Russian and Soviet Science - Social History - Syllabus

Course taught at Indiana University, Bloomington (1995) and California Institute of Technology (1996).

Schedule of Readings and Topics

A: Science in the Russian Empire.

B: Science in the Soviet Union.

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Textbooks

Synopsis

Russia's way of acquiring and institutionalizing European science paralleled, but also instructively differed from that of the US. European institutions - Imperial Academy of Sciences and universities - adapted to a different culture and started a life of their own. Scholars and professors had to define their roles in the interplay of several powers: the native political autocracy, the international scientific community and the emerging civil society.

After the revolution, the Soviet Union developed its distinctive organizational structure for science, with research supported independently from higher education and with Academy of Sciences resembling a governmental agency. Paradoxical achievements of science during the period of Stalin's rule require an explanation: how did scientific community function in the conditions of political dictatorship, dogmatic ideology and international isolation?

Schedule of Readings and Topics

A: Science in the Russian Empire
1. Transplanting European Science. 18th century Academy of Sciences.
2. Universities in Russian Society. Enlightenment and Early 19th Century.
3. Great Reforms and the Emergence of Research University. Ideological Responses to Darwin.
4. Intelligentsia and Student Activism.
5. National Community and the Academic Autonomy

B: Science in the Soviet Union
6. Bolsheviks and Bourgeois Specialists. Power Struggle in the Universities.
7. Cultural Revolution. Science as Profession.
8. High Stalinism. Stalinist Academy.
9. Science and Ideology. The Lysenko Myth.
10. Experts and Politicians: Dialogue and the Division of Authority.
11. Cold War and International Competition. Big Projects.
12. Scientists as Elite. Soviet Scientific Establishment after Stalin.
13. Science and the End of the Soviet Era.

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1. Transplanting European Science. 18th century Academy of Sciences.

Graham. Science in Russia and the Soviet Union. (1993): 9-31
Vucinich, Alexander. Science in Russian Culture. Vol.1. History to 1860. (1963): 65-122.
Home R.W. "Science as Career in Eighteenth-Century Russia: The Case of F.U.T.Aepinus." - Slavonic and East European Review. 51 (1973) : 75-94.
Vernadsky G. (ed). A Source Book for Russian History from Early Times to 1917. Vol.2: 366-369.

Supplementary Readings: Education in the Time of Peter the Great
Okenfuss M. "The Jesuit Origins of Petrine Education"; "Russian Students in Europe in the Age of Peter the Great." - in: The Eighteenth Century in Russia. Ed. J.G.Garrard. (1973): 106-148;
Okenfuss M. "Technical Training in Russia under Peter the Great." - History of Education Quarterly. 13 (1973) : 325-345.

2. Universities in Russian Society. Enlightenment and Early 19th Century.

Vucinich. Science in Russian Culture. (1963) Vol.1: 131-135, 184-244
"Education and Intellectual Life." - from: Raeff M. Imperial Russia, 1682-1825. The Coming of Age of Modern Russia. 131-158.
Vernadsky G. (ed). A Source Book for Russian History Vol.2: 388-392,464-465,485-486,562-567.
Dmytryshyn B. Imperial Russia. A Source Book. 3d ed. (1990) : 64-68,118-121.

Supplementary Readings:
Kizevetter A."Moskovskii Universitet (istoricheskii ocherk)." - In: Moskovskii Universitet,1755-1930. Eds. V.B.El'iashevich, A.A.Kizevetter, M.M.Novikov. Paris (1930) : 9-118.
Flynn, James T. The University Reform of Tsar Alexander I, 1802-1835. (1988).

3. Great Reforms and the Emergence of Research University. Ideological Responses to Darwin.

Graham. Science in Russia and the Soviet Union. (1993): 32-78.
Kassow S. "The University Statute of 1863." - In: Russia's Great Reforms, 1855- 1881. Ed. Ben Eklof , John Bushnell, Larissa Zakharova. (1994) : 247-263.
Vucinich, Alexander. Science in Russian Culture. Vol. 2. 1861-1917. (1967) : 105- 179.
Todes D. "Darwin's Malthusian Metaphor and Russian Evolutionary Thought, 1859- 1917." - Isis. 78 (1987) : 537-551.
Vernadsky G. (ed). A Source Book for Russian History Vol.3: 610-611,622-623,682-684.

Supplementary Readings:
Joravsky, David. Russian Psychology. A Critical History. (1989) :52-70, 122-157.
Sechenov, I.M. Autobiographical Notes. (1965) : 96-129.

4. Intelligentsia and Student Activism.

Kassow. Students, Professors, and the State in Tsarist Russia. (1989): 3-197.
Malia, Martin. "What is the Intelligentsia?" - In: The Russian Intelligentsia. Ed. R.Pipes. (1960) :1-18.
Koblitz, Ann Hibner. "Science, Women and the Russian Intelligentsia: The Generation of 1860s." - Isis. 79 (1988) : 208-226.
Kheraskov Iv. "Iz istorii studencheskogo dvizheniia v Moskovskom universitete (vospominaniia uchastnika. 1897-1903)." - In: Moskovskii Universitet (1930) : 431-449.
Vernadsky G. (ed). A Source Book for Russian History. Vol.3: 812-816.

Supplementary Readings:
Brower D. Training the Nihilists: Education and Radicalism in Tsarist Russia. (1975).
Mathes, William L. "The Origins of Confrontation Politics in Russian Universities: Student Activism, 1855-1861." - Canadian Slavic Studies. 2 (1968) : 28-45.

5. National Community and the Academic Autonomy

Kassow. Students, Professors, and the State in Tsarist Russia.(1989): 198-406.
Hutchinson, John F. "Tsarist Russia and the Bacteriological Revolution." - Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 4. (1985) 420-439.

Supplementary Readings:
McClelland, James. Autocrats and Academics. Education, Culture and Society in Tsarist Russia. (1979).
Miliuikov P. "Universitety v Rossii." - In: Brokgaus-Efron. Entsiklopedicheskii Slovar'. 68 (1902) : 788-800.
The Transformation of Higher Learning, 1860-1930. Ed. K.Jarausch. (1980): 9- 36, 89-107, 180-195, 245-260, 321-344.
Bailes K. Science in Russian Culture in an Age of Revolutions: V.I.Vernadsky and his Scientific School, 1863-1945. (1990).

6. Bolsheviks and Bourgeois Specialists.

Graham. Science in Russia and the Soviet Union. (1993): 79-99.
Fitzpatrick. The Cultural Front. (1992): 1-90.
"The Bolsheviks and Intelligentsia." - In: Party, State and Society in the Russian Civil War. (1989) : 239-315.
P.I.Lebedev-Poliansky. "Revolution and the Cultural Tasks of the Proletariat"; Lunacharsky A. "How We Took the Ministry of Education"; Kollontai A. "The Family and the Communist State"; Kerzhentsev V. "Out of School Education and the 'Proletkults' ". - From: Bolshevik Visions: First Phase of the Cultural Revolution in Soviet Russia. Ed. W.Rosenberg. (1984) : 67-76, 323-327, 338-346, 62-70.

Supplementary Readings: Power Struggle in the Universities.
McClelland, James. "Bolshevik Approaches to Higher Education, 1917-1921." - Slavic Review. 30 (1971) : 818-831.
Smirnova T.M. "Istoriia razrabotki i provedeniia v zhizn' pervogo sovetskogo ustava vysshei shkoly." - In: Gosudarstvennoe rukovodstvo vysshei shkoloi v dorevoliutsionnoi Rossii i v SSSR. Ed. N.P.Eroshkin. (1979) : 6-38.
Novikov M. "Moskovskii Universitet v pervyi period bol'shevistskogo rezhima"; Stratonov V.V. "Poteria Moskovskim Universitetom svobody." - In: Moskovskii Universitet : 156-242.

7. Cultural Revolution. Science as Profession.

Fitzpatrick. The Cultural Front. (1992): 91-148.
Graham L. "The Formation of Soviet Research Institutes: A Combination of Revolutionary Innovation and International Borrowing." - Social Studies of Science. 5 (1975): 303-329.
Bailes K. Technology and Society under Lenin and Stalin: Origins of the Soviet Technical Intelligentsia, 1917-1941. (1978). Chapters 3-6 : 69-156.
Levin, Aleksei. "Expedient Catastrophe: A Reconsideration of the 1929 Crisis at the Soviet Academy of Sciences." - Slavic Review. 47 (1988) : 261-279.

Supplementary Readings:
Josephson P. Physics and Politics in Revolutionary Russia. (1991).
Graham L.R. "The Socio-Political Roots of Boris Hessen: Soviet Marxism and the History of Science." - Social Studies of Science. 15 (1985) : 705-722.
Graham, L. The Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Communist Party, 1927- 1932. (1967).

8. High Stalinism. Stalinist Academy.

Fitzpatrick. The Cultural Front. (1992): 149-256.
Bailes K. Technology and Society under Lenin and Stalin.(1978) Ch.9 : 216-243.
Joravsky D. "The Stalinist Mentality and the Higher Learning."- Slavic Review. 42 (1983): 575-600.
Levin A. "Anatomy of a Public Campaign: 'Academician Luzin's Case' in Soviet History." - Slavic Review. 49 (1990) : 90-108.
McCutcheon R. "The 1937 Purge of Soviet Astronomers." - Slavic Review. 50 (1991): 100-117.

Supplementary Readings:
Vucinich A. Empire of Knowledge: The Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1917-1970).(1984).

9. Science and Ideology. The Lysenko Myth.

Graham. Science in Russia and the Soviet Union. (1993): 99-155.
"Address Delivered by Academician T.D.Lysenko on the Situation in Biological Sciences." - In: The Situation in Biological Sciences. (1949) :11-50.
Lewontin R. and Levins R. "The Problem of Lysenkoism." - In: The Radicalisation of Science: Ideology of/in the Natural Sciences. Eds. H. and S. Rose. (1976) : 32- 64.
Roll-Hansen N. "A New Perspective on Lysenko?" - Annals of Science. 42 (1985): 261-278.
Rossiianov K. "Editing Nature: Joseph Stalin and the "New" Soviet Biology." - Isis. 84 (1993) : 728-745.
Kojevnikov A. "President of Stalin's Academy: The Mask and Responsibility of Sergei Vavilov." - Isis. 87 (1996) : 18-50.
Stalin J. "Concerning Marxism in Linguistics." (1950) - Reprinted in: Stalin J. Marxism and the Problems of Linguistics. (1972) : 3-32.

Supplementary Readings:
Joravsky D. Soviet Marxism and Natural Science, 1917-1932. (1961).
Joravsky D. The Lysenko Affair. (1970).
Graham L. Science, Philosophy, and Human Behavior in the Soviet Union. (1987).

10. Experts and Politicians: Dialogue and the Division of Authority.

Graham. Science in Russia and the Soviet Union.: 156-172.
Bailes K. Technology and Society under Lenin and Stalin.(1978) Ch. 11-14 : 265-406.
Kozhevnikov A. "Piotr Kapitza and Stalin's Government: A Study in Moral Choice." - Historical Studies in Physical and Biological Sciences. 22 (1991) : 131-164.
Peter Kapitza in Cambridge and Moscow. Life and Letters of a Russian Physicist. (1990): 319-329, 337-353, 368-378, 416-420.

Supplementary Readings:
Graham L. The Ghost of the Executed Engineer. (1993).

11. Cold War and International Competition. Large-Scale Projects.

Holloway D. Stalin and the Bomb. The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956. (1994) Ch. 3-15 (without 8, 12, and 13) : 49-149, 172-223, 294-345.
Doel R. "Evaluating Soviet Lunar Science in Cold War America." - Osiris. 7 (1992):238-264.
Josephson P. "Rockets, Reactors, and Soviet Culture." - In: Science and the Soviet Social Order. Ed. Loren Graham. (1990) : 168-191.

Excercise in Literary Criticism:
Sudoplatov P., Sudoplatov A. Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness - A Soviet Spymaster. (1994) : VII-XX, 172-220, 436-467.
Holloway D. "Charges of Espionage." - Science. 264 (1994) : 1346-1347.
Powers T. "Were the Atomic Scientists Spies?" -New York Review of Books (9 June 1994): 10-17.

Supplementary Readings:
McDougall W. The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age. (1985).

12. Scientists as Elite. Soviet Scientific Establishment after Stalin.

Graham. Science in Russia and the Soviet Union.(1993): 173-190.
Adams M. "Biology after Stalin: A Case Study." - Survey. 23 (1978) : 53-80.
Gustafson Th. "Why Doesn't Soviet Science Do Better Than It Does?" - In: The Social Context of Soviet Science. Ed. L.Lubrano, S.Solomon. (1980) : 1-68.
Weiner D. "Prometheus Rechained: Ecology and Conservation"; De George R. "Biomedical Ethics." - In: Science and the Soviet Social Order. (1990): 71-93, 195-224.
Agamirzian, Igor. "Computing in the U.S.S.R." - Byte. 16 (1991) # 4 : 120- 129.
Sakharov, Andrei. Memoirs. (1990) Ch.6-20 (without 9, 18): 90-138, 157-240, 267-294.

Supplementary Readings:
Medvedev Zh. Soviet Science. (1978).

13. Science and the End of the Soviet Era.

Graham. Science in Russia and the Soviet Union. (1993): 190-203.
Marples, David. The Social Impact of the Chernobyl Disaster. Ch.7. "The Nuclear Power Debate." : 239-277. (1988); "Chernobyl's Lengthening Shadow." - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. (September 1993) : 38-43.
Starr, Frederick. "New Communications Technologies and Civil Society." - In: Science and the Soviet Social Order. (1990) : 19-50;
Kerr, Stephen. "Educational Reform and Technological Change: Computing Literacy in the Soviet Union." - Comparative Education Review. 35 (1991) : 222-254.
Spring D.W. "History: Remaking History - Soviet Perspectives on the Past." - In: The Impact of Gorbachev. The First Phase, 1985-1990. Ed. D.W.Spring. (1991) : 68- 91.
Tolz, Vera. [On Academy of Sciences] - Report on the USSR (16 February 1990, 8 June 1990, 18 January 1991); RFE/RL Research Report (14 February 1992).
Levin, Aleksei. [On Science Policy] - Report on the USSR. (2 November 1990; 7 Dec. 1990; 31 May 1991); RFE/RL Research Report. (14 February 1992; 23 October 1992).
[On Financial Problems and the Brain Drain] Tolz, Vera. - Report on the USSR. (28 June 1991); Helmstadter, Sarah. - RFE/RL Report. (23 October 1992).

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