RUSSIAN ACADEMIC SCIENCE TODAY - ITS SOCIETAL STANDING AND THE SITUATION WITHIN THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY

This paper analyzes the present situation of Russian academic science, and explicates both the direct causes and the deep social roots of it s recent crisis. The unfavourable position of Russian science is partl y linked to traditional notions of the essence of Russian society, in which modern science exists as an inorganic, alien section, completely dependent on authorities whose current interests are not oriented tow ards modernization and the support of science. This approach suggests a way of understanding the social history of Russian science. A descri ption of the spreading and growing crisis in the Russian Academy of Sc iences after 1992 makes clear the background and atmosphere within whi ch, in March 1994, a diagnostic study of the academic community was un dertaken. This paper presents and interprets the survey's results in r elation to major aspects of scientific activity: motivation, moods and intentions of scientists; their evaluation of the general situation i n science and personal conditions of research; and current problems of science financing and organization; A compound picture derived from t hese data does not allow any definite predictions of the Academy's fut ure: the processes revealed contain possibilities for both its positiv e transformation and its decay.