#258 Siberia's Academic Complex: The History of an Experiment by Evgenii Vodichev

Evgenii Vodichev is Senior Researcher at the Institute of History of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk and a former Short-term Scholar (March-April1993) at the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies.

This work is part of a larger research project conducted by the author concerning the regionalization of science in Russia and the former USSR, in particular, the expansion of science in the eastern regions of Russia. The author is grateful to the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies for its assistance and support, which greatly contributed to the publication of the present work. The Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

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©March 1995 Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Translated by Kathryn Moore and Peggy Mcinerny, edited by Peggy Mcinerny TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction 1

II. Background: Branches of the USSR Academy of Sciences 2 ill. Choosing a Concept for the Regional Development of Science 7 rv. Realization of the Concept: Initial Results 11 v. Prospects for Developing the Scientific Complex: Changes in Long-Term Strategy 14

VI. General and Particular Factors of Crisis in the Siberian Scientific Process 27

VII. In Place of a Conclusion 30 SIBERIA'S ACADEMIC COMPLEX: THE HISTORY OF AN EXPERIMENT

I. INTRODUCTION

he development of employs half of all Siberian Division Tacademic science is a personnel. favorite theme among The creation of a comprehensive those who study the growing scientific center in Siberia was an scientific capacity of eastern Russia. innovation not only in Russian, but To specialists and laymen alike, the world scientific organization. To a phrase "Siberia and science" means, significant degree, the Siberian above all, progress in the field of Division of the USSR Academy of fundamental research- Sciences liberated Soviet science traditionally considered the from the dead end to which its prerogative of the Academy of highly centralized system had led it Sciences. Academy science in Siberia by the end of the 1950s. That is revered due to the numerous system-limited to a few, prominent Russian scholars who single-discipline fields and located have worked in the region and the in the center of the country-offered national and international renown little potential for new avenues of their work there has achieved. The scientific research. The creation of Siberian Division of the Russian the Siberian complex fundamentally Academy of Sciences is now the changed the nature of the region's scientific capacity through most promin;nt regional division of quantitative growth in new scientific the Academy. About 11,000 institutions (which strengthened the researchers, or approximately 20 Academy's presence in the east) and percent, of all scientific workers qualitative changes in staff (nauchnye rabotniki) employed by the qualification levels, the structure of Academy work there. The division the institutions themselves, and their includes nine scientific centers principally new orientation. From its located in different cities of Siberia, very beginnings, the Siberian the largest which is the Novosibirsk Division prompted foreign scientific center, more commonly commentators to predict that the known as Akademgorodok. Without development of Siberia would be a doubt, there are important based on cheap energy and science? historical foundations for the Until now, positive evaluations widespread fame of have exclusively dominated analysis Akademgorodok-its very name of the creation and development of often evokes more associations than the Academy's Siberian Division. In that of Novosibirsk, the city to reality, despite numerous which it is adjacent. achievements, the situation was Akademgorodok consists of 33 more complicated. First, as one can scientific research organizations and imagine, far from all proposed plans 1. After the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991, the Russian state assumed responsibility for the administration of those institutions of the USSR Academy of Sciences located within the Russian Federation. The Russian acronym for the Siberian Division was accordingly changed from SO AN SSSR (Sibirskoe otdelenie Akademii nauk Soiuza Sovetskikh Sotsialistzcheskikh Respublik) to SO RAN (Sibirskoe otdelenia Rossiiskoi Akademii nauk). 2. Harrison Evans Salisbury, To Moscow and Beyond: A Reporter's Narrative (New York: 1960), 187. 1 for the Division were successfully as the basic parameters for realized in practice. Real life and evaluating the state of science in the concrete social, economic, and region. political processes led to a series of modifications that fundamentally II. BACKGROUND: BRANCHES changed the original conception for OF THE USSR ACADEMY OF expanding science in the east of the SCIENCES IN SIBERIA country. Second, one cannot from In order to evaluate the scale of today' s perspective view the changes that occurred in the experiment of the Siberian Division Academy of Sciences in connection as unconditionally successful-had with the establishment of the it been so, the Division would not be Siberian complex, it is necessary to facing the multitude of serious examine the state of Academy problems that have, since the institutions in the region before and beginning of the 1990s, cast doubt after its creation. Even before the on its future existence. In fact, second half of the 1950s, when the Akademgorodok veterans recall that Division was created, Siberia was far several of these problems were from a scientific "virgin soil," as is predicted by foreign scholars who sometimes claimed. The idea of visited the Novosibirsk center three enhancing the potential of the decades ago. Finally, the Academy of Sciences in the eastern opportunities the center provided territories of Russia had arisen in the for increasing the efficiency of the pre-war period, but its fulfillment scientific complex in the region as a was fraught with economic, h 1 d ff 1 financial, organizational, and even w 0 e were not use e ective Y. political difficulties} Nevertheless, This paper will analyze the fomlation and subsequent by the mid-1950s academic scientific development of the Academy's institutions were held together by a stable structure that united three Siberian complex, with a principal separate branches (jilialy) of the focus on Akademgorodok. The core SSR A d f Sc of the Siberian Division and at one U ca emy 0 iences. The western Siberian branch time the object of special pride in the was the largest of the three branches. Soviet Union, Akademgorodok now Created in 1944, it consisted of four presents the Russian government scientific research institutes by the with a major headache. This study mid-fifties (the Mineral-Geological, has three aims: to explain the Transport and Energy, imperatives of building a scientific Chemical-Metallurgical, and complex in Siberia that led to its Medical-Biological institutes) and rapid success in the late 1950s and employed over 220 researchers, 1960s; to show how and why the including more than 100 doctors and complex deviated from its initial candidates of the sciences.4 A strategy of development; and to scientific research base of the reveal the historical roots of its Academy that began operating in contemporary crisis. The study will Iakutia in 1947 was two years later use the structural development of reorganized into the Iakutsk Branch. Academy institutions of the By the mid-1950s, this branch Division and the dynamics of included two institutes (the Institute personnel policy in these institutions of Biology and Language and the 3. See E.T. Artemov and E.G. Vodichev, "The Expansion of Science in Siberia: The Political Aspect," in Actual Problems of the History of Soviet Siberia, 202-20. 4. Scientific Archives of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russian acronym, NASO), fund 1, inventory 1, file 1, file 905, 9. 2 Institute of literature and History), establishments. Even in two departments, and three Novosibirsk, where many more laboratories, and employed opportunities for relevant approximately 100 researchers, employment existed for scholars, almost half of whom had doctorates work in research institutions was or candidate of the sciences degrees.s nevertheless considered more Proceeding chronologically, the prestigious and over 80 percent of eastern Siberian branch of the all doctors and more than one-half Academy, uniting scholars from the of all candidates of the sciences in Irkutsk and Chitinsk oblasti as well the area were concentrated in such as the Buriat-Mongol Republic, was organizations. organized in the city of Irkutsk in Clearly then, Siberia possessed February 1949. By the mid-1950s, concentrated scientific potential. By this branch comprised the Institute the end of the 1950s, however, it of Geology, the Institute of Energy became obvious that the institutions and Chemistry, the Baikal of the Academy of Sciences in Limnological Station, plus two eastern Russia lacked the departments, and employed more fashionable "big science" image than 100 researchers, including enjoyed by the Academy as a whole almost 60 doctors and candidates of at that time and was considered the sciences.6 "peripheral." There were several Together with other scientific reasons for this state of affairs. First, research institutions (SRis) in the very few permanent Academy region, the eastern branches of the institutions existed in Siberia. As USSR Academy of Sciences were Table 1 shows (see next page), SRis staffed by the region's most highly based in Siberia accounted for only qualified researchers. Two-thirds of about 8 percent of all such Academy all doctors and one-third of all institutions. candidates of the sciences who The slightly higher figures for worked in scientific establishments eastern Siberia are explained by the in Siberia worked in these SRis. In presence of a number of Academy eastern Siberia, where research science stations in the region institutions dedicated to specific (geocriological, climatological, and disciplines were less well others) that studied aspects of represented, researchers with nature and climate unique to the doctorates and candidate of the region. Research institutes (as sciences degrees were concentrated opposed to research institutions), to an even greater degree in SRis. In which already defined the structure the Academy's Iakutiia branch, for of the Academy network-in 1956 example, which included institutes they accounted for more than 47 as well as other research facilities, all percent of all Academy research researchers in the region without establishments?-were represented exception who possessed doctorates equally in western and eastern and more than four-fifths of those Siberia, each region possessing four. who possessed candidate of the A second reason for the sciences degrees worked in the peripheral status of Siberian science branch's institutes and other in the mid-1950s was due to 5. Scientific Archives of the Iakutsk Branch of the Siberian Division of the RAS (Russian acronym, NAiaF), fund 1, inventory 1, file 338,69. 6. Scientific Archives of the Eastern Siberian Branch of the Siberian Division of the RAS (Russian acronym, NAVSF), fund 1, inventory 1, file 17, 8. 7. This figure was calculated on the basis of data from the Russian State Archive of the Economy (Russian acronym, RGAE) fund 1562, inventory 17, file 2871,10-11. 3 Table 1. Proportion of Scientific Research Institutions (SRis) of the USSR Academy of Sciences located in Siberia, in percents. 1956 1961 1966 SRis* Ris** SRis Ris SRis Ris Region Western Siberia 3.24 4.6 8.30 12.06 11.40 14.18 Eastern Siberia 4.86 4.6 6.64 8.51 10.36 13.22 Siberia as a Whole 8.11 9.2 14.94 20.57 21.76 28.10 *Scientific research institutions (nauchno-issledovatel'skie uchrezhdeniia) ** Scientific research institutes (nauchno-issledovatel'skie instituty)

Source: Russian State Archive of the Economy (Russian acronym, RGAE), fund 1562, inventory 17, file 2871, 10-11; ibid., inventory 337, file 2574,3&-46; ibid., inventory 44, file 2954, 143 and 147-53.

inefficient management and between local Academy institutes coordination of the research were extremely weak and such activities of Academy institutions in irregular communication Siberia. The lack of necessary diminished their opportunities to cooperation between the eastern cooperate in resolving fundamental divisions of the Academy and their questions of science, which, parent institutes in Moscow was incidentally, rarely figured in their obvious to both Siberian institute work. heads and the Presidium of the The considerable difference in USSR Academy of Sciences. Prior to the typical scientific specialization of 1955, the activities of various the Academy's Siberian branches branches of the Academy were and that of its central SRis coordinated by a special constituted a fourth reason for the administrative body, the Council of peripheral status of Siberian science. Branches, headed in its last years by This difference in specializations Academician I.P. Bardin, who was was largely due to the fact that the well acquainted with the details of Siberian branches were, from the developing science in peripheral very first, oriented towards the regions of the country. In 1955, needs of local industry, an however, the Council of Branches orientation that led to a significant was abolished, and responsibility for degree of regional specialization and coordinating the research a high proportion of applied institutions (SRis) of the Academy research in their work. was transferred to the relevant The fields of specialization of the disciplinary divisions of the central individual Siberian branches were apparatus of the Academy itsel£.8 distinct. The western Siberian This appears to have had a negative branch focused on the study of impact on the institutions of the western Siberia in depth, including different divisions, which were often the development of new methods overlooked by department heads at for mineral extraction, creation of the center. new technologies for refining raw A third reason for the inferior materials found in the region, status of science in Siberia was the implementation of regional energy virtual absence of horizontal and transport systems, and management links among regional resolution of specialized technical research institutions. Direct contacts problems. The eastern Siberian 8. A.V. Kol'tsov, The Role of the Academy of Sciences in the Organization of Regional Scientific Centers of the USSR, 1917-1961 (Leningrad: 1988), 228. 4 branch specialized in the study of northeast division of the V.A. the region's natural and energy Obrucheva Institute for the Study of resources-their distribution and Permafrost in Iakutsk and the use in the national Soviet Institute of Physics in Krasnoiarsk. economy-as well as the In 1957, however, neither institute development of technologies for had gone beyond the organizational refining local mineral ores. In planning stage. Iakutiia, scholars primarily Academy branches in Siberia investigated problems of geology, performed highly specific functions including deposit formations of which differed from those of useful minerals located in the academic institutes in the center of region, as well as the ecology, the country. Unlike the latter, their history, and culture of northeastern mandate was not so much Siberia. Due to the requirement of fundamental research as applied developing agriculture and forestry, research with a regional orientation. all three branches devoted Broadly speaking, the branches were considerable attention to questions supposed to compensate for the of biology.9 limitations placed on scientific The three branches also differed development by a system of structurally. By the mid-1950s, research institutions dedicated to research institutes already specific disciplines. In view of the dominated the structure of the functions and character of their western Siberian branch, whereas tasks, however, the differences laboratories, departments, and between branch research institutions scientific stations played a major and large, discipline-specific role in the eastern Siberian and, institutes were to a great extent especially, the Iakutiian branches. nominal-this lack of differentiation On the whole, the branches was the basic feature of the branch represented integrated scientific structure of the Academy of Sciences institutions composed of different in eastern Russia. kinds of research bodies: institutes, During the 1950s, the Siberian departments, sectors, laboratories, branches did not stagnate, but and auxiliary subdivisions. The developed quite rapidly. Even at presidiums of the three branches their peak, however, no more than were responsible not only for 3.5 percent of all Academy administrative, but also scientific researchers worked in the eastern and methodological management of branches (including the branch their subordinate institutions. This located in the Russian Far East).10 At management structure facilitated a the same time, the branches' service orientation towards the potential was underexploited due to needs of region-specific industries their underdeveloped material and on the part of subdivisions that were technical base. Appropriations per later added to the divisions. person, for example, were several Aside from the branches, two times less in the country's eastern other Academy institutions existed branches than in the Academy's in the region by the time the Siberian central institutes.ll To a great extent, Division was created in 1957: the the inequality in budget 9. E.T. Artemov, The Fori1Ultion and Development of the Network of Scientific Institutions of the AS USSR [Academy of Sciences of the USSR] in Siberia, 1944-1980s (Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1990), 23-54. 10. E.G. Vodichev, The Forl11iltinn and Development of Internatinnal Contacts of Academic Science in Siberia (Novosibirsk: 1990),53. 11. E.T. Artemov, Formation and Development of the Network, 52. 5 appropriations reflected the center's management of the branches. policy with regard to its peripheral Fortunately, the Siberian branches institutions and placed the future of were already subordinate to the the latter in doubt. Siberian Division at the time and Until the end of the 1950s, then, were not included in the takeover.12 the development of Academy Most important, perhaps, the institutions in the eastern USSR personnel profile of Academy followed an evolutionary path in research institutions in the region which the industrializing logic of during the 1950s fully reflected the organizing science by region was branches' mission to provide preserved. Although the Siberian scientific support for Siberian branches had been created precisely regional development. This according to this organizational personnel profile, seen in the concept, possibilities for their educational specializations of the further development were branches' scientific cadres, differed practically exhausted by the late from corresponding indicators for fifties. The eastern branches faced the Academy of Sciences as a whole. the prospect of rapidly being As Table 2 shows, specialists in transformed into centers of applied the fields of life and earth sciences in scientific research and development 1956 accounted for over 60 percent (tsentry nauchno-issledovatel'skikh i of all doctors and candidates of the opytno-konstruktorskikh rabat, or sciences working in Academy NIKOR) oriented almost exclusively research institutions in the eastern towards serving regional territories. Typical of branch requirements. institutions, the life and earth This situation posed a serious sciences orientation would present a threat to the future of fundamental serious obstacle to reorienting scientific research in Siberia, the Siberian science towards new quantity of which was already problems in science and the severely limited. The threat was all economy related to scientific and the more real because the branches technical progress. The did not possess the means to extraordinarily low proportion (less increase their own scientific than 1 percent) of specialists potential, as they lacked the (spetsialisty) with advanced materials, finances, and even educations in physics and manpower for such a task. mathematics was particularly Individual territories and economic revealing; researchers (nauchnye enterprises in these territories could sotrudniki) with this background be counted on to allocate resources were equally scarce among from their budgets only if the employees of the Siberian branches' service orientation branches.13 Practical experience, towards their needs was meanwhile, showed that only strengthened even further. This workers with backgrounds in danger was confirmed several years physics and mathematics were later, when, due to the 1961 capable of integrating specialists reorganization of the Academy of from various scientific disciplines to Sciences, the RSFSR Council of conduct complex, interdisciplinary Ministers took over the research. 12. A.V. Kol'tsov, The Role of the Academy, 249-50. 13. V.A. Lamin, "The Sources and Forms of Building Up the Personnel of the Scientific Institutions of the Siberian Division of the AS USSR," in Historical Aspects of Siberia's Economic, Cultural, and Social Development (Novosibirsk: 1978),260. 6 Table 2. Specialization of senior Siberian Division personnel, expressed as a percentage of all Academy personnel with identical S£ecializations. Years* 1956 1961 1966 1971 Specialimtion Physics/Mathematics 0.73 17.38 25.50 29.73 Technical sciences 15.13 22.59 14.32 15.39 Chemical sciences 12.40 13.71 13.29 11.56 Life sciences** 36.35 20.57 18.59 17.67 Earth sciences*** 25.35 17.74 19.53 16.20 Social sciences 10.06 7.21 8.18 8.66 Other 0.00 0.84 0.58 0.79

* 1956 figures include specialists from the Far Eastern Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences; the 1961 and 1966 figures include personnel from institutions transferred to the Far Eastern Scientific Center in 1970. ** Biology, agriculture, and medicine. *** Geolo , mineralo , and eo a h . Sources: Personnel Directorate of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences; and N.A. Kupershtokh, "The Development of Principles for Increasing the Staff Potential of Siberia's Academic Science in the Second Half of the 1950s," in Science Personnel of Soviet Siberia: Problems of History, 181.

The work of the branches gave Ill. CHOOSING A CONCEPT rise to varied evaluations. According FOR THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT to Academician I.P. Bardin in 1957, OF SOENCE "the [branch] organization of science By the second half of the 1950s, has justified itself brilliantly in the the time had clearly come to provinces." 14 Certainly, it was fair strengthen the Academy's presence to say that the branches were an in Siberia. (Given the political improvement over what had pronouncements of Communist preceded them. However, the Party congresses at the time, the chairman of the Western Siberian issue was inevitable.) The 1956 Branch Presidium, Professor T.F. annual meeting of the USSR Gorbachev, held a decidedly Academy of Sciences paid a great negative view of future scientific deal of attention to the distribution development within the branch of resources for conducting scientific structure. Writing in the same research. In a more or less standard edition of News of the Eastern pronouncement, the Academy Branches of the AS USSR dedicated to adopted a resolution concerning the the twenty-fifth anniversary of the necessity of guaranteeing the branches' existence, Gorbachev priority development of academic unceremoniously concluded that the institutions in the east-increasing western Siberian branch met the their staff levels, reviewing the requirements of the region's branch structure and, using the economy only "to a small degree."15 branches as a foundation, creating 14. I.P. Bardin, "Twenty-five Years of Developing the Scientific Institutions of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in the Provinces," News of the Eastern Branches of the AS USSR, no. 8 (1957): 23. 15. T.F. Gorbachev, "The Western Siberian Branch of the AS USSR," News of the Eastern Branches of the AS USSR, no. 8 (1957): 65. 7 large scientific centers in the within the Academy. Existing provinces.16 The question was: To exceptions-the Institute of Physics what extent was the Academy in Krasnoiarsk was created almost prepared and able to change the entirely on the foundation of a local situation that had developed in the pedagogical institute, for regions? The idea of creating large example-only confirmed the scientific centers appears to have general rule. In the end, the only been motivated by the politics of the solution was to bring in specialists day, as the formulation adopted in from outside the region, a solution February 1956 contained no concrete that required something more than proposals outlining a fundamentally substantial effort and financial new strategy for developing science means. As experience showed, high in the country's outlying regions. salaries alone could not entice Any radical reform of the specialists from European Russia to region's Academy structure would Siberia. Both the eastern Siberian inevitably come up against the and lakutsk branches had ample problem of cadres. Rapid growth in negative experience in this area by Academy science that relied solely the end of the 1950s. on the resources of the eastern Attempts to transfer entire branches would be limited to a very scientific institutions to the region narrow spectrum of scientific fields. from the center of the country met Moreover, as a rule, these fields were with a similar lack of success since not identified by scientific and the majority of researchers, technical progress as those holding particularly the most highly the most promise for scientific qualified, preferred to change their progress. On the contrary, the place of employment rather than number of scientific specialists in the move east. The problem of radically Academy's eastern research strengthening Academy cadres in institutions with advanced Siberia would be solved only by a educations in mathematics, physics, serious, comprehensive approach. chemistry, and the technical sciences An article entitled "Urgent Tasks of was insufficient to guarantee the the Organization of Scientific Work," development of these fields without published in Pravda in February outside help. It was equally naive to 1956 by the well-known scholars expect to solve a problem of this S.A. Khristianovich, M.A. magnitude by attracting specialists Lavrent' ev, and S.A. Lebedev, laid from those institutions of higher the groundwork for subsequent education (vysshie ochobnye action. The article, which attracted a zavedeniia, or VUZy) and great deal of attention, noted that discipline-specific research the country's primary scientific institutions located in the region. capacity was concentrated in a few Looking ahead, we can affirm centers that were isolated from the that a significant crossover of industrial base; what was needed personnel from these institutions was a radical redistribution of did, in fact, occur after the Siberian scientific institutions around the Division was created. In the majority country. The article did not, of cases, however, this influx was however, go so far as to outline not the deciding factor in creating concrete proposals for such a new directions in scientific research redistribution.17 16. Bulletin of the AS USSR, no. 2 (1956): 7. 17. S.A. Khristianovich, M.A. Lavrent'ev, and S.A. Lebedev, "Nazrevshie zadachi organizatsii nauchnoi raboty," Pravda, 14 February 1956. 8 These issues received much moreover, was highly doubtful. The greater attention at a Scholars' elaboration of such a strategy cannot Assembly in Novosibirsk two be explained simply by the months later that was attended by Academy leadership's poor leaders and officials of the Ural, Far understanding of its palliative effect; Eastern, and three Siberian branches some researchers have plausibly of the USSR Academy of Sciences. A suggested that strategies for delegation from Moscow headed by developing science, including that in Academy President Academician the east, were the result of a struggle AN. Nesmeianov and including for spheres of influence among Academicians I.P. Bardin, M.M. various groups in the Academy Dubinin, V.S. Nemchinov, and V.A. leadership.19 (What was a strategy Engel' gardt also attended. At this for the eastern branches, for assembly, Academy leaders example, was only a tactical move formulated plans to reform its for the Presidium of the Academy of eastern branches. Their central aim Sciences.) was to strengthen the specialization Political battles accounted for of the branches and to increase their the vicissitudes in the debate over efficiency by eliminating duplication the role of applied research and (this idea was particularly popular development in the Academy's among Soviet science administrators work that ultimately led to its at the end of the 1950s). The reorganization in 1961 and 1963, Academy leadership also proposed together with corresponding that in the future, the branches changes in its leadership. A similar should channel all resources situation had occurred five years allocated to them into developing previously. At that time, a radical the most promising directions in shift in the development of the scientific research. The Academy's eastern branches would have scientific capacity in the east would required sending substantial be consolidated by transferring additional financing to the eastern individual scientific institutes and regions. Academy policymakers, laboratories to Siberia, including the however, were then planning the Institute for the Study of Permafrost, construction of a biological center at the laboratory of the Institute of Pushchino and were clearly Energy, and the Institute of Oil. disinterested in redistributing funds Despite certain objections, the plan to create a solid scientific base for the won general acceptance and became Academy in the east.20 the strategic premise for the future In the end, reality exceeded the development of Academy wildest dreams of those who potential.18 advocated strengthening the On the whole, the strategy did Academy's presence in the east. The not fundamentally alter the scenario realized in practice was not, previous, evolutionary path of however, based on the branch development that the eastern structure, but on a new academic institutions had followed scientific-organizational concept until that time. Effective embodied in the one of the world's implementation of this strategy, largest scientific research centers. 18. See "At the Assembly in Novosibirsk," Bulletin of the AS USSR, no. 6 (1956): 29, 31, 32, 72. 19. Stephen Fortescue, The Academy Reorganized: The R&D Role of the Soviet Academy of Sciences since 1961 (Canberra: Department of Political Science, Australian National University, 1983), 7-20. 20. E.T. Artemov, Formation and Development of the Network, 69. 9 Several circumstances allowed this A third circumstance favoring conception of the Siberian Division the creation of the Siberian Division to be realized. In the first place, was the decision to reorganize the Academicians Lavrent'ev and administration of industry and Khristianovich promoted the idea of construction in the Soviet Union creating a powerful scientific center along territorial lines. The in Siberia unlike any other in the sovnarklwzy reforms of Khrushchev country in terms of its scale and aimed to transfer operative principles of scientific organization. management of the economy from This idea responded to the demands the center to the provinces, and the of scientific and technical progress to idea of creating a regional scientific a far greater degree than had center far from Moscow decisions previously adopted on the corresponded well with the trend matter, as current trends in scientific towards decentralization. Certain and technical development foreign experts have thus claimed suggested that institutions that the creation of the Siberian specializing in a variety of scientific Division should be considered one disciplines be united under one of the most interesting steps to roof-linked not only by spacial decentralize the economy adopted proximity, but a single in the spirit of the Twentieth administrative structure and Congress of the CPSU.21 As far as communications system. Given the one can judge, during the preceding tremendous sluggishness of the period, both the creation and the Soviet scientific system, it was much development of the Academy's simpler to realize this idea in regions Siberian branches had been such as Siberia-especially western seriously hampered by political Siberia-which, although they had considerations, namely, the fear of not been spoiled by the attention of increasing the power of local "big science," nevertheless authorities. possessed an infrastructure that Fourth, as noted above, those could serve the subsequent stage of who initiated the creation of the national scientific development. Siberian Division had their own Second, plans to organize a personal ambitions and were close powerful scientific center would to the leader of the country. Judging have been unlikely to succeed both by his past work and without a declared policy giving subsequent leadership of the priority to the economic Siberian center, Academician development of the USSR's eastern Lavrent'ev clearly did not belong to regions. New industries would the circle of scholars who advocated require scientific support and the an exclusively fundamental research scale of plans to transform Siberia orientation for the Academy, as did and the Far East, together with the Academy President Academician shift in the economy towards Nesmeianov. Lavrent'evwas an scientific-industrial production, open supporter of pragmatism in made it relatively easy to promote science and believed that the work the idea that science had to be conducted by Academy institutes organized in an entirely new way as should result in maximum practical well. A radical reorganization of returns. It was this attitude that science now had much greater enabled him, together with LV. chances for success. Kurchatov, to join Khrushchev's 21. Violette Conolly, B~ond the Urals: Economic Development in Soviet Asia (London and New York: 1990), 371-2. 10 informal goup of science promotion in the scientific world. advisors. Lavrent'ev' s position These goals were not easy to achieve and the green light given to the in the central institutes of the Siberian Division anticipated a Academy, which were overstaffed factional struggle within the and lacked the flexibility to adapt Academy which resulted in themselves to new directions in Nesmeianov's rapid resignation. research. Scholars' hopes for the Finally, there were strategic Siberian center proved, for the most considerations for creating a part, well-founded. Foreign large-scale scientific center in the researchers who visited eastern USSR. Since the pre-war Akademgorodok in the 1960s years there had been an intensive repeatedly emphasized not only the build-up of military-industrial good working and living conditions capacity in Siberia. This rapid of Siberian Division scholars, but development of military technology also their intellectual and financial in the east, noted for its considerable wealth and freedom of thought and achievements in science, also discussion. 25 required adequate scientific support. In this atmosphere of general On the strength of this requirement, enthusiasm, two popular the Siberian Division became theses-the conquest of science and inextricably linked by ''bonds of the conquest of Siberia-merged to friendshi~" to the military-industrial create the Siberian Division. Plans complex. 3 (Lavrent' ev had always for the proposed center were been known for his closeness to presented at the General Assembly military-industrial circles, as had of the Academy of Sciences as well Academician M.V. Keldysh, who as published in the press. Although replaced Nesmeianov as President reactions to the idea of the center of the Academy of Sciences in 1961.) demonstrated that a majority of The analysis of Western experts also future Division officials were driven pointed to continual growth in the by motives that did not always presence of the defense sector in the coincide with the grand strategy of Academy throughout the post-war its initiators, the magnitude of years, as indicated by the lack of support for the initiative confirmed information about the workplaces its timeliness. and activities of scholars newly elected to its ranks.24 IV. REALIZATION OF THE It was possible to implement the CONCEPT: INmAL RESULTS scheme to create a scientific center in Upon completion of the the east because many Soviet necessary preparatory work, the scholars were looking for an USSR Council of Ministers adopted opportunity to put their scientific a resolution on 18 May 1957 entitled ideas into practice, improve their "On the Creation of the Siberian living and working conditions, and Division of the Academy of Sciences achieve success and rapid of the USSR."26 Novosibirsk or, 22. Stephen Fortescue, Science Policy in the Soviet Union (London and New York: 1990), 21. 23. A. Perry, Russian Scientists from Mendeleyev and Pavlov to the Brilliant Scientists and Technologies ofToday's USSR (New York and London: 1973), 157. 24. See Fortescue, Science Policy, 4Cr7; and USSR Academy of Sciences, Siberian Division: Staff (Novosibirsk: 1982). 25. Conolly, Beyond the Urals, 384. 26. Decisions of the Party and Government on Economic Questions, vol. 4, 347-9. 11 more precisely, Akademgorodok­ The quantitative growth of to be located about twenty-five Academy institutes was, of course, kilometers from the not the only, or even the most former-became the center of the important, development in Siberian Division and home to its Academy science. The creation of supervisory bodies. The new center the Siberian Division fundamentally faced the task of developing changed the system of organizing theoretical and experimental and managing scientific research in research in the fields of applied the Academy as a whole-the physics, the natural sciences, and division was the first to be economics, as well as facilitating the organized along territorial lines and successful development of industry its presidium was granted wide in Siberia and the Far East.27 The authority to manage the complex of Siberian Division took control of all Academy institutes in the region. scientific institutions of the This authority made it possible to Academy of Sciences located in conduct interdisciplinary research Siberia and the Far East at the time. and coordinate the potential of Simultaneously, a considerable individual Academy institutions number of new scientific research and their staffs in accordance with institutes were planned. In overall program goals. The accordance with the territorial proximity of the various recommendations of the Academy's research institutes, their unified administrative and informational Presidium, the Division's first ten links, and their common institutes were expediently developmental goals ensured such organized: those of hydrodynamics, an approach, laying the foundation theoretical and applied mechanics, for a regional system of coordinating mathematics (this institute included research. a computer center), robotics, Although it took several years to geology and geophysics, thermal establish the Division, the majority physics, physics, cytology and of new institutes were able to begin genetics, experimental biology and working by the early 1960s. At its medicine, and, finally, economics closing session in 1961, the and statistics. It was decided to Presidium of the Academy of create the Institute of Chemical Sciences in Novosibirsk concluded Kinetics and Combustion and the that the formation of scientific Institute of Inorganic Chemistry centers in Novosibirsk and Irkutsk later that same year and, the had been more or less completed.30 following year, the Institute of As a result of the Division's creation, Organic Chemistry and the Institute the network of Academy institutions of Catalysis.28 The names and in Siberia changed radically. By 1 profiles of several of these institutes January 1961, Siberia's share of total were subsequently changed. Academy research institutions Together with the Novosibirsk (SRis) had doubled and its share of center, a number of new institutes institutes had almost tripled, were also organized in Irkutsk, accounting for 15 percent and 20.5 including those of geochemistry, percent of all such establishments, geography, and organic chemistry.29 respectively (see Table 1). Data on 27. Ibid. 28. The Novosibirsk Scientific Center (Novosibirsk, 1962): 12. 29. Bulletin of the AS USSR, no. 1 (1958): 120. 30. NASO, fund 10, inventory 3, file 182, 1. 12 Table 3. Growth in Academy research organizations, shown in percentages of 1956 figures. 1961 1966 SI{Is* !{Is** SI{Is !{Is USSR Academy of Sciences 130.27 162.07 104.32 39.08 Academy organizations in Siberia 240.00 362.50 280.0 425.00 * nauchno-issledovatel'skie uchrezdeniia ** nauchno-issledovatel'skie instituty

Source: RGAE, fund 1562, inventory 17, file 2871, 10-11; inventory 337, file 2547, 38-46; inventory 44, file 2954, 143, 147-53. the growth rates of these Academy institutions. As a consequence of the subdivisions are cited in Table 3. Siberian Division's early emphasis As Table 3 suggests, the on developing the Novosibirsk Academy developed mainly by group of institutes, more than increasing the number of research one-half of all Academy research institutes, a tendency that was organizations in Siberia were now particularly apparent in Siberia. located in the western Siberian However, the difference between economic region. Absolutely all growth in Academy research western Siberian institutes were organizations overall and growth in situated in Novosibirsk or, to be Academy institutes in Siberia was more exact, were divided between even more marked. The creation of Novosibirsk and rapidly growing the Siberian Division led to a Akademgorodok. The picture in qualitative leap in this eastern Siberia was different. area--development rates for its Irkutsk, where the eastern Siberian network of institutes was several branch, now part of the Siberian times greater than the average rate Division, continued to operate (the for the Academy as a whole. western Siberian branch was Average Academy growth figures, eliminated in 1959), remained the moreover, were themselves largely determined by the creation of new focal point for research institutions research institutions in the east. in the east, uniting over one-quarter Over the five year period 1961-66, of all such establishments within the total Academy research institutions Siberian Division. The remaining and institutes-excluding those of one-quarter of Division institutes the Siberian and Far Eastern and other organizations was subdivisions-grew by 108 percent distributed among Krasnoiarsk, and 125 percent, respectively.31 lakutsk, Chita, and Ulan-Ude, with Certain changes also occurred in comprehensive scientific research the territorial distribution of institutes operating in the latter two. academic facilities in individual Although the absolute number of kraiia, olbasti, and autonomous institutions located in lakutsk was republics of Siberia (see Table 4, not reduced, its share of total following page). At the beginning of Siberian Division institutions the 1960s, western and eastern dropped significantly. The lakutsk Siberia changed places in terms of branch of the Academy also concentration of Academy continued to exist, becoming an 31. Calculated on the basis of data from RGAE, fund 1562, inventory 17, file 2871, 10; and ibid., inventory 337, file 2574,38. 13 Table 4. Territorial distribution of Academy research institutions in Siberia, as a Eercentage of total SRis. 1956 1961 1966 1971 Region Novosibirsk oblast' 40.0 55.3 52.38 54.6 IQlllsk Qb.last' 4.5 Western Siberia* 40.0 55.3 52.38 59.1

Krasnoiarsk krai 5.3 4.76 4.5 Irkutsk oblast' 26.67 23.7 21.43 18.2 Chitinsk oblast' 2.6 BuriatASSR 2.6 2.38 4.5 Iak:utASSR 33.33 10.5 19.05 13.7 Eastern Siberia* 60.00 44.7 47.62 40.9 * Academy research institutions existed only in the administrative categories of western and eastern Siberia. Source: E.T. Artemov, The Formation and Development of the Network of AS USSR Scientific Institutions in Siberia, 1944-1980 (Novosibirsk, 1990): 155; RGAE, fund 1562, inventory 17, file 2871, 10-11; ibid., inventory 337, file 2574, 38-46; and ibid., inventory 44, file 2954,143, 147-53.

integral part of the Siberian with foreign scholars and Division. correspondents. As a result, by the end of the 1950s some of the latter V. PROSPECTS FOR DEVELOPING discerned in Irkutsk an exact copy of THE SCIENTIFIC COMPLEX: the Novosibirsk center, only on a CHANGES IN LONG-TERM STRATEGY smaller scale. 32 Because the Siberian The main principles for Division was initially geared developing the network of academic towards research in priority fields of institutions in Siberia were science, it was deemed necessary to established at the General create new research institutions Assemblies of the Siberian Division exclusively devoted to important during the years 1958-59, when it trends in modem science that had was agreed that a comprehensive been insufficiently developed in approach should guide the other scientific centers and sectors of organization of scientific research. science. New scientific institutions in the The conception of the Siberian region would be created only on the Division was also initially based on basis of their compatibility and a careful study of personnel trends complementarity, as well as their in science. Academician Lavrent'ev suitability for promoting the and his closest associates clearly development of the entire center. understood that the success of their This thesis was widely publicized organizational plans, as well as the and began to be perceived as the life expectancy of the new center, principal strategy for developing depended to a great extent on who Academy science in the future. The could be persuaded to work in the leaders of the Siberian Division new institutes and how such constantly cited the thesis when research collectives could be interpreting the creation of the expanded in the future. According Division, especially when speaking to Lavrent'ev, the personnel problem 32. Salisbury, To Moscow and Beyond, 188. 14 concerned those "who, in the end, The second group of scholars will decide our success in science."33 that became a fulcrum of the In this author's opinion, the Siberian Division consisted of organizers managed to rely on three prominent researchers who led their categories of scholars when creating own scientific "schools" or had made the division, a strategy that to a large significant progress in developing degree determined the success of the promising avenues of scientific entire scheme. The first of these research, but had been unable, for categories was a group of reasons noted earlier, to realize their authoritative researchers-members ideas in scientific institutes located of the USSR Academy of Sciences, at the country's center. By virtue of for the most part-who were their scientific achievements, many dissatisfied with the state of of these researchers should have scientific research in the country and been entitled to become elected with the position of the Academy of members of the Academy. They Sciences in the organization of were liable to wait in line for science as a whole. As mentioned membership for a long time, earlier, a fairly open struggle was however, and even then, there was taking place in the late 1950s and no guarantee they would be elected. early 1960s between supporters of Such people were prepared to "pure," or fundamental, research change their residence and place of and those who believed the employment, provided they were Academy should seek to resolve given broad opportunities to pursue their research, continue their careers, problems not only of fundamental, and rise in the organizational but also of applied science. The hierarchy. This group of researchers Academy leadership, in the person included a fairly wide circle of of its president, Aleksander people who later formed the leading Nesmeianov, inclined toward the core of the Siberian Division's first argument, prompting the institutes. opposing side to search for The third and final group of alternative solutions in order to scholars to form the foundation of secure the Academy's place of pride Siberian Division personnel were in the national system of science, a young researchers who were position that, with its preference for students and followers of the first fundamental research, the Academy two groups. They, too, were was in danger of losing. concerned with acquiring sufficient It seems that the initiators of the creative opportunities to realize their Siberian center, Academicians own scientific ideas. Transferring to Lavrent'ev and Khristianovich, the newly created institutes opened together with such supporters of the up the possiblity of rapidly center as Academician Kurchatov, advancing in their careers, an corresponding Academy member impossibility within traditional A.A. Trofimykh, and others, scientific structures at the country's belonged precisely to this first center. The initiators (and group. The personal ambitions of subsequent leaders) of the Siberian these authoritative scholars and Division overcame this problem of leaders of science, who sought to rapid career advancement by strengthen their positions in Soviet obtaining a number of benefits for science by means of the Siberian researchers at Division institutes, for center, should not be dismissed. example, the right to occupy the 33. Beyond Science in Siberia, 30 January 1961. 15 post of senior researcher (starshii elect members to the Siberian sotrudnik) without having to Division of the Academy of Sciences, undergo a competition or proved exceptionally important to completing a minimum period of its fate. Only those scholars who practical work.34 expressed a wish to transfer to the As subsequently became clear, newly created Academy institutes in two other factors played a part in Siberia and the Far East were resolving the personnel problem of permitted to stand for these the new academic institutes: the elections. During the Division's first Academy's right to priority selection elections, which took place on 28 of VUZ graduates and the right of May 1958, eight academicians and scholars who transferred to Siberia twenty-seven corresponding to secure apartments in their members of the USSR Academy of previous places of residence, Sciences were elected to the Siberian including Moscow and Leningrad. Division, including such Also significant was that transfer to well-known scholars as LN. Vekua, the Siberian Division implied P. Ia. Kochina, AI. Malt'sev, Iu. N. support for an idea considered of Rabotnov, V.S. Sobolev, A.A. prime importance to the state and Trofimukh, A.L. Ianshin, G.K. therefore associated with social Boreskov, G.l. Budker, V.V. prestige. Voevodskii, and Iu.A. Kosygin.36 In this manner, everyone got These scholars took charge of what they wanted. The first group bringing research collectives up to secured key leadership positions in full strength in anticipation of their Soviet science; the second, prospects transfer to Siberia. This approach to for rapidly advancing in their the personnel problem, based on careers; and the third, excellent creating active groups of scholars living and working conditions. As a headed by scientific leaders and result, plans to create the Siberian united by a common objective, Division were supported by several made it possible to complete the social strata of scholars and the organizational stage of restructuring scientific center itself had good and begin concrete research in the chances of succeeding. shortest period of time possible. The Immediately after Academicians presence of proficient groups of Lavrent'ev and Khristianovich scholars capable of their own further promulgated the idea of creating a self-development became the large center in Siberia, the idea was fundamental prerequisite for publicly supported by such organizing Siberian Division authoritative scholars as research institutes. These groups Academicians A.A. Artsimovich, principally took shape in some of P.L. Kapitsa, N.N. Semenov, S.L. the country's leading scientific Sobolev, LV. Kurchatov, and others.35 centers-not only Academy All of these scholars declared institutions, but VUZy and themselves ready to help realize the discipline-specific research center in any way possible. The institutions as well. Thus, one of the Division's right to elect its own most prominent institutes of the members of the Academy, that is, to Siberian Division, the Institute of 34. NASO, fund 10, inventory 1, file 5, 58. 35. Bulletin of the AS USSR, no. 12 (1957): 3-14. 36. Bulletin of the AS USSR, no. 5 (1958): 45-7; and S.A. Krasil'nikov, "A Scientific Metric Analysis of the Personnel of the Siberian Division of the AS USSR," Questions of History in the Natural Sciences and Technology, no. 3 (1987): 25. 16 Nuclear Physics, grew out of the Siberia and the Far East. Instead, a Institute of Atomic Energy's strategy for the consecutive laboratory for new methods of establishment and development of acceleration headed by G.l. Budker. Academy science in the region was Researchers at the Institute of advanced. As has been mentioned, Chemical Physics of USSR Academy the priority development of the of Sciences, headed by Novosibirsk center had been the Corresponding Academy Members dominant thesis of the Division's VV Voedvodskii and A.A. development strategy since the end Koval' skii, formed the basis of the of the 1950s. Analysis of the creative research collective of the development of the Division's Institute of Chemical Kinetics and research institutions along territorial Combustion. The Institute of lines demonstrates that this thesis Robotics and Electrometry likewise was fully upheld. grew out of several laboratories at Development of the Novosibirsk the L'vov Polytechnic Institute and center was, however, only the first the Institute of Machinery and stage of the strategy. The strategy Robotics of the Academy of Sciences itself was substantially altered in the of the Ukrainian Republic. 37 1960s during preparation of the The creation of research government resolution, "General collectives by authoritative scholars Prospects for the Development of made possible a second principle of the National Economy of the USSR Division institutes: creating through 1980."39 The general institutes under the direction of a principles governing the specific director. As subsequent development of the Siberian practice confirmed, this ~rinciple Division's network of research proved highly effective. 8 At the institutions remained unchanged, same time, it should be stressed that but quantitative criteria for their this principle primarily development were substantially characterized the institutes of the increased. The creation of new Novosibirsk center. In eastern scientific institutions now became Siberia, by contrast, it proved tied to trends of utmost importance necessary to rely on the region's in both science and economic own strengths when building practice. Eighty-nine such trends institute staffs. were named for the Siberian From the very moment the Division; in contrast with the past, Siberian Division became many more of these trends were of a operational, its development regional nature. The experience of strategy paid particular attention to having successfully realized the idea assuring rational growth of the of the Siberian center, the authors of Division's individual scientific which had invoked the greater centers. Given the enormity of the practical returns to be provided by tasks facing the Division, it seemed new Academy institutions unrealistic to attempt simultaneous (including their regional relevancy), and equally rapid development of made it logical to assume they Academy centers in Novosibirsk, would be tempted to use the Irkutsk, lakutsk, and other cities of regional line once again. 37. Artemov, Formation and Development of the Network, 83. 38. Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrent'ev, Siberia Will Grow (Moscow: Molodaia gvardiia, 1980), 24. 39. State Archives of the Russian Federation (Russian acronyrnn, GARF), fund 262, inventory 5, file 8999, 1-154. 17 According to the projections of The applied science orientation the "General Prospects" resolution, of Siberian Division activities was the overall number of scientific thus significantly strengthened in institutions of the Division was to accordance with the "General increase two and one-half times over Prospects" resolution. This the 1961level; research institutions orientation can be explained by (SRis) alone were slated to reach a several factors: in some measure, it total of 82. And, although 14 new was a sign of the times, which, as institutes were to be created in noted in Section I, demanded Novosibirsk, the majority were to be contemporary, practical results from opened outside of Novosibirsk. science; in some measure, it was a Almost half of these new tactical step in the battle for establishments were to be created by resources and the right to create new decentralizing institutes already in scientific institutions; and, finally, in existence. Other centers were some measure it was a reflection of allotted a share of 35 new institutes, the personal positions of scientific reflecting a change of priorities in leaders at the beginning of the 1960s. the geographic distribution of Be that as it may, realization of this research institutions within the strategy, guaranteeing as it did an Division. As a result, roughly equal enormous quantitative growth in levels of scientific capacity were to Academy science in Siberia, be provided to the individual threatened to reduce the very economic districts of the Siberian "academic" nature of research of region.40 which the Academy was As noted earlier, the scientific particularly proud. orientation of the newly created SRis The leaders of the Siberian had already changed substantially. Division understood that creating Now, however, the majority of new new institutes on the foundation of institutes were called to support the research collectives of central development of the region's institutions was only the first step in economic complex. Fundamental resolving the cadres problem-the research was in no way forbidden, key to the new center. It was not but was supposed to adhere closely incidental that the training of to those avenues of inquiry that scientific personnel became one of served economic needs. This the leading issues in Division policy imperative was reflected in the during the 1960s, a focus that scientific orientations of the research coincided with the peneral priorities institutes proposed for the region, of the Soviet state.4 It was necessary almost a third of which were due to to provide an effective mechanism conduct research in the earth for replenishing Division personnel sciences. A considerable number with specialists of varying levels of were slated to undertake research qualification and, simultaneously, to and development in the interest of create a system that would developing production, particularly guarantee the scientific in the machine-building and development of researchers at the chemical industries. new institutes. The system included 40. E.T. Artemov, Fonnation and Development, 101-3. 41. Due to a considerable deterioration in the quality of science as well as the quality of scientific-pedagogical personnel produced by the rapid extensive development of science in the f960s, ilie Communist Party and the Soviet government adopted a series of resolutions aimed at correcting the situation in this field. See 11ze Communist Party of the USSR in Resolutions, 8th ed., vol. 8 (Moscow: 1972): 163-7; vol. 9 (Moscow: 1<:172), 386-95. 18 both innovative and traditional university" in the United States that elements. One innovation was the began to develop especially rapidly idea of establishing a university during the 1950s. within the Siberian center that Novosibirsk State University would be original in terms of its (NGU) was from the very beginning status, manner of selecting students, planned as a "scientific" university teaching staff, orientation, and and was joined to the Novosibirsk qualification levels. Although center both methodologically and founded only in 1959, the idea for organizationally. It was also linked such a university, albeit in the most to the center by means of concrete general terms, had been scholars-members of the Siberian promulgated by Academician Division of the Academy of Lavrent'ev as early as 1957.42 LN. Sciences-who simultaneously Vekua, one of the country's most worked as researchers in Academy prominent mathematicians, became institutes and taught at the the university's first rector.43 university. The university received The educational conception that the right to design individual study had been tested earlier in the plans and programs and to use Moscow Physics-Technical Institute, Division researchers (sotrudniki) in a of which Lavrent'ev was an initiator, double capacity as teachers. Such was continued at Novosibirsk researchers accounted for 75 percent University. The idea of the "fiztek" (a of all instructors and 90 percent of school specializing in physics and all doctors and candidates of the technical sciences) itself seems to sciences at the university by the have been engendered by attempts mid-1960s. Close integration with to close the gulf between science and the Siberian Division made it education that had arisen in the possible for NGU to use Academy USSR. The essence of the idea was to institute laboratories for practical attract a broad range of scientific studies. On the whole, the successful researchers to teach in the institute, a organization of the university, policy that was not, it must be certain aspects of which were noted, encouraged in the Soviet extended to other institutions of system of higher education. higher learning in the region (e.g., Students were guaranteed a the Novosibirsk Electrotechnical thorough training in mathematics Institute and the Krasnoiarsk Branch and the natural sciences, as well as of NGU), enabled the Siberian experience working in laboratories Division to effectively solve the on real scientific problems under the problem of training cadres not only direction of active researchers; upon for the Novosibirsk center, but for graduation, they were directed the Division's peripheral centers as towards research work. The concept well.44 of the fiztek was, on the whole, very The problem of training highly close to the organizational principles qualified scientific workers was of the so-called "research another aspect of Division personnel 42. Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrent'ev, Science - Technical Progress - Personnel (Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1980), 101. 43. USSR Academy of Sciences, Siberian Division: Chronicle, 1957-1982 (Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1982), 33-4. 44. On the creation of Novsibirsk State University, see E.T. Artemov and S.A. Krasil'nikov, "Cooperation Between Academic Science and the VUZy of Siberia: The Experience of Creating a System of Personnel Training," in The Social-Economic Development oj Soviet Science: Historical Experience and the Present (Novosibirsk: 1984), 268-73. 19 policy. Although considered a eightfold in size between 1958 and priority issue, the problem was 1970. Graduate programs in physics resolved by traditional means. Two and mathematics, together with basic channels were used to prepare those in the technical sciences, grew candidates of science: training particularly intensively; by 1968, through independent research, i.e., students in these programs without interrupting a student's accounted for one-third of all concrete, on-the-job research, and Division graduate students. training through graduate education According to available data, the rate programs.45 That the United Scholar of preparation of both candidates Councils of the Siberian Division and doctors of the sciences in the immediately obtained the right to Siberian Division was not inferior to hear the defense of dissertations for those rates characteristic of Moscow candidate and doctor of sciences and Leningrad.48 degrees for the principal disciplines The intensive training of doctors represented in the Division attested and candidates of the sciences to the importance the Division during the first half of the 1960s led assigned to the training of qualified to a change in the principal source of scientific cadres.46 In the mere five staff for Siberian Division research years between 1958 and 1962, 28 institutes. In 1963, specialists who doctoral and 167 candidate of the had transferred to the Division sciences' dissertations were accounted for 70 percent of all defended at the Novosibirsk doctors and 55 percent of all center.47 Altogether, a total of 1,584 candidates of the sciences employed candidates' dissertations were there. Beginning in the mid-1960s, defended during the first decade of however, the Division was able to the Division's operation, almost half hire nearly all the highly qualified of which represented the work of personnel it required from its own Division graduate students. The institutions. An analogous situation Division's postgraduate program held for VUZ graduates.49 Until the developed rapidly, increasing almost early 1970s, the system for training 45. In the Soviet education system, these approaches were respectively identified as soiskatel' stvo and aspirantura. Both programs of study culmmated in the award of the kandidat nauk, or candidate oi sciences, degree-roughly equivalent to the American Ph.D.-based on the defense of a written dissertation. In certain cases, generally in the hard sciences, a considerably shorter written report was submitted for defense. (Similarly, the soiskatel' stvo and the doktorantura led to the degree of doktor nauk, or doctor of sciences.) The circumstances of study differed in the two programs. A soiskatel' was by definition an individual who held a full-time job and worked independently on his or her dissertation. He or she was registered with a university or a research institution, assigned a dissertation advisor (nauchnyi rukovoditel'), and given a four-year time period to complete a dissertation. Such students attenaed no classes but were required to pass a series of exams. An aspirant was a full-time graduate student on scholarship at a university or a research institution who was obligated to complete a specific program of graduate courses at an institution of higlier education and to write a dissertation within a three-year time period. In Novosibirsk, the soiskatel'stvo track allowed university graduates to work full-time in scientific institutions and use their research in these jobs as the basis of their dissertations. This conjunction of work and research was not the general rule for soiskateli outside of Novosibirsk.-Ed. 46. Chronicle, 1957-1982,33. 47. The Novosibirsk Scientific Center, 205. 48. See N.A. Kupershtokh, "The Development of the Postgraduate Program of the Siberian DiVIsion of the AS USSR as a Form of Training of Scientific Personnel (1958-1980)," in The Social-Historical Aspects of the Organization of Science in Siberia (Novosibirsk: 1989), 115-24. 20 Siberian Division personnel was Division and the Academy as a chiefly oriented towards meeting the whole, the proportional increase in requirements of the Academy. Given the number of employees by continued extensive development of category was almost identical.) By Academy science in Siberia, the beginning of the 1970s, the practically all specialists who actual number of scientific workers received candidate or doctor of the in Academy institutions in Siberia sciences degrees from the Division had increased by a quantity far remained within the Academy greater than the norm. The creation institute structure; neither the VUZy of the Division and the swift nor discipline-specific sectors of build-up of its personnel also led to science were able to rely on the a radical alteration in the territorial Division to fulfill their needs for distribution of Academy researchers highly qualified personnel.50 (sotrudniki), as shown in Table 6 (see The creation of the Siberian following page). Division and the special attention it As Table 6 demonstrates, the devoted to personnel led to an proportion of scientific workers in accelerated growth in Academy Academy research institutions in science personnel in Siberia, the Siberia had grown roughly fourfold scale and rates of which are by the beginning of the 1970s, indicated in Table 5. As the table reaching a level of approximately 16 demonstrates, the growth rate for percent of all such Academy scientific personnel in Siberia during workers. This growth had occurred the late 1950s and early 1960s was entirely during the first half of the much greater than that for the 1960s. The proportional growth in Academy as a whole, although personnel lagged somewhat behind during the second half of the 1960s, growth in Academy institutions in the opposite tendency became true. Siberia, suggesting that the institutes The growth rate held for all of the Siberian Division were, in categories of employees-scientific terms of number of employees, workers (nauchnye rabotniki), doctors inferior to those in the European of the sciences, and candidates of the part of the country. Nevertheless, sciences-for the group of institutes these figures reflected a territorial located throughout Siberia. (Despite redistribution of personnel capacity the enormous difference between within the Academy. Its most the growth rates of the Siberian powerful scientific complex had

Table 5. Growth in the number of scientific employees of USSR Academy of Sciences, in percentages of 1956levels. 1961 1966 1971 .ISW* DS** CS*** ISW I2S CS ISW I2S CS Academy of Sciences as a whole 167.0 112.0 146.9 182.3 124.6 170.2 258.5 200.0 271.2 Academy Institutions in Siberia 587.9 434.8 334.9 980.4 887.0 676.0 1221.1 1065.2 1212.5 *Total scientific workers. **Doctors of sciences. ***Candidates of sciences. Source: RGAE SSSR, inventory 2871, 10-11; ibid., inventory 337, file 2574, 138-46; and ibid., inventory 44, file 2554, 134, 148-51. 49. E.T. Artemov, Fonnation and Development of the Network, 149-50. 50. N.A. Kupershtokh, "Development of the Postgraduate Program," 122. 21 Table 6. Territorial distribui:ion of scientific workers of the USSR Academy of Sciences at year's end, expressed as a percentage of total Academy workers. 1958 1965 1970 Region Moscow and Moscow oblast' 67.9 57.4 57.4 Leningrad and Leningrad oblast' 14.7 13.6 11.4 Siberia as a whole 4.4 16.55 15.7

Source: Personnel Directorate of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

arisen in Siberia and this center now employed in the Siberian Division, exceeded the Leningrad group of accounting for approximately 10 institutes-until then the second percent of Academy members.51 The most important in the country-in share of Siberian Academy members number of employees. not only formally acknowledged the Although the Academy's authority of a significant group of Siberian institutions possessed scholars and the scientific schools highly qualified personnel, as the they headed, it allowed Siberian number of scientific workers grew science to influence the elaboration rapidly during the 1960s, their of policy in the Academy. average qualification level declined The concentration of researchers slightly. The decline, however, was with higher educations also characteristic of personnel in all continued to increase in Academy sectors of science and did not affect institutes. Doctors of the sciences the research institutions of the working as researchers in the Siberian Division to the same degree Siberian Division accounted for that it affected the Academy of almost 80 percent of all doctors of Sciences as a whole. By the early the sciences working in the region; 1970s, qualification levels candidates of sciences, for over characteristic of the rnid-1950s had one-half. These numbers indicate once again been achieved. The only that Academy structures in Siberia aspect in which the personnel had a more effective system of composition of the Siberian Division training doctors and candidates than continued to lag, albeit did other scientific sectors; these insignificantly, behind overall structures were also far more Academy parameters was in the attractive to potential employees, proportion of its staff who were pulling in specialists from both doctors of the sciences. At the same beyond the region and from other time, Siberian science gained scientific organizations. something it had never before Extremely vital changes also possessed in its history: a large occurred in the personnel structure number of Academicians and of Siberian Academy research Corresponding Members of the institutions (see Table 2). By the USSR Academy of Sciences who early 1970s, almost every third worked in Siberian research candidate or doctor of the sciences institutes. in the Siberian Division had a By the early 1970s, 22 full background in physics and members and 46 Corresponding mathematics; together with Members of the Academy were candidates and doctors of the 51. V. Ia. Atavina and N.A. Kupershtokh, "The Dynamics of Scientif-ic Personnel of the Siberian Division of the AS USSR (1957-1987)," in The Great October Revolution and Socialist Refonns in Siberia, sections IV, V, VI (Novosibirsk: 1987), 152. 22 technical sciences, they accounted number of scientific institutions in for ahnost one-half of all personnel Siberia grew principally during the with higher educations working in late 1950s and early 1960s, not later. the Division. The proportion of Although the rate of increase specialists in life and earth sciences, appeared impressive during the first on the other hand, fell from ahnost half of the 1960s--especially when two-thirds to just one-third of all compared with overall figures for employees. These trends reflected the Academy, which experienced a the orientation of new scientific dramatic decline at this time-the schools and research collectives that apparent increase in the Siberian had developed in Siberia following Division in these years can be the decision to create the Siberian explained by the fact that the Division. Academy as a whole lost a number Thus by the early 1970s, the of technical establishments and character of Academy personnel in applied science research institutions Siberian institutions had changed when it was reorganized early in the radically-quantitatively and decade. Not only did the qualitatively, as well as in terms of reorganization cause the Academy their scientific orientations. Due to to lose a significant number of the creation of the powerful and institutes, just prior to the highly qualified research collective reorganization the Academy had of the Siberian Division, the complex temporarily lost all of its branches, of Academy institutions in Siberia with the exception of those that became qualitatively more became part of the Siberian important within the overall Division. 52 The Siberian Division Academy system, just as the lost far less in the Division's research institutions reorganization-five research became more important within the institutions altogether: the Transport regional structure of science. and Energy Institute and the Because the Division's concentration Institute of Experimental Biology of scientific cadres allowed it to and Medicine (in Novosibirsk), the resolve problems of fundamental Institute of Oil and Coal Chemicals and applied science at virtually any Synthesis (in Angarsk, Irkutsk level of difficulty, the Division oblast'), and the Transbaikal became the core of the region's Comprehensive Science Research network of scientific institutions. Institute (in Chita), which were Having seen that the Siberian transferred to the jurisdiction of Division successfully resolved its state committees and other personnel problem, let us turn to its departments for the relevant strategy of territorial development. branches of industry.53 Despite the To what extent were plans for a loss of only five establishments, the system of scientific centers in Siberia number of scientific research realized? As Table 3 shows, the institutions in the Division network of Academy institutions in nevertheless dropped significantly Siberia continued to develop at a in the first half of the 1960s, nearly fairly rapid rate in the 1960s. This reaching the level of the previous development, however, was decade. At the same time, the nowhere near as rapid as that which number of institutions joining the had been stipulated in ''General Division grew substantially. Prospects" resolution. In fact, the Nevertheless, the growth rate of the 52. A.V. Kol'tsov, The Role of the Academy of Sciences, 250. 53. Chronicle, 1957-1982, 65. 23 Division remained far from that in the Party hierarchy. Particular prescribed by the "General attention was devoted to the plans at Prospects" resolution. a 1966 conference of the Irkutsk The second tenet of this strategic oblast' Party organization, especially document also turned out to be in the report of M.S. Odinstov, inconsistent. An analysis of Table 3 Chairman of the Presidium of the shows that growth in the scientific Eastern Siberian Branch of the capacity of the Siberian Division in Siberian Division. Realization of the 1960s, as seen in the plans for Academy construction in development of scientific Irkutsk was considered a highly institutions, followed a trend that prestigious matter.54 Moreover, had already taken shape during the questions concerning not only the creation of the Division. As before, Irkutsk center, but the entire system priority was given to the of territorial distribution of Novosibirsk complex. By the early Academy science in Siberia were 1970s, the proportion of research repeatedly raised during the 1960s. institutions in the Division located According to Academician L. V. in Novosibirsk and Akadem­ Kirenskii, director of the Institute of gorodok had increased significantly, Physics in Krasnoiarsk, the representing almost two-thirds of all distribution of science in Russia such institutions in the Academy continued to be inadequate. The system. As a result, the proportion of creation of the Siberian Division institutions that joined the eastern had, in his opinion, ameliorated the Siberian branch of the Division was situation only to an insignificant somewhat reduced. (The creation of degree since, for the most part, only the Buriat Branch by dividing the the Nosovibirsk center had been Comprehensive Scientific Research developed. Kirenskii remarked on Institute did not affect the the need to create prominent new distribution of Academy research academic centers in Siberia, institutions in the region.) particularly in Krasnoiarsk, by In 1964, the issue of the supplementing those institutes territorial distribution of Academy which already existed in the Siberian potential in Siberia came to the Division. He specifically attention of the Russian recommended that a magnetics government. Reminding the laboratory be organized in Siberian Division of its earlier plans, Krasnoiarsk as quickly as possible. the government called for a sharp Such a laboratory would, in essence, acceleration in the development of be a large-scale physics institute research institutions outside of the modelled on a similar laboratory Novosibirsk center-above all, in complex in Boston, the concept of Irkutsk. Plans were formed to which had already been supported organize several new institutes in by the Academy of Sciences' the Irkutsk center during the second Division of General and Applied half of the 1960s, including those of Physics. In Kirenskii' s opinion, the mathematics, economics, mining, proposed laboratory would agrochemistry, as well as one of immediately make Krasnoiarsk one physics and the technical sciences. of the largest physics centers in the Great importance was attached to world. In addition, he proposed that these plans-they were treated very a chemistry institute be created in seriously and repeatedly discussed Krasnoiarsk that would provide 54. Storage Center for Contemporary Documentation (Russian acronym, TsKhSD), fund 17, inventory 102, file 288, 221. 24 scientific support to the chemical Prospects" resolution was also not industry that was rapidly successfully realized. In accordance developing in the krai. 55 with the plans of the early 1960s, the These plans did not, however, scientific research institutions of the come to fruition, either in the 1960s Siberian Division were to have been or afterwards. Neither did it prove radically reoriented towards possible to fulfill instructions regional issues and problems of contained in a joint resolution of the applied science. These goals were CPSU Central Committee and the reflected in the intent to create a RSFSR Council of Ministers of large group of geological institutes, August 1969 entitled "On the institutes which were never, in fact, development of scientific created. Table 7 gives us an idea of institutions in individual economic the character of scientific research regions of the RSFSR."56 The latter conducted in Siberian Academy document had been intended to institutes. Although atypical of guarantee that the development of Academy science in Siberia in its science in the periphery of the earlier incarnation, the Siberian Russian Republic, including the Division from its very creation was peripheral centers of the Siberian dominated by institutions of physics Division, would outpace that in any and mathematics, as well as those of other region. The main ideas of the physics and the technical sciences. resolution represented a basic This characteristic predominance of development strategy for the institutions with a physics profile Division during the 1970s, yet by attested to the Division's decade's end, they, too, remained overwhelming emphasis on only on paper. It was proving ftmdamental research in priority difficult enough to develop existing fields of scientific and technical scientific research institutions-there progress. was simply no energy left to create The preponderance of physics new ones. establishments also guaranteed that The third strategic principle of other institutes would receive the strategy for developing mathematical support, which in the Academy science in Siberia 1960s became the hallmark of prescribed by the "General sophisticated research methodology.

Table 7. Distribution of scientific research institutes and design offices of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Siberia, shown in percentages of total such institutions. 1961 1970 Institutional Profile Physics and Mathematics/ Technical Sciences 31.6 36.4 Chemical sciences 18.04 15.0 Biological sciences 18.4 20.4 Earth sciences 8.4 15.9 Social sciences 5.3 9.1 Com rehensive Research Institutes 7.9 2.3 Source: Artemov, Formation and Development of the Network. Data on Comprehensive Research Institutes (fumplekSnye nauchnye issledovatel'nye

55. Ibid., inventory 107, file 523, 141-3. 56. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Resolutions, vol. 10 (Moscow: 1972), 81-4. 25 As can be seen in Table 7, institutes the strategy. First, miscalculations of physics, mathematics, and the affected the elaboration of the technical sciences continued to strategy itself. The orientation of the dominate the Division in the 1970s. "General Prospects" resolution, as Moreover, the proportion of such noted earlier, was largely a product institutes grew slightly at the same of its time. A passion for large time as that of geological institutes figures was in vogue, but the decreased. Obviously, a complete methodology used to calculate them reorientation of the scientific left much to be desired. Projections complex in the direction of servicing were based on the assumption of regional requirements did not occur exceptionally favorable rates of and a profound emphasis on economic growth in the country as a fundamental research continued to whole and in Siberia in particular. be the distinctive feature of Such growth did not occur in reality Academy institutes in Siberia. and plans were accordingly revised Unfortunately, another strategic and reduced in absolute terms. This principle for developing the explains the quantitative aspect of network of Siberian Division the problem. institutions remained unfulfilled: Second, plans to establish that of the successive development comprehensive scientific centers in of comprehensive scientific centers stages throughout Siberia were in Siberia. This principle had been based on the hope that the one of the cornerstones of the very Novosibirsk center could be idea of the Division in the late fifties reproduced in other cities of Siberia, and early sixties. Initially, it was which proved impossible. Given the proposed that, subsequent to the nature and climate of eastern creation of the Novosibirsk center, a Siberia, creating such a scientific series of similar academic centers center in Irkutsk or Iakutsk would based on the Novosibirsk model have required far greater financial would be created in different outlays and funds of such Siberian cities. In reality, none of the magnitude were already scarce. The peripheral centers of the Siberian poor financial climate became Division ever reached the level of particularly noticeable during the the Novosibirsk center, either second half of the 1960s, when quantitatively or with respect to the Khrushchev-the person who had organizational principles governing approved the idea of organizing the their scientific activities. Even the Siberian Division and had openly Irkutsk center, the next most sympathized with its important after Novosibirsk, was far leadership--ceased to be leader of more specialized and narrowly the country. Even had it been focused, pursuing regionally possible to obtain the necessary oriented research to a much greater funds, the situation would not have extent. Its lack of an institute of improved because, with the possible physics and mathematics reduced exception of Irkutsk, eastern Siberia the capabilities of the entire group of lacked the necessary scientific Irkutsk institutes. For Irkutsk, the infrastructure to take on such a integration achieved within the large-scale center and assure its Novosibirsk center remained an future development on its own unreachable dream. resource base. Inevitably, the much The failure to build several harsher living and working Siberian centers in succession can be conditions of eastern Siberia, its far attributed to many varied reasons, greater distance from the center of but two factors principally hindered the country, and the region's 26 minimal prestige on the scale of their share would be only 40 percent territorial priorities also influenced of all such Academy institutions. 57 the situation. Thus the trend that had developed The success of the Siberian in the late 1950s and early 1960s was Division was largely~ven subsequently confirmed by the fundamentally--

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