Chain of coincidences
The leading methodologist of the JINR Museum of History of Science and Technology Alexander Rastorguev learned about the film, decoding the audio recording of the memoirs of the FLNR employee V. A. Shchegolev. They asked in laboratories, from friends - no one had heard of it. And the search began.
There was no information about the film on the Internet. They began to search for information in the credits. Production of the East Siberian newsreel studio, scriptwriter and director‑cameraman I. Kolovsky, directors L. Surin, Yu. Ustyuzhaninov, cameramen E. Korzun, E. Parshukov. As a result, they went to the Irkutsk film fund, contacted the director, received a test version. The film was acquired at his own expense by the son of V. A. Shchegolev - Dmitry.
The film was demonstrated on 24 October, 2025 at the memorial seminar of V. A. Shchegolev and the other day, it was shown for participants in the School "Archival impulse: the science of joint archiving", organized at the initiative of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and the Higher School of Economics. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to talk to the director. But the curators of the School Galina Orlova and Alexey Zhemchugov found the cameraman Evgeny Alekseevich Korzun that spoke a lot about this trip to Dubna, about the initiator and main inspirer of the creation of the film "Physics" - Igor Kolovsky.
In those years, an event thundered in world science - the synthesis of the element 104 at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. I. Kolovsky decided to make a film about it. The man, according to E. Korzun, he was extraordinary, persistent, ambitious. It was thanks to his assertiveness that the film crew from Irkutsk managed to come to Dubna. While they were waiting for permission, they filmed in the city and the surrounding area, so the film has a lot of landscape shots and city sketches.
The film is unusual. The topic is set by a quote from A. Einstein, "There is always an element of poetry in scientific thinking. Real science and real music require a homogeneous thought process." The film lacks voiceover, only fragments of discussions of working issues during experiments. A lot of material was filmed - summer, autumn, winter landscapes, employees prepare for the experiment, work with equipment and substances, walk along the Dubna embankment, dance, communicate, go fishing. From the camera work, you can immediately see whether it was done in a hurry or there was enough time to build a frame, shoot a long passage, maybe not even from the first take, "play" focusing, see poetic images in landscape sketches. The same unusual installation: electric pulses become consonant with the excitement of the river surface and palm trees in the lobby of the Dubna Hotel are mixed with snow-covered branches of city streets...
JINR Chief Scientific Secretary Sergey Nedelko shared his impression after watching, "Showing this film at the opening of the School “Archival Impulse – 2026” really became a special event for the participants, in which many of the deepest topics were very harmoniously focused, and" between the lines "too... The film was made on documentary material, but in the end, it turned out to be a very capacious, in fact, feature film, with many interacting generalized images and meanings - all the reason why life is so loved and attractive in our profession, in our Institute, in our Dubna. Timeless - it was in 1966 and is today, in 2026. And the "roll call" between the violin key and the integral icon along the contour and then at the end, already fully sonorous, between notes and formulae... I can't decide for myself, is it just brilliant, or brilliantly simple?"
The programme of the archival school provided for work with film and video materials. An artist, a curator, director of experimental films Nikita Spiridonov gave a lecture "Apology of Soviet film love: Dubna's case". He commented on the screening of the film, "Physicists" is a free and laid-back thaw masterpiece that describes the atmosphere of the Dubna science city at the level of "film feelings" and is also valuable to us today because it is a monument to the time in which it was created. Obviously, such a film in the USSR could only be shot in the 1960s - later such an author's "study" could be accused of "unprincipled" and not give it a go. Fortunately, today, we have the opportunity to see "Physicists" and do it especially closely - the film became a real event of the School "Archival impulse - 2026", setting the optics for researchers and archivists that rediscover the legacy of the "Renaissance" for science and art of the 1960s."
According to Director of the JINR Museum Anastasia Zlotnikova, further plans for this cinematic masterpiece that turns 60 this year, are studying, collecting additional information, mandatory attribution of all filming participants (with the participation of JINR veterans) and so on. The film will also be presented to the general public at the Festival of Archival Cinema "Rewind" that will be held in Dubna in autumn.
Today, the film "Physicists" has demonstrated not only the historical chronicle, but also the fact that it is easy to lose outstanding creative works, what an ambiguous fate of the works is. It is great luck that museum workers did not miss the mention of it in the memoirs of an employee of the Institute. It is great luck that the tape was kept by the workers of the Irkutsk Film Fund. We hope that the chain of favorable circumstances will continue and the film will be appreciated in the JINR Member States.
Galina MYALKOVSKAYA