Science and Siberia: from Peter the Great to the 21st Century

Molodin Vyacheslav and Lamin Vladimir

The idea of Peter the Great on founding the Russian Academy of Sciences is often presented as some kind of inspiration that dawned upon the Emperor at the ebb of his life. Actually this is far from the real picture. The process of realization of this idea was, for Peter the Great, long and rather painful, though, at the same time, deeply thought out. It may be referred to (without neglecting the fact that it was the last practical deed of national importance) as the crown of the total reforming of the state of Russia conducted by Peter.

Peter the Great, like who a great number of native statesmen wanted to be then and want to be now, well realized that servile imitation of the West means for the country being doomed to perpetual dependence. “We should not eternally reap the fruits of other people’s knowledge, experience, theory, and technology,” he remarked in 1718, “to live off other people’s wit is to be like a fledgling looking into its parent’s mouth…” Correspondence of many years standing with G.V. Leibnitz helped Peter see to what extent the nation’s progress depended on the standard of national scientific thought.

In 2004, the Russian Academy of Sciences has celebrated its 280th anniversary, and its Western-Siberian branch – its 60th anniversary. On occasion of these two celebrations the authors made a review of the history of Russian science and considered whether it complied with the high destination anticipated for it three centuries ago by its founder.

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