Feb. 8—On this day, 300 years ago, the Russian Academy of Sciences was born, as the key as to how to seriously run a country. Tsar Peter the Great established the Academy based upon his discussions and deliberations with the Renaissance thinker, Gottfried Leibniz. Leibniz’s original memorandum in 1697 called for the Tsar to: “Establish a general institution for the sciences and the arts” with members “well versed in science and the arts and of high genius…. Import foreign things that are worthwhile, … there will be large observatories, mills, shops, pharmacies and factories, which will contain all kinds of machines and inventions actually put into practice…. Determine the exact relations of the country to determine its needs.” And whatever is needed but lacking must be obtained by imitating and perfecting what is being done elsewhere.
