In “Soviet Scientific Institutes”, published by FUEL, photographer Eric Lusito takes us on a journey through time, space, and science.
Over the last hundred years, science and technology have profoundly transformed our societies. The USSR was arguably the country most exalted by the power of science, to the point of irrationality. The Soviets promoted the cult of science as an ideological tool intended to supplant religion and rapidly modernize the country. The USSR spent lavishly to build ever larger and more sophisticated machines, until it became a technological superpower. These utopian worlds of Soviet modernity took shape in projects mobilizing up to several thousand researchers. While science advanced, research work, intended mainly for the military, was carried out behind closed doors in an atmosphere of absolute secrecy.
The status of scientists, once prestigious, changed radically after the collapse of the system. During the upheavals of the 1990s, the institutes were virtually abandoned, deprived of all funding. Extremely low salaries — sometimes only 5 dollars a month — led to disillusionment and a brain drain. Despite the difficulties they faced, some scientists persevered and devoted their lives to saving their facilities.
Synchrotron, high-voltage laboratory, nuclear research reactor, radio telescope, cyclotron, stellarator… These monumental installations seem straight out of the pages of a comic book or the works of science-fiction authors such as Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. Their gigantic control panels and mysterious mechanisms testify to our unceasing quest for knowledge.
The book presents 22 Soviet-era research institutes, spread across eight countries (Ukraine, Armenia, Kazakhstan, etc.), and recounts their histories, as varied as they are complex: laboratories that survived political upheavals, shortages of resources, and, for some, the ravages of war. Despite all these difficulties, these institutions strive to perpetuate a remarkable scientific tradition.
A presentation of the book will take place at Librairie du Globe, 67 Bd Beaumarchais, 75003 Paris, on May 23 at 6:00 p.m.
Eric Lusito : Soviet Scientific Institutes
Published by FUEL, United Kingdom
Text by Paul R. Josephson, specialist in the history of science and technology in the 20th century, Colby College, Maine
Hardcover, 160 × 200 mm, 208 pages
ISBN 978-1068294600
£26.95 / $34.95 / 37€
