Hybrid event: 17th-18th century Circulations of science in the Russian empire. December 13 @ 9h00 - 17h00.

Hybrid event: 17th-18th century Circulations of science in the Russian empire. December 13 @ 9h00 - 17h00. Paris & zoom

(org. Smith-Riu and Bayuk)

Dimitri Bayuk (Sphere),

“St. Petersburg in the 18th century: Empire, Academy, Borders”.

Tatiana Kostina (St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences)

« Philosophy in Russian Universities in the 18th Century: The Social Context of Disciplinary History”.

Justin Smith-Ruiu (Sphere),

“Applied Leibnizianism in the Great Northern Expedition, 1731-1741”.

Andrei Vorobiev (Chalmers University of Technology)

“Visual art in the system of academic knowledge in Russia of the 18th century. Peoples of Russia: from curiosity to political theater”.

Gregory Afinogenov (Georgetown University)

« The Discovery of Backwardness: The Qing Economy as an Object of Russian Knowledge».

For zoom link please contact dmitrii.baiuk@u-paris.fr

Dimitri Bayuk, “St. Petersburg in the 18th century: Empire, Academy, Borders”

The imperial status of the Russian state was declared by the Russian authorities in 1721, following the Northern War. Since then, the term “empire” has changed meaning several times, and it is necessary to clarify exactly what the reforming power was claiming.

Peter the Great, the initiator of this transformation, envisaged an academy of science as an important imperial institution. As he prepared for his new status as imperator, he familiarized himself with the practices of certain European academies, such as those in Berlin-Brandenburg and Paris. In the project he drew up at the very end of his life, his new academy was to integrate research and teaching activities. One of these was to explore the expanding imperial territories.

The transition to imperial status implies conceptual delimitation. What's more, defining geographical boundaries became vital. By the time Peter I ascended the throne, a serious border crisis was developing in the disputed area around the Amur River. The Treaty of Nerchinsk, which marked the beginning of the delimitation of the Sino-Russian border, recognized Peter's imperial dignity before the Russian Senate did so officially. Symbolically, St. Petersburg's first academics, primarily astronomers, were deeply involved in the delimitation process in Western Siberia.

Gregory Afinogenov, "The Discovery of Backwardness: The Qing Economy as an Object of Russian Knowledge”

Tatiana Kostina, “Philosophy in Russian Universities in the 18th Century: The Social Context of Disciplinary History”.

By the 18th century, universities in Europe followed a universal structure across the Republic of Scholars. Typical catalogs of lectures from that period list theology, law, medicine, and finally philosophy, which gradually expanded with more disciplines. Peter the Great’s modernization efforts allowed for the creation of a European-style institution at the end of his life. The Russian court wanted a scientific showcase but was only willing to fund it partially, demanding an academy of renowned scholars, a university, a gymnasium, a museum, and workshops.

This disrupted traditional university concepts and weakened disciplinary fields. Along with a lack of competition, the situation led to unexpected effects: from Leonard Euler’s opportunity to try applying mathematics to physiology to Mikhail Lomonosov’s creation of physical chemistry.

This lecture will discuss how Russian universities responded to court and nobility demands, the challenging transition to Russian as the language of instruction, and how philosophical disciplines reacted to political changes.

Justin Smith-Ruiu, “Applied Leibnizianism in the Great Northern Expedition, 1731-1741”

In this paper I will, first of all, offer an account of the key moments, actors, and aims of the so-called Great Northern Expedition, also known as the Second Kamchatka Expedition, that was carried out across the Russian Empire between 1731 and 1741. This expedition, I will go on to show, may justly be seen as the culmination of the schemes for epistemocratic domination of the territory of the empire that the German philosopher G. W. Leibniz (1646-1716) had begun to lay out to Peter the Great and his councilors as early as the 1690s. The expedition involved over 3000 people, including learned Academicians and manual workers alike. It was perhaps the most comprehensive effort anywhere in the world up until that time to use state power for the systematic collection of what Leibniz would call res singulares, and for the determination of answers to a great number of queries. Many of these queries, and instructions for how to answer them, first took shape decades earlier in the work of Leibniz himself, I will argue, and his instructions continue to animate and shape, often explicitly, the field research of many of the members of the expedition.

Andrei Vorobiev, “Visual art in the system of academic knowledge in Russia of the 18th century. Peoples of Russia: from curiosity to political theater”

The unity of science and art was an important part of the education system in the Russian Academy of Sciences. The artists actively participated in scientific projects, including accompanying ethnographic expeditions. So was collected a huge visual material - drawings with the image of peoples, their costumes and household items. These drawings became the basis of collections of the visual materials of Kunstkamera.

In the era of Catherine II they were used to prepare the first illustrated work on the history of Russian ethnography - the book by the academician Y.G. George "Description of all the peoples living in the Russian state..." and later - to create a series of porcelain figures "People of Russia”.

This project was a unique example of the complicated system of relations between academic science, artistic practice and ideological demands of the imperial court for which ethnic diversity became a symbol of political power.