New edition for the anniversary of the Institute
"Under the supervision of Yuri Tsolakovich, there was a special attitude towards writing a book, work on which has been going on for more than a year," JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov opened the event. “It was written by scientists, but for citizens - in simple words, with pictures of what the Institute is engaged in. The text has been rewritten several times, I don't know where Yuri Tsolakovich has found so much patience, time and effort. I think it turned out well."
Yuri Oganessian told about the history of the book, "Anniversary publications about large groups are a special and difficult genre. At our own peril and risk, we have moved away from the traditional approaches of describing the life of our Institute as fully as possible. We decided that the book will consist of six action-packed short stories, since JINR has six jubilee laboratories. The idea of such fragmentation is taken from the film by J. Duvivier "The Devil and the ten commandments" produced in 1962. It is noteworthy that despite the solid age of the Institute, all the selected plots are modern. What has been done in Dubna is presented in the context of the development of this science in other laboratories of the world that emphasizes the role of JINR."
Yuri Tsolakovich explained that half of the volume of the book is occupied by illustrations, at the beginning of each novel, except for portraits of the authors, there are photographs of monuments to the founders of these areas installed on the streets of the city. The text itself is divided into small parts available for modern clip thinking. The authors tried to make it simple, get rid of special terms and formulae, received many valuable comments and suggestions from fellow physicists during the work. Further, Director of the Institute invited the authors to contact future readers of the book.
Victor Matveev, the author of the novel "Colored quarks", expressed sincere gratitude for the offer to take part in this unusual collection. "A novella is the news the exposition of which becomes a story," he said. "The story I have presented is a tribute of exceptional respect and deep gratitude to the outstanding scientist N. N. Bogolyubov that met on my way, played the role of a teacher and a mentor in life from my first steps in scientific activity." He spoke about the unique creative atmosphere of the Institute, contributing to the professional increase of young scientists. "I was lucky enough to start working at JINR as a research intern at a time when particle physics was on the verge of meeting a fundamental problem related to the mystery of the relationship between the structure of elementary particles and the nature of strong interactions. I heard about this problem when I was still studying at Leningrad University, it completely took over my thoughts. And the most amazing thing, when I entered BLTP, I learned was that the most legendary person for me N. N. Bogolyubov was interested in this problem. I was included in the circle of his students and employees involved in meeting these issues. So, thanks to a happy fate, I turned out to be a witness and a participant in his search in meeting the issue of hadron physics based on the hypothesis of colored quarks."
In his novella, he also recalls his closest colleagues and senior comrades - A. N. Tavkhelidze, V. V. Struminsky, R. M. Muradyan, M. A. Markov, A. A. Logunov, A. M. Baldin. The painting by D. I. Blokhintsev "Red horse" illustrates the image of an unchanging desire to search for scientific truth in the book, in the words of the poetic syllable of Dmitry Ivanovich, "an unrestrained jump along puddles, off-road to the cloud bridge of knowledge of truth".
The co-authors of the second novella "Faces of neutrino" were A. G. Olshevsky and L. D. Kolupaeva. "Yuri Tsolakovich told us, "Write whatever you wish, the main thing is to be interesting!" And it just turned out to be the most difficult,” A. G. Olshevsky said. "An interesting fact helped us. In 1956, two events happened: JINR was founded and neutrinos were experimentally discovered. We understood how to act. Why did we choose such a name for the novel? The face is something spiritualized, perhaps, not fully manifested, but very important." L. D. Kolupaeva remembered B. Pontecorvo, S. M. Bilenkoy that worked at JINR, said that historically the world's first accelerator for a neutrino experiment was a synchrotron in LHEP. And today, JINR participates in all significant world neutrino projects aimed at answering many questions of neutrino physics. She also expressed her deep gratitude to Yu. Ts. Oganessian for his active participation in the preparation of the text.
The novella "From computers to artificial intelligence" was written by an inter-institute staff that was established by Director of the Institute of System Programming of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. I. Avetisyan, V. V. Korenkov and T. A. Strizh. "We are very glad that Yuri Tsolakovich invited us to contribute to this book," Vladimir Korenkov emphasized. "There were many difficulties. We were just preparing the album for the anniversary of LCTA - MLIT and we did not want to repeat ourselves. Yuri Tsolakovich proposed to show not only the development of computer technology and how the laboratory responded to the challenges of the time, but also to touch on the phenomenon of artificial intelligence (AI). A.I. Avetisyan is a leading specialist in Russia in the field of trusted AI, but this symbiosis of computers and AI was very difficult for us. AI has penetrated all areas of our lives today, so we wanted this topic to sound in our novel."
"Working on the book brought me back to a long time ago, when I just started working at DLNP with my first supervisor L. M. Soroko," Tatyana Strizh recalled. “He said that each of his articles should be rewritten at least eight times. The fact that we rewrote our text for a long time is the most correct scientific approach and thanks to Yuri Tsolakovich for guiding us along this path. It was difficult when I got used to writing annual reports." Of the two authors of the novella "Pulsed reactors. Tigers in a cage" V. L. Aksenov and E. P. Shabalin, only Evgeny Pavlovich participated in the presentation. "I am not the main author, we were also helped by young co-authors - Maxim Podlesny and Alexander Verkhoglyadov," Evgeny Shabalin said. “I am very pleased that the title of the book corresponds to the history of IBRs - they were also born in Dubna. No one else has ever tried to give birth to them anywhere." And E.P. Shabalin admitted that since last summer he had been busy writing a play dedicated to the authors of quantum theory, since in 2025, the centenary of quantum mechanics was celebrated. Therefore, his contribution to the book is not very great.
To the author of the fifth novella "Heavyweights in the periodic table" Yu. Ts. Oganessian G.V. Trubnikov added the whole staff of FLNR as co-authors. And Yuri Tsolakovich first focused the attention of the hall on the intrigue that is present in each of the short stories. "The complex Standard Model, brilliantly describing our world, lacked either one card or one suit. This suit was found in Dubna and V. A. Matveev has a work on the topic of colored quarks. When I graduated from the institute, everyone was talking about the mystery of the lack of solar neutrinos," he continued. “Later, it turned out that these are oscillations. When mentioning the Govorun supercomputer, I always remember our communal apartment that I once shared with Kolya Govorun. And who knows where artificial intelligence will go next?”
Relative to superheavy elements. You won't surprise anyone with artificial synthesis today, but in SHE it happens in a completely different way. Dubna is the birthplace of heavy ion physics and the first-born element 102 here was recognized as a discovery by Soviet scientists. And it turned out that you can reach 118. You can see on the panel on the pool "Archimedes" 10 of 26 artificial elements obtained here."
The authors of the sixth novella are E. M. Syresin and V. G. Ryabov, co-authors are V. M. Golovatyuk, V. D. Kekelidze, V. A. Lebedev, I. N. Meshkov, G. V. Trubnikov. As G. V. Trubnikov said, this section was corresponded 8-10 times and he had to be an arbiter between the VBLHEP team and Yu. Ts. Oganessian, it was so difficult to work. E. M. Syresin congratulated everyone on the publication of the book and personally, Yuri Tsolakovich, "who immediately felt the nerve of the future book very well". The novella reflects the ideas that were the basis of this facility, the project has accumulated all the previous world experience. The collider was developed for 20 years and people who came to the project at the age of 25-30, today, have become venerable scientists. E. M. Syresin compared the construction of the collider and the construction of such major cathedrals as the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and St. Isaac's. Their construction lasted almost 40 years and they have been in demand for many generations. "I hope that this winter, physical experiments will begin at the collider that will explain the main processes and factors of the beginning of the formation of the Universe and I am sure, our descendants will remember the NICA Collider with gratitude." V. A. Lebedev added that the construction is not yet completed but they hope to get the first luminosity in winter. "When we were writing the book, the future was projected onto the past. And my general impression is that we live in a very interesting time," he said.
As G. V. Trubnikov explained, the epilogue of the book was written by Yu. Ts. Oganessian and gave him an idea of how to write an introduction: imagine how D.I. Blokhintsev would look at this book. "The trigger was “the red book”," Grigory Vladimirovich said. “I came across it in the library on Lipnya during the AYSS conference in July, 2025 and read all night. And when I thought to write the introduction, I realized that I needed to return to the island and wrote the introduction there in an hour. Yuri Tsolakovich liked it.
The book is named for a reason and for a reason today, in addition to the staff of the Institute, the color of our city has gathered here - heads of enterprises, doctors, teachers, dean. This book is about everyone involved, it is about all of us. And on the cover, there is a symbol that unites all of us - the Volga that does not separate, but unites two shores, the most expensive symbol of our city."
Yu. Ts. Oganessian expressed deep gratitude to B. M. Starchenko that thoroughly and patiently worked with the authors of all texts. “He knows Dubna and its residents well. I have not met such a patient person - the text was rewritten 14 times. We, without specifically limiting ourselves to terms, decided to work until we ourselves like the result. It took us almost a year and a half."
The idea to use the painting "Red horse" by D. I. Blokhintsev as an epigraph was proposed by the editor of the publishing house "RMP" M. A. Lukichev. He thanked Yuri Tsolakovich for the pleasure of working on this book and all its authors that in figurative comparison with Yu. Ts. Oganessian, built a bridge between the founders of the Institute and future generations. "We had disputes but later, it was understood that Yuri Tsolakovich was right," M. A. Lukichev said. “He was not only the editor-in-chief, but also the main critic of this book and this is a very difficult task. A huge merit of B. M. Starchenko is what texts resulted. Invisibly, we talked with the book designer N. M. Shaulskaya that had to redo her work more than once. In the end, everything worked out. I am happy that I worked with such an author's team, it was hard and easy for me at the same time. Thank you all!"
“...Our book is about people, about the majority and insights of theorists, about the virtuoso perseverance of experimenters, about the talent of engineers. We all recognize the enduring importance of basic research that aims at developing for future generations and peace on Earth. They are always over politics, over conjuncture, over economic benefits. Truly science brings peoples together!" - with these words JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov is ending the prologue to the book.
P.S. Let me reveal the latest intrigue. "Red book" is a collection of publications by Dubna journalists "JINR: time, events, people". And I will add that photographs from the archive of Yu. A. Tumanov and made specifically for the publication of E. V. Puzynina are used in the book.
Olga TARANTINA, photos by Elena PUZYNINA