1930s projects of a museum for the history of science and technology and the “system of the world’s greatest museum organism”

 
PIIS020596060005932-7-1
DOI10.31857/S020596060005932-7
Publication type Article
Status Published
Authors
Affiliation: St. Petersburg Branch of S. I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences
Address: Russian Federation, 199034, St. Petersburg, Universitetskaia nab., 5
Journal nameVoprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki
EditionVolume 40 3
Pages569-582
Abstract

This article compares two projects of a Museum for the History of Science and Technology, initiated in the 1920s and 1930s. One of these projects was conceived by V. I. Vernadsky and is well known from the literature. The archival materials concerning the second project were discovered only recently. It was initiated in 1936 in connection with the construction of the Academy of Sciences Presidium complex in Moscow, where the Academy’s museums were to be hosted. The Museum for the History of Science and Technology was planned as part of an ambitious Academy of Sciences’ museum plan, and a dedicated Museum Commission was created to implement this plan. It is shown that the concepts of these two museums were fundamentally different: the first concept was intended to demonstrate the evolution and technical implementation of scientific ideas while the second was planned as a platform for demonstrating the socialist system’s advantages for the development of science and technology. The latter concept, however, had not been unanimously accepted by the scientific community, which was reflected in an ample discussion of the museum concept. The arrest of the key actors in 1937, the closure of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology, and the abolition of the Museum Commission brought to an end the work on the second project of the Museum for the History of Science and Technology.

KeywordsMuseum for the History of Science and Technology, Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Academy of Sciences’ relocation to Moscow, project of the Academy of Sciences’ Main Building, the concept of the museum
Received06.09.2019
Publication date09.09.2019
Number of characters31688
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