History of the Russian Academy of Sciences

This article is a revised version of Chapter 5 (entitled “French in Diplomacy and Other Official Domains”) of Derek Offord, Vladislav Rjéoutski, and Gesine Argent, The French Language in Russia: A Social, Political, Cultural, and Literary History (2018), pp. 263-326.

Монография посвящена историку, ректору Московского университета, академику Вячеславу Петровичу Волгину (1879–1962). Выпускник историко-филологического факультета, революционер, публицист после Октябрьской революции стал непосредственным участником, а нередко и инициатором проводимых в университете преобразований. Ему довелось руководить МГУ в один из наиболее сложных периодов его истории, когда происходила перестройка высшего образования, велись поиски наилучшего варианта структуры университета, пересматривались образовательные программы с целью подготовки специалистов для молодого социалистического государства.
Бóльшая часть иллюстраций публикуются впервые.
Книга адресуется самому широкому кругу читателей.

This paper is devoted to an analysis of the first French language manual ever printed in Russia, the New French Grammar (Новая французская грамматика, Saint Petersburg, 1752) by V. E. Teplov. We provide a brief overview of Teplov’s biography and study how Новая французская грамматика relates to its German prototype Neue und vollständige Französische Grammatik (1749) by using the Russian translation of the grammar part and the appendix which contains a number of French proverbs and idioms. A comparison of the French, German and Russian material allows light to be shed on the differences between the Russian and the German texts in order to analyze the features of Teplov's translation style.

Настоящая публикация посвящена творчеству видного государственного деятеля России елизаветинского и екатерининского времени Г. Н. Теплова, ярко проявившего себя в музыке и изобразительном искусстве. Статья представляет собой исправленную версию текста, опубликованного в книге "Мольберт Эвтерпы" (М., 2018. С. 74-98).

D. G. Messerschmidts wotjakische Materialien.
Tagebuchaufzeichnungen, Dezember 1726.

Der deutsche Gelehrte Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt (1685-1735), war der erste westeuropäische Erforscher Sibiriens, des Urals und des europäischen Nordostens Rußlands. Er hatte diese Regionen auf einer sieben Jahre dauernden Forschungsreise in den Jahren 1719-1727  durchquert und im Auftrag Peter des Großen erforscht. Seine Tagebücher werden im Archiv der Russischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Sankt Petersburg aufbewahrt. Ihr Hauptteil (die Reise durch Sibirien bis zur Ankunft in Solikamsk/Ural 1726) wurde 1962–1977 in fünf Bänden in Berlin veröffentlicht. Der Teil über das Ende seiner Reise von Solikamsk nach Wjatka im Dezember 1726 – Januar 1727 waren bis heute unveröffentlicht geblieben.
In jener Zeit bereiste D.G.Messerschmidt den Norden des wotjakischen Siedlungsgebietes am Tschepza-Fluß (nördlicher Teil der heutigen Udmurtischen Republik). In seinem Tagebuch finden sich erste wissenschaftliche Beobachtungen zur Religion und den Bestattungsgebräuchen der Wotjaken, Beschreibungen ihrer Tracht und Wohnungen, die früheste heutzutage bekannte Bilddarstellung einer Wotjakin und das erste große wotjakische Wörterverzeichnis mit mehr als 300 Wörtern.

История исследований древней Южной Аравии в России и в СССР насчитывает чуть более столетия. Совершенно новый этап в развитии сабеистики в СССР начался со стартом работ Советско-Йеменской комплексной экспедиции (СОЙКЭ). Деятельность советских археологов, этнографов, лингвистов – одна из ярчайших страниц в истории российского и советского востоковедения. Работа СОЙКЭ имела длительную предысторию, которую освещают в частности два документа: донесение НКИД академику А.М. Деборину (1936 г.) и выступление академика Б.Б. Пиотровского «Культура древнего Йемена» на заседании президиума АН СССР (1982).

Summary in English
The book describes the earliest history of tsar Peters Kunstkamera. It explaines why Peter needed a Kunstkamera.
What the function of Kunstkamera's was in Peters time.
Why Peter bought two big naturalia collections for his Kunstkamera in Holland. How he bought these two collections of the Amsterdam Apothecary Albert Seba and the Amsterdam botany and anatomy professor Frederick Ruysch.
How these collections in Russia were used by the first scientists. What parts of the collection still are today still kept in Petersburg musea.

В коллективной монографии на архивных материалах освещены важные аспекты взаимодействия государственной власти Российской империи и Императорской Санкт-Петербургской Академии наук с момента ее основания до 1917 г.
Публикуемый онлайн фрагмент: Костина Т.В. Подготовка элит Российской Империи в учебных заведениях Академии наук (1726–1805) // Актуальное прошлое: взаимодействие и баланс интересов Академии наук и российского государства в XVIII — начале XX в. Очерки истории: в 2 кн. / сост. и отв. ред. д. и. н. И. В. Тункина. 2-е изд. испр. и доп. СПб. : «Реноме», 2018. Кн. I. C. 207–302.

How does science move between cultures? This thesis explores the introduction of science into Russia in the eighteenth century through the history of the first decades of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. I show how the academy succeeded to the degree that it was able to establish secure patronage from the Russian court and government, which demanded the cultivation of a continually changing repertoire of skills appealing to these institutions. Through a grand cabinet of curiosities, artisanal projects, scientific and pyrotechnic spectacles, and deft administration, the academy became an enduring element in Russian scientific culture. In the process, Russia developed an influential vision of Enlightenment that would feed back into the enlightened institutions of western Europe.

Topics included:
*Reading the foundation of St. Petersburg through Foucault
*Science and Spectacle
*Cabinets of Curiosities
*Public Science
*Fireworks
*Museums
*Court patronage
*Russian Icons and Chemistry
*Art and Science
*Russian Enlightenment

Десятый выпуск альманаха «Scripta antiqua. Вопросы древней истории, филологии, искусства и материальной культуры» посвящен исследованиям широкого круга актуальных научных проблем из сферы истории Древнего Востока и античного мира, археологии «варварской периферии» классической цивилизации и средневековой Центральной Азии, анализу новейших нумизматических находок, истории мировой культуры и истории науки. Отдельный раздел посвящен публикации материалов Российско-австрийского Круглого стола, посвященного 180-летию основания Отделения русского языка и словесности Императорской академии наук. Представлены публикации архивных материалов, а также последняя работа Э.В. Ртвеладзе (1942‒2022), подготовленная им при жизни.

Первое издание эпистолярного наследия выдающегося мыслителя ХХ века Питирима Александровича Сорокина. Публикуется избранная переписка (377 писем) с видными представителями мировой научной, политической и общественной жизни; корреспонденция, связанная с выборами президента Американской социологической ассоциации в 1963 году; письма последнего года жизни Питирима Александровича относительно будущего его творческого наследия. Большинство документов написаны по-английски и впервые переведены на русский язык. Письма сопровождены обстоятельными комментариями. Книга предназначена всем, интересующимся историей общественной мысли.

Unpublished Scientific Heritage of S.F. Oldenburg
(Towards 100th Anniversary of the End of the Works of Russian Turkestan Expeditions);
S.F. Oldenburg. Scientific Expeditions. Lectures.
by I.V. Tunkina (St.-Petersburg), M.D. Bukharin (Moscow)

S.F. Oldenburg was one of the first specialists in the world Oriental studies, who realized high importance of the study of Eastern (Chinese) Turkestan. He started studying the monuments of ancient writings and archaeology from the collection of the Russian Consul General in Kashgar N.F. Petrovskiy. This work at least has led Oldenburg and his colleagues to the organization of two expeditions to the Eastern Turkestan (1909–1910, 1914–1915). Their unpublished materials are kept in the Saint-Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the RAS and some other archival collections. The complete publication of the field materials of the two Russian Turkestan expeditions under the direction of S. F. Oldenburg in the language of the original is one of the main tasks of today’s Russian Oriental Studies.
The lectures "Scientific Expeditions" by S.F. Oldenburg are also published here.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, European science plunged into a period of regional isolation and the breakdown of established international ties. As a result, rumour replaced reliable verifiable information. A notable case in point was the attempt to celebrate the 70th anniversary of M.I. Rostovtzeff (1870‒1952), a prominent historian of the first half of the twentieth century, who lived and worked in the United States. In the run-up to the anniversary, rumours of the death of Rostovtzeff began to circulate among immigrant historians in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Unable either to verify reports of his death or to verify that Rostovtzeff was alive, European academic community declined both to commemorate the anniversary and to hold memorial events. Perhaps it was the director of the Kondakov Institute in Prague in 1939‒1945, N.E. Andreev, who disseminated rumours about the death of M.I. Rostovtzeff, thus trying to avoid involving the European and North American academic community in the celebration, which would have necessitated publicly soliciting the support of the pro-Nazi authorities of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, on which the Institute depended. Throughout the period of the II World War, colleagues could not get acquainted with each other’s work. In the post-war period, the structure of European science did not return to the point of the beginning of the crisis of the late 1930s. The new transformation was due to the redistribution of spheres of political influence in Central and Eastern Europe and the formation of new barriers to scientific communication.

In 2018‒2020 members of the research group within the framework of the project “Second Russian Turkestan expedition of 1914‒1915 of S.F. Oldenburg. Unpublished materials from the archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences” (No. 18-09-00213), supported by RFBR, revealed and prepared for publication the entire scope of basic scientific documentation from the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which fully covers the activities of Russian researchers to study the Qianfodun and Turfan oasis. The works, which are undoubtedly the most important achievements of Russian oriental studies in its entire history, have been introduced into scientific circulation. To a large extent, biographies of all participants in the work were reconstructed; previously unknown correspondence was prepared for publication. The main result of the work is the preparation for print of the work of S.F. Oldenburg “Description of the caves of Chan-fo-dong near Dun-huang”, the importance of which for the study of the monument over the past hundred years has only increased.
The most important promising direction for the continuation of work is the restoration and preparation for print of the photo-archive of the II Russian Turkestan expedition, stored in the State Hermitage, which contains more than 2000 pictures. The publication of this photo-archive will completely close the largest lacuna in the history of Russian oriental studies.

In the mid-1920s, Russian academic science underwent radical reforms initiated by the state. In particular, not only the stuff composition of the Russian Academy of Sciences changed, but also the structure of the Academy itself. The merger of the two departments ‒ the Department of Russian Language and Literature and the Department of Historical Sciences and Philology ‒ caused a sharp rejection of the members of the II department. Among its members there was a popular belief that the “root of all evil” is the permanent secretary of Russian Academy of Sciences S.F. Oldenburg, who was, allegedly, all the life in science seeking to destroy the II Department. As the archival documents ‒ previously published, and only newly introduced into scientific circulation, show, that the II Department, really actively resisted attempts at structural reforms, but S.F. Oldenburg was not his enemy, but sought to find a balance of power between the possibilities of the scholar-administrator and the requests of the authorities. The position of the II Department in the early 1920s was, indeed, depressing, but even the intense resistance of its members and Oldenburg’s attempts to defend the interests of the academic community did not give the desired result. The series of mergers and divisions of the II and III Departments of the Academy of Sciences, deprived of any logic, was launched.

La filologia medievale e umanistica greca e latina nel secolo XX. Atti del Congresso Internazionale Roma, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Università La Sapienza 11-15 dicembre 1989. Roma 1993, 769–819 (Testi e Studi Bizantino–Neoellenici VII)

The article analyzes the reports of academician J. A. Güldenstädt from the fonds of the Central state Archive of the Republic of Daghestan, which allows to review several essential issues concerning the development of the Caucasian spas by the Russian Empire. The expeditions of the Academy of Sciences in 1770s was instrumental in studying of the territory of the Russian Empire, its peoples and their customs and culture. Materials collected by the scientists are still studied and analyzed by the historians, ethnographers and linguists. The scientific expedition headed by a well known naturalist Johann Anton Güldenstädt played was crucial for studying of the Caucasian folk history. Notwithstanding the fact that its materials were partially published, there remain some documents that have never been brought into the scientific use. Among them of some importance are Güldenstädt reports on the field research in the North Caucasus. In total he spent in the region more than three and a half years. The scientist has scrutinized and sampled the mineral waters of the North Caucasus. He also took note the many oil springs, which had been actively used by the natives since the Middle Ages. But after describing the advantages of the greenhouses he noted that they could not be absolutely safe due to possible attacks of the highlanders. Upon his research Güldenstädt offered a number of measures for state development of the Caucasian spas. One of them was founding a settlement close to the springs in order to attract the patients. The scientist saw great potential in promoting sericulture and viticulture in the region. Güldenstädt’s Caucasian papers are of great significance as they have been repeatedly studied, borrowed from and used in reserch. Correspondingly an introduction into the scientific use of new materials allows to broaden the scientific representation of the development of academic science in Russia of the last third of the 18th century and throw light onto some aspects of history of the North Caucasus peoples.

The article examines a pedagogical essay written at the end of the 1720s on behalf of the vice-chancellor Count Andrei I. Osterman by Georg B. Bil’finger, a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, in order to provide a theoretical foundation for the education of Peter II. The authors analyze pedagogical ideas found in this document, place the drafting of the document in the context of court rivalries and academic politics of that period, and identify the links between the Establishment and an earlier timetable for Peter II’s instruction approved by the Superior Secret Council in the summer of 1727. The article also explores the relationship between the Establishment and an essay on religious instruction written by Feofan Prokopovič and published jointly with it, as well as the circumstances that led to the publication of the essay in 1731/1732 when Peter II had already long been dead.

Статья посвящена реконструкции контактов выдающегося византиниста, литургиста и археографа А. А. Дмитриевского с различными византиноведческими организациями России и Украины. Кроме преподавания в Богословско-Пастырском училище и на Высших Богословских курсах Ленинграда, в 1923–1928 гг. ученый состоял также сотрудником Русско-византийской историко-словарной комиссии РАН, где принимал участие в подготовке к переизданию греческого словаря Ш. Дюканжа средневекового времени. В рамках этой работы А. А. Дмитриевским был создан ряд масштабных исследований, частично хранящихся в его фонде в Отделе рукописей Российской национальной библиотеки (ф. 253); о судьбе же некоторых из них долгое время ничего не было известно. Однако в Архиве Библиотеки Московской духовной академии  среди бумаг профессора Киевской духовной академии П. П. Кудрявцева были обнаружены несколько сочинений А. А. Дмитриевского, которые ученый планировал опубликовать в конце 20-х гг. на украинском языке в Византийском сборнике, готовившемся к изданию Византологической комиссией Всеукраинской академии наук: исследование, посвященное блюду великой княгини Ольги, которое она подарила ризнице храма Св. Софии в Константинополе, и работа о Нежинском греческом братстве и его архиве. Среди бумаг П. П. Кудрявцева сохранилось также исследование А. А. Дмитриевского об одной из славянских рукописей Астраханского государственного университета. Автор статьи подробно рассматривает сочинение А. А. Дмитриевского о блюде великой княгини Ольги. В завершение статьи делается вывод о напряженной, вопреки неблагоприятствовавшим условиям, научной жизни А. А. Дмитриевского в последнее десятилетие его жизненного пути, когда ученый создал целый ряд историко-литургических и византиноведческих исследований по настоящее время не введенных в научный оборот и заслуживающих изучения.

The article reconstructs contacts of the outstanding byzantologist, liturgist and historian A. A. Dmitrievsky with different byzantological organizations in Russia and Ukraine. Being a teacher in the Theological and Pastoral College and Higher Theological Courses of Leningrad, in 1923–1928 A. A. Dmitrievsky worked also in the Russian-Byzantine Historical and Lexical Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he participated in reissuing of  the Medieval Greek vocabulary of Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange. While working, A. A. Dmitrievsky undertook a number of large-scale researches, part of which was kept in the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian National Library; and fate of another stayed unknown for a long time. However, some works of A. A. Dmitrievsky have been found among the papers of P. P. Kudryavtsev in the library archive of the Kiev Theological Academy. The scientist planned to publish these works in Ukrainian in the Byzantical compendium that was preparing to be released by the Byzantological Commission of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences at the end of 1920’s; they were a study on the plate of great countess Olga, presented to the sacristy of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, and research work on the Greek brotherhood of Nezhinsk and its archive.
Another research of A. A. Dmitrievsky devoted to a Slavonic manuscript from the Astrakhan State University was also preserved in the papers of P. P. Kudryavtsev. The author gives particular attention to A. A. Dmitrievsky’s research on the plate of great countess Olga. The article concludes that the last decade of A. A. Dmitrievsky’s scientific labours was intensive despite the unfavorable conditions of life; the scientist created a number of historical and liturgical works and Byzantological researches that have not yet been introduced into scientific circulation and deserve to be studied.

Landscape & Ethnos: Reading Gumilev-Introduction the 3rd installation of a revision in progress further & deeper contextualisation in the first comprehensive English language study of Gumilev's work and its implications across sciences & geopolitics

On  the  basis  of  the  archival  sources  and  memoirs  of  the  contemporaries,  the  authors  of  the  article reconstruct the university career of an outstanding Russian Slavic scholar V. I.  Lamansky (1833–1914): from the period when he served as an officer in the administration of St. Peters-burg Governorate to the time when he made a decision to resign from the university in protest against the government’s actions during the 1899 student unrest. It is noted that the foundations of Lamansky’s scholarly methodology was formed by Slavophile philosophy, since we can con-sider  Lamansky  the  representative  of  the  movement  of  so  called  academic  Slavophilism.  La-mansky’  orientation  towards  philosophical  approach  with  regard  to  Slavic  history  and  culture  enabled  him  to  become  a  founder  of  an  independent  historiographical  school,  with  which  a  number  of  renowned  Russian  scholars  can  be  associated.  The  authors  underline  that  Laman-sky  realized  himself  more  as  a  political  thinker  and  philosopher  of  history  than  a  researcher;  however, this fact did not prevent him from contributing to Russian Slavic studies as an inde-pendent discipline with its own subject and method. Exploring Lamansky’s correspondence, the authors analyze Lamansky’s perception of 1884 University regulations and 1899 student unrest. It enables to demonstrate the specificity of Lamansky’s political views and some features of his personality. Therefore, contrary to the accepted viewpoint, prevalent in historiography since the Soviet  period,  according  to  which  Lamansky  was  inclined  to  political  conservatism  and  reac-tionary movement, we can argue that Lamansky’s political position was of liberal nature.

Lomonosov’s activity in St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was not limited to research, but also included administrative work and management. In 1757 professor Lomonosov became one of the leaders of the Academy. Among the institutions that are included in its maintenance was the Geographical Department. This article presents the results of the research on the official documents of the Department of Geography under Lomonosov’s leadership, which helped to clarify his role in the organization of national geography.

Деятельность М.В. Ломоносова в Петербургской академии наук не была ограничена научными исследованиями, она также включала в себя административную работу. В 1757 году М.В. Ломоносов стал одним из руководителей Академии. В числе учреждений, вошедших в его ведение, был Географический департамент. В данной статье представлены результаты исследования делопроизводства Географического департамента в период руководства М.В. Ломоносова, которое позволило уточнить роль М.В. Ломоносова в организации отечественной географической науки.

Introduction. In the second half of the 1760s – the first half of the 1770s Ivan I. Betskoy implemented a far-reaching reform of Russian education. It appeared that the problems of two Russian universities had not been the key issues of the reform. Apparently, that was the reason why they were not previously considered as a part of the systemic pan-European crisis in higher education, which had been caused by a need to secularize universities and start teaching in national languages into them, as well as by the general development of sciences, especially physical and cameral ones. Methods and materials. The article for the first time analyzes the model of the Academy’s College created at the Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1770 to replace the Academy’s university that had ceased to exist in 1767. Based on the “Privileges and Statute of the Saint Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences” (1770), the research proves that this document compiled by Vladimir G. Orlov was partially brought into action without any legislative approval. Analysis. According to the Orlov’s Statute, Academy’s College appeared at the Academy to reproduce scientists who represented science, but not liberal arts which coincided with the new trend of the Academy of Sciences. It was arranged according to the model common to all education institutions reformed under Ivan I. Betskoy. After completing the main course of study, students were renamed as élèves and assigned to particular academicians for the improvement in science. At the same time, they attended public science courses, which corresponded to the university program in science and since then were allowed to be read not only in Latin and Russian (as in the Statute of 1747), but also in new European languages. Results. Hence, an alternative model of training academic staff, which meant a higher educational level, was created at the Academy of Sciences.

Valerii Alexeev (1929 - 1991) a  Russian scientist, proposed to name  Homo rudolfensis the KNM ER 1470  fossil, having a cranial capacity estimated of 700 cm³, uncovered in 1972 by Richard Leakey’s team near the shores of Lake Rudolf (now known as Lake Turkana).