TY - BOOK ID - 30728365 TI - The invention of Mikhail Lomonosov : a Russian national myth AU - Usitalo, Steven. AU - Marker, Gary AU - National Endowment for the Humanities and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program PY - 2013 SN - 1618111957 161811672X 9781618111951 1299954251 9781299954250 9781618116727 9781618111739 1618111736 1618118064 PB - Boston, MA Academic Studies Press DB - UniCat KW - Authors, Russian KW - Enlightenment KW - Lomonosov, Mikhail Vasilʹevich, KW - Ломоносов, Михаил Васильевич, KW - Lomonossov, Michail V., KW - Lomonossow, Michail Wassiljewitsch, KW - Lomonosovas, Michailas Vasiljevičius, KW - Ломоносов, М. В. KW - Lomonosov, M. V. KW - Lomonosov, Mikhaĭlo, KW - Lomonosow, Michaelis, KW - Łomonosow, Michaił Wasilewicz, KW - Łomonosow, Michał, KW - Russia KW - Civilization KW - Soviet Union KW - History KW - Alexander Pushkin KW - Alexander Radishchev KW - Isaac Newton KW - Leonhard Euler KW - Mikhail Lomonosov KW - Russian Academy of Sciences KW - Russians KW - Saint Petersburg UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:30728365 AB - This study explores the evolution of Lomonosov's imposing stature in Russian thought from the middle of the eighteenth century to the closing years of the Soviet period. It reveals much about the intersection in Russian culture of attitudes towards the meaning and significance of science, as well as about the rise of a Russian national identity, of which Lomonosov became an outstanding symbol. Idealized depictions of Lomonosov were employed by Russian scientists, historians, and poets, among others, in efforts to affirm to their countrymen and to the state the pragmatic advantages of science to a modernizing nation. In setting forth this assumption, Usitalo notes that no sharply drawn division can be upheld between the utilization of the myth of Lomonosov during the Soviet period of Russian history and that which characterized earlier views. The main elements that formed the mythology were laid down in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; Soviet scholars simply added more exaggerated layers to existing representations. ER -