Note of Academician I. P. Bardin to N. S. Khrushchev about the Position of Soviet Representatives at a Conference of the Special Committee for the International Geophysical Year

Nº B-1/00329 4 July 1956

Top Secret
Copy Nº 1

to the CPSU CC [Central Committee]
to Cde. N. S. Khrushchev

The program of the International Geophysical Year includes research on the upper layers of the atmosphere with the aid of rockets, and also the launch of artificial Earth satellites for diverse geophysical and astronomical observations.

The United States of America, Great Britain, France, and Austria have made an announcement on their program in the field of rocket research. The United States of America has announced the launch of several artificial Earth satellites.

The leaders of the Special Committee for the International Geophysical Year [IGY] have repeatedly turned to representatives of the Soviet Union with a request to take part in these kinds of research and report their program.^[1] It was pointed out that because of the wide press coverage, the high level of Soviet rocket technology was evident, and [it was also known] that Soviet scientists intend to organize the launch of an artificial satellite. ([Consider] the report of Academician Sedov at the press conference in Copenhagen in 1955).^[2]

Without having the appropriate authorization the Soviet representatives who took part at conferences to hold the International Geophysical Year naturally declined to reply to these inquiries, which was met with bewilderment by the foreign press and prompted new requests from the leaders of the Special Committee of the IGY to consider this question.

In September of this year the last conference before the start of the International Geophysical Year will be held of the Special Committee of the IGY. One of the agenda items for this conference will be the discussion of questions about the program of geophysical research with the aid of rockets and an artificial satellite. Consequently the Special Committee has asked the Soviet Interdepartmental Committee to Carry Out the IGY in writing about Soviet participation in this research.

Attempts to solve this question at other levels have not led to results, and therefore I permit myself to address you personally in order that Soviet representatives at the September conference of the International [sic] Special Committee for the IGY be supplied with definite instructions about the question [I] have touched upon at your instruction.^[3]

Acting President of the USSR

Academy of Sciences

Chairman of the Interdepartmental

Committee for the IGY                                                    Academician I. P. Bardin

ARCHIVAL SOURCE: Archive of the President of the Russian Federation (APRF), f. 3, op. 33, d. 204, ll. 157-158.

FIRST PUBLISHED IN: Iu. M. Baturin, ed., Sovetskaia kosmicheskaia initsiativa v gosudarstvennykh dokumentakh, 1946-1964 gg. (Moscow: RTSoft, 2008), 70-71.

^[1] The committee was officially known, in French, as the Comité Spécial de l’Année Géophysique Internationale (GSAGI).

^[2] This was a reference to the famous press conference given by Academician L. I. Sedov at a meeting of the International Astronautical Federation in Copenhagen on 2 August 1955. During the press conference, Sedov spoke, for the very first time in the case of a Soviet official, about plans to launch artificial satellites during the IGY.

^[3] In connection with Academician Bardin’s note, M. V. Khrunichev and V. M. Riabikov submitted proposals on this very question to the CPSU Central Committee on 30 July 1956. The proposals were then considered at the 9 August 1956 CPSU Central Committee Presidium meeting, and Resolution Nº P31/XXXII, “The Participation of Soviet Representatives in International Conferences and Meetings on Questions of the Launch of Rockets With Scientific Purposes and the Launch of Artificial Earth Satellites During the International Geophysical Year” was adopted which entrusted Khrunichev and Riabikov to prepare a draft decree for the Presidium. The draft was considered at the 24 August meeting and Resolution Nº P36/XIV, “The Participation of the USSR Academy of Sciences in International Conferences on Carrying out the International Geophysical Year,” was adopted. With this Resolution the USSR Academy of Sciences was allowed to take part in international conferences and meetings on this question and to make reports “in general form about scientific research on artificial Earth satellites…”