70 Olga Nikonova
authority joined the organization of medical services. By order of the Ministry
of Health, the medical and sanitary department No. 71 (MSO No. 71) was
created at the plant, which was staffed not only by military doctors, but also
by graduates of the residencies of the Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Moscow, the
Leningrad medical institutes, and the Troitsk Medical College. 13 The staff of
MSO No. 71 became the core of the group of experts in the South Urals,
which later became the first branch of the Institute of Biophysics (FIB-1). Most
of this expert community consisted of young scientists and medical practitioners, whose professional development coincided with the formation of the
nuclear industry. Grigorii Baisogolov (1921–2003) headed the second therapeutic department of MSO No. 71, and since 1953, the FIB-1. Baisogolov
graduated from the medical faculty of the Tbilisi Medical Institute, and during
the war, he worked as a doctor in an evacuation hospital. After graduating, he
was trained in the hemotherapy clinic of the Central Institute of Hematology.
Angelina Gusʹkova (1924–2015), a world-renowned radiation medicine specialist, came from a family of doctors, graduated in 1941 from the Sverdlovsk
Medical Institute, remained for residency at the Clinic of Nervous Diseases
and Neurosurgery, studied malignant brain tumors, and finally found herself
in a “closed city.” Initially, the small scientific group dealing with radiology
included the therapists V.N. Doshchenko, V.I. Kiriushkin, dermatologist E.L.
Emanova, and radiochemists T.N. Rysina and V.I. Petrushkin. 14 After the creation of FIB-1 from 1953 to 1955, specialists of the secret laboratory “B” in
Sungul – physicists taken from Germany 15 and famous prisoners such as geneticist and biologist Nikolai Timofeev-Resovskii – joined the team. In particular,
Lev Buldakov became the head of the FIB-1 toxicology laboratory. 16 In her
book, both written as a generalizing work and partly as her recollections of
the past, Gusʹkova referred to the Ural specialists in the field of radiology as
“surprisingly brave and professional, highly competent youth collectives.” 17
It should be noted that the abovementioned expert communities of medical and biological radiology embedded within a specific scientific organization of the USSR where, starting from the 1920s, a personified model of
scientific knowledge production emerged. Government funding and administering of science, as it was noted by N. Krementsov, tended to paternalism
and concentration of “power” within a certain scholarly environments in the
hands of several well-known persons : “this kind of policy often turned to the
‘monopoly’ of these leading men on the development of their disciplines.” 18
This point is important for understanding the inner relations within the
expert community of radiation medicine.
Reflection of Political Processes in the Memoires
of Ural Medical Professionals
The group of radiological experts working in the nuclear industry was originally a closed corporation bound by general secrecy, nondisclosure signatures, or military oaths. The principle of strict secrecy applies to this expert
authority joined the organization of medical services. By order of the Ministry
of Health, the medical and sanitary department No. 71 (MSO No. 71) was
created at the plant, which was staffed not only by military doctors, but also
by graduates of the residencies of the Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Moscow, the
Leningrad medical institutes, and the Troitsk Medical College. 13 The staff of
MSO No. 71 became the core of the group of experts in the South Urals,
which later became the first branch of the Institute of Biophysics (FIB-1). Most
of this expert community consisted of young scientists and medical practitioners, whose professional development coincided with the formation of the
nuclear industry. Grigorii Baisogolov (1921–2003) headed the second therapeutic department of MSO No. 71, and since 1953, the FIB-1. Baisogolov
graduated from the medical faculty of the Tbilisi Medical Institute, and during
the war, he worked as a doctor in an evacuation hospital. After graduating, he
was trained in the hemotherapy clinic of the Central Institute of Hematology.
Angelina Gusʹkova (1924–2015), a world-renowned radiation medicine specialist, came from a family of doctors, graduated in 1941 from the Sverdlovsk
Medical Institute, remained for residency at the Clinic of Nervous Diseases
and Neurosurgery, studied malignant brain tumors, and finally found herself
in a “closed city.” Initially, the small scientific group dealing with radiology
included the therapists V.N. Doshchenko, V.I. Kiriushkin, dermatologist E.L.
Emanova, and radiochemists T.N. Rysina and V.I. Petrushkin. 14 After the creation of FIB-1 from 1953 to 1955, specialists of the secret laboratory “B” in
Sungul – physicists taken from Germany 15 and famous prisoners such as geneticist and biologist Nikolai Timofeev-Resovskii – joined the team. In particular,
Lev Buldakov became the head of the FIB-1 toxicology laboratory. 16 In her
book, both written as a generalizing work and partly as her recollections of
the past, Gusʹkova referred to the Ural specialists in the field of radiology as
“surprisingly brave and professional, highly competent youth collectives.” 17
It should be noted that the abovementioned expert communities of medical and biological radiology embedded within a specific scientific organization of the USSR where, starting from the 1920s, a personified model of
scientific knowledge production emerged. Government funding and administering of science, as it was noted by N. Krementsov, tended to paternalism
and concentration of “power” within a certain scholarly environments in the
hands of several well-known persons : “this kind of policy often turned to the
‘monopoly’ of these leading men on the development of their disciplines.” 18
This point is important for understanding the inner relations within the
expert community of radiation medicine.
Reflection of Political Processes in the Memoires
of Ural Medical Professionals
The group of radiological experts working in the nuclear industry was originally a closed corporation bound by general secrecy, nondisclosure signatures, or military oaths. The principle of strict secrecy applies to this expert