Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
as The Pryaslins. The other novels in the tetralogy
are Two Winters and Three Summers (1968), Paths
and Crossroads (1973), which was awarded the
1975 USSR literature prize, and The House (1978).
founded on the basis of a decree of Peter the
Great of January 1724. It opened its doors the
following year in St. Petersburg. Construction for
more permanent headquarters began in 1738
under the direction of the renowned architect
Giacomo Quarenghi. For most of the 18th cen-
tury the academy was staffed by foreign scholars,
mostly Germans, invited by the government.
One notable exception was the renowned Rus-
sian scientist Mikhail LOMONOSOV , who was
elected to the academy in 1745. During the 19th
century, the academy was gradually “Russified,”
although it continued to attract and invite schol-
ars from abroad. The status and composition of
the academy did not change much in the first
decade after the 1917 Revolutions. In 1927,
however, as part of a larger cultural offensive, it
was renamed the USSR Academy of Sciences and
brought in line with the demands of the COMMU -
NIST PARTY and the Soviet state. In 1934, the acad-
emy was relocated from Leningrad (formerly St.
Petersburg) to MOSCOW . By 1987, toward the end
of the Soviet period, the academy contained 250
research institutes and over 60,000 full-time
researchers, concentrated mostly in the natural
sciences. Over 300 scholars had the privileged
status of “academician,” while about twice as
many were “corresponding members” of the
academy. In addition, all the union republics
except the RSFSR had their own mini-academies
of science. About 90 percent of research was car-
ried on outside the academy system. Most of this
was of an applied character and much of it was
related to weapons systems and done in secret
facilities in the defense-production ministries.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the
academy was renamed the Russian Academy of
Sciences.
Abramtsevo
Located about two hours from MOSCOW , Abram-
tsevo is a village and estate that was the spiritual
home of the Arts and Crafts movement that flour-
ished in late 19th-century Russia under the name
Style Moderne. Originally built in 1771, the main
house was home to the Slavophile philosopher
Sergei AKSAKOV , between the 1840s and 1860s,
during which time the main outlines of the Slavo-
phile movement to which he belonged took
shape. Nikolai GOGOL worked here shortly before
his death on the ill-fated second volume to his
masterpiece Dead Souls, before he burned the
manuscript. Ivan TURGENEV was also a frequent
visitor. In 1870, Savva Mamontov, a railway mag-
nate and patron of the arts, purchased the estate.
For the next two decades, under his family's
patronage, Abramtsevo became a living work-
shop of Russian culture, favoring the rediscovery
of native Russian traditions of art. Abramtsevo
became a kind of artists' retreat where painters,
potters, singers, and theater directors commented
on one another's work. Workshop products like
furniture and ceramics were sold at the Abramt-
sevo shop in Moscow, established in 1880. Late-
19th-century artists such as Ilia REPIN , Mikhail
VRUBEL , and Valentin Serov left their mark on the
estate. Repin's family portraits hang in the main
house, while Vrubel's ceramic-tiled fireplace was
made in the ceramic studio next door. The
remarkable Abramtsevo Church on the estate
grounds was built to recall the glories of medieval
Russian architecture, and inside features icons by
Repin, Vasnetsov, and Polenov. Abramtsevo now
belongs to the ACADEMY OF SCIENCES and has been
turned into a museum.
Adashev, Aleksei Feodorovich
(unknown-1561)
government official
An influential government adviser in the early
decades of the reign of IVAN IV (the Terrible),
Adashev became one of the first casualties of the
setbacks in the LIVONIAN WAR (1558-83), which
Academy of Sciences
The leading institution for scientific and scholarly
research in Russia, the Academy of Sciences was
Search WWH ::




Custom Search