Internet projects

"Life for science"

An interarchival Internet project with this name is dedicated to the life path, scientific and social activities of the Soviet and Russian scientist, Academician, Nobel Prize winner in physics Nikolay Basov (1922-2001).

The project includes full-text digital copies of about 200 archival materials (186 documents), including photographs and newsreel fragments, stored in federal archives.

One of the first photographs of the future Nobel winner. The Basov family: Zinaida Andreevna and Gennady Fedorovich
with their sons Kolya (left) and Volodya (right). Late 1920s - early 1930s. From the personal archive of the widow of N.G.Basov.

The first section of the project "The beginning of the journey" includes documents from the personal file of the serviceman N.G.Basov, stored in the Central Administration of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and representing documents on his graduation from school, training at the Kuibyshev Military Medical Academy and subsequent participation in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. In his personal file there is an "Extract from the book on births of the Usman Department of the Office of Civil Registration Desk for 1922 with a record of his birth" - this document opens the Internet project. Photos of N.G.Basov's childhood and youth from the family archive were provided by the widow of the scientist K.T.Basova.

Documents, including photographs from the Cabinet of History of the Lebedev Physical Institute, the RAS Archive, the Russian State Academy of Physical Sciences and newsreels about the scientific work of N.G.Basov at the P.N.Lebedev Physical Institute and his main discoveries, for which in 1964 N.G.Basov, together with his colleague A.M.Prokhorov and the American physicist C.Townes were awarded the Nobel Prize, are presented in the second section "Nobel winner".

Photographs from the RAS Archive captured the official visit of a representative of the Swedish Embassy in the USSR to the Physics Institute and his announcement of the Nobel Prize awarded to N.G.Basov and A.M.Prokhorov. The RGANI collections preserve a set of documents about the invitation of Soviet scientists to Stockholm to present the Nobel Prize. Photographs and newsreels reflected the solemn moments of the ceremony.

The third section "Academician and director" contains documents on the awarding of scientific degrees and scientific titles to N.G.Basov, on his nomination first as a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, then as a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, as a member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, on the appointment of N.G.Basov as director of the FIAN in 1974, as well as documents on awards.

Application materials for the inventions of N.G.Basov from the collections of the Russian State Archives in Samara are also presented here.

The final section of the project "Not by science alone" is dedicated to the social activities of N.G.Basov in the 1970s, his work at the head of the "Knowledge" society, as a member of the committee for awarding the Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR in the field of science and technology, participation as deputy in meetings of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of three convocations, on election as a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1982).

The newsreels from the collection of the Russian State Film and Photo Archive, as well as photographs collected in one project about the life path and scientific activities of N.G.Basov are unique.

https://statearchive.ru/basov/
Based on the information from Russian State Archives