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The 1936-1937 Purge of Soviet Astronomers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Robert A. McCutcheon
Robert A. McCutcheon*
Affiliation:
Computer Sciences Corporation in Laurel, Maryland
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More than two dozen Soviet astronomers were arrested between March 1936 and July 1937. Few astronomers or historians are aware of the extent to which Soviet astronomy was devastated. This article investigates the situation in astronomy during these two years. It begins with a brief discussion of Soviet astronomy between 1917 and 1935 and continues with a detailed examination of the events that served as the catalyst for the purge, the arrests themselves, and a discussion of what is known about the fates of the victims.

In the mid-1930s the Soviet Union had approximately two hundred professional astronomers and sixteen astronomical observatories, most of which were associated with universities and had staffs of only two or three people. The most important and best equipped astronomical institution was the Central Astronomical Observatory of the USSR at Pulkovo, just outside Leningrad, with its branch observatories at Nikolaev and Simeis in the Ukraine. In 1935 thirty-three astronomers worked at Pulkovo.

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Slavic Review , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , Spring 1991 , pp. 100 - 117
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Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1991

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References

Research for this article was supported in part by a grant from the International Research and Exchanges Board, with additional funds provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the United States Information Agency. Further support came from the Friends of the Center for the History of Physics, American Institute of Physics. These organizations are not responsible for the views expressed here.

I wish to express my special gratitude to Dr. V. K. Abalakin, the current director of Pulkovo Observatory, whose generous help made it possible for me to conduct extensive research at Pulkovo. Great thanks are likewise due to V. A. Bronshten, A. N. Dadaev, A. I. Eremeeva, B. I. and Iu. I. Eropkin, M. N. Gnevyshev, A. A. and F. N. Kozyrev, N. S. Kardashev, N. I. Nevskaia, A. B. Numerova, V. A. Postoev, A. S. Zherbina, M. S. Zverev, and the staffs of Pulkovo Observatory, the Shternberg State Astronomical Institute, the Leningrad and Moscow divisions of the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology, and the Leningrad division of the Archive of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The events described in this paper are discussed, in part, in my M.A. thesis. See R. A. McCutcheon, “The Purge of Soviet Astronomy: 1936-37, With a Discussion of its Background and Aftermath” (M.A. thesis, Georgetown University, July 1985), 144-200.

1. The number of astronomers in the country can be gleaned from “Spisok chlenov Assotsiatsii Astronomov RSFSR,” Trudy II, III, i IV astronomicheskikh s”ezdov, 1920-1928 g. (Leningrad: Assotsiatsiia Astronomov RSFSR, 1929), 172-176, and Astronomicheskii zhurnal 13, no. 3 (1936): 265-299 [hereafter A. zh.]. For further details concerning the prerevolutionary history of Pulkovo Observatory, see Dadaev, A. N., Pulkovskaia Observatoriia: Ocherk istorii i nauchnoi deiatel'nosti (Leningrad: Nauka, 1972), 6–49 Google Scholar; and Krisciunas, Kevin, “A Short History of Pulkovo Observatory,” Vistas in Astronomy 22, part 1 (1978): 27–37 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Information on the 1935 staffing level comes from A. zh. 13, no. 3 (1936): 265-271.

2. See Krisciunas, Kevin, “The End of Pulkovo Observatory's Reign as the ‘Astronomical Capital of the World,'” Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 15 (September 1984): 301–305 Google Scholar. Gould is quoted in Simon Newcomb, Reminiscences of an Astronomer (Boston: Houghton and Mifflin, 1903), 309

3. See “Otchet za 1917-1918 god, predstavlennyi Komitetu Nikolaevskoi Glavnoi Astronomicheskoi Observatorii ee direktorom,” Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 706 (Belopol'skii), op. 2, ed. khr. 17, 1. 29-32; and Otchet za 1918-1919 (1919-1920, 1920-1921) god, predstavlennyi komitetu Glavnoi Rossiiskoi Astronomicheskoi Observatorii v Pulkove ee direktorom (Petrograd: 1919, 1920, and 1921).

4. Unless otherwise noted, the biographical information concerning Boris V. Numerov has been summarized from the article and book written by his daughter: Numerova, Anastasia B., Boris Vasil'evich Numerov, 1891-1941 (Leningrad: Nauka, 1983)Google Scholar; and Numerova, A. B., “Boris Vasil'evich Numerov, 1891-1941,” Istoriko-Astronomicheskie Issledovaniia 16(1983): 193–218 [hereafter IAI]Google Scholar. Numerova provided additional information in conversation with me on 4 February 1988 in Leningrad. Celestial mechanics deals with the interaction of two or more celestial bodies governed by gravitation.

5. “Protokoly zasedanii Soveta astronomov (14 avgusta 1926-18 aprelia 1931),” Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 703 (Pulkovo), op. 1 (1926), ed. khr. 2,1.91 (meeting of 8 January 1931). The circumstances of A. A. Ivanov's “retirement” from the directorship in 1930 are cloudy. His departure from Pulkovo may not have been entirely voluntary. The Council of Astronomers was formed in December 1917 to help fill the administrative vacuum left in the immediate aftermath of the Bolshevik takeover. It functioned until 1931-1932.

6. N. M. Morin, “Iz vospominanii o Borise Vasil'eviche Numerove,” Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 950 (Numerov), op. 1, ed. khr. 14, 1. 1-4.

7. Martynov, D. la., “Pulkovskaia observatoriia v gody 1926-1933,” IAI 17 (1984): 447–448 Google Scholar; A. zh. 9, no. 3-4 (1932): 277; Interview with Aleksei A. Kozyrev (younger brother of Nikolai A. Kozyrev). For additional information concerning B. P. Gerasimovich, see A. I. Eremeeva, “Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo Borisa Petrovicha Gerasimovicha [k 100-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia],” IAI 21 (1989): 253-301; and Otto Struve, “About a Russian Astronomer,” Sky and Telescope, June 1957, 379-381. The Struves were an astronomy dynasty. The Otto Struve cited here was the grandson of the Struve mentioned earlier in the text. The younger Struve emigrated to the United States after the civil war and directed Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin.

8. Martynov, “Pulkovskaia observatoriia,” 448-449; and A. N. Dadaev, “Astronom tragicheskoi sud'by (k 100-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia B. P. Gerasimovicha),” Problemy postroeniia koordinatykh sistem v astronomii, Seriia Problemy issledovaniia vselennoi, no. 12 (Leningrad, 1989), 53. According to Dadaev, alleged connections with Trotskyites were another reason for Drozd's dismissal. Except for a brief visit to Pulkovo in 1962, Drozd disappeared completely from Soviet astronomy.

9. Vestnik Akademii Nauk, no. 9 (1934): 47-49, and “Pulkovskaia Observatoriia na novykh putiakh. Vozvratit’ prezhnee rukovodiashchee znachenie,” Za sotsialisticheskuiu nauku, no. 20 (22 July 1934) 1.

10. Harlow Shapley to Frank Schlesinger, 17 February 1928, Harlow Shapley director's correspondence, Harvard College Observatory Records, Harvard University Archives. All quotations from materials in this collection are by permission of Harvard University Archives.

11. Schlesinger to Shapley, 22 February 1928, Records of the Department of Astronomy (YRG 14-E), Yale University Archives, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. All quotations from materials in this collection are by permission of Yale University Library.

12. Shapley to Otto Struve, 20 December 1937, director's papers, Yerkes Observatory Archives, Williams Bay, Wise; and Donald Menzel to Otto Struve, 8 August 1946, Shapley papers.

13. Kozyrev interview. According to one anecdote that was related to me by, among others, Mstislav N. Gnevyshev in an interview on 9 December 1987 at Pulkovo, Kozyrev and Eropkin once sent a telegram to the Academy of Sciences informing the academy of Gerasimovich's sudden death and asking the academy to make funeral arrangements. Gnevyshev also describes this incident in Gnevyshev, M. N., “Sversheniia i trevogi Pulkova,” IAI 21 (1989): 349–350 Google Scholar. An example of Gerasimovich's criticism of poor research can be found on 345-346 of Gnevyshev's article.

14. Unless otherwise noted, the information regarding Ter-Oganezov was obtained from V. A. Bronshten, “Zhurnal ‘Mirovedenie’ v moskovskii period,” IAI 20 (1988): 373-396. Additional information was obtained from Bronshten's unpublished manuscript, “Professor V. T. Ter-Oganezov i ego vliianie na razvitie sovetskoi astronomii (istoriko-publitsisticheskii ocherk),” which I read while in the Soviet Union. V. A. Bronshten was acquainted with Ter-Oganezov for many years and worked alongside him in the All- Union Astronomical Geodesical Society. Bronshten indicates that this information is documented in the Leningradskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv, f. 14, op. 3, d. 52535 (memorandum to Robert Mc- Cutcheon from V. A. Bronshten, 27 November 1987).

15. See, for example, B. A. Vorontsov-Veliaminov, “K desiatiletiiu Kollektiva nabliudatelei MOLA (1921-31),” Mirovedenie 21 (January-February 1932): 94. A history of amateur astronomy societies in the Soviet Union is in Lutskii, V. K., Istoriia astronomicheskikh obshchestvennykh organizatsii v SSSR (Moscow: Nauka, 1982)Google Scholar. See also the 24 February 1931 circular letter from Ter-Oganezov in Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 708 (Kostinskii), op. 3, ed. khr. 45, 1. 23.

16. See, for example, Ter-Oganezov, V. T., “Na perelome,” Mirovedenie 19 (May-August 1930): 3–18 Google Scholar.

17. B. P. Gerasimovich to Shapley, 12 April 1932, Shapley papers; Numerova, Numerov, 88-92; and Numerova, “Numerov,” 204-206.

18. “Protokol zasedaniia Komissii po issledovaniiu Solntsa Akademii Nauk SSSR ot 28 noiabria 1930 g.,” Biulleten’ Komissii po issledovaniiu Solntsa, no. 1 (1932): 15; M. N. Gnevyshev, “Evgenii Iakovlevich Perepelkin,” IAI 10 (1969): 243; and “Soveshchanie po organizatsii Gornoi astronomicheskoi observatorii i Konferentsiia Komissii po issledovaniiu Solntsa (KISO) pri Akademii Nauk SSSR,” Mirovedenie 20 (January- February 1931): 148-150. For the claims made for the solar service, see Ter-Oganezov, V. T., “Ob astronomicheskom s”ezde,” Mirovedenie 20 (May-August 1931): 92 Google Scholar; and “Obrashchenie I Vsesoiuznogo astronomo-geodezicheskogo s“ezda k trudiashchimsia i nauchnym rabotnikam Sovetskogo Soiuza,” Mirovedenie 23 (May-June 1934): 158. A cartoon criticizing the commission appeared in one newspaper with the caption: “The sun rises and sets … but the solar commission has not caught a single calorie” (Za sotsialisticheskuiu nauku, no. 1 [April 1932]: 3).

19. VAN 5, no. 6 (1935): 75, and Za sotsialisticheskuiu nauku, no. 31 (27 November 1934): 4, and no. 10 (15 April 1935): 2.

20. Russkii Astronomicheskii Kalendar’ (1931): 236, 246, and opposite table of contents; A. zh. 10, no. 3 (1933): 369-370.

21. A. zh. 10, no. 3 (1933): 361-363; Tsirkuliar TAO, no. 37 (26 January 1935): 1-3. N. M. Voronov's works from this period include, among others, “Absolute Perturbations from the Minor Planet 48 Doris,” Biulleten’ TAO, no. 4 (31 December 1934): 91-93; and “Theory of the Motion of 55 Pandora,” Biulleten' TAO, no. 5 (10 March 1935): 109-157. The observatory's boasts can be found in S. M. Selivanov, “Shest'desiat let TAO,” Mirovedenie 25 (March-April 1936): 117-118. The Council of People's Commissars’ statement is in “Postanovlenie No. 468 Soveta Narodnykh Komissarov Uzbekskoi Sovetskoi Sotsialisticheskoi Respubliki,” 5 May 1935. A copy of this decree was provided to the author by V. A. Postoev.

22. Leveau, M. G., “Theorie du mouvement de Vesta,” Annales de l'Observatoire de Paris 15 (1880); 17 (1883); and 20 (1892)Google Scholar.

23. N. Voronov, “Investigation on the Theory of the Motion of the Minor Planet 4 Vesta,” Astronomische Nachrichten, Band 254, no. 6092-6093 (1935): 329-362, and Band 256, no. 6128 (1935): 157-166. Voronov's article was in English.

24. Gnevyshev, “Sversheniia i trevogi Pulkova,” 350; A. zh. 13, no. 3 (1936): 265; Dadaev, “Astronom tragicheskoi sud'by,” 55-56; and notes from interview conducted by N. S. Kardashev with Iu. M. Slonim, 3 April 1989, in Tashkent. These notes were given to me by Kardashev. Voronov had worked at Pulkovo as a praktikant in 1934 (see Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 708 [Kostinskii], op. 3, ed. khr. 35,1. 69, 70, and 72). Both Slonim, who was on the staff of the Tashkent Observatory in the 1930s, and Gnevyshev attribute the invitation to Pulkovo directly to Gerasimovich. According to Gnevyshev, both Numerov and another well-known celestial mechanician, M. F. Subbotin (1893-1966), enthusiastically supported Voronov's transfer to Leningrad. Voronov's paper on 13 Egeria is “The Theory of the Minor Planet (13) Egeria (first paper),” Poulkovo Observatory Circular, no. 14 (March 1935): 25, and no. 16 (December 1935): 4-29.

25. VAN 5, no. 7-8 (1935): 103. Gerasimovich was on the Academy of Science's qualifications committee charged with granting degrees in the physical sciences. B. V. Numerov, “Konferentsiia po teoreticheskoi astronomii i nebesnoi mekhaniki,” Mirovedenie 24 (July-August 1935): 238.

26. “Concerning the Minor Planet (13) Egeria,” Poulkovo Observatory Circular, No. 17, February 1936. The title of this periodical was in English.

27. Statements by N. I. Idel'son in “Preniia,” in “Materialy sessii Fizicheskoi gruppy Akademii Nauk SSSR po voprosam organizatsii astronomii, 23-30 oktiabria 1936 g.,” Izvestiia AN SSSR, Otdelenie matematicheskikh i estestvennykh nauk, seriia Fizicheskaia, No. 6 (1936): 753-755. The details of Voronov's downfall are documented in “Doklad prof. N. I. Idel'sona, pis'ma-otzyvy inostr. uchenykh i perepiska po delu N. M. Voronova o fal'sifikatsii nauchnoi raboty,” Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 703 (Pulkovo), op. 1 (1936), ed. khr. 58,1. 1 -42, as cited in Eremeeva, “Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo Borisa Petrovicha Gerasimovicha,” 292. I did not have access to most of f. 703 in the Arkhiv AN SSSR and instead used Eremeeva's work to document its contents.

28. “Perepiska po lichnomu sostavu,” Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 703, op. 1 (1936), ed. khr. 55,1. 5 and 7, as cited in Eremeeva, “Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo Borisa Petrovicha Gerasimovicha,” 292. “Materialy sessii Fizicheskoi,” 756.

29. “Perepiska c Prezidiumom AN SSSR … ob obrazovanii Astrosoveta,” Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 703, op. 1 (1936), ed. khr. 25, 1. 19, as cited in Eremeeva, “Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo Borisa Petrovicha Gerasimovicha,” 285; Gnevyshev interview; and Front Nauki i tekhniki, no. 2 (1936): 132.

30. Eremeeva, “Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo Borisa Petrovicha Gerasimovicha,” 291-292. Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 703, op. 1 (1936), ed. khr. 25,1. 15-20, as cited in ibid., 291. This article apparently existed in manuscript form only.

31. Slonim interview; Tsirkuliar TAO, no. 66, 25 April 1937; and A. zh. 13, no. 3 (1936): 284. A. I. Postoev had replaced I. A. Teplov as director of TAO on 7 January 1935. Unlike Teplov, Postoev was a true scientist who had studied at the Leningrad Astronomical Institute.

32. “Excerpt of letter received from Prof. Postoiev [sic], January 6, 1946,” Shapley papers.

33. Numerov to Eckert, 15 February 1936, Schlesinger papers. M. S. Zverev, “Nikolai Ivanovich Dneprovskii,” IAI 15, 1980, 52-53; and VAN 6, no. 8-9 (1936): 43-47.

34. Florence Menzel to H. Shapley, 30 April 1936, Shapley papers; Menzel to Shapley, 4 May 1936, Shapley papers; Menzel to Shapley, May 1936 (undated, on train to Ak-Bulak), Shapley papers; and Gnevyshev interview.

35. Gnevyshev, “Sversheniia i trevogi Pulkova,” 350. D. Slaventantor, “Lestnitsa slavy,” Leningradskaia pravda, 4 June 1936, 3; and Kozyrev interview.

36. Struve, “About a Russian Astronomer,” 381; and D. H. Menzel, “Material on Eclipse Expedition to USSR and B. Gerasimovich,” folder 9, D. H. Menzel papers, Special Collections, Penrose Library, University of Denver. The latter is a transcript of an oral statement made by Menzel in the early 1950s.

37. D. Slaventantor, “Rytsary rabolepiia,” Leningradskaia pravda, 18 July 1936, 3. Just two years earlier Shapley had complimented Gerasimovich on his efforts to publish Pulkovo publications in English; he noted that this practice was “certainly to the advantage of your observatory.” See Shapley to Gerasimovich, 25 July 1934, Shapley papers.

38. Gnevyshev interview.

39. Struve, “About a Russian Astronomer,” 381; and Menzel, “Material on Eclipse Expedition to USSR and B. Gerasimovich.“

40. Pravda, 2 July 1936, 3; 3 July 1936, 3; 9 July 1936, 3; 10 July 1936, 3; 12 July 1936, 3; 14 July 1936, 3; 15 July 1936, 4; and 6 August 1936, 1. See also Levin, Aleksey E., “Anatomy of a Public Campaign: ‘Academician Luzin's Case’ in Soviet Political History,” Slavic Review 49 (Spring 1990): 90–108 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41. VAN 6, No. 8-9 (1936), 93; “Vyvody Komissii Prezidiuma AN SSSR o polozhenii del v Pulkovskoi observatorii,” Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 703, op. 1 (1936), ed. khr. 8,1. 3, 4, and 10-20, as cited in Eremeeva, “Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo Borisa Petrovicha Gerasimovicha,” 293; and VAN 6, no. 8-9 (1936): 98.

42. A. Nezhdanov and D. Slaventantor, “Eshche raz o pulkovskikh nravakh,” Leningradskaia pravda, 27 August 1936, 3.

43. “Perepiska po lichnomu sostavu,” Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 703, op. 1 (1936), ed. khr. 55,1. 41, as cited in Eremeeva, “Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo Borisa Petrovicha Gerasimovich,” 293.

44. Events leading up to Numerov's arrest are described in the Numerova interview; in Iosif S. Shklovskii, “Nevydumannye rasskazy,” Energiia, no. 6 (1988): 41-42; and in L. Sidorovskii, “Zvezdy i terni,” Smena, 31 March 1989, 2. The graduate student is not identified. The secretary of the Pulkovo party group appears to have been Moris S. Eigenson (1906-1962). Recall that Leningradskaia pravda had criticized the Pulkovo party group for inaction.

45. Shklovskii, “Nevydumannye rasskazy,” 42; Sidorovskii “Zvezdy i terni“; and Numerova interview.

46. B. V. Numerov to the presidium of the Academy of Sciences, 13 July 1937. A. B. Numerova gave me a copy of this letter.

47. Kozyrev interview; Sidorovskii, “Zvezdy i terni“; Shklovskii, “Nevydumannye rasskazy,” 41; interview with B. I. and Iu. I. Eropkin, 16 January 1938; F. N. Kozyrev, “K biografiiu Nikolaia Aleksandrovicha Kozyreva,” unpublished manuscript (author's collection), 3-4; and V. N. Bleer to V. K. Abalakin, 10 March 1989. (V. N. Bleer is the assistant director of the KGB for the Leningrad province. A copy of this letter was provided to me by Viktor K. Abalakin.) Kozyrev was arrested at a dance celebrating the nineteenth anniversary of the October Revolution. Balanovskii and lashnov apparently were arrested in their apartments in the main observatory building at Pulkovo.

48. Slonim interview.

49. H. Shapley to B. P. Gerasimovich, 23 November 1936, Shapley papers; and B. P. Gerasimovich to H. Shapley, 4 January 1937, Shapley papers.

50. “Short Biography of B. P. Gerasimovich,” Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 411, op. 6, ed. khr. 721, 1. 29-30, as cited in Eremeeva, “Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo Borisa Petrovicha Gerasimovicha,” 294. As was true with f. 703,1 did not have access to f. 411.

51. Eremeeva, “Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo Borisa Petrovicha Gerasimovicha,” 293-294.

52. Ibid., 294. According to V. A. Bronshten, both N. P. Gorbunov and V. G. Fesenkov tried to reduce Ter-Oganezov's accusations to nothing. Memorandum to Robert McCutcheon from V. A. Bronshten, 28 October 1987.

53. Ter-Oganezov, V. T., “Za iskorenie do kontsa vreditel'stva na astronomicheskom fronte,” Mirovedenie 26, no. 6 (December 1937): 375 Google Scholar.

54. “Fevral'skii plenum TsK VKP (b) i nashi zadachi,” VAN 7, no. 4-5 (1937): 8.

55. Ibid., 11.

56. B. P. Gerasimovich to H. Shapley, telegram received on 19 March 1937, Shapley papers.

57. Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 411, op, 6, ed. khr. 721,1. 20, as cited in Eremeeva, “Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo Borisa Petrovicha Gerasimovicha,” 296. Ter-Oganezov, “Za iskorenie,” 375.

58. Ter-Oganezov, “Za iskorenie,” 376-377; and V. G. Fesenkov, “O deiatel'nosti Astronomicheskogo Soveta za 1937 g.,” A. zh. 15, no. 3 (1938): 93.

59. V. N. Bleer to V. K. Abalakin, 10 March 1989; and Dadaev, “Astronom tragicheskoi sud'by,” 64. According to Dadaev, Gerasimovich was arrested on the train while returning to Leningrad from Moscow. Information on Beliavskii's appointment is in Gnevyshev, “Sversheniia i trevogi Pulkova,” 353.

60. “Rezoliutsii, priniatye na plenume Astronomicheskogo Soveta Akademii Nauk SSSR, 26-29 oktiabria 1937 g.,” A. zh. 15, no. 1 (1938): 80-81; and “Oktiabr'skaia sessiia Astronomicheskogo Soveta Akademii Nauk,” Mirovedenie 26, no. 6 (December 1937): 420.

61. Ter-Oganezov, “Rezoliutsii,” 81; and Nikolai Floria, “Plenum Astronomicheskogo Soveta Akademii Nauk SSSR, 26-29 oktiabria 1937 g.,” A. zh. 15, no. 1 (1938): 78.

62. Ter-Oganezov, “Za iskorenie,” 374. The exact nature of Gerasimovich's alleged statements is unknown, but it was no secret that Gerasimovich held views, such as his support for the theory of the expanding universe, that did not agree with dialectical materialist philosophy. See, for example, B. P. Gerasimovich, Vselennaia pri svete teorii otnositel'nosti (Khar'kov: Ukrainy, 1925).

63. VAN 8, no. 1 (1938): 90; “V Akademii Nauk SSSR,” Pravda, 16 December 1937; “V Prezidiume Akademii Nauk SSSR,” Izvestiia, 16 December 1937, 6; and G. A. Aristov, “Informatsionnyi biulleten’ Gruppy Astronomii Akademii Nauk,” A. zh. 15, no. 3 (1938): 302. Fesenkov, supposedly, left the Shternberg institute voluntarily (see A. zh. 17, no. 3 [1940]: 70). V. A. Bronshten, however, believes that Fesenkov was pressured into resigning (memorandum to Robert McCutcheon from V. A. Bronshten, 28 October 1987).

64. Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 596, op. 3, ed. khr. 14, 1. 2 [as cited in N. V. Uspenskaia, “Vreditel'stvo … v dele izucheniia solnechnogo zatmeniia,” Priroda, no. 8, 1989, 87], At Pulkovo thirteen (46 percent) of twenty-eight senior scientific specialists and scientific specialists on the staff in 1935 were gone by the end of 1937. The situation at Tashkent was even worse: Of nine astronomers, six (67 percent) were gone by the start of 1937.

The situation in Soviet biology and physics in the late 1930s provides an interesting contrast to that in astronomy. According to partial lists compiled by David Joravsky, approximately twenty-two physicists disappeared in 1936-1938, whereas fifty-nine biologists and agricultural specialists were repressed over the longer interval from 1935 through 1941. According to Joravsky these numbers probably correspond to less than 5 percent of the biology community and more than 2 percent of the physics. The percentage of astronomers repressed appears to be much higher than the percentages of biologists and physicists. See Joravsky, David, The Lysenko Affair (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976), 116–117, 317-328, and 385-386Google Scholar.

65. Numerova interview; and B. V. Numerov to the presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 13 July 1937. V. N. Bleer to V. K. Abalakin, 10 March 1989. It is possible that even more Leningrad astronomers were tried on this day. The letter cited here gives details only about the astronomers from Pulkovo.

66. Bleer to Abalakin, 10 March 1989.

67. Numerova interview.

68. Letter to Robert McCutcheon from V. A. Postoev, 19 March 1986; I. A. Teplov to A. I. Postoev, 2 September 1939. A copy of this letter was provided to the author by V. A. Postoev. “Excerpt of letter received from Prof. Postoiev, January 6, 1946“; H. Shapley to Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, 30 November 1948, Shapley papers; A. I. Postoev to H. Shapley, 21 December 1949, Shapley papers; and A. I. Postoev to H. Shapley, 25 June 1950, Shapley papers. See also Matsuura, O. T., “Alexander Postoiev,” Ciência e Cultura 29 (September 1977): 1068–1070 Google Scholar.

69. Kozyrev's years in prison and labor camps are described in Kozyrev interview; Kozyrev, “K biografiiu N. A. Kozyreva“; and Shklovskii, “Nevydumannye rasskazy.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn describes Kozyrev's experiences in the Dmitrovsk Prison in The Gulag Archipelago (New York: Harper and Row, 1973) 1:484.

70. Kozyrev interview; Kozyrev, “K biografiiu N. A. Kozyreva“; and S. I. Vavilov, G. A. Shain, and A. A. Mikhailov to L. P. Beria, Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 536, op. 2, ed. khr 17, 1. lr-2. This letter is undated but appears to have been sent in 1944.

71. V. N. Bleer to V. K. Abalakin, 10 March 1989; and “Svidetel'stvo o smerti” for D. I. Eropkin. Abalakin gave me a copy of the latter.

72. Numerov to the presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 13 July 1937; Ter-Oganezov, “Rezoliutsii,” and Ter-Oganezov, “Oktiabr'skaia sessiia“; Numerov to the presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 13 July 1937; and Sidorovskii, “Zvezdy i terni.“

73. A. N. Naidenov, “Vospominaniia o vstreche s akademikom Numerovym B. V.,” 1 January 1951. A. B. Numerova gave me a copy of these reminiscences.

74. “Spravka,” Voennaia Kollegiia Verkhovnogo suda SSSR 14 maia 1957 g., No. 4H-019420/56, g. Moskva; and Numerova interview. A copy of the “spravka” was provided to me by A. B. Numerova.

75. V. N. Bleer to V. K. Abalakin, 10 March 1989; and V. Kondratov to T. B. Gerasimovich, 30 January 1989. Kondratov is a senior military prosecutor in the office of the chief military procurator; T. B. Gerasimovich is the daughter of B. P. Gerasimovich. Viktor Abalakin provided me with a copy of this letter.

76. V. N. Bleer to V. K. Abalakin, 10 March 1989; H. Shapley to V. Gerasimovich, 10 February 1947. Shapley papers; and G. Shain to H. Shapley, 28 August 1947, Shapley papers. V. Gerasimovich was B. P. Gerasimovich's brother; he was a doctor is Yugoslavia.

77. Numerova interview.

78. V. N. Bleer to V. K. Abalakin, 10 March 1989; Sidorovskii, “Zvezdy i terni“; Kozyrev interview.

79. Memorandum from V. A. Bronshten, 28 October 1987.

80. V. A. Ambartsumian was the only important member of the sun commission who was not arrested. According to G. A. Shain, Ambartsumian was not arrested because he was at Simeis when the arrests took place. O. Struve to H. Shapley, 28 August 1947, Shapley papers; and private communication from S. Chandrasekhar, 6 August 1986.

81. Interview with M. S. Zverev, Pulkovo, December 1987 (a transcript of this interview is on file at the American Institute of Physics, New York). A. A. Kozyrev and A. B. Numerova, among others, believe the arrests of the physicists Viktor R. Bursiian (1886-1945), Vsevolod K. Frederiks (1885-1944), Iurii A. Krutkov (1890-1952), and Petr I. Lukirskii (1895-1954) were connected to the Numerov affair. Indeed, the KGB indicates that the arrests that included the Pulkovo astronomers involved more than 100 scientists from various organizations.

82. A purge was, apparently, attempted at Shternberg, but it did not lead to any arrests. See Shklovskii, “Nevydumennye rasakazy,” 42. In May 1937 Vladimir P. Tsesevich (b. 1907) was fired from his position as director of the Stalinabad Observatory where for a brief time, following his departure from Pulkovo, Voronov did calculations (see Kratkii otchet Tadzhikskoi Astronomicheskoi Observatorii za 1937 god, 1).

83. B. P. Gerasimovich, “O razvitii astronomicheskikh rabot v SSSR,” in “Materialy,” 704-705.

84. Gnevyshev, “Sversheniia i trevogi Pulkova,” 352-357.