[FPSPACE] Boris Chertok's Rockets and People, Vol. III: Hot Days of the Cold War

Tue Aug 18 09:44:08 EDT 2009

Thank you Asif for your e-mail.

Two things.

1)--  If you do indeed have "thousands" of documents on Soviet space policy
garnered from Russian archives based in Moscow, by all means put together a
list of their titles in a word file and send it to me.  If you are as
meticulous as you allude to, you should have such a listing already
available.  And I would like to see it.

2)-My comment on the Mishin technical diaries-having Xeroxes of the diaries
that were temporarily lent to the Smithsonian by the Ross Perot Foundation
is not the whole set.  

Peter

  _____  

From: fpspace-bounces at friends-partners.org
[mailto:fpspace-bounces at friends-partners.org] On Behalf Of Asif Siddiqi
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 9:16 AM
To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] Boris Chertok's Rockets and People,Vol. III: Hot Days
of the Cold War

Peter,

You wrote:

I'm afraid I must take issue with your comments below.  When one reads your
"series introduction" comments, one does not come away with the impression
that "These are simply memoirs and suffer from the same problem that all
memoirs do, ie for the most part they represent a particular point of view."

Actually, none of the passages you excerpt suggest that I think that
Chertok's memoirs are the "gold standard" (a phrase I've never used anywhere
but which you seem to attribute to me!). In fact, if you read the
introduction closely, you'd find that I highlight the inherent problems and
limitations of memoirs. I note, for example, that:

"The richness of Chertok's writing should not obscure the fact that this is
a memoir written by a historical participant, not a tome authored by a
professional historian. In other words, the opinions presented here are by
definition subjective and thus prone to the same kinds of limitations
inherent in any recollection, especially one made over four decades after
the events." (p. xxiii)

This doesn't mean that I don't find Chertok's memoirs valuable -- on the
contrary, they are extremely valuable, mainly because they provide a
detailed view of a senior designer's experience at the apex of R&D in the
Soviet space program. And yes, of course, Chertok's memoirs have errors! It
is, after all, a memoir. A historian's job is to compare his work with
others and make some informed judgements about how to tell his/her story.

As to your other points, any professional historian (i.e., one trained
through higher education) will be the first to admit that ALL sources need
to be put into context, whether it's something that Yuri Andropov wrote in
his diaries or whether it's a passing comment made by a tour guide in Star
City. There are no "gold standard" (your phrase) sources in the study of
history. There are only sources that are more and less reliable but in the
end all need to be put into context, analyzed, etc. This is a challenge not
only for documents from Russia but from anywhere in the world, i.e., the
problem is not unique to Soviet space history but to ALL history. This is
the precise reason why there are (quite excellent) editorial essays in each
of NASA's Exploring the Unknown volumes which collect primary documents.
These essays provide important context.

About archival documents on the Russian/Soviet space program: I have worked
in many different archives in Russia and therefore can speak from
experience. It is true that at the design bureau level (i.e., Energia,
Khrunichev, NPO Mashinostroyeniye, etc.,) archival documents are nearly
impossible to come by. But some enterprising researchers have indeed
overcome this obstacle -- I am thinking of Vadim Lukashevich who worked hard
to obtain many documents on Spiral and Buran. We are also fortunate to have
a few published collections of documents from these organizations and a
plethora of official organizational histories but obviously these are only
the very tip(s) of the iceberg.

>From a Communist Party/governmental level, however, I can assure you that
archival documents on many aspects of the Soviet space program are available
and accessible, at least until the year 1965. I know because I have
collected thousands of documents on policy (i.e., not R&D and design) at the
VPK, Central Committee, and ministry levels. My forthcoming book on the
origins of Sputnik are based on these. At some point in the future, when I
have some time off from my day job, I hope to publish them or at least put
them on-line.

And if we go back to the notion that Soviet space was a security-classified
endeavor, then Russia-based scholars are going to have to find a mechanism
to get the material declassified.  I am not aware of such a mechanism where
Russian citizens or scholars can wander over to a Russian government
bureaucratic office and request that certain things be looked for (and then
the subsequent effort made to declassify them).

Actually, there are such mechanisms in Russian archives, especially if you
are searching for information on family members.

You mention two "gold standards" (again, that phrase) in Russian space
history:

I think that there are two that come to mind that may fulfill this
definition.  One would be the technical notations of Vasiliy Mishin.  Which
Asif is aware of, but who does not have full access to a complete set.

Nice to see that you know with such conviction what I have and what I don't.
;)

Best,

Asif

Assistant Professor of History

Fordham University

441 E. Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458

office: (718) 817-3939

fax: (718) 817-4680

e-mail: siddiqi at fordham.edu

http://www.fordham.edu/academics/programs_at_fordham_/history_department/fac
ulty/asif_siddiqi_70084.asp

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