Urals Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR

a scientific institution organized in 1932 in Sverdlovsk. A. E. Fersman was a founder of the Urals Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the first chairman of the branch’s presidium. I. P. Bardin directed the branch from 1937 to 1957.

Initially, the Urals Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was a complex of geological, geochemical, biological, and chemical laboratories. In 1939, institutes of mining geology, metal physics, metal science and metallurgy, and chemistry were organized. The scientific staff investigated the natural resources, economics, and productive forces of the Urals and carried out research for industrial enterprises. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, the Urals branch, together with other research institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, solved scientific problems of importance for the needs of the front and the rear.

The Urals Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR coordinated the work of scientific institutions in the Urals Economic Region and published scientific works. In 1970, the branch had institutes of geology and geochemistry, geophysics, chemistry, electrochemistry, metallurgy, and plant and animal ecology; the Il’men’ Preserve was placed under the jurisdiction of the branch in 1951. In 1971, the Urals branch became part of the Urals Scientific Center of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.