The Foundation and the First Decades of the Activity of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in the Works of Russian and Foreign Historians of Science. Part I.
The article is devoted to a critical review of historiography on the problem of the founding and the first decades of the activity of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The article covers the works of Russian historians of science written from the 18th century to the beginning of the XXIth centuries. The article gives an analysis of the early historiography of the history of the Academy of Sciences (the works of G. F. Miller, I. D. Schumacher), the works of historians of the XIX century (A. A. Kunik, P. P. Pekarsky and others), as well as the works of the Soviet historians of science. Highlighting the works by Yu. Kh. Kopelevich, the authors emphasize the importance of the Soviet historiography of the foundation of the Academy of Sciences. It is shown that Soviet researchers in many respects continue the approaches outlined in the pre-revolutionary period. The article shows that in the historiography of the XIX-XXth centuries emphasize the importance of nationality in understanding the history of the foundation of the Academy of Sciences. In the XIXth century, the idea of Russification of the Academy of Sciences was formed as a basis for the understanding its early history. In Soviet historiography, this idea further developed under the influence of the ideological campaigns of late Stalinist times, although it acquired distorted forms. The authors of the article show thatalthough the post-Soviet Russian historiography of the foundation of the Academy of Sciences continues the Soviet one, in many ways, it offers not only new approaches to understanding of the history of the foundation of the Academy of Sciences, but also new research topics. Research into the founding of the Academy of Sciences became more specialized.