Establishing Basic Sciences and Their Applications in Ukraine in 30s of 20th Century

Abstract

The establishing of basic sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, Earth sciences) and their practical applications are shown in the article in the context of socio-political transformations taking place in the USSR and Ukraine in 30s of the past century. It could be possible mainly due to the concentration of R&D in research institutes as core structural units of R&D, which in late 20s were introduced in place of research cathedras, commissions, committees etc., created in early 20s by the soviet authorities of Ukraine as part of the effort to build their own model of higher school and R&D. Research cathedras were designed to concentrate research efforts and resources, create necessary technical facilities for experimental research, make library collections, take organizational measures to exploit the equipment preserved in university labs etc. In the subsequent years they would play the role of scientific centers consolidating professional researchers, creating research environment, engaging young people in R&D and promoting their research carriers. It is true that some R&D performed in the cathedras could either initiate a new research area or lay grounds for organizing research institutes. The principal reason for adopting a new organizational form of the Ukrainian R&D is highlighted: lack of contacts between cathedras and over-extension of limited research capacities. Being isolated, researchers had to waste creative energies and facilities when conducting experiments that had already been known to others as erroneous or failed. Furthermore, the gap between theoretical and experimental science and the relatively weak performance of technical sciences was a consequence of the miserable condition of the experimental facilities, incompleteness of laboratories and small numbers of experimental researchers. Therefore, it became obvious in late 20s that research cathedras had exhausted their potentials, and it was in late 20s that the research institute became a core structural unit of the Ukrainian R&D. The authorities realized that proper funding of R&D and the network of research institutes are the premises for highly effective research in various fields of the basic science. Consequently, it was in 30s that the institutional background for the modern basic science was laid in Ukraine.
Rich information is provided about creation and operation of the network of specialized research institutes in various fields of knowledge, key results produced by them, and the factors giving rise to the Academy organization of basic science in Ukraine.