Almost a century ago, in the 1920-30s, a special commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the organization of regional affiliates denied the request of local governments in Siberia and the Far East of the country to create local affiliate divisions. The stated reason was that it was impossible to deploy Academicians to the specified cities without the destruction of the Academy of Sciences as such, and selecting new Academicians, forcing them to live and work in a specified city, is impossible as well. Even though during the Great Patriotic War the first affiliate branch of the Academy appeared in Siberia, it was late in the 1950s that the impossible happened: several dozen of the most prominent scientists from Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Lvov and other cities, joined by their talented students, moved to Siberia - voluntarily and simultaneously
