Usitalo, Steven,

The Invention of Mikhail Lomonosov : A Russian National Myth / Steven Usitalo. - Boston, MA : Academic Studies Press, [2017] ©2013 - 1 online resource (240 p.) - Imperial Russia .

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Honor and Status in Lomonosov's "Autobiography" -- Chapter 2. Russia's "Own Platos and Quick-Witted Newtons": Inventing the Scientist -- Chapter 3. Lomonosov in the Age of Pushkin -- Chapter 4. Commemorating Russia's "First Scientist" -- Chapter 5. Boris Menshutkin and the "Rediscovery" of Lomonosov -- Epilogue. Afterlife of the Myth -- Bibliography -- Index

Open Access https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2

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.


Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.


This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license:


In English.

9781618116727

10.1515/9781618116727 doi


Authors, Russian--18th century--Biography.
Enlightenment--Russia.
Russian literature--18th century.
Science--Russia--18th century.
HISTORY / Russia & the Former Soviet Union.