Varnitso

Varnitso 

(full name: All-Union Association of Scientific and Technical Workers for Active Participation in Socialist Construction in the USSR), voluntary public organization that existed in the USSR from 1928 to 1939. Its tasks consisted of actively participating in the study and development of plans for economic and cultural construction, training scientific specialists, organizing scientific research work, enlisting scientists to work in production and deliver lectures and reports in factories, and maintaining ties with scientific-technical societies in the USSR and abroad.

The association was established on the initiative of a group of scientists and engineers (A. I. Abrikosov, I. G. Aleksandrov, A. N. Bakh, B. I. Zbarskii, N. S. Kurnakov, A. I. Oparin, A. V. Palladin, B. L. Rozing, and others). The group worked out by-laws for the association in late October 1927, and these were confirmed by the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR on Feb. 13, 1928. A. N. Bakh was the chairman of the Central Bureau of the association. N. I. Vavilov, S. A. Zernov, B. A. Keller, V. L. Komarov, A. V. Leontovich, N. la. Marr, S. F. Ol’denburg, N. M. Tulaikov, A. E. Fersman, and other scientists also worked in the association. At the beginning of 1929 the association had 564 members and 16 local divisions; at the end of 1932, 11,000 members and 93 divisions, including six republic divisions. Work was carried out in the association’s sections (industry, agriculture, public health, and so on). The association published a journal (under such titles as Biulleten’ VARNITSO [VARNITSO Bulletin] and VARNITSO).