The Formation of Soviet Research Institutes: A Combination of Revolutionary Innovation and International Borrowing

In the Soviet Union today the term 'scientific research institute' (nauchno-issledovatel'skii institut) has a significance and a currency unequalled in any country in Western Europe or the Americas. The prototypical research institute in the Soviet Union is located in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Although far outnumbered by the institutes in the ministries and other academies, the institutes of the All-Union Academy of Sciences enjoy the greatest prestige and are usually recognized as representing the ideal model for the organization of scientific research. In this essay I would like to examine briefly the origin of this model for the organization of scientific research. In doing so I will trace its history back to the pre-revolutionary period, consider the influence of certain foreign models on Russian and Soviet developments, and discuss the uniquely Soviet innovations which were introduced after the Revolution and which reflected the characteristics of the Soviet social and political milieu.