" A] surprisingly moving story." The New Yorker

"Bogdanov's novels reveal a great deal about their fascinating author, about his time and, ironically, ours, and about the genre of utopia as well as his contribution to it." Slavic Review

"Bogdanov's imaginative predictions for his utopia are both technological and social... Even more farsighted are his] anxious forebodings about the limits and costs of the utopian future." Science Fiction Studies

"The contemporary reader will marvel at Bogdanov's] foresight: nuclear fusion and propulsion, atomic weaponry and fallout, computers, blood transfusions, and (almost) unisexuality." Choice

A communist society on Mars, the Russian revolution, and class struggle on two planets is the subject of this arresting science fiction novel by Alexander Bogdanov (1873 1928), one of the early organizers and prophets of the Russian Bolshevik party. The red star is Mars, but it is also the dream set to paper of the society that could emerge on earth after the dual victory of the socialist and scientific-technical revolutions. While portraying a harmonious and rational socialist society, Bogdanov sketches out the problems that will face industrialized nations, whether socialist or capitalist."

Although by the 1980s the Soviet scientific establishment became the largest in the world, little is known about it in the West. Loren Graham presents the first concise, modern history of science in Russia, the Soviet Union, and the commonwealth of Independent States. Thoroughly up to date, the volume covers the Czarist period, the impact of the Russian Revolution, the relationship between science and Soviet society, the strengths of various scientific disciplines, and the effect of the fall of Communism.

At the time the Soviet Union broke apart in the late 1980's, it possessed the largest scientific community in the world. The rapid development, in just a few decades, of such an immense scientific establishment--in a social and economic environment strikingly different from the West--presents an unusual opportunity for the world's leading authority on Soviet science to examine how the Russian experience sheds light on the status and character of science and technology throughout the world.
The book is organized around five questions, each given its own chapter: "Is Science a Social Construction?" "Are Science and Technology Westernizing Influences?" " How Robust Is Science Under Stress?" " How Willing Are Scientists to Reform Their Own Institutions?" and "Who Should Control Technology?"
The author believes that the Russian example reveals in detail both the strengths and the weaknesses of social constructivism. Though many areas of Russian science show the unmistakable influence of social factors, the deviation of the Soviet Union from standard genetics for many years, followed by its eventual restoration, indicates the weakness of social constructivism and illustrates the relationship of science to reality. He further maintains that although science in Russia has been terribly abused, it nonetheless remains strong; it has proven to be much more resilient than most previous observers believed, and, furthermore, is not nearly as directly dependent on political freedom for its vitality as Western analysts maintained.
In the final section, the author makes two strong claims. The first comes from an examination of the social constructivist thesis that science is formed by social influences. His conclusion is that Russian science has indeed been influenced in that country in distinct ways, but not always in a fashion that will please radical social constructivists. The second strong claim is that contrary to the view of many Western scholars that science can flourish only in conditions of nurturing freedom, science turns out to be remarkably robust, able to flourish in adverse conditions.

No other research organization dominates the field of science in its country to the degree that the Soviet Academy of Sciences does. The coming to power of the Bolsheviks in 1917 presented Russian science with a new governmental attitude toward the place of science in national life. The Soviet Union's first five-year plan, the period of this study, was the crucial period for the Academy. During this time the Academy was transformed. Between 1927 and 1932 important decisions were reached by Soviet leaders concerning the organization, control, and planning of science; the role of science in the national economy, the position of the individual scientist, and the nature of scientific research itself. Originally published in 1967. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

No other research organization dominates the field of science in its country to the degree that the Soviet Academy of Sciences does. The coming to power of the Bolsheviks in 1917 presented Russian science with a new governmental attitude toward the place of science in national life. The Soviet Union's first five-year plan, the period of this study, was the crucial period for the Academy. During this time the Academy was transformed. Between 1927 and 1932 important decisions were reached by Soviet leaders concerning the organization, control, and planning of science; the role of science in the national economy, the position of the individual scientist, and the nature of scientific research itself. Originally published in 1967. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Russian science establishment was one of the largest in the world, boasting many Nobel prizes, a world-leading space program, and famous schools in mathematics, physics, and other fields. However, when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the major financial supports for the scientific community were eliminated, with resulting "brain drain." The subsequent expansion of capitalism and globalization revealed that Russian science was ill adapted to compete with other countries in high technology. Science in the New Russia tells the dramatic story of the near collapse of Russian science in the mid-1990s and of subsequent domestic and international efforts to reform and reenergize scientific activity in Russia.

"Graham has brilliantly encapsulated and interwoven the major features of Soviet and post-Soviet history in his riveting stories.... a splendid and extraordinary work." Edward Grant, author of God and Reason in the Middle Ages

"A very lively read, indeed a real page turner... Graham s discussion of pressing ethical dilemmas displays a sureness of hand and a refreshing candor about his own struggles with the issues." Susan Solomon, University of Toronto

The distinguished American historian of Russian and Soviet science Loren R. Graham recounts with warmth and wit his experiences during 45 years of traveling and researching in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia, from 1960 to 2005. Present for many historic events during this period, Graham writes not as a political correspondent or an analyst, but as an ordinary American living through these years alongside Russian friends and critics. Graham befriended some of the leading scientists and politicians in Russia, but his most touching stories concern average Russians with whom he lived, worked, suffered, and exchanged views. Graham also writes of the ethical questions he confronted, such as the tension between independence of thought and political loyalty. Finally, he depicts the ways in which Russia has changed visually, politically, and ideologically during the last 15 years. These gripping, sometimes humorous, always deeply personal stories will engage and inform all readers with an interest in Russia during this tumultuous period of history."