Subproject 5: Interkosmos: Cooperation under the Conditions of Soviet Hegemony (1965-1991)

• Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Martin Schulze Wessel / Dr. Darina Volf

In 1978, as part of the Interkosmos-program, the first Czecho-Slovakian, Polish, and East-German cosmonauts flew into space on Soviet spaceships. The symbolic dimension of this mission still shapes the perception of the Interkosmos-program, which is seen first and foremost as an instrument to consolidate the Eastern bloc, to exercise Soviet hegemony, and to signal the Soviet Union's willingness to cooperate. This project does not reduce the Interkosmos-cooperation within the Eastern bloc to this political dimension, but also investigates the economic dimension, the mechanisms, and their effects on the respective science systems of the cooperating nations. In doing so, we are also paying attention to constellations of competition on different levels: competition between disciplines, between different Interkosmos-members, as well as between the blocs. Our goal is to examine the specifics of cooperation and competition under the conditions of Soviet hegemony and socialist management of science. This will contribute to a better understanding of cooperation and competition in different political, economic and scientific settings.