Ilya Alexandrovich Shipilov,
Junior Researcher, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Academic Expeditions to Siberia of the 18th Century as a Factor in the Modernization of the Russian Empire
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2021-5-11
The article for the first time represents importance of the academic expeditions to Siberia of the 18th century as a factor in the modernization of the Russian Empire based on complex analysis of sources. The research demonstrates the scientific topicality and effectiveness of the use of neoclassical model of modernization paradigm for the study of materials from the scientific heritage of D.G. Messerschmidt’s (1719–1727) and the Second Kamchatka expeditions (1733–1743), astronomical (1740) and physical (1768–1774) expeditions headed by academicians J.-N. De L’Isle and P.S. Pallas respectively. The researcher from this theoretical and methodological stand point shows the significant role of the academic expeditions leaders and their students and assistants in the formation of classical science in Russia and its historical dynamics (development from complex (interdisciplinary) to specialized disciplines). The development of science was fascilitated by systematic pedagogical work of professors G.F. Müller, I.G. Gmelin, J.-N. De L’Isle and P.S. Pallas with support personnel that resulted in the creation on the basis of expeditionary detachments of an innovative form of organization of the scientific community for that time – a scientific school. The author reveals a considerable contribution of expedition participants to the practical implementation of the Russian imperial policy in Siberia and the Far East, the development of the economy, medicine and the state as a whole. It is concluded that the Academy of Sciences was institutional, the detachments and units of academic expeditions were collective, and their participants proved themselves as individual actors of Russian modernization.
Publishing: 28/10/2021
The article has been received by the editor on 17/06/2021
How to cite: Shipilov I.A. Academic Expeditions to Siberia of the 18th Century as a Factor in the Modernization of the Russian Empire // Historical Courier, 2021, No. 5 (19), pp. 127–139. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2021/ISTKURIER-2021-5-11.pdf]
Links: Issue 5 2021
Keywords: Imperial modernization of Russia in the 18th century; academic expeditions to Siberia; support personnel; actors and factors of Russian modernization; classical science