Editing Akademgorodok

{{short description|Academic campus in Sovetsky District of the city of Novosibirsk}}
{{About|Akademgorodok in Novosibirsk}}
[[File:Novosibirsk Technopark, 2 October 2014.jpg|thumb|right|"The Geese", Academpark Technopark]]
[[File:Budker institut akademgorodok.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics]]]]
[[File:Akademgorodok Airphoto.jpg|right|thumb|Aerial view of Akademgorodok]]
'''Akademgorodok''' ({{lang-rus|Академгородок|p=ɐkəˌdʲemɡərɐˈdok}}, "Academic Town") is a part of the [[Sovetsky City District, Novosibirsk|Sovetsky District]] of the city of [[Novosibirsk]], Russia, located {{convert|30|km|mi|abbr=on}} south of the city center and about {{convert|10|km|mi|abbr=on}} west of [[Koltsovo, Novosibirsk Oblast|Koltsovo]]. It is the educational and scientific centre of [[Siberia]].

It is surrounded by a birch and pine forest on the shore of the [[Novosibirsk Reservoir|Ob Sea]], an artificial reservoir on the river [[Ob River|Ob]]. Formally it is a part of Novosibirsk city, and has never been a [[closed city]].

Located within Akademgorodok is [[Novosibirsk State University]], 35 research institutes, a medical academy, apartment buildings and houses, and a variety of community amenities including stores, hotels, hospitals, restaurants and cafes, cinemas, clubs and libraries. The House of Scientists ({{langx|ru|label=none|Дом учёных|Dom Uchyonykh}}), a social center of Akademgorodok, hosts a library containing 100 thousand volumes{{snd}}Russian classics, modern literature and also many American, British, French, German, Polish books and magazines.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} The House of Scientists also includes a picture gallery, lecture halls and a concert hall.

==History==
{{One source|section|date=October 2022}}
[[File:Akademgorodok House of Scientists.jpg|thumb|right|The House of Scientists is the cultural centre of Akademgorodok]]
[[File:Akademgorodok Morskoy Prospekt.jpg|thumb|right|Residential houses at [[Morskoy Prospekt, Novosibirsk|Morskoy Avenue]]]]
The town was founded in 1957 under the auspices of the [[Russian Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences]] of the [[USSR]]. Academician [[Mikhail Lavrentyev|Mikhail Alexeyevich Lavrentyev]], a [[mechanician]] and mathematician, the first Chairman of the [[Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences|Siberian Branch of the Soviet Academy of Sciences]], played a prominent role in establishing Akademgorodok. At its peak, Akademgorodok was home to 65,000 scientists and their families, and was a privileged area to live in.<ref name=graun16>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jan/05/silicon-forest-putin-secret-weapon-global-tech-race-siberia-russia |title=Step into Silicon Forest, Putin's secret weapon in the global tech race |newspaper=The Guardian |date= 5 January 2016 |author= Oliver Wainwright |access-date= 5 January 2016}}</ref>

During the Soviet period (1961–1991), due to the peculiarity of the Soviet economic system, monetary rewards did not always translate into a higher standard of living. To offset this, a special compensation system was devised in Akademgorodok for its residents and leading scientists. For example, residents of Akademgorodok had access to special food ration distribution outlets (''{{transliteration|ru|stoly zakazov}}'') that provided, most of the time, an access to some basic subsidized foodstuffs, which were not always easily obtainable elsewhere. Scientists who had obtained a doctorate (a post-Ph.D. degree under the Russian system) were rewarded by the authorities with the special food delivery service (''{{transliteration|ru|doktorskiy zakaz}}''), which provided access to a wider selection of groceries than available to the general population; some of the scientists, despite being eligible, refused it on moral grounds.

Full and corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences had access to still higher level of service (''{{transliteration|ru|akademicheskiy zakaz}}'') and were eligible to live in [[single-family residence]]s (called "cottages"), considered luxurious by Soviet standards, as most of the population lived in apartments in nine- and four-story multi-apartment buildings.

During the early years residents enjoyed great freedom from the rules and restraints of the Soviet Union, with a modernist cultural centre exhibiting works by banned Soviet artists, risqué poetry evenings, and other activities allowed nowhere else. Scientific research in areas dismissed as dangerous [[pseudoscience]] in [[Moscow]], such as [[cybernetics]] and [[genetics]], flourished. However, freedoms were severely curtailed in the 1970s during the [[Brezhnev]] era.<ref name=graun16/>

==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 this time [[CenterOfFinancialTechnologies|CFT]] started, which specializes in banking and financial software. By 1997, private investment reached [[US$]]10 million; by 2006, it was $150 million, reaching about $1 billion by 2015.<ref name=graun16/>

[[Intel]] and [[Schlumberger]] have brought work to Akademgorodok, and other companies are following them into the area. Many scientists, including [[Mikhail Lavrentyev|Lavrentyev]]'s son, also named Mikhail and also an accomplished mathematician in his own right, were deeply involved in this renaissance. Currently its population stands at over 100,000 and there are over 40 research institutes located within Akademgorodok. 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.<ref>''Fortune'', April 2, 2007.</ref>

{{As of|2015}}, 300 companies had been set up since 2011, employing about 9,000 people and generating 17bn roubles (£175M) annually.<ref name=graun16/>

The area is sometimes called "Silicon Forest" or "Silicon Taiga".<ref>
[https://blogs.wsj.com/informedreader/2007/03/19/russias-siberian-high-tech-haven/ Russia's Siberian High-Tech Haven], Wall Street Journal blog, 19 March 2007.</ref><ref>[https://money.cnn.com/2007/03/23/technology/silicon_siberia.fortune/index.htm Tech in a very cold place: A former Soviet science center is a hotbed of software innovation], ''Fortune Magazine'', by Brett Forrest, 23 March 2007.</ref> A much larger technology center in the former Soviet Union is the [[Skolkovo Innovation Center]], conveniently located on the outskirts of Moscow, a $4bn state project with annual revenues of $1bn.<ref name=graun16/>

==List of research and education facilities in Akademgorodok==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Samson Kutateladze|Kutateladze]] Institute of [[Thermal physics|Thermal Physics]]
* [http://www.niic.nsc.ru/en/ Nikolaev Institute of Inorganic Chemistry]
* [http://www.en.catalysis.ru/ Boreskov Institute of Catalysis]
* [[Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060219200719/http://www.iis.nsk.su/index_e.shtml Ershov Institute of Informatics Systems]
* [http://www.sscc.ru/ Institute of Informatics and Mathematical Geophysics]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090519092719/http://www.niboch.nsc.ru/eng_index.html Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine]
* [[Institute of Cytology and Genetics]]<ref>[http://www.bionet.nsc.ru/boardtest/cgi-bin/catalog/main.pl Institute of Cytology and Genetics]</ref>
* [https://www.mcb.nsc.ru/en/mcb Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology]
* [[Sobolev Institute of Mathematics]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050403191515/http://uiggm.nsc.ru/engl/ United Institute of Geology, Geophysics and Mineralogy]
* [[Institute of Automation and Electrometry]]
* [http://www.isp.nsc.ru/index.php?lang=eng Institute of Semiconductors Physics]
* [http://itam.nsc.ru/index_eng.php Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191118054800/http://itam.nsc.ru/index_eng.php |date=2019-11-18 }}<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://itam.nsc.ru/index_eng.php |title=Archived copy |access-date=14 October 2011 |archive-date=18 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191118054800/http://itam.nsc.ru/index_eng.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* Institute of [[Chemical Kinetics]] and Combustion
* [[Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics]]
* [[Institute of History of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences]][http://www.history.nsc.ru/]
* Institute of [[Philology]]
* Institute of [[Philosophy]] and [[Law]]
* Institute of [[Laser]] Physics
* [http://www.bgci.org/garden.php?id=198 Central Siberian Botanical Garden]
* [https://csbg-nsk.ru/ Central Siberian Botanical Garden]
* [[Institute of Solid State Chemistry and Mechanochemistry]]
* Research Institute of Circulation [[Pathology]]
* [[Institute of Economics and Industrial Engineering]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060830201403/http://www.sbras.nsc.ru/ Presidium of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120617205202/http://du.academ.org/ House of Scientists] 
* [[Novosibirsk State University]]<ref>[http://www.nsu.ru/exp/index.jz?lang=en Novosibirsk State University (in English)]</ref><ref>[http://www.nsu.ru  Novosibirsk State University (in Russian)]</ref>
* [http://sesc.nsu.ru Specialized Educational Scientific Center on Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology of Novosibirsk State University]
* Museum of [[Archæology]] and [[Ethnography]]
* Central Siberian [[Geology|Geological]] Museum
* [http://www.ict.nsc.ru/ Institute of Computational Technologies]
{{div col end}}

The QSI International School of Novosibirsk, previously located in Akademgorodok, opened in 2008.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20091002135521/http://www.qsi.org/nvs_home/nvs_home.htm Homepage], QSI International School of Novosibirsk. 2 October 2009. Retrieved 15 May 2016.</ref>

== Sightseeing ==
The Technopark (Academpark) has a distinctive headquarters, constructed in 2013. It has two inclined towers connected by an overhead passage on the 13-14th floor level. Its unique form is the source of its nickname, "the geese".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://academpark.com/en/about/|title=About Academpark|website=academpark.com|language=en|access-date=5 February 2017}}</ref>

==See also==
{{portal|Siberia|Russia}}
* [[Education in Russia]]
* "[[Silicon Taiga]]"

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Bugaev, Roman, Mikhail Piskunov, and Timofey Rakov. "Footpaths of the Late-Soviet Environmental Turn: The “Forest City” of Novosibirsk's Akademgorodok as a Sociotechnical Imaginary." ''Soviet and Post-Soviet Review'' 48.3 (2021): 289–313.
* Josephson, Paul R. ''New Atlantis Revisited: Akademgorodok, the Siberian City of Science''. (Princeton University Press, 1997). {{ISBN|9780691044545}}.

==External links==
{{commons category|Akademgorodok (Novosibirsk)|Akademgorodok}}
[[File:AkademGorodok full.ogg|thumb|Audioversion]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190503092030/http://akademcity.com/ Akademgorodok on the Internet] (in Russian and English)
* [http://www.nsc.ru/ Official website of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120418195253/http://www.nsc.ru/ |date=2012-04-18 }} (in Russian and English)
* Dispatches - Silicon Siberia Fortune April 2, 2007 pp 33–36

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Science and technology in Siberia]]
[[Category:Science and technology in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Naukograds]]
[[Category:Sovetsky District, Novosibirsk]]
[[Category:Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Novosibirsk Oblast]]