Aleksey B. Eliseev

The article is devoted to the study of the activities of the State Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAKHN) in 1921‒1931. The analysis proceeds from the assumption that the structure of the Academy, which is based on three large departments (Physico-psychological, Social, Philosophical), was designed to promote the implementation of a generalizing synthesis in the understanding of art, in fact, implementing the principle of interdisciplinary research. The analysis of the dynamics of scientific life indicates that the structural units designed to implement a synthetic strategy for creating a new science competed with each other, which was minimizing methodological convergence. The example of work on the “Dictionary of Artistic Terms” clearly illustrates this fact.

The study was carried out on the basis of archival documents from the funds of Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, on the basis of Reports from three Departments of the GAKHN for 1921‒1927, as well as with the involvement of research literature on the history of the GAKHN.

The author concludes that the studies performed by the Academy, laid the foundations of a new science: methodological approaches to the study of art were developed. However, the lack of fundamental unity led to the incompleteness of the formation of a system of aesthetic concepts.