The astronomer who came in from the cold
Here’s a fascinating little bit of history for you. The other day I discovered the old Visitor’s Book in which staff of the Astronomy Centre at the University of Sussex used to record the names of distinguished guests who appeared here to give seminars. There are many illustrious names in the book, including for example at the bottom of this page (from 1968), Ed Salpeter.
However, the name to which I’d like to draw your attention is in the middle of this page. On 17th August 1968 the Astronomy Centre played host to two Russian visitors, an astrophysicist called Dr G.S. Khromov from the Sternberg Astronomical Institute in Moscow and a chap from the state-run Novosti Press Agency by the name of Gennadi I. Gerasimov.
I know little of Khromov’s work in astrophysics, but it is significant that he was permitted to visit the United Kingdom during the Cold War period, long before Glasnost and the eventual break-up of the Soviet Union. The second name is much more famous. Gennadi Ivanovich Gerasimov rose through the ranks of the Soviet System and eventually during the 1980s became Foreign Affairs spokesman for Mikhail Gorbachev and press spokesman for Eduard Shevardnadze.
So what was he doing in Sussex in 1968 attending an astronomy seminar? Well, the answer to that is that during the 1960s Russian scientists were generally only allowed to visit the West if they were accompanied by a “minder”, usually some form of KGB operative whose job was to ensure the scientist did not defect; the use of a press agency as cover story was pretty standard in such cases. I’ve heard similar stories from Russian colleagues who travelled to the west under similar constraints during this period, and even some in which the scientist was the cover story for the agent!
So Gennadi Gerasimov was almost certainly at one time a KGB agent. Given the career of the current President of Russia, this should come as no surprise…
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In the Dark 
November 1, 2013 at 8:55 pm
That’s an interesting discovery.
I once organised astronomy seminars for one term in a place I worked at, and I’ve regretted not keeping some record. Perhaps a photograph of each visiting speaker would have been appropriate.
Keeping records of this kind is interesting, although relatively few people in academia tend to think it is worth doing nowadays, unfortunately.
November 2, 2013 at 1:09 pm
I remember having that book for a while and it is fascinating. Judging by this page, the seminar series must have had quite an impressive travel budget associated with it. I recall that in the 90s our budget was so limited (500 pounds for the entire academic year, i.e. 20+ seminars, is the number that sticks in my head) that we hardly ever had a speaker from outside the southeast of England. Any one of these speakers would have blown that budget at a stroke. Presumably in those days the speakers would tour several UK universities in a single trip.
Andrew
November 2, 2013 at 2:39 pm
I’ll wager that virtually all the international speakers were actually on the (large) visitor’s programme at the IOA in Cambridge, so their expenses would be fairly manageable, and Brighton being a nice place for a day trip it usually wasn’t difficult to persuade people to make the journey.
When I took over as seminar organizer for a short time in the 80s, the best tip I was given was to stay in touch with the secretary at the IOA and thus keep refreshing the list of potential seminar speakers that way. I remember getting Igor Novikov that way.