The Sergey Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology RAS or Institute for the History of Science and Technology named after S. I. Vavilov RAS[1] (IHIT or IIET RAS) is the only research institute in Russia for the study of the history of science and technology. It managed by the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.[2]
History
In 1921, the Russian Academy of Sciences established the "Commission for the Study of the History, Philosophy and Technology" under the chairmanship of Vladimir Vernadsky (later renamed the Commission on the History of Knowledge).[3]
From 1930, the commission was chaired by N. I. Bukharin.
Institute of the History of Science and Technology
On February 28, 1932, the Institute of the History of Science and Technology was established on the basis of the CHK, with Bukharin appointed as its first director.[4] Later, the institution was headed by A. A. Maximov, B. G. Kuznetsov, and V. V. Osinsky-Obolensky (1935–1937). The institute was dissolved on February 5, 1938, after being declared a "center of anti-Soviet conspiracy".[5]
Modern Institute
On November 22, 1944, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR issued a decree on the establishment of the Institute for the History of Science. In February 1945, the institute began operating as part of the Department of History and Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
On September 5, 1953, after incorporating the Commission on the History of Technology, it was renamed the Institute for the History of Science and Technology (Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences No. 541)[5], and a Leningrad branch was established.
In the 1970s, the Leningrad branch of IHST faced the threat of closure and transfer to the Institute of Social Sciences under the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU. Thanks to the intervention of scientists (including V. D. Esakov, head of the Sector on the History of Soviet Culture at the Institute of the History of the USSR), the branch was preserved.[6]
Since 2010, the Exhibition Center of the RAS has been a branch. The center organizes exhibitions of completed works by RAS institutions and the results of the most interesting fundamental research at Russian and international exhibitions in Russia, as well as exhibitions of works by the Russian Academy of Sciences at foreign exhibitions organized by Russian ministries and agencies, foreign companies, and organizations.
IHST holds annual conferences on the history of science and technology in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The institute hosts several regular Moscow-wide seminars—on the history of astronomy, the history of physics and mechanics, and the history of the Soviet atomic project.
In 2004, the Academic Council and the Council of Young Scientists of IHST RAS established the "Alexey Karimov Memorial Prize", awarded to young scientists of the institute for significant contributions to the study of the history of science and technology.
Structure
Department of the History of Technology and Technical Sciences
Department of the History of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
Center for the History of the Organization of Science and Science Studies (CHONS)
Ecological Center
Center for the History of Socio-Cultural Problems of Science and Technology
Department of Historiography and Source Studies of the History of Science and Technology
Department of Methodological and Social Problems of the Development of Science
Department of the History of Chemical and Biological Sciences
History of Science: Sources, Monuments, Heritage Conferences
International Scientific Conference "Engineering Technologies and Informatics"
International Scientific-Practical Conference "History of Science and Technology. Museum Studies"
All-Russian Scientific-Practical Conference with International Participation "Sustainable Development of Mountain Territories: History and Prerequisites for Optimizing Nature Management".
Literature
Loren R. Graham (1993) Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Short History. P. 140.
Naomi Oreskes, John Krige (2014) Science and Technology in the Global Cold War. P. 412.
The Historical-Scientific Community in Leningrad — St. Petersburg in 1950–2010: On the 60th Anniversary of the St. Petersburg Branch of the S. I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology, RAS. St. Petersburg: Nestor-History, 2013. — 448 pp., ill.
^Commission on the History of Knowledge. 1921–1932. From the history of organizing historical-scientific research at the Academy of Sciences: Collection of documents based on materials from the St. Petersburg Branch of the S. I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology, RAS and the St. Petersburg Branch of the RAS Archive; Compiled by V. M. Orel, G. I. Smagina. — St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2003. — 765 pp., ill.; ISBN 5-02-024934-3.
