Аннотация: Andrei Kostikov, Sergei Korolev and Russial encyclopedists. Secrets of the scientific business in the USSR. A culturological and biographical sketch.
Andrei Kostikov, Sergei Korolev and Russial encyclopedists. Secrets of the scientific business in the USSR. A culturological and biographical sketch.
The life path, activities of Sergei Korolev can induce individual readers to speculate on philosophical topics.
For example, one can speculate on the relationship between naive belief in high words and the effect of a real threat, a threat that generates fear.
Sergei Korolev was confident in the usefulness of the creation of the Research Institute for Jet Propulsion (or Reaction-Engine Scientific Research Institute - RNII). Korolev believed that the unification of scientific forces, good funding and supplies, a powerful production base - all this would speed up space development.
However, the reality turned out to be completely different. Korolev was removed from his leadership position after the establishment of the Institute.
Andrei Kostikov gradually came up to position of the head of Research Institute for Jet Propulsion.
Some citizens familiar with the realities of the early 21st century may use the phrase 'raider seizure of the scientific business'.
If the biography of Sergei Korolev tells in detail about Andrei Kostikov, then the reader sees an ominous figure, a kind of bandido; this figure, resorting to vile methods, moves towards power and material wealth.
There is a strong detail in Natalia Koroleva's book: after Korolev's arrest, Kostikov came to Sergei Korolev's wife and offered her to give him (Kostikov) the Korolev's apartment [the Korolev's flat]. This apartment [flat] interested Kostikov, as it was isolated housing.
Kostikov can be classified as one of the outstanding representatives of Evil.
But apart from the villain Kostikov, there was a scientific, social environment.
With, under this view, Kostikov looks like a brave puppet, which is performing the most unsightly and dangerous actions in a more or less illuminated part of the stage.
The managers-puppeteers are hidden in the darkness behind the stage.
One of the curious plots is the publication in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, in the second edition, at the end of October 1953, in volume 23, of the material about Andrei Kostikov:
'KOSTIKOV, Andrei Grigorievich (1899-1950) - Soviet scientist-designer, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since 1943), major general of the aviation engineering service. Hero of Socialist Labor (1941), laureate of the Stalin Prize (1942). Member of the CPSU (b) since 1922. In 1934 he graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. Kostikov was participating in creating a new type of weaponry. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, three other orders, and medals. " [unofficial translation]
What's interesting about this material?
Kostikov is no longer live in this world, but he is needed; Kostikov is a necessary element of the picture of the world, of the picture stored in a kind of collective memory.
What kind of the collective is this, - with such a good memory?
Probably, this is not the Soviet scientific environment, not the Soviet scientific world? No, no, the the leaders of the Soviet scientific world are Korolev, Kurchatov! ...
There is an interesting episode in the book by Yaroslav Golovanov 'Korolev: Facts and Myths': 'Once he went to some governmental department; he was free at about six o'clock [p.m.] and found himself in an unusual state of being an idle citizen of the capital. He thought about cinema, about the theater, but he didn't choose these variants. He climbed up to a restaurant at the fifteenth floor of the Moscow hotel. An elderly couple was sitting at a table with him. Film director Ivanov-Barkov with his wife. For many years of work in cinema, Ivanov-Barkov experienced his first great success: his film "The Distant Bride", which was awarded the Stalin Prize, was recently released. They talked about the film, not about missiles ... Korolev remembered this, in principle, an insignificant episode of his life, because within a very short time he came into contact with people from another world, completely unknown to him, with their passions, their works, their intrigues ... They were like extraterrestrials to him, because rockets left no room for anything else on his small planet. " [unofficial translation]
If you follow the logic of Yaroslav Golovanov presented in this phrases, then Sergei Korolev is not at all a representative or leader of the Soviet scientific world. He lives in his own world, on his small planet. He is busy with cosmic explorations and with a technique design. All other people for him are aliens, extraterrestrials.
Let's take a closer look at the output data of volume 23 (with the material on Kostikov) of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (2nd edition).
This volume was signed for publication on October 23, 1953. Changes are taking place in internal politics. Beria was coming away, was leaving stage (arrested on June 26, 1953, shot on December 23, 1953), Khrushchev's power was strengthening.
In the main editorial board of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia was G.V. Keldysh. Volume 20 contains material: "KELDYSH, Yuri (Georgy) Vsevolodovich (b. 1907)"
Logically reasoning, we can conclude that one of the older brothers of Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh is in the main editorial board of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Mstislav Vsevolodovich has been a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1946.
On October 23, 1953, on the same day when the 23rd volume of Great Soviet Encyclopedia was signed for publication, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was elected a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It is quite possible that Sergei Pavlovich Korolev got acquainted with Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh during this day.
Since 1953 Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh is a member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
'It was a great time, because we were young and even space did not frighten us ...' [The words of Mstislav Keldysh - the book by Vladimir Gubarev. Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh]. [unofficial translation] I can assume that Sergei Korolev was never afraid of space.
In 1955, a meeting was held on the issues of space exploration - with the participation of Mstislav Keldysh and other leaders of the USSR Academy of Sciences. After the meeting, a personal meeting between Keldysh and Korolev took place.
'In January 1956, a special commission for Object 'D' appeared. This commission was headed by M. V. Keldysh, Sergei Korolev and M. K. Tikhonravov were appointed as deputies, and G. A. Skuridin was appointed scientific secretary.
Object "D" - it's the first artificial satellite of the Earth.
As it should be, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Sergei Korolev annually submitted to the Presidium of the Academy a report on the work done during the year." (Vladimir Gubarev. Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh).
Perhaps at this time, a kind of system of checks and balances began to be created for Sergei Korolev.
On January 15, 1957, Korolev and Glushko sent a letter to Great Soviet Encyclopedia about Kostikov. '(...) In 1937-1938, when our Motherland was going through difficult days of mass arrests of Soviet personnel, Kostikov, who worked at the institute as an ordinary engineer, made great efforts to achieve the arrest and conviction as "enemies of the people" of the main leading figures of this institute, including the main author of a new type of weapons, a talented designer scientist, deputy director for scientific affairs Georgy Langemak. Thus, Kostikov turned out to be the head of the institute and the "author" of this new type of weapon, for which he was immediately generously awarded at the beginning of the war.
Having received an assignment for another development, Kostikov was unable to complete it, and therefore, during the war, he was fired from his job and fired from the institute.
The previously repressed workers of the institute have now been rehabilitated, some of them, including Georgy Langemak, posthumously. (...)" [unofficial translation] (Natalia Koroleva. Sergei Korolev. Father. Book 2).
The missiles are needed. Korolev and Glushko are needed. Kostikov moves into an invisible part of the collective memory.
The memory itself may not have disappeared anywhere:
'On December 19, 1963, at the age of 82, Sergei Pavlovich's stepfather, Grigory Mikhailovich Balanin, died, who was replacing for Sergei Korolev the father from the age of nine. My father [Sergei Korolev] deeply respected and loved his stepfather, considered himself indebted to him ...
At the funeral of Grandpa Gri, as I called him, there were my mother [Xenia Vincentini] and I. We came to the crematorium directly from the hospital, where my mother still operated a lot. And here, for the fourth time, my mother saw the man who had talked to her in 1939 at the Timiryazev Museum and whom she unexpectedly met in 1946 in Germany [during visiting of Germany by soviet scientific specialists with their famikies, including Sergei Korolev with his wife and his daughter] and in 1955 at the Armenian cemetery [where the funeral of Natalia Koroleva's grandmother took place]. In the crematorium, he stood behind his father and, leaving the building, greeted her [Xenia Vincentini]. They never met again. " [unofficial translation] (Natalia Koroleva. Sergei Korolev. Father. Book 3).
So, a certain story began in ...1939... and continued at least until 1963.
What happened in 1939?
'At the beginning of 1939, after returning home from work, my mother [Xenia Vincentini] found a summons to the militia department at home. She had to urgently come there with a passport ... The militia employees told her to go "not very far from here" and was given to accompany the militia service man. He walked beside her, and not behind her, as happens during arrest, and this somewhat reassured her, although she did not understand where and why they were delivering and escorting her. They came to the building of the present The State Biology Museum named after K.A. Timiryazev on Malaya Gruzinskaya Ulitsa. They went down to the basement, where there were several rooms. Mom was invited to one of these rooms. A man sitting there with a gracious smile offered her tea, and then, in a rather delicate manner, began to persuade her to agree to provide assistance for the NKVD. He said that she, beautiful, interesting, would be able to gain confidence [trust] of any person, that she and her daughter would not need anything, that she would be "dressed", provided with tickets to any theaters, concerts, cinema. But she would have to to go there with any person, which would be appointed for her ... To this my mother replied: 'Not. I cannot and will not carry out such orders, I am not capable of that.' During the night, the NKVD officer sometimes left her alone, then again persuaded her. But my mother was adamant. At about five o'clock in the morning she was released, forcing her to put a signature on a special document, that she would never tell anyone about this conversation ... ... the meeting with an unnamed NKVD officer was not the only one such event (I will tell you about three other meetings of my mother with him). (...)
Another similar episode occurred at the end of 1939, when my father was already in Kolyma. An NKVD officer came to Konyushkovskaya Street [there was the room of Korolev family] and asked to be given the opportunity to periodically observe someone from the window of our room, that is, to set up an observation post in it. Mom categorically refused, referring to the fact that she had only one room and a little daughter. " [unofficial translation] (Natalia Koroleva. Sergei Korolev. Father. Book 3).
As you can see, the departure of Kostikov from the visible part of the scene, out of the invisible part of a certain collective memory after the letter from Korolev and Glushko dated January 15, 1957, did not at all mean the end of the action. The action lasted at least (from ... 1939 ...) until 1963.
Of course, Kostikov is significantly different, for example, from Bolkhovitinov.
Both of them were unproductive, to a certain extent mediocre, incompetent persons, and, in general, useless figures.
Bolkhovitinov built a scientific business practically from scratch, he did not write statements to anyone (there is no information about this), he patronized for talents. But Bolkhovitinov himself was a clever person. In addition, he had an intelligent and influential relative, Pyshnov. (Was the desire to patronize talents on the part of Bolkhovitinov, among other things, an attempt to achieve success, to arrange his affairs in the field of technique design?). Having received huge amounts of state money as well as other benefits, without committing any obvious, fixed, immoral actions, Bolkhovitinov moved from the sphere of technique design to the sphere of higher education.
Andrei Grigorievich Kostikov does not demonstrate much intelligence, he, probably, did not have smart and influential relatives. He had to act according to the Raskolnikov method [Raskolnikov - the character of the Dostoevsky novel "Crime and Punishment"], adjusted for the new conditions.
When a real threat appears, a threat that engenders fear (striking a strike with missile weapons anywhere in the world), Andrei Kostikov leaves the stage.
But the other characters start to performing on the stage - at least until 1963 ...
September 12, 2021 00:01
Translation from Russian into English: September 12, 2021 08:33.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Андрей Костиков, Сергей Королев и российские энциклопедисты. Тайны научного бизнеса в СССР. Культурологический и биографический очерк'.