Berg cybernetics. Axel Berg. The Great Patriotic War

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Axel Ivanovich Berg, full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor, was born in Orenburg in 1893.

Engineer-admiral, academician Aksel Ivanovich Berg is one of the largest radio scientists. He was one of the first to create engineering methods for calculating basic radio engineering systems. Created a methodology for calculating receiving, amplifying and transmitting devices. He developed the theory of tube generators, the theory of modulation of transmitters, and the theory of deviation of ship radio direction finders.

Berg A.I. - initiator of the creation of a cybernetics design bureau at the Department of Automation of MPEI, which was engaged in modeling the educational process.

After graduating from high school, Berg A.I. entered the Naval Corps, and after graduating in 1914, he served as a junior navigator on the battleship Tsesarevich. From July 1916 until the end of the First World War, A.I. Berg was the navigator of the English submarine E-8, which was part of the Russian Baltic Fleet. During a submarine accident at the end of 1917, due to gas poisoning by A.I. Berg became seriously ill, but after recovery he returned to the submarine fleet in May 1919.

In the same year, due to heart disease that developed after an accident on a submarine, Berg A.I. was forced to leave the submarine fleet and devote himself to scientific and engineering activities. In 1921, his first scientific articles appeared, which were devoted to the problems of research, calculation and application in the navy of radio transmitters and radio receivers using vacuum tubes, radio communications of submerged submarines, and the use of ultrasonic systems in the navy.

In December 1922, Berg A.I. enrolled as a student in the electrical engineering department of the Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1925, at the same time he passed all the exams and defended his diploma at the Naval Engineering School, receiving the title of fleet electrical engineer.

After graduating from the Academy A.I. Berg was enrolled as a teacher at the Naval Engineering School, where he began his research activities. In 1930 he was awarded the title of professor. At the school he created a radio laboratory, which in 1932 was transformed into the Naval Institute, of which he was the head until 1937.

At the Naval Engineering School he taught radio engineering and wrote a number of textbooks. In 1924, a textbook for naval radiotelegraph operators entitled “Void Devices” (electron tubes) was published, then in 1925 a textbook entitled “Cathode Tubes” was published. A little later, he wrote the textbook “General Theory of Radio Engineering”; this was the first textbook on radio engineering, which for the first time discussed the prospects for using electronic devices in radio.

In 1929 and again in 1930, the “Course of Fundamentals of Radio Engineering Calculations” was published. This book by A.I. Berg has become the most important textbook for students of all radio engineering universities in the country. In 1932 and again in 1935, a textbook by A.I. was published, also widely distributed. Berg "Theory and calculation of tube generators."

From 1937 to the beginning of 1940 Berg A.I. was in prison, where he was engaged in the development of military communications systems. In 1941 he was awarded the rank of engineer-admiral. In 1943 he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1946 a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In 1943-44 Berg A.I. Deputy People's Commissar of the Electrical Industry, from 1943 to 1947, Deputy Chairman of the Radar Committee, from 1953 to 1957, Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR. On April 13, 1951, for work in the field of radio engineering, Academician A.I. Berg. was awarded a gold medal. A.S. Popova.

Aksel Ivanovich Berg organized a number of research institutes, including the Institute of Radio Electronics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he was director from 1953 to 1955. From 1950 to 1963 Berg A.I. - Chairman of the Radio Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and from 1959 until the end of his life he was chairman of the Scientific Council on Cybernetics under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he headed the coordination of research in cybernetics. In 1964, Chairman of the Interdepartmental Scientific Council on the problem of “Programmed Education” at the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the USSR. He supported the creation and work of the first student design bureau of cybernetics at the Department of Automation of Moscow Power Engineering Institute in 1957 - 1959. Berg A.I. participated in the First All-Union Conference on the problem of “Programmed Learning”, held at MPEI in 1966.

A.I. Berg was the chairman of the board of the All-Union Scientific and Engineering Society of Radio Engineering and Radio Communications named after A.S. Popov, a member of the editorial board of the popular science magazine "Radio", a member of the editorial board of the magazine "Electricity". In 1962–1965 he was the editor-in-chief of the encyclopedia “Factory Automation and Industrial Electronics”

Aksel Ivanovich Berg worked in the field of creation, development and application of radar and modern radio navigation systems, on the problems of cybernetics, becoming a leading specialist in the main areas of this new branch of science. A distinctive feature characterizing the scientific and technical activities of Academician A.I. Berg, are the novelty and relevance of the topic, the originality of the methods and the practical purposefulness of his scientific research; completeness of work, which is always translated into calculation formulas, tables and graphs, making it possible to directly apply his research in engineering practice.

For his scientific and pedagogical activities he was awarded 3 Orders of Lenin, 6 other orders, as well as medals of the Soviet Union.

Aksel Ivanovich Berg

I saw A.I. Berg for the first time at the end of 1947 or beginning of 1948 in one of the large lecture halls of the main building of the Moscow Aviation Institute. Aksel Ivanovich made a report on the prospects for the development of radar. First of all, he made an impression with his appearance. A well-ironed, well-tailored black suit, the bearing of a military commander, the shoulder straps of a vice admiral, an intelligent face and gray hair spoke volumes. I remember the manner of presentation of the material. He dwelled only on major key issues, explained what was said with a story about the state of affairs, and immediately moved on to the tasks that had to be solved. The wording was in the style of Aksel Ivanovich: clear, specific, in good Russian. He addressed his words to young people, mainly to students listening to him. He spoke about the need to continue the work begun by his predecessors. He drew the contours of the future and called on young people to implement their ideas in specific jobs.

A few months later I crossed the threshold of the 108th Institute, the head of which was A.I. Berg. I entered the reception room, which was located on the first floor of the main building in its left wing. On the left was Aksel Ivanovich’s office, on the right sat chief engineer A. M. Kugushev. What struck me, a young engineer, about the organizational appearance of the institute? Combination of fundamental science with real hardware development. Almost all theoretical directions related to radar in one way or another were blocked. At the same time, much attention was paid to the creation of the latest models of radar technology. But what's remarkable? The developers of the equipment worked closely with science, receiving from it the results of theoretical research necessary for design and manufacturing technology, and sharing with it the experimental data obtained. Now I would like to at least list the major scientific areas that were created under the direct leadership of A.I. Berg. I'll start with laboratories united by the topic of radio wave propagation. The laboratories were led by famous scientists B. A. Vvedensky and M. A. Leontovich. The scientific consultant was the author of a number of fundamental works, V. A. Fok. Prominent specialists P. A. Pogorelko, N. V. Osipov, B. A. Shillerov, L. A. Vainshtein, M. A. Kolosov, V. S. Shkolnikov and others worked in the laboratories. An antenna laboratory was created (later the department ), which brought together many major antenna technology specialists. The first head of the laboratory was E. N. Maizels, who later became the head of the laboratory. Y. N. Feld. L. S. Benenson, I. B. Abramov, M. B. Zakson, E. G. Zelkin, N. G. Ponomarev, E. K. Kireev, V. A. Torgovanov, Yu. A. Zaitsev worked in the laboratory . A unique laboratory of semiconductor devices was organized under the leadership of S. G. Kalashnikov. N. A. Penin, G. Ya. Kubetsky, N. E. Skvortsova, V. G. Alekseeva, A. S. Drozdov worked there. The development of tube oscillators (mainly in the microwave range) was carried out by the laboratory headed by M. S. Neiman, the author of many works on microwave devices and one of the first systematic publications of the 30s - a book on antenna technology. P.N. Andreev, D.I. Karpovsky, V. Kvasnikov and others worked in the laboratory. On the initiative of A.I. Berg, a group of developers of extremely important microwave devices TWT and BOW was transferred to the 108th Institute in the early 50s - under the leadership M. F. Stelmakh and L. N. Loshakov. It included E. N. Solovyov, A. V. Ievsky, L. B. Lisovsky, L. M. Fetisov, A. V. Slutskaya, K. I. Khrustachev and others. The laboratory that developed some special types of electronic equipment - potentialoscopes - was led by I. F. Pesyatsky. Within the radio measurement laboratory, which was first led by B.F. Vysotsky and then by V.V. Dyakonov, a group of theory and technology of passive microwave devices (transmission lines, transitions, attenuators, loads, delay lines, etc.) was organized. The group was led by V.I. Sushkevich. The group included I. A. Aschekin, B. I. Shestopalov, A. I. Konchits, B. M. Danilova.

Research in the field of theoretical foundations of radio engineering was carried out by a laboratory led by a well-known specialist, author of many books and textbooks, I. S. Gonorovsky. Vaisblit, B.V. Bunkin, future general designer of NPO Almaz, V.T. Frolkin, N.K. Ignatiev, br. Bersenevs (then transferred to KB-1), V. A. Dubinsky, Z. V. Solovyova and others.

Speaking about I. S. Gonorovsky, I will say the following. In my opinion, two people most deeply plowed the domestic field of general radio engineering in the 20th century. These are V. A. Kotelnikov and I. S. Gonorovsky. When I have burning questions about my specialty, I look for answers in the works of these scientists. Mostly I find it, but not always. This means that there is still a reserve for future researchers.

A number of engineering laboratories were organized. History claims that the first of them was the laboratory of television systems, which was led by A. A. Seleznev. I didn’t find him, he left for another job. When I arrived, I discovered the remains of the television theme in the person of the head of the laboratory A. Ya. Klopov, engineers E. G. Raznitsyn, B. V. Sergovantsev and others, as well as a model of the Leningrad TV and a requisitioned German model resting on the rack laboratories.

Among the engineering laboratories there were complex and thematic ones. Complex laboratories not only developed the components and blocks that were part of the station, but also configured the station complex, tested it and delivered it to the customer. The laboratory headed by A. A. Raspletin (later G. Ya. Guskov) belonged to this category. This laboratory developed and put into serial production the TON-2, SNAR-1, SNAR-2 stations.

Among the laboratory staff were G. Ya. Guskov, G. V. Kiyakovsky, E. G. Raznitsyn, A. I. Shirman, V. F. Ilyukhin, Yu. N. Belyaev, as well as the author of these lines.

Another complex laboratory, led by B.F. Vysotsky, developed the PSBN and PSBN-2 stations. The laboratory included V. S. Lisitsyn, I. M. Kheifets, A. B. Ivashkevich, M. A. Sofer and others.

In the first half of the 50s, a group of specialists was transferred to the 108th Institute, forming a comprehensive laboratory headed by N. Kondratiev. The laboratory developed short-range stations using continuous radiation. Subsequently, A.I. Berg reoriented the developers to create a high-potential long-range detection radar, which later received the “Danube” code. The chief designer of all these developments was V.P. Sosulnikov. The antennas were developed by Vasyukov. The thematic laboratories included the unit in which K. S. Alperovich and M. E. Leibman worked. They improved the equipment of SON type stations. The laboratory, headed by V.N. Gorshunov, included A.A. Zhelezov, A.I. Olenev, S.N. Durylin. The power supply laboratory was headed by P. N. Bolshakov.

A. I. Berg paid special attention to issues of anti-radar, i.e., issues of creating active and passive interference and, as the other side of this problem, the interference protection of developed radars and radio surveillance equipment. But before implementing interference and testing the effectiveness of its impact on the radar, it was necessary to create broadband receiving devices to obtain information about radio sources. In connection with these dictates of the times, a laboratory of receiving devices was formed, headed by the prominent radio specialist L. Yu. Blumberg. The laboratory developed and successfully tested, including in the GDR, prototypes of ground-based radio surveillance stations, code P and RM. Z. Koptsiovsky, J. Pevzner, Rychkov, T. R. Brakhman and I. Ya. Altman worked in the laboratory. Active interference transmitters were created in the laboratory headed by N.I. Oganov. Here the OP jamming equipment was developed, then the PR-1 and “Natriy” station complex. B. D. Sergievsky, E. E. Fridberg, R. M. Voronkov, A. V. Zagoryansky and others worked in the laboratory.

From my, of course, incomplete, but still impressive list of areas and laboratories, it is clear what scientific and technical potential of completed and promising work was created by A. I. Berg with the active assistance of A. M. Kugushev and other organizers by the end of the 40s.

The path to the 108th Institute for A.I. Berg was long and winding. After graduating from the Naval Corps, he served on the battleship Tsesarevich. Participated in the First World War. Then he was transferred to the submarine fleet. After October 1917, he went over to the side of Soviet power. In 1919 he took part in battles with the interventionists in the Baltic Fleet. In 1922, due to injuries received, he was written off for health reasons. In 1925 he graduated from the Naval Academy with a specialization in radio engineering and taught at LETI. In 1932, the Scientific Research Maritime Communications Institute was founded in Leningrad. A.I. Berg is confirmed as its director. By the mid-30s, A.I. Berg became one of the leading Soviet radio specialists. One indicator of this is books on general radio engineering. In the 20s, the main textbook was the course by I. G. Freiman “General Theory of Radio Engineering”; in 1932 and 1935. A monograph by A. I. Berg “Theory and Calculation of Tube Generators” was published. During these same years, M. M. Bonch-Bruevich’s textbook “Fundamentals of Radio Engineering” was published. The last two books were kept in my library for a long time. In December 1937, A.I. Berg was arrested. Reason: suspicion of participation in an “anti-Soviet military conspiracy” (Tukhachevsky case). Spent almost two and a half years in prison. He was kept mainly in the Kronstadt prison. How did you manage to free yourself? As always, there is no exact answer to this question. I believe that this was a combination of a random but favorable factor and the material needs of the state. It was an accident that A. I. Berg’s letter to K. E. Voroshilov, explaining the absurdity of the charges brought against him, fell into the hands of the addressee. The material need was that it was not possible to establish radio communication between the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, and K. E. Voroshilov, who was present at the tests, was informed about the arrest of A. I. Berg, to which the command followed: “Understand and report personally.” The daughter of A.I. Berg, Marina Akselevna, and Yu. N. Erofeev write about this in their publications. I remember that such a combination of the accidental and the material helped save the life of our great rocket designer S.P. Korolev. His letter reached the mother of Maria Nikolaevna Balanina through the prisoner's mail. The letter hinted at a request to contact M. M. Gromov and V. S. Grizodubova. She visited both. There is information that Valentina Stepanovna went to the Kremlin and with difficulty reached Poskrebyshev, giving him a statement regarding the fate of Korolev. At the same time, in 1939, a system of closed design bureaus, known as “sharashkas,” began to develop. They were going to transport S.P. Korolev to one of them with an aviation focus. But first, exhausted and sick with scurvy, S.P. Korolev had to travel with a stage from the Maldyak mine to Magadan (600 km), get on the ship, sail across the freezing Sea of Okhotsk to Vladivostok (December 1939) and arrive at the Khabarovsk prison. They brought in a half-corpse, unable to move independently, with missing teeth and swollen legs. He was saved by the prison doctor, who literally fed and cured S.P. Korolev (Ya. Golovanov, “Catastrophe”, Znamya, 1990, No. 1, 2).

In May 1940, A.I. Berg was released and restored to his military rank. He began teaching at the Naval Academy. At the beginning of the Patriotic War, an important event occurred associated with the name of A.I. Berg. As a member of the commission of the Leningrad Regional Committee and the Regional Executive Committee, he visits the Toksovo radar developed at LFTI (later Redut and RUS-2). He sees the radar in action for the first time and is imbued with new ideas. From evacuation, where he ends up with the Academy, he writes to his naval superiors about the need to develop radar. In the spring of 1943 he was called to Moscow. He visits with a report on the prospects of radar some major military leaders - Marshal of Artillery N. N. Voronov and Marshal of Aviation A. E. Golovanov. At a meeting with J.V. Stalin, A.I. Berg made a report. According to the speaker, Stalin walked around, smoked a pipe, swore that he didn’t understand anything... And in the end he uttered a phrase that stopped all the confusion and created the conditions for the emergence of a new type of industry - radar: “And, in my opinion, Comrade Berg is right.” Complex issues were also considered. A. I. Berg asked: “Can I be trusted? After all, I just got out of prison.” I heard Stalin’s answer in the following interpretation: “Is anyone offending you?” Berg was silent. Stalin continued: “He doesn’t offend. Work. And we will punish the guilty,” It was on the eve of the Kursk-Belgorod operation in 1943. Stalin said: “For you to start work, we still need to win at Kursk. Once we win, let’s get started.”

On July 4, 1943, the State Defense Committee issued a decree “On Radar”. According to this decree, the Radar Council under the State Defense Committee was created. G. M. Malenkov was appointed Chairman of the Council, A. I. Berg was appointed a member. According to the resolution, the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Radar is organized, later called VNII-108. The first director was A.I. Berg. Due to its workload in government positions in the period 1943–1947, the institute was headed by P. Z. Stas. Since 1947, A.I. Berg returned to the leadership of the institute.

When I came to the institute, it was already called the Central Research Institute-108 (TsNII-108) and was subordinate to Committee No. 3 under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. As I became more familiar with the issues on the agenda of the 13th laboratory, and even more broadly, on the agenda of complex laboratories in general, I began to understand that there must be a mechanism that links these problems into a coherent whole. Someone had to put this mechanism into action, solve the main, key issues, and distribute efforts between the performers. It gradually became clear that behind the conductor’s stand was none other than A.I. Berg, then the director of the institute. I will illustrate this using the example of stations developed by the 13th laboratory and subsequently received the name SNAR. First of all, about posing the question. At a meeting with A.I. Berg, the very possibility of implementing such stations was questioned. Skeptics said seemingly reasonable things: the “localists” would stifle any useful signal. Leading designers, one after another, abandoned the development. The military insisted. “Insanely Brave” A. A. Raspletin and G. Ya. Guskov agreed. But A.I. Berg had to decide. He risked not only his name, but also the prestige of the newly organized institute. If it failed, large public funds would have been wasted, for which they would not fail to blame A.I. Berg. I think that right off the bat, A.I. Berg would not have given consent to the development. Apparently, long conversations with A. A. Raspletin and the presented calculations convinced A. I. Berg, and the work began. But it was necessary to solve one more, cardinal question: how do VHFs travel in general, and, in particular, in the centimeter wave range, in the ground layer, what are the diffraction phenomena taking into account the curvature of the earth. In theoretical, computational terms, A. I. Berg entrusted the laboratory of M. A. Leontovich with solving these issues. Experimental studies followed. The results obtained were regularly discussed with A. A. Raspletin.

The stations being developed had to be equipped with high-quality semiconductor and vacuum devices. A. I. Berg commissioned the laboratory of S. G. Kalashnikov to develop a technology for manufacturing germanium microwave diodes in the centimeter wavelength range. This technology was created, diodes were tested in microwave mock-ups of the 13th laboratory, all this gave impetus to industry enterprises to start producing mixing devices with customer acceptance. A few years later, the first publications appeared about the beginning of the development of transistor technology. Some members b. Committee No. 3 considered these publications to be pure advertising. But in the laboratory of S. G. Kalashnikov, the group of N. A. Penin (G. Ya. Kubetsky, N. E. Skvortsova) developed the first samples of alloy transistors, which I tested in the 13th laboratory and D. V. Nezlin in the 22 laboratory.

Many difficulties arose in the development of multicavity magnetrons operating in a pulsed mode. Theoretical and experimental study of devices of this type has been carried out for a long time. At the 108th Institute, work was carried out in the group of D.I. Karpovsky. But there were no industrial samples of the centimeter wave range that satisfied the customer. In addition, there was no equipment (storage and feed-through high-voltage capacitors, chokes, etc.) for pulse modulators. All this was supposed to be supplied by the electrovacuum industry. But to break through the development, production and delivery of the required products, the authority of A. A. Raspletin alone was, of course, not enough. They acted through A.I. Berg. He had leverage right up to G. M. Malenkov and I. V. Stalin.

But the greatest trouble, perhaps, was caused by the development of the station's antenna. It was necessary not only to create a system with a sharp beam and small side lobes, but also to ensure scanning of this beam in a spatial sector at a relatively high speed and rotation of this sector by 360°. In agreement with A. A. Raspletin, A. I. Berg entrusted this complex development to E. N. Meisels, who attracted a young engineer and graduate student M. B. Zakson to it.

In accordance with the requirements, we settled on a slot waveguide antenna. There was no theory, and there was no experience either. In 1945, M. A. Leontovich published an article in JETP on radiation from a narrow slit. They began to conduct experiments, in parallel, Ya. N. Feld, first in the laboratory of M. A. Leontovich, and then in the antenna laboratory, he became closely involved in the development of a mathematical apparatus for the development of the theory of slot antennas. Reports, articles, the doctoral dissertation of Ya. N. Feld, and the candidate dissertation of M. B. Zakson passed through A. I. Berg, from which he assessed, among other things, the prospects for creating a full-fledged antenna system for the station. But when the antenna prototypes were made, there was still a production stage ahead. It is known that the Meisels-Sachson antenna was produced at the serial plant with great difficulty; there were even concerns about its non-serialization. In addition to M. B. Zaxon and the leading designer M. T. Tsukkerman, A. A. Raspletin constantly visited the plant, but not only. A. M. Kugushev and A. I. Berg came to investigate. Gradually, the difficulties were overcome, and the station entered service with the troops.

Similar problems arose in other complex laboratories of the institute, and A. I. Berg had to not only delve into their essence, but also make the necessary decisions.

Thus, in the laboratory headed by B.F. Vysotsky, for an aircraft radar it was necessary to design an antenna with a special radiation pattern in the vertical plane, the so-called cosecant field pattern. There was no experience in this matter, and E. G. Zelkin, who was entrusted with the development, was forced literally from the beginning to create a method for approximate calculation of emitters that would give the required diagram. A. And this issue was reported to Berg, a discussion took place, and as a result such an antenna was manufactured and became part of the station.

But A. I. Berg had to deal with not only lofty matters. There were people under his command, and they had to pay considerable attention. I was then a member of the Komsomol committee, and I was assigned to examine the situation of young employees living in the institute’s dormitories. As I remember, I arrived in Kryukovo (now Zelenograd). I went into a room where several girls lived. I ask: how do you live here? They answer: nothing, normal. And after a pause: And here we had Berg, in an admiral’s uniform. He walked around and around and asked: Do you have bedbugs here? We answer: yes. “Why are you silent? We must ring all the bells."

In the same Kryukov, in a small house that was considered a hostel, lived a young married couple - A.V. Danilov and his wife Bela. Subsequently, A.V. Danilov became a well-known specialist in radar coatings, B.M. Danilova is the largest expert on microwave transitions and microwave transformers, an active employee of V.I. Sushkevich’s department.

At the very beginning of the 50s, Ilya Semyonovich Dzhigit appeared at the institute, who became A.I. Berg’s referent and secretary of the Academic Council. He was an exceptionally erudite person; I saw his Proceedings files almost from the 30s. I. S. Dzhigit carried out the most important work: he prepared annotations and extracts from articles for A. I. Berg, often with his own comments. Thus, A.I. Berg was aware of all the world's scientific literature. Subsequently, already under P. S. Pleshakov, I. S. Dzhigit became the head of the “Octopus” work (and not A. A. Merkin, as someone wrote), and I worked closely with him on this work. As secretary of the Academic Council, I. S. Dzhigit actively helped graduate students. In our 13th laboratory, graduate student Yu. N. Belyaev, a reserve officer, worked. He received a summons from the district military registration and enlistment office, where he was informed that, taking into account his previous service in the Soviet army, he would be mobilized again. All attempts to prove his postgraduate status were unsuccessful. I. S. Dzhigit, who knew this problem, tried by telephone to convey to the City Military Commissariat the importance of the problems being solved by the graduate student. But all efforts were in vain. I. S. Dzhigit reported to A. I. Berg about the current situation. A.I. Berg called the General Staff of the spacecraft, but the Chief of the General Staff was not in the office. It was reported that the Chief of the General Staff, then Army General Shtemenko, was attending a performance at the Bolshoi Theater. A.I. Berg went to the Bolshoi Theater and during intermission found Shtemenko and convinced him of the importance of the work being carried out by the graduate student. And he not only verbally convinced, but also received the necessary resolution on paper prepared in advance.

One of the burning problems of that time was the housing problem. A.I. Berg had to deal with it closely. I was then in the 13th laboratory at the elective trade union work, and the trade union bodies told how A.I. Berg solved the housing problem. He managed to negotiate with the Ministry of Defense to allocate an apartment to one of the officers who had a family and children. The officer went to the Department, they gave him promises there, and he came and reported to A.I. Berg. “Where is the warrant?” – asked Berg. There was no warrant. “Go and bring the warrant.” In the end, the officer received the apartment. This officer was, as it turned out later, Lieutenant Colonel N.P. Emokhonov at that time.

A. I. Berg's strength as a strategist was not only planning and ensuring the main attacks, but also the creation of reinforcing forces, without which the main attacks would have been unsuccessful. First of all, I mean the work on the formation of experimental production and, in general, increasing the production potential of the institute. The production manager was then an experienced worker, Cooperman. The production was located in a brick building adjacent to the main building. In addition, there was a separate workshop, headed by B. S. Khaikin. The workshops were staffed by high-class specialists, workers of various professions - millers, turners, mechanics, assemblers, fitters - but equally dedicated to their work. Some of them came from the war, others from defense enterprises. I remember such aces as Kanunnikov, Mayorov, Volkov, Kolesov, Gerasimov, Lobanev, with whom I had to work together.

During the time of A.I. Berg, powerful design and technology departments were created. Designers developed mechanisms and radio installations of any level of complexity. Technologies did not lag behind. I remember how chief technologist P.I. Bushminsky, having seen my order for a high quality factor endovibrator, first refused, citing the lack of machines of the required class, then the product was manufactured with a quality factor of more than 5000.

I cannot help but mention the role of A.I. Berg in the creation of a unique library and reading room. Part of the library was initially under the jurisdiction of the Council (committee), then the State Administration of the Moscow Region, and finally came under the control of the institute. In the 40s, A.I. Berg managed to obtain a currency fund from the government, which was used to purchase foreign books and magazines.

Like any person, A.I. Berg could change the assessments of the people with whom he came into contact when circumstances changed. Thus, introducing one of the institute’s employees to an eminent guest and calling her “our Sofia Kovalevskaya” (we are talking about F. M. Peseleva), after some time, when he had failures, he said that in general he was “tired of all these Sofia Kovalevskys.” The same applies to officials. Having called G.M. Malenkov a super-punctual person in a conversation with B.D. Sergievsky, A.I., decades later, in a conversation with Yu.N. Erofeev, expressed himself about the same person like this: “He’s grown such a belly. I was afraid of Stalin like hell.” These metamorphoses did not in any way affect the main quality of A.I. Berg, his desire to seek and tell the truth, to reveal shortcomings and sometimes failures in his work, to fight bureaucracy and callousness. Being in major positions, A.I. Berg, regardless of persons, writes notes and letters to the CPSU Central Committee demanding the elimination of the negative phenomena that he encountered in industry, medicine, and education. Such appeals find supporters, but some do not like it all. In the second half of 1953, A.I. Berg was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR for radar. During the period 1953–1955. he works under the supervision of N.A. Bulganin, in 1955–1957. under the leadership of G.K. Zhukov.

By the seventieth birthday of A.I. Berg, i.e. by 1963, he had formed a solid track record. Taking into account his merits, the 108th Institute and the Ministry of Radio Industry prepared a proposal to award A.I. Berg the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. As A. I. Berg’s close associate I. S. Dzhigit told us, the document “stuck” due to the refusal of some officials in external authorities to endorse it. I had to contact the highest authorities, where the issue was resolved positively.

What I told above concerned mainly the activities of A.I. Berg during the period of his leadership of such an enterprise as the 108th Institute. But I would like to warn the reader against the impression that under “Grandfather Berg,” “peace and quiet and God’s grace” reigned at the institute. I worked for nine out of ten years under the direct supervision of A.I. Berg. So I can judge. Discipline was maintained strictly. A time clock was attached below, and people marked their arrival and departure times. My colleague A.I. Shirman, punching out the card 2-3 minutes later than expected and proving to the timekeeper standing next to him that he had arrived on time, regularly received a “stricter” in the order. B. D. Sergievsky in his memoirs talked about the history of his delays, pressed on the humanity of A. I. Berg. It is possible that this is true. But I was a trade unionist at that time and I remember that the issue of a whole series of delays by B. D. Sergievsky was considered at a comradely court, where almost the entire staff of the institute was “herded away”. Acting director Lavrov and head of the political department Gorokhov went so far as to demand dismissal. Saved by T. R. Brahman. A strict regime policy was carried out. I have already told how we spent several weeks looking for a notebook that belonged to technician Antonov, who was shell-shocked at the front and had memory problems. We found it under the oscilloscope that he put on it and then forgot. All this threatened him in the first place, and me and A. A. Raspletin in the second and third.

Failure to fulfill production plans, especially by management personnel, entailed serious consequences, including removal from office. Mistakes in work that could cause visible damage were also punished. A. Ya. Emdin, a man with an impeccable work history, was walking several kilometers through the mud when A. A. Raspletin found out that he had not secured the antenna in the cabin, and this threatened an emergency.

In the summer of 1953, A.I. Berg was informed that the cabin of the future SNAR-2 station came off the front supports and rose under the weight of two power engines installed at the rear. After analyzing the situation, A.I. removed G.Ya. Guskov from his post and reinstated him only after a year and a half.

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Zhidkov Rostislav Ivanovich I graduated from the ten-year school in 1940. We had an alternative - either to join the army for accelerated training courses for reserve officers, or to enter a military educational institution. I am a Tula man myself, a gunsmith, and I decided to enroll in a weapons technical school. WITH

Specialist in the field of radio engineering, organizer of science and industry. Professor (1930), Doctor of Technical Sciences (1936), Corresponding Member (1943), Academician (1946) of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Admiral Engineer (1955).

He graduated from the Naval Corps (1914), the Naval Engineering School (1923), and the Naval Academy with a degree in Radio Engineering (1925). Served in the active fleet: submarine navigator (1914-1919), submarine commander (1919-1922).

From 1923 to 1941 he taught at secondary and higher naval educational institutions in Leningrad. Since 1926 - assistant to Professor I. G. Freiman in the department of “Special Course in Radio Engineering” LETI. In 1929, he accepted the department and scientific archive of I.G. Freiman, becoming the head of the radio engineering cycle of LETI. From 1935 to 1941 - head of the Department of Radio Transmitting Devices.

On the initiative of A.I. Berg in the 30s, a special course in radio engineering was divided into a number of independent disciplines: radio wave propagation, radio transmitting devices and radio receiving devices.

Military career: from 1927 to 1932 - Chairman of the communications section of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Naval Forces. In 1928, under his leadership, the Marine Scientific Test Site was created. From 1929 to 1932 A.I. Berg went on long business trips to Germany, the USA and Italy to study foreign experience and acquire hydroacoustic equipment for the Navy. From 1932 to 1940 A.I. Berg is the head of the Communications Research Institute of the Navy. Repressed and accused of participating in a counter-revolutionary conspiracy (December 1937 - May 1940), released due to insufficient evidence.

A.I. Berg - Deputy People's Commissar of the Electrical Industry of the USSR (1943-1944), Deputy Chairman of the Radar Council under the State Defense Committee (1943-1947), Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR (1953-1957), initiator of the organization and director of the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics (IRE) of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since 1953).

On the initiative and with the active support of A.I. Berg in 1962, the Department of Electronic Medical Equipment was organized for the first time in Russia at LETI.

Chairman of the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the complex problem of “Cybernetics” under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1959-1979). Since 1964 he has headed the coordination of research in this area. One of the organizers of the Scientific and Technical Society of Radio Engineering, Electronics and Communications (NTORES) named after. A. S. Popova (1946) and chairman (1950-1955) of its central board. He took an active part in organizing the A. S. Popov Memorial Museum at LETI (1948), author and editor of a number of publications on the history of the invention of radio.

Gold medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences named after. A. S. Popova (1951). Hero of Socialist Labor (1963). Four Orders of Lenin, Order of the October Revolution, two Orders of the Red Banner, Order of the Patriotic War, three Orders of the Red Star, medals. In memory of A.I. Berg, a memorial plaque was installed on the building of the 2nd building of St. Petersburg State Electronic Technical University (Prof. Popova St., 5).

Berg A.I. Theory and calculation of tube generators (1932);
Berg A.I. Independent excitation of undamped oscillations (1935);
Berg A.I. Selected works, vols. 1-2, M. -L., 1964.

A.I. Berg took part in the war against the interventionists, being the navigator of the legendary Panther, and then the commander of the Lynx and Wolf submarines. For his dedicated work in restoring the submarine “Snake” to A.I. Berg. in 1922 he was awarded the title “Hero of Labor of the Separate Submarine Division of the Baltic Fleet.” In the same year, due to heart disease that developed after an accident on a submarine, Berg A.I. was forced to leave the submarine fleet and devote himself to scientific and engineering activities.

In 1921, his first scientific articles appeared, which were devoted to the problems of research, calculation and application in the navy of radio transmitters and radio receivers using vacuum tubes, radio communications of submerged submarines, and the use of ultrasonic systems in the navy.

After graduating from the Academy A.I. Berg was enrolled as a teacher at the Naval Engineering School, where he began his research activities.

In 1930 he was awarded the title of professor. At the school he created a radio laboratory, which in 1932 was transformed into the Naval Institute, of which he was the head until 1937. At the Naval Engineering School he taught radio engineering and wrote a number of textbooks.

In 1924, a textbook for naval radiotelegraph operators entitled “Void Devices” (electron tubes) was published, then in 1925 a textbook entitled “Cathode Tubes” was published. A little later, he wrote the textbook “General Theory of Radio Engineering”; this was the first textbook on radio engineering, which for the first time discussed the prospects for using electronic devices in radio.

In 1932 and again in 1935, a textbook by A.I. was published, also widely distributed. Berg "Theory and calculation of tube generators." From 1937 to the beginning of 1940 Berg A.I. was in prison, where he was engaged in the development of military communications systems. In 1941 he was awarded the rank of engineer-admiral.

In 1943 he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1946 a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1943-44 Berg A.I. Deputy People's Commissar of the Electrical Industry, from 1943 to 1947, Deputy Chairman of the Radar Committee, from 1953 to 1957, Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR.

On April 13, 1951, for work in the field of radio engineering, Academician A.I. Berg. was awarded a gold medal. A.S. Popova. Aksel Ivanovich Berg organized a number of research institutes, including the Institute of Radio Electronics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he was director from 1953 to 1955.

From 1950 to 1963 Berg A.I. - Chairman of the Radio Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and from 1959 until the end of his life he was chairman of the Scientific Council on Cybernetics under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he headed the coordination of research in cybernetics.

In 1964, Chairman of the Interdepartmental Scientific Council on the problem of “Programmed Education” at the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the USSR. He supported the creation and work of the first student design bureau of cybernetics at the Department of Automation of MPEI in 1957 - 1959. Berg A.I. participated in the First All-Union Conference on the problem of “Programmed Learning”, held at MPEI in 1966. A.I. Berg was the chairman of the board of the All-Union Scientific and Engineering Society of Radio Engineering and Radio Communications named after A.S. Popov, a member of the editorial board of the popular science magazine "Radio", a member of the editorial board of the magazine "Electricity".

In 1962-1965, he was the editor-in-chief of the encyclopedia “Production Automation and Industrial Electronics.” Axel Ivanovich Berg worked in the field of creation, development and application of radar and modern radio navigation systems, on the problems of cybernetics, becoming a leading specialist in the main areas of this new branch of science. A distinctive feature characterizing the scientific and technical activities of Academician A.I. Berg, are the novelty and relevance of the topic, the originality of the methods and the practical purposefulness of his scientific research; completeness of work, which is always translated into calculation formulas, tables and graphs, making it possible to directly apply his research in engineering practice.

For his scientific and pedagogical activities he was awarded 3 Orders of Lenin, 6 other orders, as well as medals of the Soviet Union.

On the initiative and with the active support of A.I. Berg in 1962, the Department of Electronic Medical Equipment was organized for the first time in Russia at LETI.

Berg A.I. Theory and calculation of tube generators (1932);
Berg A.I. Independent excitation of undamped oscillations (1935);
Berg A.I. Selected works, vols. 1-2, M. -L., 1964.