Триста лет Российской академии наук и иже с ней

Abstract

The emergence and functioning of the Academy of Sciences in Russia over the past three hundred years can be divided into a number of periods. The Peter the Great period should be considered preparatory and the signing by Peter I of the nominal Decree and its announcement through the Senate on February 8 (new style) 1724 laid the foundations for the development of the Academy. The period of Catherine I fell directly on the organization of the work of the Academy of Sciences and the first years of its existence in connection with which there are many official dates that can, one way or another, be considered memorable, festive, jubilee in the history of the Academy. The following incomplete couple of centuries, which included the Lomonosov period of the Academy of Sciences, can be called generally the "royal period", during which various monarchs showed interest in the Academy to one degree or another. The year 1917 in the life of the Academy deserves to be separately considered, despite the fact that it was a very short period, after which the Soviet period began, when at first there was a struggle for the survival of the Academy, but later there were difficult times for scientists mentioned in this article, including the great crisis and the long-term persecution of genetics, as well as the failed In 1949, the defeat of quantum physics. With the collapse of the USSR, the modern period of functioning and development of the Russian Academy of Sciences began, and its "re-organization" in 1991 is described separately. The article also mentions the various names of the Academy of Sciences and Arts created by Peter I, which have changed over the centuries, although its name sounds different in the Draft Regulation prepared at that time, also called the general project or the general regulations. Attention is also paid to all other legal documents of the Academy of Sciences (Regulations, Charters), of which many have been adopted over three centuries, mainly in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Other Academies of Sciences in our country are mentioned, which functioned in parallel for some time, but then merged into the "big" Academy. During the three hundred years, 23 people have been Presidents at the Academy of Sciences and also 11 people, including amongst them one woman, in different statuses, have led it. The existence of two "presidential dynasties" is shown, one of which accounts for about a third of the time of the entire administration of the Academy of Sciences. Special attention is paid to I.D. Schumacher, the first librarian and the first museum worker in Russia, who also turned out to be the first secretary of the Academy, who served in this post for many years and made a great contribution to its formation during this time, including even before 1724, when he carried out important assignments of Peter the Great, both while in Russia, so it is on foreign trips. At the same time, Schumacher is most directly related to the two "older sisters" of the Academy born in 1724 itself – the library (born in 1714) – now the Library of the Academy of Sciences and the Kunstkammer (born in 1718), as well as to its "younger sister" - the printing house (born in 1727), which became the Nauka publishing house. Having lived almost all his adult life in Russia, Schumacher became a patriot of our country, although he was distinguished by some despotism. The festive dates celebrated on a different scale, both in previous years and the current tercentenary, as well as the Days of Soviet and Russian Science, have not been ignored. The first one was forgotten, and the second, according to the Presidential Decree of the summer of 1999, is celebrated now (since 2000) annually on February 8. The article had to touch upon important issues of research planning and scientometric indicators used in evaluating the activities of scientists, both in the past and today. Attention is drawn to the fact that in cooperation with foreign colleagues, when conducting joint research, it is necessary to strive to ensure that it is conducted at least on a parity basis. There are prerequisites for this, but it is necessary that there be more of them. To do this, the financing of Russian science should be significantly increased. The point of view is expressed that there is no future without science (although many, if not all, understand this perfectly well), and that our country is simply obliged to ensure its technological independence, including in the scientific field. Given the fact that the knowledge intensity of the modern army and navy has increased dramatically, then to the well-known phrase about these two allies of Russia, science must also be added to them now.