People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity
Any Science and technology 1
Affiliation

Most people

Any Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 1 Soviet Union state institutions 1

All 2 affiliations

Soviet Union

Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 1 Soviet Union state institutions 1
Position
Any Marxism and communism 1
Citizenship
Any Soviet Union 1
Background(set)
Any Russia 306 Ukraine 33 Belarus 13 Armenia 7 Georgia 7 Latvia 6 Azerbaijan 5 Poland 3 Uzbekistan 3 Finland 2 Kazakhstan 2 Kyrgyzstan 2 Lithuania 2 Turkmenistan 2 Estonia 1 Germany 1 Moldova 1 Tajikistan 1
Era(set)
Any

People of the Soviet Union

The old regime and its challengers1905–1917 3 The revolutionary generation1917–1940 3 People of the Stalin era1929–1953 5 People of the thaw and the stagnation1953–1985 1

People of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era

The Revolution and the Napoleonic era1774–1830 2

People of the wider world

The age of the Internationals and empires1820–1917 9 The revolutionary wave and the world war1917–1945 74 The Cold War and decolonization1945–현재 37 Scholars of this history1892–현재 2
Background: Germany People of the thaw and the stagnation 1953–1985 Clear all

Boris Viktorovich Rauschenbach

Борис Викторович Раушенбах
Soviet Union state institutions Soviet communism Soviet German 1915–2001 ○ Natural causes

From labor camp to Vostok: pioneer of spaceflight control and guidance

In my life I had only two bosses — Korolev and Keldysh. Both were people of high integrity. That's what matters.

A physicist and rocket engineer who laid the foundations of Soviet spaceflight guidance. At Korolev's OKB-1, Rauschenbach designed the orientation and control systems that made the Luna 3 far-side lunar photography (1959) and Gagarin's Vostok 1 flight (1961) technically possible. Born to Volga German heritage, he was interned in a labor camp in 1942 solely on ethnic grounds yet continued his calculations from captivity; Keldysh secured his return, and he became a core designer of the space program. In his later years he turned to the mathematical study of perspective in painting and Orthodox theology, producing original interdisciplinary work.

Career timeline
  • 1932–1937Studied at Leningrad Institute of Civil Air Fleet; glider stability research
  • 1937–1941Engineer at RNII under Korolev; winged missile flight control automation
  • 1942–1946Interned in Tagillag camp; performed calculations for Bolkhovitinov's bureau
  • 1946–1948Exile in Nizhny Tagil; worked for Keldysh's calculation bureau
  • 1948–1954Researcher at NII-1 under Keldysh; vibration combustion theory
  • 1955–1959OKB-1 under Korolev; pioneering spacecraft orientation systems
  • 1960–1973Department Chief at OKB-1; guidance systems for Luna, Vostok, Mars, Venera, Soyuz
  • 1959–1978Professor and Chair of Theoretical Mechanics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
  • 1978–2001Chair, Academy of Sciences Commission on Space Pioneers' Legacy; art theory and theology