SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITIES IN THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE LATE RUSSIAN EMPIRE

Abstract

The article raises the problem of the correlation between the research ethos and the civic position of representatives of the academic community in the Russian Empire and in the first years of Soviet power. Based on historical stories, the author shows that in terms of patrimonial monarchy professional interaction academia interpreted as a political opposition that at the same time minimized the impact of research, especially in the field of natural Sciences, and destroyed the symbiosis of the scientific community and the Imperial administration. It is suggested that academic science in the Russian Empire, brought to life by the needs of the state, was actually outside the framework of the state hierarchy by the beginning of the XIX century. This circumstance caused a bundle of contradictions in the relations between the state and the scientific community, which ensured a generally indifferent attitude of researchers to the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and ultimately contributed to the establishment of the Bolshevik regime.