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Volume 44, Nº 2 (2023)
- Ano: 2023
- Artigos: 16
- URL: https://ruspoj.com/0205-9606/issue/view/12400
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Towards the 300th Anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The Role of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Formulation of the USSR Science and Technology Policy in the 1920s – 1940s
Resumo
In the first quarter of the 20th century no common scientific policy existed neither in the Russian Empire nor in the Soviet Union although there was a need for such a policy in view of the want of addressing the tasks of industrialization and overcoming the country’s technology gap. The article shows how the young Soviet state formulated its science and technology policy priorities and how it succeeded in creating one the most effective science organization systems in the world. We analyze the measures aimed at introducing planned scientific research, creating scientific institutes, establishing a network of scientific centers in the country’s remote regions, and organizing postgraduate education to train the cadre of scientists. Taken together, these measures resulted in the emergence of a unique scientific complex whose formation proceeded differently than that in the advanced countries of the West. The intensified development of Soviet science occurred at the same time as global changes in the role of fundamental science in the progression of modern civilization. By the late 1940s, global science became a driver in the development of modern society and Soviet science in many aspects found itself at the forefront of this process.
Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki. 2023;44(2):237-253
237-253
From the History of Technology
The History of the Use of Acoustics in Mechanical Engineering
Resumo
The article reviews the history of acoustics and the history of the use of its methods and achievements in mechanical engineering. Acoustic monitoring methods justly hold a significant place among the methods for studying physical objects and industrial processes. These methods are mainly intended for detecting various defects (ultrasound control), monitoring parameters of industrial processes, and determining physical and mechanical properties of products as well as their geometric characteristics. The distinctive feature of the acoustic methods, which helped their spread, is the possibility for non-destructive testing, i. e. causing no damage to the object under study. Another, no less important merit of these methods is a possibility for testing without disrupting industrial processes.
Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki. 2023;44(2):254-268
254-268
Lessons from History
Pages from the History of the Zlatoust Prince-Michael Plant and the Samples of Its Products in the Collection of the Mining Museum of St. Petersburg Mining University
Resumo
The paper considers the history of the Zlatoust Prince-Michael Plant (“Knyaze-Mikhailovskaya fabrika”), the first steel-gun enterprise in Russia, where P. M. Obukhov, a great Russian metallurgist and graduate of Mining University, created the Russian gun steel, and reviews and analyzes the Plant’s products deposited at the Mining Museum of St. Petersburg Mining University. Among other things, the article analyzes the role of Obukhov and N. V. Vorontsov, another renowned Mining University graduate who founded the gun-steel plant in Perm, in the creation of this plant. Particular attention is given to the Prince-Michael Plant’s role as a laboratory for making the special Obukhov steel used for manufacturing the first Russian steel cannon and gun barrels for Berdan rifles. The history of the collaboration between the Mining Museum and the Zlatoust Plant, under the auspices of which the Prince-Michael Plant was created in 1859, began in 1819 when, by order of the Mining Department, the best samples of the Plant’s products began to be regularly sent to the Museum. The article reviews the Mining Museum exhibits made from the Obukhov steel: gun barrels and samples of gun steel as well as the tools for making bladed weapons. These items were intended for the 14th All-Russia Industrial Exhibition held in St. Petersburg in 1870, Moscow Polytechnic Exhibition held in 1872, and 1873 Vienna Worldʼs Fair. An important part of this work is the analysis of historical context in which the making and development of weapon manufacturing at the Prince-Michael Plant occurred.
Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki. 2023;44(2):269-287
269-287
Sultan Selim II’s Volga – Don Canal in Russian and Turkish Historiography
Resumo
In Russian and Turkish historiography, the themes of construction by Turkish troops of a canal between the Volga and Don tributaries, rivers Kamyshinka and Ilovlya, during the 1569 Astrakhan campaign became widespread. An archaeological monument known as “Selimov Val”, located in the territory of the Kamyshinsky Raion of the Volgograd Oblast, is regarded by some Russian and Turkish historians as remnants of this canal. The article analyzes the relevant historiography. It is shown that there were three viewpoints on this matter in the 17th – 20th century historiography: (1) Turkish (İbrahim Peçevi, Mustafa Âlî, Evliya Çelebi, and Ahmet Refik), Russian (A. I. Lyzlov, C. Cruys, G. S. Bayer, S. G. Gmelin, P. I. Rychkov, I. V. Rovinskii, and A. I. Rigelman), and European (P. Oderborn, M. Stryjkowski, and J. von Hammer) historians (16th to early 20th century) believed that the construction of the canal was the main goal, or one of the important goals, of the 1569 Astrakhan campaign and a significant part of the excavation works had been completed; these historians have not localized the canal construction site; (2) The representatives of the late 18th to early 20th century local-history historiography (N. Ya. Ozeretskovsky, A. N. Minkh, and K. G. Turovsky) believed that one of the canals between rivers Kamyshinka and Ilovlya was built by the Turks in 1569; (3) Russian (M. M. Shcherbatov, N. M. Karamzin, S. M. Solovyov, P. A. Sadikov, N. A. Smirnov, and A. L. Khoroshkevich) and Turkish (H. İnalcık and A. N. Kurat) historians (late 18th – early 21st century), drawing on the most reliable sources, argued that, in 1569, the works on the construction of the canal, if any, were carried out on a very small scale and 150 km to the south of Kamyshin rather than near it. Thus, the name of the archaeological heritage site, Selimov Val (“Selim’s earth bank”), is erroneous, as this site is what remains of a canal whose construction in 1697 was managed by J. Bröckell.
Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki. 2023;44(2):288-306
288-306
Materials for the Biographies of Scientists and Engineers
Vladimir Nikolaevich Kessenikh: Soviet Physicist between Center and Periphery
Resumo
The name of Vladimir Nikolaevich Kessenikh (1903–1970) is closely related to the history of radio physics research in Tomsk, one of the leading Soviet research and education centers. He was one of the foremost Soviet authorities in radio physics in the 1930s – 1950s. His making as a scientist occurred in the context of formation of Soviet science organization system. One of the last representatives of the prerevolutionary P. N. Lebedev’s scientific school of physics, Kessenikh witnessed in full measure the times of Stalinism. In this connection, we analyze the scientist’s professional strategy in the situation of the ideologized Party – state system and the nature of center – periphery relations within the Soviet physics community in the period under study, as exemplified by a scientific biography of Kessenikh who had been a professor at both Tomsk and Moscow Universities. The article also describes his key role in Tomsk’s radio engineering rising to the level of radio physics as a standalone, autonomous sphere of scientific research, from which a number of promising research fields have stemmed. It is emphasized that Kessenikh’s professional ambitions had a significant impact on the organizational and structural configuration of local research and education space. The trajectory of his moving within the center – periphery coordinate frame in Soviet physics, shown in the article, demonstrates the patterns in the history of science construction in the USSR as well as the traces of ideocratic metanarrative.
Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki. 2023;44(2):307-340
307-340
Sources for the History of Science and Technology
Records Concerned with the Russian Geographical Society in the Archive of the Third Section of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancellery
Resumo
The making of the Russian Geographical Society (RGO) occurred during the “grim seven years” of Nicholas I’s reign. The reaction to the “Springtime of the Peoples” affected all spheres of public life in the empire. Censorship was tightened and administrative and police oversight of education and science strengthened. This is the first publication of the complete texts of 9 previously unknown records (1848– 1851) from the file “On the Russian Geographical Society”, stored in the holding (“fond”) No. 109 of the Third Section of His Imperial Majesty’s own Chancellery in the State Archive of the Russian Federation. The correspondence between the Head of the Section, A. F. Orlov, and his deputy, L. V. Dubelt, bespeaks their close attention to the RGO’s life: struggle between the factions in the RGO, elections of its governing bodies, and political sentiments among the RGO membership. These documents enable tracing the history of interaction between the RGO, state authorities, and other scientific organizations. Record 1 is Dubelt’s note “On the Geographical Society” of May 1, 1848, addressed to Orlov; record 2 is a memorandum “On the election of vice president of the Russian Geographical Society” of March 15, 1850, by an unknown author; and record 3 is a copy of a perlustrated letter from Count S. G. Stroganov to his brother, A. G. Stroganov, in which he discussed the results of the RGO vicechairman election. Records 4 and 5 comprise the correspondence between Dubelt and Orlov that indicates that Stroganov’s letter became known to the Emperor. Outraged by Stroganov’s accusations, Dubelt prepared an explanatory note (record 6) for the Emperor. Dubelt’s harsher report to Nicholas I (records 7 and 9: draft report and its final version, respectively) was dated March of 1851. A short draft note with a list of persons involved in medal minting in St. Petersburg (record 8) was attached to the case. The publication is supplemented with an annotated list of names mentioned in these records.
Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki. 2023;44(2):341-352
341-352
Institutions and Museums
The History of Plant Physiology at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
Resumo
The article reviews the history of plant physiology research at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University from 1969 to this day and analyzes the role of the first and long-time head of the Department of Plant Physiology and Agrochemistry, M. M. Okuntsov, and his pupils, O. A. Ronzhina, G. N.Chupakhina, and A. S. Grebennikov, in the development of these studies. A scientific school led by Okuntsov and focused on non-photosynthetic light-dependent processes in plants had formed by the late 1970s. Presently, physiological research at the University is carried out at the Laboratory of Natural Antioxidants headed by Chupakhina. The Laboratory focuses on the studies of antioxidant system for the purposes of elucidating molecular mechanisms of plant resistance to unfavorable environmental conditions, evaluating plant product quality, and searching for producers of biologically active substances with high antioxidant activity and material for genetic engineering of plants with beneficial traits.
Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki. 2023;44(2):353-368
353-368
Book Reviews
369-374
375-381
382-385
386-388
Academic Life
389-396
397-405
406-408
409-411
In Memoriam
412-413