Akademgorodok - Akademgorodok in The Post-Soviet Era

Akademgorodok in The Post-Soviet Era

The collapse of the Soviet Union saw many scientists, including whole cadres of Russia's top minds in the physical and theoretical sciences, reduced to penury. Beginning in the mid-1990s, as economic reforms allowed private investment in Russia, Akademgorodok saw the beginnings of venture funding. In 1992, a software company called Novosoft was founded here, and its chief client was IBM. Around the same time CFT started, which specialize in banking and financial software. By 1997 private investment reached $10 million; by 2006 it was $150 million and climbing. Intel and Schlumberger have brought work to Akademgorodok, and other companies are following them into the area. Dr. Lavrentyev's son, also named Mikhail and also an accomplished mathematician in his own right, has been deeply involved in this renaissance. While still minuscule by the standards of other countries, the private venture effort in Akademgorodok has breathed new life into what was once one of the Soviet Union's premier scientific centers.

The area is called Silicon Forest by some.