Science and technology in Russia developed rapidly since the Age of Enlightenment, when Peter the Great founded the Russian Academy of Sciences and Saint Petersburg State University and polymath Mikhail Lomonosov founded the Moscow State University, establishing a strong native tradition in learning and innovation.
In the 19th and 20th centuries the country produced a large number of notable scientists, making important contributions into physics, astronomy, mathematics, computing, chemistry, biology, geology and geography. Russian inventors and engineers excelled in such areas as electrical engineering, shipbuilding, aerospace, weaponry, communications, IT, nuclear technology and space technology.
Recently, the crisis of 1990-s led to the drastic reduction of the state support for science and technology. Many Russian scientists and university graduates went to Europe or United States in the so-called brain drain migration. In 2000-s, on the wave of a new economic boom, the situation has improved, and the government launched a campaign aimed into modernisation and innovation. Current priorities for the country's technological development include energy efficiency, IT (including both common products and the products combined with space technology), nuclear energy and pharmaceuticals.
Read more about Science And Technology In Russia: History
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“If you have science and art,
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—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“When science drove the gods out of nature, they took refuge in poetry and the porticos of civic buildings.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Our technology forces us to live mythically, but we continue to think fragmentarily, and on single, separate planes.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“In my opinion it is harmful to place important things in the hands of philanthropy, which in Russia is marked by a chance character. Nor should important matters depend on leftovers, which are never there. I would prefer that the government treasury take care of it.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)