V. T. Ter-Oganezov,Ideologist of Soviet Astronomy

Wiener Douglas R. , Modes of nature (Bloomington, 1988), 38, 56–57, 194, 225, and 231.

Implying ‘knowledge of the world’ or ‘the study of the ordering of the universe’, the Russian word mirovedenie has no equivalent in English. As used in Russian, it includes astronomy, geophysics, meteorology and several other natural sciences. For the remainder of this article, it will be rendered, untranslated, as mirovedenie..

For a complete discussion of Notorious Lysenko's T. D. role in Soviet biology, see Joravsky D. , The Lysenko affair (Cambridge, Mass., 1979). For a brief introduction, refer to Graham L. , Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: A short history (Cambridge, 1993), 121–34.

Bronshten V. A. has written an unpublished, book-length Russian language manuscript on Ter-Oganezov , Professor V. T. Ter-Oganezov i ego vliianie na razvitie sovetskoi astronomii (istoriko-publitsisticheskii ocherk), Ispravlennyi i dopolnennyi variant (Professor V. T. Ter-Oganezov and his influence on the development of Soviet astronomy: An historical-journalistic outline, corrected and expanded version), 1993. A copy of this manuscript is on deposit at the American Institute of Physics.

The 1910 ‘Sostav Russkogo Astronomicheskogo Obshchestva’ (‘Membership of the Russian Astronomical Society’) gives 24 April 1908 (old style) as the date of Ter-Oganezov's election.

Memorandum from Bronshten V. A. , 27 November 1987. Ter-Oganezov's astronomy publications were ‘Ob opredelenii koeffitsienta δ, vkhodiashchego v uravnenie vidimogo ellipsa dvoinoi zvezdy’ (‘On the determination of the coefficient δ in the equation of the apparent ellipse of a double star’), Izvestiia Russkogo Astronomicheskogo Obshchestva (News of the Russian Astronomical Society), 1913, no. 4, 123–6; and ‘Zametka ob opredelenii orbit dvoinykh zvezd’ (‘Note on the determination of double star orbits’), Izvestiia RAO , 1914, no. 2, 49–58.

Leningradskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv (Leningrad State Historical Archive), fond 14, opis' 3, delo 52535.

‘V. T. Ter-Oganezov’ (obituary), Razvedchik nedr (The mineral prospector: Newspaper of the Moscow Geological-Prospecting Institute), no. 15, 7 May 1962.

Fitzpatrick S. , The commissariat of enlightenment (Cambridge, 1970), 72; Romanovskii S. I. , Alexandr Petrovich Karpinskii (Leningrad, 1981), 359–62; and Ter-Oganezov V. T. , ‘Pamiati tovarishcha i uchitelia’ (‘Reminiscences of a comrade and teacher’), Mirovedenie , xxv, no. 5 (September-October 1936), 6. The astronomer Stratonov V. V. identifies Ter-Oganezov as a member of the Narkompros Science Sector Collegium in 1920–21. See Stratonov V. V. , ‘Glavnaia Rossiiskaia Astrofizicheskaia Observatoriia’ (‘Principal Russian Astrophysical Observatory’), Trudy Glavnoi Rossiskoi Astrofizicheskoi Observatorii (Transactions of the Principal Russian Astrophysical Observatory), i (1922), 1–25. Note that three astronomers ( Shternberg Ter-Oganezov Kazakov S. A. ) appear to have been working in the Narkompros Department of Higher Education at the same time. It would be of interest to compare this with the representation of academics from other fields.

‘V. T. Ter-Oganezov’ (ref. 8).

Korbut M. K. , Kazanskii gosudarstvennyi universitet imeni V. I. Ulianova-Lenina za 125 let, 1804/05-1929/30 (125 years of the Kazan V. I. Ulianov-Lenin State University, 1804/05-1929/30) (2 vols, Kazan, 1930), ii, 310.

Organizatsiia nauki v pervye gody Sovetskoi vlasti (1917–1925). Sb. dok. (The organization of science in the first years of Soviet power (1917–1925): Collected documents) (Leningrad, 1968), 263–72.

Ter-Oganezov V. T. , Avtobiografiia (Autobiography), in Personal Papers of Ter-Oganezov V. T. , Arkhiv Moskovskogo geologo-razvedochnogo instituta, Kafedra matematiki (Archive of the Moscow Geological-Prospecting Institute, Mathematics Faculty), 3–6. In 1918 all institutions of higher education had been declared open to anyone who wanted to attend. All entrance examinations had been dropped, and a deluge of unprepared students had descended on the universities. Worker faculties (rabfaks) were established to provide remedial training to these new students, who were then given preferential treatment. See Fitzpatrick , op. cit. (ref. 9), 77–79.

Organizatsiia (ref. 12), 263–72.

Ivanova L. V. , Formirovanie sovetskoi nauchnoi intelligentsii (Formation of the Soviet scientific intelligentsia) (Moscow, 1980), 334.

See, in particular, Wiener , op. cit. (ref. 1), 56–57.

At that time no Soviet observatory, not even the Central Astronomical Observatory at Pulkovo, could claim to be an astrophysical observatory. Due to poor funding and the extreme conditions of revolution and civil war, Soviet observatories were still equipped for and engaged primarily in positional astronomy and other observational fields that were characteristic of the preceding century.

Stratonov , op. cit. (ref. 9), 1–25. According to Stratonov (p. 15), Ter-Oganezov ‘was taken in the ruling circles of Narkompros as a specialist on astronomy, and from the very beginning he adopted a position strongly opposed to the proposal for construction of the Principal Astrophysical Observatory’. To give Ter-Oganezov his due, we must note that World War I, the revolutions of 1917, and the ensuing years of civil war had reduced the Soviet economy to such a state that this project to build a major new astrophysical observatory with world-class instrumentation was, for its time, unfeasible. Stratonov's observatory was not built, and by the early 1930s it had been transformed into the Shternberg State Astronomical Institute (GAISh) attached to Moscow State University (MGU). It was not until after World War II that the Soviet Union was truly able to undertake projects to establish new observatories equipped with modern instruments.

Stratonov V. V. , ‘Poteria Moskovskim Universitetom svobody’ (‘Moscow University's loss of freedom’), in Eliashevich V. B. Kizevetter A. A. Novikov M. M. (ed.), Moskovskii Universitet, 1755–1930: Iubileinyi sbomik (Moscow University, 1755–1930, a jubilee anthology) (Paris, 1930), 219–26. Stratonov's reminiscences are reprinted with commentary by Bronshten V. A. in Istoriko-astronomicheskie issledovaniia (Historical-astronomical research), xxiii (1992), 403–5.

Ibid. , 194, 239–41. For a more detailed discussion of the confrontation between Ter-Oganezov Stratonov , see Bronshten V. A. , ‘Izgnanie V. V. Stratonova’ (‘The expulsion of V. V. Stratonov’), Priroda , 1991, no. 1, 124–8.

Mirovedenie , xiii, no. 1 (July 1924), opposite page 132.

‘Otchet Astronomo-Geodezicheskogo Instituta pri I MGU (s 1/X 1927 g. po 1/X 1920 g.)’ (‘Report of the Astronomical-Geodesical Institute at 1 MGU (from 10/1/1927 to 10/1/1920)’), Astronomicheskii zhurnal , v (1928), 256–7; and ‘Astronomo-Geodezicheskii Institut pri I MGU (1928/29g.)’ (‘Astronomical-Geodesical Institute at 1 MGU (1928/29)’), Astronomicheskii zhurnal , vi (1929), 61.

This overview of dialectical materialism was prepared by R. A. McCutcheon based on Western sources: Haley J. E. , ‘The confrontation of dialectical materialism with modern cosmological theories in Soviet Russia’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, August 1980); Joravsky D. , Soviet Marxism and natural science, 1917–1932 (New York, 1961); and Graham L. R. , Science, philosophy, and human behavior in the Soviet Union (New York, 1987). For a Russian perspective — in particular as applied to astronomy — see Bronshten V. A. , Gipotozy o zvezdahk i vselennoi (Hypotheses concerning stars and the universe) (Moscow, 1974).

Haley , op. cit. (ref. 23), 4.

Joravsky , op. cit. (ref. 23), 9–10.

Ibid. 23.

Haley , op. cit. (ref. 23), 8–13.

Ibid. 21.

Ibid. , 21–24.

Ibid. , 28–30.

Ibid. , 35–36.

Joravsky , op. cit. (ref. 23), 25.

Haley , op. cit. (ref. 23), 37.

Joravsky , op. cit. (ref. 23), 97, 101, 132, 156.

Ibid. , 97–98, 101, 158, 162.

Ibid. 162, 170, 173, 176.

Ibid. 227, 253–55, 259–261.

Vucinich A. , Empire of knowledge, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1917–1970) (Berkeley, 1984), 152.

Joravsky , op. cit. (ref. 23), 24, 29, 257; and ibid. 153, 155, 159.

Ter-Oganezian V. , ‘Neskol'ko myslei o dialektike’ (‘Several thoughts on the dialectic’), Pod Znamenem Marksizma (Under the banner of Marxism, hereafter PZM), 1922, no. 9–10, 209–18. Note that at this time Ter-Oganezov was using the Armenian form of his name.

Other writings by Ter-Oganezov in Pod Znamenem Marksizma include ‘Nazad k Ptolemeiu’ (‘Back to Ptolemy’), PZM , 1922, no. 9–10, 229–30; ‘O nazrevshem voprose’ (‘Concerning a ripe question’), PZM , 1923, no. 1, 189–90; ‘G. Zinoviev's history of the Russian Communist Party’ (book review), PZM , 1924, no. 3, 272–8; and ‘Pamiati astronoma-bol'shevika’ (‘In memory of a Bolshevik astronomer’), PZM , 1935, no. 6, 135–8.

‘Vyvody po obsledovaniiu Moskovskogo obshchestva liubitelei astronomii’ (‘Conclusions from the investigation of the Moscow Amateur Astronomy Society’), Mirovedenie , xx, no. 1 (January-February 1931), 146–7; and ‘Otchet Moskovskogo obshchestva liubitelei astronomii v 1930 g’ (‘Report of the Moscow Amateur Astronomy Society for 1930’), Astronomicheskii zhurnal , xiii (1931), 182–4.

‘Vyvody po obsledovaniiu Moskovskogo obshchestva liubitelei astronomii’, op. cit. (ref. 42), 146–7.

‘Moskovskoe obshchestvo liubitelei astronomii’ (‘The Moscow Amateur Astronomy Society’), Mirovedenie , xx, no. 1 (January-February 1931), 146.

Bronshten V. A. , ‘Razgrom Russkogo Obshchestva Liubitelei Mirovedeniia’ (‘Destruction of the Russian Amateur Astronomy Society’), Priroda , 1990, no. 10, 123–4.

For a good discussion of the cultural revolution and its place in Soviet history, refer to the collected articles in Fitzpatrick S. (ed.), Cultural revolution in Russia: 1928–1931 (Bloomington, 1984).

Ter-Oganezov V. T. , ‘Na perelome’ (‘At the turning point’), Mirovedenie , xix, no. 3–4 (May-August 1930), 4.

Ibid. 18.

‘Ko vsem chitateliam nashego zhurnala, ko vsem mirovedam’ (‘To all readers of our journal, to all amateur astronomers’). Mirovedenie , xix, no. 3–4 (May-August 1930), 163.

Tseitlin's Z. A. articles include ‘Ioann Kepler (K trekhsotletiiu. so dnia smerti)’ (‘Johannes Kepler (on the third centennial of his death)’), Mirovedenie , xx, no. 1 (January-February 1931), 6–40; ‘Politicheskaia storona inkvizitsionnogo protsessa Galileia’ (‘The political side of the inquisition proceedings of Galileo’), Mirovedenie , xxiv, no. 1 (January-February 1935), 1–35; and ‘Noveishaia apologiia papizma’ (‘Papism's newest apologia’), Mirovedenie , xxiv, no. 2 (March-April 1935), 134–43.

‘Otkrytoe pis'mo sovetskikh astronomov Rimskomu Pape Piiu XI’ (‘Open letter from Soviet astronomers to Pope Pius XI’), Izvestiia 17 March 1930, 2. The letter was reprinted with additional signatures in Mirovedenie , xix, no. 3–4 (May-August 1930), 141–8.

Struve O. , ‘Freedom of thought in astronomy’, Scientific monthly , xl (1935), 250–6.

Ogorodnikov K. F. Subbotin M. F. , ‘O svobode mysli v astronomii’ (‘Freedom of thought in astronomy’), Mirovedenie , xxiv, no. 4 (July-August 1935), 221. Also refer to Ter-Oganezov's editorial comments in the same issue of Mirovedenie: ‘Ot redaktsii’ (‘From the editorial board’), 217–20.

Ter-Oganezian , ‘Nazad k Ptolemeiu’ (ref. 41), 229–30; and ‘O nazrevshem voprose’ (ref. 41), 189–90.

Ter-Oganezov V. T. , ‘O marksistsko-leninskom predstavlenii prostranstva i vremeni’ (‘On the Marxist-Leninist conception of space and time’), Mirovedenie , xxiii, no. 2 (March-April 1934), 97.

Ibid. , 99–105. Ter-Oganezov's approach to a dialectical materialist critique of Western cosmology went out of favour in the late 1950s and came to be referred to as ‘naïve traditional’. For a detailed modern criticism of Ter-Oganezov's views, see Bronshten , op. cit. (ref. 23), 280–8.

Ter-Oganezov , ‘O marksistsko-leninskom predstavlenii prostranstva i vremeni’ (ref. 55), 105–6; Smith R. W. , The expanding universe: Astronomy's ‘great debate’ (Cambridge, 1982), 192–3; and Zwicky F. , ‘O krasnom smeshchenii v ekstragalakticheskikh tumannostiakh’ (‘On the red shift in extragalactic nebulae’), Mirovedenie , xxii, no. 3 (May-June 1933), 7–19.

Ogorodnikov K. F. , ‘O ‘rasshiriaiushcheisia’ vselennoi’ (‘The expanding universe’), Mirovedenie , xxiii, no. 2 (March-April 1934), 90 and 94. Ironically, Shapley once described Ogorodnikov as ‘so instinctively mathematical that he has difficulty in seeing the full implications of a problem, and he has a tenacity of view that some people found rather unshakable…’. In other words, Shapley accused Ogorodnikov of the very same mathematical formalism for which Ogorodnikov criticized Western cosmologists! See Shapley H. to Gerasimovich B. , 29 December 1931, Harvard Archives.

Ogorodnikov K. F. , ‘K diskusii o ‘vozraste’ vselennoi’ (‘The discussion on the ‘age’ of the universe’), Mirovedenie , xxiv, no. 5 (September-October 1935), 292–3.

Ibid. , 293–4.

For example, de Sitter W. , ‘Rasshirenie vselennoi’ (‘The expansion of the universe’), Mirovedenie , xxii, no. 4 (July-August 1933), 24–33.

For a complete discussion of this later period, the reader is referred once again to Haley , op. cit. (ref. 23), and to Graham , op. cit. (ref. 23).

‘Ot redaktsii’ (‘From the editorial board’), Mirovedenie , xxii, no. 3 (May-June 1933), 26.

Ter-Oganezov footnote V. T. Duboshin G. N. , ‘Zadacha o dvukh telakh v klassicheskoi i sovremennoi nebesnoi mekhanike’ (‘The two body problem in classical and modern celestial mechanics’), Mirovedenie , xx, no. 2 (March-April 1931), 94.

Lutskii V. K. , Istoriia astronomicheskikh obshchestvennykh organizatsii v SSSR (History of voluntary astronomical organizations in the USSR) (Moscow, 1982), 163–7.

Ibid. , 170–1.

‘Deklaratsiia Organizatsionnogo biuro Astronomo-geodezicheskogo obshchestva RSFSR’ (‘Declaration of the organizing bureau of the Astronomical-Geodesical Society of the RSFSR’), Mirovedenie , xx, no. 3–4 (May-August 1931), 90–91.

See, for example, Vorontsov-Vel'iaminov B. A. , ‘K desiatiletiiu Kollektiva nabliudatelei MOLA (1921–31)’ (‘On the tenth anniversary of the MOLA Observers' Collective (1921–31)’), Mirovedenie , xxi, no. 1–2 (January-February 1932), 94. See also the 24 February 1931 circular letter from Ter-Oganezov in Arkhiv RAN (Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences), fond 708 (Kostinskii), opis' 3, edinitsa khraneniia 45, 1. 23.

‘Planirovanie astronomii v SSSR’ (‘The planning of astronomy in the USSR’), Astronomicheskii zhurnal , ix (1932), 303–4.

Mikhailov A. A. , ‘Sovetskii komitet mezhdunarodnogo astronomicheskogo soiuza’ (‘The Soviet Committee of the International Astronomical Union’), Mirovedenie , xxv, no. 5 (September-October 1936), 69.

Vestnik Akademii Nauk (Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences) v, no. 6 (1935), 75.

Ter-Oganezov V. T. , ‘Za iskorenenie do kontsa vreditel'stva na astronomicheskom fronte’ (‘For the eradication of all wrecking on the astronomical front’), Mirovedenie , xxvi, no. 6 (1937), 373–7. For a thorough discussion of the 1936–37 purge of Soviet astronomers, see McCutcheon R. A. , ‘The 1936–1937 purge of Soviet astronomers’, Slavic review , 1 (1991), 100–17. See A. I. Eremeeva's article elsewhere in this issue for details about the arrest of B. Gerasimovich.

‘K nashim chitateliam’ (‘To our readers’), Mirovedenie , xxvi, no. 1 (January-February 1937), 4–5.

Shorygin S. A. , ‘Retsenzii’ (‘Reviews’), Astronomicheskii zhurnal , xiv (1937), 374.

Aristov G. A. , ibid. .

Shorygin , op. cit. (ref. 74), 376.

‘Otchet pravleniia Moskovskogo otdeleniia Vsesoiuznogo Astronomo-Geodezicheskogo O-va za 1933–1936 gg’ (‘Report of the directorship of the Moscow division of the All-Union Astronomical-Geodesical Society for 1933–1936’), Mirovedenie , xxvi, no. 6 (December 1937), 425; Lutskii , op. cit. (ref. 64), 173; ‘Otchety otdelenii VAGO za 1939 god: Moskovskoe otdelenie (MOVAGO)’ (‘Reports of VAGO divisions for 1939: Moscow division (MOVAGO)’), Biulleten' VAGO 1940, no. 5, 51; and ‘Protokoly sobranii komsomol'skoi i partiino-komsomol'skoi chasti Moskovskogo otdeleniia Vsesoiuznogo astronomo-geodezicheskogo obshchestva (MOVAGO)’ (‘Minutes of the meetings of the Komsomol and Party-Komsomol group of the Moscow division of the All-Union Astronomical-Godesical Society’). Note that the minutes of the MOVAGO meetings from 8 January 1938 through 9 February 1940 are preserved in the personal archive of Bronshten V. A. .

Ibid. The Komsomol was the Communist Youth League.

Lutskii , op. cit. (ref. 65), 178–9.

Kobrin V. , Komu ty opasen, istorik? (To whom are you dangerous, historian?) (Moscow, 1992), 141–53.

For a general history of the Great Purges, refer to Conquest R. , The great terror: A reassessment (New York/Oxford, 1990). For recent work on the purges and on Stalinist terror in general, refer to the collected articles in Getty J. A. Manning R. T. (eds), Stalinist terror: New perspectives (Cambridge, 1993). Several articles in the latter collection demonstrate a correlation between rank or title and the probability of arrest during the Great Purges.

Arkhiv RAN, fond 543, opis' 4, delo 1854, 1. 14.

Sobolev S. Bermant A. , ‘Liberaly iz uchenoi komissii’ (‘Liberals from the academic commission’), Pravda 31 January 1939. Academic degrees were re-introduced in the mid-1930s, and commissions were established to judge the research and publications of scientists to determine what degrees they should receive. By U.S. standards the kandidat degree is best described as much more advanced than the average M.S. or M.A. degree but not quite at the level of a Ph.D.

The Astronomicheskii zhurnal still listed Ter-Oganezov as a member of its editorial board at the start of 1938, but starting with issue no. 4 for that year, the journal no longer listed its editorial board members. When the listing of members resumed in 1944, Ter-Oganezov was no longer on the board. For a listing of Ter-Oganezov's post-1937 writings, refer to Mikhailov A. A. (gen. ed.), Astronomiia v SSSR za Sorok Let, 1917–1957: Sbornik Statei (Astronomy in the USSR for forty years, 1917–1957: A collection of articles) (Moscow, 1960).

Lutskii , op. cit. (ref. 65), 180. By the end of World War II, Ter-Oganezov and the other VAGO representatives appear to have been removed from the Astronomical Council.

Shcheglov V. P. , Izbrannye trudy (Selected works) (Tashkent, 1989), 12–13. The information regarding the intervention of Ter-Oganezov comes from an interview with Shcheglov P. V. , son of the former director of Tashkent Observatory.

Biulleten' VAGO , 1947, no. 2, 22.

Graham , op. cit. (ref. 3), 132–133.

Biulleten' VAGO , 1949, no. 6, 3 and 47.

Ibid. , 3–15.

‘K materialam teoreticheskoi konferentsii Leningradskogo otdeleniia VAGO po ideologicheskim voprosam v astronomii’ (‘On the proceedings of the theoretical conference of the Leningrad division of VAGO on ideological questions in astronomy’), Biulleten' VAGO , 1950, no. 8, 3–7. Although written by Ter-Oganezov, this article was published as an editorial without his name. For a more detailed discussion of the 1950 VAGO meetings, see Bronshten V. A. , ‘Rakovaia opukhol’ (‘A cancerous tumor’), Istoriko-astronomicheskiie issledovaniia (Historical-astronomical investigations), xxii (1990), 301–10.

Stalin J. , Marxism and linguistics (New York, 1951).

VAGO's officers and the members of the VAGO Central Committee elected at the second congress are listed in Biulleten' VAGO , 1956, no. 17, 12–13. Bronshten V. A. discusses the elections in op. cit. (ref. 4).