‘And Here We’ll have a Science Town’: Akademgorodok of the Kola Scientific Center as a Form of Organization of the Scientific Space in the Soviet North

Studia Historiae Scientiarum. 2025. Vol. 24. P. 131–158.

Klyueva V.

The natural and climatic conditions prevailing in the Russian Arctic have a profound impact on the development of industry and science: Traditional industries are inefficient here, and the process of dynamizing/revitalizing this area and adapting people and technologies to new realities requires specialized research. These circumstances have led some Northern and Arctic cities to develop the functions of ‘science cities’.

The Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences – Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences is considered in this article as an example of a science city located within the Soviet northern scientific area. It offers unique features for studying the emergence of academic science at the periphery, far from the central institutions of the Academy of Science. Founded in the 1930s, it is the only academic research center located within the boundaries of the Arctic Circle. The construction of Akademgorodok and the concentration of academic institutions in the city of Apatity can be seen as a unique experiment in organizing academic science on the periphery of a country, which was actively utilized later.

Keywords: academic community, Arctic, Soviet North, USSR Academy of Sciences, institutionalization of Soviet science, planning of scientific activities, Kola Science Center, Akademgorodok