[1/2] Soviet Space Mythologies: Public Images, Private Memories, and the Making of a Cultural Identity (The Mythology of Soviet Space) (Category Space)

I read an excellent book. Vyacheslav Gerovich (Slava Gerovitch)Professor of Science, Senior Lecturer at MIT. Original came out 2015 University of Pittsburgh Press and Russian translation came out 2024 One year in the New Literary Review. This book has an interesting origin - the author came to this topic from the history of computing: he was invited to the project on the history of the Apollo on-board computer, after which he was interested in how the USSR solved management problems in manned cosmonautics. The question then shifted from the history of computers to the more general question of how human and machine functions are distributed, who actually makes decisions, and how ship design reflects the balance of power within the program. As a result, the project turned into a study of memory, narratives and professional identity of engineers and astronauts.

The book was the result. 13The study was funded by a variety of U.S. grants: an early-stage Apollo Guidance Computer project supported by the Sloan Foundation and the Dibner Institute; followed by two National Science Foundation projects, Fellowship in Aerospace History from the American Historical Association, and an oral history project supported by the NASA History Program. It is cool that these grants were used to study the Soviet history of space exploration.

Below are the main ideas of the book that make the book exciting.

1The author shows that Soviet space mythology was born out of a conflict between secrecy and propaganda. The public version of the story cleaned up mistakes, accidents and failures and left the image of flawless astronauts on fault-free technology. (The myth that dispelled during perestroika)

2The central conflict of the book is an astronaut as a hero-pilot against an astronaut as a passenger of an automated system. This is not just a figurative device: in the chapters on the interaction of man and machine, the author shows that the debate about automation was at once technical, professional and political. In other words, they argued not only about security and control loop, but also about status, responsibility and decision-making power.

3️ The book clearly shows that system design is a function of organizational policy. According to the author, the design of Soviet ships reflected the alignment of forces within the industry; the dominance of engineers consolidated the paradigm of automatic control, and the role of astronauts was largely reduced to the reservation of basic systems. Plus, the architecture was influenced by the competition of design bureaus and their patrons at the top.

4The author tells not only about the main myth, but also about counter-myths. The task of the historian is not just to refute a beautiful legend, but to understand how it is generally collected and why it lives. Therefore, the book is full of diaries, memoirs, interviews and juxtapositions of conflicting versions of the same events - especially around Gagarin's flight. I was so excited about it that I bought a box of books. Cosmoscope (Many of them are referred to by the author.)

5After the collapse of the Soviets, Soviet space began to be transformed into a symbol of national identity – the old narrative collapsed, but space quickly became a convenient source of “history to be proud of,” already in a new ideological and even commercial context. For example, I watched movies with interest. "Queens" (2007), "Main" (2015) and First Time. (2017).

And continuation I'm going to tell you what you can take away from this for software developers and tech executives to think about:)

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