Article in PROJECT RUSSIA 48

Alexander Lozhkin

Goodbye Moscow, Siberia all around,

We live as one family,

We now call our new home

We are the Golden Valley...

From the song of the pioneer builders of Academy Town

Late 50s. Khrushchev's report at the 20th Congress, a decisive restructuring of the architectural and construction complex, the mass release of repressed people from the camps, the first visits of the leader of the USSR to America... At this time, a social and urban experiment was being carried out in the country, decisively changing the idea of ​​ordinary people about what a city could be.

There were a lot of experiments of all kinds on cities in the Soviet Union over the years. The concept of what a socialist settlement should be changed regularly. The restructuring of the construction industry undertaken by Khrushchev was comprehensive: not only stylistic and technological, but also urbanistic. The rejection of “excesses” and the transition to industrial mass housing construction was accompanied by the search for a paradigm alternative to the ceremonial Stalinist urban planning. Already in the mid-60s, the functionalist ideology of building residential neighborhoods and public centers of various levels, based on service standards and accessibility radii, became the only one and was enshrined in SNiPs, but on the way to it other, perhaps more humane, experiences also happened. For example, Novosibirsk Akademgorodok.

Academy Town remained a phenomenon for a long time, an atypical socialist city that surprised both foreigners and Soviet people. Today, this atypicality is leveled out by changed social relations and a different status of science and scientists in society than before.

Construction of Utopia

In the mid-50s, outstanding scientists Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentiev and Sergei Alekseevich Khristanovich managed to convince Khrushchev of the need to build a large interdisciplinary scientific center in the east of the country, in which, through the interaction of scientists of various specialties at the intersection of sciences, discoveries would be born, the path to production would be as short as possible. Such, as defined by the President of the Academy of Sciences M.V. Keldysh, a “huge science complex” was supposed to integrate various branches of science and higher education in a compact autonomous settlement located next to a large industrial center. The concept was called the “Lavrentiev Triangle”. The scientific center was built at a distance from the recognized scientific capitals - Moscow and Leningrad, in order to break away from recognized scientific schools and existing authorities, to give the opportunity to young scientists who were ready to leave the capitals and their established life to independently head large institutes and laboratories. Lavrentyev did not hide: “Active assistance to the most talented and advanced teams will allow us to solve another problem - to cleanse science of false scientists and barren institutions.” . In the structure of the academic campus a university was envisaged, whose students would be given lectures by scientists doing science in academic institutions. The university was not supposed to have its own teaching laboratories; its students were expected to practice on the latest equipment of these institutes.

Mikhail Lavrentiev

Lavrentyev unveiled his concept in February 1957 at the general meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Novosibirsk was chosen to host the scientific center. This city was not at that time the scientific or educational center of Siberia, it was not even a university city - such a role belonged to ancient Tomsk from the middle of the 19th century. But, distancing themselves from the existing scientific schools in Moscow and Leningrad, Lavrentyev and Khristanovich did not want scientists to fall under the influence of the Tomsk professoriate - and refused to locate the Akademgorodok in Tomsk.

Novosibirsk had another important component of the Lavrentiev Triangle - a powerful machine-building complex with a defense bias. Back in the 30s, the largest plant in the USSR, Sibcombine, was built on the left bank, and during the war the city received a large number of evacuated enterprises. After the liberation of the occupied territories, no re-evacuation occurred: the country's Council of Ministers decided that every strategic plant in European Russia should have a backup plant in Siberia.

On May 18, 1957, the Council of Ministers of the country adopted a decision “On the creation of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences” and already in June 1958, the project of the Novosibirsk Scientific Center, which was planned as a satellite city, was approved. The site for the construction of Academgorodok was chosen 25 km south of the urban development of Novosibirsk in a pine forest on the shore of the Ob reservoir formed as a result of the construction of the Novosibirsk hydroelectric power station. The territory of Akademgorodok under the project was 1370 hectares, of which 350 hectares are occupied by forest. The population size was determined for the future at 50 thousand people.

Map of the territory of Akademgorodok, approved by M.A. Lavrentiev

Photo from magazine shein_gen

The architectural and planning organization of Akademgorodok was based on the principle of maximum preservation of the natural landscape and its transformation into a full-fledged structural element of the urban environment. This was new and different from the urban planning paradigm that had prevailed in previous decades. For the first time, architects did not “fight” with nature and did not “subordinate” it to formal planning schemes, but interacted with the landscape, carefully preserving any areas of the forest. In fact, an experiment was carried out to build an “ecological city”, in which residential areas and research institutes were mixed with areas of relict forest and birch groves. Another planning feature was the creation of a communications system that provides the shortest transport and pedestrian connections between the zones and within each of them. Transport and pedestrian flows were diverted, and transit transport was moved outside the Akademgorodok. Three main streets make up a “parabola” of the main thoroughfares: Stroiteley Avenue, Nauki Avenue (now named after Academician Lavrentiev), Morskoy Avenue. Paths for pedestrians are laid through forested areas. There is also a special network of paths for cyclists.

The most modern engineering support system at the time of its creation was implemented in Akademgorodok. All main communications, except for sewerage, are laid in a common reinforced concrete passage collector, from which galleries extend to research institute complexes and residential neighborhoods.

Until 1959, the design of Akademgorodok was carried out by the Novosibproekt Institute (architects B.G. Seagal, O.I. Zhigalova, V.G. Ivanov, etc.). In the fall of 1959, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee N.S. got acquainted with the construction of the Academy Town. Khrushchev. He advised “to build the town more economically, without unnecessary costs.” “Not all is well with the architectural planning of the town,” Khrushchev said at the rally. - The architects decided to build high-rise buildings in the forest. For what? To make it easier for crows to land, or what? (Laughter. Applause.) Architects say: you need to have an architectural spot in the complex. Perhaps he, the architect, needs this “spot”, and the state spends excessive funds on this “spot”. Everything must be done wisely, rationally. Why do we, comrades, copy America in the Siberian expanses? Here, you know, bear and bear sometimes cannot meet in two years (cheerful animation), but someone seems to be drawn to the clouds.” (Laughter. Applause.)

Khrushchev in Akademgorodok

Local legend says that the high-rise buildings disappeared from the project in the following way - the head of state simply brushed them off the model with the words: “But this is what will happen in an atomic explosion!”

One way or another, in 1959 a competition was held to design the center of Akademgorodok. The final project for the planning and development of the town was developed by a team of authors, which included architects I. Putesheva, S. Ponomarev, N. Simonov, Y. Ushakov, S. Tselyarnitsky, under the guidance of architects M. Bely, I.B. Orlova, A. Popov-Shaman, A.S. Mikhailova. Architects G. Tyulenin, V. Ivanov, A. Dushenina, L. Meshcheryakova, V. Nuikin, engineer-dendrologist R . Baranovsky.

Materials of the competition for the project of the center of Akademgorodok. Arch. Anatoly Volovik, 1958

Functionally, the territory of Akademgorodok is divided into three zones: scientific (with the adjacent utility and storage area), residential and public center zone. Zoning preserved existing forested areas and open green areas as much as possible.

Scientific Institutes Zone was located in the northeastern part of Akademgorodok and was originally intended to house 15 research institutes. Institutes were grouped taking into account their scientific relationships and providing territorial reserves for further development. The area of ​​scientific institutes was separated from residential neighborhoods by a vast forest, which served as a sanitary protection strip.

The design of the zone of scientific institutes was carried out by the Moscow and Novosibirsk branches of GiproNII with the participation of architects S. Buritsky, G. Platonov, B. Zakharov, Yu. Malov, I. Kupriyanov, V. Sharov and others.

In July 1959, the building of the Institute of Hydrodynamics, the first of the scientific institutions, was put into operation. In 1962, the buildings of the institutes of mathematics, geology and geophysics, nuclear physics, organic chemistry, and the first academic building of the university were put into operation.

Institute of Nuclear Physics

The compositional center of the zone of scientific institutes became the main building of the Institute of Nuclear Physics (11 Lavrentyeva Ave.), built according to an individual design (authors B. Zakharov, A. Privalova, V. Sharov). Other buildings of the research institute and the university were built according to standard designs.

Residential area The campus was divided into microdistricts, their planning was carried out taking into account the need to maximize the preservation of natural fragments of the forest; single trees were also preserved during construction. The settlement of microdistricts was carried out taking into account the social status of residents. The scientists lived in the so-called “upper zone” in the southern part of the town, in microdistricts “A”, “B” and “C”. A cottage community in the picturesque valley of the Zyryanka River, next to the Botanical Garden, was intended for academicians and corresponding members of the USSR Academy of Sciences. For professors and senior researchers, full-sized houses of the 1-444 and 1-419 series were built from sand-lime brick and large concrete blocks. Junior researchers were accommodated in four- and five-story panel “Khrushchev” buildings of the 1-464 series. In the northern part of Akademgorodok, a “lower” residential zone was designed, intended for builders and workers of the communal and warehouse zone: microdistricts “D” and “Shch”. Such strange letters were not chosen to mark microdistricts by chance - they were built with two-story wooden panel houses, which today have mostly been replaced by nine-story panel buildings.

Despite the fact that the development of residential areas was carried out exclusively with standard houses, it was possible to create a surprisingly humane and comfortable environment in the microdistricts - primarily due to the preservation of natural greenery. Builders limited the angle of rotation of the booms of tower cranes, wrapped tree trunks that were within the construction site - as a result, pine and birch trees grow literally a few tens of centimeters from the walls of buildings, relict forest penetrates into courtyards, onto the playgrounds of kindergartens and schools.

Public shopping area stretches in the center of the “upper” zone along Ilyich Street for almost 800 meters, from the House of Scientists to the university.

House of Scientists

In 1962-68. At the intersection of Morskoy Prospekt and Ilyich Street, the building of the House of Scientists was built (23 Morskoy Ave.). It consists of three blocks: a club block with an atrium courtyard, a winter garden and a fountain, a restaurant, a gym and a conference room for 200 seats, a theater block with a hall for 1000 seats and a passage between them, on the ground floor of which there is an art gallery, and in the second there are club and administrative premises. The building was built according to the design of Leningrad architects (L. Lavrov, M. Levin, I. Orlov, A. Rotinov, T. Safronova, Yu. Ushakov, etc.), and the design of the House of Pioneers theater in Moscow was reused for the theater building.

The interpretation of the facades of the buildings is determined by the difference in their functional purpose: the blank façade of the club part and the solid glass stained glass window of the theater part. In the interiors, the architect managed to achieve the interpenetration of street and interior spaces through the masterly use of huge stained glass windows and panoramic glazing.

The House of Scientists is used as a center for communication and recreation for scientists: conferences, debates, symposiums are held there, lectures are given, interest clubs and study groups operate, and artists touring in Novosibirsk perform. It was here that the famous festival of bard songs took place with the participation of Alexander Galich; the first exhibitions of Filonov and El Lissitzky in the USSR were held in the art gallery in the 60s. Scenes of the cult Soviet film “Nine Days of One Year” were filmed in the interiors of the building.

Shopping mall

The largest public and commercial building in Academgorodok was the Shopping Center (1964, Ilyich St., 6), an individual project of which was developed by the Scientific Research Institute, post office box 45, and the Moscow Institute of Experimental Design of the Academy of Construction and Architecture of the USSR (headed by A.S. Obraztsov, K. K. Kartashova, architect A.V. Anisimov, A.V. Arapov, L. Kononova, I. Milashevskaya, E. Ozol). The architects took advantage of the active topography of the site and placed retail businesses on three levels. The main blocks - the department store and the supermarket - are designed to be two-story with double-height spaces, and the entrances to both the upper and lower halls of the department store are arranged from the ground level due to the difference in relief. The department store and the supermarket are connected at the 2nd floor level by a glazed gallery into which consumer service enterprises open. An open area has formed between them, which is used for summer street trading.

In the design of the facades, advanced solutions and materials for the 60s were used: glass and black glass, corrugated steel and aluminum, torn stone. In 1967, the Trade Center project was exhibited at the World's Fair in Montreal.

Hotel "Golden Valley" and House of Communications

In 1966, according to the design of a group of Leningrad architects (I. Orlov, N. Vasiliev, T. Safronova, Yu. Ushakov, etc.), an eight-story building of the Zolotaya Dolina hotel (10 Ilyich St.) with a Communications House attached to it was built, which became the high-rise accent of the center of Akademgorodok.

The Novosibirsk State University complex was developed by Giprovuz under the leadership of architect E. Kalashnikova. As a result of Khrushchev's adjustments to the project, the high-rise main building was never built.

The construction of the first stage of Academgorodok was completed in 5 years, by 1963. In 1967, the authors of the Akademgorodok project received the USSR State Prize for their work. In the same year, the project was demonstrated at the World Exhibition in Montreal.

Life of Utopia

Novosibirsk Academy Town has become a world famous scientific center. At the first stage, the expectations of its creators were not only met, but also exceeded: science enthusiasts flocked here. Initially it was assumed that 12 institutes would be opened, the project already provided for 15, and in the mid-60s there were already 20 research institutes here. Young free-thinking scientists came here from all over the country, and immediately a special atmosphere was established in the town, which was impossible to imagine in other parts of the USSR. “They won’t send us further than Siberia,” they joked and organized exhibitions of banned artists, sang illegal songs from the stage of the House of Scientists, and held debates on the topic “Do we need a Komsomol?” in the “Under the Integral” club, created the “Coffee-Cybernetic Club”, opened the youth self-supporting enterprise “Fakel” - the prototype of the future “menateps” and other Komsomol “centers of scientific and technological progress”. The architecture of Academy Town - relaxed, not burdened by excessive decorativeism, environmentally friendly, inscribed in the natural environment - was perfectly suited as a backdrop for the seemingly realized sixties utopia.

The first American to visit Academy Town was William Benton, publisher of the Encyclopedia Britannica. He wrote about his impressions: “Deep in the forests of Siberia, not far from a huge artificial lake, the Soviet Union is building one of the most amazing scientific centers in the world. The consequences of this could be ominous for us . The new complex, the construction of which is now nearing completion, represents a vivid symbol of the Soviet intellectual challenge to the West... It will not only conduct high-level theoretical research, it will also solve practical problems in various fields, ranging from hydraulic methods of development subsoil before deciphering ancient texts. But this new city of science is the first of several that the Soviets plan to build in Siberia...”

In a short time, a settlement arose in a remote area of ​​the country, the analogues of which did not yet exist in the country at that time. The experiment to form a large scientific, educational and industrial center was accompanied by an urban planning experiment, the introduction of environmental design principles, and the creation of an integrated habitat combining elements of wild nature and traditional urban archetypes. The academic town later served as a model for the design of a significant number of science cities in different regions of the country and abroad, including three suburbs of Novosibirsk: scientific centers of the Siberian branches of the academies of medical and agricultural sciences, and the Vector Microbiology Center. At the same time, subsequent implementations of the principles laid down in the design of Akademgorodok led to results significantly different from those in Novosibirsk.

Utopia today and tomorrow

Academy Town, 50 years after the start of its construction, no longer makes the same impression that its guests had in the 60s and 70s. Nowadays you won’t surprise anyone with the well-groomed lawns and flower beds on the streets, the paths and sidewalks, alas, have now only become worse, the assortment in the stores of the Shopping Center, once famous for “Moscow supplies,” is no different from the all-Russian one, and you certainly won’t surprise anyone with the supermarket - a curiosity 60s. There are no bicycle parking near the institutes, the House of Scientists and the Shopping Center, and only a new generation of long-legged girls, dressed in shorts and bikinis, just like 40 years ago, walks along Morskoy Avenue to the beach of the Ob Reservoir, shocking conservative professors. Children of scientists grow up and do not always become scientists; it is easier for them to find a place of work in Novosibirsk. The traffic on the highway connecting the city and town has increased unusually. The institutes of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences (SB RAS) exist on liquid budget funding and earn money by renting out premises; it is hardly worth talking about the implementation of the principles of the “Lavrentiev Triangle” in the current era: the industry of Novosibirsk has self-liquidated, the university and the SB RAS belong to different departments.

The academic town is turning from an autonomous science city into a residential area of ​​the Siberian metropolis. To prevent this, new ideas are needed. In 2005, during his stay in Academgorodok, Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced the concept of creating research and innovation special economic zones (SEZs). Novosibirsk developed a project for such a zone, but lost the competition for the creation of a SEZ to neighboring Tomsk. Today, a technology park construction project is called upon to revive the science city of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences. RosEuroDevelopment plans to build an IT center here with an area of ​​62 thousand m2 and almost 600 thousand m2 of housing . The project is being developed by NBBJ. For construction, they want to cut down the pine forest in the center of the town.

The project receives strong administrative support from the regional and city authorities - and equally powerful and organized resistance from the residents of Akademgorodok. They believe, not without reason, that new construction on the site of a natural forest preserved by the original builders contradicts the ideas of Academician Lavrentiev and the designers, that the logical functional structure of the town will be violated, that behind beautiful words about technological innovations hides the banal desire of developers to get a large plot of land in a prestigious area of ​​the city. Supporters of the construction of a technology park claim that the forest planned for felling is sick, and that new buildings will be erected with maximum preservation of trees. However, it is difficult to understand why the technological park is not being built on the territory adjacent to the institutes and used for other purposes than the utility and warehouse zone, but in a forest that was never intended for development.

It is clear that without fresh ideas equal in strength to the ideas of Lavrentyev and Khristanovich, Academy Town is doomed to die. Preserving it as a dead monument is possible, but hardly advisable. At the same time, if the basic principles laid down during the design are ignored during the development of the town, its originality will disappear and this place is unlikely to become more comfortable. Rather, on the contrary, thoughtless mass construction of housing on the site of existing forest areas will only accelerate the transformation of Akademgorodok into a residential suburb of Novosibirsk.

Today, the high educational potential of the residents of Akademgorodok remains high; in terms of the number of scientific degrees per capita, it apparently occupies one of the first places in the country. The town can become an excellent base for locating engineering and technology centers of the world's largest corporations, and the industrial potential of Novosibirsk allows you to quickly organize any pilot production. We need a concept of innovative development that is minimally dependent on government subsidies and the creativity of officials, and architects will have to develop a matrix for such development that stimulates it, but does not cause trauma to the existing city in the forest.

MODERN PHOTOS OF ACADEMY CITY

Novosibirsk Academic Town located twenty kilometers south of the city center Novosibirsk, on the right bank Ob Sea. He enters Sovetsky district Novosibirsk. The population of the Sovetsky district, according to the Novosibirsk mayor's office, is 130.9 thousand people.

At the same time, the Sovetsky district includes a number of territories that cannot be classified as Akademgorodok under any circumstances, and a number of neighborhoods, the inclusion of which in Akademgorodok is a controversial issue.

The total population for the microdistricts of the Sovetsky district is estimated as:

• Upper zone - 22 thousand inhabitants.
• Microdistrict Shch - 27 thousand inhabitants.
• Microdistrict D - 10 thousand inhabitants.
• Nizhnyaya Eltsovka (actually a remote area, with its own branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences) - 14 thousand inhabitants.
• Gateway (included in Akademgorodok) - 16 thousand inhabitants.
• southern suburbs (Kirovo, Geologov, etc., are not part of Akademgorodok) - 2.5 thousand residents.
• ObGES (left bank of the Ob, not part of Akademgorodok) - 40 thousand inhabitants.

Thus, depending on the definition of the boundaries of Academic Town, the size of the permanent population can be estimated from 22 to 75 thousand residents (the estimate was made based on the number of voters in polling stations, based on social survey data on the even distribution of minor family members. At the same time, the share of the population registered in other districts and cities actually living in Academgorodok, does not have a reliable assessment).

Akademgorodok is one of the most important scientific and educational centers in Russia. On the territory of Akademgorodok there are dozens of research institutes, the Presidium of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS), Novosibirsk State University, and the School of Physics and Mathematics.

History of Akademgorodok

The largest event in the development of the scientific potential of Siberia was the creation in 1957 of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences (SB AS USSR). The acceleration of scientific and technological progress was seen through the “regionalization” of science - in the creation of local scientific centers. In addition, the shift of the country's productive forces to the east required powerful scientific support. In the context of the renewal of the country during the “thaw”, the idea of ​​​​creating the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences was born, formulated by a group of scientists led by Academician M.A. Lavrentiev. In December 1956, M.A. Lavrentyev arrived in Novosibirsk, where he met with the heads of local branches of the Academy of Sciences and discussed with them the issue of creating a new scientific center by attracting large scientific forces to Siberia from beyond the Urals. In February 1957, at the general meeting of the Academy of Sciences, the idea of ​​​​creating a large scientific center in Siberia became known to the scientific community. In April of the same year, M.A. Lavrentyev and S.A. Khristianovich discussed this issue with N.S. Khrushchev and received his support. On May 18, 1957, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the creation of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences.” The resolution outlined the construction of a scientific town in the Novosibirsk region. M.A. Lavrentyev was appointed Chairman of the SB USSR Academy of Sciences, and his deputies were S.A. Khristianovich and T.F. Gorbachev (Chairman of the West Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences). The main base of the new scientific center was a complex of research institutes in all main areas of science. This made it possible for representatives of various scientific specialties to interact, which was especially important, since in the conditions of the scientific and technological revolution the most important discoveries are often made at the intersection of sciences. Soon the first ten research institutes were organized. At the beginning of 1958, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution on the creation of a university in Novosibirsk, and in September 1959 this university began to operate. Novosibirsk has become the third university city in Siberia, after Tomsk and Irkutsk. Academician I.N. became the first rector of NSU. Vekua.

The academic town was founded in 1957 on the initiative of academician Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentiev (1900-1980). The decision to create the Academy Town was contained in a decree of the USSR government adopted in May 1957.

Construction began in 1958, and the buildings of the first institutes and residential buildings were put into operation in 1959 (the Institute of Hydrodynamics was the first to be completed). In subsequent years, over 20 more institutes, residential areas and Novosibirsk State University were built.

A significant event in the history of Academgorodok was the holding of the first official art song festival by the Pod Integral club in March 1968.

During the Soviet period (1959-1991), Akademgorodok was a prestigious place to live. Due to a shortage of almost all food products in stores, scientists were able to receive food packages at order desks. A feature of the development of Academy Town was a clear demonstration of the principle of fair social inequality under socialism - academicians lived in cottages, doctors of sciences - in full-sized houses, candidates - in Khrushchev-era apartment buildings, the rest - in dormitories. Product sets were accordingly distributed to different order tables in accordance with their status in this hierarchy.

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The collapse of the Soviet economic system and the Soviet Union itself led to a deep economic crisis in Akademgorodok. Real salaries for scientists have fallen sharply, often to levels below the subsistence level; mass emigration of scientists to foreign universities and research centers began.

At the same time, positive phenomena were also observed. Private investment (mostly from abroad) led to the creation of research and software companies in Akademgorodok. Divisions of Intel and Schlumberger were opened and Novosoft was created. By 2006, private investment in the Academy City economy reached $150 million per year (increasing from $10 million in 1997), and there was a trend towards further growth.

Novosibirsk Technopark

In August 2006, a decision was made to build a technology park in Akademgorodok worth 17 billion rubles (then exactly a year later the estimated cost was increased and reached 21,736.63 million rubles). The technology park will be built within the framework of the state program “Creation of technology parks in the Russian Federation in the field of high technologies” and will specialize in four main areas: information technology, medical and biological technologies, power electronics and instrument engineering. The territory of the technology park will be 100 hectares. It is planned that the total area of ​​research and production premises will be about 150 thousand m². In addition to them, many auxiliary areas will be introduced, office and shopping centers, and residential complexes will be built. Construction of the technology park is due to begin in September 2007, and the first phase is planned to be completed within the next two years. According to the statement of the then Chairman of the SB RAS Nikolai Dobretsov, construction began on November 29, 2007. At the same time, the technology park project caused protests from some residents of Academgorodok, concerned about the possible environmental consequences of the planned construction. Under the influence of protests, the original construction plans were significantly adjusted. In October 2008 the general investor of the project, RosEuroDevelopment LLC, left the project. After this, the project was again adjusted several times. The further fate of the technology park remains unclear.

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“I picture an institution that I would call the “City of Science” - a series of temples where every scientist is a priest... It is a series of beautifully furnished technical laboratories, clinics, libraries and museums where, day after day, the keen, fearless eyes of a scientist peer into the darkness terrible secrets surrounding our planet...”

/M. Bitter/

Scientific and social phenomenon of Akademgorodok

Novosibirsk Academy Town, which has been creating its colorful history since 1957, is a world-famous scientific center, unique not only in its coverage of areas of human knowledge, but also in the concentration of intellectual, cultural and spiritual forces that spread magical influence far beyond the official framework of the capital of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences . Dozens of Institutes of the SB RAS, departments of Novosibirsk State University and scientific forums bring together leading experts in all fundamental, technical and humanitarian areas: mathematics and computer science, physics and chemistry, geology and biology, economics and sociology, medicine and ecology, philosophy and philology. Academy Town has always been and remains a center of attraction for scientists from advanced countries, major political figures and the artistic elite. He has already become the hero of books published in various languages; his diaspora plays a prominent role in many cities of Russia, CIS countries and on all continents of the far abroad. The history, modernity and future of Akademgorodok, its legends and reality, is a phenomenon worthy of comprehension of the new scientific community, self-expression of the Russian intelligentsia and national social life.

Lomonosov's prophecy - the embodiment of Lavrentiev

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The birth of Akademgorodok is a happy realization of the idea of ​​Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrentyev, who, together with like-minded colleagues, made an appeal to the government to create a new large scientific center in the east of the country, designed to fulfill the prophecy of Mikhail Lomonosov: “The power of Russia will grow with Siberia.” World-famous scientists who took up this call - S. L. Sobolev, S. A. Khristianovich, A. A. Trofimuk, S. S. Kutateladze, I. N. Vekua, together with their students, became pioneers and founders of academic institutes and the Novosibirsk State university. Within a few years, the first scientific buildings and residential areas appeared next to the man-made Ob Sea.

Golden Age of Siberian Science

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During the 1960-1970s - a historically short period of time - a science city of world significance appeared in the vicinity of the now famous Golden Valley. Scientific seminars, Scientific Councils, International conferences and symposiums, selfless creative work - this atmosphere of the Academy Town has made it a Mecca for scientists from leading domestic and foreign scientific centers. Within the SB RAS Institutes, new fundamental directions and scientific schools are being created, spreading their aura far beyond the Novosibirsk region. Branches of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences are organized in Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Tomsk, Barnaul, Omsk and other cities. The state scientific program “Siberia” has become the concept of introducing scientific achievements into the comprehensive development of the productive forces of a huge region.

Personnel decides everything

Opened in 1958, Novosibirsk State University is a forge of a new type of scientific personnel, where the entire teaching staff consists of active scientists from academic institutions, where students undergo internships from early years. At the same time, a famous physics and mathematics school was created, whose students are selected at the Siberian Olympiads. General education schools have specialized classes in foreign languages, natural sciences and humanities. It was in Akademgorodok that Russian school computer science was born, and the slogan of universal computer literacy became a reality. The Young Technicians Club, the Young Naturalists Station, music and art schools, children's sports clubs and creative groups are designed to provide a decent education for new generations.

All flags will visit us

Since the beginning of its development, Academy Town has become a prominent point on the political map of the World. Its construction is being carried out under the patronage of the country's leaders, Khrushchev and Kosygin, who have been here many times. Many state leaders are guests of the SB RAS: Nixon, Kekkonen, Ulbricht, De Gaulle, Pompidou, Palme, Zhivkov, Clinton and others. Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Putin, and Patriarch Alexy II meet with residents of Akademgorodok.

The Great Hall of the House of Scientists of the SB RAS with its intellectual audience also attracts outstanding Russian artists, poets and writers. Konstantin Simonov, Evgeny Yevtushenko and Andrei Voznesensky, Andron Konchalovsky and Eldar Ryazanov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Mikhail Zhvanetsky, Mark Zakharov and many actors from leading capital theaters performed on its stage.

From crisis to revival

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The notorious decade of material and spiritual collapse of the country in the 1990s could not but affect the economic and social status of Akademgorodok. Budget funding for fundamental research has decreased significantly, and the demand for scientific developments in domestic industry has disappeared. The result was a devastating migration of the most active part of the scientific workforce to business and abroad.

The active struggle for the survival of the SB RAS, the solidarity of domestic and foreign foundations, as well as the emergence of private capital in the pseudo-scientific sphere, against the backdrop of some economic recovery in the early 2000s, led to a significant update of the infrastructure and even the appearance of Akademgorodok. The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences is still a city-forming organization, but now a significant role is played by financial enterprises, commercial firms in information and other high-tech technologies, as well as a diverse private household sector. New “elite” houses fit into the landscape of Akademgorodok, the streets are filled with advertising, and islands of modern urban design appear.

Not by science alone

Having concentrated an unprecedented density of intellectual and multi-talented individuals since the 1960s, Academy Town inevitably became a center for the generation of social, cultural and public initiatives. The club “Under the Integral” has forever become a legend, uniting young people of the first generation and involving the most interesting guests of Academy Town with its unexpected debates or informal events. Under his auspices, in 1968, the first (and last) All-Union Bards Festival was held, which opened with Yuri Kukin, Alexander Dolsky and other founders of the art song, but became scandalously famous for the “anti-Soviet” songs of Alexander Galich, after which he was expelled from the country.

The first decades of Akademgorodok were the heyday of theater studios, creative groups, and sports clubs. It is quite natural that this enthusiasm was soon picked up by student youth. NSU Interweeks with May Days and international concerts have become a wonderful tradition. The university's KVN team became famous throughout the country for its masterpieces and won the title of champion of All-Union competitions three times. The House of Scientists, the houses of culture Academy and Youth become centers of cultural and social life. Religious communities appear with their own churches, gymnasiums and summer camps, conducting active charitable activities.

The artistic world, poetry and prose of Akademgorodok are hundreds of individuals with personal exhibitions, books and publications in periodicals, where there is subtle lyricism, high citizenship, sharp journalism, and topical polemics. The life of the young town already has its own traditions, including the New Year tree with the Snow Maiden and ice slides, and April Fools' student skits, and May Interweeks, and Holy Victory Day, and Children's Day with drawings on the asphalt, and exhibitions and fairs of gardening masterpieces, and so on the current Science Day, and the thousandth New Year's balls, and mass church holidays with bells ringing.

House with windows to the forest

The undoubted charm of the Town lies in its non-urban relationship with nature. There are trees at every window, pedestrian alleys along the roads. Pine-birch, apple, rowan, lilac.

The town was and remains a unique “green” example in Siberian urban planning practice. A detail that has become a legend: the Academy forbade the booms of the tower cranes to make a full turn so as not to injure the trees.

Thanks to the efforts of landscapers, spruce and linden, cedar and larch, even jasmine and honeysuckle have taken root in the Town. And in the surrounding area are the well-groomed properties of the Siberian Botanical Garden. About 500 species, forms and hybrids are presented here, making you forget - during the time of wild flowering - about the unkind Siberian latitudes. Connecting with nature is an all-weather blessing. Seasonal preferences divide Gorodkov residents into skiers and yachtsmen, mushroom pickers and gardeners, herbalists and fishermen. Not urban - rather rural harmony. In summer, the Ob Sea has kilometers of sandy beaches, dozens of well-equipped institute recreation centers and wild islands, and in winter, it has thousands of holes with ice-free fishermen and ice holes with splashing “walruses.”

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The main street of Akademgorodok, Lavrentiev Avenue, with dozens of institutes located on it, has long deserved to be included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most scientific street in the world. Our cityscape is the historically central Morskoy Avenue with slender rows of trees, flower alleys and architectural oases, this is the street named after Hero of Russia Demakov - the largest “dormitory” of the Sovetsky district, these are the named streets of the founding scientists and builders of Academgorodok.

The patriotic community organizes competitions for the most beautiful balcony, entrance, store, so that Akademgorodok will always be not only the smartest, but also the kindest and warmest house with windows to the forest.

The meaning of life is its continuation

Market trends of the times could not but affect the appearance and way of life of the first Academy Town of Russia. The mass exodus of scientists from Russian science led to three main consequences. The first is the emergence of its own diaspora of thousands in the USA and Canada, Brazil and Israel, Japan and Australia, not to mention the countries of Western Europe. Our fellow countrymen can now be found in almost any major world scientific center, and the overwhelming majority of them maintain close ties with their Alma Mater, regularly coming to conferences and visiting. The second phenomenon is called the “Silicon Taiga” and means thousands of young people who have organized programming firms working for foreign orders and receiving income in “conventional units.” The third economic factor is medium and small businesses, headed by the new generation involved in the SB RAS or NSU. Its consequence is the Sibacadembank charitable foundation, the NSU Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics assistance fund, numerous shares of the “Your Town” society and other good deeds.

The inextricably linked SB RAS and NSU are still the main structures of Akademgorodok. The flow of applicants does not weaken, foreign relations of the institutes are actively developing, and the list of annual international conferences is growing both in the number of participants and in the branches of science covered. Around fundamental science, new enterprises are emerging to introduce high-tech technologies with the involvement of public, private and foreign capital. There are, of course, still a large number of unresolved problems, but Akademgorodok remains a forge of Russian scientific personnel and one of the leading centers of world scientific and technological progress.

The academy town was built in the south of Novosibirsk, in the taiga on the shores of the Ob Sea. In essence, this is a large isolated area consisting of various typical Soviet-era houses. Even the cottages of academicians are made of recognizable panels, and the most iconic building is the austere building of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, without a single decorative detail.

However, Academy Town seems neither strict nor dull. It looks like a European university town. It is safe and cozy here; the streets and avenues are still surrounded by real forest. There is fresh air here, mushrooms grow almost under the windows, and squirrels, they say, sometimes jump right into the windows. There is a democratic and friendly atmosphere here. There are a lot of students and various informal people here - “reenactors” dress up in historical costumes and walk through the forest with fake swords. Here, in the Museum of the Sun, all the solar fantasies of humanity are collected, and in the museum of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, visitors are frightened by the mummy of the “Altai princess”, overgrown with terrible legends, from a mound on the Ukok plateau. There is the Upper Zone and the “Shch” microdistrict, almost like the Strugatsky brothers.

The favorite vacation spot for residents of Akademgorodok, especially young people, is the shore of the Ob Sea. They grill kebabs there at any time of the year or just walk along the coast. It’s worth following the example of the “academic” natives, going there and looking at the widespread Ob. The cliched expression “Siberian expanses” comes to life: this is New Siberia, the “geometric heart” of Russia, connecting Europe and Asia.

Local features

Residents Novosibirsk They call Akademgorodok briefly - “Academ”. Those who live in the Academy are not lazy and pronounce the name in full. Or they say “Town”.

In Akademgorodok there are more than three dozen research institutes and only one university - Novosibirsk State University. Public transport stops are often identified by the names of nearby scientific institutions, so on a minibus you can hear: “Stop at nuclear physics!” (Institute of Nuclear Physics) or “At the VEC, please” (Computing Center).

In Soviet times, Akademgorodok was considered a prestigious area, and the local shopping center was one of the best in the city, where scarce goods appeared. Now there is nothing supernatural in the Akademovsky shopping center, everything is the same as everywhere else, but housing is still valued because of its good environment and is expensive - by Novosibirsk standards.

Story

Novosibirsk Academy Town arose in the wake of the Soviet “thaw”, when the accelerated development of Siberia and the Far East with their inexhaustible natural resources began. This development required new scientific developments, and in 1957 the USSR government approved the initiative of Academician Mikhail Lavrentyev to create the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences. For the construction of an academic campus, free territory was allocated in the south of Novosibirsk, near the recently created reservoir - the Ob Sea. Young promising scientists were supposed to settle here, willingly agreeing to move to Siberia, in fact to the taiga, when the town was just a project.

In the very first year, the Berdskoye Highway, excellent by the standards of its time, was built, connecting Novosibirsk and the city of Berdsk. Most communications - power lines, sewerage, water supply - had to be built from scratch, since Akademgorodok was located some distance from the city center. Construction proceeded very quickly, the foundation was ready within five years. The Institute of Hydrodynamics was the first to open; it was graduated in 1959. Classes at Novosibirsk University, which did not yet have its own premises, began in the same building, and all other scientific institutions were temporarily housed.

The space of Academy Town was planned in accordance with the most advanced urban planning ideas of the time: very functional, logical and environmentally friendly. The architects set out to fit the houses into the natural environment without cutting down trees. The forest performed not only aesthetic functions, but served as protection from winds and snow on the one hand and railway noise on the other. According to the master plan, the town was divided into zones for different purposes - scientific, residential, utility and warehouse, construction, recreation and sports areas. The living area is the most comfortable and green. It is believed that Khrushchev personally prohibited the construction of buildings higher than five floors in the taiga, who visited Novosibirsk during his voyage across Siberia.

Housing was distributed in strict accordance with the scientific and social status of the townspeople: panel “Khrushchev” buildings for the youngest, houses of a more solid “Stalinist” layout for senior researchers and separate cottages for academicians. Construction workers who had nothing to do with scientific research lived in the “Shch” microdistrict in wooden panel barracks. The campus was supposed to become something like an ideal world of scientists and students bringing the future closer. This fantastic idea, typical of the sixties, was reflected in toponymy: in Academgorodok there were Nauki Avenue and Universitetsky Avenue, Fizikov Street, Tourists and Romantics boulevards (later renamed). The image of a new city for young people was strongly supported by its founders and leaders. At one of the May Day demonstrations, the column was led not by workers with placards, but by young mothers with strollers carrying the first babies born in Akademgorodok.

Already in the 1960s, bicycle transport was developed in Akademgorodok - bicycle paths were initially allocated during the construction of highways. True, over time, eco-friendly bicycles were replaced by cars, but historically, Akademgorodok was one of the first in Russia.

Since 1963, the legendary club-cafe “Under the Integral” has become the center of the “unscientific” intellectual life of young scientists. In 1968, the club hosted an official festival of bard songs - an exceptional event for the USSR. Alexander Galich performed there for the last time before leaving Russia. That same year, the festival was recognized as an ideological mistake, the club was closed, and the “thaw” ended.

In the same 1968, the House of Scientists opened - a communication center, scientific and cultural center of Akademgorodok. During the Soviet years, the exhibition hall of the House of Scientists hosted exhibitions of semi-banned avant-garde artists. In this sense, the intellectual elite of Akademgorodok was in a special position. Both the House of Scientists itself (23 Morskoy Avenue) and the exhibition hall attached to it are still actively working.

The academic town flourished until the economic crisis of the 90s, when government funding for science virtually ceased and the salaries of scientists fell to the lowest levels. Many intellectual personnel were lost: the most talented people, for whom Academy Town was built, left. Circumstances began to change for the better relatively recently, especially with the advent of IT technologies and private investment. In 2006, a decision was made to build a technology park on the basis of Novosibirsk University, which should become the Siberian “silicon valley” (or “silicon taiga”). Not all residents of Akademgorodok are happy about this, since during construction a lot of forest will have to be cut down. Despite the protests of local “greens”, the process is already underway, although not too quickly.

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Novosibirsk Academic Town (Russia) - description, history, location. Exact address, phone number, website. Tourist reviews, photos and videos.

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The world-famous Novosibirsk Akademgorodok traces its history back to 1957. It appeared thanks to the efforts of academicians Mikhail Lavrentyev and Sergei Sobolev. Two years later, life was in full swing in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok: houses, institutes and the Novosibirsk State University were built.

The Novosibirsk club “Under the Integral” became the place where the only official concert of Alexander Galich in the USSR took place.

The area quickly gained prestigious status. Firstly, the best conditions for scientists were created here, and secondly, the town was located in an excellent location. During the design of the Novosibirsk Academy Town, special attention was paid to preserving the unique nature of this area. No sooner said than done. A large forest area, numerous artificial plantings, proximity to the Ob Sea - all this made Akademgorodok even more attractive for living.

One of the main Russian scientific centers is located 20 km south of the center of Novosibirsk, on the shores of the Ob Sea. Research institutes, the School of Physics and Mathematics and the Presidium of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences are located here. Among the attractions are the House of Scientists, the Academy Palace of Culture and the Integral club. True, the modern “Integral” is very different from the iconic Soviet cafe “Under the Integral”. In 1968, the first official bard song festival took place in this cafe. It was a favorite place of poets, artists and performers, a kind of island of freethinking, a symbol of Khrushchev’s thaw. The club constantly hosted interesting meetings and lively discussions.

The first and second floors of the cafe were called “Numerator” and “Denominator”.

“Under the Integral” became the place where the only official concert of Alexander Galich in the USSR took place. After some time, the club closed. 40 years later it was revived, but at a different address. Of course, the current Integral cannot be compared with the Soviet one. Nevertheless, in honor of the opening of the renovated establishment, a large-scale bardic festival was organized. The poet’s daughter, Alena Galich-Arkhangelskaya, attended the concert as a special guest.