Documents / FOIA release
This JPRS translation, dated 1 August 1990, is an article from the Soviet journal Kommunist by Leonid Grishchuk of the Shternberg State Astronomy Institute. In it he argues that basic science needs state support. He notes that lecture audiences ask a lot about flying saucers and space aliens. He goes on to review cosmology, including galaxy structure, cosmic expansion, relic radiation, Fridman's models and inflationary theory. He closes by saying the question of non-Earth civilizations is a topic for another author.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
Document 12 of 16 Concatenated JPRS Reports, 1990 Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Status: [STAT] Document Date: 01 Aug 90 Category: [CAT] Report Type: JPRS Report Report Date: Report Number: JPRS-UK0-90-015 UDC Number: Author(s): Leonid Grishchuk, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, chief of department, State Astronomy Institute imeni P.K. Shternberg] Headline: Boundaries of Cosmology Source Line: 915B0001I Moscow KOMMUNIST in Russian No 12, Aug 90 (signed to press 1 Aug 90) pp 81-89 Subslug: [Article by Leonid Grishchuk, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, chief of department, State Astronomy Institute imeni P.K. Shternberg] FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE: 1. [Article by Leonid Grishchuk, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, chief of department, State Astronomy Institute imeni P.K. Shternberg] 2. [Text] For many decades, scientific policy in our society has suffered distortions and deformations, the more extreme manifestation of which was the persecution not only of individual scientists, but also of entire scientific fields. To make up for this, there was no shortage of optimistic forecasts and expectations that science would become a direct production force and, when this happens, would scatter benefits as though from the horn of plenty. 3. Today, we are realizing our lag behind the world level in a number of directions of basic research, the loss of interest in the achievements of various areas of knowledge, the spread of a skeptical attitude toward scientists, who are forced to substantiate the need to develop science via references to the fact that its current level determines tomorrow's equipment, technology and material progress. Recently, there was talk of a need to stop financing space research. It was saved by showing its contribution to the economy. Of course, this utilitarian approach is in many ways stipulated by the labor structure of our economy. However, we must not forget about the influence that the advancement of knowledge has on man's intellectual and cultural level. In the big picture, this is really the main result of assimilating the achievements of scientific thought! 4. In turn, the attitude toward basic research and the understanding of its role in social progress depend on the level of culture. In a rule-of-law state, this dependency is obvious: the opinion of the
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 12 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.