Constantine Ivanov

By this author

AKSENOV, G.P. COSMINTA: BIOSPHERES IN SPACE (MOSCOW, 2018), ISBN 978- 5-9710-4708-7

from 01.07.2018

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RUSSIAN ASTRONOMICAL INSTITUTIONS, 1917–1922

Issue 3 from 01.07.2013

В статье рассмотрены особенности развития российской астрономии в период социальных перемен, связанных с революцией 1917 г. Показывается неоднозначность влияния внешних социальных условий на внутридисциплинарную среду, дается оценка роли повышения мобильности в смене исследовательских приоритетов и индивидуальных академических позиций отдельных специалистов. Предпринимается попытка показать, как индивидуальная реакция ученых в период грандиозных социальных перемен влияет на серьезные институциональные преобразования в науке.

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In the service of the Empire: Astronomical institutes in the age of absolutism

from 01.09.2008

The institutional structure of Russian astronomy, as it developed in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, resembled those of other European countries in having the main national observatory (Pulkovo, near St. Petersburg), several smaller university observatories, and a wide network of military installations for the purposes of geodesy and topography. The central observatory served important administrative and military needs, in particular with regard to its main activities in astrometry, and it received generous support from the state. Its scientific work on determining the exact coordinates of celestial objects also helped improve military cartography and the unification of administrative practices in the vast Empire. The article closely examines the interaction between scientific and military aspects of astronomy, as well as the difficult relationship and rivalry between academic astronomers in Pulkovo and their colleagues, cartographers and geodesists, within the military.

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