The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) is a National Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation, the largest center of fundamental research. The St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was established by order of Emperor Peter the Great on February 8 of 1724.
Its first president was Laurentius Blumentrost, the personal physician to the Emperor. The Academy of Sciences received at its disposal the Kunstkamera collection, a library, a botanical garden, a mineralogical office, workshops, and a printing house. In 1747, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna instituted the first academic charter, which officially established the name of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts in St. Petersburg.
From 1803, it was named the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and since 1836, the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In May of 1917, it was renamed the Russian Academy of Sciences, and in 1925, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1934, it was transferred from Leningrad to Moscow.
Since 1991, the Russian Academy of Sciences is the highest scientific organization of the Russian Federation, the leading center of fundamental research in the field of natural and social sciences in the country.
The RAS structure comprises 13 branches according to fields of science and 3 regional branches (Far Eastern, Siberian and Ural ones), as well as 15 regional scientific centers. Currently, there are more than 400 scientific organizations in the structure of the Academy. It employs about 100 thousand people, including 45 thousand researchers.
The postage stamp provides an image of the Kunstkamera building; the margins of the souvenir sheet feature a portrait of Peter I and pages of the draft statutes on the establishment of the Academy of Sciences and Arts.
| Paper |
Printing method |
Format of the envelope |
| Envelope paper |
Offset |
110 × 220 mm |