Akademgorodok. Novosibirsk suburbs.
TRIP TO NOVOSIBIRSK
NOVOSIBIRSK. CITY SUBURBS
AKADEMGORODOK
The intellectual community is equally rich and is fostered by more than 16
institutions of higher education. In 1957, Kruschev selected Novosibirsk as the
site for the Siberian Division of the USSR Academy of Sciences. This led to the
construction of Akademgorodok (the Academic City), 30 km south of Novosibirsk.
Akademgorodok is uniqe in that it is located in the center of a majestic
birch and pine forest and on the shore of the Ob Sea, a man-made reservoir on
the great Siberian river Ob. The city's population currently stands at over 100,000.
Capital sigma is the symbol of Akademgorodok. It reflects diversity -
and unity - of scientific institutions located in Akademgorodok. Together, they
create a unique athmosphere for studying and doing science.
Located within Akademgorodok is Novsibirsk State University (NSU), 35
research institutes, an agricultural academy, medical academy, apartment houses
and cottages, and a variety of community amenities including stores, hotels,
hospitals, restaurants and cafes, cinemas, clubs and libraries. The House of
Scientists (Dom Uchonykh), a social center of Akademgorodok, hosts a library
containing 100,000 volumes - Russian classics, modern literature and also many
American, British, French, German, Polish books and magazines. The House of
Scientists also includes a picture gallery, lecture halls and a fine concert
hall. The performances given by musical celebrities and theatrical stars in this
hall are second to none.
Novosibirsk State University is one of the top three Russian universities.
The special qualities of the University are: exceptional student/professor
ratio, close links to the many research institutes of Akademgorodok and an
active and constructive social life facilitated by many clubs, organizations and
activities.
AKADEMGORODOK HISTORY
One of the problems facing the Soviet Union in the 1950s was to achieve rapid
development of productive forces in Siberia. The unprecendent scale of
assimilation of Siberia's natural resources called for boosting basic research
in the eastern parts of the country. It was the first time when a big center of
science was created far from Moscow or Leningrad (a.k.a. St.Petersburg). Many
people both in Russia and abroad did not believe in this idea. But the will of
the leadership of the Comunist Party could make anything possible at that time.
Whole collectives of scientists moved from Moscow and Leningrad to Novosibirsk.
The creators of the Town of Science were getting everything they needed. An
important factor during the first years of Akademgorodok was enormously
enthusiastic and selfless labor of its people.
Academician Mikhail Alexeyevich Lavrentyev (1900-1980), a
prominent physicist and mathematician, was one of the initiators and the first
Chairman of the Siberian Division of the USSR Academy of Science. A group of
prominent scientists (Lavrentyev, S.L.Sobolev, S.A.Khristianovich and others)
played a decisive role in attracting gifted researchers from the country's
western regions to the development of Siberian science. Lavrentyev was very
enthusiastic about the new center of Science. The deep faith in the idea made
him and other already elderly scientists move to Siberia and start a completely
new enterprise. People of Akademgorodok sometimes called him, with respect: `ded'
(`grandfather') - so closely he supervised the erection of new institutions and
houses and development of both scientific-educational and everyday sides of life
of Akademgorodok residents.
Nikita Sergeyevich Khryshchev, the leader of the Soviet Union
from 1953 to 1964, was the great catalyzer of political and social change. He
broke both the fact and the tradition of the Stalin rule and established a basis
for liberalizing tendencies in the Soviet Union. His experience with
international realities confirmed him in his doctrine of peaceful coexistence
with the non-Communist world. Under Khrushchev leadership, the idea of the
world-wide Communist Revolution quietly died and has never been revived in the
Soviet Union again. He publicly recognized the limitations as well as the power
of nuclear weapons, and his decision to negotiate with the United States for
nuclear-testing control was of vast importance. Khrushchev's empathy with the
Soviet people resulted in concessions to a consumer economy and in general
relaxation of security controls. He was doing his best to make Americans
overestimate the Soviet Union's nuclear power. Once he was asked by one of the
top military commanders, "We have ten times less nuclear warheads then the
States, and don`t make enough efforts to decrease the gap. Why?" Khrushchev
replied, "Very simple. We are not going to make war on anybody, so it is
not that important how many warheads we have. What is important is what they
think about our nuclear might".
Nikita Khrushchev strongly promoted growth of the Soviet Union as a great
industrial and agricultural country, not a military monster. He contracted the
size of the Soviet Army by a factor of two. For him, the main goal of promoting
science and education was satisfaction of the demands of national economy.
Novosibirsk's Akademgorodok and the Space program were his favourite
"babies". The scientific center in South-Western Siberia was designed
to be a place for doing purely civilian, predominantly basic (fundamental)
research in all areas of Science. In addition, suburbs of Novosibirsk where
chosen to be the sites for new divisions of the USSR Academy of Agriculture and
the USSR Academy of Medicine.
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