Atomic-powered communism: Nuclear culture in the postwar USSR

Slavic Review

Volumn 55, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 297-324

  Josephson, Paul R ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0040091575     PISSN: 00376779     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2501914     Document Type: Article

References (140)

1. For the history of some of these "hero projects," see Jonathan Coopersmith, The Electrification of Russia, 1880-1926 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992);
2. Anne Rassweiler, The Generation of Power: The History of Dneprostroi (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988);
3. and Paul Josephson, "'Projects of the Century' in Soviet History: Large-Scale Technologies from Lenin to Gorbachev," in Technology and Culture 36, no. 3 (July 1995): 519-59.
4. For a recent study of the interaction of politics, culture, and ideology in the development of a large-scale technology in another authoritarian regime, see Michael Neufeld, The Rocket and the Reich (New York: Free Press, 1995).
5. On the technological and economic determinism of Marxism, see G. A. Cohen, Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978).
6. In his recent The Ghost of the Executed Engineer (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), Loren Graham examines the development of engineering culture in the USSR.
7. Paul Josephson, "Rockets, Reactors and Soviet Culture," in Loren Graham, ed., Science and the Soviet Social Order (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990), 168-91.
8. For a discussion of the impact of nuclear weapons on Stalin's military policy, see David Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 224-52.
9. "Ispol'zovanie atomnoi energii v mirnykh tseliakh i sovetskaia nauka," Vestnik Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1955, no. 7: 3-5,
10. and "Ispol'zovanie atomnoi energii v mirnykh tseliakh," Vestnik Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1955, no. 8: 34-46.
11. XX S'' ezd KPSS: Stenograficheskii otchet (Moscow: Politizdat, 1956), 1:595-600.
12. For a discussion of some of these fantastic, futuristic projects, a number of which the United States also pursued, see Iu. N. Sushkov, Atomnaia energiia i aviatsiia (Moscow: Znanie, 1958);
13. and A. P. Ermakov and A. G. Syrman, Atomnaia energiia i transport (Moscow, 1963);
14. as well as the more popular R. G. Perel'man, "Atomnye dvigateli," Nauka i zhizn', 1956, no. 1: 26-32;
15. V. A. Mezentsev, "Na poroge atomnogo veka," Nauka i zhizn', 1956, no. 1: 5-14;
16. and A. Markin, "Atom na sluzhbe cheloveka," Smena, 1955, no. 1: 18-19.
17. Nuclear power would figure again in the speeches of Kurchatov and Khrushchev at the XXI (Extraordinary) Party Congress in 1959 (see Vneocherednoi XXI s'' ezd KPSS: Stenograficheskii otchet (Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1959), 2:179-83.
18. Arkhiv Instituta Atomnoi Energii im. Kurchatova (hereafter A KIAE), f. 2, op. 1. ed. khr. 14.
19. A. D. Sakharov, "O radioaktivnoi opasnosti iadernykh ispytanii," unpub. ms. (24 May 1958), A KIAE. On Sakharov's efforts to gain a test ban,
20. see Andrei Sakharov, Memoirs (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1990), 197-204, 207-9, 215-18.
21. Aleksei Tarasov, "Krasnoiarsku-26 vygodno ostavat'sia zakrytym ot mira," Izvestiia, 28 September 1993.
22. See also "Russia's Secret Cities," The Economist, 25 December 1993-7 January 1994, 65-68.
23. For a discussion of the economic, political, and technical background to the premature acceptance of large nuclear technologies, see Zhores Medvedev, The Legacy of Chernobyl (New York: Norton, 1990), 226-62;
24. and Paul Josephson, "Atomic Energy and 'Atomic Culture' in the USSR: The Ideological Roots of Economic and Safety Problems Facing the Nuclear Power Industry after Chernobyl," in T. Anthony Jones, David Powell, and Walter Connor, eds., Soviet Social Problems (Boulder: Westview Press, 1991), 55-77.
25. For minimal risks of food irradiation, see Julie Miller Jones, Food Safety (St. Paul: Eagan Press, 1992), 301-30.
26. A. M. Kuzin, "Mechenye atomy v biologii," Nauka i zhizn', 1955, no. 4: 29-32;
27. Iu. P. Kurdinovskii, "Luchi, rozhdennye atomom," Nauka i zhizn', 1956, no. 3: 17-21;
28. E. S. Pertsovskii, "Energiiu atoma-pishchevoi promyshlennosti," Nauka i zhizn', 1956, no. 8: 17-20;
29. B. A. Rubin, et al., "Ispol'zovanie gamma-luchei pri dlitel'nom khranenii kartofel'ia," Priroda, 1958, no. 7: 91-94;
30. A. V. Topchiev, et al., "Primenenic radioaktivnykh izotopov v SSSR," Atomnaia energiia 5, no. 3 (1958): 321-33;
31. and A. Sokolovskii, "Izuchenie ekonomicheskoi effektivnosti ispol'zovaniia izotopov," Voprosy ekonomiki, 1959, no. 12: 166-67. In October 1958 N. I. Mitkov, the director of the Institute of Oil of the Academy of Sciences, wrote Kurchatov to thank him for his help in developing the first portable neutron generators for active analysis of ore deposits in the field (see A KIAE, f. 2, op. 1, ed. khr. 72/4).
32. Edward Teller, Better a Shield Than a Sword (New York: Free Press, 1987), 112.
33. On the history of Project Plowshares, see Edward Teller with Allen Brown, The Legacy of Hiroshima (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1962), 82-92.
34. Mezentsev, "Na poroge," 7.
35. Markin, "Atom na sluzhbe," 18.
36. Milo D. Nordyke, "A Review of Soviet Data on Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Explosions," Annals of Nuclear Energy 2 (1975): 657-73;
37. Nordyke, "Memorandum: New Results from a Recent Soviet Publication on the Soviet PNE Program," 24 July 1981, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory;
38. and G. P. Ledbetter and M. D. Nordyke, A Bibliography of Published Material Related to the Soviet PNE Program, 22 November 1977, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
39. See also A. K. Kruglov, "Atomnaia nauka i teklinika - narodnomu khoziaistvu strany," Atomnaia energiia, 50, no. 2 (February 1981): 82-84,
40. and Edward Teller, Constructive Uses of Nuclear Explosives (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968).
41. On atomic engines, see R. G. Perel'man, "Atomnye dvigateli," Nauka i zhizn', 1956, no. 1: 32;
42. E. Maksimova, "Put' k Obninsku," Izvestiia, 1 October 1967, 5;
43. and A. M. Petros'iants, "Atomnaia nauka i tekhnika," Trud, 24 October 1967, 4.
44. For a brief outline of flying nuclear apparatuses, see N. N. Ponomarev-Stepnoi, "Iadernaia energiia v letatel'nykh apparatakh," in Materialy iubileinoi sessii uchenogo soveta tsentra (Moscow: Rossiiskii nauchnyi tsentr "Kurchatovskii institut," 1993), 40-62.
45. On the environmental dangers of these devices, see William J. Broad, "Radioactive Debris in Space Threatens Satellites in Use," New York Times, 26 February 1995, 12;
46. Kim Smirnov, "Vse nashi radioaktivnye zakhoroneniia v moriakh rassekrecheny," Izvestiia, 7 August 1993, 15;
47. Viktor Litovkin, "93 podvodnykh atomokhoda zhdut v rossii utilizatsii, no deneg na eto u gosudarstva net," Izvestiia, 9 August 1993, 4;
48. and Igor' Tsarev, et al., "Skandal na iadernoi pomoike," Trud, 22 October 1993.
49. The U.S. record at Hanford, Washington, Fernald, Ohio, and the Savannah plant in South Carolina, is little better (see, for instance, Michele Stenehjem Gerber, On the Home Front: The Cold War Legacy of Hanford [Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992]).
50. S. A. Skvortsov and V. A. Sidorenko, "Nuclear Heat Supply," Soviet Atomic Energy 48, no. 4 (1980): 223-27.
51. "Ispol'zovanie teplykh vod TES i AES v narodnom khoziiastve," Vestnik Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1975, no. 12: 68-75.
52. Ivan Kunitsyii and Aleksei Nikolaev, "Po donu guliaet . . . 'mirnyi' atom," Iunost', 1990, no. 4: 40-45.
53. Iu. I. Koriakin and A. A. Loginov, "Atomnaia energiia i opresnenie solenykh vod," Atomnaia energiia 20, no. 3 (1966): 232-43.
54. A. P. Aleksandrov, "Ispalinskii atom," Izvestiia, 31 December 1964, 3.
55. See also Aleksandrov, "Budushchee energetiki," Sovetskii fizik, no. 5 (344) (11 February 1976): 1-3.
56. For a collection of his articles and addresses, see Aleksandrov, Nauka-strane (Moscow: Nauka, 1983).
57. See P. S. Neporozhnyi, ed., Stroitel'stvo teplovykh i atomnykh elektrostantsii, 2 vols. (Moscow: Stroizdat, 1979).
58. Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb.
59. See Valery N. Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science, trans. Leo Gruliow and Rebecca Gruliow (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994), 223-70, for the paradox of Lysenko's continued authority under Khrushchev.
60. A KIAE, f. 20, op. 1, ed. khr. 70/17.
61. Za nauku v sibiri, no. 45 (122) (18 November 1963): 4,
62. and N. P. Dubinin, Vechnoe dvizhenie (Moscow: Izdatpolit, 1973), 365-79.
63. V. Gubarev, "Dva poliusa zhizni," Komsomol'skaia pravda, 27 February 1965, 4.
64. Za nauku v sibiri, no. 17 (42) (24 April 1962): 3;
65. and R. Salganik, "Kod geneticheskoi informatsii raschifrovan," Za nauka v sibiri, no. 17(42) (24 April 1962): 3.
66. Daniil Granin, The Bison: A Novel about the Scientist Who Defied Stalin, trans. Antonina W. Bouis (New York: Doubleday, 1990), 206-8.
67. Sakharov had joined the battle against Lysenkoism in the late 1950s over the need to evaluate the effect of low-level radiation on living organisms. See Sakharov, Memoirs, 233-40;
68. and Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviel Science, 265-68, 278-79.
69. Arkhiv Akademii Nauk SSSR, f. 596, op. 2, ed. khr. 172-74.
70. See also A. S. Sonin, "Soveshchanie, kotoroe ne sostoialos'," Priroda, March 1990, no. 3: 97-102, as well as Sonin's unpublished manuscript on the same subject.
71. A KIAE, f. 2, op. 1, ed. khr. 71/14.
72. A KIAE, f. 2, op. 1, ed. khr. 381, and ed. khr. 382. See also A. S. Sonin, "The Newspaper Red Fleet versus Idealism in Physics," Herald of the USSR Academy of Sciences 61, no. 1 (1991): 70-75.
73. A KIAE, f. 2, op. 1, ed. khr. 67/20 and ed. khr. 67/21.
74. A KIAE, f. 2, op. 1, ed. khr. 68/8; ed. khr. 67/47; ed. khr. 67/44; and ed. khr. 68/16, ll. 1-7.
75. A KIAE, f. 20, op. 1, ed. khr. 70/30.
76. A KIAE, f. 20, op. 1, ed. khr. 70/51.
77. A KIAE, f. 2, op. 1, ed. khr. 14, l. 75;
78. and P. K. Khabibullaev, "V institute iadernoi fiziki AN Uzbekskoi SSR," Vatnik Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1982, no. 5: 61-66.
79. The scientific lyricist Dan'il Danin, well known for his biographies of Rutherford and Bohr, as well as for shedding light on the myth of two cultures in the USSR through a discussion of "fiziki i liriki," described in glowing prose the new Tashkent and Tbilisi experimental reactors and their "neutrons in kind hands" for a huge audience in the main Soviet literary weekly (see Danin, "Neitrony v dobrykh rukakh," Literaturnaia gazeta, 16 September 1961, 1-2).
80. V. Ia. Veldre, "Novyi iadernyi reaktor," Vestnik Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1962, no. 11: 88-90.
81. See also "Pervyi atomnyi v pribaltike," Trud, 30 September 1961, 4,
82. and V. Gavar, "Poleznaia radiatsiia," Sovetskaia latviia, 7 December 1973.
83. A. K. Karsin, et al., Atomnaia energiia 24, no. 4 (1968): 307-11,
84. and A. Krasin, "Atom sluzhit liudiam," Sovetskaia belorussiia, 27 June 1974, 2.
85. G. Gaile, "Ob opyte vnedreniia radioaktivnykh izotopov i iadernykh izluchenii na predpriiatiiakh narodnogo khoziaistva Latviiskoi SSR," Izvestiia AN Latviiskoi SSSR, 1960, no. 7: 163-71,
86. and "Atom sluzhit cheloveku," Zaria vostoka, 20 February 1974.
87. On the purges in Ukrainian physics, see L. V. Shubnikov, Izbrannye trudy: Vospominaniia (Kiev: Naukova dumka, 1990);
88. A. I. Leipunskii, Izbrannye trudy: Vospominaniia (Kiev: Naukova dumka, 1990);
89. and Alexander Weissberg, The Accused (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951).
90. On Landau, see Gcnnadii Gorelik, "Za chto sidel Lev Landau," Izvestiia, 9 January 1992, 4.
91. On the history of nuclear physics in Ukraine, see E. V. Inopin, et al., Ocherki po istorii razvitiia iadernoi fiziki v SSSR (Kiev: Naukova dumka, 1982);
92. V. E. Ivanov, et al., 50 let Khar'kovskomu fiziko-tekhnicheskomu institutu AN USSR (Kiev: Naukova dumka, 1978);
93. A. I. Leipunskii, Izbrannye trudy: Vospominaniia, ed. B. F. Gromov (Kiev: Naukova dumka, 1990);
94. A. P. Trofimenko, "Istoriia razvitiia iadernykh issledovanii na Ukraine" (candidate dissertation, Institute of History of Science and Technology, Moscow, 1974);
95. M. T. Shpak, "K 50-letiiu instituta fiziki AN USSR," Ukruinskii fizicheskii zhurnal 24, no. 2 (February 1979): 145-54;
96. Atomnaia energiia 53, no. 5 (1982): 296-301,
97. on UFTI, and the pedestrian and formal, if encyclopedic Iu. A. Khramov, Istoriia formirovaniia i razvitiia fizicheskikh shkol na Ukraine (Kiev: MP "Feniks," 1991).
98. And on nuclear energetics in Ukraine, see David Marples, The Social Impact of the Chernobyl Disaster (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988);
99. Grigori Medvedev, The Truth about Chernobyl (New York: Basic Books, 1991);
100. Iurii Shcherback, Chernobyl: A Documentary Story, trans. Ian Press (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989);
101. and Medvedev, Legacy of Chernobyl.
102. Arkhiv Fizicheskogo Instituta Akademii Nauk Ukrainskoi SSR (hereafter A FI ANUkrSSR), op. 2, ed. khr. 11, ll. 1, 14.
103. A KIAE, f. 2, op. 1, ed. khr. 71/8, ll. 1-4. Worse still were problems in securing the early release of scientists from service in the Red Army and the special rations for them that delayed the completion of repairs for more than a year.
104. In February 1960, during one of the periodic campaigns in Soviet history against dual employment practices, such leading UFTI physicists as A. I. Akhiezer, A. K. Valter, I. M. Lifshits, and Ia. B. Feinberg again enlisted Kurchatov's help, this time to get government permission for ten scientists to hold two jobs simultaneously, one at the institute, the other in a higher educational institution, to accelerate training of young Ukrainian scientists for nascent programs in high energy physics and fusion (see A KIAE, f. 2, op. 1, ed. khr. 68/15).
105. A FI ANUkrSSR, op. 2, ed. khr. 153, ll. 14-15.
106. A FI ANUkrSSR, op. 1, ed. khr. 185.
107. O. S. Davidov (A. S. Davydov), Atomnaia energiia (Naukovo-populiarna biblioteka) (Kiev: Derzhavne vidavnitstvo tekhnichnoi literaturi ukraini, 1946).
108. A FI ANUkrSSR, op. 1, ed. khr. 284.
109. A FI ANUkrSSR, op. 1, ed. khr. 440, ll. 1-5, 9, 14-21, 34.
110. A FI ANUkrSSR, op. 1, ed. khr. 710, l. 14.
111. A FI ANUkrSSR, op. 1, ed. khr. 487; ed. khr. 529, ll. 1-15; ed. khr. 476, ll. 1, 30-32; ed. khr. 613, ll. 1-3, 12, 24, 27, 34, 38-41, and ed. khr. 614, ll. 3-16.
112. See, for example, "Perepiska po vypolneniiu postanovleniiu prezidiuma AN UkSSR, 1980," and "Perepiska po vypolneniiu postanovleniiu prezidiuma AN UkSSR, 1984," in Arkhiv Instituta Iadernoi Fiziki AN UkrSSR.
113. "Otchety o vypolnenii planov naucho-issledovatel'skikh rabot instituta za 1985 god," Arkhiv Instituta Iadernoi Fiziki Sibirskogo Otdeleniia AN SSSR, f. 1, op. 1, ed. khr. 123, ll. 8, 10, 16, 22; "Plan rabot po sozdaniiu i vnedreniiu rezul'tatov NIR Instituta v narodnoe khoziaistvo na 1985 god," ed. khr. 122, ll. 4-7; and "Sil'notochnye uskoriteli dlia nauchnykh i promyshlennykh tselei," Techsnabexport brochure, ed. khr. 3, ll. 4-7.
114. On the extent of this orientation of the Leningrad Institute for Nuclear Physics research program, see, for example, Arkhiv Leningradskogo Instituta Iadernoi Fiziki, f. 3, op. 1, ed. khr. 52, "Otchet o nauchno- issledovatel'skoi deiatel'nosti instituta za 1967 god," and "O deiatel'nosti i perspektivakh razvitiia Leningradskogo Instituta Iadcrnoi Fiziki im. B. P. Konstantinova AN SSSR," Vestnik Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1979, no. 7: 3-11.
115. "Ot volgi - k Angare," Elektrosila, 14 (Leningrad-Moscow: Gosenergoizdat, 1956), 3-4;
116. N. P. Ivanov, R. A. Liuter, et al., "Moshchnye gidrogeneratory, " Elektrosila, ibid., 5-11;
117. and G. I. D'iachenko, G. M. Khutoretskii, "Turbogeneratory moshchnost'iu 800 i 1,200 Mvt," Elektrosila, ibid., 28 (Leningrad: LO Energoizdat, 1970), 22-24;
118. and Iu. V. Aroshidze, "Turbogeneratorostroenie, 'Elektrolsily' v XI piatiletke," Elektrosila, ibid., 33 (1981), 3-5.
119. On science and popular culture in the 1920s, see James Andrews, "The Popularization of the Natural Sciences and Technology in Revolutionary Russia" (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1994).
120. See, for instance, Dan'il Danin, Neizbezhnost' strannogo mira (Moscow: Molodaia gvardiia, 1961);
121. Danin, Perekrestok (Moscow: Sovetskii pisatel', 1974);
122. Oleg Moroz, Svet ozarenii (1980),
123. Moroz, Zhazhda istiny (1984);
124. Moroz, Prekrasna li istitina? (Moscow: Znanie, 1989);
125. and Moroz, Ot imeni nauki (Moscow: Politizdat, 1989).
126. On scientific prose and the popularization of science, see Mark Kuchment "Bridging the Two Cultures: The Emergence of Scientific Prose," in Graham, ed., Science and the Soviet Social Order, 325-40;
127. and Sergei Kapitza, "Issues in the Popularization of Science," Impact of Science on Society, 1988, no. 152: 317-26.
128. A KIAE, f. 2, op. 1., ed. khr. 72/22, ed. khr. 72/3, ed. khr. 70/23, and ed. khr. 70/22.
129. Sakharov, Memoirs, 139.
130. One exception is E. I. Vorob'ev and U. Ia. Margulis, Atomnaia energiia i protivoatomnaia zashchita (Moscow: Minzdrav, 1956), 36-59.
131. See, for instance, Il'ia Erenburg, "O lune, o zemle, o serdtse," Literaturnaia gazeta, 1 January 1960, 3.
132. On Baikal, water pollution, and water use policies, see Marshall Goldman, The Spoils of Progress: Environmental Pollution in the Soviet Union (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1972);
133. Thane Gustafson, Reform in Soviet Politics: Lessons of Recent Policies on Land and Water (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981);
134. and G. A. Suslova, ed., Slovo v zashchitu Baikala: Materialy diskussii (Irkutsk: Vostochno-sibirskoe knizhnoe izdatel'stvo, 1987).
135. On river diversion, see Robert Darst, Jr., "Environmentalism in the USSR: The Opposition to the River Diversion Projects," Soviet Economy 4, no. 3 (1988): 223-52.
136. Murray Feshhach and Alfred Friendly, Jr., Ecocide in the USSR: Health and Nature under Seige (New York: Basic Books, 1992).
137. Let us keep in mind the fact that in the United States physicists pursued similar programs, if with greater regard for human safety and the environment. See Stephen Hilgartner, Richard Bell, and Rory O'Connor, Nukespeak (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1982);
138. Daniel Ford, The Cult of the Atom (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982);
139. and Gerber, On the Homefront.
140. Alla Iaroshinskaia, Chernobyl': Sovershenno sekretno (Moscow: Drugie berega, 1992), 447, 457.