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Issue 4 (41)

AT THE ORIGINS OF THE SOVIET NUCLEAR PROJECT: ACADEMIC INITIATIVES
Year	2013	Number	4(41)
Pages	63-71	Type	scientific article
UDC	94(470)”19”	BBK	63.3(2)62
Authors	Artemov Evgenii T.	Topic	HISTORICAL RESEARCHES ON THE URAL
Summary	The article presents a critical review of an established belief about the critical role of the USSR Academy of Science in the start up of the Soviet nuclear project. It is true that in the end of the 1930-s the Academy initiated research in nuclear physics. However most of the leading researchers believed that any practical use of nuclear energy was a matter of remote future. On these grounds at the beginning of World War II all respective projects were suspended as “lacking relevance” for the defense potential of the country. They were restarted only following the decision of the top government authorities in September 1942, however the responsibility for the nuclear project administration was moved to the central government institutions, since the Academy failed to cope with this work. The academic institutions focused on implementing though important, but rather particular, problem-specific solutions under the general supervision and on orders of the new research organization set up specifically for this project — Laboratory No 2 of the Academy of Science USSR (later — Measuring Instruments Laboratory, Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, now – National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”), which only formally belonged to the structure of the Academy of Science. Research support model introduced and tested at the start of the nuclear project has become an important element of the Soviet innovation system.
Keywords	Soviet atomic project, Academy of Sciences USSR, Laboratory № 2 of the Academy of Sciences USSR, the Soviet system innovation
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