Once, in the last century, no one needed to explain what a research institute is. Decoding of the abbreviation was known to everyone. Many worked in these institutions. In almost every family there was a relative working or once working at a research institute.
The first research institutes
The first research institutes appeared before the 1917 revolution. Although people always built scientific institutions (some of the earliest are found in the excavations of Babylon). The word “institute” was first used in Paris. The National Institute of Sciences and Arts, designed to improve science, having undergone some changes over time, became known as the Institute of France. The date of its foundation is considered October 25, 1795.
Following the example of a French scientific institution, research institutes (research institutes) spread throughout Europe and by the mid-twentieth century became cells of national scientific activity. The need for intersectoral research and practical research on a scientific basis has led to the creation of industry, international research institutes and research centers.
Now only in Russia there are 1812 official addresses of research institutes. They are located throughout the country, from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to Pskov, and are working on the problems of the entire national industrial complex.
Closed research institutes in ZATO
The first closed territorial entities (ZATOs) are associated with the creation of nuclear weapons in 1946-1953. During the Cold War era of the USSR, some research institutes were built in cities that were closed to the uninitiated. They were not on the cards, and getting there was not easy: the pedigree was checked almost to the seventh generation to avoid leakage of classified information. Employees working in such a research institute signed a non-disclosure of state secrets. The settlement itself was often surrounded by barbed wire and a strict access regime was introduced.
They were called not by the name of the geographical village where they were located, but by adding a code to the name of an ordinary city: Krasnoyarsk-26, Penza-19 or Chelyabinsk-65. In Zagorsk-6 was the base of the Research Institute of Microbiology, which stores strains of bacteriological weapons - smallpox, for example. In Sarov-16 there is a research institute of experimental physics. They developed weapons, including nuclear ones.
For special conditions, all residents received compensation in monetary terms and a good supply of goods and products. They were not allowed to go abroad even several years after dismissal or retirement. Meetings with relatives living outside the city, even in the neighboring village, were possible only on vacation or on a special pass.
Mailboxes
The research institutes were civilian (VNIISENTI - economic information, NIIIBT - drilling equipment) and military. The last one was assigned the mailbox number, based on the interests of the secrecy of the object. They were included in the structure of the military-industrial complex and worked for defense.
The salary in the “box” was higher, workers received holiday “orders” - sets of scarce products. The clinic also, as a rule, had its own or had the opportunity to visit the departmental. Medical services there were an order of magnitude higher. Departmental kindergartens and pioneer camps, which also had a serious material base, worked for the children of employees.
Periodically, visiting the enterprise was invited to the enterprise from the military trade and provided with scarce things - clothes and shoes. Going abroad working in the “box” was impossible.
Sharashkin offices
Since the thirties, special institutions from the NKVD, where prisoners worked, began to use the labor of engineering and technical workers not in a logging site, but in closed research institutes. Most of them were convicted under article 58, “for sabotage”. These research institutes were popularly called "sharashkin offices." In fact, these were scientific and technical prisons.
Many worthy people worked in sharashka. For example, A. Tupolev, V. Chizhevsky, A. Solzhenitsyn. Many did not know what the research institute was doing. In Magadan, for example, VNII-1 conducted research work on the exploration of gold deposits. NIIOKhT was engaged in research on the creation of chemical weapons, experiments were carried out on humans. Martha Sharashka (Research Institute of Communications) - was engaged in the development of equipment for radio reconnaissance.
The latest military equipment, compositions of gunpowder and armor for tanks, aircraft, space equipment - all that worked for defense, in the USSR were made by convicted engineers.
Women's team
The civil research institute is mainly a female collective. Remember the beginning of the movie “Office Romance”: mass tidying up in the workplace. This is not an invention of the director, but the truth of life. If you live in the suburbs, you simply do not have time to paint yourself before work: you must not be late for the train, so that you do not miss the bus later. Moreover, after transport at rush hour, it is necessary not only to put on makeup again, but also take a shower sometimes.
Times have changed, but women have not changed. All the same, they need in the morning to first put themselves in order, to drink coffee, and only then to get to work. True, such a massive "beauty salon" can no longer be seen. This is the seal of the eighties.
Currently, the percentage of women working in research institutes has become larger. The salary as it was small remained so. But many are satisfied with white payments, paid leave and sick leave. The opportunity to go on maternity leave and leave to care for a child without losing their job.
Research institutes during the period of stagnation
Can I knit at the workplace? And to sew, having laid out patterns on a kulman? Since the mid-eighties in the research institute - this is a common thing. It was impossible to be late for work even after lunch, since entry and exit are fixed in secure enterprises. And this is fraught with loss of premium. But at the workplace it was possible to do needlework, if the boss looks at it through his fingers.
Employees of the research institute almost did not have work, in the sense of workload. According to the instructions, it was supposed to study the technical documentation at these moments. Many read fiction, placing on top the volume "Processor" or "SNIPs." Often a good thing was given to read for one day, by appointment. So the whole institute read “Masters and Margarita”, “Altista Danilov”, the Strugatsky and the whole Samizdat. Salary then called "salary." Making a career at the research institute was almost impossible.
In September, several people from the department were sent to collect potatoes, all were required to periodically patrol the streets as a member of the People’s Squad. Ads about the sale of cosmetics hung in the toilet, and household appliances, distributed in limited quantities to the department, were drawn by lot.
The planned economy assumed the distribution of university graduates for three years of work at enterprises and research institutes. The young specialist received from ninety to one hundred and twenty rubles and did not adhere to a well-established bureaucratic mechanism. Becoming a senior researcher was not easy, it was required to write and defend a dissertation. Few went on this. Most, having worked the required time, went to more profitable places.
Soviet research institutes are a special culture. A special type of intellectual. Still preserved are former engineers who consider trade to be an unworthy occupation. Inoculating grandchildren with the idea of compulsory higher education. Convinced that in life you need to be able to "settle down", and not arrange it for yourself. Honest and principled, but having a profession unnecessary in our age. Moms, dads, grandparents. Research institutes are their youth, and no matter what happens, they remember it with warmth.