We assume that communication of personal (tacit) knowledge is a most problematic process in translating scientific experience to younger scholars’ generation. An empirical study was carried out on the sample of 170 DrSc scholars from the Russian Academy of Sciences, who were winners of the Russian Science Support Foundation award “Best young scientists of Russian Academy of Sciences”. The structural-equation modeling was used for data analysis. The results revealed family and scientific environment factors’ influence on scientific productivity. The data accord to hypothesis about the increasing role of personal knowledge.