Professional community of Tomsk scientistsradiophysicists in the first half of the XX century: centerperipheral relations

Based on the materials of office documentation and memoirs of contemporaries, the article attempts a methodological understanding of the theory of center-peripheral relations as applied to the study of the scientific community of radiophysicists in Tomsk in the first half of the 20th century. It is emphasized that certain provisions of the modernization theory, critically rethought taking into account the Soviet socio-political realities, can claim the role of a tool for rethinking. We note that the institutionalization of radiophysical research in Siberia and the formation of the Tomsk radiophysical community on its basis are inextricably linked with the problem of regionalization of domestic science and higher education and the restructuring of the country’s scientific and educational potential. It is emphasized that in the 1920s-1930s the formation of the Tomsk radiophysical community proceeded both “from above” - through the implementation of the state scientific-technical and scientific-educational policy through the opening of scientific and educational institutions, and “from below” - through self-organization and coordination of efforts of representatives of the local teaching corporation and members of the radio amateur movement. Since the early 1930s, the leaders of the community have come to the fore: V.N. Kessenikh and A.B. Sapozhnikov, who became the founders of the radiophysical school at TSU and SPTI. We also note that the Great Patriotic War gave impetus to the development of alternative forms of organizing scientific activities. One of them was the Tomsk Committee of Scientists - an accelerator for the development of all kinds of inventions, discoveries and rationalization proposals, which was based on design methods for conducting interdisciplinary research, which made it possible to find the shortest ways to industrialize their results. In the 1950s - 1960s, Tomsk residents reached the borderline of radiophysical research, which was a sign of the fifth technological order. However, it was not possible to fully implement the obtained developments, focused on direct practical application, due to the systemic rejection from the center-peripheral vertical of everything that did not fit into the already formed management system. We conclude that there is a natural connection between the institutionalization of radiophysics in the universities of Tomsk and the implementation of the concepts of regionalization of science within the framework of the mobilization paradigm adopted in the USSR. Within the boundaries of bilateral interaction between the leaders of the university corporation and the main actor of modernization, represented by the state, Tomsk radio physics and radio electronics directly influenced the structural parameters of regional science, which, in turn, determined the transformation of the scientific and educational space of Siberia.

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