Omsk scientific and educational complex and associations of scientists in the Prewar years

The article is devoted to the problems of formation of Omsk scientific and educational complex and associations of Omsk scientists in the prewar years. During 1920-s, the city of Omsk hard but quickly overcame the consequences of the civil war: devastation, poverty, diseases, illiteracy. With the use of statistical data and historical approach authors show how the restoration of economy and the formation of industrial enterprises were accompanied by the creation of a system of primary, secondary and higher professional education, different scientific institutions. The article shows how by the end of the 1930-ies the network of higher educational institutions significantly expanded in Omsk: in addition to agricultural, veterinary and medical institutions appeared Siberian automobile and highway Institute, Omsk Institute of transport engineers, Omsk pedagogical Institute, Siberian astronomic and geodetic Institute and the Second West Siberian higher agricultural school. Omsk became one of the largest centers of higher education. In 1938 from every thousand inhabitants of Omsk 35 were students (in 1923 - only 3). During those years, Omsk became a major research center, where agricultural, medical and biological sciences got the greatest development. In the first five-year plan (1929-1932) there were already 15 research institutions in Omsk, where about 250 scientists conducted their researches. In the second five-year plan (1933-1937) the value of Omsk scientific center increased significantly. West Siberian experiment station in 1931 transformed into the country's largest research Institute of grain farming. In 1939 there were 224 scientists in 16 laboratories and experimental fields of the Institute. The article also presents the development of a new urban culture (including hybrid-suburb) in the context of rapid urbanization, the transformation of Omsk in a large industrial, cultural, educational and scientific centre of Siberia. The authors consider the details of the scientific and organizational events in Omsk and Siberia as well as problems of creation and operation of the first Omsk scientific associations, in particular the House of science and technology and Omsk House of scientists. The article describes the measures held by Omsk House of scientists, which had great influence on the cooperation of Omsk scientists, teachers and representatives of culture, the formation of Omsk scientific and cultural community. Special attention is paid to the activity of scientists, which had a key influence on the described events, in particular Alexander Ivanovich Balandin (1891-1962) and Lyubov Alexeevna Rosen-er (1885-1956). The situation in the post-war years also is briefly described.

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