Joint Institute for Nuclear Research

Museum of History of Science and Technology of JINR

History of establishing

Work on the creation of JINR Museum of History of Science and Technology began in the second half of the 1980s. Draft regulation of the Museum was designed by a group of Joint Institute for Nuclear Research staff members and approved by the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR in November 1988. The decision on the establishment of the Museum was made by the Committee of Plenipotentiary Representatives of States - members of the Institute on 16-19 January 1989, and an order to establish the Museum was issued by JINR Director N.Bogoliubov on February 3, 1989.

Representatives of all the laboratories of the Institute formed the Council of the museum, elected its chairman, V.Nikitin. The Council and the first museum staff - V.Schwanev and V.Zakharova - did a great job of collecting artifacts and information materials for the development of the concept and the structure of the Museum. The most active members of the Council of the museum on the first stage of its existence were V.Nikitin, B.Starchenko, Y.Fogs and E.Shabalin.

Within a few years after the establishment of the museum there was a question of allocating it on a permanent place. As a result, in 1993 the museum was transferred to two rooms in the editorial office of the newspaper "Dubna: science, community, progress" (the former premises of the Party Committee, JINR), the creation of a permanent museum exposition began.

The first director of JINR Museum of the History of Science and Technology was B.Schwanev, second - H.Vardenga. Since February 2009 the museum has been managed by Nadeshda Kavalerova. The Council of the museum 's 22 members - employees of JINR and other city organizations - was formed, chaired by E.Shabalin.

The first concept of the permanent exhibition of the museum, completed in 1989, provided for the creation within it of ten major sections on the history of Dubna and the Institute, activity of JINR main laboratories and ongoing international cooperation in it. Placement of the exhibition was planned in a reasonably large building, the Council of the museum several times addressed to the Directorate of the Institute with proposals to allocate for this purpose the cottage, where had previously lived D.Blokhintsev and N.Bogoliuubov, the building of the former boiler house or the former Municipal Committee of the Communist Party, but these proposals were not satisfied.

By 1993, the museum staff and members of the Council of the museum developed a new, detailed concept of its permanent exhibition. This concept planned to establish a museum complex, consisting of the head museum with an exposition area of not less than 1,200 m², and three branches: the memorial museum of D.Blokhintzev, memorial room V.Veksler and I.Frank.

It was supposed that the head museum will consist of three parts: the main exhibition, the exhibition hall (hall of news) and the hall of discoveries.

In the main museum it was planned two main sections: "History of the JINR as an international scientific organization" with an area of 100-200 m², consisting of two blocks of exposition, and the "History and today of science and technology in JINR", with an area of 800-900 m², consisting of six blocks.

In the exhibition hall (Hall News), with an area of 100-200 m², it was intended to place changing exhibitions that reflect the actual ideas and problems of scientific and technical progress and the Exploratorium (Hall of discoveries) - used as an exhibit area intended primarily for children and youth. There should have been placed exhibits, designed for active use by customers, developing their cognitive abilities, stimulating curiosity and interest in the scientific knowledge of the world.

This concept was highly appreciated in the Polytechnical Museum - scientific and methodological center of the Association of Scientific and Technical Museums of the Russian Committee of the International Council of Museums and was approved by the heads of all JINR laboratories. In each laboratory special groups of employees who had to work on the creation of profile sections of the main museum were formed.

Unfortunately, the museum was not allocated to rooms that had at least little corresponding to this concept. In 1993 the museum was allocated to two small rooms, one of which was mounted a very truncated version of the exhibition. So far the exhibition space of the museum instead of the planned 1,200 m² makes 89 m², with the main exhibition in a hall of 37 m².