Organization of Scientific Institutions of Narkompros: The Case of the Central Biological Station

Abstract

The article deals with the making of Soviet science, in particular, the creation of new biological research institutions as exemplified by the case of the Central Biological Station (CBS). The author analyzes the activities of the People’s Commissariat of Education (“Narkompros”) and its divisions (Academic Center, Principal Scientific Council, “Glavnauka”, and Science Department) regarding their subordinate organizations. The history of the initial period in the creation of the K. A. Timiryazev Biological Institute – the work of the Central Biological Station of the Narkompros Academic Center – is reconstructed based on a broad range of archival sources from the Russian Academy of Sciences Archive, State Archive of the Russian Federation, Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the MSU Scientific Library, and Department of Written Sources of the State Historical Museum, many of which are introduced for scientific use for the first time. Established during a difficult period of the early 1920s and having had existed for about a year, the Station united a host of prominent scientists including M. M. Novikov, D. P. Syreishchikov, V. D. Lepeshkin, V. M. Borovskii and many others, who despite the difficulties conducted extensive research, which included collecting and processing materials collected in the vicinity of the Lake Senezh where CBS was located. The article contains a relatively complete list of the Station’s scientific staff (making a complete list is impossible due to frequent staff changeover) and reviews the main strands of CBS’ scientific activities as well as its equipment and facilities. It is concluded that the creation of CBS was the government’s attempt to bring biological research under the administrative and scientific control while CBS itself was from the start a serious, well-equipped scientific research institution that became a foundation for the future K. A. Timiryazev Biological Institute.