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76-639: Steller pursued studies in theology and medicine before turning his attention to the natural sciences. In 1734, he joined the Russian Academy of Sciences as a physician, eventually being selected to accompany Bering's expedition to the uncharted waters between Siberia and North America. Steller kept detailed records of species and cultures encountered, as well as ocean currents during the journey. Steller discovered many new species, as he documented numerous plants and animals, many of which were previously unknown to Western science. Notable among his discoveries

152-537: A decline for the academy as he cut funding for academic institutions and prohibited Russians from attending Western influenced institutions. In 1803, Alexander I reverted to reforms from Catherine the Great's era and gave the academy self-administration power in a new charter. The new charter came with a name change to the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Following Leibniz's instructions, Peter reached out to

228-582: A dedicated Russian Space Science Internet (RSSI). Started with just three members, The RSSI now has 3,100 members, including 57 from the largest research institutions. Russian universities and technical institutes are not under the supervision of the RAS (they are subordinated to the Ministry of Education of Russian Federation), but a number of leading universities, such as Moscow State University , St. Petersburg State University , Novosibirsk State University , and

304-636: A few Academy name changes, ending as The Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences right before the Soviet period. Now headquartered in Moscow, the academy (RAS) is a non-profit organization established in the form of a federal state budgetary institution chartered by the Government of Russia . In 2013, the Russian government restructured RAS, assigning control of its property and research institutes to

380-552: A jealous rival and recalled to St. Petersburg. At one point he was put under arrest and made to return to Irkutsk for a hearing. He was freed and again turned west toward St. Petersburg, but along the way he came down with a fever and died at Tyumen . Some of his journals, which reached the academy and were later published by Peter Simon Pallas , were used by other explorers of the North Pacific, including Captain Cook . There

456-446: A major goal in the 1740s by turning out the first Russian scholar members, Stepan Krasheninnikov and Mikhail Lomonosov . The academy's charter in 1747 brought some changed to the academy's organization which stood until the end of the century. Among some of the changes were Russian and Latin as the official languages, a push to translate literature into Russian, and restrictive working hours for faculty. The charter also emphasized

532-467: A massive northern relative of the dugong , lasted only 27 years after Steller discovered and named it. The sea cow had a limited population that quickly became victim of overhunting by the Russian crews that followed in Bering's wake. Steller's jay is one of the few species named after Steller that is not currently listed as endangered. In his brief encounter with the bird, Steller was able to deduce that

608-637: A natural habitat for sea otters , and their population now appears stable, unlike on other Aleutian islands, and although they had been hunted to near extinction on the then-recently discovered Bering Island by 1854. Steller sea lions continue to summer on Bering Island, but the manatee-like Steller's sea cows , which fed on the kelp beds surrounding the island, were hunted to extinction by 1768. Bering Island has also long been famous for its seal rookeries, including northern fur seals , common seals and larga seals , although that population dropped to but 2 rookeries totaling 3,000 seals by 1913 (two years after

684-457: A new government agency headed by Mikhail Kotyukov . As of November 2017 , the academy included 1,008 institutions and other units; in total about 125,000 people were employed of whom 47,000 were scientific researchers. There are three types of membership in the RAS: full members ( academicians ), corresponding members, and foreign members. Academicians and corresponding members must be citizens of

760-568: A planeload of Aleuts from Nikolskoye met another planeload of Alaskan Aleuts in Kamchatka's capital, and were surprised they could still communicate in the old Aleut language. Because of their isolation, like the now-Alaskan Pribilof Islands , the Aleuts have been used for studies of genetic drift. The area surrounding Bering Island is now a biosphere reserve, known for its diverse wildlife, and particularly marine mammals. The island's shores form

836-484: A situation made only worse by frequent raids by Arctic foxes . The crew hunted sea otters, sea lions, fur seals and sea cows to survive the winter. In early 1742, the crew used salvaged material from the St. Peter to construct a new vessel to return to Avacha Bay and nicknamed it The Bering . Steller spent the next two years exploring the Kamchatka peninsula. He was falsely accused of freeing Kamchadal rebels from prison by

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912-411: A sketch of what they think the mainland would look like. On a remarkable journey, Steller became the first European naturalist to describe a number of North American plants and animals, including a jay later named Steller's jay . Although Steller tried to treat the crew's growing scurvy epidemic with leaves and berries he had gathered, officers scorned his proposal. Steller and his assistant were some of

988-441: A slate of foreign scholars as professors; the academy then gained its first clear set of goals from the 1747 Charter. The academy functioned as a university and research center throughout the mid-18th century until the university was dissolved, leaving research as the main pillar of the institution. The rest of the 18th century continuing on through the 19th century consisted of many published academic works from Academy scholars and

1064-612: Is a round island with a diameter of 800 m (2,600 ft). In 1741 Commander Vitus Bering , sailing in Svyatoy Pyotr ( St. Peter ) for the Russian Navy , was shipwrecked and died of scurvy on Bering Island, along with 28 of his men. His ship had been destroyed by storms as they returned from an expedition that discovered mainland Alaska as well as the Aleutian Islands for Russians. The survivors under

1140-717: Is also a journal of Steller's published by Stanford University Press that is titled Journal of a Voyage with Bering, 1741-1742, which has detailed accounts of the Second Kamchatka Expedition or the Great Northern Expedition . Scientific Contributions Of the six species of birds and mammals that Steller discovered during the voyage, two are extinct ( Steller's sea cow and the spectacled cormorant ) and three are near threatened and vulnerable ( Steller sea lion , Steller's eider and Steller's sea eagle ). The sea cow, in particular,

1216-832: Is located off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea . At 95 km (59 mi) long by 15 km (9.3 mi) wide, it is the largest and westernmost of the Commander Islands , with an area of 1,667 km (1,036 mi). Most of Bering Island and several of the smaller islands in their entirety are now part of the Komandorsky Zapovednik nature preserve. Bering Island is treeless, desolate and experiences severe weather, including high winds, persistent fog and earthquakes. It had no year-round human residents until roughly 1826. Now,

1292-639: The Academy . Expeditions Steller knew about Vitus Bering 's Second Kamchatka Expedition , which had left Saint Petersburg in February 1733. He volunteered to join it and was accepted. He then left St Petersburg in January 1738 with his wife, who decided to stay in Moscow and go no farther. Steller met Johann Georg Gmelin in Yeniseisk in January 1739. Gmelin recommended that Steller take his place in

1368-748: The Communist Party of the Russian Federation until his death on March 1, 2019, initiator of the laws "On Education for All" and "On Support for Innovation in Russia"), physician Gennady Onishchenko (from United Russia , member of the committee on education and science), and polar explorer Artur Chilingarov (United Russia). 55°42′39″N 37°34′41″E  /  55.71083°N 37.57806°E  / 55.71083; 37.57806 Bering Island Bering Island ( Russian : о́стров Бе́ринга , romanized :  óstrov Béringa )

1444-751: The Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology , make use of the staff and facilities of many institutes of the RAS (as well as of other research institutions); the MIPT faculty refers to this arrangement as the "Phystech System". From 1933 to 1992, the main scientific journal of the Soviet Academy of Sciences was the Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences ( Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR ); after 1992, it became simply Proceedings of

1520-558: The North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911 ), particularly after the 20 year hunting lease of Hutchinson, Kohl and Company of San Francisco, which removed over 800,000 pelts. Whale species sighted in the surrounding waters include sperm whales , orcas , several species of beaked whales , humpback , and right whales . Porpoises also frequent these waters. Bering Island also has numerous seabirds. UNESCO noted that 203 bird species have been sighted on

1596-501: The Soviet space program . In 1957 the first satellite was launched, in 1961 Yury Gagarin became the first person in space, and in 1971 the first space station Salyut 1 began its operation. Discoveries were also made in the nuclear branch and in other fields of physics. Furthermore, the academy participated in opening new universities or new study programs in the already existed universities, whose best absolvents started their career at

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1672-548: The St. Paul in a storm, Bering continued to sail east, expecting to find land soon. Steller, reading sea currents and flotsam and wildlife, insisted they should sail northeast. After considerable time lost, they turned northeast and made landfall in Alaska at Kayak Island on Monday 20 July 1741. Bering wanted to stay only long enough to take on fresh water. Steller argued Captain Bering into giving him more time for land exploration and

1748-635: The University of Wittenberg . He then traveled to Russia as a physician on a troop ship returning home with the wounded. He arrived in Russia in November 1734. He met the naturalist Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt (1685–1735) at the Imperial Academy of Sciences . Two years after Messerschmidt's death, Steller married his widow and acquired notes from his travels in Siberia not handed over to

1824-499: The mathematicians Leonhard Euler (1707–1783), Anders Johan Lexell , Christian Goldbach , Georg Bernhard Bilfinger , Nicholas Bernoulli (1695–1726) and Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782), botanist Johann Georg Gmelin , embryologists Caspar Friedrich Wolff , astronomer and geographer Joseph-Nicolas Delisle , physicist Georg Wolfgang Kraft , historian Gerhard Friedrich Müller and English Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne (1732–1811). Expeditions to explore remote parts of

1900-399: The national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such as libraries, publishing units, and hospitals. Peter the Great established the academy (then the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences) in 1724 with guidance from Gottfried Leibniz . From its establishment, the academy benefitted from

1976-682: The spectacled cormorant . Steller claimed the only recorded sighting of the marine cryptid Steller's sea ape . Georg Steller described a number of animals and plants, some of which bear his name, either in the common name or scientific: Steller Secondary School in Anchorage, Alaska is named for Steller, as is Mount Steller at 58°25′47″N 154°23′29″W  /  58.42972°N 154.39139°W  / 58.42972; -154.39139 . Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences ( RAS ; Russian : Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk ) consists of

2052-617: The Academy of Sciences ( Doklady Akademii Nauk ). The academy is also increasing its presence in the educational area. In 1990, the Higher Chemical College of the Russian Academy of Sciences was founded, a specialized university intended to provide extensive opportunities for students to choose an academic path. The academy gives out a number of different prizes, medals and awards among which: The academy

2128-622: The Aleutian islands to the United States in 1867, Bering Island was placed under the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky jurisdiction. The population grew from 110 people in 1827 (17 Russians, 45 Aleuts and 48 mixed race) to more than 300 people in 1879 (100 Aleuts on Copper island alone, along with 332 mixed-race and about 10% Russian or other nationalities). In 1990, after 170 years of separation and loss of cultural traditions,

2204-551: The Commander Islands, including 58 nesting there. Puffins are abundant, although the semi-flightless spectacled cormorant became extinct circa 1850. Two species of the Arctic foxes that tormented Bering's crew remain. Humans introduced reindeer , American mink and rats to the islands, with negative effects on native wildlife. Like the rest of Kamchatka Krai, Bering Island has a subarctic climate ( Dfc ), though

2280-666: The FASO was incorporated into Russia's new Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The latter was created by splitting the Ministry of Education and Science . Mikhail Kotyukov , who had been head of FASO since its creation, was named head of the new Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In June 2023, the RAS opened the Modern Ideology of China Research Laboratory within its Institute of China and Contemporary Asia to study Xi Jinping Thought . The following persons occupied

2356-641: The German philosopher Christian Wolff , a correspondent of Leibniz, in the early 1720s and unsuccessfully offered him the Vice-Presidency of the academy. While Wolff declined a position in the academy, he did invite western scholars to work at the academy to improve higher education within the Russian Empire as outlined in Leibniz's letters. Foreign scholars invited to work at the academy included

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2432-619: The Ice Ages, but whose surviving relict population was confined to the shallow kelp beds around the Commander Islands , and which was driven to extinction within 30 years of discovery by Europeans. Based on these and other observations, Steller later wrote De Bestiis Marinis ('On the Beasts of the Sea'), describing the fauna of the island, including the northern fur seal , the sea otter , Steller sea lion , Steller's sea cow, Steller's eider and

2508-425: The RAS members signalized their intention not to join the new academy if the reform is run as planned in the draft. Some leading scientists (including Pierre Deligne , Michael Atiyah , Mumford , and others) wrote open letters which referred to the planned reform of the RAS as "shocking" and even "criminal". In this situation, the draft was softened in some details—e.g., there remained no words about "dissolution" in

2584-519: The RAS while creating a new "public-governmental" organization with the same name. The RAS would be fused with two other Russian national academies— Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences  [ ru ] and Russian Academy of Medical Sciences , with all members of all academies acquiring equal status as academicians. The law also created a new government agency: Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations  [ ru ] (FASO). FASO would take control of all buildings and other property of

2660-447: The RAS" (163 scientists) or even "RAS professor, academician of the RAS" (16 scientists). The RAS consists of 13 specialized scientific divisions, four territorial branches and 15 regional scientific centers. The academy has numerous councils, committees, and commissions, all organized for different purposes. The Russian Academy of Sciences comprises a large number of research institutions, including: Member institutions are linked via

2736-430: The Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences became incorporated into the RAS, a number of the RAS members accordingly increased. The last elections to the renewed Russian Academy of Sciences were organized from May 30 to June 3, 2022. As of November 2, 2024, the academy had 1873 living Russian members (full: 802, corresponding: 1071) and about 430 foreign members. Since 2015,

2812-466: The Russian Federation when elected. However, some academicians and corresponding members were elected before the collapse of the USSR and are now citizens of other countries. Members of RAS are elected based on their scientific contributions – election to membership is considered very prestigious. In the years 2005–2012, the academy had approximately 500 full and 700 corresponding members. But in 2013, after

2888-538: The Russian mainland, Steller then explored the Kamchatka peninsula and ultimately published De Bestiis Marinis (‘On the Beasts of the Sea’). However, his sympathies for the native peoples led to accusations that he was fomenting rebellion, so he was imprisoned and recalled to St. Petersburg , dying en route at age 37, although his diaries were later published to great acclaim and historic significance. In 1743 Emilian Basov landed on Bering Island to hunt sea otter, beginning

2964-658: The St. Petersburg Academy of Science a year before he died, in January 1724 and the Senate decree of February 8, 1724 implemented the academy. It was modeled after the centralized structure of the Paris Academy and the Berlin Academy of Sciences . These model institutions had led to an educated society of philosophical men, something Peter wanted in Russia. In particular, the Berlin Academy of Sciences

3040-669: The Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1974, "among the deputies of the Council of the Union, there were 22 scientists from the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the academies of sciences of the Union republics, and branch academies." In 1989, Andrei Sakharov became a People's Deputy of the USSR. Many scientists have worked in the State Duma of the Russian Federation - among the most famous are the physicist Zhores Alferov (deputy from

3116-602: The USSR over Nazi Germany . During and after the war, the academy was involved in the Soviet atomic bomb project ; due to its success and other achievements in military techniques, the USSR became one of the superpowers in the Cold War era. At the end of the 1940s, the academy consisted of eight divisions (Physico-Mathematical Science, Chemical Sciences, Geological-Geographical Sciences, Biological Science, Technical Science, History and Philosophy, Economics and Law, Literature and Languages); three committees (one for coordinating

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3192-410: The United States. Some excellent university graduates who could have become promising researchers also switched to other activities, predominately in commerce. The Russian Academy practically lost a generation of people born from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s; this age category is now underrepresented in all research institutes. In the 2000s, the situation in the Russian science and technology has improved,

3268-646: The academic system as he had seen in Western Europe, although he could not get a meeting with Peter during Peter's first European tour. Leibniz did, however, begin correspondence with Peter's advisors where he discussed different plans to achieve the westernization of Russia. Leibniz suggested an education reform which divided schools, universities, and academies, as well as creating new academies and schools. Also, Leibniz suggested creating an arts and sciences institution with faculty consisting of leading foreign scholars. Following Leibniz's advice, Peter founded

3344-447: The academy also awards, on a competitive basis, the honorary scientific rank of a RAS Professor to the top-level researchers with Russian citizenship. Now there are 713 scientists with this rank. RAS professorship is not a membership type but its holders are considered as possible candidates for membership; some professors became members already in 2016, in 2019 or in 2022 and are henceforth titled "RAS professor, corresponding member of

3420-422: The academy instead of bureaucratic rule. Also, in the second half of the 18th century, Russian scholars grew in number among the faculty of the academy. To heal the growing internal German versus Russian conflict of the faculty, Catherine the Great convinced Euler to return to St Petersburg and head the academy in 1766, where he stayed until he died in 1783. Catherine the Great's son Paul I's short reign marked

3496-721: The academy published 20 volumes of their academic journal called Novi Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae . The majority of Russian scientific research in the 18th century was done by members of the academy. Originally called The Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences ( Russian : Петербургская академия наук ), the organization went under various names over the years, becoming The Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts (Императорская академия наук и художеств; 1747–1803), The Imperial Academy of Sciences (Императорская академия наук; 1803–1836), and finally, The Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences (Императорская Санкт-Петербургская академия Наук, from 1836 and until

3572-488: The academy to be a model for Russia. Since the academy was under the Tsar, the presidents, vice-presidents, directors, and vice-directors were all appointed by the crown. Catherine I started this precedent which lasted until the end of the Russian Empire. The academy hit hard times during Empress Anna's rule. A low of 6 students remained in 1744 and the teaching was in German, contrary to Peter I's wishes. The academy achieved

3648-491: The academy, opening it in December 1725. Mathematics, physical sciences, and humanities were the three departments which made up the academy upon its opening. The academy also contained a university and secondary school, promoting higher education in Russia. As such, the initial 17 scholars had to teach and administer research. They were a portion of the 84 Academy staff in 1726 There were also student assistants who helped

3724-456: The academy. In addition, all RAS academic institutes were removed from academy control. Instead, the new government agency FASO was empowered to "evaluate", relying on its own criteria, the efficiency of research institutes and rearrange ineffective ones. The draft law, which, in its initial form, would have fundamentally changed the system of science organization in Russia, provoked conflicts and protests within academic circles. A large group of

3800-476: The command of the Swedish born lieutenant Sven Waxell  [ ru ] were stranded on the island for 10 months, and managed to survive by killing seals and birds. They were able to build a boat out of their stranded wreck and managed to return to Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula in 1742 with sea otter furs and preserved meat from the newly discovered island. Another of the expedition's survivors

3876-523: The country had Academy scientists as their leaders or most active participants. These included Vitus Bering 's Second Kamchatka Expedition of 1733–1743, expeditions to observe the 1769 transit of Venus from eight locations in Russian Empire , and the expeditions of Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811) to Siberia . The expeditions led to the creation of an atlas of Russia and to research in astronomy, geography, and fauna and flora. From 1750 to 1777,

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3952-464: The east coast of Kamchatka to spend the winter in Bolsherechye , where he helped to organize a local school and began exploring Kamchatka. When Bering summoned him to join the voyage in search of America and the strait between the two continents, serving in the role of scientist and physician, Steller crossed the peninsula by dog sled . After Bering's St. Peter was separated from its sister ship

4028-518: The end of the empire in 1917). A separate organization, called the Russian Academy ( Russian : Академия Российская ), was created in 1783 to work on the study of the Russian language . Presided over by Princess Yekaterina Dashkova (who at the same time was the Director of the Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences, i.e., the country's "main" academy), the Russian Academy was engaged in compiling

4104-546: The exception of the Russian SFSR ), in many cases delegating prominent scientists to live and work in other republics. In the case of Ukraine, its academy was formed by the local Ukrainian scientists and prior to occupation of the Ukrainian People's Republic by Bolsheviks . These academies were: Among the most important achievements of the academy of the second half of the 20th century, there is, first of all,

4180-535: The expertise of the academy would be applied to addressing questions of state construction, while in return the Soviet government would give the academy financial and political support. The most important activities of the academy in the 1920s included an investigation of the large Kursk Magnetic Anomaly , of the minerals in the Kola Peninsula , and participation in the GOELRO plan targeted electrification of

4256-487: The government announced a modernization campaign . Nevertheless, according to the Russian Academy of Sciences, total R&D spending in 2013 still hovered about 40% below the pre-crisis 1990 levels. Furthermore, a lack of competition, decayed infrastructure and continuing, though slightly reduced, brain drain play their part. On June 28, 2013, the Russian Government announced a draft law that would dissolve

4332-424: The hope for Russian Academy graduates to replace all the foreign scholars in time. Most of the secondary school graduates went into civil service instead of continue to the university. The university part of the academy gradually deteriorated and eventually died by 1767. During Catherine the Great's rule, she enacted reforms to improve the academy for scholars. She created a commission of academy faculty to lead

4408-616: The island's documented human habitation as well as ecological destruction. Promyshlenniki began to island-hop across the Bering Sea to the Aleutian islands and ultimately Alaska. In 1825 the Russian-American Company transferred Aleut families from Attu Island to Bering Island to hunt, and another group of Aleut and mixed-race settlers followed the following year, thus establishing the first known permanent human habitation on Bering Island. After Russia sold Alaska and

4484-543: The jay was kin to the American blue jay , a fact which seemed proof that Alaska was indeed part of North America. Despite the hardships the crew endured, Steller studied the flora, fauna, and topography of the island in great detail. Of particular note were the only detailed behavioral and anatomical observations of Steller's sea cow , a large sirenian mammal that once ranged across the Northern Pacific during

4560-460: The ocean makes temperatures much less extreme than interior Siberia, with winters being about four degrees milder than in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky . The transition to the subpolar oceanic climate of southwest Alaska to the east is very apparent, especially in the extremely low sunshine hours, which average only around 2.8 h per day due to the consistent fog from the Aleutian Low and

4636-540: The planned exploration of Kamchatka. Steller embraced that role and finally reached Okhotsk and the main expedition in March 1740 as Bering's ships, the St. Peter and St. Paul , were nearing completion. In September 1740, the expedition sailed to the Kamchatka Peninsula with Bering and his two expeditionary vessels sailing around the peninsula's south tip and up to Avacha Bay on the Pacific coast. Steller went ashore on

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4712-423: The position of the academy's President (or, sometimes, Director): The last presidential elections in the academy (and also elections of the presidium) were organized on September 25–28, 2017. Initially the event was planned for March 2017, but unexpectedly all candidates retracted their nominations, and the elections were postponed. Scientists of the academy were repeatedly elected deputies of various levels. In

4788-612: The research institutes of the academy. After the collapse of the Soviet Union , by decree of the President of Russia of December 2, 1991, the academy again became the Russian Academy of Sciences , inheriting all facilities of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the territory of the Russian Federation. The crisis of the 1990s in the post-Soviet Russia and a consequent drastic reduction of the state support for science have forced many scientists to leave Russia for Europe, Israel or

4864-400: The scholars and taught in the secondary school. 112 students ages 5–18 made up the total first year enrollment in 1726. 76 of the 112 students were Russian while the other 36 students were foreign. The academy did not have an official charter until 1747. Peter I did lay out the goals for the academy in a document signed before his death called the "Project". In the document, Peter wished for

4940-596: The scientific work of the Academies of the Republics, one for scientific and technical propaganda, and one for editorial and publications), two commissions (for publishing popular scientific literature, and for museums and archives), a laboratory for scientific photography and cinematography and Academy of Science Press departments external to the divisions. The Academy of Sciences of the USSR helped to establish national Academies of Sciences in all Soviet republics (with

5016-685: The six-volume Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language (1789–1794). The Russian Academy was merged into the Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1841. Shortly after the October Revolution , in December 1917, Sergey Fedorovich Oldenburg , a leading ethnographer and political activist in the Kadet party, met with Vladimir Lenin to discuss the future of the academy. They agreed that

5092-426: The technical fields, was done. However, on the other hand, in these very times, many scientists underwent repressions for ideological reasons. In the years of the Second World War , the Soviet Academy of Sciences made a big contribution to a development of modern weapons – tanks (new series of T-34 ), airplanes , degaussing the ships (for protection against the naval mines ) etc. – and therefore to victory of

5168-428: The text—and approved on September 27, 2013. In 2014, Putin announced more changes to science funding that reduced RAS power while increasing that of the government. In 2017, the election of the RAS president was also brought under government control. At the General Meeting of the RAS in March 2018, the RAS president (that time) Alexander Sergeev said that the academy enters now the post-reform period. In May 2018,

5244-438: The very few who did not suffer from the ailment. On the return journey, with only 12 members of the crew able to move and the rigging rapidly failing, the expedition was shipwrecked on what later became known as Bering Island . Almost half of the crew had perished from scurvy during the voyage. Steller nursed the survivors, including Bering, but he could not be saved and died. The remaining men made camp with little food or water,

5320-440: The village of Nikolskoye is home to 800 people, roughly three hundred of them identifying as Aleuts . The island's small population is involved mostly in fishing . Two and a half miles (4 km) off Bering Island's western shore lies small Toporkov Island (Ostrov Toporkov) 55°12′9″N 165°55′59″E  /  55.20250°N 165.93306°E  / 55.20250; 165.93306  ( Toporkov Island ) . It

5396-414: The whole country. In 1925 the Soviet government recognized the Russian Academy of Sciences as the "highest all-Union scientific institution" and renamed it the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union . In 1934, the academy headquarters moved from Leningrad to the capital, Moscow. The Stalin years were marked by a rapid industrialisation of the Soviet Union for which a great deal of research, mainly in

5472-465: Was Georg Wilhelm Steller , who eventually managed to convince his companions to eat seaweed (thus curing their scurvy). Steller explored Bering Island and cataloged its fauna, including Steller's sea cow , which became extinct within three decades due to being hunted for its meat. The island's highest point (2,464 feet (751 m)) is now named to honor the German-born naturalist. Upon returning to

5548-526: Was a culmination of Emperor Peter the Great 's inspiration from his tours to Western Europe and its higher education centers along with the beginning of his correspondence with Gottfried Leibniz , a philosopher, mathematician, and diplomat. Peter's Western European travels introduced him to the new inventions and ideas of the Enlightenment period. Leibniz was attracted to Peter's desire to promote education and science in Russia through modernization of

5624-549: Was founded by Leibniz, exemplary of the influence which Leibniz had on the creation of the St Petersburg Academy of Science. The Paris Academy was administered directly by the King, which inspired Peter to make himself the supreme head of the St Petersburg Academy of Science, although there could be an academy president. Peter's widow and Empress Catherine I followed through with the establishment and formation of

5700-413: Was granted 10 hours. During his ten hours on land Steller noted the mathematical ratio of 10 years preparation for ten hours of investigation. While the crew never even set foot on the mainland, Georg Steller is credited with being one of the first non-natives to have set foot upon Alaskan soil. The expedition never made mainland landfall because of a stubbornness and a "dull fear". They left with only

5776-617: Was the Steller's sea cow and Steller's sea eagle . His exploration of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Commander Islands significantly expanded scientific knowledge about the region's biodiversity. Early Life Steller was born in Windsheim , near Nuremberg in Germany, the son of a Lutheran cantor , Johann Jakob Stöhler (after 1715, Georg changed his last name to be Steller to accommodate with Russian pronunciation), and studied at

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