Studies in the History of Science and Technology
The peer-review journal Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki (VIET) ["Studies in the History of Science and Technology"] journal was founded in 1980 on the basis of an irregularly published collection of works by employees of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (IHST of the USSR Academy of Sciences).
Founders
- Russian Academy of Sciences
- Institute for the History of Science and Technology
Publisher
- Russian Academy of Sciences
About the journal
The main block of the journal's materials is formed by original articles presenting research results of qualified specialists in the history and philosophy of science and technology. The scientific level of the results and the compliance of articles with publication standards is ensured by a representative editorial board, which includes two academicians (RAS), one corresponding member of the RAS, doctors and candidates of sciences.
The contents of the journal are divided into main sections reflecting the scope and specifics of the proposed scientific publications:
- General Problems of the History of Science and Technology
- From the History of Science
- Social History of Science
- From the History of Technology
- Lessons from History
- Materials for the Biographies of Scientists and Engineers
- Institutions and Museums
- Sources for the History of Science and Technology
The information block contains memoirs, reviews, books reviews, annotations for defended dissertations, as well as information about past conferences and correspondence with readers.
The journal is published quarterly and is included in the "List of peer-reviewed scientific publications" of the Higher Attestation Commission of Russian Federation and the Russian Science Citation Index in Web of Science.
Media registration certificate: № 0110149 от 04.02.1993
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Vol 47, No 1 (2026)
From the History of Science
THE HISTORY OF THE STUDIES ON YELLOW GROUND SQUIRREL (SPERMOPHILUS FULVUS LICHT., 1823) IN THE CONTEXT OF RUSSIA’S DIPLOMATIC AND MILITARY ACTIVITIES IN CENTRAL ASIA (1820–1920)
Abstract
The article analyzes the history of the studies on yellow ground squirrel (Spermophilus fulvus Licht., 1823) in the context of Russia’s diplomatic and military activities aimed at the annexation of Central Asia to the Russian Empire. The first information about ground squirrel appeared in the work of P. S. Pallas the 18th century (1778). E. A. (Eduard Friedrich) Eversmann who was a member of the Russian diplomatic mission to Bukhara in 1820 was the first to begin its scientific studies. The researchers who subsequently studied yellow ground squirrel were A. A. Lehmann, F. F. (Johann Friedrich von) Brandt, G. S. Karelin, N. A. Severtsov (Severtzov), K. F. Kessler, M. N. Bogdanov, N. A. Zarudnyi (Zarudny), G. I. (Gustav Ferdinand Richard) Radde, and K. A. Satunin. They identified its habitat, determined its taxonomic status, obtained the specimens of this species, assessed its agricultural impact, and established its role in the spreading of plague in the Lower Volga Region. The organizations that contributed in many ways to promoting the studies on yellow ground squirrel were St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, General Staff, Caucasian and Orenburg Branches of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, Orenburg Governorate General, Moscow Society of Naturalists, and St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists.
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):9-41
9-41
Social History of Science
PHYSICO-MATHEMATICAL FACULTY OF ST. PETERSBURG UNIVERSITY IN THE POST-REFORM PERIOD IN STUDENTS’ RECOLLECTIONS
Abstract
Based on the analysis of a wide range of its students’ and teachers’ recollections, the article attempts to reconstruct what can be described as the “individuality” of the Physico-Mathematical Faculty at the pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg University: corporate values, aspirations, scientific and educational daily life, student / faculty relations, etc. The study focused on the description of the most prominent faculty members, the attitude towards the humanities, the role of politics in the life of the student and faculty corporations, scientific initiatives, everyday life, and conflicts. It is concluded that the Physico-Mathematical Faculty was a “corporation within a corporation”, with its own rules and regulations of academic life, while remaining an integral part of the university-wide space. Regardless of the period and the career chosen by a graduate (scientific, revolutionary, or even journalistic), the Physico-Mathematical Faculty was an important stage in their formation, developing their personal character with a particular set of guiding principles, and ethical and moral beliefs. These included, in particular, understanding the primacy of scientific knowledge and its advancement, the importance given to human rather than scientific qualities, intolerance to strict discipline, the contempt for bureaucracy, and the skepticism about the authorities’ attempts to intervene in the university corporation regulation and management. It is also important to mention that memories have a critical role in creating and preserving legends about a university and its prominent members, thus being essential for the history of higher school.
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):42-62
42-62
From the History of Technology
SOVIET PASSENGER AIRPLANES IN YUGOSLAV AIR TRANSPORT (1946–1990)
Abstract
The article reviews the employment of Soviet-made airplanes Li-2, Il-14 and Tu-134 in the air transportation system of socialist Yugoslavia. The process for these aircrafts procurement, the experience of their use, and the accidents associated with them are described. Some of the unrealized purchases are considered. It is shown that Soviet passenger airplanes have not been used widely in Yugoslavia because they turned out to be less economical than their European and American counterparts that were also available to the Yugoslav air carriers. The article is based on both unpublished and published Yugoslav archival sources as well as on the historical literature.
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):63-80
63-80
Lessons from History
THE STAGES OF DESIGNING A PROJECT OF WATER DIVERSION FROM THE NORTH TO THE SOUTH OF THE EUROPEAN PART OF THE USSR FROM THE MID-1950s TO THE END OF THE 1970s (BASED ON THE DOCUMENTS FROM THE RUSSIAN STATE ARCHIVE IN SAMARA)
Abstract
One of the most mythologized episodes in the history of the Soviet Union is the unrealized project of "northern rivers reversal" in the European part of the country. This topic has been the subject of numerous publications, which typically reflect intensification of the public environmental movement during the final design phase in the 1980s and abandonment of design work in 1986. The "fight for ecology" attitudes of the 1980s remain highly relevant today, being a source of adamant opinions on this project, which in turn forms a negative attitude towards the projects that have been implemented. At the same time, a one-sided, often superficial perception of the past realities leads to a simplified view of them. A typical example of modern misconceptions of this kind is equaling different projects of diversion of North European rivers with redirecting water from Siberian rivers. In modern research, the period when a significant part of the design work on the diversion of a part of the northern river flow was carried out - from the mid-1950s to the end of the 1970s - is covered very sketchily, which prevents placing in perspective the intended project objectives. Nor do these works consider the designers' ideas about water resource use, etc. Based on the examination of Hydroproject Institute's archival documents related to the northern rivers reversal project activities from the mid-1950s to the end of the 1970s, it is shown that the project objectives changed over time and a periodization of the work on the project, based on these changes, is proposed. This periodization can serve as a starting point for critical revisiting and future studies of the issues related to the plans to increase water resources of the Volga, Kama, and Don rivers as well as of the Sea of Azov and the Caspian Sea by diverting the flow from the Northern rivers and lakes in the European part of the USSR.
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):81-102
81-102
THE HISTORY OF TESTING STATIONARY MISSILE SYSTEMS WITH RT-23 SERIES MISSILES
Abstract
In 1979, the Soviet Union and the United States signed an agreement on the Limitations of Strategic Offensive Weapons. The Treaty allowed each party to test just one new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The United States has been developing the MX ICBM since 1973. The projected ICBM was to be equipped with 10 warheads with a previously incredible firing accuracy at a range of 10 thousand km and its stationary and mobile options were considered. One of the Soviet Union's responses to the increased threat was the development, testing and deployment of stationary missile systems with the RT-23 missile with improved tactical and technical characteristics (hereinafter referred to as RT-23 UTTH) in the second half of the 1980s. This article considers the tests of RT-23 and RT-23UTTH stationary-based missiles by the military units of the 53rd Scientific Research Test Range for Missiles and Space Weapons of the Ministry of Defense (hereinafter referred to as 53rd NIIP MO or Test Range ("Polygon"). The source base for this study includes technical literature of the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, archival documents of the Test Range military units, and the testimonies of the direct participants in the tests (including previously unpublished ones). The tests are considered as a single process in chronological sequence, using historical-systemic and chronological methods of historical research. In 1980–1987, the experimental test base, the infrastructure and the test force were established to test missiles in the launching area of the Test Range. The tests of the RT-23 and RT-23UTTH ICBMs were conducted from 1983 to 1989 on a vast territory, from the Arkhangelsk region to Kamchatka, with the involvement of numerous USSR ministries and departments as well as local authorities. The first version of the missile, the RT-23 ICBM, had not been made operational. It was only after significant changes were made in its design and a new test cycle was conducted that the Soviet Union adopted an analog of the American MX ICBM.
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):103-119
103-119
Materials for the Biographies of Scientists and Engineers
THE KHARKOV PERIOD IN THE FORMATION OF THEORETICAL PHYSICIST E. M. LIFSHITZ
Abstract
The article examines the activities of a prominent theoretical physicist, Academician E. M. Lifshitz (Lifshits), during his life in Kharkov in Kharkov till 1939. It was during this period that the formation of his personality occurred and his scientific interests were shaped; it was in Kharkov that he achieved his first scientific breakthroughs, defended his dissertation for the candidate of science degree (Russian analog of Ph.D.) and worked on his doctoral dissertation. Evgenii Mikhailovich Lifshitz is known worldwide as an associate, student and coauthor of Nobel Laureate Lev Davidovich Landau. Drawing on archival materials and contemporaries' recollections, the article reviews the history of theoretical physics at the Ukrainian Physico-Technical Institute (UFTI) in Kharkov that was inseparably linked with the names of L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz. At the very beginning of his scientific career, Lifshitz was immersed in the atmosphere of new physical theories associated with the development of general relativity, quantum mechanics, and nuclear physics. His first scientific paper, On the Production of Electrons and Positrons, written jointly with L. D. Landau, was presented by Lifshitz at the Second All-Union Conference on Theoretical Physics in 1934 and formed the basis of his candidate dissertation, which he defended at the age of nineteen. Lifshitz's doctoral dissertation, Deuteron Collisions with Heavy Nuclei, was an elaboration of a new method in the theory of nuclear reactions. The Kharkov period in Lifshitz's life was marked by his extensive collaboration with Landau in the field of quantum physics and ferromagnetism, as well as by their joint work on the preparation and first edition of individual volumes of what would later become the ten-volume Course of Theoretical Physics. The article describes the stages in Lifshitz's life up to 1939 when he defended his doctoral dissertation and moved to Moscow to join the Institute for Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):120-149
120-149
THE MYSTERY OF PROFESSOR P. A. MOLCHANOVʼS MISSING YEARS
Abstract
The article examines the life journey and scientific work of Pavel Alexandrovich Molchanov, a prominent scientist and one of the founders of aerology. The author has noted that the scientist's official biography omits several years of his life. The encyclopedias and scientific literature provide no answer to a question of what he was doing from 1914 to 1917. At the same time, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia called him a "Soviet meteorologist". We have found that during the First World War, Pavel Alexandrovich Molchanov, a physicist at the Main Physical Observatory, served as head of aerology at the Baltic Sea Air Division. He provided meteorological support for seaplane flights over the Baltic Sea. This work was inseparable from conducting atmospheric research. The author concludes that this outstanding aerologist's scientific career began in 1914 rather than in 1917, as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia claims, and suggests that three years of Molchanov's scientific work were intentionally left out of his biography in order to rank him among Soviet scientists, omitting the pre-revolutionary period of his work. This would fit into traditional Soviet framework of biased presentation of the history of Soviet science and technology. Based on the documents from the Russian State Archive of the Navy, the facts from Molchanov's biography are clarified and previously unknown aspects of the support for military operations provided by Russian scientists during the First World War are uncovered.
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):150-161
150-161
O. K. GILLER AND HIS ROLE IN THE FORMATION OF THE SOVIET PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY
Abstract
In the years of the New Economic Policy and the first Five-Year Plans in the Soviet Union, the main tasks for the pulp and paper sector was to increase production to meet growing domestic needs associated with industrial and cultural transformations, and to reduce pulp and paper imports. To address this objective, a network of research institutes was being formed. Based on the materials from the personal archival collections and on the scientific publications, the activities of O. K. Giller, a prominent specialist in the field of pulp production, are reviewed. His work at the "Sokol" paper factory and his trip to Belgium to study pulp production had an important role in the formation of Giller's professional inclinations. In the 1920s, he developed a new lime-milk method for producing sulfurous acid and carried out a reconstruction of the pulp mill. In the 1930s and early 1940s, he worked at the Central Research Institute of Pulp and Paper Industry, focusing on the development and implementation of a pulping method using strong acid and providing practical assistance to the enterprises, which contributed to an increase in the production of high-grade paper. For his scientific accomplishments, Giller was awarded the Hero of Labor title, the Doctor of Technical Sciences degree, and the badge of the "Outstanding Worker of the Pulp and Paper Industry". He died in evacuation in the city of Krasnokamsk on 26 December 1942.
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):162-172
162-172
Institutions and Museums
THE HISTORY OF THE LIBRARY OF THE IMPERIAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES’ CHEMICAL LABORATORY AS AN EXAMPLE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIALIZED LIBRARIES ON THE CUSP OF 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES
Abstract
The article examines the history of the formation of the library of the Imperial Academy of Sciences' Chemical Laboratory. Its emergence was determined by the Academicians' need in specialized literature, particularly in the handbooks and scientific journals, available directly at their workplace. A perusal of the library's catalogues allowed analyzing the amounts, themes, languages, and types and categories of incoming literature, and identifying the library acquisition sources. It is shown that the acquired library stocks depended on research topics; the most sought-after handbooks and journals were acquired, with a strong predominance of foreign literature. The academicians who headed the Laboratory personally supervised the state of the library and contributed to its replenishment with modern publications. The functions of librarians were performed by laboratory staff lacking the respective professional competences and therefore the catalogues as well as the reference and bibliographic work was not organized competently enough. In the early 1900s, the holdings were actively replenished but Russia's entering the war in 1914 and the political events that followed affected both the amounts and the nature of incoming literature, and gave an impetus to the development of domestic scientific book publishing. Despite a difficult socio-political situation, numerous reorganizations of the Laboratory, and the relocation to Moscow in 1934, its library holdings were preserved with only minimum losses. Eventually the library developed into a large academic chemical library existing to this day.
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):173-191
173-191
90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE KURSK STATE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY’S ANATOMICAL MUSEUM: FROM A TEACHING SPACE TO A CENTER OF EDUCATIONAL AND HISTORICO-SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES
Abstract
The article describes the history of emergence and development of the Anatomical Museum of the Kursk State Medical Institute (University), or KGMU, from 1935 to this day. Anatomical museums were initially established for demonstrating human anatomy to medical students. Later on such museums began to serve both teaching and scientific functions while nowadays they also engaged in cultural, educational and historico-scientific activities. The history of the formation and development of the KGMU Anatomical Museum is an example of such evolution of museum objectives.
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):192-201
192-201
Book Reviews
Kurochkin, E. A., Baklygina, M. A. Antonio de Filistri and Russian Hospitality (Moscow, 2024), ISBN 978-5-907681-62-0
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):202-208
202-208
Books in Brief
Books in Brief
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):209-212
209-212
Academic Life
Science-to-Practice Seminar “300 Years of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Russia’s Scientific Legacy”
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):213-220
213-220
31st Annual Conference of the S. I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Devoted to the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):221–231
221–231
SCIENTIFIC READINGS "ARCTIC: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE (TO THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF BOTANIST L. A. SERGIENKO)"
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):232–236
232–236
Events in Brief
Events in Brief
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):237–239
237–239
In Memoriam
Natalia Ivanovna Bystrova (31.XII.1941 – 4.XI.2025)
Studies in the History of Science and Technology. 2026;47(1):240–242
240–242