Russian Academy of Sciences

The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ) consists of 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. chartered by the Government of Russia. In 2013, the Russian government restructured RAS, assigning control of its property and research institutes to a new government agency headed by Mikhail Kotyukov. , the academy included 1,008 institutions and other units; in total, about 125,000 people were employed of whom 47,000 were scientific researchers.

Membership

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 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. In 2013, after 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 on May 26–30, 2025.

As of January 2, 2026, the academy had 1960 living Russian members (full: 841, corresponding: 1119) and about 445 foreign members. Since 2015, the academy also awards, on a competitive basis, the honorary scientific rank of a RAS Professor to the top-level researchers with Russian citizenship; there are 797 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, 2019, 2022 or 2025 and are henceforth titled "RAS professor, corresponding member of the RAS" (188 scientists) or even "RAS professor, academician of the RAS" (31 scientists).

Present structure

The Academy is headquartered in Moscow at the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences (built between 1967 and 1990).

The RAS consists of 13 specialized scientific divisions, four territorial branches and 15 regional scientific centers. The system of scientific divisions will soon be changed by splitting or fusion of the existing ones. The academy has numerous councils, committees, and commissions, all organized for different purposes.

Territorial branches

;Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS)

:The Siberian Branch was established in 1957, with Mikhail Lavrentyev as founding chairman. Research centers are in Novosibirsk (Akademgorodok), Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Yakutsk, Ulan-Ude, Kemerovo, Tyumen and Omsk. The Branch employes over 12,500 scientific researchers, 199 of whom are now members of the Academy (126 full + 73 corresponding).

;Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS)

:The Ural Branch was established in 1932, with Alexander Fersman as its founding chairman. Research centers are in Yekaterinburg, Perm, Cheliabinsk, Izhevsk, Orenburg, Ufa and Syktyvkar. Presently, 113 Ural scientists were members of the Academy (38 full + 75 corresponding).

;St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPbB RAS)

:The St. Petersburg Branch was established in 2023. As of May 10, 2026, 181 scientists from St. Petersburg were members of the Academy (69 full + 112 corresponding).

;Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS)

:The Far East Branch includes the Primorsky Scientific Center in Vladivostok, the Amur Scientific Center in Blagoveschensk, the Khabarovsk Scientific Center, the Sakhalin Scientific Center in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the Kamchatka Scientific Center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the North-Eastern Scientific Center in Magadan, the Far East Regional Agriculture Center in Ussuriysk and several Medical institutions. There are 71 Academy members in the Branch (24 full + 47 corresponding).

Regional centers

thumb|300px|The building of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg on [[Universitetskaya Embankment]]

Kazan Scientific Center
Saratov Scientific Center
Vladikavkaz Scientific Center of the RAS and the Government of the Republic Alania – Northern Ossetia
Karelian Research Centre of RAS
Nizhny Novgorod Center
Scientific Center of the RAS in Chernogolovka
Ufa Scientific Center
Southern Scientific Center
Troitsk Scientific Center

Institutions

The Russian Academy of Sciences comprises a large number of research institutions, including:

Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics
Central Economic Mathematical Institute CEMI
Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre
Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology
Institute for Medical Science (Russia)
Institute for African Studies (Moscow)
Institute of Far Eastern Studies
Institute for Economic Strategies (Moscow)
Institute of Geography
Institute for the History of Material Culture (St Petersburg)
Institute of Archaeology (Moscow)
Institute for Physics of Microstructures
Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Institute for Spectroscopy
Institute for System Programming
Institute of Applied Physics
Institute of Cell Biophysics
Institute of Biological Instrumentation
Institute of Biomedical Problems
Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine (Novosibirsk)
Institute of Ecology and Evolution
Institute of Economy (RAS)
Institute of Human Brain (St.-Petersburg)
Institute of Gene Biology
Institute of Silicate Chemistry
Institute of High Current Electronics
Institute of Latin American Studies (Moscow)
Institute of Linguistics (Moscow)
Institute for Linguistic Studies (Saint Petersburg)
Institute of Oriental Studies (Moscow)
Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (Saint Petersburg)
Institute of Philosophy
Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology
Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics
Institute of Solid State Physics
Institute of State and Law
Institute of the US and Canada (ISKRAN)
Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO)
Institute of World Literature (Moscow)
Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute
Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics
Komarov Botanical Institute
Komi Science Centre
Kutateladze Institute for Thermal Physics
Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics
Laser and Information Technology Institute
Lebedev Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering
Lebedev Physical Institute
N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology
A.N. Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds
Northeast Science Station
Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics
Paleontological Institute
Program Systems Institute
Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radiowave Propagation (IZMIRAN)
Space Research Institute
, which has an artificial climate station called "biotron"
Shirshov Institute of Oceanology
Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography RAS
Special Astrophysical Observatory
State Public Scientific & Technological Library
Steklov Institute of Mathematics
St. Petersburg Department of Steklov Institute of Mathematics
Sukachev Institute of Forest
Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry
Vingoradov Russian Language Institute
Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences
N. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry
Zoological Institute

Member institutions are linked via 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 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 (); after 1992, it became simply Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences (). 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.

Awards

The academy gives out a number of different prizes, medals and awards among which:

Lomonosov Gold Medal
Landau Gold Medal
Kurchatov Medal
Demidov Prize
Lobachevsky Prize
Kovalevskaya Prize
Pushkin Prize
Lebedev Prize
Markov Prize
Bogolyubov Medal

History

In the Russian Empire

Creation of the Academy

thumb|Portrait of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

The academy 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 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. It was modeled after the centralized structure of the Paris Academy and the Berlin Academy of Sciences.

Early years of the Academy

thumb|250px|Original headquarters of the Imperial Academy of Sciences – the [[Kunstkamera in Saint Petersburg]]

Peter's widow and Empress Catherine I followed through with the establishment and formation of the academy, opening it in December 1725. As such, the initial 17 scholars had to teach and administer research. 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.

During Catherine the Great's rule, she enacted reforms to improve the academy for scholars. She created a commission of academy faculty to lead the academy instead of bureaucratic rule. Foreign scholars invited to work at the academy included the mathematicians Leonhard Euler (1707–1783),

Expeditions to explore remote parts of 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, the academy published 20 volumes of their academic journal called Novi Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae.

The Academy of Sciences of the USSR helped to establish national Academies of Sciences in all Soviet republics (with 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:

{|class="wikitable sortable"

!Republic!!Local name!!Established!!successor

|Ukrainian SSR||Академія наук Української РСР||1918||National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

|Byelorussian SSR||Акадэмія Навукаў Беларускай ССР ||1929||National Academy of Sciences of Belarus

|Uzbek SSR||Ўзбекистон ССР Фанлар академияси||1943||Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan

|Kazakh SSR||Қазақ ССР Ғылым Академиясы||1946||National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan

|Georgian SSR||საქართველოს სსრ მეცნიერებათა აკადემია||1941 ||Georgian Academy of Sciences

|Azerbaijan SSR||Азәрбајҹан ССР Елмләр Академијасы||1945||National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan

|Lithuanian SSR||Lietuvos TSR Mokslų akademija||1941||Lithuanian Academy of Sciences

|Moldavian SSR||Академия де Штиинце а РСС Молдовенешть ||1946||Academy of Sciences of Moldova

|Latvian SSR||Latvijas PSR Zinātņu akadēmija||1946||Latvian Academy of Sciences

|Kirghiz SSR||Кыргыз ССР Илимдер академиясы ||1954||National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic

|Tajik SSR||Академияи илмҳои ҶШС Тоҷикистон||1953||Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan

|Armenian SSR||Հայկական ՍՍՀ գիտությունների ակադեմիա||1943||National Academy of Sciences of Armenia

|Turkmen SSR||Түркменистан ССР Ылымлар Академиясы||1951||Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan

|Estonian SSR||Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia||1946||Estonian Academy of Sciences

Among the most important achievements of the academy of the second half of the 20th century, there is, first of all, 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 the research institutes of the academy.

Post-Soviet period

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, by decree of the President of Russia of November 21, 1991, the academy again became the Russian Academy of Sciences, Furthermore, a lack of competition, decayed infrastructure and continuing, though slightly reduced, brain drain play their part.

Restructured academy 2013 and later

thumb|Annual number of academicians

On June 28, 2013, the Russian Government announced a draft law that would dissolve the RAS while creating a new "public-governmental" organization with the same name. The RAS would be fused with two other Russian national academies— 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: (FASO). FASO would take control of all buildings and other property of 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 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 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 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, 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.

Presidents

Imperial Russia

The following persons occupied the position of the academy's President (or, sometimes, Director):

Laurentius Blumentrost, 1725–1733
Hermann Karl von Keyserling 1733–1734
Johann Albrecht Korf, 1734–1740
, 1740–1741
(Post vacant, April 1741 – October 1746)
Count Kirill Razumovsky, 1746–1766 (nominally, till 1798)
Count Vladimir Orlov, 1766–1774 (Director)
, 1771–1773 (Occasional Substitute of Orlov )
, 1775–1782 (Director)
Princess Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova, 1783–1796 (Director; sent into de facto retirement in 1794. Simultaneously served as the President of the Russian Academy)
, 1794–1796 (acting Director), 1796–1798 (Director). Simultaneously served as the President of the Russian Academy
Ludwig Heinrich von Nicolay, 1798–1803
Nikolay Novosiltsev, 1803–1810
(Post vacant, April 1810 – Jan 1818)
Count Sergey Uvarov, 1818–1855
Dmitry Bludov, 1855–1864
Fyodor Litke, 1864–1882
Count Dmitry Tolstoy, 1882–1889
Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia, 1889–1915
(Post vacant, June 1915 – May 1917)

Soviet Russia

Alexander Karpinsky, 1917–1936
Vladimir Komarov, 1936–1945
Sergey Vavilov, 1945–1951
Alexander Nesmeyanov, 1951–1961
Mstislav Keldysh, 1961–1975
Anatoly Alexandrov, 1975–1986
Gury Marchuk, 1986–1991

Russian Federation

Yury Osipov, 1991–2013
Vladimir Fortov, 2013–2017
Valery Kozlov, 2017 (acting)
Alexander Sergeev, 2017–2022
Gennady Krasnikov, since Sept 2022

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.

Achievements

200px|left|thumb|Academician [[Andrei Sakharov, a supporter of the ban on nuclear tests, human rights activist, and public figure]]

Scientists of the academy were repeatedly elected deputies of various levels. In 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 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).

Nobel Prize laureates affiliated with the Academy

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, medicine, 1904
Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, medicine, 1908
Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin, literature, 1933
Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, chemistry, 1956
Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm, physics, 1958
Ilya Mikhailovich Frank, physics, 1958
Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, physics, 1958
Lev Davidovich Landau, physics, 1962
Nikolay Gennadiyevich Basov, physics, 1964
Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov, physics, 1964
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, literature, 1965
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, literature, 1970
Leonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovich, economics, 1975
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, peace, 1975
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, physics, 1978
Zhores Ivanovich Alferov, physics, 2000
Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, physics, 2003
Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg, physics, 2003
Andre Geim, physics, 2010

References

Sources

External links

Official website
Satellite photo of the RAS Old Building