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Video: Pulkovo affair: Why the best Soviet astronomers were repressed in 1937
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In 1936-1937, the skating rink of Stalin's repressions mercilessly destroyed the best representatives of Soviet astronomy. It is hard to imagine that observing the heavenly bodies could somehow influence the state structure or ideology of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, in the case, which received the unofficial name "Pulkovskoe", scientists were shot, exiled to camps, deprived of property and rights. How did science hinder the leadership of the young Soviet state?
Solar eclipse
The formal reason for the arrests was a large-scale solar eclipse, which was to take place on June 19, 1936. Astronomers from different countries were preparing to observe the eclipse, which was supposed to occur mainly on the territory of the Soviet Union. Moreover, preparation for the observations began long before the event itself. Scientists actively communicated with each other during scientific symposia and conferences, as well as in personal correspondence.
The first arrests began immediately after Kirov's murder on December 1, 1934. Members of a certain Trotskyite-Zinoviev fascist gang were quickly appointed guilty. But then Soviet scientists could not imagine that virtually every third astronomer, and with them geologists, geophysicists and mathematicians, could be (and will turn out to be) members of this gang.
The Pulkovo laboratory was considered the main one in the country. Naturally, during the period of preparation for observing a solar eclipse, director Boris Gerasimovich actively contacted his foreign colleagues and simply could not help attracting the attention of the NKVD with his contacts.
For high-quality tracking of the event on June 19, 1936, 34 scientific expeditions were created, which included more than 300 scientists, of which about 70 people were citizens of foreign states. The coordination and control over the work of the expeditions was carried out by the Pulkovo Observatory.
Great Soviet Eclipse
Back in July, after Boris Gerasimovich's report at the USSR Academy of Sciences, the director of the Pulkovo Observatory was grateful and given recommendations on strengthening ties with foreign colleagues.
And soon articles began to appear in influential Leningrad publications in which the atmosphere prevailing in the Pulkovo Observatory was thoroughly and ruthlessly condemned. Scientists headed by the director were initially accused of admiration for foreigners, of unwillingness to objectively consider criticism and publication of scientific works in foreign specialized journals. At the same time, the NKVD was already conducting a case of sabotage and espionage.
Then the mass arrests of scientists began. One of the first victims was the deputy director of the observatory for household goods Boris Shigin, in October 1936 the director of the Astronomical Institute, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Boris Numerov was arrested. Boris Vasilyevich Numerov, after prolonged beatings and torture, confessed that he was recruited by foreign intelligence and involved his colleagues in an anti-Soviet organization.
All those arrested in this case were accused of espionage, conspiracy against the Soviet regime, participation in the preparation of attempts on the life of state leaders. The majority of those arrested were sentenced between May 20 and 26, 1937, but the arrests did not stop even after it.
Boris Gerasimovich wrote letters to the last in defense of his colleagues, trying to restore justice. He was arrested on June 27, 1937. Together with the scientists, their wives were also arrested, and ruthless sentences were passed on them. The fall of 1937 was marked by the arrests of the wives and relatives of previously convicted scientists. Gerasimovich himself was shot in November, his wife Olga Mikhailovna was sentenced to 8 years in the camps.
The fate of the repressed scientists
The Pulkovo case involved not only observatory employees or astronomers. Geologists and geophysicists, geodesists and mathematicians were arrested on it in different parts of the Land of the Soviets. Even after many years, it is impossible to calculate the exact number of victims. It is known that more than 100 employees of scientific organizations and educational institutions were arrested in Leningrad alone. But the repressions affected the scientists of Moscow, Kiev, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Tashkent and other cities.
As a result, 14 people were sentenced to death. The fate of many of those sentenced to long sentences in forced labor camps remains unknown. Even in the certificate of the KGB of the USSR dated March 17, 1989 about the fate of the Pulkovo astronomers opposite the names of Dneprovsky, Balanovsky, Komendantov it appears: "The place of serving the sentence and the further fate have not been established."
Several astronomers sentenced to 10 or more years in the camps ended up being shot, allegedly for Trotskyist agitation in prison.
After Stalin's death, many scientists were rehabilitated, including those who were shot or died in prison.
The "Great Terror" is the name given to the period of the most massive Stalinist repressions and political persecution in 1937-1938. Then many prominent figures of science, culture and art were arrested, and only a few managed to survive and withstand these terrible times. The number of victims of the Great Terror was about 1 million. Among the repressed were famous Russian artists.
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