Metadata: Institute of the History of Science and Technology 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. 154
- Title:
- Institute of the History of Science and Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences
- Title (official language):
- Институт истории науки и техники Академии наук СССР
- Creator/accumulator:
- Institute of the History of Science and Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences
- Date(s):
- 1916/1935
- Language:
- Russian
- German
- French
- English
- Extent:
- 283 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- Housed in the fonds are (op. 1) organisational materials of the Commission on the History of Knowledge (KIZ) and the Institute of the History of Science and Technology (1926-36), including a curriculum vitae of M. Blok, a well-known chemist, historian, popular science writer, and culturologist, with a list of his research works; and also (op. 2) manuscripts of research works by staff members of the institute, and reviews of publications on the history of natural science and technology (1930s), and in particular, a work by A. S. Kodkin titled “Euclid in Hebrew Literature,” which lists all the translations of Euclid’s works into Hebrew, including those performed by Moses ibn Tibbon in 1270, Ya’aqov ben Makhir in 1272, etc. There are also manuscripts of works by S. Ia. Lur’e: “On the Question of the Egyptian Influence on Greek Geometry”; “The Latest Literature on the History of Ancient Mathematics”; etc. (1930s).
- 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 Russian Academy of Sciences established the Commission for the Study of the History of Science, Philosophy, and Technology, chaired by V. I. Vernadskii, in 1921; it was subsequently renamed the Commission on the History of Knowledge (KIZ). In 1930, N. I. Bukharin became chair of the commission. In February 1932, the Institute of the History of Science and Technology was established on the basis of the KIZ, and N. I. Bukharin was appointed its first director. In 1935-37, V. V. Osinskii-Obolenskii held the post of director of the institute. In February 1938, upon being declared “the center of an anti-Soviet conspiracy,” the institute was liquidated. In November 1944, the Institute of the History of Natural Science, continuing the activities of the previously abolished Institute of the History of Science and Technology, was established within the Department of History and Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In September 1953, after the History of Technology commission became part of the institute, the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences adopted a resolution (no. 541) renaming it the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology. In 1991, Academician S. I. Vavilov’s name was added to the title. It is currently a research institution under the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences; its full title is the Federal State Budgetary Research Institution “The S. I. Vavilov Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences” (IIET RAS).
- Access points: locations:
- Russia
- Access points: persons/families:
- ben Makhir, Ya’aqov
- Blok, M
- Euclid
- ibn Tibbon, Moses
- Kodkin, A S
- Lur’e, S Ia
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds includes two inventories: op. 1 is systematised chronologically, and op. 2 has no apparent systematisation.
- Finding aids:
- Inventories are available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary