Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Categories / Science. Education/Archives
ARCHIVE OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, also known as the St. Petersburg Department (1 Universitetskaya Embankment) was the first scientific archive in Russia. It appeared in 1728 as a storage place for documents for the Conference (later the General Assembly) of Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences Conference Office. Until the late 19th century, the collected files’ arrangement was not organised as the materials were kept in different buildings of Academy of Sciences (5 Universitetskaya Embankment). Since 1907, the description of documents was regularised on the initiative of S.F. Oldenburg, the standing secretary of the Academy of Sciences. In 1912, the post of archive manager was established. After October 1917, the archive documents became a part of the United State Archive Foundation. In 1922, the archive became completely academic. In 1927, it was situated in a yard building of the former Southern Exchange warehouse, where the Mining Department archive was located earlier. In 1963, the archive direction moved to Moscow, though a department continued in Leningrad (from 1991 it was a filial agency). In the archive there are 748 foundations, 16 collections, and over 487,000 files (2003), including those of the history of the Academy of Sciences and Russian science, protocols of the General Assembly and departments of Academy of Sciences (1725-1932), foundations of academic institutes and institutions (Kunstkammer, the Botanic Garden, the major astronomic observatory, typography and publishing house, chemical laboratory, etc.), and academic museums (Oriental, Geological, Zoological, Mineralogical), commissions (archeographic, Byzantine, on the history of sciences), and materials of academic expeditions. M.V. Lomonosov's manuscripts and the foundation of the Russian Academy are also in the archive. Materials on the history of St. Petersburg compose an important part of the collection. Important information about the city (regarding drawing, carving, instruments, bindery, etc.) is kept in the foundations of academic chambers. One of the first plans of J.B. Le Blond (1717), some sights of St. Petersburg engraved by drawings of M.I. Makhaev, a manuscript of the mid-18th century monument, The Description of St. Petersburg, including The Shortest Synoptic Description of St. Petersburg by A.I. Bogdanov and The Descriptive Praise to St. Petersburg by G. Buzhinsky. The decrees of 1917-2001 reflect the development of a scientific institution net in Leningrad/St. Petersburg. The archive regularly publishes collections of reports on different subjects, as well as reviews of archive materials in its Acta.

References: Архив Академии наук СССР: Обозрение арх. материалов. Л., 1933-1986. Т. 1-8; Левшин Б. В. Первый научный архив России // Вестн. РАН. 1995. Т. 65, № 3. С. 242-250.

I. V. Tunkina. Bogdanov Andrey Ivanovich
Buzhinsky Gavriil Fedorovich
Le Blond Jean-Baptiste Alexander
Lomonosov Mikhail Vasilievich
Makhaev Mikhail Ivanovich
Oldenburg Sergey Fedorovich
Universitetskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 5
Universitetskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 1
Архив Академии наук СССР: Обозрение арх. материалов. Л., 1933-1986
Левшин Б. В. Первый научный архив России // Вестн. РАН, 1995 Kunstkammer
Russian Academy of Sciences