Metadata: Chancellery of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Holding institution (official language):
- Санкт-Петербургский филиал архива Российской академии наук
- Postal address:
- 199034, Russia, St. Petersburg, Universitetskaia naberezhnaia, d. 1
- Phone number:
- (812) 323-08-21
- Web address:
- http://isaran.ru
- Email:
- archive@spbrc.nw.ru
- Reference number:
- F. 2
- Title:
- Chancellery of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences
- Title (official language):
- Канцелярия Президиума Академии наук СССР
- Creator/accumulator:
- Chancellery of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences
- Date(s):
- 1804/1959
- Language:
- Russian
- French
- German
- English
- Polish
- Dutch; Flemish
- Danish
- Spanish; Castilian
- Italian
- Extent:
- 4,123 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- Housed in the fonds are documents on the research-organisational and scientific activities of the Academy of Sciences, including recordkeeping materials of the Chancellery, Conference, and Secretariat of the Academy of Sciences (1805-1936); registers of diplomas certifying membership in the Academy of Sciences (1827-1927); documents on the award of prizes (1739-1919); manuscripts of research works and proposals submitted by various persons to the Academy of Sciences (1853-1903); correspondence with various institutions and individuals (1834-1942); documents on the election of academicians (1927-59); research and organisational materials of various institutions (1932-37); etc. Pertaining to Jewish history and culture are particular files and file fragments, including a memorandum of the Ministry of Education titled “On His Majesty’s permission to Jews to provide capital for the establishment of an Academy of Sciences prize for the best work on Jewish literature, and consent to invite right-thinking Jews to make voluntary contributions toward this capital” (1859); Academy of Sciences correspondence with the Ministry of Education and correspondence of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich with Academy of Sciences President D. N. Bludov about sending the books A Description of the Land of Judea in the Time of Jesus Christ, The Jewish War, etc., to the Russian consulate in Jerusalem (1859); a review by Prof. I. E. Troitskii of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy of N. D. Mikulin’s Elementary Foundations of the Hebrew Language, a grammar, textbook, and dictionary of Hebrew (1893); Academy of Sciences correspondence with Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and others on sending several scholars to Jerusalem to study ancient manuscripts on the history of Palestine discovered in the Patriarchal Library and the Monastery of the Cross of Jerusalem (1859); a file on the award of a commendation to the photographer J. Raoul for the album he had submitted of photographs containing views of historical monuments of Sinai (1883); materials of the Imperial Russian Orthodox Palestine Society (IPPO) and the Russian Palestine Society (RPO), and in particular, a memorandum by N. Ia. Marr, V. N. Beneshevich, and B. A. Turaev on the study of Palestine (1911); minutes from sessions of the Imperial Russian Orthodox Palestine Society, the Commission on the Study of Palestine, the Palestine Committee (from 1917 on), and the Russian Palestine Society (from 1918 on); a report by E. P. Kovalevskii titled “Russian research interests in Palestine and adjacent areas” (1915); correspondence of Russian Palestine Society members regarding adoption of its new charter (1918); a letter from Academician F. I. Uspenskii to the Main Administration of Research Institutions (Glavnauka) of the People’s Commissariat of Education regarding the plight of the Russian Palestine Society (1927); etc.
- Archival history:
- The Academy’s archive was established by decree of Emperor Peter I in 1728 to house documents of the Conference (supreme assembly) of the Academy of Sciences. At the same time, Academy of Sciences President L. L. Bliumentrost appointed Gerhard Friedrich Müller, a student of the Academy gymnasium (subsequently an academician, and the first historiographer to the Russian Empire), to organise the files of the Conference of the Academy of Sciences. During the 18th-20th c., separate archives of other subdivisions of the Academy of Sciences existed as well: the archives of the Chancellery of the Academy of Sciences (18th c.) and the Committee of the Board of the Academy of Sciences (the chancellery’s institutional successor; documents date from 1803); and archives of departments. In 1922, all Academy archives were merged into a single Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, renamed in 1930 the Archive of the USSR Academy of Sciences (and in 1991, once again the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences). In 1936, a Moscow branch of the archive was created in connection with the Academy’s relocation to that city. In 1963, the Archive of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad was reorganised as the Leningrad Branch of the Archive of the USSR Academy of Sciences, while the Archival Directorate was transferred to Moscow. In 1991, the Leningrad branch was renamed the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPF ARAN). The archive houses over 1,600 fonds containing approximately one million storage units.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Chancellery of the Conference of the Academy of Sciences, founded in 1804, was the institutional successor to the Chancellery of the Academy of Sciences (1725-66) and Commission of the Academy of Sciences (1766-1803); the executive body of the Academy of Sciences, it carried out administrative, financial, and research-organisational functions. It subsequently underwent several name changes: in 1922, it was renamed the Administrative Department of the Conference of the USSR Academy of Sciences; in 1927, the Secretariat of the USSR Academy of Sciences; in 1932, the Research and Organizational Sector of the USSR Academy of Sciences; in 1933, the Secretariat of the USSR Academy of Sciences; in 1939, the Secretariat of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences; and in 1949, the Chancellery of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The conference, or “learned council” of academicians (subsequently the General Assembly and Departmental Assembly), has been the Academy of Sciences’ supreme research entity since its foundation.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Beneshevich, V N
- Bludov, D N
- Kovalevskii, E P
- Marr, N. Ia.
- Mikulin, N D
- Nikolaevich, Konstantin
- Raoul, J
- Troitskii, I E
- Turaev, B A
- Uspenskii, F I
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds includes nineteen inventories (op. 1, in 2 vols.; op. 5, in 4 parts) systematised chronologically, by structure, and alphabetically.
- Finding aids:
- Inventories are available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
