Soviet Space Mythologies

Soviet Space Mythologies PDF Author: Slava Gerovitch
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822980967
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
From the start, the Soviet human space program had an identity crisis. Were cosmonauts heroic pilots steering their craft through the dangers of space, or were they mere passengers riding safely aboard fully automated machines? Tensions between Soviet cosmonauts and space engineers were reflected not only in the internal development of the space program but also in Soviet propaganda that wavered between praising daring heroes and flawless technologies. Soviet Space Mythologies explores the history of the Soviet human space program within a political and cultural context, giving particular attention to the two professional groups—space engineers and cosmonauts—who secretly built and publicly represented the program. Drawing on recent scholarship on memory and identity formation, this book shows how both the myths of Soviet official history and privately circulating counter-myths have served as instruments of collective memory and professional identity. These practices shaped the evolving cultural image of the space age in popular Soviet imagination. Soviet Space Mythologies provides a valuable resource for scholars and students of space history, history of technology, and Soviet (and post-Soviet) history.

Soviet Space Mythologies

Soviet Space Mythologies PDF Author: Slava Gerovitch
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822980967
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book

Book Description
From the start, the Soviet human space program had an identity crisis. Were cosmonauts heroic pilots steering their craft through the dangers of space, or were they mere passengers riding safely aboard fully automated machines? Tensions between Soviet cosmonauts and space engineers were reflected not only in the internal development of the space program but also in Soviet propaganda that wavered between praising daring heroes and flawless technologies. Soviet Space Mythologies explores the history of the Soviet human space program within a political and cultural context, giving particular attention to the two professional groups—space engineers and cosmonauts—who secretly built and publicly represented the program. Drawing on recent scholarship on memory and identity formation, this book shows how both the myths of Soviet official history and privately circulating counter-myths have served as instruments of collective memory and professional identity. These practices shaped the evolving cultural image of the space age in popular Soviet imagination. Soviet Space Mythologies provides a valuable resource for scholars and students of space history, history of technology, and Soviet (and post-Soviet) history.

Voices of the Soviet Space Program

Voices of the Soviet Space Program PDF Author: S. Gerovitch
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 113748179X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
In this remarkable oral history, Slava Gerovitch presents interviews with the men and women who witnessed Soviet space efforts firsthand. Rather than comprising a "master narrative," these fascinating and varied accounts bring to light the often divergent perspectives, experiences, and institutional cultures that defined the Soviet space program.

Soviet Space Culture

Soviet Space Culture PDF Author: E. Maurer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230307043
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
Starting with the first man-made satellite 'Sputnik' in 1957 and culminating four years later with the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, space became a new utopian horizon. This book explores the profound repercussions of the Soviet space exploration program on culture and everyday life in Eastern Europe, especially in the Soviet Union itself.

Into the Cosmos

Into the Cosmos PDF Author: James T. Andrews
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 082297746X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
The launch of the Sputnik satellite in October 1957 changed the course of human history. In the span of a few years, Soviets sent the first animal into space, the first man, and the first woman. These events were a direct challenge to the United States and the capitalist model that claimed ownership of scientific aspiration and achievement. Into the Cosmos shows us the fascinating interplay of Soviet politics, science, and culture during the Khrushchev era, and how the space program became a binding force between these elements.

From Newspeak to Cyberspeak

From Newspeak to Cyberspeak PDF Author: Slava Gerovitch
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262572255
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
In this book, Slava Gerovitch argues that Soviet cybernetics was not just an intellectual trend but a social movement for radical reform in science and society as a whole. Followers of cybernetics viewed computer simulation as a universal method of problem solving and the language of cybernetics as a language of objectivity and truth. With this new objectivity, they challenged the existing order of things in economics and politics as well as in science. The history of Soviet cybernetics followed a curious arc. In the 1950s it was labeled a reactionary pseudoscience and a weapon of imperialist ideology. With the arrival of Khrushchev's political "thaw," however, it was seen as an innocent victim of political oppression, and it evolved into a movement for radical reform of the Stalinist system of science. In the early 1960s it was hailed as "science in the service of communism," but by the end of the decade it had turned into a shallow fashionable trend. Using extensive new archival materials, Gerovitch argues that these fluctuating attitudes reflected profound changes in scientific language and research methodology across disciplines, in power relations within the scientific community, and in the political role of scientists and engineers in Soviet society. His detailed analysis of scientific discourse shows how the Newspeak of the late Stalinist period and the Cyberspeak that challenged it eventually blended into "CyberNewspeak."

Common Places

Common Places PDF Author: Svetlana BOYM
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674028643
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Boym provides a view of Russia that is historically informed, replete with unexpected detail, and stamped with authority. Alternating analysis with personal accounts of Russian life, she conveys the foreignness of Russia and examines its peculiar conceptions of private life and common good, of Culture and Trash, of sincerity and banality.

Race Into Space

Race Into Space PDF Author: Brian Harvey
Publisher: Ellis Horwood
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description


The Soviet Space Programme

The Soviet Space Programme PDF Author: Ronald Humble
Publisher: London [England] : Routledge
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
This book presents a comprehensive overview of the programme from its beginnings up to the present, emphasising in particular the degree to which the Soviet space programme is orientated towards military capabilities.

The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team

The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team PDF Author: Colin Burgess
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 038784824X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team will relate who these men were and offer far more extensive background stories, in addition to those of the more familiar names of early Soviet space explorers from that group. Many previously-unpublished photographs of these “missing” candidates will also be included for the first time in this book. It will be a detailed, but highly readable and balanced account of the history, training and experiences of the first group of twenty cosmonauts of the USSR. A covert recruitment and selection process was set in motion throughout the Soviet military in August 1959, just prior to the naming of America’s Mercury astronauts. Those selected were ordered to report for training at a special camp outside of Moscow in the spring of 1960. Just a year later, Senior Lieutenant Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Air Force (promoted in flight to the rank of major) was launched aboard a Vostok spacecraft and became the first person ever to achieve space flight and orbit the Earth.

The Soviet Space Programme

The Soviet Space Programme PDF Author: Ronald D. Humble
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040005497
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
The Soviet Space Programme (1988) presents a comprehensive over-view of the Soviet space programme from its beginnings up to the end of the 1980s. One important theme explored is the degree to which the Soviet space programme was oriented towards military capabilities. The book concludes that the degree of military involvement was indeed high.