Establishment and Activity of Petrograd Commission on Improving the Welfare of Scientists in the 1920s

The article shows the process of formation of Soviet scientists’ social status and the relationship between the scientific intelligentsia and the authorities. It studies the creation and activity of the Petrograd Commission on the Improvement of the Welfare of Scientists (PCIWS) in the 1920s, which has been subordinated and financed by the People’s Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR and has had its information press agency. It is established that the Soviet authorities, liquidating the bourgeoisie, have added to its number all the free professions of intellectual labor, including scientists. Petrograd Commission on the Improvement of the Welfare of Scientists (PetroCIWS) has served as a liaison between the authorities and the scientists, and its activities reflect the process of formation of these relations. The main task of PetroCIWS has been to support scientists, writers, artists, and their families who had financial difficulties. The commission has managed to provide scholars with academic rations and to assist in solving their problems of material standards and living conditions. It is proved that an important achievement of PetroCIWS has become the creation of the House of Scientists, its various forms of work have been analyzed. Owing to the organization and activities of the House of Scientists, Petrograd scientists have been able to implement interdisciplinary contacts and meet their cultural needs. Coverage of Petrograd House of Scientists activities has demonstrated the experience of cultural and civic self-organization of the scientific community.

REFERENCES:

• Borysov A.A. (1998) A.M. Horkyi – orhanyzator pervoho Doma uchenych [А.M. Gorky – a founder of the first House of Scientists]. Maksim Gor­kiy na poroge XXI stolitsa. Gorkovskie chteniya: materialy mezhdunarod­noy konferentsii. Moscow. vol. 2, p. 322.
• Dva pysma V.I. (1993) Lenynu ob otnoshenyy k intellihentsii [Two letters to V.Y. Lenin about the attitude to the intelligentsia]. Kentavr, no 1, p. 61.
• Horkyi A.M. (1991) Stranytsy tvorchestva. Knyha dlia chtenyia s kom­mentaryiamy [Pages of creative work. A book for commentary read­ing]. Moscow: Russkyi yazyk.
• Ysakov, S.H. (1992), Neyzvestnye pysma M. Horkoho V. Lenynu [Un­known letters from M. Gorky to V. Lenin]. Revue des études slaves, tome 64. Fascicule. p. 147.
• Yvestiya Petrosoveta. (1920) [The Petrograd Soviet News]. 12 yanvaria. no. 7.
• Yzvestyia VTsYK. (1921) [News of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee]. 14 avhusta, no. 179, p. 2.
• Loboda N.Y. (1926) Pod znakom uhlublennoho vnymanyia k proyzvod­stvu [Marked by the emphasis on production]. Nauchnyi rabotnyk, no. 5–6, p. 81.
• Mynts Z.H. (1968) A.M. Horkyi i KUBU [A.M. Gorky and Commission on the Improvement of the Welfare of Scientists]. Trudy po russkoi i slavianskoi fylologii: XIII Horkovskyi sbornyk, Tartu, p. 173.
• Nauka y ee rabotniki (1920) [Science and its workers], no. 1, p. 5.
• Nauka y ee rabotniki (1921) [Science and its workers], no. 1, pp. 36–38.
• Nauka y ee rabotniki (1921) [Science and its workers], no. 3, p. 26.
• Nauka y ee rabotniki (1922) [Science and its workers], no. 1, p. 37.
• Nozdrachev, A.D. Petrytskyi V.A. (1995) Pervyi v Rossii Dom uchenykh [The first in Russia House of Scientists]. Vestnyk Rossiiskoi Akademii nauk, vol. 65, no. 10, pp. 922–930.
• Oldenburg S.F. (1921) Rossyiskaya akademiya nauk v 1920 hodu. Ot­delenyia fyzyko-matematycheskykh nauk i istorycheskykh nauk i fi­losofii [Russian Academy of Sciences in 1920. Departments of Physi­cal and Mathematical Sciences and Historical Sciences], Ph. p. 4.
• Piat let raboty Tsentralnoi Komissyy po uluchshenyiu byta uchenych pry Sovete Narodnykh Komyssarov RSFSR (TsEKUBU), 1921–1926 hh. (1927) [Five years of work Central Commission on the Improvement of the Welfare of Scientists at the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR. 1921–1926 years]. Moscow: TsEKUBU, p. 3.
• Shylov F. (1959) Zapiski staroho knyzhnyka [Letters of an old scribe]. Moscow. pp. 128–129.