Invented in the USSR: A History of Inventive Thought from 1917 to 1991

Introduction
Copyright
Where can an inventor go?
Funded areas
Selection criteria

Part I. Industry and Transport
Chapter 1. Deep drilling
Before the turbodrill
The human factor
The birth of the turbodrill
World success
Since then and forever
Chapter 2. Underwater welding
Khrenov’s method
In practice
In the following years
Chapter 3. A small road
Origins of the J.D.
Expansion to the Union
Moscow roads
Since then and forever
Chapter 4. Braking with a parachute
Quick brake
From a car to an airplane
Speeds are increasing
Chapter 5. Achievements of Metrostroy
An introduction to station types
Vaults of “Mayakovskaya”
A horizontal elevator
With one continuous vault
Chapter 6. Peaceful atom
Reactor backstory
Chicago’s jumbled collection
The Soviet atom
Toward the peaceful atom
Post factum
Chapter 7. Atomic sailing
USA: submarine
USSR: surface vessel
And what about the world?
Chapter 8. Earlier than the “Concorde”
A brief prehistory
And what in the USSR?
Rise and fall
The end of the story

Part II. Science
Chapter 9. The history of raffanobrassika
A brief introduction to meiosis and conjugation
The art of reproduction
The rise and fall of Georgy Karpechenko
Chapter 10. Lost in the ice
Piri vs. “North-2”
The way to the Arctic
Papanin on an ice floe
Chapter 11. Dogs of the Lord
Bryukhanenko and artificial blood circulation
From Voronezh to Moscow
Hearts and lungs
Everything is in the head
A belated recognition
Chapter 12. Just a lens
The white officer
A little about telescopes
Maksutov’s system
Healthy competition
Chapter 13. Accelerating particles
An introduction to accelerators
The first accelerators
The principle of autofasification
Microtron and synchrotron
Chapter 14. Look deeper
In search of defects
Ahead of its time
Past and present
Chapter 15. Bone tissue
Why an Ilizarov apparatus is needed
The path of a genius
Jumps in height
Chapter 16. Soviet thermonuclear fusion
The thermonuclear fusion principle
How to contain plasma
A Soviet idea
Tokamak vs. stellarator: the day after tomorrow
Chapter 17. Don’t confuse it with laser
What is a maser?
Who invented the maser?
Chapter 18. Excited dimers
The dimer theory
Made in the USSR
Application of excimer lasers
Chapter 19. Yes, no, don’t know
From Fowler to computers
How they built a machine
After “Setunа”
Chapter 20. Laboratory life
Story one: Cherenkov detector
Story two: electron cooling of ions
Story three: quantum dots

Part III. Life of an ordinary person
Later than others
Industrial plagiarism
How to buy a car
Chapter 21. A person and an instrument
Physics and music
An electronic melody
Secret television
An American story
“Sharashkas” and communal apartments
Chapter 22. The story of kirza boots
Part one: Pomortsev’s kirza
Part two: synthetic rubber
Part three: Soviet kirza
Chapter 23. Figures in an address
Before indexes
A pilot project
Ukrainian addresses
A short story of success
Chapter 24. Electronic music
A military engineer
Electronic music
12 years of work
What next?
Was it the first?
Chapter 25. Drinking oxygen
Oxygen therapy and more
Sweet air
A real cocktail
Chapter 26. This is not the plain
Soviet mountaineering
Ablakov’s path
Ablakov’s inventions

Part IV. The Space Age
Chapter 27. Fighting pressure
A race for a record
On the eve of Osoaviakhim
From Ch-1 to OАХ-1
The path to a spacesuit
Are we the first?
Chapter 28. Cosmic gates
Top secret
With a birthday!
Chapter 29. The first artificial
Childhood illnesses
From greater to lesser
Chapter 30. An animal in space
Who is Laika?
The burden of the first
To Belka and Strelka
Chapter 31. Forward to the Moon!
Successes and failures
From filming to a soft landing
Soft landing
The end of the lunar race
Chapter 32. “Gagarin, I loved you…”
Satellite and carrier
Gagarin—the first in space
Technical subtleties
First flight
The meaning of the flight
Chapter 33. In open space
A new ship
Airlock and spacesuit
Inside and outside
Chapter 34. Docking questions
Soviet docking
Now—with pilots
Modern type docking
Chapter 35. A home in orbit
War in space
A peaceful station
Peace to “Mir”!
Chapter 36. Cruising around the Moon
Building a lunar rover: the beginning
Hopes and their collapse
And still—“Lunokhod”
After “Lunokhod”
Chapter 37. A space unmanned vehicle
How the TKS is built
Meanwhile at TsKBEM
TKS in flight
The future of unmanned vehicles
Chapter 38. Rocket engines
Ahead of its time
A closed type
Cosmic plasma
An endless topic

Part V. Weapons
A brief note on the championships
Chapter 39. The most terrible bomb
How a hydrogen bomb works
Tell er’s idea
Meanwhile in the USSR
What happened next
Chapter 40. A strike from under the water
First steps toward a ballistic missile
The big difference
A strategic-purpose submarine
Empty exhaust
Chapter 41. From continent to continent
A bit of prehistory
From the first to the seventh
And what about the Americans?
We’ll return to the USSR
A space launch
Chapter 42. Fast and invisible
“Termites” on the launchpad
“P” means “rocket”
Combat use
Chapter 43. Beating back shells
Cumulative threat
Protection in motion
Active defense

Part VI. Eternal disputes: in the USSR or not?
Chapter 44. An airplane without a fuselage
Junkers’ attempt
The CHERANOVSKY BICH (a.k.a. the “bug”)
…and others
Chapter 45. Disputes about the diode
What is a diode?
Round and Losev
After Losev
Chapter 46. Flight above the screen
Finnish experience
Works by Alekseev
At industrial scale
Abroad
Chapter 47. A picture in volume
Gabor holography
A holographic race: USA
A holographic race: USSR
Chapter 48. Blood of the dead
How to donate blood
A bank story
Yudin’s cadavers

Part VII. Great emigrants
The ebb
The second wave
The third wave and after it
Frequently asked questions
This book is not for specialists
A bit about mistakes
A few more common questions
Conclusion
Selected bibliography
About the author