Science and technology in Russia - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Science and technology in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

developed rapidly since the Age of Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

, when Peter the Great founded the Russian Academy of Sciences

Russian Academy of Sciences

The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....

and Saint Petersburg State University

Saint Petersburg State University

Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest and largest universities in Russia....

and polymath

Polymath

A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...

Mikhail Lomonosov

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries was the atmosphere of Venus. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art,...

founded the Moscow State University

Moscow State University

Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...

, 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

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

, astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

, mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, computing

Computer Sciences

Computer Sciences can refer to:*The general field of computer science*Computer Sciences Corporation, the Fortune 500 Information Technology company...

, chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

, biology

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

, geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

and geography

Geography

Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

. Russian inventors and engineers excelled in such areas as electrical engineering

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...

, shipbuilding

Shipbuilding

Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...

, aerospace

Aerospace

Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...

, weaponry, communications, IT

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

, nuclear technology

Nuclear technology

Nuclear technology is technology that involves the reactions of atomic nuclei. Among the notable nuclear technologies are nuclear power, nuclear medicine, and nuclear weapons...

and space technology

Space technology

Space technology is technology that is related to entering, and retrieving objects or life forms from space."Every day" technologies such as weather forecasting, remote sensing, GPS systems, satellite television, and some long distance communications systems critically rely on space infrastructure...

.

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

Brain drain

Human capital flight, more commonly referred to as "brain drain", is the large-scale emigration of a large group of individuals with technical skills or knowledge. The reasons usually include two aspects which respectively come from countries and individuals...

migration. In 2000-s, on the wave of a new economic boom, the situation has improved, and the government launched a campaign

Medvedev modernisation programme

The Medvedev modernisation programme is an initiative launched by President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev in 2009, which aims at modernising Russia's economy and society, decreasing the country's dependency on oil and gas revenues and creating a diversified economy based on high technology and innovation...

aimed into modernisation and innovation

Innovation

Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...

. Current priorities for the country's technological development include energy efficiency

Efficient energy use

Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal of efforts to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature...

, IT (including both common products and the products combined with space technology

Space technology

), nuclear energy

Nuclear power

Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...

and pharmaceuticals.

History

At the start of the 18th century the reforms of Peter the Great (the founder of Russian Academy of Sciences

Russian Academy of Sciences

and Saint Petersburg State University

Saint Petersburg State University

Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest and largest universities in Russia....

) and the work of such champions as polymath

Polymath

A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...

Mikhail Lomonosov

(the founder of Moscow State University

Moscow State University

) gave a great boost for development of science and innovation in Russia.

Many famous Russian scientists and inventors were émigrés, like Igor Sikorsky

Igor Sikorsky

Igor Sikorsky , born Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky was a Russian American pioneer of aviation in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft...

, credited with invention of first helicopters, and Vladimir Zworykin

Vladimir Zworykin

Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin was a Russian-American inventor, engineer, and pioneer of television technology. Zworykin invented a television transmitting and receiving system employing cathode ray tubes...

, often called the father of TV, chemist Ilya Prigogine

Ilya Prigogine

Ilya, Viscount Prigogine was a Russian-born naturalized Belgian physical chemist and Nobel Laureate noted for his work on dissipative structures, complex systems, and irreversibility.-Biography :...

, noted for his work on dissipative structures

Dissipative system

A dissipative system is a thermodynamically open system which is operating out of, and often far from, thermodynamic equilibrium in an environment with which it exchanges energy and matter....

and complex systems

Complex systems

Complex systems present problems in mathematical modelling.The equations from which complex system models are developed generally derive from statistical physics, information theory and non-linear dynamics, and represent organized but unpredictable behaviors of systems of nature that are considered...

(1977 Nobel Prize for Chemistry), economists Simon Kuznets

Simon Kuznets

Simon Smith Kuznets was a Russian American economist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who won the 1971 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his empirically founded interpretation of economic growth which has led to new and deepened insight into the economic and...

(1971 Nobel Prize

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics, but officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel , is an award for outstanding contributions to the field of economics, generally regarded as one of the...

) and Wassily Leontief

Wassily Leontief

Wassily Wassilyovich Leontief , was a Russian-American economist notable for his research on how changes in one economic sector may have an effect on other sectors. Leontief won the Nobel Committee's Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1973, and three of his doctoral students have also...

(1973 Nobel Prize

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

), physicist Georgiy Gamov (an author of the Big Bang

Big Bang

The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...

theory), engineer Alexander M. Poniatoff

Alexander M. Poniatoff

Alexander Matveevich Poniatoff was a Russian-American electrical engineer.Poniatoff was born 25 March 1892 in Aisha, Zelenodolsky District, Tatarstan, Russian Empire. He emigrated from Russia to China, where he worked for the Shanghai Power Company until he emigrated to the United States in 1927...

, who created the world's first rotary head recorder

Rotary transformer

A rotary transformer is a specialized transformer used to couple electrical signals between two parts which rotate in relation to each other....

and social scientist Pitirim Sorokin

Pitirim Sorokin

Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin was a Russian-American sociologist born in Komi . Academic and political activist in Russia, he emigrated from Russia to the United States in 1923. He founded the Department of Sociology at Harvard University. He was a vocal opponent of Talcott Parsons' theories...

who played an important role in development of sociology in the USA. Many foreigners worked in Russia for a long time, like Leonard Euler and Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He is the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments...

.

With many technological achievements in the 19th and 20th centuries, however, since the time of Brezhnev stagnation

Brezhnev stagnation

The Era of Stagnation, also known as Brezhnev stagnation or the Stagnation Period, refers to a period of economic stagnation under the rules of Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko in the history of the Soviet Union which started in the mid-1970s.-Terminology:Various authors...

Russia was lagging significantly behind the West

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

in a number of technologies, especially those concerning energy conservation

Energy conservation

Energy conservation refers to efforts made to reduce energy consumption. Energy conservation can be achieved through increased efficient energy use, in conjunction with decreased energy consumption and/or reduced consumption from conventional energy sources...

and consumer goods production. The crisis of 1990-s led to the drastic reduction of the state support for science. Many Russian scientists and university graduates left Russia for Europe or United States; this migration is known as a brain drain

Brain drain

.

In 2000-s, on the wave of a new economic boom, the situation in the Russian science and technology has improved, and the government launched a campaign

Medvedev modernisation programme

aimed at modernisation and innovation

Innovation

Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...

. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

Dmitry Medvedev

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is the third President of the Russian Federation.Born to a family of academics, Medvedev graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University in 1987. He defended his dissertation in 1990 and worked as a docent at his alma mater, now renamed to Saint...

formulated top 5 priorities for the country's technological development: energy efficiency

Efficient energy use

, IT (including both common products and the products combined with space technology

Space technology

), nuclear energy

Nuclear power

and pharmaceuticals. Some progress already has been achieved, with Russia's having nearly completed GLONASS

GLONASS

GLONASS , acronym for Globalnaya navigatsionnaya sputnikovaya sistema or Global Navigation Satellite System, is a radio-based satellite navigation system operated for the Russian government by the Russian Space Forces...

, the only global satellite navigation system apart from American GPS, and Russia's being the only country constructing mobile nuclear plants

Russian floating nuclear power station

Floating nuclear power stations are vessels projected by Rosatom that present self-contained, low-capacity, floating nuclear power plants...

Science and education

Physics

The Russian physics

Physics

school began to develop after Lomonosov who proposed the law of conservation of matter preceding the energy conservation law. During the period of origin of electrodynamics Vasily Petrov

Vasily Vladimirovich Petrov

Vasily Vladimirovich Petrov was a Russian experimental physicist, self-taught electrical technician, academician of Russian Academy of Sciences ....

discovered the electric arc

Electric arc

An electric arc is an electrical breakdown of a gas which produces an ongoing plasma discharge, resulting from a current flowing through normally nonconductive media such as air. A synonym is arc discharge. An arc discharge is characterized by a lower voltage than a glow discharge, and relies on...

effect in 1802 and Heinrich Lenz

Heinrich Lenz

Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz was a Russian physicist of Baltic German ethnicity. He is most noted for formulating Lenz's law in electrodynamics in 1833....

discovered an important law

Lenz's law

Lenz's law is a common way of understanding how electromagnetic circuits must always obey Newton's third law and The Law of Conservation of Energy...

named in his honor. Nikolay Umov

Nikolay Umov

Nikolay Alekseevich Umov was a Russian physicist and mathematician known for discovering the concept of Umov-Poynting vector and Umov effect.-Biography:...

discovered a fundamental concept of Umov-Poynting vector and was the first scientist to indicate interrelation between mass and energy proposing the formula

as early as in 1873. Alexander Popov

Alexander Stepanovich Popov

Alexander Stepanovich Popov was a Russian physicist who was the first person to demonstrate the practical application of electromagnetic waves....

was among the inventors of radio

Invention Of Radio

Within the history of radio, several people were involved in the invention of radio and there were many key inventions in what became the modern systems of wireless. Radio development began as "wireless telegraphy"...

.

Russian/Soviet physics in the 20th century was one of leading ones in the world.
Alexander Friedmann was the first scientist to propose an expanding universe model (1922) which greatly influenced cosmology in the 20th century. Dmitri Ivanenko

Dmitri Ivanenko

Dmitri Ivanenko , Professor of Moscow State University , made a great contribution to the physical science of the twentieth century, especially to nuclear physics, field theory , and gravitation theory.His outstanding achievements include:* the Fock-Ivanenko coefficients of parallel...

was the first to propose the proton-neutron model of atomic nuclei (1932) and nuclear shell model (1932). Georgiy Gamov proposed the theory of the alpha decay

Alpha decay

Alpha decay is a type of radioactive decay in which an atomic nucleus emits an alpha particle and thereby transforms into an atom with a mass number 4 less and atomic number 2 less...

of a nucleus via tunnelling (1928) and was an author of Big Bang

Big Bang

theory.
Nikolay Bogolyubov suggested a triplet quark

Quark

A quark is an elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. Due to a phenomenon known as color confinement, quarks are never directly...

model, introduced a new quantum degree of freedom (later called as color charge

Color charge

In particle physics, color charge is a property of quarks and gluons that is related to the particles' strong interactions in the theory of quantum chromodynamics . Color charge has analogies with the notion of electric charge of particles, but because of the mathematical complications of QCD,...

) for quarks and formulated a microscopic theory of superconductivity

Superconductivity

Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance occurring in certain materials below a characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum...

. Lev Landau

Lev Landau

Lev Davidovich Landau was a prominent Soviet physicist who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics...

made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics

Theoretical physics

Theoretical physics is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena...

. Nikolai Basov and Alexander Prokhorov were co-inventors of laser

Laser

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...

s and maser

Maser

A maser is a device that produces coherent electromagnetic waves through amplification by stimulated emission. Historically, “maser” derives from the original, upper-case acronym MASER, which stands for "Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation"...

s (Nobel Prize in Physics

Nobel Prize in Physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...

,1964). Igor Tamm

Igor Tamm

Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm was a Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate who received most prestigious Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov and Ilya Frank, for the discovery of Cherenkov radiation, made in 1934.-Biography:Tamm was born in Vladivostok, Russian Empire , in a...

, Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...

and Lev Artsimovich

Lev Artsimovich

Lev Andreevich Artsimovich was a Soviet physicist, academician of the Soviet Academy of Sciences , member of the Presidium of the Soviet Academy of Sciences , and Hero of Socialist Labor .- Academic research :Artsimovich worked on the...

developed the idea of tokamak

Tokamak

A tokamak is a device using a magnetic field to confine a plasma in the shape of a torus . Achieving a stable plasma equilibrium requires magnetic field lines that move around the torus in a helical shape...

for controlled nuclear fusion

Nuclear fusion

Nuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...

and created its first prototype, which finally led to the modern ITER

ITER

ITER is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering project, which is currently building the world's largest and most advanced experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor at Cadarache in the south of France...

project. Yevgeny Zavoisky

Yevgeny Zavoisky

Yevgeny Konstantinovich Zavoisky was a Soviet physicist known for discovery of electron paramagnetic resonance in 1944. He likely observed nuclear magnetic resonance in 1941, well before Felix Bloch and Edward Mills Purcell, but dismissed the results as not reproducible...

discovered electron paramagnetic resonance

Electron paramagnetic resonance

Electron paramagnetic resonance or electron spin resonance spectroscopyis a technique for studying chemical species that have one or more unpaired electrons, such as organic and inorganic free radicals or inorganic complexes possessing a transition metal ion...

playing important role in studying chemical species. Zhores Alferov greatly contributed to the creation of modern heterostructure physics and electronics

Heterojunction

A heterojunction is the interface that occurs between two layers or regions of dissimilar crystalline semiconductors. These semiconducting materials have unequal band gaps as opposed to a homojunction...

which find many applications in modern life: from CD & DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

players to fiber optic transceiver

Transceiver

A transceiver is a device comprising both a transmitter and a receiver which are combined and share common circuitry or a single housing. When no circuitry is common between transmit and receive functions, the device is a transmitter-receiver. The term originated in the early 1920s...

s (Noble Prize in Physics, 2000). In 2010 two Russian-born and -educated physics Konstantin Novoselov

Konstantin Novoselov

Konstantin Sergeevich Novoselov FRS is a Russo-British physicist, most notably known for his works on graphene together with Andre Geim, which earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. Novoselov is currently a member of the mesoscopic physics research group at the University of Manchester as...

and Andre Geim

Andre Geim

Andre Konstantin Geim, FRS is a Dutch-Russian-British physicist working at the University of Manchester. Geim was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Konstantin Novoselov for his work on graphene...

were awarded with Noble Prize in Physics for their works in graphene

Graphene

Graphene is an allotrope of carbon, whose structure is one-atom-thick planar sheets of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The term graphene was coined as a combination of graphite and the suffix -ene by Hanns-Peter Boehm, who described single-layer...

, a material which may have important applications in electronics, aviation and medicine.

A number of achievements of Russian/Soviet scientists remained unknown to general public due to security considerations or bureaucratic obstacles. E.g. the first design of magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging , nuclear magnetic resonance imaging , or magnetic resonance tomography is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structures...

was proposed by Vladislav Ivanov

Vladislav Ivanov (physicist)

Vladislav Ivanov is a Soviet physicist who in 1960 filed a document with the USSR State Committee for Inventions and Discovery at Leningrad for a Magnetic Resonance Imaging device, although this was not approved until the 1970s....

in 1960 but was not realized at that time.

Mathematics

In mathematics

Mathematics

Nikolai Lobachevsky, a Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe....

of Geometry
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....

, founded the non-Euclidean geometry

Non-Euclidean geometry

Non-Euclidean geometry is the term used to refer to two specific geometries which are, loosely speaking, obtained by negating the Euclidean parallel postulate, namely hyperbolic and elliptic geometry. This is one term which, for historical reasons, has a meaning in mathematics which is much...

playing important role in modern physics. In 19th century the international recognition was also gained by such mathematicians as Mikhail Ostrogradsky and Sofia Kovalevskaya

Sofia Kovalevskaya

Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya , was the first major Russian female mathematician, responsible for important original contributions to analysis, differential equations and mechanics, and the first woman appointed to a full professorship in Northern Europe.She was also one of the first females to...

who was the first major Russian female mathematician, responsible for important original contributions to analysis, differential equations and mechanics, and the first woman appointed to a full professorship in Northern Europe. Yevgraf Fyodorov

Yevgraf Fyodorov

Yevgraf Stepanovich Fyodorov, sometimes spelled Evgraf Stepanovich Fedorov , was a Russian mathematician, crystallographer, and mineralogist....

was a founder of the modern structural crystallography

Crystallography

Crystallography is the experimental science of the arrangement of atoms in solids. The word "crystallography" derives from the Greek words crystallon = cold drop / frozen drop, with its meaning extending to all solids with some degree of transparency, and grapho = write.Before the development of...

(Fedorov group

Space group

In mathematics and geometry, a space group is a symmetry group, usually for three dimensions, that divides space into discrete repeatable domains.In three dimensions, there are 219 unique types, or counted as 230 if chiral copies are considered distinct...

). At least after such prominent scientist as Chebyshev the Russian mathematical school became one of the most influential ones in the world and was represented by numerous figures greatly contributing to different fields of mathematics, physics and computing sciences. Chebyshev's students included Aleksandr Lyapunov

Aleksandr Lyapunov

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Lyapunov was a Russian mathematician, mechanician and physicist. His surname is sometimes romanized as Ljapunov, Liapunov or Ljapunow....

who founded the modern stability theory

Stability theory

In mathematics, stability theory addresses the stability of solutions of differential equations and of trajectories of dynamical systems under small perturbations of initial conditions...

(lately deeply developed by such scientists as Aleksandr Andronov and Vladimir Arnold

Vladimir Arnold

Vladimir Igorevich Arnold was a Soviet and Russian mathematician. While he is best known for the Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser theorem regarding the stability of integrable Hamiltonian systems, he made important contributions in several areas including dynamical systems theory, catastrophe theory,...

), and Andrey Markov

Andrey Markov

Andrey Andreyevich Markov was a Russian mathematician. He is best known for his work on theory of stochastic processes...

who developed the theory of Markov chain

Markov chain

A Markov chain, named after Andrey Markov, is a mathematical system that undergoes transitions from one state to another, between a finite or countable number of possible states. It is a random process characterized as memoryless: the next state depends only on the current state and not on the...

s, playing a central role in information sciences and modern applied mathematics.
In the beginning of 20th century Nikolai Zhukovsky and Sergei Chaplygin were among founding fathers of the modern aero-

Aerodynamics

Aerodynamics is a branch of dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a moving object. Aerodynamics is a subfield of fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, with much theory shared between them. Aerodynamics is often used synonymously with gas dynamics, with...

and hydrodynamics and Vladimir Kotelnikov was a pioneer in information theory

Information theory

Information theory is a branch of applied mathematics and electrical engineering involving the quantification of information. Information theory was developed by Claude E. Shannon to find fundamental limits on signal processing operations such as compressing data and on reliably storing and...

by independently proposing the fundamental sampling theorem.
Andrei Kolmogorov, a leading mathematician of the 20th century, developed the foundation of the modern theory of probability and made other key contributions to broadest range of mathematical branches, such as turbulence

Turbulence

In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a flow regime characterized by chaotic and stochastic property changes. This includes low momentum diffusion, high momentum convection, and rapid variation of pressure and velocity in space and time...

, mathematical logic

Mathematical logic

Mathematical logic is a subfield of mathematics with close connections to foundations of mathematics, theoretical computer science and philosophical logic. The field includes both the mathematical study of logic and the applications of formal logic to other areas of mathematics...

, topology

Topology

Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...

, differential equations, set theory

Set theory

Set theory is the branch of mathematics that studies sets, which are collections of objects. Although any type of object can be collected into a set, set theory is applied most often to objects that are relevant to mathematics...

, automata theory

Automata theory

In theoretical computer science, automata theory is the study of abstract machines and the computational problems that can be solved using these machines. These abstract machines are called automata...

, information theory

Information theory

, theory of algorithms, dynamical systems, stochastic processes, theory of integration

Integral

Integration is an important concept in mathematics and, together with its inverse, differentiation, is one of the two main operations in calculus...

, classical mechanics

Classical mechanics

In physics, classical mechanics is one of the two major sub-fields of mechanics, which is concerned with the set of physical laws describing the motion of bodies under the action of a system of forces...

, mathematical linguistics, mathematical biology

Mathematical biology

Mathematical and theoretical biology is an interdisciplinary scientific research field with a range of applications in biology, medicine and biotechnology...

and applied sciences. Israel Gelfand

Israel Gelfand

Israel Moiseevich Gelfand, also written Israïl Moyseyovich Gel'fand, or Izrail M. Gelfand was a Soviet mathematician who made major contributions to many branches of mathematics, including group theory, representation theory and functional analysis...

is credited with many important discoveries in algebra, topology, mathematical physics and applied sciences. Sergei Sobolev developed the theory of Sobolev space

Sobolev space

In mathematics, a Sobolev space is a vector space of functions equipped with a norm that is a combination of Lp-norms of the function itself as well as its derivatives up to a given order. The derivatives are understood in a suitable weak sense to make the space complete, thus a Banach space...

which played an extremely important role in formation of modern mathematical views and introduced the notion of distributions

Distribution (mathematics)

In mathematical analysis, distributions are objects that generalize functions. Distributions make it possible to differentiate functions whose derivatives do not exist in the classical sense. In particular, any locally integrable function has a distributional derivative...

generalyzing ideas of Newton and Leibniz.

Such mathematicians as Lev Pontryagin, who made major contributions to topology and functional analysis and a founder of the modern optimal control

Optimal control

Optimal control theory, an extension of the calculus of variations, is a mathematical optimization method for deriving control policies. The method is largely due to the work of Lev Pontryagin and his collaborators in the Soviet Union and Richard Bellman in the United States.-General method:Optimal...

theory, Andrey Tychonoff

Andrey Nikolayevich Tychonoff

Andrey Nikolayevich Tikhonov was a Soviet and Russian mathematician known for important contributions to topology, functional analysis, mathematical physics, and ill-posed problems. He was also inventor of magnetotellurics method in geology. Tikhonov originally published in German, whence the...

, who was the author of the "central theorem"

Tychonoff's theorem

In mathematics, Tychonoff's theorem states that the product of any collection of compact topological spaces is compact. The theorem is named after Andrey Nikolayevich Tychonoff, who proved it first in 1930 for powers of the closed unit interval and in 1935 stated the full theorem along with the...

of the general topology

General topology

In mathematics, general topology or point-set topology is the branch of topology which studies properties of topological spaces and structures defined on them...

, Pavel Alexandrov, a very important figure in topology of the 20th century, and many others made fundamental contributions to different fields of mathematics. Nine Soviet/Russian mathematicians were awarded with Fields Medal

Fields Medal

The Fields Medal, officially known as International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union , a meeting that takes place every four...

, a most prestigious award in mathematics. Recently Grigori Perelman

Grigori Perelman

Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman is a Russian mathematician who has made landmark contributions to Riemannian geometry and geometric topology.In 1992, Perelman proved the soul conjecture. In 2002, he proved Thurston's geometrization conjecture...

was offered the first ever Clay Millennium Prize Problems

Millennium Prize Problems

The Millennium Prize Problems are seven problems in mathematics that were stated by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000. As of September 2011, six of the problems remain unsolved. A correct solution to any of the problems results in a US$1,000,000 prize being awarded by the institute...

award for his final proof of the Poincaré conjecture

Poincaré conjecture

In mathematics, the Poincaré conjecture is a theorem about the characterization of the three-dimensional sphere , which is the hypersphere that bounds the unit ball in four-dimensional space...

in 2002.

Chemistry

Lomonosov was the first Russian chemist, among others he was the founder of the science of glass

Glass

Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

Dmitry Mendeleev invented the Periodic table

Periodic table

The periodic table of the chemical elements is a tabular display of the 118 known chemical elements organized by selected properties of their atomic structures. Elements are presented by increasing atomic number, the number of protons in an atom's atomic nucleus...

, that is the main framework of the modern chemistry

Chemistry

, while Aleksandr Butlerov

Aleksandr Butlerov

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov was a Russian chemist, one of the principal creators of the theory of chemical structure , the first to incorporate double bonds into structural formulas, the discoverer of hexamine , and the discoverer of the formose reaction.The...

was one of the creators of the theory of chemical structure

Chemical structure

A chemical structure includes molecular geometry, electronic structure and crystal structure of molecules. Molecular geometry refers to the spatial arrangement of atoms in a molecule and the chemical bonds that hold the atoms together. Molecular geometry can range from the very simple, such as...

, playing a central role in organic chemistry

Organic chemistry

Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons, and their derivatives...

. Sergei Lebedev

Sergei Vasiljevich Lebedev

Sergei Vasiljevich Lebedev was a Russian/Soviet chemist and the inventor of the polybutadiene synthetic rubber, the first commercially viable and mass-produced type of synthetic rubber.- Biography :...

invented the first commercially viable and mass-produced type of synthetic rubber

Synthetic rubber

Synthetic rubber is is any type of artificial elastomer, invariably a polymer. An elastomer is a material with the mechanical property that it can undergo much more elastic deformation under stress than most materials and still return to its previous size without permanent deformation...

(polybutadiene synthetic rubber). Nikolay Semyonov made major contributions to explanation of the mechanism of chemical transformation (1956 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...

Biology

In biology

Biology

Dmitry Ivanovsky was the first scientist to discover virus

Virus

A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...

es (1892). Ivan Pavlov is widely known for first describing the phenomenon of classical conditioning

Classical conditioning

Classical conditioning is a form of conditioning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov...

and using it for studying brain functions. Ilya Mechnikov was a pioneer in investigations of the immune system

Immune system

An immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own...

(1908, Nobel Prize in Medicine). Alexander A. Maximow

Alexander A. Maximow

Alexander A. Maximow , was a Russian-American scientist renowned for his experimental work confirming the unitarian theory of hematopoiesis: all blood cells develop from a common precursor cell.-Biography:...

introduced the notion of stem cells. Nikolai Koltsov

Nikolai Koltsov

Nikolai Konstantinovich Koltsov was a Russian biologist. He was one of the creators of modern genetics. Nikolai Koltsov was a teacher of Nikolay Timofeeff-Ressovsky.-Scientific career:...

, a founder of molecular biology

Molecular biology

Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...

, proposed the idea of the molecular mechanism of heredity as early as in 1927 stating that inherited traits would be inherited via a "giant hereditary molecule" which would be made up of "two mirror strands that would replicate in a semi-conservative fashion using each strand as a template". Alexey Olovnikov

Alexey Olovnikov

Alexey Matveyevich Olovnikov is a Russian biologist. In 1973, he was the first to recognize the problem of telomere shortening, to predict the existence of telomerase, and to suggest the telomere hypothesis of aging and the relationship of telomeres to cancer He was not awarded a share of the...

suggested telomere hypothesis of aging which greatly contributed to the theory of aging and later was awarded with Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

(not shared by Olovnikov).

Electrical engineering

Nikolay Benardos

Nikolay Nikolayevich Benardos was a Ukrainian inventor who in 1881 introduced carbon arc welding, which was the first practical arc welding method.- References :* * at weldworld.ru...

introduced the arc welding

Arc welding

Arc welding is a type of welding that uses a welding power supply to create an electric arc between an electrode and the base material to melt the metals at the welding point. They can use either direct or alternating current, and consumable or non-consumable electrodes...

, further developed by Nikolay Slavyanov

Nikolay Slavyanov

Nikolay Gavrilovich Slavyanov was a Russian inventor who in 1888 introduced arc welding with consumable metal electrodes, or shielded metal arc welding, the second historical arc welding method after carbon arc welding invented earlier by Nikolay Benardos.- References :* * at weldworld.ru...

, Konstantin Khrenov

Konstantin Khrenov

Konstantin Konstantinovich Khrenov was a Soviet engineer and inventor who in 1932 introduced underwater welding and cutting of metals. For this method, extensively used by the Soviet Navy during World War II, Khrenov was awarded the State Stalin Prize in 1946....

and other Russian engineers. Alexander Lodygin

Alexander Lodygin

Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin was a Russian electrical engineer and inventor, one of inventors of the Incandescent light bulb....

and Pavel Yablochkov

Pavel Yablochkov

Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov was a Russian electrical engineer, the inventor of the Yablochkov candle and businessman.-Biography:...

were pioneers of electric lighting, and Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky invented and introduced the first three-phase electric power

Three-phase electric power

Three-phase electric power is a common method of alternating-current electric power generation, transmission, and distribution. It is a type of polyphase system and is the most common method used by grids worldwide to transfer power. It is also used to power large motors and other heavy loads...

systems, widely used today. Oleg Losev

Oleg Losev

Oleg Vladimirovich Losev was a scientist and inventor. He was born to a high-ranking family in Imperial Russia. He published a number of papers and patents during his short career. His observations of LEDs languished for half a century before being recognized in the late 20th and early 21st...

is often considered as the inventor of the light-emitting diode (LED)

Light-emitting diode

A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting...

Earth sciences

Vasily Dokuchaev (1845–1902) is credited with laying the foundations of soil science.

Vladimir Vernadsky

Vladimir Vernadsky

Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky was a Russian/Ukrainian and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and of radiogeology. His ideas of noosphere were an important contribution to Russian cosmism. He also worked in Ukraine where he...

(1863–1945) is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and of radiogeology and deeply developed the concepts of biosphere

Biosphere

The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a closed and self-regulating system...

and noosphere

Noosphere

Noosphere , according to the thought of Vladimir Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin, denotes the "sphere of human thought". The word is derived from the Greek νοῦς + σφαῖρα , in lexical analogy to "atmosphere" and "biosphere". Introduced by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1922 in his Cosmogenesis"...

Aviation

The history of the Russian aircraft engineering originated from a pioneer of aviation Alexander Mozhaysky who made his first attempt to fly by his own design aircraft (monoplane

Monoplane

A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.-Types of monoplane:...

) as early as in 1881. In the 20th century a number of prominent Soviet aerospace engineers, inspired by the fundamental works of Nikolai Zhukovsky, Sergei Chaplygin etc. supervised the creation of many dozens of models of military and civilian aircraft and founded a number of KBs (Construction Bureaus) that now constitute the bulk of Russian United Aircraft Corporation

United Aircraft Corporation

United Aircraft Corporation may refer to one of the following:* United Aircraft Corporation, formerly United Aircraft and Transport Corporation; now known as United Technologies Corporation....

. A number of individual inventors also made important contributions to aircraft technology, such as Gleb Kotelnikov

Gleb Kotelnikov

Gleb Yevgeniyevich Kotelnikov , was the Russian-Soviet inventor of the knapsack parachute , and braking parachute....

who invented the knapsack parachute

Parachute

A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...

, or Evgeniy Chertovsky who introduced the pressure suit

Pressure suit

A pressure suit is a protective suit worn by high-altitude pilots who may fly at altitudes where the air pressure is too low for an unprotected person to survive, even breathing pure oxygen at positive pressure. Such suits may be either full-pressure or partial-pressure...

. Theoretical works by Petr Ufimtsev played a critical role in development of stealth technology

Stealth technology

Stealth technology also termed LO technology is a sub-discipline of military tactics and passive electronic countermeasures, which cover a range of techniques used with personnel, aircraft, ships, submarines, and missiles, to make them less visible to radar, infrared, sonar and other detection...

.

Famous Russian airplanes include the first supersonic

Supersonic

Supersonic speed is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound . For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C this speed is approximately 343 m/s, 1,125 ft/s, 768 mph or 1,235 km/h. Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound are often...

passenger jet Tupolev Tu-144

Tupolev Tu-144

The Tupolev Tu-144 was a Soviet supersonic transport aircraft and remains one of only two SSTs to enter commercial service, the other being the Concorde...

by Alexei Tupolev

Alexei Tupolev

Alexei Andreyevich Tupolev was a Soviet aircraft designer who led the development of the first supersonic passenger jet, the failed Tupolev Tu-144. He also helped design the Buran space shuttle and the Tu-2000, which has been suspended because of the lack of funds.Tupolev was the son of famed...

, MiG fighter aircraft

Mig

-Industry:*MiG, now Mikoyan, a Russian aircraft corporation, formerly the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau*Metal inert gas welding or MIG welding, a type of welding using an electric arc and a shielding gas-Business and finance:...

series by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich

Mikhail Gurevich

Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich was a Soviet aircraft designer, a partner of the famous MiG military aviation bureau. He was of Ukrainian Jewish Heritage....

, and Su

Sukhoi

Sukhoi Company is a major Russian aircraft manufacturer, headquartered in Begovoy District, Northern Administrative Okrug, Moscow, famous for its fighters...

series by Pavel Sukhoi

Pavel Sukhoi

Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi was a Soviet aerospace engineer. He designed the Sukhoi military aircraft and founded the Sukhoi Design Bureau. -Biography:...

and his followers. The MiG-15

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 was a jet fighter developed for the USSR by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful swept-wing jet fighters, and it achieved fame in the skies over Korea, where early in the war, it outclassed all straight-winged enemy fighters in...

is the jet aircraft with the world's highest production in history, while MiG-21

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was popularly nicknamed "balalaika", from the aircraft's planform-view resemblance to the Russian stringed musical instrument or ołówek by Polish pilots due to...

is the most produced supersonic aircraft

Supersonic aircraft

A supersonic aircraft is designed to exceed the speed of sound in at least some of its normal flight configurations.-Overview:The great majority of supersonic aircraft today are military or experimental aircraft...

. Since World War II era Ilyushin Il-2

Ilyushin Il-2

The Ilyushin Il-2 was a ground-attack aircraft in the Second World War, produced by the Soviet Union in very large numbers...

bomber remains the most produced military aircraft in history. Polikarpov Po-2

Polikarpov Po-2

The Polikarpov Po-2 served as a general-purpose Soviet biplane, nicknamed Kukuruznik for maize; thus, 'maize duster' or 'crop duster'), NATO reporting name "Mule"...

Kukuruznik is the world's most produced biplane

Biplane

A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...

, and Mil Mi-8

Mil Mi-8

The Mil Mi-8 is a medium twin-turbine transport helicopter that can also act as a gunship. The Mi-8 is the world's most-produced helicopter, and is used by over 50 countries. Russia is the largest operator of the Mi-8/Mi-17 helicopter....

is the most produced helicopter

Helicopter

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

.

Aircraft manufacturing is one of the most science-intensive hi-tech sectors of modern Russian economy and employs the largest number of skilled personnel. The production and value of the military aircraft branch far outstrips other defense industry

Defense industry of Russia

The Defense industry of Russia is a strategically important sector and a large employer. It is also a significant player in the global arms market...

sectors, and aircraft products make up more than half of the country's arms exports. The Russian aircraft industry offers a portfolio of internationally competitive military aircraft, while new projects such as the Sukhoi Superjet 100

Sukhoi Superjet 100

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 is a modern, fly-by-wire regional jet in the 75- to 95-seat category. With development starting in 2000, the plane was designed by the civil aircraft division of the Russian aerospace company Sukhoi in co-operation with Western partners...

are hoped to revive the fortunes of the civilian aircraft segment. In 2009, companies belonging to the United Aircraft Corporation

United Aircraft Corporation

United Aircraft Corporation may refer to one of the following:* United Aircraft Corporation, formerly United Aircraft and Transport Corporation; now known as United Technologies Corporation....

delivered 95 new fixed-wing aircraft to its customers, including 15 civilian models. In addition, the industry produced over 141 helicopters.

Space technology

The greatest Russian successes are in the field of space technology

Space technology

and space exploration

Space exploration

Space exploration is the use of space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....

. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was an Imperial Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory. Along with his followers the German Hermann Oberth and the American Robert H. Goddard, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics...

was the father of theoretical astronautics. His works had inspired leading Soviet rocket engineers such as Sergey Korolyov

Sergey Korolyov

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev ; died 14 January 1966 in Moscow, Russia) was the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer in the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1950s and 1960s...

, Valentin Glushko

Valentin Glushko

Valentin Petrovich Glushko or Valentyn Petrovych Hlushko was a Soviet engineer, and the principal Soviet designer of rocket engines during the Soviet/American Space Race.-Biography:...

and many others that contributed to the success of the Soviet space program

Soviet space program

The Soviet space program is the rocketry and space exploration programs conducted by the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from the 1930s until its dissolution in 1991...

at early stages of the Space Race

Space Race

The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national...

and beyond.

In 1957 the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite

Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

, Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 ) was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1s success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space...

, was launched; in 1961 on 12 April

Cosmonautics Day

Cosmonautics Day is a holiday celebrated in Russia and some other former USSR countries on April 12. This holiday celebrates the first manned space flight made on April 12, 1961 by the 27-year old Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin circled the Earth for 1 hour and 48 minutes aboard the Vostok...

the first human trip into space was successfully made by Yury Gagarin; and many other Soviet and Russian space exploration records

Timeline of space exploration

This is a timeline of space exploration including notable achievements and first accomplishments in humanity's physical exploration of outer space.-Prior to 1942:-1942–1957:-1957–1961:-1961–1969:-1970–1980:-1981–present:...

ensued, including the first spacewalk performed by Alexey Leonov, the first space exploration rover

Rover (space exploration)

A rover is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of a planet or other astronomical body. Some rovers have been designed to transport members of a human spaceflight crew; others have been partially or fully autonomous robots...

Lunokhod-1
Lunokhod programme
Lunokhod was a series of Soviet robotic lunar rovers designed to land on the Moon between 1969 and 1977. The 1969 Lunokhod 1A was destroyed during launch, the 1970 Lunokhod 1 and the 1973 Lunokhod 2 landed on the moon and the 1977 Lunokhod was never launched...

and the first space station

Space station

A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...

Salyut 1. Nowadays Russia is the largest satellite launcher and the only provider of transport for space tourism

Space tourism

Space Tourism is space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. A number of startup companies have sprung up in recent years, hoping to create a space tourism industry...

services.

Military

Famous Russian battle tanks include T-34

T-34

The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...

, the best middle tank design of World War II, and further tanks of T-series, including the most produced tank in history, T-54/55, the first fully gas turbine

Gas turbine

A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....

tank T-80

T-80

The T-80 is a main battle tank designed and manufactured in the former Soviet Union. A development of the T-64, it entered service in 1976 and was the first production tank to be equipped with a gas turbine engine for main propulsion.the Swedish Stridsvagn 103 of 1971 used a gas turbine alongside...

and the most modern Russian tank T-90

T-90

The T-90 is a Russian third-generation main battle tank that is a modernisation of the T-72 . It is currently the most modern tank in service with the Russian Ground Forces and Naval Infantry...

. The AK-47

AK-47

The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...

and AK-74

AK-74

The AK-74 is an assault rifle developed in the early 1970s in the Soviet Union as the replacement for the earlier AKM...

by Mikhail Kalashnikov

Mikhail Kalashnikov

Lieutenant General Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov is a Russian small arms designer, most famous for designing the AK-47 assault rifle, the AKM and the AK-74.-Early life:...

constitute the most widely used type of assault rifle

Assault rifle

An assault rifle is a selective fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge and a detachable magazine. Assault rifles are the standard infantry weapons in most modern armies...

throughout the world—so much so that more AK-type rifles have been manufactured than all other assault rifles combined. With these and other weapons Russia for a long time has been among the world's top suppliers of arms, accounting for around 30% of worldwide weapons sales and exporting weapons to about 80 countries.

The defence industry of Russia is a strategically important sector and a large employer. Russia is the second largest conventional arms exporter after the United States, with $8 billions' worth of exports in 2008. The most popular types of weaponry bought from Russia are Sukhoi

Sukhoi

Sukhoi Company is a major Russian aircraft manufacturer, headquartered in Begovoy District, Northern Administrative Okrug, Moscow, famous for its fighters...

and MiG

Mig

fighters, air defense systems, helicopter

Helicopter

s, tank

Tank

A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...

s, armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicle

Infantry fighting vehicle

An infantry fighting vehicle , also known as a mechanized infantry combat vehicle , is a type of armoured fighting vehicle used to carry infantry into battle and provide fire support for them...

s. Aviation products make up about half of the country's arms exports. One of the industry's recent technological achievements was the maiden flight of the fifth generation fighter PAK FA, which broke the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

' complete monopoly on development and production of fifth generation jets. The Moscow Defense Brief

Moscow Defense Brief

Moscow Defense Brief is a bimonthly English-language defense magazine published by Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies , an independent defense think-tank.- Overview :...

journal hailed the occasion as a major coup for Russia's defence industry, saying that:

"while not America’s equal militarily, Russia is still a solid second in terms of defense technology, outranking both Western Europe and China and punching well above its economic weight."

Computing

Sergei Lebedev

Sergei Alekseyevich Lebedev

Sergey Alexeyevich Lebedev was a Soviet scientist in the fields of electrical engineering and computer science, and designer of the first Soviet computers....

developed one of the first universally programmable computers in continental Europe in 1950, MESM. The first ternary computer

Ternary computer

A ternary computer is a computer that uses ternary logic instead of the more common binary logic in its calculations.-History:...

Setun

Setun was a balanced ternary computer developed in 1958 at Moscow State University. The device was built under the lead of Sergei Sobolev and Nikolay Brusentsov. It was the only modern ternary computer, using three-valued ternary logic instead of two-valued binary logic prevalent in computers...

was developed by Nikolay Brusentsov

Nikolay Brusentsov

Nikolay Brusentsov, born February 7, 1925 in Kamenskoe is a Russian computer scientist, most famous for having built a ternary computer, Setun, together with Sergei Sobolev in 1958.-References:...

, together with Sergei Sobolev in 1958.

Automotive industry

Niva

Lada Niva

The Lada Niva or VAZ-2121 is the Russian word for "crop field") is an off-road vehicle built by Soviet/Russian automaker AvtoVAZ. The car is very popular in its home country. It is also popular in Canada , South America, Europe, and other regions where the terrain requires a robust and tough car...

was one of the first off-road vehicles gaining international success and is still exported to Canada, South America and Europe.
KAMAZ

Kamaz

KAMAZ is a Russian truck manufacturer located in Naberezhnye Chelny, Tatarstan, Russian Federation. KAMAZ opened their doors in 1976...

trucks are exported to many areas of the world including Eastern Europe, Latin America, China, the Middle East, and North Africa and are persistent winners (ten times) of the famous Dakar Rally

Dakar Rally

The Dakar Rally is an annual rally raid type of off-road automobile race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation...

Railroads

Ivan Polzunov

Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov was a Russian inventor. He is credited with creation of the first steam engine in Russia and the first two-cylinder engine in the world.A minor planet, 1978SP7 is named in his honor, as well as a crater on the Moon.-Biography:...

is credited with creation of the first steam engine in Russia and the first two-cylinder engine in the world.

Nuclear

The creation of the first nuclear power plant

Nuclear power plant

A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...

along with the first nuclear reactors for submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

s and surface ships

Nuclear marine propulsion

Nuclear marine propulsion is propulsion of a ship by a nuclear reactor. Naval nuclear propulsion is propulsion that specifically refers to naval warships...

was directed by Igor Kurchatov

Igor Kurchatov

Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov , was a Soviet nuclear physicist who is widely known as the director of the Soviet atomic bomb project. Along with Georgy Flyorov and Andrei Sakharov, Kurchatov is widely remembered and dubbed as the "father of the Soviet atomic bomb" for his directorial role in the...

. NS Lenin was the world's first nuclear powered surface ship

Nuclear marine propulsion

Nuclear marine propulsion is propulsion of a ship by a nuclear reactor. Naval nuclear propulsion is propulsion that specifically refers to naval warships...

as well as the first nuclear powered civilian vessel, and NS Arktika
Arktika (icebreaker)
NS Arktika is a nuclear powered icebreaker of the Soviet Arktika class. In service since 1975, she was the first surface ship to reach the North Pole, on August 17, 1977....

became the first surface ship to reach the North Pole

North Pole

The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...

History

Science and education

Physics

Mathematics

Chemistry

Biology

Electrical engineering

Earth sciences

Aviation

Space technology

Military

Computing

Automotive industry

Railroads

Nuclear

See also