THE 1956 LENINGRAD CONFERENCE

The following year, the State University of Leningrad convened a conference of physicists to examine the nature of the moon and the planets. It was held in Leningrad in February 1956. Most of those attending were scientists, astronomers and what would now be called planetologists. Also there was Mikhail Tikhonravov, not repre­senting Pionerskaya Pravda, but this time the Artillery Institute, where NII-4 was located. The conference in Leningrad State University, which reviewed the state of knowledge of our moon at the time, was well publicized and news of its deliberations were again picked up in the West [3].

Following the deliberations in Leningrad State University, Korolev paid a visit to Tikhonravov’s Artillery Institute. There, he asked its designers, engineers and experts to explain their work to him. As was his wont, Korolev said little, preferring to listen and taking a particular interest in their work on trajectories. Being a man more of action than of words, the institute soon found out that it had made its mark. Wielding his authority as chief designer, Korolev transferred the institute to his own, the first experimental design bureau, OKB-1. There, the NII-4 personnel could be under his direct control and enlisted fully in his cause. They now became department #9 of OKB-1, founded 8th March 1957 [4]. We do not know what Mikhail Tikhonravov thought of this. He was a quiet man who preferred to work in the background and who rarely sought the limelight. His unassuming nature concealed great imagination, a steely sense of purpose and, as the situation in the early 1950s required some considerable courage.

This was typical of Korolev. Long before his intercontinental ballistic missile had flown, some time before the first Sputnik had even been approved, he was already thinking ahead to a flight to the moon. Working on several projects at once daunted many lesser men, but it was his forte. Korolev’s drive, imagination, timing and ability to knock heads (and institutes) together do much to explain the early successes of the Soviet space programme [5]. The relationship between Tikhonravov and Korolev has attracted little attention, but it was a key element in the early Soviet lunar programme. One person who has commented is Sergei Khrushchev, son of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Sergei Khrushchev says that Korolev was not an originator of technical ideas, but someone able to gather the best engineers and technicians around him. He was able, though, to spot talent, to organize, to manage, to drive ideas and concepts through the political system. Although many of the ideas of his design bureau were attributed externally to him, he made sure that, within the bureau, individual designers were recognized, promoted, praised and rewarded. Khrushchev: ‘Mikhail Tikhonravov was a man ofbrilliant intellect and imaginative scope [but] totally devoid of organizational talents’ [6]. The combination of Korolev the organizer and Tikhon – ravov the designer worked well and between them they built the moon programme.