The Presidential Library’s rare materials illustrate the history of the development of Russian science

Marking the Russian Science Day, which is celebrated annually in our country on February 8, the Presidential Library features the materials of the extensive collection The Academy of Sciences and the Formation of Russian Science, dedicated to the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), its history and modern activities. The collection includes archival materials, studies on the history of the Academy, anniversary editions, visual materials, works of members of the Academy of Sciences and its periodicals, modern official documents. 

The Russian Academy of Sciences was established by order of Emperor Peter I by the Decree of the Governing Senate of January 28 (February 8), 1724 and differed significantly from similar foreign organizations. It was a state institution and combined the functions of scientific research and education, having a university and a gymnasium.

Pyotr Petrovich Pekarsky, an academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences since 1864, in his extensive work The History of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, suggested that the intention to establish an academy of sciences in St. Petersburg arose from Peter I no later than 1720. This decision was facilitated by examples of European countries, where such institutions had already been opened. Peter I from his entourage received numerous projects to create an academy in view of the success of the Paris Academy, as well as conversations with the founder of the Berlin Academy, the outstanding German scientist G. W. Leibniz.

Funds for the creation of the academy were supposed to be allocated from the state treasury. From the manuscripts received as trophies, a library was compiled, supplemented by the purchase of books from abroad. And from the various collections received by Peter during his travels abroad, a cabinet of curiosities was formed. Each academician had to compile a textbook for youth and daily for an hour to engage in “public teaching” of his subject with the pupils, and then to prepare one or two of them to eventually fill an academic position.

The Presidential Library’s portal provides an electronic copy of the rare publication The Materials for the History of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, which published archival documents starting from 1716. It contains information extracted from decrees, minutes of the Chancellery, contracts, books of current affairs, as well as correspondence of the leaders and employees of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Russian and German. The preface to the publication says: “The manuscripts preserved in the archives of the Academy contain a lot of interesting data not only for the history of the Academy of Sciences, but also for the history of education and the dissemination of knowledge in Russia in general, as well as for characterizing everyday life and social customs”.

These manuscripts can tell a lot. For example, when the historiographer Gerhard Miller from Germany, the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, the French astronomer Joseph Delisle and others came to St. Petersburg at the invitation of the royal court, science was only in its infancy in Russia. But the Academy of Sciences had already been organized through the efforts of Peter I, who understood well the role of science and education in the modernization of the country. Empress Catherine I, who ascended the throne after the death of Tsar Peter I (January 28 (February 8), 1725), took the Academy under her protection. She allocated additional premises and often personally attended the meetings of the "wise men". And in 1735, at the university, organized at the academy, among 12 other recruits, Mikhail Lomonosov began his studies, who became the first domestic academician in the field of natural science.

A whole era in the history of the Academy and Russian science as a whole was the scientific, educational and organizational activity of the great scientist and encyclopedist Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov. He enriched mankind with fundamental discoveries in the field of chemistry, physics, astronomy, geology, geography; made a great contribution to the development of history, linguistics and poetics; organized in 1748 the first chemical laboratory; actively participated in 1755 in the founding of Moscow University, now rightfully bearing his name.

The Presidential Library’s portal features an extensive collection of electronic copies of documents is dedicated to Lomonosov, which presents studies, essays and archival materials on the life and career of the scientist, his works on the grammar of the Russian language, history and metallurgy, individual letters. A number of works by a major Russian scientist reveal his literary talent.

It is symbolic that the day of Russian science coincides with the birthday of another outstanding Russian scientist, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev. The electronic collection posted on the Presidential Library’s portal is also dedicated to his life and career. The selection includes the works of Mendeleev, correspondence, archival documents and studies of his scientific, pedagogical, social activities, and much more. The materials of the collection show that the scientific interests of Mendeleev were not limited to the study of chemistry. He was engaged in research in the field of physics, meteorology, geology, instrumentation, economics and even aeronautics, and was one of the founders of modern metrology.

The Presidential Library’s portal also features materials of the large-scale collection Russian Inventions: Pages of History, covering various aspects of inventive work in Russia. It includes various documents of the 19th-21st centuries, stories of outstanding and little-known Russian inventors and inventions from pre-revolutionary times, documentaries presenting modern inventions and their creators.

Russia has always rightly been proud and is proud of talented scientists, whose work is developing domestic and world science. Russian scientists master the most promising research areas, develop the latest technologies, and prepare a worthy replacement.

The Presidential Library, forming and storing in electronic digital form works and documents on the history, theory and practice of Russian statehood, on the Russian language as the state language of the Russian Federation, works in close cooperation with leading Russian institutions of science, education and culture. The leaders of many of them are prominent scientists in various fields of knowledge, head the research teams of academic institutions, universities and institutes, and are members of the Academic Council of the Presidential Library.

Congratulations on your professional holiday - the Russian Science Day — to all those who have chosen the path of a scientist, researcher, discoverer.

We wish you new discoveries, professional success and achievements!