‘Space is fertile ground for attracting young people to science’

“The Light of the technical intelligentsia”

This is the first experience of a traveling exhibition at the Kazan Aviation Institute. It was timed directly to coincide with Cosmonautics Day. In addition, its creators focused on celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. This event is a refrain, said Candidate for Historical Sciences, Deputy Director of the State Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan Lyudmila Kuznetsova.

“During the war, the republic's technical intelligentsia worked, including Sergey Korolyov and Valentin Glushko. They lived very modestly on 5, Lyadov Street. This building has survived to this day. The closed NKVD design bureau at the 16th plant — that's what it was called. In common parlance, it was called a “sharashka.” Korolyov worked in Kazan on improving the Pe-2 bomber aircraft. It was the most mass-produced bomber during the Great Patriotic War. And in total, Tatarstan produced 10,000 such machines during the war,” said the historian.

One of the exhibits is a copy of the newspaper Leninets of Kazan University, entirely dedicated to the flight of Yuri Gagarin into space.

“When it became known that a man went into space, spontaneous rallies and demonstrations began to gather all over the country. In Kazan, rallies were held at enterprises and universities, and people exchanged telegrams. By midday, a huge number of such telegrams had accumulated at the Kazan post office, there were hundreds of them. My mother worked at the design bureau at the time. Despite the fact that all the employees were serious people, engineers, they were happy like children, running from office to office. A man in space was a huge joy,” Kuznetsova recalls.

“A feeling of joy and pride for our wonderful homeland”

The newspaper Leninets says that a rally took place at 12 o'clock. It was conducted by the rector of the university Mikhail Nuzhin and the dean of the physics and mathematics faculty Shaukat Khabibullin. Here is an excerpt from the text of the telegram to Yuri Gagarin from the educational institution:

“We are deeply moved by your unprecedented feat. A feeling of great joy and pride for our wonderful homeland, for our wonderful people fills our hearts. With all our hearts we wish you good health, further success in space exploration for the glory of our beloved homeland.”

In 1967, Gagarin came to Kazan to participate in the Soviet-Japanese youth friendship festival, a state archive employee said: “Then he lived in a very ordinary house in the Volga youth camp, we have a photo in the State Archives where he is sitting on the porch and playing with a dog. Female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova also visited Kazan. She participated in the Komsomol conference. During the construction of KAMAZ, cosmonaut Pyotr Klimuk came to Naberezhnye Chelny. There is a photo of him meeting with city residents. There was a gathering of builders and fitters there. In general, the topic of space was then focused on young people. So that the technical intelligentsia would grow, so that young people would be interested in the exact sciences. Space was fertile ground for attracting talented young people to science.” Also at the exhibition dedicated to Cosmonautics Day, one of the last photographs of designer Valentin Glushko, taken in Kazan in 1989, is presented. He died that same year.

Meeting with a hero

A number of events are held at Kazan Aviation Institute (KAI) in honour of the celebration of Cosmonautics Day. This was reported by the head of the department of social work with students of the university, Irina Khalitova. The drawing competition was the most popular.

“KAI could not ignore this holiday. The university hosts ceremonial events, lectures and meetings dedicated to Cosmonautics Day. In early April, we announced a space-themed drawing competition, in which more than 60 people took part — students, employees, children of employees, students of our lyceum and ordinary residents of Kazan. The youngest participant is four years old, the oldest is 60 years old,” said a representative of the educational institution.

As part of the celebration of Cosmonautics Day, an online meeting with a cosmonaut was held. A live broadcast was planned with Alexander Lazutkin who was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps in 1992. His first space mission was Soyuz TM-25, on which he was a flight engineer. The Hero of the Russian Federation will talk about the path he has travelled and why engineering professions are so important today, said Vice-Rector for Educational Activities of KNITU-KAI Roman Moiseyev.

The first Department of Jet Engines

KAI is associated with the names of outstanding enthusiastic designers — Valentin Glushko and Sergey Korolyov, who created the technical base for the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, and then the flight of man into space. In 1943-1944, in KB-103, scientists created and tested the RD-1 auxiliary liquid rocket engine for the Petlyakov dive bomber, produced at the Kazan Aviation Plant.

Glushko, together with the Director of KAI G. Kamenkov and Dean of the Second Faculty S. Rumyantsev, proposed the creation of the Department of Jet Engines. This proposal was approved by the government. Based on the order of the People's Commissariat, the Department of Jet Engines was organized. Thus, KAI became the first university in the country where such a department was created.

Later Chief Engineer, Hero of Socialist Labour Ivan Ivanov as well as Dean of the engine-building faculty Makhfuzya Maksutova were among the first graduates of the new department in June 1946.