Communist Academy

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The Communist Academy (Russian: Коммунистическая академия, transliterated Kommunisticheskaya akademiya) was a higher educational establishment and research institute based in Moscow. It included scientific institutes of philosophy, history, literature, art and language, Soviet construction and law, world economy and world politics, economics, agrarian research as well as institutes of natural and social science, which was intended to allow Marxists to research problems independent of, and implicitly in rivalry with, the Academy of Sciences which long pre-existed the October Revolution and the subsequent formation of the Soviet Union.[1]

The Socialist Academy[]

It was organised by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The Academy was originally called the Socialist Academy of Social Sciences when it was founded on June 25, 1918 with the chairman of the academy being Mikhail Pokrovsky.[2] The Academy acquired some success and influence in the 1920s, especially in the social sciences and law under the direction of Evgeny Pashukanis.[citation needed] The Academy included approximately 100 active members and a number of corresponding members. The goals of the CA were research in social sciences, history, theory and practice of socialism.

The Communist Academy[]

From April 17, 1924, it was renamed the Communist Academy. On November 26, 1926, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (ЦИК СССР) confirmed the charter of the CA. In December 1929, a Leningrad branch was opened.

The Communist Academy included the following institutes: philosophy, history, literature, art and language, contemporary development and law, world economy and world politics, economics, agrarian studies, natural sciences, and a series of special commissions on specific topics.[citation needed] After reorganization in 1932, the Communist Academy's main focus shifted to socialist development and world economy.

However, the very independence that originally inspired the new Academy caused it to run afoul of Joseph Stalin, and he abolished it in 1936, an early manifestation of his rapidly developing purges.[1] According to a decree published on February 8, 1936, the Communist Academy was subsumed within the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

Journal[]

From 1922, the Academy published a bulletin ("Вестник Социалистической академии") and from 1924 ("Вестник Коммунистической академии") which lasted until September 1935. For many years, the Communist Academy was a leading center in the social sciences and played a leading role in the promulgation of Marxist–Leninist ideology.

The Academy's library was preserved as the Fundamental Library of the Social Sciences, which itself became an important part of the still-extant library of the Institute of Scientific Information of the Social Sciences.[1]

Structure[]

The structure of the Communist Academy has changed several times. In 1931, the Communist Academy included 9 separate institutes, the Natural Science Association, 9 scientific journals and 16 Marxist societies. By the beginning of 1934, the following institutions were part of the system of the Communist Academy:[3]

  • Institute of Economics (now - Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences );
  • Agrarian Institute;
  • Institute of Soviet Construction and Law;
  • Institute of World Economy and World Politics;
  • Institute of Philosophy;
  • Institute of History;
  • Institute of Literature and Art.

And also the Society of Historians-Marxists , the Society of Agrarian-Marxists, the Society of Marxist-statists and others operated. The General Academic Library operated under the Presidium.

Chairmen and notable employees of the Communist Academy[]

Chairmen of the Presidium of the Communist Academy[]

Notable employees[]

  • Alexander Bogdanov – from 1918 to 1922, member of the Presidium of the Communist Academy
  • Vladimir Milyutin – from 1925 to 1927, vice-president of the Presidium of the Communist Academy
  • Otto Schmidt – Head of the Section of Natural and Exact Sciences
  • Abram Deborin – from 1927 to 1931, Director of the Institute of Philosophy
  • Vladimir Adoratsky – from 1931 to 1936, Director of the Institute of Philosophy
  • Evgeny Pashukanis – from 1927, a full member of the Communist Academy, then a member of its Presidium and vice-president, since 1931 director of the Institute of Soviet Construction and Law
  • Izrail Agol – from 1928, director of the Biological Institute. K. A. Timiryazeva
  • Kliment Timiryazev – full member
  • Eugen Varga – from 1927, director of the Institute of World Economy and World Politics
  • Alexander Schlichter – full member
  • Ernst Kolman – from 1930, director the Association of Institutes of Natural Science
  • Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich – full member

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Graham, Loren R. (1993), Science in Russia and the Soviet Union : a short history, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, p. 86, ISBN 0-521-28789-8
  2. ^ Communist Academy // Soviet encyclopedia, 1969. - Great Soviet encyclopedia : / chief ed. A. M. Prokhorov ; 1969-1978, vol. 1.
  3. ^ Communist Academy // A - Angob. - M: Soviet encyclopedia, 1969. - ( Great Soviet encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / chief ed. A. M. Prokhorov; 1969-1978, vol. 1).
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