As it turned out, this achievement merited the 1990 Lenin Prize, the Soviet equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Protocols for the Lenin Prize specified that it is awarded only for a great new development and that the Secretary General of the Communist Party approve of each one bestowed.[44] Lenin Prizes are given out personally by the First Secretary of the Central Committee on April 21st, the anniversary of Lenin’s birthday. In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who in 1987 had told the international community that the Soviet Union was no longer making chemical weapons,[45] signed off on the Lenin Prize given to Petrunin and a host of generals for the Substance 33 binary.[46] According to tradition, GosNIIOKhT also hosted parties celebrating this achievement.
CHAPTER 9
Fight Without End and Evgeny Bogomazov’s “Discovery”
During my first years at GOSNIIOKhT, I wasn’t completely deprived of contact with my scientific colleagues on the outside, and it was even possible to participate in scientific conferences. I could still publish my articles in scientific journals, but only rarely and with great difficulty. Over the course of time, all of this was systematically blocked in such a way so that there was no longer any opportunity to contact the outside scientific world.
There was the Science Council at the institute, which regularly discussed the topics of both master’s and doctoral theses to be defended there. Soon this area became fully autonomous.
Before 1977, all theses defended at GOSNIIOKhT were sent to the Higher Attestation Commission (VAK) of the Government of the USSR for further approval, but after that an expert commission was created at the institute for considering all theses related to the ‘Foliant’ theme. This made the lives of the candidates for degrees much easier, but it also led to the isolation of all the scientists. The most important part was that it created the possibility to turn “useful” people into scientists, because the number of potential opponents and people making decisions was reduced. Mainly the fate of any thesis was determined in the court of public opinion, which was created by the board of directors and other bosses close to them.
Certainly I was not willing to give up my ambitions of a career as a scientist, and I tried my best to achieve that. The topic of my scientific research was related to the development of chromatographic methods for the determination of small concentrations of chemical agents and their precursors in different media. The methods I developed could be used both for chemical agents and for ordinary compounds. This comforted me to a great extent, because I could consider myself a researcher who was solving problems of general scientific importance. I was tormented by great doubts about the utility of all our work, after conversations with my friends Kostenko, Drozd, and other military specialists, so I tried to solve principle problems.
Prior to my research at GOSNIIOKhT and in the military-chemical complex in general, only the cholinesterase method was used for the determination of concentrations of phosphoorganic chemical agents (POCA). This method was based on using a biochemical substrate, extracted from horse’s blood. The horses they used for this were raised in special conditions, making sure that their feed was free of any traces of pesticides. This method was considered universal and was officially used to estimate concentrations of POCA everywhere throughout the military-chemical complex. Nevertheless, even though the method was very sensitive, it was not at all selective. The presence of many pesticides and other chemicals in the samples led to gross errors in the results of the analyses.
I worked with my assistants, Tamara Beregova and Valery Djuzhev-Maltsev, to develop a whole group of chromatographic methods for the determination of low concentrations of POCA. These methods could completely replace the old cholinesterase method, as they were selective and provided objective analytical data. They also cut the cost of the analysis by a factor of ten. At the same time, we developed chromatographic methods for the analysis of micro-concentrations of CS (ortho-chlorbenzyledene-dimalononitrile) and CR (dibenz-b,f-oxidiazepine) in different media.
Eventually, my boss began to interpret my success in his own funny way. He believed it posed a threat to his own status and became very unfriendly towards me. I must say that administrative work never did attract me. It only distracts scientists from their real work – the business of doing science, and it wastes a lot of time with numerous meetings and conferences.
Certainly I did everything I could to make my attitude toward becoming a boss and a bureaucrat clear to everybody. But there was a glitch I hadn’t anticipated.
The board of directors of the institute drew up a secret list of all the potential candidates for replacing department heads, just in case they retired. Beresnev told me that he accidentally found out that I was on this list, as a possible candidate. This also came as a surprise to me, but I considered this list to be a pure formality. I did not pay much attention to it, and I did not even try to put my boss’s mind at ease.
But I should have! After that day I became an unwelcome rival in his eyes, and he openly started to show his disapproval of me in every possible situation. His hostile attitude manifested itself in the worst way possible. It became very difficult for my graduate students to defend their theses.
The Higher Attestation Commission had ground rules that governed the thesis process, along every step of the way. First, every thesis was discussed at the leading laboratory in the specialty area involved, before it was defended at the Science Council. The head of that laboratory had to familiarize himself with the thesis in advance and then make a decision to call an expanded seminar, in which the thesis was discussed. If he decided not to call for that seminar, it would block the progression of the thesis. He also completely controlled the list of people who had the right to participate in this expanded scientific seminar. Then a resolution was passed at the end of the seminar, regarding the compliance of the thesis with the requirements formulated by the Higher Attestation Commission.
This is where my boss created obstacles in every possible case, showing all of his punitive knowledge. Beresnev was a veteran, the former lieutenant of a special “barragefire” detachment, during World War II.
His unit had a very special job. Their orders were to wait well behind the front line, and if our troops were forced to retreat, their job was to shoot them. There was no limit to his resourcefulness at blocking us, but at the end of the day we managed to overcome all his obstacles, though only through a great waste of time and effort. Still, I found it was much easier to support and intercede for others, even if they were my students, than to get help for myself.
Our boss was also battling against my colleague and our senior researcher Igor Revelsky and his graduate students in the same way. Fortunately, Beresnev’s scientific ability was not held in high esteem, and GOSNIIOKhT scientists did not support him. Their presence at the expanded seminars, somewhat curbed our boss’ irrepressible fantasies.
It was clear that some KGB people supported Beresnev, and we were even sure that Director Patrushev was rather afraid of him.
My graduate student, V.L. Djuzhev-Maltsev was defending his thesis at the Science Council in 1979, and despite Beresnev’s attempts to obstruct the process, Djuzhev-Maltsev’s defense was rather successful. He answered all the questions thoroughly, showing deep knowledge of the problem. He had good references and recommendations from different institutes and organizations within the military-chemical complex concerning the work he had done and how useful it was. All the scientists who spoke afterwards unanimously approved of the thesis.
44
To qualify for this Lenin Prize, Petrunin and his cohorts had to have solid proof that they had designed, tested, certified, and begun mass production of the Substance 33 binary, complete with the signatures of the relevant factory managers. Otherwise, the application for the award would not meet the standard of being a great accomplishment worthy of the Lenin Prize. See also the comments of Vladimir Uglev in Oleg Vishnyakov’s article, “Interview with a Noose Around the Neck,”
45
On 10 April 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev announced during a visit to Prague that the USSR was no longer making chemical weapons and had never deployed chemical weapons outside of its own territory. Jackson Diehl, “Gorbachev Proposes New Missile Talks; Short-Range Rockets Would Be Negotiated,”
46
In addition to V. Petrunin, the Lenin Prize was given to S.A. Arzhakov, A.V. Gaev, A.V. Kisletsov, A.D. Kuntsevich, S.V. Petrov, E.S. Severin, V.I. Sichevoi. It is not surprising that not one of these “laureates” really worked on this problem. Such was Soviet style of life.