The newspaper "Soviet Physicist" as a source on the History of the I. V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy

Beklyamisheva Alisa Andreevna Leading specialist, National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute" 123182, Russia, Moscow, Academician Kurchatov Square, 1 alisa0296@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

The history of the I.V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy (now the Kurchatov Institute) dates back to 1943, when secret Laboratory No. 2 was created for the implementation of the Soviet atomic project. From the first years of its existence and throughout the following decades, the Institute has been a recognized leader in the field of nuclear physics. Located on a vast territory in the north-west of Moscow, the I. V. Kurchatov IAE was a "city within a city", and its collective was a community of "Kurchatov people" (in relation to themselves and colleagues, this term is repeatedly used in the memoirs and publications of employees of the I. V. Kurchatov IAE). The territory had its own health center ^[1], a library, a dining room, houses for employees and their families were built nearby, a sports club "Malachite", leisure was organized in the House of Culture, where famous poets, writers and artists were invited. In 1967, when the first issue of the Institute's large-circulation newspaper was published, the number of employees of the I. V. Kurchatov Institute exceeded 7 thousand people ^{[2, L. 8]}.

The period of the 1970s-80s, which accounts for the emergence and active publication of the institute newspaper "Soviet Physicist", researchers call the time of the highest heyday of large-circulation newspapers: covering a significant part of labor collectives, they developed traditions and accumulated diverse experience ^{[3, p. 6]}. Own newspapers were produced at almost every major enterprise of the USSR. "Multi-tiers" became part of the corporate culture, which was created under the influence of formal and informal rules, norms of communication, established and well-established traditions, corporate views and values ^{[4, p. 81]}.

The life of the I. V. Kurchatov Institute, saturated with scientific, cultural and social events, was reflected in the pages of the newspaper of the institute "Soviet Physicist" (this newspaper should not be confused with the publication of the Physics Faculty of Moscow State University, which bore the same name). The initiative to create it came from the staff, and was supported by the Director of the IAE, Academician A. P. Alexandrov. The staff of the Institute has become quite large, so the newspaper was designed to help employees exchange opinions and keep abreast of events taking place in the IAE. One of the ideological inspirers of the appearance of his own multi—edition was the secretary of the party committee N. A. Chernoplekov, head of the department (later director of the Institute) of solid state physics. He recalled: "For a closed institution in the capital city, this is an unprecedented thing. But thanks to the persistent work with the relevant departments of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Departments of the Ministry of Trade, the great help of the deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute, S. A. Trofimov, and our perseverance in a conversation with E. P. Slavsky (Minister of Medium Mechanical Engineering of the USSR – A.B.) and the head of the corresponding regime Department, the Kurchatov Institute received the right to publish a newspaper. We were not allowed to call it "Kurchatov", as we asked, because it turned out to be a newspaper with the pretentious name "Soviet Physicist", but "without the right to take it out of the territory" ^{[5, p. 258]}.

The source base used to write the article can be divided into two parts. The first one has been preserved in the Department of Scientific and Technical Documentation of the Kurchatov Institute Research Center and includes a collection of all issues of the newspaper "Soviet Physicist", documents on the establishment and position of the editorial office in the structure of the Institute. Since the order of publication of the newspaper, circulation, the content of editorials and various editorial issues were discussed at the meetings of the party committee of the institute, the second part consists of minutes and other materials of these meetings. They were deposited in the Central State Administration of Moscow in the P-1313 fund.

The large—circulation newspaper "Soviet Physicist" is a valuable source reflecting the inner life of the institute's staff. The editorial of the first issue of the "Soviet Physicist" says: "The newspaper is not only a platform for discussing scientific and industrial issues, but also a direct participant in party life, the organizer of our recreation. Along with this, the editorial board of the "Soviet Physicist" expects to print materials on issues of culture, literature and art, sports and everyday life. In a word, the newspaper should strive to cover all the diversity of the Institute's life" ^{[6, p. 1]}. The importance of the Institute newspaper for future generations of Kurchatov residents was emphasized by its editor-in-chief G. G. Malkin in 1972, speaking at a meeting of the party committee: "Probably, few of you, even the old-timers of the Institute, can remember and tell the day after day after day, month after month, year after year, the history of the first years of our institute. But the history of recent years exists on the pages of the newspaper "Soviet Physicist". Today you have already received the 194th issue of our newspaper" ^{[7, l. 45]}. Previously, detailed information about this newspaper was not published, although some memoirs published in it were included in the collection "History of the Atomic Project" ^[8] with a brief reference to the source. The newspaper was distributed only among the staff of the Institute.

The purpose of this article is to introduce a new historical source into scientific circulation. To do this, it is supposed to study the history of the newspaper's publication, to consider the formation of its editorial policy. Studying the materials of this newspaper as a historical source will make it possible to understand the topics of scientific discussions and the nature of the discussion of the socio-political agenda, the composition of the correspondent corps, as well as public sentiments, cultural preferences, and identify social preferences for the Institute's staff.

Research methodsThe value of the periodical press as a source for studying various aspects of history has been repeatedly noted by the authors of the research.

It was defined as a "diary of the epoch" ^{[9, p. 3]}, regularly recording the facts of everyday life, reflecting phenomena related to important processes taking place in society. Newspapers, as permanent channels for transmitting messages about socially significant phenomena and processes of reality, can be used as a source for reconstructing fragments of the past ^{[10, p. 14]}.

The characteristic features of the press included a large information potential, the diversity of materials and a significant role in the socio-political and spiritual life of society ^{[11, p. 5]}, prompt response to events and the political context. Large—circulation newspapers are a special type of periodicals that systematically cover the events of Soviet history and fit the events of the life of the enterprise into the context of state policy ^{[12, p. 102]}. A number of scientific papers and textbooks are devoted to the methodology of studying the press.  Researchers offer different approaches to the study of periodicals, in particular to its interpretation as a source. For example, contrary to the established tradition in Soviet historiography, V. M. Markets suggests defining the periodical press not as a single source, but as a complex ^[13].

Both descriptive and statistical methods are applicable to the study of periodicals as a source, due to the combination of typical and individual in it ^[14]. One of them is content analysis. Initially perceived by sociologists, this method gradually gained recognition among Russian historians ^{[15, p. 15] [16] [17]} and became widely used in works related to the study of periodicals. The content analysis method is used, among other things, to study the materials of large-circulation, industry and regional newspapers. N. V. Soloshchenko ^[18] considered separately the issues of the methodology of studying factory and industry multi-runs. The authors of historical studies based on the material of the periodical press, the formation of the image of the "new worker" of the food industry and the correlation of ideological, social issues ^[19], the dynamics of changes in the issues of editorial articles and industrial policy ^[20], the structure and dynamics of gender issues on the pages of newspapers ^[21] and other issues, which reflects the breadth of research problems that allows you to solve content analysis.

In a comprehensive study of the periodical press, it is necessary to consider the context of the appearance of information messages on its pages and the sources on which these messages are based. For a better understanding of the editorial policy and a deeper analysis of the newspaper's materials, at the first stage of the study it is necessary to study the history of its existence.

The history of the creation of the newspaper "Soviet Physicist"The appearance of its own multi-page at the Institute was preceded by wall newspapers, which existed since 1944.

The Institute published the wall newspaper "Forward" until 1952 ^{[22, L. 27]}, the editor-in-chief of which was S. A. Baranov, a researcher at the Institute and a Scientific secretary. In 1953, due to strict secrecy, it was decided to divide the wall newspaper into two: "For advanced science" for scientific departments and "To help science" for economic and administrative ^[23]. At the trade union conferences of the local committee and the reporting and selective trade union conferences of the I.V.Kurchatov IAE, the thesis was voiced about the need to create a general institute newspaper.

In February 1967, at the XI reporting party conference of the Institute, N. A. Chernoplekov reported: "The Press Council directed its new energy to the organization of a large-circulation newspaper at the Institute. We overestimated our strength, hoping to quickly organize the release of a multi-issue, and we missed the wall institute newspaper. As a result, in the reporting year we had neither a wall nor a large-circulation newspaper. Currently, all permits have been obtained for the publication of a large-circulation newspaper and there is hope that in the near future the Institute's staff will read their large-circulation newspaper "Soviet Physicist"" ^{[2, l. 31]}.

The first issue of the "Soviet Physicist" was published in August 1967. It was prepared by an initiative group that collected a selection of employees' opinions on the future topic of publications and their design. The staff members included in the main editorial staff worked "in almost all departments of the Institute" ^{[6, p. 8]}. Editor—in-chief B. N. Kolbasov is a researcher at the Optical Devices Department. G. A. Nefedov, who was an employee of the local party organization committee, was enlisted as his assistant. Prior to that, he was engaged in administrative and economic activities in Laboratory No. 2. The Department of Science in the editorial office was headed by Ph.D. M. I. Pevsner. In Laboratory No. 2, he was engaged in calculations and experiments on the physics of the first industrial reactor A, as well as neutron spectroscopy and the development of research methods on neutron mechanical selectors. A. G. Zimelev, Ph.D., a researcher at the Department of Electrical Equipment, who was engaged in plasma physics, was in charge of party work in the multi-edition. The Department of Culture was assigned to I. F. Isaev – senior laboratory assistant of the department of thermal control devices (later – senior researcher and laureate of the State Prize). Senior Engineer V. Yu. Klimenko was responsible for the literature department. In addition to working on the "Soviet Physicist" and the literary supplement to it, he was the editor of the wall newspaper "Culture", took an active part in the work of the DC Institute. The sports news section was responsible for the senior laboratory assistant of the Department of General and Nuclear Physics, later – senior researcher, Ph.D. V. G. Antonenko, who dealt with nuclear physics.  His public activities also concerned the Malachite Sports club. The Department of Youth Life was headed by E. V. Degtyarev, a junior researcher at the Radiobiological Department. The production department was supervised by design engineer V. I. Rodin. In the party committee of the IAE, he was the chairman of the commission on visual agitation.

The newspaper was created by initiative employees of the Institute, scientists and engineers, for colleagues, which affected the quality of the published material and the range of topics covered.

Undoubtedly, the Institute's multi-edition was designed to rally the team, identify current problems in the development of the Institute, inform employees about innovations and planned events. The editorial appeal of the first issue of 1967 urged readers to actively participate in the creative process of its creation: "For the first time, the staff of the Institute gets the opportunity to widely discuss in print the main issues of scientific and industrial activities, the work of party and other public organizations… At the Institute there can be no division into people writing to the newspaper and reading the newspaper. The newspaper does not and cannot have another team of authors, except for the entire staff of the Institute. We are its correspondents, its editors, its readers. We also have to translate into reality the proposals formulated on the pages of the newspaper"; "We will be very grateful to you if you tell us your impressions, and even better suggestions for improving the newspaper personally or send us by ring mail." ^{[6, p. 8]}

Already in 1969, it was planned to increase the circulation of the newspaper to 1,500 copies, as well as significantly facilitate the distribution procedure ^{[24, l. 16]}. Nevertheless, in 1972 the circulation was only 860 copies, including those placed on 32 stands in the departments of the Institute ^{[7, L. 45]}. For the first five years, the conditions for the spread of the "Soviet Physicist" were quite strict. This issue was raised at the XV reporting Party conference of the IAE in 1971: "The newspaper is distributed on the rights of more than a closed document, its regulations are more stringent than the regulations of official documents. We need to use the newspaper as a lever in scientific, industrial and social activities." ^{[25, l. 106]} It was decided to apply to the Ministry of Medium Mechanical Engineering of the USSR with a request to change the rules of distribution of the "Soviet Physicist" to make it accessible to every employee of the Institute.

At the XV Reporting Party Conference of the IAE on December 18 , 1971 , Party Secretary V. M. Balebanov noted: "The content of the newspaper is more informational in nature; the issues of the scientific life of the Institute, the use of production reserves, ideological work are poorly covered, and the effectiveness of critical speeches is insufficient. It is necessary that public organizations and the directorate of the Institute use the newspaper more fully to discuss major issues of a general institute nature." ^{[25, L. 34-35]}. At the same conference, delegates urged not to be afraid to publish materials about negative phenomena, as such publications will have a useful educational influence ^{[25, L. 77]}. In 1972, the editor—in-chief G. G. Malkin called the main task of the newspaper - to help the administration, the party committee, the local committee, the Komsomol committee in mobilizing the institute's staff in the implementation of scientific and production plans and conducting political, educational and mass agitation work in the institute's staff ^{[7, L.45]}.

The publication of the newspaper "Soviet Physicist" continued until 1991. In 1992, the Scientific Council of the Institute decided to publish a newspaper called "Kurchatov" ^{[26, l. 21]}. This name corresponds to the initial idea of the initiative group, expressed in the 1960s. In 1992, in an interview with the newspaper editor N. A. Chernoplekov explained why the name "Kurchatov" was originally proposed: "... for people who knew Igor Vasilyevich, his principles, views on the development of science, which later combined, are very dear they received an apt definition of “Kurchatov style". The “Kurchatov style" is an understanding that scientific research is always connected with a practical result. This is a respectful attitude to talent in science. This is the ability to accept different points of view and evaluate them. This is a great responsibility to the people for what you do. No matter how huge the volume of scientific, organizational and administrative activities of Igor Vasilyevich was, he always remained a scientist and did this work as a scientist. We have few heads of large institutions who adhere to such purely scientific approaches to the organization of work… That's why I wanted to call the newspaper "Kurchatov", meaning that it will continue these traditions." ^{[27, p. 2]}.

The publication of the newspaper is part of the traditions of the institute, which testifies to the continuity of generations of "Kurchatov", emphasizes the special status of the community of employees. The numbering of the Kurchatov issues continues the sequence of the Soviet Physicist.

During the period of existence under the name "Soviet Physicist", the newspaper published 984 issues. The data for the entire period of publication of the newspaper are given in the table.

Table 1

Initially, the newspaper was planned to be published twice a month (on the 5th and 20th), which implies 24 issues per year. The table clearly illustrates that in practice this was rarely observed.

In 1967, only four issues were published in five months (August, September, October-November and December), 25 issues were released in 1968, and 38 in 1969. In No. 10 for 1969, a literary appendix was given, where the travel notes of N. Bondarev, the head of the propaganda and tourist expedition to Ussuri, organized by the Komsomol Central Committee, were published. This year's New Year's issue also contained an "aperiodic appendix"Non-Euclidean"". In 1970, 39 issues were published, and in 1971 — 41. At the same time, No. 39 (106) for 1970 was issued on January 4, 1971. No. 42 (148) for 1971 was issued on January 12, 1972. The first issue of 1972, No. 1 (148), is identical in design and content and is marked with the same date. In order to avoid confusion in the table for 1971, the number of issues is indicated as 41. In 1991, the number of issues was only 13, which, of course, is due to the changes taking place at that time in the country. The planned number of 24 issues per year has never been met.

The topics of the newspaper's articles were diverse. The pages of the "Soviet Physicist" published reports from exhibitions and cultural events, stories about the travels and expeditions of employees, a selection of world science news (heading "In the Laboratories of the world") and the Institute (heading "News of the IAE"), party and trade union conferences were covered (heading "Decisions of the Congress — into life").  Separately, it is worth mentioning materials on the history of the institute. Realizing their involvement in the scientific breakthrough – the acquisition of the status of a nuclear power by the USSR – the staff sought to record the history of Laboratory No. 2, especially the first years of its operation, on the pages of the newspaper. Almost every issue included memoirs of contemporaries about I. V. Kurchatov, interviews of participants in the construction of the first nuclear reactor F–1, the first industrial reactor "A" in the Urals and other historical materials were published for the anniversaries. The memories of employees who participated in the Great Patriotic War are of great value. I. F. Zhezherun recalled: "Most of the researchers are former front—line soldiers who have not even taken off their military uniforms yet. We longed for peaceful labor and eagerly set to work. First, the first F–1 nuclear reactor was built, and then industrial reactors were launched." ^{[28, p. 374]} Front-line memoirs were published by the appropriate dates.

The first five years of the newspaper's existence were a period of formation of its editorial policy, the search for forms of publication design and style of presentation of the material. The structure of each issue of the newspaper "Soviet Physicist" in the period 1967-1971 was approximately as follows. The number consisted of eight bands. The first one contained the sections "In the issue" (reflecting the content of the issue), "News of the IAE" (brief notes on the main events in the life of the institute) and an editorial (a more detailed main news or the beginning of a large thematic article that continued on the following pages). By the festive dates of January 12 (I.V.Kurchatov's birthday), February 23, March 8, April 12 (the date of creation of Laboratory No. 2), May 9, November 7 and the New Year, the front page was thematically designed. In No. 8, 1968, together with the section "News of the IAE", there is a section "Official Department", including the headings "In the Party Committee" and "In the Komsomol Committee". In the following issues, the headline "In the party Committee" remains on the front page.  From No. 11, the heading "Our international relations" is introduced (in No. 21 it is called "Our foreign relations", then the original version is returned).

The pages from the second to the fifth usually dealt with large articles devoted to the work of the institute, its scientific achievements, memoirs and historical notes. The progress of housing construction for the Institute's employees was regularly covered. New scientific books were announced under the heading "AI" (Atomizdat). Under the heading "What? Where? When?" announcements of cultural and leisure events were posted.

From the sixth page, materials were published about working with schoolchildren and youth, about tourist trips and expeditions, art, cultural events and the work of the House of Culture, humorous notes.

Changes in the names of headings and a return to their original versions, in the order and design of articles and sections, as well as in the design of headings and even the color of the print (completely black and white, using red or blue for the design of elements, printing the entire issue only in blue or only in green (issue for December 1968)), reflect a creative approach to the newspaper and indicate that the editorial board was looking for optimal parameters and structure of the publication.

Almost every page of the newspaper contained illustrations: photographs from official events, portraits of employees, photographs of scientific facilities, installations or photographs from a microscope, as well as cartoons, caricatures and drawings. Most often, the author of the photos was the senior technician of the Institute's darkroom A. Makmayevsky, and the drawings – K. Krishtop (first a laboratory assistant, later an engineer).

In addition to the main staff of the editorial board, the authors of the articles were other Kurchatov residents. In 1972, the editor—in-chief reported at a party conference that 184 authors had appeared on the pages of the newspaper in a year, and more than 600 employees of the institute had appeared in six years of its existence. Their notes, articles and appeals were published by researchers, party members, employees of administrative and economic departments.

Although the daily management of the newspaper was carried out by the party committee of the Institute, the different style of presentation in the articles, sometimes quite free, suggests non-interference of the editorial staff in the texts sent by the staff.

Today, archival issues of the newspaper "Soviet Physicist" are a valuable source on the history of the Soviet atomic project and institute, contain information about individual employees, and also allow you to analyze the mood, current topics and history of the Kurchatov community (for example, articles "Beard laughs" ("Beard" was called I.V.Kurchatov), "Pioneers of Atomic Energy", "Network for the Falcon" or an attempt to navigate in the jungle of planning", "OTYAR in the frontal section", "There is a pass of the IAE", etc.). The wide range of publications makes the materials of the "Soviet Physicist" a useful source both for research on the history of domestic science and technology, issues of the existence of scientific institutes and organizations of the USSR, and and the history of the country as a whole (for example, articles "Scientists are workers", "Youth is the golden fund of science", "Scientific article and information explosion", "The microscope will see the atom", "Exemplary means advanced", "Contrasts of Expo–67", etc.). Some publications contain valuable information about the performances of artists, poets, musicians and actors on the stage of the Kurchatov Recreation Center, as well as art exhibitions (for example, articles "Mikhail Kozakov is an actor and director", "Roland Bykov is our guest", "Business is time, easel is an hour", "To Ascend the stage (B. Akhmadulina)", "All life is in ballet", "Jazz yesterday and today", "Physicists + lyricists = mutual understanding", "Lyricists are guests of physicists", etc.) Given the special status of the institute, for many artists and culture, these events became an important stage of the creative path. This is often how the success story of an artist or an artistic direction began. Thus, the materials of the I. V. Kurchatov IAE newspaper are also interesting as a source on the history of Russian art and culture.

The next stage of the work is focused on computerized content analysis of newspaper materials using the MAXQDA program.

The author expresses gratitude to the staff of the SIC "Kurchatov Institute" and the Central State Administration of Moscow for consultations and access to archival materials.