Asif Siddiqi (New York): Performing Secrecy

Invitation to the Monday Colloquium Talk at Deutsches Museum

State-imposed regulations on secrecy during the Cold War shaped the rituals, practices, and behavior of Soviet scientists when they ventured into the international stage. In the post-Stalinist era, as Soviet scientists, engineers, and designers came into increasing contract with their foreign counterparts, they adopted new strategies in the face of two countervailing forces. On the one hand, Soviet government and Party officials wanted to publicize the achievements of Soviet science and technology. On the other hand, because most scientific activity was inextricably tied to military research, much of it had to be kept secret. This lecture explores the case of Soviet space scientists who worked on cooperative projects with Europeans and Americans in the 1970s and 1980s, investigating how they “performed” a kind of secrecy that reassured Party officials at home while at the same time pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable to share.

When: Monday, May 27, 2019, 4:30 pm

Where: Deutsches Museum, Alter Seminarraum, Bibliotheksbau, Museumsinsel 1

The talk is part of the Monday Colloquium at Deutsches Museum. The lecture series' main theme in the summer semester 2019 will be "Cooperation and Competition in the Sciences". For the full program click here.