A report on the conference “Transnational Perspectives on Soviet Cutting-Edge Technology”, January 31–February 1, 2019, written by Felix Frey, has been published at the Hsozkult website. Read here.
Conference “Transnational Perspectives on Soviet Cutting-Edge Technology”, January 31–February 1, 2019
The second international conference of the NucTechPol project has taken place from January 31 – February 1, 2019, at the University of Berne, Switzerland.
For a printable version of the programme, see the conference poster (pdf).
Programme
Venue: Room 205, Hallerstrasse 6, 3012 Bern.
Thursday, January 31
09:45–10:15 Introduction | Julia Richers & Fabian Lüscher
Panel I: 10:15–12:00
Soviet Radiation Biology: Navigating Boundaries of Closed Worlds | Susanne Bauer, Oslo
“Atomic Reserve” in the Southern Urals | Laura Sembritzki, Heidelberg
Chair: Silvia Berger, Bern
Panel II: 13:30–15:15
Accelerated Relationships: The USSR and the Rise of Megascience in Cold War High-Energy Physics, 1956–1991 | Roman Khandozhko, Tübingen
Explosive Math: Soviet Mathematicians, the Bomb, and the International Community during the Cold War | Slava Gerovitch, Cambridge, MA
Chair: Carmen Scheide, Bern
Panel III:
15:45–17:30 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: Mutual Perceptions, Interdependencies, Cooperative Efforts, and Transfers between the Space Programs of the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the 1970s | Darina Volf, Munich
Soviet Science at the Edge of Nuclear Apocalypse Performing “Star Wars” on the International Stage | Asif Siddiqi, New York
Chair: Julia Richers, Bern
Friday, February 1
Panel IV: 09:45–12:15
To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt. Nuclear-Powered Water Desalination in East, West and South (1961 to Present) | Stefan Guth, Tübingen
Trust, Passion and Compromise: ITER and the History of Nuclear Fusion Diplomacy | Anna Åberg, Göteborg
Disillusion about Fusion. Failure as an Asset to Soviet Nuclear Internationalism, 1956–1968 | Fabian Lüscher, Bern
Chair: Tanja Penter, Heidelberg
Panel V: 13:30–16:00
Putting Scientific Diplomacy into Words: Translation, Mediation and Public Communication in Cold War Big Science | Ksenia Tatarchenko, Geneva
Brains, Bombs, and Other Smart Nuclear Reactors | Benjamin Peters, Tulsa
A Global Industry. Transnational Entanglements of Soviet Computer Manufacturing | Felix Herrmann, Bremen
Chair: Klaus Gestwa, Tübingen
16:30–17:00 Final Discussion
Chair: Julia Richers & Fabian Lüscher
Topical Journal Issue on Soviet Nuclear Technopolitics (JGO 66/1, 2018)
The first publication of the NucTechPol research group has just appeared in print:
Stefan Guth, Fabian Lüscher and Julia Richers (eds.), Nuclear Technopolitics in the Soviet Union and Beyond [=Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 66/1 (2018)]
This is a peer-reviewed, English-language topical issue of Jahrbücher für Osteuropäische Geschichte, one of the preeminent German scholarly journals for Eastern European history.
The complete issue is available online here (paywall).
Conference Report
A report on the recent conference “Nuclear Technopolitics in the Soviet Union and Beyond”, written by Tim Schönfelder, has been published at the Hsozkult website. Read here.
Conference “Nuclear Technopolitics in the Soviet Union and Beyond”, Tübingen, March 22-23, 2018
The participants of the NucTechPol Tübingen Conference, March 2018
The first conference of the NucTechPol project took place in Tübingen from March 22–23, 2018. Bringing together historians of the Soviet Union, international relations and science and technology, it aimed to review Soviet nuclear technopolitics in a long-term perspective and to place them in an international context.
Archivrecherchen in Moskau, Dubna, Obninsk und Kaluga
Kürzlich deklassifiziertes Protokoll einer Sitzung des Parteikomitees Dubna aus dem Jahr 1957. (Foto: Roman Khandozhko)
Vom 8. Oktober – 10. Dezember 2017 recherchierte Roman Khandozhko zwei Monaten lang in Moskau, Dubna, Obninsk und Kaluga. Im zentralen Staatsarchivs der Oblast‘ Moskau hatte auf seinen Antrag hin im Oktober 2018 eine Deklassifizierungs-Kommission getagt und etwa 50 Akten des städtischen Parteikomitees der Forschungsstadt Dubna zugänglich gemacht, unter anderem Protokolle der Parteikonferenzen, Plenen und Bürositzungen von 1956 bis 1967.
Archivrecherchen in Čeljabinsk und Sverdlovsk
Freigegebene Akte im Oblast’-Archiv Čeljabinsk. Foto: Laura Sembritzki
In den Monaten September und Oktober 2017 recherchierte Laura Sembritzki fünf Wochen lang in Čeliabinsk und Jekaterinburg. Neben dem Partei- und dem Staatsarchiv besuchte sie in Čeliabinsk auch die Universitätsbibliothek.
Konferenz “Nuclear Legacies” in Stockholm
Die Konferenzteilnehmer im AKW Ågesta in Farsta
Roman Khandozhko im Kontrollraum von Ågesta
Auf der Konferenz “Nuclear Legacies: Community, Memory, Waste & Nature” an der Södertörn-Universität (Stockholm, Schweden) referierte Roman Khandozhko am 15.09.2017 zum Thema:
„Soviet time on the atomic clock? Sacralization of the communist past in the case of the nuclear museums in Obninsk and Dubna“.
Einen Konferenzbericht finden Sie auf dem Nuclear-Legacies-Blog.
“Nuclear Weapons Testing, Nuclear Waste Disposal, and the Politics of Risk.” Cynthia Werner am 28.09.2017 in Tübingen
Wohnsiedlung in Kurčatov, der Erschließungsstadt des Atomwaffen-Testgeländes von Semipalatinsk (heute Semei). Bildrechte: RIA Novosti, CC über Wikimedia Commons
Am 28. September 2017 spricht Prof. Dr. Cynthia Werner (Texas A&M University) in Tübingen zum Thema:
Nuclear Weapons Testing, Nuclear Waste Disposal, and the Politics of Risk
Der Vortrag findet um 14:15 an der Keplerstraße 2, Raum Nr. 1.81 statt.
Er wird von Dr. Jeanne Féaux de la Croix im Rahmen des SFB 923 “Bedrohte Ordnungen” organisiert.
Archivrecherchen in Moskau
Das „Goldene Gehirn“ – Hauptsitz der Russischen Akademie der Wissenschaften – beherbergt auch das Sekretariat des Russischen Pugwash Komitees. Foto: Fabian Lüscher
Im Sommer 2017 recherchierte Fabian Lüscher während eines Monats in den Moskauer Archiven. Continue reading
