Academician
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Academician
in the USSR a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the academies of sciences of the Union republics, and several branch academies. Full members of republic academies of sciences and several branch academies are given the title of the academy to which they belong-for example, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR or Academician of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Academicians are chosen by a general meeting of a given academy. The right to nominate candidates and full members to an academy is granted to scholarly institutions, social organizations, and individual scholars. The Academy of Sciences of the USSR has the ranks of honorary academician and foreign member; the academies of sciences of the Union republics have the rank of honorary member.
In prerevolutionary Russia the rank of academician was granted not only to full members of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences but also to the professors of the Military-Medical Academy and to member artists of the Academy of Arts. The rank of honorary academician was granted to writers chosen by the members of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences committee on belles-lettres.
The rank of academician also exists in several academies in socialist countries.