Territory of political anomaly: Party life in a Soviet atomic city in the 1950s–1960s

Abstract

Implementation of the Soviet nuclear program involved the concentration of a large number of scientifc and technical specialists in nuclear cities that were geographically removed and politically isolated from “civilian” administrative centers. They were managed within the system of the First Chief Directorate, and then of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building, which directed the nuclear developments in emergency mode, making use of nearly unlimited resources. This particular mode of authority weakened the position of party organs in atomic centers and hampered the implementation of ideological control over the scientifc and technical intelligentsia. The subject of this article is the city of Obninsk in Kaluga region, which grew out of the secret laboratory “V”. The author examines the history of the local organization of the Communist Party, which because of nuclear secrecy was isolated from the oblastlevel leadership. This disconnection was not fully overcome even after the “opening” of the city in 1956, which was manifested, in particular, in the composition of the City Party Committee. The presence of liberal-minded people from the scientifc milieu among the party bosses allowed activists from various institutes to set up in the 1960s an urban public space aimed at freedom of self-expression and discussion, using, inter alia, the party network and resources. This model of urban development was destroyed in 1968 due to changes in central policy and the subsequent reformatting of the local political feld.