This translation of A Brief History of Radio Astronomy in the USSR
makes descriptions of the antennas and instrumentation used in the USSR,
the astronomical discoveries, as well as interesting personal
backgrounds of many of the early key players in Soviet radio astronomy
available in the English language for the first time. This book is a
collection of memoirs recounting an interesting but largely still dark
era of Soviet astronomy. The arrangement of the essays is determined
primarily by the time when radio astronomy studies began at the
institutions involved. These include the Lebedev Physical Institute
(FIAN), Gorkii State University and the affiliated Physical-Technical
Institute (GIFTI), Moscow State University Sternberg Astronomical
institute (GAISH) and Space Research Institute (IKI), the Department of
Radio Astronomy of the Main Astronomical Observatory in Pulkovo (GAO),
Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), Byurakan Astrophysical
Observatory (BAO), Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, Academy of
Sciences of the Ukraine (SSR), Institute of Radio Physics and
Electronics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (IRE), Institute of
Terrestrial Magnetism, the Ionosphere and Radio-Wave Propagation
Institute (IZMIRAN), Siberian Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, the
Ionosphere and Radio-Wave Propagation (SibIZMIRAN), the Radio
Astrophysical Observatory of the Latvian Academy of Sciences and
Leningrad State University.
A Brief History of Radio Astronomy in the USSR is a fascinating source
of information on a past era of scientific culture and fields of
research including the Soviet SETI activities. Anyone interested in the
recent history of science will enjoy reading this volume.
