Article: Rutherford and Russian Physics: the critical influence of the human factor

My new article in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand is a part of the Special Edition dedicated to the 150th birth anniversary of an outstanding New Zealander – Lord Rutherford.

Olga Suvorova (2021): Rutherford and Russian Physics: the critical influence of the human factor, Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, DOI: 10.1080/03036758.2021.1914690

This study is based on several years of my research and contributes to the insufficiently investigated subject of the perception of Ernest Rutherford in Russia. It also examines Rutherford’s impact, both as a scientist and as an outstanding New Zealander, on matters of freedom of science in Imperial Russia and in the early Soviet Union and on human factors during times of social stress and repression.

The examples given are drawn from a range of unique primary sources, in particular private correspondence between Rutherford and his Russian students and interns such as G. Antonoff, K. Yakovleff, J. Szmidt, N. Shilov, P. Kapitsa and others, their letters, diaries, photos and publications about their experience of working with Rutherford, including those available in the Russian language only, previously unpublished or unknown to academia.

You can read and download the final article here: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/RXUGJ2HXAFKSDRUKFSEU/full?target=10.1080/03036758.2021.1914690