Russian Academy of Sciences
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The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the
national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, and serves as a public policy advisors, research ...
of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such as libraries, publishing units, and hospitals.
Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...
established the academy (then the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences) in 1724 with guidance from
Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Isaac Newton, Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in ad ...
. From its establishment, the academy benefitted from a slate of foreign scholars as professors; the academy then gained its first clear set of goals from the 1747 Charter. The academy functioned as a university and research center throughout the mid-18th century until the university was dissolved, leaving research as the main pillar of the institution. The rest of the 18th century continuing on through the 19th century consisted of many published academic works from Academy scholars and a few Academy name changes, ending as The Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences right before the Soviet period. Now headquartered in Moscow, the academy (RAS) is a non-profit organization established in the form of a federal state budgetary institutionGeneral information about the Academy
.
chartered by the
Government of Russia The Russian Government () or fully titled the Government of the Russian Federation () is the highest federal executive governmental body of the Russian Federation. It is accountable to the president of the Russian Federation and controlled by ...
. In 2013, the Russian government restructured RAS, assigning control of its property and research institutes to a new government agency headed by Mikhail Kotyukov. , the academy included 1,008 institutions and other units; in total, about 125,000 people were employed of whom 47,000 were scientific researchers.


Membership

There are three types of membership in the RAS: full members ( academicians), corresponding members, and foreign members. Academicians and corresponding members must be citizens of the Russian Federation when elected; however, some academicians and corresponding members were elected before the collapse of the USSR and are now citizens of other countries. Members of RAS are elected based on their scientific contributions – election to membership is considered very prestigious.Academy membership
(in Russian)
In the years 2005–2012, the academy had approximately 500 full and 700 corresponding members. In 2013, after the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences became incorporated into the RAS, a number of the RAS members accordingly increased. The last elections to the renewed Russian Academy of Sciences were organized on May 26–30, 2025. As of June 7, 2025, the academy had 1999 living Russian members (full: 865, corresponding: 1134) and about 450 foreign members. Since 2015, the academy also awards, on a competitive basis, the honorary scientific rank of a RAS Professor to the top-level researchers with Russian citizenship; there are 713 scientists with this rank. RAS professorship is not a membership type but its holders are considered as possible candidates for membership; some professors became members already in 2016, 2019, 2022 or 2025 and are henceforth titled "RAS professor, corresponding member of the RAS" (188 scientists) or even "RAS professor, academician of the RAS" (31 scientists).


Present structure

The RAS consists of 13 specialized scientific divisions, four territorial branches and 15 regional scientific centers. The academy has numerous councils, committees, and commissions, all organized for different purposes.


Territorial branches

;Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS) :The Siberian Branch was established in 1957, with Mikhail Lavrentyev as founding chairman. Research centers are in
Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...
(
Akademgorodok Akademgorodok ( rus, Академгородок, p=ɐkəˌdʲemɡərɐˈdok, "Academic Town") is a part of the Sovetsky City District, Novosibirsk, Sovetsky District of the city of Novosibirsk, Russia, located south of the city center and abou ...
),
Tomsk Tomsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, on the Tom (river), Tom River. Population: Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. It has six univers ...
,
Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yenisey, Yenisey River, and is the second-largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk, with a p ...
,
Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...
,
Yakutsk Yakutsk ( ) is the capital and largest city of Sakha, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one of Russia's most rapidly growing regional cities, with a population of 355,443 at the ...
, Ulan-Ude, Kemerovo,
Tyumen Tyumen ( ; rus, Тюмень, p=tʲʉˈmʲenʲ, a=Ru-Tyumen.ogg) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Tyumen Oblast, Russia. It is situated just east of the Ural Mountains, along the Tura ( ...
and
Omsk Omsk (; , ) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia and has a population of over one million. Omsk is the third List of cities and tow ...
. As of end-2017, the Branch employed over 12,500 scientific researchers, 211 of whom were members of the Academy (109 full + 102 corresponding). ;Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS) :The Ural Branch was established in 1932, with Alexander Fersman as its founding chairman. Research centers are in
Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...
, Perm, Cheliabinsk,
Izhevsk Izhevsk or Ijevsk (, ; , or ) is the capital city of Udmurtia, Russia. It is situated along the Izh River, west of the Ural Mountains in Eastern Europe. It is the 21st-largest city in Russia, and the most populous in Udmurtia, with over 600,000 ...
, Orenburg, Ufa and
Syktyvkar Syktyvkar (, , ; , ) is the capital city of the Komi Republic in Russia, as well as its largest city. It is also the administrative center of the Syktyvkar Urban Okrug. Until 1930, it was known as Ust-Sysolsk after the Sysola, Sysola River. Ety ...
. As of 2016, 112 Ural scientists were members of the Academy (41 full + 71 corresponding). ;St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPbB RAS) :The St. Petersburg Branch was established in 2023. As of June 1, 2025, 183 scientists from St. Petersburg were members of the Academy (74 full + 109 corresponding). ;Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS) :The Far East Branch includes the Primorsky Scientific Center in
Vladivostok Vladivostok ( ; , ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area o ...
, the Amur Scientific Center in Blagoveschensk, the
Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( ) is the largest city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China–Russia border, at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, about north of Vladivostok. As of the 2021 Russian c ...
Scientific Center, the Sakhalin Scientific Center in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the Kamchatka Scientific Center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the North-Eastern Scientific Center in
Magadan Magadan ( rus, Магадан, p=məɡɐˈdan) is a Port of Magadan, port types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative centre of Magadan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the isthmus of the Staritsky Peninsula by the ...
, the Far East Regional Agriculture Center in
Ussuriysk Ussuriysk () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, in the valley of the Razdolnaya River. The city is north of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the krai, and about from both the China–Russia bo ...
and several Medical institutions. As of 2017, there were 64 Academy members in the Branch (23 full + 41 corresponding).


Regional centers

*
Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...
Scientific Center * * *
Saratov Saratov ( , ; , ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River. Saratov had a population of 901,361, making it the List of cities and tow ...
Scientific Center *
Vladikavkaz Vladikavkaz, formerly known as Ordzhonikidze () or Dzaudzhikau (), is the capital city of North Ossetia–Alania, Russia. It is located in the southeast of the republic at the foothills of the Caucasus, situated on the Terek (river), Terek River. ...
Scientific Center of the RAS and the Government of the Republic Alania – Northern Ossetia * * * Karelian Research Centre of RAS * *
Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...
Center * Scientific Center of the RAS in Chernogolovka * * Ufa Scientific Center * Southern Scientific Center * Troitsk Scientific Center


Institutions

The Russian Academy of Sciences comprises a large number of research institutions, including: *
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics The Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP) is one of the major centres of advanced study of nuclear physics in Russia. It is located in the Siberian town Akademgorodok, on Academician Lavrentyev Avenue, Novosibirsk, Academician Lavrentiev ...
* Central Economic Mathematical Institute CEMI * Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre * Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology * Institute for Medical Science (Russia) * Institute for African Studies (Moscow) * Institute of Far Eastern Studies * Institute for Economic Strategies (Moscow) * Institute of Geography * Institute for the History of Material Culture (St Petersburg) * Institute of Archaeology (Moscow) * Institute for Physics of Microstructures * Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences * Institute for Spectroscopy * Institute for System Programming * Institute of Applied Physics * Institute of Cell Biophysics * Institute of Biological Instrumentation * Institute of Biomedical Problems * Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine (Novosibirsk) * Institute of Ecology and Evolution * Institute of Economy (RAS) * Institute of Human Brain (St.-Petersburg) * Institute of Gene Biology * Institute of Silicate Chemistry * Institute of High Current Electronics * Institute of Latin American Studies (Moscow) * Institute of Linguistics (Moscow) * Institute for Linguistic Studies (Saint Petersburg) * Institute of Oriental Studies (Moscow) * Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (Saint Petersburg) * Institute of Philosophy * Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology * Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics * Institute of Solid State Physics *
Institute of State and Law The Institute of State and Law (ISL) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) (''Russian'': Институт государства и права Российской академии наук (ИГП РАН)) is the largest scientific legal c ...
* Institute of the US and Canada (ISKRAN) * Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) * Institute of World Literature (Moscow) * Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute * Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics * Komarov Botanical Institute * Komi Science Centre * Kutateladze Institute for Thermal Physics * Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics * Laser and Information Technology Institute * Lebedev Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering * Lebedev Physical Institute * N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology * A.N. Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds * Northeast Science Station * Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics * Paleontological Institute * Program Systems Institute * * Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radiowave Propagation (IZMIRAN) * * Space Research Institute * Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, which has an artificial climate station called "biotron" * Shirshov Institute of Oceanology * Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography RAS * Special Astrophysical Observatory * State Public Scientific & Technological Library *
Steklov Institute of Mathematics Steklov Institute of Mathematics or Steklov Mathematical Institute () is a premier research institute based in Moscow, specialized in mathematics, and a part of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The institute is named after Vladimir Andreevich Stek ...
* St. Petersburg Department of Steklov Institute of Mathematics * Sukachev Institute of Forest * Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry * Vingoradov Russian Language Institute * Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences * N. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry * Zoological Institute Member institutions are linked via a dedicated Russian Space Science Internet (RSSI). Started with just three members, The RSSI now has 3,100 members, including 57 from the largest research institutions. Russian universities and technical institutes are not under the supervision of the RAS (they are subordinated to the Ministry of Education of Russian Federation), but a number of leading universities, such as
Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...
, St. Petersburg State University, Novosibirsk State University, and the
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT; , also known as PhysTech), is a public university, public research university located in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It prepares specialists in theoretical physics, theoretical and applied physics, ...
, make use of the staff and facilities of many institutes of the RAS (as well as of other research institutions); the MIPT faculty refers to this arrangement as the "Phystech System". From 1933 to 1992, the main scientific journal of the Soviet Academy of Sciences was the '' Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences'' (); after 1992, it became simply ''Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences'' (). The academy is also increasing its presence in the educational area. In 1990, the Higher Chemical College of the Russian Academy of Sciences was founded, a specialized university intended to provide extensive opportunities for students to choose an academic path.


Awards

The academy gives out a number of different prizes, medals and awards among which: * Lomonosov Gold Medal * Landau Gold Medal * Kurchatov Medal * Demidov Prize * Lobachevsky Prize * Kovalevskaya Prize * Pushkin Prize * Lebedev Prize *
Markov Markov ( Bulgarian, ), Markova, and Markoff are common surnames used in Russia and Bulgaria. Notable people with the name include: Academics * Ivana Markova (1938–2024), Czechoslovak-British emeritus professor of psychology at the University of S ...
Prize * Bogolyubov Medal


History


In the Russian Empire


Creation of the Academy

The academy was a culmination of Emperor Peter the Great's inspiration from his tours to Western Europe and its higher education centers along with the beginning of his correspondence with
Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Isaac Newton, Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in ad ...
, a philosopher, mathematician, and diplomat. Peter's Western European travels introduced him to the new inventions and ideas of the Enlightenment period. Leibniz was attracted to Peter's desire to promote education and science in Russia through modernization of the academic system as he had seen in Western Europe, although he could not get a meeting with Peter during Peter's first European tour. Leibniz did, however, begin correspondence with Peter's advisors where he discussed different plans to achieve the westernization of Russia. Leibniz suggested an education reform which divided schools, universities, and academies, as well as creating new academies and schools. Also, Leibniz suggested creating an arts and sciences institution with faculty consisting of leading foreign scholars. Following Leibniz's advice, Peter founded the St. Petersburg Academy of Science a year before he died, in January 1724 and the Senate
decree A decree is a law, legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, monarch, royal figure, or other relevant Authority, authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislativ ...
of February 8, 1724 implemented the academy. It was modeled after the centralized structure of the Paris Academy and the Berlin Academy of Sciences. These model institutions had led to an educated society of philosophical men, something Peter wanted in Russia. In particular, the Berlin Academy of Sciences was founded by Leibniz, exemplary of the influence which Leibniz had on the creation of the St Petersburg Academy of Science. The Paris Academy was administered directly by the King, which inspired Peter to make himself the supreme head of the St Petersburg Academy of Science, although there could be an academy president.


Early years of the Academy

Peter's widow and Empress
Catherine I Catherine I Alekseyevna Mikhailova (born Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya; – ) was the second wife and Empress consort of Peter the Great, whom she succeeded as Emperor of all the Russias, Empress of Russia, ruling from 1725 until her death in 1 ...
followed through with the establishment and formation of the academy, opening it in December 1725. Mathematics, physical sciences, and humanities were the three departments which made up the academy upon its opening. The academy also contained a university and secondary school, promoting higher education in Russia. As such, the initial 17 scholars had to teach and administer research. They were a portion of the 84 Academy staff in 1726 There were also student assistants who helped the scholars and taught in the secondary school. 112 students ages 5–18 made up the total first year enrollment in 1726. 76 of the 112 students were Russian while the other 36 students were foreign. The academy did not have an official charter until 1747. Peter I did lay out the goals for the academy in a document signed before his death called the "Project". In the document, Peter wished for the academy to be a model for Russia. Since the academy was under the Tsar, the presidents, vice-presidents, directors, and vice-directors were all appointed by the crown. Catherine I started this precedent which lasted until the end of the Russian Empire. The academy hit hard times during Empress Anna's rule. A low of 6 students remained in 1744 and the teaching was in German, contrary to Peter I's wishes. The academy achieved a major goal in the 1740s by turning out the first Russian scholar members, Stepan Krasheninnikov and
Mikhail Lomonosov Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (; , ; – ) was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries were the atmosphere of Venus and the law of conservation of ...
.


Post-1747 Charter

The academy's charter in 1747 brought some changed to the academy's organization which stood until the end of the century. Among some of the changes were Russian and Latin as the official languages, a push to translate literature into Russian, and restrictive working hours for faculty. The charter also emphasized the hope for Russian Academy graduates to replace all the foreign scholars in time. Most of the secondary school graduates went into civil service instead of continue to the university. The university part of the academy gradually deteriorated and eventually died by 1767. During Catherine the Great's rule, she enacted reforms to improve the academy for scholars. She created a commission of academy faculty to lead the academy instead of bureaucratic rule. Also, in the second half of the 18th century, Russian scholars grew in number among the faculty of the academy. To heal the growing internal German versus Russian conflict of the faculty, Catherine the Great convinced
Euler Leonhard Euler ( ; ; ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss polymath who was active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician, geographer, and engineer. He founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made influential ...
to return to St Petersburg and head the academy in 1766, where he stayed until he died in 1783. Catherine the Great's son Paul I's short reign marked a decline for the academy as he cut funding for academic institutions and prohibited Russians from attending Western influenced institutions. In 1803, Alexander I reverted to reforms from Catherine the Great's era and gave the academy self-administration power in a new charter. The new charter came with a name change to the Imperial Academy of Sciences.


Scholars and research

Following Leibniz's instructions, Peter reached out to the German philosopher Christian Wolff, a correspondent of Leibniz, in the early 1720s and unsuccessfully offered him the Vice-Presidency of the academy. While Wolff declined a position in the academy, he did invite western scholars to work at the academy to improve higher education within the Russian Empire as outlined in Leibniz's letters. Foreign scholars invited to work at the academy included the mathematicians
Leonhard Euler Leonhard Euler ( ; ; ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss polymath who was active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician, geographer, and engineer. He founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made influential ...
(1707–1783),
Anders Johan Lexell Anders Johan Lexell (24 December 1740 – ) was a Finnish-Swedish astronomer, mathematician, and physicist who spent most of his life in Imperial Russia, where he was known as Andrei Ivanovich Leksel (Андрей Иванович Лексе ...
, Christian Goldbach, Georg Bernhard Bilfinger, Nicholas Bernoulli (1695–1726) and
Daniel Bernoulli Daniel Bernoulli ( ; ; – 27 March 1782) was a Swiss people, Swiss-France, French mathematician and physicist and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family from Basel. He is particularly remembered for his applicati ...
(1700–1782), botanist Johann Georg Gmelin, embryologists
Caspar Friedrich Wolff Caspar Friedrich Wolff (18 January 1733 – 22 February 1794) was a German physiologist and embryologist who is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modern embryology. Life Wolff was born in Berlin, Brandenburg. In 1759 he graduated as an ...
,
astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
and
geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, physicist Georg Wolfgang Kraft,
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
Gerhard Friedrich Müller Gerhard Friedrich Müller (; 29 October 1705 – ) was a Russian–German historian and pioneer ethnologist. Early life Müller was born in Herford and educated at Leipzig. In 1725, he was invited to St. Petersburg to co-found the Imperial ...
and English
Astronomer Royal Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the astronomer royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the astronomer royal for Scotland dating from 1834. The Astro ...
Nevil Maskelyne Nevil Maskelyne (; 6 October 1732 – 9 February 1811) was the fifth British Astronomer Royal. He held the office from 1765 to 1811. He was the first person to scientifically measure the mass of the planet Earth. He created '' The Nautical Al ...
(1732–1811). Expeditions to explore remote parts of the country had Academy scientists as their leaders or most active participants. These included
Vitus Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering ( , , ; baptised 5 August 1681 – 19 December 1741),All dates are here given in the Julian calendar, which was in use throughout Russia at the time. also known as Ivan Ivanovich Bering (), was a Danish-born Russia ...
's Second
Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...
Expedition of 1733–1743, expeditions to observe the 1769 transit of Venus from eight locations in
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
, and the expeditions of
Peter Simon Pallas Peter Simon Pallas Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (22 September 1741 – 8 September 1811) was a Prussia, Prussian zoologist, botanist, Ethnography, ethnographer, Exploration, explorer, Geography, geographer, Geology, geologist, Natura ...
(1741–1811) to
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
. The expeditions led to the creation of an atlas of Russia and to research in astronomy, geography, and fauna and flora. From 1750 to 1777, the academy published 20 volumes of their academic journal called ''Novi Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae''. The majority of Russian scientific research in the 18th century was done by members of the academy.


Academy name changes

Originally called ''The Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences'' (), the organization went under various names over the years, becoming ''The Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts'' (Императорская академия наук и художеств; 1747–1803), ''The Imperial Academy of Sciences'' (Императорская академия наук; 1803–1836), and finally, ''The Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences'' (Императорская Санкт-Петербургская академия Наук, from 1836 and until the end of the
empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
in 1917). A separate organization, called the Russian Academy (), was created in 1783 to work on the study of the
Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...
. Presided over by Princess Yekaterina Dashkova (who at the same time was the Director of the Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences, i.e., the country's "main" academy), the Russian Academy was engaged in compiling the six-volume ''Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language'' (1789–1794). The Russian Academy was merged into the Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1841.


In the Soviet Union

Shortly after the
October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...
, in December 1917, Sergey Fedorovich Oldenburg, a leading ethnographer and political activist in the Kadet party, met with
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
to discuss the future of the academy. They agreed that the expertise of the academy would be applied to addressing questions of state construction, while in return the Soviet government would give the academy financial and political support. The most important activities of the academy in the 1920s included an investigation of the large Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, of the minerals in the
Kola Peninsula The Kola Peninsula (; ) is a peninsula in the extreme northwest of Russia, and one of the largest peninsulas of Europe. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely inside the Arctic Circle and is border ...
, and participation in the GOELRO plan targeted electrification of the whole country. In 1925 the
Soviet government The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the executive and administrative organ of the highest body of state authority, the All-Union Supreme Soviet. It was formed on 30 December 1922 and abolished on 26 December 199 ...
recognized the Russian Academy of Sciences as the "highest all-Union scientific institution" and renamed it the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. In 1934, the academy headquarters moved from
Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
to the capital, Moscow. The Stalin years were marked by a rapid
industrialisation Industrialisation ( UK) or industrialization ( US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive reorganisation of an economy for th ...
of the Soviet Union for which a great deal of research, mainly in the technical fields, was done. However, on the other hand, in these very times, many scientists underwent repressions for ideological reasons. In the years of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the Soviet Academy of Sciences made a big contribution to a development of modern weapons –
tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...
s (new series of
T-34 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank from World War II. When introduced, its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was more powerful than many of its contemporaries, and its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against Anti-tank warfare, ...
),
airplane An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a vari ...
s,
degaussing Degaussing, or deperming, is the process of decreasing or eliminating a remnant magnetic field. It is named after the gauss, a unit of magnetism, which in turn was named after Carl Friedrich Gauss. Due to magnetic hysteresis, it is generally not ...
the ships (for protection against the
naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Similar to anti-personnel mine, anti-personnel and other land mines, and unlike purpose launched naval depth charges, they are ...
s) etc. – and therefore to victory of the USSR over
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
. During and after the war, the academy was involved in the
Soviet atomic bomb project The Soviet atomic bomb project was authorized by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union to develop nuclear weapons during and after World War II. Russian physicist Georgy Flyorov suspected that the Allied powers were secretly developing a " superwea ...
; due to its success and other achievements in military techniques, the USSR became one of the
superpower Superpower describes a sovereign state or supranational union that holds a dominant position characterized by the ability to Sphere of influence, exert influence and Power projection, project power on a global scale. This is done through the comb ...
s in the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
era. At the end of the 1940s, the academy consisted of eight divisions (Physico-Mathematical Science, Chemical Sciences, Geological-Geographical Sciences, Biological Science, Technical Science, History and Philosophy, Economics and Law, Literature and Languages); three committees (one for coordinating the scientific work of the Academies of the Republics, one for scientific and technical propaganda, and one for editorial and publications), two commissions (for publishing popular scientific literature, and for museums and archives), a laboratory for scientific photography and cinematography and Academy of Science Press departments external to the divisions. The Academy of Sciences of the USSR helped to establish national Academies of Sciences in all Soviet republics (with the exception of the
Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...
), in many cases delegating prominent scientists to live and work in other republics. In the case of Ukraine, its academy was formed by the local Ukrainian scientists and prior to occupation of the
Ukrainian People's Republic The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) was a short-lived state in Eastern Europe. Prior to its proclamation, the Central Council of Ukraine was elected in March 1917 Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, as a result of the February Revolution, ...
by
Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
s. These academies were: Among the most important achievements of the academy of the second half of the 20th century, there is, first of all, the
Soviet space program The Soviet space program () was the state space program of the Soviet Union, active from 1951 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Contrary to its competitors (NASA in the United States, the European Space Agency in Western Euro ...
. In 1957 the first satellite was launched, in 1961 Yury Gagarin became the first person in space, and in 1971 the first space station Salyut 1 began its operation. Discoveries were also made in the nuclear branch and in other fields of physics. Furthermore, the academy participated in opening new universities or new study programs in the already existed universities, whose best absolvents started their career at the research institutes of the academy.


Post-Soviet period

After the
collapse of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...
, by decree of the President of Russia of December 2, 1991, the academy again became the ''Russian Academy of Sciences'', inheriting all facilities of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the territory of the Russian Federation. The crisis of the 1990s in the post-Soviet Russia and a consequent drastic reduction of the state support for science have forced many scientists to leave Russia for Europe, Israel or the United States. Some excellent university graduates who could have become promising researchers also switched to other activities, predominately in commerce. The Russian Academy practically lost a generation of people born from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s; this age category is now underrepresented in all research institutes. In the 2000s, the situation in the Russian science and technology has improved, the government announced a modernization campaign. Nevertheless, according to the Russian Academy of Sciences, total R&D spending in 2013 still hovered about 40% below the pre-crisis 1990 levels. Furthermore, a lack of competition, decayed infrastructure and continuing, though slightly reduced, brain drain play their part.


Restructured academy 2013 and later

On June 28, 2013, the Russian Government announced a draft law that would dissolve the RAS while creating a new "public-governmental" organization with the same name. The RAS would be fused with two other Russian national academies— and Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, with all members of all academies acquiring equal status as academicians. The law also created a new government agency: (FASO). FASO would take control of all buildings and other property of the academy. In addition, all RAS academic institutes were removed from academy control. Instead, the new government agency FASO was empowered to "evaluate", relying on its own criteria, the efficiency of research institutes and rearrange ineffective ones. The draft law, which, in its initial form, would have fundamentally changed the system of science organization in Russia, provoked conflicts and protests within academic circles. A large group of the RAS members signalized their intention not to join the new academy if the reform is run as planned in the draft. Some leading scientists (including
Pierre Deligne Pierre René, Viscount Deligne (; born 3 October 1944) is a Belgian mathematician. He is best known for work on the Weil conjectures, leading to a complete proof in 1973. He is the winner of the 2013 Abel Prize, 2008 Wolf Prize, 1988 Crafoor ...
,
Michael Atiyah Sir Michael Francis Atiyah (; 22 April 1929 – 11 January 2019) was a British-Lebanese mathematician specialising in geometry. His contributions include the Atiyah–Singer index theorem and co-founding topological K-theory. He was awarded the ...
, Mumford, and others) wrote open letters which referred to the planned reform of the RAS as "shocking" and even "criminal". In this situation, the draft was softened in some details—e.g., there remained no words about "dissolution" in the text—and approved on September 27, 2013. In 2014, Putin announced more changes to science funding that reduced RAS power while increasing that of the government. In 2017, the election of the RAS president was brought under government control. At the General Meeting of the RAS in March 2018, the RAS president (that time) Alexander Sergeev said that the academy enters now the post-reform period. In May 2018, the FASO was incorporated into Russia's new Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The latter was created by splitting the Ministry of Education and Science. Mikhail Kotyukov, who had been head of FASO since its creation, was named head of the new Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In June 2023, the RAS opened the Modern Ideology of China Research Laboratory within its Institute of China and Contemporary Asia to study
Xi Jinping Thought Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, commonly abbreviated outside China as Xi Jinping Thought, is a political doctrine created during General Secretary Xi Jinping's leadership of the Chinese Communist ...
.


Presidents


Imperial Russia

The following persons occupied the position of the academy's President (or, sometimes, Director): * Laurentius Blumentrost, 1725–1733 * Hermann Karl von Keyserling 1733–1734 * Johann Albrecht Korf, 1734–1740 * , 1740–1741 * (Post vacant, April 1741 – October 1746) * Count Kirill Razumovsky, 1746–1766 (nominally, till 1798) * Count Vladimir Orlov, 1766–1774 (Director) * , 1771–1773 (Occasional Substitute of Orlov ) * , 1775–1782 (Director) * Princess Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova, 1783–1796 (Director; sent into ''de facto'' retirement in 1794. Simultaneously served as the President of the Russian Academy) * , 1794–1796 (acting Director), 1796–1798 (Director). Simultaneously served as the President of the Russian Academy * Ludwig Heinrich von Nicolay, 1798–1803 * Nikolay Novosiltsev, 1803–1810 * (Post vacant, April 1810 – Jan 1818) * Count Sergey Uvarov, 1818–1855 * Dmitry Bludov, 1855–1864 * Fyodor Litke, 1864–1882 * Count Dmitry Tolstoy, 1882–1889 * Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia, 1889–1915 * (Post vacant, June 1915 – May 1917)


Soviet Russia

* Alexander Karpinsky, 1917–1936 * Vladimir Komarov, 1936–1945 * Sergey Vavilov, 1945–1951 * Alexander Nesmeyanov, 1951–1961 * Mstislav Keldysh, 1961–1975 * Anatoly Alexandrov, 1975–1986 * Gury Marchuk, 1986–1991


Russian Federation

* Yury Osipov, 1991–2013 * Vladimir Fortov, 2013–2017 * Valery Kozlov, 2017 (acting) * Alexander Sergeev, 2017–2022 * Gennady Krasnikov, since Sept 2022 The last presidential elections in the academy (and also elections of the presidium) were organized on September 25–28, 2017. Initially the event was planned for March 2017, but unexpectedly all candidates retracted their nominations, and the elections were postponed.


Achievements


Social activities of the academy and its members

Scientists of the academy were repeatedly elected deputies of various levels. In the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1974, "among the deputies of the Council of the Union, there were 22 scientists from the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the academies of sciences of the Union republics, and branch academies."Report of the mandate committee
of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the ninth convocation.
In 1989,
Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet Physics, physicist and a List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which he was awarded in 1975 for emphasizing human rights around the world. Alt ...
became a People's Deputy of the USSR. Many scientists have worked in the State Duma of the Russian Federation, among the most famous are the physicist Zhores Alferov (deputy from the
Communist Party of the Russian Federation The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF; ) is a communist political party in Russia that officially adheres to Marxist–Leninist philosophy. It is the second-largest political party in Russia after United Russia. The youth o ...
until his death on March 1, 2019, initiator of the laws "On Education for All" and "On Support for Innovation in Russia"), physician Gennady Onishchenko (from
United Russia The All-Russian Political Party United Russia (, ) is the Ruling party, ruling List of political parties in Russia, political party of Russia. As the largest party in the Russian Federation, it holds 325 (or 72.22%) of the 450 seats in the St ...
, member of the committee on education and science), and polar explorer
Artur Chilingarov Artur Nikolaevich Chilingarov (; 25 September 1939 – 1 June 2024) was an Armenian-Russian polar explorer, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1986 and the title of ...
(United Russia).


Nobel Prize laureates affiliated with the Academy

* Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, medicine, 1904 *
Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov Ilya, Iliya, Ilia, Ilja, Ilija, or Illia ( , or ; ; ) is the East Slavic form of the male Hebrew name Eliyahu (Eliahu), meaning "My God is Yahu/ Jah." It comes from the Byzantine Greek pronunciation of the vocative (Ilía) of the Greek Eli ...
, medicine, 1908 * Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin, literature, 1933 * Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, chemistry, 1956 * Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm, physics, 1958 * Ilya Mikhailovich Frank, physics, 1958 * Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, physics, 1958 * Lev Davidovich Landau, physics, 1962 * Nikolay Gennadiyevich Basov, physics, 1964 * Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov, physics, 1964 * Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, literature, 1965 * Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, literature, 1970 * Leonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovich, economics, 1975 * Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, peace, 1975 * Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, physics, 1978 * Zhores Ivanovich Alferov, physics, 2000 * Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, physics, 2003 * Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg, physics, 2003 * Andre Geim, physics, 2010


See also

* Academy of Sciences Glacier * Academy of Sciences Range * Akademgorodok in Krasnoyarsk * Akademgorodok in Novosibirsk * Akademgorodok in Tomsk * Lev Davidovich Belkind has released a number of books on the unique contribution of Russian scientists and engineers to the technological progress. *
Neuro-linguistic programming Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy that first appeared in Richard Bandler and John Grinder's book ''The Structure of Magic I'' (1975). NLP ...
*
Constitutional economics Constitutional economics is a research program in economics and constitutionalism that has been described as explaining the choice "of alternative sets of legal-institutional-constitutional rules that constrain the choices and activities of econom ...
* Energy Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences * Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team * Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences * List of Russian explorers * List of Russian inventors * List of Russian scientists * MARS-500 * Nauka, RAS publishing division * Open access in Russia * Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory * Timeline of Russian inventions and technology records *
VINITI Database RAS VINITI Database RAS is a database provided by the All-Russian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (VINITI). The database is devoted to scientific publications. It is described as a large abstracting database. In general, it is index ...
* Named prizes and medals of the Russian Academy of Sciences * Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences * Aleksandr and Boris Arbuzov House-Museum


References


Sources

*


External links


Official website

Satellite photo of the RAS Old Building
{{coord, 55, 42, 39, N, 37, 34, 41, E, region:RU-MOW_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title 1724 establishments in the Russian Empire Scientific organizations established in 1724 Members of the International Council for Science Members of the International Science Council People's Commissariat for Education