Development of Russia’s network of nature reserves and academic science of the 20th century

Abstract

From the very first steps in the development of Russia’s network of nature reserves, academic science by means of its individual representatives, scientific establishments, and committees and commissions of the USSR and then Russian Academy of Sciences began to elaborate its scientific and methodological substantiation. This was implemented most effectively by the Central Department for Science, Art, and Museum Establishments (Glavnauka) of the People’s Commissariat for Education of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in the 1920s, the Scientific–Methodological Bureau of the Committee for Nature Reserves under the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union (Department for Nature Reserves under the Council of People’s Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) in the 1930s, the Commission on Nature Reserves of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1952–1955), the Commission for Nature Protection of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1955–1963), the Commission for Coordination of Scientific Research in USSR State Nature Reserves (1982–2002), and the Section for Nature Reserves of the RAS Commission on the Preservation of Biological Diversity (from 2002). In addition to scientific-methodological support and coordination of the scientific activity of nature reserves, ideas about how to form a geographical network and integrate it into the country’s spatial development were also proposed by the above structures.