STATE OPTICAL INSTITUTE DURING THE GREAT-PATRIOTIC-WAR 1941-1945

During the Great Patriotic War (in Russia, World War II is commonly known as the Great Patriotic War) optical science in the Soviet Union was concentrated principally in the Leningrad Branch of the State Optical Institute (SOI) and in Ioshkar-Ola, the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Most of the staff of the Optical Institute was evacuated to those two places. Under trying conditions, experiencing difficulties and deprivations, the SOI workers fulfilled military orders and did basic research, whose significance remains important to the present day. The scientific workers of the Optical Institute were involved in not only scientific research and development, they not only attempted to survive, but also to maintain optimism and a deep belief in the future. They helped each other in their work, in private life, and they also did some farming. This article, which covers life at the Optical Institute during the war years, is based on interviews and personal conversations with the oldest surviving workers of the Institute. They are E.N. Tsarevskii, I.I. Breido, V.V. Balakov, A.N. Burago, T.S. Kolomiitsova, and others. V.N. Vertsner, G.P. Faeran, N.N. Kosnikovskii, N.G. Zandin, D.N. Lazarev, and D.S. Volosov submitted their recollections and reminiscences in written form. Archival and other scientific-technical sources also were used.