplies for the academy already existed; from the books obtained during the conquest of the Ostsee region in the form of booty, a library was already compiled, supplemented under Peter by the purchase of books abroad, and from the various collections received by Peter during his travels abroad, a cabinet of curiosities was formed.

Each academician was to compile a study guide for youth and to engage in public teaching of his subject for an hour each day. The academician had to prepare one or two pupils who could eventually take his place, and Peter expressed his wish, “ so that such people should be chosen from the Slavic people, so that they can teach Russians more conveniently.

But the academicians who arrived from abroad did not find Emperor Peter I alive, and the Academy opened only under Catherine I. The first meeting was on November 12, 1725, and on December 27 of the same year a solemn meeting took place in the presence of the Empress.

J.-M. Natya "Portrait of Catherine I"

The Empress gave special patronage to the Academy; in addition to the staff appointed by Peter, she assigned premises, often attended meetings of the Academy. But since there was no Charter in the Academy, arbitrariness and theft reigned there, especially in the economic part. When, after the death of the Empress, the highest state administration of Peter II was transferred to Moscow, where the president of the Academy Blumentrost went, the position of the academicians, who did not receive maintenance and were under the yoke and arbitrariness of the indispensable secretary Schumacher, was sometimes desperate. The opening of a printing house at the Academy, various workshops, engraving and drawing chambers absorbed almost all the regular amounts of the Academy and formed a constant, growing deficit. The new president of the Academy, Baron Korf, stated that " if the ambulance academy does not receive and is not brought into a proper and definite state, then it will undoubtedly collapse, and so many thousands, together with the honor that the academy received from foreigners, will disappear without any benefit.

M.V. Lomonosov at the Academy of Sciences

Lomonosov's academic achievements were astonishing. And in 1735, at the request of the President of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Baron Korf, Lomonosov, along with twelve other students “worthy in the sciences,” was sent to St. Petersburg as a student at a university organized at the Academy of Sciences. At the university, Lomonosov tried to accumulate as many impressions as possible, to "test" the laws of science in their direct manifestation, to find out the root causes of phenomena.

He often stayed up late in academic workshops, laboratories, and libraries. This rare capacity for work of the pupil was noticed, and when the opportunity arose to send three of the most prepared students abroad to specialize in chemistry, metallurgy and mining, the president of the academy accepted Lomonosov's candidacy without hesitation. Mikhail Vasilievich's life abroad lasted almost 5 years.

This time was spent at the University of Marburg in Germany. Students listened to lectures on mechanics, hydraulics, theoretical physics and logic, studied theoretical chemistry, attended laboratory classes in experimental chemistry, learned to set up experiments, generalize analyzes, draw scientifically based conclusions and conclusions. By the middle of the 18th century, chemistry was becoming perhaps the most influential and promising science.

Chemistry seemed like a science of real magic, it was rushed, generously funded. In 1741 Lomonosov returned to Russia. Six months after returning to St. Petersburg, the 30-year-old scientist was appointed adjunct of the Academy in the physics class. The main direction in its scientific work Lomonosov chose chemistry. The importance of this discipline in connection with the development of industrial production increased every year.

But for the introduction of chemical experiments, an experimental base, a laboratory, was needed. Lomonosov developed a project for the laboratory and in January 1742 submitted it to the Academy for consideration. And only six years later, after his repeated requests and protests, the leadership of the St. Petersburg Academy agreed to build a chemical laboratory. It was built and opened thanks to the efforts of Lomonosov in 1748.

The chemical laboratory became the place where Mikhail Vasilyevich in the 50s enthusiastically took up a completely new and very peculiar business - mosaics. This task was quite suited to Lomonosov's character and tastes: it intertwined fine art with the chemistry of colored glass, optics and technology. He had to perform many thousands of test melts for the manufacture of different types of colored glass.

It is very sad that the descendants were not able to save to our time neither the chemical laboratory, nor the house on the Moika, where the home laboratory was located, nor the numerous instruments made by Lomonosov himself. Only the wonderful laboratory diary "Chemical and Optical Records" remained, which reveals a huge experimental work covering a wide variety of scientific, instrumental and technical problems.

M. Lomonosov " Poltava battle" (mosaic fragment)

New Charter of the Academy of Sciences

The new Statute of the Academy with a new staff appeared under Empress Elizaveta Petrovna in 1747.

Charles van Loo "Portrait of Elizabeth Petrovna"

According to the regulations of 1747, it was called, from 1803 - Imperial Academy of Sciences, since 1836 - Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences, from May 1917 - The Russian Academy of Sciences.

The academy was divided into two establishments: the academy itself and the university. The academy itself should be made up of ten academicians and each of them an adjunct and ten honorary members working outside the academy. The academy's adjuncts must all be Russians. A president has been appointed to directly manage the affairs of the Academy and supervise the academicians, and in order to “ensure the meetings of academicians are decent” and to keep a journal of the meeting, a conference secretary has been appointed.

At the beginning of each year, the Academy is instructed to propose a problem in one branch of science. Academicians must present the best latest essays to the president, who orders them to be translated into Russian and printed. The Charter also expresses the obligation for academicians to fulfill the instructions of government bodies that require special knowledge. The university is directly separated from academic affairs, for which the president of the academy is instructed to select thirty trained students and place them as students at the academy.

In order to train such students, a gymnasium should be established at the academy. Former accessories, not only the library and the cabinet of curiosities, but also printing houses, book store and the former workshop chambers are preserved at the Academy. At the same time, 53,298 rubles were assigned by the state for the maintenance of the Academy, together with the gymnasium and with all the accessories. The gymnasiums and the university at the Academy operated according to this charter until 1766.

Academy of Sciences under Catherine II

F. Rokotov "Catherine the Great"

The government wished that the scientific works of the Academy were directly aimed at benefiting the state. On this basis, Empress Catherine II put the Academy of Sciences under her direct jurisdiction, establishing for this a special commission under the academy under the presidency of Count Orlov, which was instructed, among other things, to put in order the very fallen economic part of the Academy.

In particular, this idea that the Academy of Sciences should act for the benefit of the people and state administration was expressed in the legislation of Alexander I. agriculture, translate them into Russian and publish with public journals and in academic journals to place the latest news about discoveries in the sciences.

Academics continued to be invited from abroad throughout the 18th century, but soon scientists educated at the Academy of Sciences themselves took the lead. Already by 1731, 5 professors from the adjuncts were appointed, including L. Euler, who arrived in 1727 as a 20-year-old adjunct and became a famous mathematician at the Academy of Sciences, and the future explorer of Siberia, I. G. Gmelin.

The first Russian adjunct - V. E. Adodurov (since 1733), the first professor from the natives of Russia - G. V. Richman (since 1741, adjunct since 1740), the first Russian professors (since 1745) - M. V Lomonosov (student since 1735, adjunct since 1742) and poet VK Trediakovsky. In the 2nd half of the XVIII century. Russian academicians came to the fore: naturalists and travelers S. P. Krasheninnikov, I. I. Lepekhin, N. Ya. Ozeretskovsky, V. F. Zuev, mathematician S. K. Kotelnikov, astronomers N. I. Popov, S. Ya. Rumovsky , P. B. Inohodtsev, chemist Ya. D. Zakharov, mineralogist V. M. Severgin and others. with practical tasks.

The main achievements of the XVIII century. belong to the field of physico-mathematical and natural sciences and are associated primarily with the names of Euler and Lomonosov, as well as the astronomers J. N. Delisle and Rumovsky, the physicists Richmann and F. W. T. Aepinus, and the physiologist K. F. Wolf. In the Geographic Department, headed by Delisle, the Atlas of Russia (1745) was prepared - the first collection of maps that had an astronomical and mathematical basis. Expeditions were organized over a vast territory - from the western borders to Kamchatka, as a result of which geographical maps were refined, natural resources, flora and fauna were studied. animal world, life and culture of peoples. At the initiative of Lomonosov, the Academy of Sciences organized the collection of economic and geographical information (by sending out questionnaires) and the collection of ore samples from the field. Significant are the works of the Academy in the collection and publication of sources on the history of Russia and in the study of the countries of the East. Lomonosov laid the foundation for Russian philology. In 1783, the Russian Academy was established to study the problems of the Russian language and literature. The Academy of Sciences published annual collections. 1-2 times a year, public meetings were held in which members of the Academy of Sciences made speeches; speeches were published. Relations were maintained with foreign scientists and scientific institutions. There was a lively correspondence with them. Euler, Delisle, Lomonosov and others were members of the foreign Academy of Sciences, and members of the Russian Academy were H. Wolf, I. Bernoulli, R. A. Réaumur, Voltaire, D. Diderot, J. L. L. Buffon, J. L. Lagrange, B. Franklin and others; Since 1749, international competitions on topical problems of science have been announced annually with prizes awarded.

FROM late XVIII century, with the emergence and development of universities and other higher educational institutions, scientific societies, the original functions of the Academy of Sciences narrowed. The academic university and gymnasium were closed; geological, cartographic, translation and other applied works were transferred to other departments. The efforts of members of the Academy of Sciences began to focus primarily on theoretical research.

Since 1841, the Academy of Sciences consisted of 3 departments: physical and mathematical sciences; Russian language and literature; historical sciences and philology. Active members of the Academy of Sciences were divided into 3 classes: adjunct, extraordinary academician, ordinary academician (from 1912 a single title was introduced - academician). There were those who were not part of the staff and did not have scientific obligations to the Academy of Sciences honorary members and corresponding members(Russian and foreign). The full members of the Academy of Sciences were, as a rule, the largest domestic scientists - mathematicians M. V. Ostrogradsky, V. Ya. Bunyakovsky, P. L. Chebyshev, A. A. Markov, A. M. Lyapunov, physicists V. V. Petrov, E. Kh. Lenz, B. S. Yakobi, B. B. Golitsyn, chemists N. N. Zinin, A. M. Butlerov, N. N. Beketov, N. S. Kurnakov, astronomers V. Ya. Struve, A. A. Belopolsky, F. A. Bredikhin, biologists K. M. Baer, ​​A. O. Kovalevsky, physiologist I. P. Pavlov, mineralogist N. I. Koksharov, geologist A. P. Karpinsky, philologist A. Kh Vostokov, literary critic A. N. Veselovsky, historian S. M. Solovyov, etc. But many prominent scientists remained outside the Academy. Progressive members of the Academy of Sciences tried to involve them in their work, using the right to confer the titles of honorary members (mathematician F. G. Minding, researchers of Central and Central Asia N. M. Przhevalsky, P. P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, linguist V. I. Dal , fleet historian F. F. Veselago, doctor G. A. Zakharyin, etc.) and corresponding members (mathematician S. V. Kovalevskaya, mechanic N. E. Zhukovsky, philologist A. A. Potebnya, historians V. S. Ikonnikov, N. I. Kostomarov, biologists I. I. Mechnikov, I. M. Sechenov, K. A. Timiryazev, chemists D. I. Mendeleev, A. A. Voskresensky and others). V. G. Korolenko, A. P. Chekhov, L. N. Tolstoy, V. V. Stasov and others were elected honorary academicians in the category of fine literature.

Management of the Academy of Sciences E. Dashkova

D. Levitsky "Portrait of Ekaterina Dashkova"

Empress Catherine II, by decree of January 24, 1783, appointed Dashkova to the post of director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences under the presidency of Count K. G. Razumovsky, which she held until November 12, 1796.

Ekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova-Dashkova became the first woman in the world to manage the Academy of Sciences. At her suggestion, the Imperial Russian Academy was also established on September 30, 1783, which had one of the main goals of the study of the Russian language, and Dashkova became its director. The main subject of the Russian Academy was the purification and enrichment of the Russian language, the approval of the general use of words, the ornateness and poetry inherent in the Russian language, and the means to achieve the goal were supposed to be the composition - by the works of the new academy - of Russian grammar, Russian vocabulary, rhetoric and rules of versification. At the initiative of Dashkova, the magazine "Interlocutor of Lovers of the Russian Word" was founded, which was published in 1783 and 1784 (16 books) and was of a satirical and journalistic nature. The best literary forces participated in it: Derzhavin, Kheraskov, Kapnist, Fonvizin, Bogdanovich, Knyaznin. Here were placed "Notes on Russian History" by Empress Catherine, her own "There were also fables", answers to questions from Fonvizin, "Felitsa" by Derzhavin. The main scientific enterprise of the Russian Academy was the publication " explanatory dictionary Russian language". In this collective work, Dashkova owns the collection of words for the letters Ts, Sh, Sh, additions to many other letters; she also worked hard on explaining words (mostly denoting moral qualities). On November 29, 1783, at a meeting of the Russian Academy, Dashkova proposed to use printed letter"Yo". At an academic meeting, Ekaterina Romanovna asked Derzhavin, Fonvizin, Knyazhin and others present whether it was legal to write “iolka” and whether it would be more reasonable to replace the digraph “io” with one letter “e”.

Dashkova wrote poetry in Russian and French, translated from English and French, delivered several academic speeches, wrote comedies and dramas for the theater, and was the author of memoirs about the era of Catherine II. Empress Dashkova brought new dissatisfaction with the publication in the Russian Theater (published at the Academy) of Knyazhnin's tragedy Vadim (1795). This tragedy was withdrawn from circulation. In the same 1795, she left St. Petersburg and lived in Moscow and her village near Moscow. In 1796, upon accession to the throne, Emperor Pavel removed Dashkova from all her posts.

In the XIX - early XX centuries. new scientific institutions were organized: Asian (founded in 1818), Egyptian (1825), Zoological (1832) and Botanical (1823) museums; Pulkovo Observatory (1839), Physiological Laboratory (1864), Plant Anatomy and Physiology Laboratory (1889), Pushkin House(1905), Commission for the Study of the Natural Productive Forces of Russia (KEPS, 1915), etc.

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A well-known result of state reforms in the field of education and science was the establishment of the Academy of Sciences. The idea of ​​organizing a scientific center came to Peter as early as 1718, after visiting the French Academy. In January 1724, the project for the creation of the Academy of Sciences and Arts, as it was originally called, was heard at a meeting of the Senate and approved by Peter I. The official opening of the academy took place in 1725 after the death of the emperor.

The peculiarity of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was that it combined research and teaching functions. This was due to the need not only for the development of science, but also for solving the problem of training domestic scientific personnel. “Now in Russia,” the draft pointed out, “the building has to be created for the return of the arts and sciences ... and to create such a building, through which not only the glory of this state for the reproduction of the sciences has now spread, but also through the training and location of these there was a benefit to the people in the future." The academy system included a university and a gymnasium.

The opening of the Academy of Sciences was a significant event in the social and cultural life of Russia. For the first time, a scientific center was created in the country, which had a sufficiently equipped base for research in various fields of knowledge. The Academy had a library, a museum, a printing house, a botanical garden, an observatory, physical and chemical laboratories.

The Academy opened the Academic University (1726-1766) - the first secular university in Russia educational institution. Many prominent scientists came out of its walls, whose names became widely known in Russian science and the education of the second half.

18th century Academic University graduated from M.V. Lomonosov, who became the first Russian academician. He headed it in 1758-1765.

With the support of the state authorities, a network of scientific and educational institutions was formed in society. In 1714, a library was founded in St. Petersburg, the fund of which consisted of books and manuscripts from the royal collection of the Moscow Kremlin, a number of foreign libraries, the book collection of Peter I. This library, as a book depository, initially existed at the Kunstkamera, the first museum in Russia, opened in 1719. Subsequently, like the Kunstkamera, it became part of the Academy of Sciences. From 1728 the library became available for public use.

In the first decades of the 18th century Serious prerequisites were created for the development of science, which was associated with the needs of the state in the development of new territories and the extraction of minerals, with the development of urban planning, etc.

Expeditions organized by the government explored new areas, studied Natural resources countries, collections were collected on ethnography, mineralogy, botany, biology, materials for compiling geographical maps. Thus, expeditions began to acquire a complex character. Often their goals and objectives were determined by Peter himself. A survey of the shores of the Caspian Sea made it possible to draw up the first map of the Caspian. The Kamchatka expeditions of V. Bering (30s of the 18th century) discovered the strait dividing Europe and Asia. This was an important milestone in geographical discoveries, the result of which, as is known, was a cartographic description of the outlines of the Earth's continents. Competitions were announced at the Academy of Sciences for the best solution of practical problems (improving the buoyancy of ships, developing methods for orienting ships in the sea according to the phases of the moon, etc.), in which scientists such as L. Euler and D. Bernoulli took part.

One of the achievements of technical thought was the creation of A.K. Nartov, an outstanding mechanic of his time, the world's first screw-cutting lathe. Scientific and technical innovations were used in the construction of dams and mechanisms in manufactories, in the construction of canals, docks, and shipyards.

Attempts have been made to write national history, a work on history was created Northern war. Peter I was interested in Russian history and forced his associates to study it. On his instructions, in 1722, the collection of materials on the history of Russia began. From all the dioceses and monasteries, it was ordered to deliver to Moscow manuscripts containing interesting information, make copies, and send the originals to their original places from where they were taken. Synopsis, the first educational and historical work published in Kyiv in 1674, remained the main guide to the history of Russia in schools. General history was studied using translated textbooks. Peter's attitude to the Bible is interesting, which he considered "wiser than all books" and tried to use not only for "knowledge of God", but also for real earthly affairs. In 1716, by order of the tsar in Amsterdam, the Bible was printed in Dutch with additional blank sheets - for translation into Russian "at the discretion" of the church authorities, "in order to accustom hunters to Dutch by reading the Bible in the natural language."

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