Professor Julia Balashova of St. Petersburg State University has just published an article about the traditions of scientific enlightenment in Russia.
She is affiliated with the Knight Center as a Fulbright Scholar doing research at MSU this academic year.
Balashova is a professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where she heads the master’s program in popular science journalism.
Her article in the International Journal of Environmental & Science Education examines scientific enlightenment at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a period characterized by significant scientific and sociopolitical changes.
At the time, the level of education in Russia was extremely low, and good education was accessible only to the upper class, according to the study, “The Scientific Enlightenment System in Russia in the Early Twentieth Century as a Model for Popularizing Science.”
Therefore, a program for popularizing science was launched. The main means of popularization of science included publication of popular-science periodicals and giving universities considerable autonomy. During the subsequent Soviet period, popularization of science continued, but included a government drive to eliminate illiteracy in light of Marxism-Leninism