Issue 4 (73)
| SCIENTISTS IN THE SOVIET ATOMIC PROJECT: BETWEEN COMPULSION AND FREEDOM | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 2021 | Number | 4(73) |
| Pages | 145-154 | Type | scientific article |
| UDC | 94(47)“1945/1950” | BBK | 63.3(2)631 |
| Authors | Melnikova Natalia V. |
Topic | THE YEAR OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY |
| Summary | Scientists of various specializations, status and citizenship took part in the Soviet atomic project, which required serious scientific research. Their scientific and organizational contribution has been described in scientific and popular publications. This paper considers the project’s social dimension, poorly reflected in the research literature. The chronology includes the period from 1945 to the second half of the 1950s. It was time between the beginning of the project’s active stage after a protracted start and its completion, when the main results had been achieved. Providing information on the scale of employment of scientists in the project, the article focuses on the question of how their work and life were built within the framework of this secret research. The study describes the specifics of scientists’ mobilization, explores restrictions, deprivations, threats and opportunities associated with their participation in the project; it also analyzes features of their dealing with authorities, the ratio between compulsion and trust, regime and freedom, stimulation and internal motivation, dependence and scientific autonomy. These aspects contribute to better understanding of the USSR atomic project phenomenon and its effectiveness, serve as a “magnifying glass” for observing the specifics of the scientific work organization, as well as the Soviet social space as a whole. | ||
| Keywords | USSR atomic project, Special Committee, First Main Administration, scientists, interactions | ||
| References |
Akhundov M. D. [Did the atomic bomb save Soviet physics?]. Priroda [Nature], 1991, no. 1, pp. 90–97. (in Russ.). Artemov E. T. [State security organs in the Soviet atomic project: functions and contribution to its implementation]. Ural’skij istoriceskij vestnik [Ural Historical Journal], 2019, no. 1 (62), pp. 129–136. DOI: 10.30759/1728-9718-2019-1(62)-129-136 (in Russ.). Artemov E. T. Atomnyy proyekt v koordinatakh stalinskoy ekonomiki [The atomic project in the coordinates of the Stalinist economy]. Moscow: Politicheskaya entsiklopediya Publ., 2017. (in Russ.). Balabanova E. S. [The concept of meritocracy in contemporary organizational studies]. Zhurnal sotsiologii i sotsial’noy antropologii [The Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology], 2016, vol. 19, no. 2 (85), pp. 60–73. (in Russ.). Besancon A. Russkoye proshloye — sovetskoye nastoyashcheye [Russian past — Soviet present]. Moscow: MIK Publ., 1998. (in Russ.). Dunham V. In Stalin’s Time: Middleclass Values in Soviet Fiction. Durham: Duke University Press Books, 1990. (in English). Emelyanov B. M., Gavrilchenko V. S. Laboratoriya “B”. Sungul’skiy fenomen [Laboratory “B”. The Sungul phenomenon]. Snezhinsk: RFYaTs–VNIITF Publ., 2000. (in Russ.). Gudkov L. [“Trust” in Russia: meaning, functions, structure]. Vestnik Obshchestvennogo mneniya. Dannyye. Analiz. Diskussii [Bulletin of Public Opinion. Data. Analysis. Discussions], 2012, no. 2 (112), pp. 8–48. (in Russ.). Holloway D. Stalin i bomba: Sovetskiy Soyuz i atomnaya energiya. 1939–1956 [Stalin and the bomb: The Soviet Union and atomic energy. 1939–1956]. Novosibirsk: Sibirskiy khronograf Publ., 1997. (in Russ.). Hosking G. Doveriye: istoriya [Trust: a History]. Moscow: Politicheskaya entsiklopediya Publ., 2016. (in Russ.). K issledovaniyu fenomena sovetskoy fiziki 1950–1960-kh gg. Sotsiokul’turnyye i mezhdistsiplinarnyye aspekty [On the Study of the Soviet Physics Phenomenon in the 1950s–1960s. Sociocultural and interdisciplinary aspects]. Saint Petersburg: RKhGA Publ., 2014. (in Russ.). Kojevnikov À. Stalin’s Great Science: The Times and Adventures of Soviet Physicists. London: Imperial College Press, 2005. (in English). Kolchinsky E. I. [Science and crises in 20th century: some implications of the comparative analysis]. Ekonomicheskiy vestnik Rostovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Economic Herald of Rostov State University], 2008, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 141–149. (in Russ.). Krasheninnikova V. Amerika — Rossiya: kholodnaya voyna kul’tur. Kak amerikanskiye tsennosti prelomlyayut videniye Rossii [America — Russia: Cold War of Cultures. How American Values Refract the Vision of Russia]. Moscow: Evropa Publ., 2007. (in Russ.). Ledeneva A. The Genealogy of Krugovaya Poruka: Forced Trust as a Feature of Russian Political Culture. Trust and Democratic Transition in Post-Communist Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 85–108. DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197263136.003.0005 (in English). Makarenko V. P. [Etatization of the Science: the Soviet Experience]. Ekonomicheskiy vestnik Rostovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Economic Herald of Rostov State University], 2007, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 86–110. (in Russ.). Moore R. Niels Bohr: The Man, His Science, and the World They Changed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966. (in English). Pelts D., Andrews F. Uchenyye v organizatsiyakh. Ob optimal’nykh usloviyakh dlya issledovaniy i razrabotok [Scientists in organizations. Productive climates for research and development]. Moscow: Progress Publ., 1973. (in Russ.). Rabkin Y., Rheaume C. [Research cultures in nuclear arms projects: a comparative perspective]. Nauka i obshchestvo: istoriya sovetskogo atomnogo proyekta (40–50-ye gg.) [Science and society: history of the Soviet atomic project (40’s–50’s)]. Moscow: IzdAT Publ., 2003, vol. 3, pp. 240–248. (in English). Rhodes R. Sozdaniye atomnoy bomby [The making of the atomic bomb]. Moscow: KoLibri, Azbuka-Attikus Publ., 2020. (in Russ.). Rosenfeldt N. E. The “Special” World. Stalin’s Power Apparatus and the Soviet System’s Secret Structures of Communication. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen, 2009, vol. 1–2. (in English). Rubinin P. E. [Kapitsa, Beria and the Bomb]. Nauka i obshchestvo: istoriya sovetskogo atomnogo proyekta (40–50-ye gg.) [Science and society: history of the Soviet atomic project (40’s–50’s)]. Moscow: IzdAT Publ., 1999, vol. 2, pp. 260–279. (in Russ.). Sudarikov A. M. Rol’ uchonykh-leningradtsev v sozdanii effektivnykh sredstv oborony strany v pervoye poslevoyennoye desyatiletiye (1945–1955 gg.): dokt. diss. [The role of Leningrad scientists in the creation of effective means of national defense in the first post-war decade (1945–1955): Diss. Doc.]. Saint Petersburg, 2007. (in Russ.). Tikhomirov A. The Regime of Forced Trust: Making and Breaking Emotional Bonds between People and State in Soviet Russia, 1917–1941. The Slavonic and East European Review, 2013, vol. 91, no. 1, pp. 78–118. DOI: 10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.91.1.0078 (in English). Vasiljeva E. V. [Far Eastern scientists’ motivation for research work under reinstitutionalization of national science]. Sotsiologiya nauki i tekhnologiy [Sociology of Science and Technology], 2011, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 25–46. (in Russ.). Vizgin V. P. [Ethos of a nuclear scientist: origins and formation (1940–1950s, based on the history of the Soviet atomic project)]. Filosofiya nauki [Philosophy of Science], 2005, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 261–279. (in Russ.). Vizgin V. P. [Some lessons from history of the Soviet atomic project]. Upravleniye naukoy: teoriya i praktika [Science Management: Theory and Practice], 2019, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 145–163. DOI: 10.19181/smtp.2019.1.2.9 (in Russ.). Vizgin V. P. [The nuclear shield in the “thirty-year war” of physicists against ignorant criticism of modern physical theories]. Uspekhi fizicheskikh nauk [Successes in physical sciences], 1999, vol. 169, no. 12, pp. 1363–1389. DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0169.199912j.1363 (in Russ.). Wellerstein A. Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States. Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press, 2021. (in English). |
||
| Download in PDF | |||
