The invention of Mikhail Lomonosov : a Russian national myth / Steven A. Usitalo.

By:

Usitalo, Steven A [author]

Contributor(s):

Marker, Gary, 1948- [series editor.]

Material type: Text

TextSeries: Imperial encounters in Russian historyPublisher: Brighton, MA : Academic Studies Press, 2013Description: 1 electronic resource (298 pages )Content type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

1618111957
9781618111951
1299954251
9781299954250
9781618116727
161811672X

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: The invention of Mikhail LomonosovDDC classification:

509.2 23

LOC classification:

PG3316.Z6

Online resources:

EBSCOhost

Contents:

Introduction -- 1. Honor and status in Lemonosov's 'autobiography' -- 2. Russia's 'own Platos and quick-witted Newtons' : inventing the scientist -- 3. Lomonosov in the age of Pushkin -- 4. Commemorating Russia's 'first scientist' -- 5. Boris Menshutkin and the 'rediscovery' of Lomonosov -- Epilogue : afterlife of the myth.

Summary: This study explores the evolution of Lomonosov's imposing stature in Russian thought from the middle of the eighteenth century to the closing years of the Soviet period. It reveals much about the intersection in Russian culture of attitudes towards the meaning and significance of science, as well as about the rise of a Russian national identity, of which Lomonosov became an outstanding symbol. Idealized depictions of Lomonosov were employed by Russian scientists, historians, and poets, among others, in efforts to affirm to their countrymen and to the state the pragmatic advantages of science to a modernizing nation. In setting forth this assumption, Usitalo notes that no sharply drawn division can be upheld between the utilization of the myth of Lomonosov during the Soviet period of Russian history and that which characterized earlier views. The main elements that formed the mythology were laid down in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; Soviet scholars simply added more exaggerated layers to existing representations -- Provided by Publisher.

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Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-289) and index.

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This study explores the evolution of Lomonosov's imposing stature in Russian thought from the middle of the eighteenth century to the closing years of the Soviet period. It reveals much about the intersection in Russian culture of attitudes towards the meaning and significance of science, as well as about the rise of a Russian national identity, of which Lomonosov became an outstanding symbol. Idealized depictions of Lomonosov were employed by Russian scientists, historians, and poets, among others, in efforts to affirm to their countrymen and to the state the pragmatic advantages of science to a modernizing nation. In setting forth this assumption, Usitalo notes that no sharply drawn division can be upheld between the utilization of the myth of Lomonosov during the Soviet period of Russian history and that which characterized earlier views. The main elements that formed the mythology were laid down in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; Soviet scholars simply added more exaggerated layers to existing representations -- Provided by Publisher.