The article is devoted to the analysis of the formation and development of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) - a key state research organization in France, which stands among the world's leading national research centers in terms of its scale and effectiveness. The specifics and major problems the CNRS faced over the 80th period of its existence are shown, as well as the main reasons for its institutional viability. Special attention was paid to the advantages of CNRS and to the unsolved contemporary problems. The dynamics of the confrontation between the desire of researchers for scientific autonomy and the intention of the state to control scientific research is investigated. It was revealed that the problem of academic freedom remains one of the most acute and intractable problems for the scientific community of modern France.