Formation of the Scientific Community at the Naval Department of the Russian Empire (1805–1827)

Abstract

The article explores the composition of the learned assembly of the State Admiralty Department (SAD). The learned assembly was a special organization within SAD, which was established in 1805 to provide scientific support to the Russian Navy and existed till 1827. The author identifies the persons who comprised the learned assembly, their professions and institutional affiliation, and analyzes the variations in the SAD staff composition. The complete list of the learned assembly members is reconstructed based on the administrative records deposited in the Russian State Naval Archive and the published sources. The available historiographic works allowed elucidating the details of the learned assembly members’ biographies as well as the areas of their scientific interests. It is shown that, rather than a closed community of naval officers, the SAD learned assembly included the members of different professional groups, associated with the Academy of Sciences and other scientific institutions of the Russian Empire. The number of naval officers and the naval department officials in the learned assembly increased over time, suggesting a gradual formation of the corporate scientific community in the naval sphere who, however, maintained their ties with the representatives of the academic science.