Russian Academic Group in the USA

The first Russian academic group was created in the United States on December 4, 1923 ^[1] and was an organization uniting Russian scientists forced to emigrate from Russia after the 1917 revolution . The main goals of the group were to preserve the traditions of Russian academic science and transfer them to the younger generation. In the Charter of the RAG adopted at the Constituent Assembly in December 1923 in New York, the following main tasks were formulated:

• assistance to members of the group in scientific activities;
• publication of works;
• employment;
• concern for the establishment and development of Russian higher education institutions in the United States;
• assistance to Russian refugee students;
• establishing a connection between Russian educational institutions and American scientists and academic organizations;
• help to scientists in Russia.

• Military figure, author of books on engineering, S. F. Baldin ;
• Professor, scientific researcher in the field of hydrodynamics, B. A. Bakhmetev ;
• Aircraft designer, mathematician, who built one of the first helicopters in the USA, G. A. Botezat ;
• S. A. Vasiliev,
• N.V. Winger,
• Professor of Economics, I.M. Goldstein ,
• Professor of Zoology, P. S. Galtsov ^[2] ,
• A scientist in the field of cell biology, embryology V.M. Danchakova
• Socialist figure, S. M. Ingerman ,
• Historian, M.M. Karpovich ,
• K. A. Kovalsky,
• Professor of Russian Law, S. A. Korf ,
• Major General, Socialist K. M. Oberuchev ,
• Scientist chemist specializing in organic chemistry, I. I. Ostromyslensky ,
• Zoologist, arachnologist A. I. Petrunkevich ,
• N.V. Pokrovsky,
• E.P. Polushkin,
• Doctor of Science in Botany and Genetics S. A. Satina ^[3]
• Sociologist, Culturologist P. A. Sorokin ,
• T. M. Stadnichenko;

Baron Sergey Aleksandrovich Korf was elected Chairman of the Management Board; Alexander Ivanovich Petrunkevich was the First Companion of the Chairman. S.A. Korf established academic contacts with many American universities and enjoyed their support ^[4] . It was Korf who played a decisive role in the consolidation of representatives of the Russian academic world in the United States. The main financial assets of the Group consisted of membership fees and donations, as well as income from the Group's enterprises (lectures, concerts, exhibitions). Having existed for only three years, the group announced the termination of its activities at the end of 1926. The reason was different circumstances, both of a personal nature, connected with the illness and death of its leaders, and the difficult political and economic situation in the country.

The main legacy of the group is its participation in the opening of the Russian People’s University ^[5] in New York. At that time (1919-1920) the RAG did not officially exist yet. Among the founders of the University - A.I. Petrunkevich, K.M. Oberuchev, D.I. Vinogradov, V.A. Yakhontov, I.I. Sikorsky, N.A. Borodin. Dean was Alexei Leonidovich Fovitsky ^[6] . There were three departments at the University: preparatory, academic, and special. It was originally planned to teach the Russian language, geography, arithmetic, history, but over time, the list of subjects began to include all the disciplines of high school. At a special department, they gave lectures on agriculture, horticulture, electricity, etc. At the People's University, they were preparing to enter American evening high schools. Students over 16 years old were accepted, tuition was paid. In the first academic year alone, the University was visited by about 50 thousand students, mainly working Russian youth in New York. The university held field lectures, including. in the province ^[7] .

The traditions and spirit of the first American RAG were continued by the post-war organization of Russian emigrant scientists, which was created in New York in 1953 and lasted more than sixty years. Its occurrence was associated with a powerful wave of emigration from European countries after the Second World War. In particular, almost the entire teaching staff of the UNRRA Munich International University, mainly consisting of Russian professors, as well as a large number of Russian-speaking students, arrived in the United States. To continue the university’s activities in the USA, the rector and deans of several faculties (A. M. Mitinsky, K. G. Belousov, A. D. Bilimovich and V. I. Svintitsky) created the Association of American and Foreign Scientists with legal entity rights.

As part of the Association in 1947-1948, the Russian Section stood out, which in 1953 received its historical name "Russian Academic Group in the United States." The charter of the RAG in the USA was adopted, according to which its member could be "everyone who works in the field of culture and complies with the basic principles and traditions of a free and ideologically independent science."

The first chairman of the section was Professor E. V. Spektersky , a former rector of Kiev University.

In 1951-1965, the Chairman of the RAG in the USA was Professor M. M. Novikov , an outstanding Russian scientist and public figure, the last freely elected rector of Moscow University.

In 1966-1970 - Professor A. A. Bogolepov , former vice-rector of the University of Petrograd;

in 1971-1977 - N. S. Arseniev , professor of theology;

in 1978-1982 - Alexander Petrovich Obolensky , professor of Russian language and literature at a number of American universities.

Since 1982, Nadezhda Alekseevna Zhernakova (Ur. Zhmutskaya), professor of the Russian language and literature in New York, was elected Chairman of the Academic Group ^[8] ;

Currently, the Chairman is Andrei Evgenievich Klimov.

The Russian academic group in the USA consisted of such famous scientists and cultural figures as A. A. Bogolepov, G. K. Gins , R. B. Gul , S. A. Zenkovsky , Yu. P. Ivask , V. N. Zhernakov, N. A. Zhernakova, B. S. Izhboldin , A. E. Klimov, E. E. Klimov , P. E. Kovalevsky , prot. D.V. Konstantinov , V.P. Kreid , F. Ya. Kulomzin, N.D. Lobanov-Rostovsky , S.A. Levitsky , N.O. Lossky , E.L. Magerovsky , prot. I.F. Meyendorf , A.N. Mitinsky, N.A. Natova, M.M. Novikov , A.P. Obolensky, B.N. Odintsov , S.A. Panin, N.P. Poltoratsky , S. G. Pushkarev , V. A. Ryazanovsky , N. N. Savvin, V. I. Svintitsky, V. I. Seduro, Yu. A. Sementsov , B. V. Sergievsky , I. I. Sikorsky , P. A. Sorokin , E.V.Spektorsky , G.P. Struve , S.P. Timoshenko , L.M. Tikhvinsky, N.A. Troitsky , B.G. Unbegaun , V.N. Fedorov, V.S. Fedukovich, E. T. Fedukovich, B. A. Filippov , G. V. Florovsky , I. V. Chinnov , M. Yu. Sheftel , P. S. Shidlovsky, A. P. Shcherbatov, V. I. Yurkevich , E. A. Jacobson and many others.

Since 1967, the Transactions of the Association of Russian-American Scholars in the USA began to be published annually. The chief editor of the almanac in 1969-1978 was K. G. Belousov; in 1979-1981 - A.R. Obolensky, in 1982-1993 - N.A. Zhernakova.

• T. 11: Tolstoy Number, 1828-1978 / Ch. ed. K. G. Belousov. - 1978 (Louvain: Rosseels Printing C0). - 255 s: ill. - Text in Russian. and English. lang
• T. 12: Dedicated to the memory of Nikolai Sergeevich Arsenyev, 1888-1977 / Ch. ed. A.P. Obolensky. - 1979. - 227 p.: Ill. - Text in Russian, English. and dumb. lang
• T. 14: Dostoevsky commemorative volume / Ch. ed. A.P. Obolensky; Enter N.A. Natova. - 1981.— 369s: ill. - Text in Russian, English, French. and dumb. lang
• T. 15: On Russian art on selected topics / Ed. N. A. Zhernakova and others; Foreword N.A. Zhernakova and JE Bowlt. -1982. - 354 s: ill. - Text in Russian, English. and fr. lang
• T. 16: Turgenev Commemorative Volume, 1818-1883 / Ed. and auth. foreword N.A. Zhernakova. - 1983 - 399 s., Ill. - List of Prince. Rus Acad. US groups: p. 354. - Text in Russian, English. and fr. lang
• T. 17: Issue dedicated in part to Nicolai Gogol on the 175th anniversary of his birth / Ed. H. A. Zhernakova; The artist. V. Shatalov. - 1984. - 321 p.: Ill. - Text in Russian. and English. lang
• T. 18: A.P. Chekhov / Ed. N. A Zhernakova. - 1985. - 351 s: ill. -Text in Russian. and English. lang
• T. 23: On the 175th anniversary of the birth of M.Yu. Lermontov (1814-1841). On the centenary of the birth of Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966). 1990.

• Ulyankina T.I. Mikhail Mikhailovich Novikov / Resp. ed. S. Yu. Dobrokhotov. - M .: Nauka, 2015 .-- 549 p. - ISBN 978-5-02-038477-4 .
• Ulyankina T. I. In order to preserve the national Russian science. History of the Russian Academic Group in the USA // Questions of the History of Natural Science and Technology. - 2006. - No. 1 . - S. 86-124 .
• Ulyankina T.I. Archive of the Russian Academic Group in the USA (Kinnelon, New Jersey).
• Kvakin A.V., Mukhachev Yu.V. // Russian Abroad: history and modernity. — Collection of articles. — M., - 2015 — Issue 4. — P.29-34.
• Kvakin A.V., Ulyankina T.I., A History Spanning a Decade: Russian Academic Group in the USA (Russian Academic Union) (1921 - 1931) (based on materials from the Archive of the Hoover Institute for War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, USA) // Notes Russian Academic Group in the USA. - T. 34. - N.-Y, 2008. - S. 237–276.
• Notes of the Russian Academic Group in the USA (New York, 1967—).