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Science with a Human Face

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Science with a Human Face RIIKKA NISONEN-TRNKA Science with a Human Face The Activity of the Czechoslovak Scientists František Šorm and Otto Wichterle during the Cold War ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be presented, with the permission of the board of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities of the University of Tampere, for public discussion in the Auditorium Pinni B 1097 Kanslerinrinne 1, Tampere, on June 2nd, 2012, at 12 o’clock. UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE ACADEMIC DISSERTATION University of Tampere School of Social Sciences and Humanities Finland Copyright ©2012 Tampere University Press and the author Distribution Tel. +358 40 190 9800 Bookshop TAJU Fax +358 3 3551 7685 P.O. Box 617 [email protected] 33014 University of Tampere www.uta.fi/taju Finland http://granum.uta.fi Cover design by Mikko Reinikka Layout Petteri Linnakangas Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 1729 Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis 1199 ISBN 978-951-44-8801-6 (print) ISBN 978-951-44-8802-3 (pdf) ISSN-L 1455-1616 ISSN 1456-954X ISSN 1455-1616 http://acta.uta.fi Tampereen Yliopistopaino Oy – Juvenes Print Tampere 2012 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ...................................................................................... 5 Summary ....................................................................................................... 9 Abbreviations ............................................................................................. 12 List of frequently appearing persons ....................................................... 14 Introduction ................................................................................................ 17 Scientists with Human Faces ....................................................................... 17 The aim and object of research ................................................................... 18 Methodology ............................................................................................... 25 Contextual Framework ................................................................................. 31 Sources and Literature ................................................................................. 39 PART I: Between Dogmatism and Optimism .......................................... 48 The Beginning of the Long March: Otto Wichterle and František Šorm before 1948 .................................................................................................. 48 “The Soviet Union, our Model” .................................................................. 59 Communism with Continuities: The Establishment of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences ................................................................................... 69 Scientists behind the Iron Curtain ................................................................ 76 Opening up after 1956 ................................................................................. 81 Academy as an Asylum .............................................................................. 92 Man and the Molecules ................................................................................ 95 PART II: The Prague Spring of Science .................................................. 99 The Advent of the Scientific and Technological Revolution ....................... 99 The Critical Innovator – Otto Wichterle .................................................... 106 Criticising the Big Brother – Cooperation with the Soviets ...................... 112 From Isolation to Internationalisation ....................................................... 115 The Attractive Enemies .............................................................................. 125 The Soft Lens through the Iron Curtain ..................................................... 136 Wind of Change at the Academy of Sciences ........................................... 142 From the Lab to Politics: Wichterle as a Reformer .................................... 149 phd.indd 3 2.5.2012 11:24:16 PART III: “The Spring is over and will never return” ...................... 154 Occupied Academy .................................................................................... 154 To Flee or not to Flee ................................................................................. 160 Back to “Normal” at the Academy of Sciences ......................................... 166 Wichterle meets the „Czechoslovak Party of Opportunists“ .................... 171 Normalised scientific Cooperation with the Outside World ...................... 176 The “Operation Kardinál” - The Secret Police monitoring Šorm ............. 181 Šorm versus Sakharov ................................................................................ 189 Operation “Contact” following Wichterle ............................................... 192 Patents under Attack .................................................................................. 196 Lenses for Suslov - The Soviet interest in Wichterle’s technology ........... 199 The Useful Non-person: Wichterle in the 1980s ........................................ 206 The Velvet Revolution ............................................................................... 210 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 216 Czechoslovak Science and the World ....................................................... 217 The Manager of Czech Science: František Šorm ....................................... 223 Necessity is the Mother of Invention: Otto Wichterle .............................. 226 Bibliography ............................................................................................. 232 phd.indd 4 2.5.2012 11:24:16 Acknowledgements In this study I write among others about academic travels, contacts and cooperation. The study itself, with all its detours, has been a journey. The journey started in Prague. The streets, avenues, archives and libraries of Prague constituted the milieu and one of the main reasons inspiring me to start this project. As Franz Kafka wrote: ”Prague never lets you go”. While abroad, I was always privileged to enjoy the support of my colleagues and to be part of different academic networks. I am grateful to Professor emerita Marjatta Hietala, who encouraged my desire to study Czech history and language long before I started my PhD research. Without her academic contacts in Prague I would not have got into this research so smoothly. During many phases of the process, she commented on my papers and made me answer questions that helped to find new and often better ways to proceed in the study. My supervisor, Dr. Sari Autio-Sarasmo is partly responsible for the fact that I took up the challenge of writing a PhD. While I was still in the MA seminar, she suggested me to invest some thoughts on a possible PhD project. Her suggestion may be considered a risky act, but she definitely proved to be an excellent advisor who took responsibility to look after her students. She introduced me to dimensions of history that I was not familiar with such as the phenomena of transfer of technology and Cold War interactions. She always read my texts thoroughly and commented on them patiently. Above all, she had the ability to understand other challenges related to this kind of work. Sari was always ready to share both my moments of enthusiasm as well as hesitations. Hopefully, when looking back, she may see some progress in my understanding of history. Thank you Sari for these many enjoyable years of cooperation, I hope there will be more to come. I want to thank Dr. Katalin Miklossy, with whom I share a common interest in the countries of Central Europe and their history. She helped me greatly by reading my texts and many versions of the dissertation. Her sharp comments and bright ideas have always challenged me intellectually. I am deeply indebted to the two reviewers of my PhD manuscript, Dr. Libora Oates-Indruchová and Dr. Jyrki Paaskoski. Their comments have certainly benefited this study. Moreover, I want to thank Libora Oates-Indruchová for agreeing to be my Opponent. 5 phd.indd 5 2.5.2012 11:24:16 Acknowledgements This study would not have been accomplished without the inspiring projects and academic funding I was able to receive. I want to express my gratitude to the Academy of Finland, the Alfred Kordelin Foundation, and the Emil Öhmann Foundation. I have been privileged to work as a member in three inspiring international research projects funded by the Finnish Academy. Firstly, the Knowledge through the Iron Curtain or, more familiarly, the KIC project led by Sari Autio-Sarasmo, the FiDiPro Project Conflict and Community: Transatlantic Relations in the Long Twentieth Century and, most recently, the Competition in Socialist Society led by Katalin Miklossy. Additionally, thanks to the funding of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, I was able to spend several months in Prague studying the archives. I have personally experienced the importance of scientific communities, making it not only or merely an interesting research topic. The University of Tampere and the Department of History and Philosophy have formed one of those communities. I want to thank people in the Department for their help throughout the duration of this project. The most important scientific community has been the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki, my working place since 2007. It has been extremely interesting to work among people who share a similar passion concerning the region of
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