Russian Academicians and Revolution: Combining Professionalism and Politics

by Vera Tolz

An examination of the early Soviet period of the Russian (Soviet) Academy of Sciences which focuses on the reactions of individual members of the academy to the new situation in which they found themselves after October 1917. Based on the extensive use of documents from the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the author discusses how the academicians justified their cooperation with the Bolsheviks and the ideological basis of the regime's policy towards the academy in the 1920s.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Vera Tolz is Sir William Mather Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Manchester

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at how some of the leading Russian scholars, those in the Academy of Sciences, reacted to the October Revolution and the rise to power of the Bolsheviks. Tolz covers the immediate aftermath of the 1920s and into the 1930s, at which most of the pre-revolutionary academicians had died. Separate chapters are devoted to a few choice individuals (Nikolai Marr, Sergei Oldenburg, Ivan Pavlo, Aleksei Krylov, and Vladimir Vernadsky) to show the varied reaction, as they all reacted quite differently. An important work in seeing the Bolshevik impact on Russian society.