6 ms·

It appears to me that a rigidly controlled organization, like the Sharashka seems to have been, is actually a pretty effective way to reach a well-defined objec

It appears to me that a rigidly controlled organization, like the Sharashka seems to have been, is actually a pretty effective way to reach a well-defined objective. For example, reverse engineering something, or "make us a thing like those people over there have". The reason the Soviet Union and China (when it was actually communist) could do well at catch-up, but not as well when it was time to move into the lead, was that it is not a good system for researching or engineering new things, because in that case you need to try a lot of different things and see what works.

omazurov 8y ago
One would think of the Russian space program... >As Sergei Korolev was said to have joked, the guards who protected him in his high position as the chief designer of the Soviet space program were probably the same ones who watched over him in the sharashka.
srtjstjsj 8y ago
The Soviets pioneered space travel. The Soviets dominated mathematical research; the West only caught up when the government collapsed and the Soviet mathematicians emigrated to the West. https://www.nber.org/papers/w17800 https://www.nber.org/papers/w17800
- hyperpallium 8y ago
  It is logical that freedom is required for innovative scientific progress - and nice to think so, because it means that the free inevitably become more powerful, and defeat tyranny. A built-in safety device. e.g. Einstein, escapes nazis, leads to atomics (though to his regret). If the nazis had accepted everyone, they would have been more powerful... though, I guess, not nazis. I haven't read your link yet, but I understand soviet maths developed more-or-less in parallel isolation, with some innovations on both sides - about what you'd expect. Non-isolation would have yielded greater progress.
- Fins 8y ago
  It would be news to von Ardenne et al to hear that they were Soviet, and their input to Soviets' "pioneering" space travel is at least as important as von Braun's to American space program. (edit: spelling)
  - avmich 8y ago
    Von Braun not only succeeded in getting German researchers to USA, but headed a major space program when the need arose. Participation of German rocket specialists in Soviet space projects was more modest - first, the level of expertise wasn't quite the same as in von Braun's team, then they didn't really collaborate with Soviets as information was going only in one direction. At some point Korolev felt that Germans became less useful than their absence - given that Germans didn't have the feedback from their proposals, how it affects the work of Korolev's team. Then the German group's work was done. So, I don't think von Ardenne - who worked on nuclear projects, not rocketry - or other German participation is as big as what von Braun's team has achieved.
    - Fins 8y ago
      Don't forget that while Americans got von Braun and his brains, Soviets got not only von Ardenne (who was quite bright anyway) but also everything from rocket (and other) factories) that wasn't nailed to the floor. Whatever was nailes has been moved together with floors. By all indications, von Ardenne worked on quite a few projects, and it is quite interesting that the Soviet Moon project that ran when Germans were allowed to go home, ended in nothing much more than a few spectacular explosions.
      - avmich 8y ago
        No, Soviet Moon project had a list of successes and firsts and I would estimate was about 80% complete when it was closed. You don't launch a 100+ meter high rocket four times in 1970s, with the fourth time up until to thrust terminating sequence of the first stage, and call it a few spectacular explosions. The list of spinoffs is too numerous to list - Block D derivatives still fly, NK-33s still fly, Proton... Soyuz spacecraft... and it would be hard for one person with level of distrust which Germans had in post-war USSR to affect such a program to a scale of singular importance. Von Ardenne left USSR for East Germany in 1954 when works on - hugely successful - R-7 didn't even start, and Soviet Moon project was closed in 1974 - there definitely was some time to move development ahead.

omazurov 8y ago

One would think of the Russian space program... >As Sergei Korolev was said to have joked, the guards who protected him in his high position as the chief designer of the Soviet space program were probably the same ones who watched over him in the sharashka.

srtjstjsj 8y ago

The Soviets pioneered space travel. The Soviets dominated mathematical research; the West only caught up when the government collapsed and the Soviet mathematicians emigrated to the West. https://www.nber.org/papers/w17800 https://www.nber.org/papers/w17800

hyperpallium 8y ago
It is logical that freedom is required for innovative scientific progress - and nice to think so, because it means that the free inevitably become more powerful, and defeat tyranny. A built-in safety device. e.g. Einstein, escapes nazis, leads to atomics (though to his regret). If the nazis had accepted everyone, they would have been more powerful... though, I guess, not nazis. I haven't read your link yet, but I understand soviet maths developed more-or-less in parallel isolation, with some innovations on both sides - about what you'd expect. Non-isolation would have yielded greater progress.
Fins 8y ago
It would be news to von Ardenne et al to hear that they were Soviet, and their input to Soviets' "pioneering" space travel is at least as important as von Braun's to American space program. (edit: spelling)
- avmich 8y ago
  Von Braun not only succeeded in getting German researchers to USA, but headed a major space program when the need arose. Participation of German rocket specialists in Soviet space projects was more modest - first, the level of expertise wasn't quite the same as in von Braun's team, then they didn't really collaborate with Soviets as information was going only in one direction. At some point Korolev felt that Germans became less useful than their absence - given that Germans didn't have the feedback from their proposals, how it affects the work of Korolev's team. Then the German group's work was done. So, I don't think von Ardenne - who worked on nuclear projects, not rocketry - or other German participation is as big as what von Braun's team has achieved.
  - Fins 8y ago
    Don't forget that while Americans got von Braun and his brains, Soviets got not only von Ardenne (who was quite bright anyway) but also everything from rocket (and other) factories) that wasn't nailed to the floor. Whatever was nailes has been moved together with floors. By all indications, von Ardenne worked on quite a few projects, and it is quite interesting that the Soviet Moon project that ran when Germans were allowed to go home, ended in nothing much more than a few spectacular explosions.
    - avmich 8y ago
      No, Soviet Moon project had a list of successes and firsts and I would estimate was about 80% complete when it was closed. You don't launch a 100+ meter high rocket four times in 1970s, with the fourth time up until to thrust terminating sequence of the first stage, and call it a few spectacular explosions. The list of spinoffs is too numerous to list - Block D derivatives still fly, NK-33s still fly, Proton... Soyuz spacecraft... and it would be hard for one person with level of distrust which Germans had in post-war USSR to affect such a program to a scale of singular importance. Von Ardenne left USSR for East Germany in 1954 when works on - hugely successful - R-7 didn't even start, and Soviet Moon project was closed in 1974 - there definitely was some time to move development ahead.