The Presidential Library presents digital rarities on the history of Russian Academy of Sciences

In honor of the Day of Russian science celebrated on February 8, 2015, the Presidential Library presented rare editions on the activities of the Russian Academy of Sciences. They describe in detail the history of formation of the national citadel of scientific knowledge, at the cradle of which stood Tsar-Reformer Peter I.

An example of European countries, which opened the Academies of Sciences, could not but affect the creation of those in Russia. The successes of the Paris Academy, Peter’s I conversations with many scientists abroad, Leibniz’s advices, repeated submission of draft academies by foreign scientists or associates of the emperor in his reforms, convinced him of the need to establish the Russian Academy of Sciences. G. Pekarsky in his extensive work of 1871 "History of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Volume 1" makes the assumption that Peter’s intention to establish the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg dates to the period of time not later than 1720.

Finally, a report of one of Peter’s foreign associates, Heinrich Fick, was awarded with the following resolution of the Russian Tsar: "The academy must be created, the Russians, who are learned, must be found and the books on jurisprudence must be translated." The fact that the Paris Academy elected the Russian emperor its member also strengthened his intention to have such an institution in his own country. In response to the French Academy Peter I, among other things, wrote: "We do not want anything else but to make science much better through our diligence and to prove ourselves a worthy member of your company."

The Presidential Library website provides free access to the rarity, "Materials for the history of the Imperial Academy of Sciences," published at the end of the 19th century. Ten volumes contain documents covering the period from 1716 to 1750. There is information extracted from decrees, protocols of the offices, contracts, books of current affairs, as well as the correspondence between the leaders and staff of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in German and Russian languages. 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 for the history of education and dissemination of knowledge in Russia in general, as well as in respect of the everyday life and public morals."

These manuscripts can tell about many things. When a historian of Germany Gerhard Miller, a Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, a French astronomer Joseph Delisle and others came at the behest of the royal court in St. Petersburg, there were no Russian scientists, or, one might say, no science in Russia. But the Academy of Sciences was already organized through the efforts of Peter I, who did not live under its official opening. He sought to modernize his backward country understanding quite well the role of science and education in this process.

Russian Academy of Sciences established by order of the Emperor Peter I and a decree of the Governing Senate February 8, 1724 was significantly different from all the organizations of this kind abroad. It was a public institution and integrated the duties of scientific research and education since it included a triad: the academy itself, the university and the school.

Over time, as Peter wished, distinctive and outstanding domestic scientists started to join the ranks of academics. In the second volume of Pekarsky’s "History of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Volume 2," the author tells the biographies of academicians V. K. Trediakovsky and M. V, Lomonosov. There is an interesting collection of documentary materials covering each of them. For example, there are the views of Trediakovsky and Lomonosov of Miller’s speech "The origin of the Russian people and name," their handwritten inscriptions on the shrine for the relics of St. Alexander Nevsky, the description of illumination prepared by Lomonosov, his proposal to establish mosaic art in Russia.

Scientific, educational and organizational activities of the great scholar and encyclopaedist Mikhail Lomonosov represented an entire epoch in the history of the Academy and Russian science. He enriched it with fundamental discoveries in chemistry, physics, astronomy, geology, geography; made a great contribution to the development of history, linguistics and poetics; organized in 1748 the first chemical laboratory; in 1755 actively participated in the creation of Moscow University, which today rightly bears his name.

B. Modzalevsky’s "The list of members of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1725-1907" provides information about the members of the Academy of Sciences from 1725 to 1907 by categories: "The presidents; Directors and Vice-Presidents; Secretaries, conference secretaries and permanent secretaries; Presiding at the Department of Russian Language and Literature; Active members; Honorary members, domestic and foreign; Corresponding Members, domestic and foreign; Treasurers."

After the establishment of the Academy of Sciences on the Neva, Russia began to move towards progress in all vital areas with long strides.

Currently, the Presidential Library website contains more than 40 digitized copies of publications on the activities of the Russian Academy of Sciences.