The Soviet Biography Of Niels Bohr And The Evolution Of The Series Lives Of Remarkable People From The Thaw To The Stagnation

This paper presents a microhistorical investigation of the conflict that arose in the editorial office of the series of scientific and artistic biographies Lives of Remarkable People (Zhizn' Zamechatel'nykh Liudei, thereafter – ZhZL) in preparation for the publication of Daniil Danin's book Niels Bohr (1978). Based on Danin's extensive correspondence with the editors, preserved in his collection at the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts, the paper reconstructs the stages of the conflict between 1970 and 1976, including the nature of editorial claims and the author’s disagreements. The analysis of the conflict incorporates Danin's biographical context. By the early 1970s, Danin had gained recognition as an author of popular science books on physics. Niels Bohr had a controversial reputation in the USSR, being a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences who traveled to the Soviet Union and the author of the idealistic Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. The publication conflict regarding Niels Bohr serves as a case to investigate the shifting ideological agenda and evolving perceptions of working relationships within the editorial office of ZhZL during the transitional period between the “Thaw” and “Stagnation” eras in Soviet history. This study also sheds light on the less apparent involvement of the USSR Writers’ Union functionaries in the resolution of this conflict, and the attitudes towards modern science and scientists among conservative circles of the Soviet intelligentsia in the 1970s