Abstract
This chapter focuses on the period between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s, regarded as the maturity phase of the “General Relativity and Gravitation” community. During this phase, many tensions of different kinds emerged and seriously jeopardized the existence of an institutional structure for promoting general relativity at the international level. These tensions ranged from cultural differences to generational struggles, from disciplinary rivalries to political conflicts. All of them became urgent matters of debate when the international conference held in the Soviet Union in September 1968 was dramatically affected by the recent military conflicts of the Six-Day War and of the armed invasion of Czechoslovakia. Under strained political circumstances, scientists attempted to draw a clear boundary between scientific and political matters. In the attempt to do so, the participants came to hold very different views about how these demarcations should be defined in the specific context of the activities of an international scientific institution during the Cold War. Despite the various conflicts, the institution was able to survive: this period ended with the transformation of the International Committee on General Relativity and Gravitation into the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation—whose statute came to embody the political and other tensions characterizing its establishment.
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Notes
- 1.
Besides Fock, the local organizing committee was composed of mathematician and ICGRG member A.A. Petrov, theoretical physicist and Director of the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics in Moscow Isaak M. Khalatnikov, the corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, M.M. Mirianashvili, as Vice-Chairman and, as Secretary General, A.B. Kereselidze of Tbilisi State University. The reader will notice that the Soviet ICGRG member Ivanenko was not part of the local organizing committee, which is an indication of the difficult relations between Fock and Ivanenko within the Soviet group of relativists. See Jean-Philippe Martinez, Ph.D. dissertation on Vladimir Fock prepared at the University Paris 7—Paris Diderot, to be defended in 2017.
- 2.
Research on Web of Science shows that during the year 1968 at least 54 scientific papers contained the word “pulsar” in the title.
- 3.
Wheeler to Mercier, 11 May 1967, PBP, emphasis by Wheeler.
- 4.
Mercier, Leçons sur la Théorie de la Gravitation et de la Relativité Générale GRG, p. 15. HAM, folder BB 8.2, 1556, Dossier on GRG.
- 5.
See also “The GRn conferences,” http://www.isgrg.org/pastconfs.php. Accessed 7 March 2016.
- 6.
Rosen to Mercier, 4 September 1967, PBP.
- 7.
Bondi to all the members of the ICGRG, 12 July 1968, PBP; copies of the lists 2.a and 2.c are preserved in PBP.
- 8.
Rosen to Mercier, 4 September 1967, PBP.
- 9.
Rosen to Mercier, 4 September 1967, PBP.
- 10.
Peres to Bergmann, 14 May 1968, PBP.
- 11.
Bergmann to Bondi, 17 May 1968, PBP. See also Bergmann to Bondi, 3 May 1968, BOND, folder 4/4 A.
- 12.
Bondi to the members of the Committee on GRG, “The events of summer 1968,” undated handwritten note, probably 4 September 1968, BOND, folder 4/4 A.
- 13.
Bondi to Fock, Ginzburg, Ivanenko, and Petrov, 17 June 1968, PBP, emphasis mine.
- 14.
Telegram from Bondi to Fock, 3 July 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 15.
From the documents found in the Fock Archive, science historian Jean-Philippe Martinez discovered that Fock did not reply earlier because he was not at his home institution when Bondi’s communication arrived.
- 16.
Bondi to the Members of the ICGRG, 12 July 1968, PBP. Petrov had also replied to Bondi declaring that Rosen was not to be invited because he had officially stated that he would not have come and protested that Carmeli was not on the main list of scholars to be invited. It is very probable that Petrov was referring to the list 2.a of scholars whose presence was “Highly Desirable.” Petrov to Bondi, 2 July 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A. Petrov also confirmed that they would ask the officials responsible why Peres had not received his invitation yet.
- 17.
Bondi to the members of the ICGRG, 12 July 1968, PBP.
- 18.
The term “crisis” is explicitly used in Bondi to Member of the ICGRG, 12 July 1968, PBP.
- 19.
Deser to Bondi, 16 July 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 20.
Utiyama to Bondi, 18 July 1968; and Kilmister to Bondi, 24 July 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 21.
Bergmann to Bondi, 24 July 1968, PBP.
- 22.
Rosen to Bondi, 18 July 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 23.
Rosen to Bergmann, 4 August 1968, PBP.
- 24.
Rosen to Bergmann, 4 August 1968, PBP; and Rosen to Bondi, 8 August 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 25.
Bondi to ICGRG members, 6 August 1968, PBP.
- 26.
Although they were ready to support the operation, East German troops were actually prevented from entering the Czechoslovak national border on Soviet orders because it was feared that the memory of the German occupation during World War II would have increased Czechoslovak resistance (Stolarik 2010, pp. 137–164); see also “NVA-Truppen machen Halt an der tschechoslowakischen Grenze.” http://www.radio.cz/de/rubrik/sonderserie68/nva-truppen-machen-halt-an-der-tschechoslowakischen-grenze. Accessed 17 January 2017.
- 27.
Browne to Bondi, 26 August 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 28.
Telegram from Mercier to Bergmann, 26 August 1968, PBP. Mercier also sent a letter to all the scholars invited to the Tbilisi conference in which he reported the text of the telegram. Mercier to Scientist invited to partake in the Tiflis-Conference on Gravitation and the Theory of Relativity, 27 August 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 29.
Peres to Bondi, 20 August 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 30.
Peres to Wheeler, 2 August 1968; and Peres to Bondi, 1 August 1968, PBP.
- 31.
Telegram from Bondi to Members of the ICGRG, 29 August 1968, PBP, also in BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 32.
Ibid.
- 33.
Peter Havas to Bondi, 29 August 1968; Goldberg to Organizing Committee, 3 September 1968; telegram from Bergmann to Fock, 3 September 1968, PBP.
- 34.
Penrose to Bondi, 28 August 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A. A similar motivation is to be found also in the telegram from Jules Géhéniau to Bondi, 30 August 1968; and telegram from Alfred Schild to Bondi, 30 August 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 35.
Bergmann, draft, 2 September 1968, PBP; as far as I know, the document has not been used or circulated.
- 36.
Telegram from Peres to Bondi, 5 September 1968; telegram from Kereselidze to Bondi, 4 September 1968; Miss Speathe to Bondi, 4 September 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 37.
Telegram from Bondi to Bergmann, 6 September 1968, PBP. Various telegrams to ICGRG members, members of the Organizational Committee of the Tbilisi conference and to the Secretary of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 6 September 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 38.
Rosen to Fock, 15 October 1968, PBP.
- 39.
Bondi was unable to attend the meeting because he had, in the meantime, taken other commitments as the newly elected Director General of the European Space Research Organization (ESRO).
- 40.
“As a whole, the Conference in Tbilisi was very pleasant and successful, although, of course, we were missing a large number of colleagues from Europe and U.S.A. It was very unfortunate that the politics of the Great Powers were able to interfere with the unity of scientists, which has worked so well in our field of research since the Berne Conference in 1955.” Møller to Bondi, 15 October 1968, CMP, Box A-D, folder 3. See also Fock to Bondi, 11 November 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A. In addition to Wheeler, among the attendees were Dieter Brill, John Bardeen, Arthur Komar, Bruce Partridge, Abe Taub, Bryce DeWitt, Frederik Belinfante, Remo Ruffini. See Ruffini (2010) and Georg Dautcourt, “Bericht über die fünfte international Gravitationskonferenz in Tbilisi vom 9.-13. September 1968,” DAUT.
- 41.
The most important of Soviet-American collaborations would probably become the cooperation between American theoretician Kip Thorne and Soviet experimental physicist Vladimir B. Braginsky who had started planning gravitational wave experiments back in the early 1960s. Kip Thorne, whose leftist parents had visited the Soviet Union in the past, paid a visit to the Braginsky group in conjunction with the Tbilisi conference. In the following years, Thorne continued to visit Braginsky and his group, and they also began co-authoring papers in the mid-1970s; see Kip S. Thorne, “Vladimir Borisovich Braginsky 1931–2016,” https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20160426#Remiscences%20by%20Kip%20Thorne. Accessed 9 March 2017. According to Thorne’s recollection, the relationship with Braginsky was instrumental in turning his interest toward the problem of gravitational waves, and consequently to its entrance into the LIGO venture. Another relevant relationship that started in Tbilisi was that between Thorne and Yakov B. Zel’dovich; see also Thorne to Wheeler and Charles Misner, 22 September 1969, JWP, Box 18, folder Misner.
- 42.
Minutes of the ICGRG during the GR5 conference held in Tbilisi on 12 September 1968, PBP.
- 43.
Ibid.
- 44.
Minutes of the Meeting of the ICGRG, 30 June and 7 July 1965, PISGRG, folder 1.1.
- 45.
Minutes of the ICGRG during the GR5 conference held in Tbilisi on 12 September 1968, PBP.
- 46.
Møller to Bondi, 15 October 1968, CMP, Box A-D, folder 3.
- 47.
At the metaphorical level, this kind of boundary-work can be assimilated to the boundary-work discussed in Gieryn (1999).
- 48.
The term “save” in this context was used in Bergmann to Bondi, 24 July 1968, PBP.
- 49.
Translation of the letter from Mercier to Fock, 3 October 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 50.
“[L]a science doit être placée au dessus de la politique.” Fock to Mercier, 11 November 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A, Fock’s emphasis.
- 51.
Bondi to Fock, undated handwritten note, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 52.
A quite relevant case here was that the entry visa was denied to delegates of Western European countries that were or had been members of communist parties and wanted to participate in the 16th IUPAC Conference held in New York City in 1951 (Fennell 1994, p. 99).
- 53.
Bondi to the members of the Committee on GRG, “The events of summer 1968,” undated handwritten note, probably 4 September 1968. It is likely that it was actually sent to the ICGRG members. See Bondi to Mrs. Browne, 4 September 1968. See also Bondi to Mercier, undated handwritten note, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 54.
- 55.
See, for example, Trautman to Bondi, 3 September 1968; and Belinfante to Mercier, 23 September 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A. In his letter, Belinfante criticizes Mercier’s actions and then decided to go anyway because “politics should not interfere with science.”
- 56.
Elzinga drew this distinction in the context of institutional settings, but it is also useful to frame the discussion about individual agency.
- 57.
After Bondi had circulated the report on the problems concerning the exclusion of Israeli scientists, Mercier had replied that he would go anyway. Mercier to Bondi, 16 July 1968, BOND, 4/4A.
- 58.
In Elzinga’s definition, this could correspond to the “heteroletic” mode of scientific internationalism (Elzinga 1996, pp. 3–4).
- 59.
Peres to Bondi, 8 September 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 60.
Documentation on the invitation to Jordan are in VFP. For a historical analysis of these events, see Jean-Philippe Martinez, Ph.D. dissertation on Vladimir Fock prepared at the University Paris 7—Paris Diderot, to be defended in 2017.
- 61.
Robinson to Mercier, 5 April 1969, ESP, Box 5, folder Ivor Robinson.
- 62.
Telegram from Alfred Schild to Fock, undated; Bergmann to Fock, draft of an undated letter, PBP.
- 63.
Bergmann to Fock, draft of an undated letter, PBP; it is unclear whether or not Bergmann actually sent this letter.
- 64.
In a personal communication, Joshua Goldberg similarly stated that the ICGRG was increasingly seen by the younger scholars as a “self-appointed group” of experts without any right to administrate the GRG international community at the institutional level (see also Held et al. 1978).
- 65.
Minutes of the ICGRG during the GR5 conference held in Tbilisi on 12 September 1968, PBP.
- 66.
Rosenfeld to Bondi, 19 November 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 67.
Bergmann to all members of the ICGRG, including Felix Pirani, undated, probably November 1968 ca., PBP.
- 68.
Ibid.
- 69.
Mercier to Bondi, 27 August 1968; and Mercier to Fock, 3 October 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 70.
Bondi to Mercier, 2 September 1968; Bondi to Mercier, 11 October 1968; and Fock to Mercier, 11 November 1968, BOND, folder 4/4A.
- 71.
For Papapetrou’s role in launching research in the GRG field in East Germany, see Hoffmann (2017).
- 72.
For the general reform of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin, which will be also renamed Academy of Sciences of the GDR in 1972, see Laitko (1999).
- 73.
Georg Dautcourt, personal communication. According to Dautcourt, the idea of proposing Heckmann as Treder’s West German counterpart was suggested by him during one of his visits to Ivanenko’s group in Moscow. Jordan was not acceptable because of his Nazi past and his former political activities as member of the West German Parliament. However, Dautcourt recalls that opposition to Jordan was not specific of Eastern scholars, but also came from Western scientists.
- 74.
For Heckmann’s career during the Third Reich see Hentschel and Renneberg (1995).
- 75.
Treder to E.A. Lauter, 30 September 1969, Hans-Jürgen Treder Papers, BBAW, folder 101.
- 76.
The entrance of Vaidya was probably related to the establishment of the Committee on Gravitation in India, on the occasion of the Research Seminar on Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology held at Gujarat University, Ahmedabad in February 1969, which was attended by the Soviet ICGRG member Ivanenko. Vaidya was the Vice-Chairman of the newly established Indian Committee (Ivanenko 1969).
- 77.
Louis Witten, e-mail to the author, 1 December 2016.
- 78.
Minutes of the Meeting of the ICGRG, 30 June and 7 July 1965, PISGRG, folder 1.1.
- 79.
Minutes of the Meeting of the ICGRG, 30 June and 7 July 1965, PISGRG, folder 1.1. Back in 1955, Wheeler wrote: “[Bryce DeWitt and Cécile DeWitt-Morette] propose to do something that has long needed doing—help make clear the fundamental facts and principles of general relativity so clearly and inescapably that every competent worker knows what is right and what is wrong. They can do much to clear away the debris of ruined theories from the rocklike solidity of Einstein’s gravitation theory so its meaning and consequences will be clear to all.” Wheeler to Agnew Bahnson, 25 November 1955 (quoted in Rickles 2011, p. 14). In 1968, Wheeler would reiterate the need to define standards in the field of GRG proposing to “select a standard set of sign conventions, to be used wherever possible by those working in the field.” Misner, Thorne, Wheeler, Open letter to Relativity Theorists, 19 August 1968, PBP.
- 80.
Schild to Drs. Burdine, Hackerman, Hanson, Ransom, Stone, Whaley, 27 May 1963, ESP, Box 3, folder University of Texas.
- 81.
The first book in the series was the important monograph by Hawking and Ellis (1973). The other books were published from the 1980s onward and only a few were on topics related to GRG: Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics, https://www.cambridge.org/core/series/cambridge-monographs-on-mathematical-physics/B5B9D3A75391E59CF00429DF1A92AF65. Accessed 10 March 2017.
- 82.
Mercier to Scientists throughout the world who work in the field of GRG, 27 October 1969, PBP.
- 83.
Similar concerns had been at the basis of various debates on the formation of specialized sub-disciplines of physics with their own publishing venue. See, for instance, the case of solid-state physics (Hoffmann 2013). For a historical study of the formation of the American solid-state physics community, see Weart (1992).
- 84.
Mercier to ICGRG members, 22 September 1969, PBP.
- 85.
Bergmann to Bondi, 8 October 1969, PBP.
- 86.
Ibid.
- 87.
Ibid.
- 88.
Mercier to Subscribers to the Bulletin on GRG, 2 February 1970, PBP.
- 89.
Mercier to ICGRG members, 31 October 1969, PBP.
- 90.
As some of his colleagues later stated in the pages of General Relativity and Gravitation “[f]rom the point of view of the world of relativity, perhaps [Mercier’s] most important contribution was the founding of this journal” (Held et al. 1978, p. 760).
- 91.
As confirmation of this trend coming especially from Wheeler, one might notice that the move toward using supercomputers for the solution of Einstein’s equations was again related to what philosopher and historian of science Dennis Lehmkuhl (2017) calls Wheeler’s family.
- 92.
“[T]he adjective Relativistic, used in the invitation, surely did not apply” (Mercier 1967, p. 10).
- 93.
Letter of Invitation, GR6P, Box 1. See also The Organization Committee (Møller, Rosenfeld, S. Rozental, B. Strömgren) to the members of the ICGRG, 24 June 1970; and Fock to Møller, 12 August 1970, GR6P, Box 1.
- 94.
Wheeler to Strömgren, Møller, Rosenfeld and Rozental, 18 May 1970, handwritten at Gwatt Switzerland and given to Rozental, GR6P, Box M-Z.
- 95.
While Wheeler stressed that new results might come from relativistic astrophysics, Bergmann, for instance, criticized the preliminary schedule as being “slanted toward the astrophysical and cosmological aspects,” while he suggested giving more space to other kinds of theoretical advances. Bergmann to Møller, 20 July 1970, GR6P, Box 1.
- 96.
Møller to A. Fischer, 23 February 1971, GR6P, Box A-L.
- 97.
Rosenfeld to Gerald Tauber, 19 April 1971, GR6P, Box M-Z.
- 98.
Rosenfeld to Felix Pirani, 19 November 1970, GR6P, Box M-Z.
- 99.
“[T]he number of active relativists has now become so large that we found it impossible to satisfy all of them,” Rosenfeld to Peter Rastall, 19 February 1971, GR6P, Box M-Z.
- 100.
In May 1971, Stefan Rozental stated that they had to send rejections to more than 50 people. Rozental to Jakob Bekenstein, 27 May 1971, GR6P, Box A-L. Probably, the number of those who wished to attend, but were unable to, was even greater because many younger scholars did not ask directly. See, for example, Pirani to Rosenfeld, 6 January 1971, GR6P, Box M-Z.
- 101.
Pirani to Rosenfeld, 15 October 1970; and Pirani to Rosenfeld, 12 May 1971, GR6P, Box M-Z.
- 102.
Fisher to the Organizing Committee of GR6, 12 January 1971, GR6P, Box A-L.
- 103.
Ibid.
- 104.
DeWitt to Mercier, 28 April 1971, GR6P, Box A-L, DeWitt’s emphasis.
- 105.
“Minutes of the Meetings on the Committee on GRG, held on occasion of the GR6-Conference in Copenhagen,” p. 4, DAUT.
- 106.
Treder was ill with chronic pancreatitis. Dautcourt, “Bericht über die 6. Internationale Gravitationskonferenz in Kopenhagen,” DAUT; and Treder to Møller, 17 June 1971, GR6P, Box M-Z.
- 107.
Treder to Møller, 17 June 1971, GR6P, Box M-Z. “Mir scheint, daß die Relativitäts- und Gravitationstheorie in dem letzten Jahrzehnt sich in so breiter Front mit der “normalen” theoretischen Physik und Astrophysik verschmolzen haben und daß jetzt auch für eine erfreulich große Zahl von “normalen” physikalischen und astrophysikalischen geworden sind, daß an sich für irgendeine neue Spezialorganisation der “Relativisten” keinerlei Notwendigkeit mehr besteht (und eine solche spezielle Organisation auch keinen definierten Mitgliederkreis mehr haben könnte). - Eine solche relativistische Organisation war so lange berechtigt und notwendig wie die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie einen gewissen esoterischen Charakter hatte.
Ich halte daher alle Vorschläge, irgendeine neue eigene Organisation für Relativitätstheorie ins Leben zu rufen, für nicht mehr recht zeitgemäß, - Das an sich so angenehme könnte m.E. weiterhin als eine Art “Internationaler wissenschaftlicher Klub” bestehen bleiben, der sich nach Vorbild der internationalen und nationalen Akademien selbst ergänzt und natürlich keineswegs den Anspruch erhebt, die Relativitätstheorie zu repräsentieren (dies könnte m.E. heute keine noch so perfekte Organisation mehr).”
- 108.
“Minutes of the Meetings on the Committee on GRG, held on occasion of the GR6-Conference in Copenhagen,” p. 5, DAUT.
- 109.
“Dmitri Ivanenko—Scientific Biography” http://istina.msu.ru/media/publications/articles/91d/63b/5382068/Biography-Ivanenko.pdf. Accessed 17 February 2017; see also Ivanenko to Møller 22, July 1971, GR6P, Box A-L.
- 110.
Bergmann to Møller, 10 June 1971, GR6P, Box A-L. In fact, Bergmann had explored the possibility of making the ICGRG a division of the European Physical Society but desisted because American physicists complained that the European Physical Society was not truly international, but rather regional.
- 111.
“Minutes of the Meetings on the Committee on GRG, held on occasion of the GR6-Conference in Copenhagen,” p. 5, DAUT.
- 112.
Rosen had officially proposed Israel before the conference. Rosen to Mercier, 24 March 1971, GR6P, Box M-Z. Apparently, this information was already known to Soviet scholars who had received a directive from party authorities to oppose this decision (Khalatnikov 2012, p. 134).
- 113.
Minutes of the Meetings on the Committee on GRG, held on occasion of the GR6-Conference in Copenhagen,” p. 8, DAUT.
- 114.
“Minutes of the Meetings on the Committee on GRG, held on occasion of the GR6-Conference in Copenhagen,” p. 8, DAUT. It seems that also Khalatnikov, whom Rosenfeld did not mention, was not allowed to attend. Khalatnikov was scheduled as a main speaker, but he did not come despite the fact that the organizing committee tried to put pressure on the Soviet Academy of Sciences in order to allow him to participate. Møller to the President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Mstislav V. Keldysh, undated typewritten copy of a telegram, GR6P, Box A-L.
- 115.
“Minutes of the Meetings on the Committee on GRG, held on occasion of the GR6-Conference in Copenhagen,” p. 10, DAUT.
- 116.
Mercier to members of the sub-committee on the foundation of the society, 18 May 1972; and Mercier to A.A. Sokolov and N.V. Mitskiévic, 1 February 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.2.
- 117.
Georg Dautcourt to Møller, 29 October 1971, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 118.
“Minutes of the 1st Meetings of a General Assembly towards the foundation of Society for General Relativity and Gravitation GRG,” p. 3, DAUT.
- 119.
Ivanenko to Møller, 22 July 1971, PGR6, Box A-L; Dautcourt, “Bericht über die 6. Internationale Gravitationskonferenz in Kopenhagen,” DAUT. According to Dautcourt, for instance, he remained in the room. Dautcourt, personal communication. Other recollections seem to imply that every scientist working in Soviet Bloc countries had to leave the room. Genot F. Neugebauer, personal communication. If Dautcourt stayed, it was certainly perceived as a strong political act.
- 120.
“Minutes of the 1st Meetings of a General Assembly towards the foundation of Society for General Relativity and Gravitation GRG,” p. 4, DAUT.
- 121.
Dautcourt, personal communication.
- 122.
“Minutes of the 1st Meetings of a General Assembly towards the foundation of Society for General Relativity and Gravitation GRG,” p. 4, DAUT; and Kip Thorne, personal communication.
- 123.
“Minutes of the 1st Meetings of a General Assembly towards the foundation of Society for General Relativity and Gravitation GRG,” p. 5, DAUT.
- 124.
Mercier to members of the ICGRG, 30 May 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.2.
- 125.
Dautcourt, “Bericht über die 6. Internationale Gravitationskonferenz in Kopenhagen,” DAUT.
- 126.
Soviet participants of the GR6 Conference to the Chairman of the Plenary GR6, 9 July 1971, GR6P, Box A-L.
- 127.
The total number of votes that went to the Soviet delegates was the highest (277), together with the number of votes for the American candidates. This is bizarre as one would expect a considerable difference in the case of coordinated abstention, “Minutes of the Meetings on the Committee on GRG, held on occasion of the GR6-Conference in Copenhagen,” pp. 18–20, DAUT. Dautcourt confirmed that he did in fact vote for the Soviet candidate. Dautcourt, personal communication.
- 128.
Apparently, Braginsky and Trautman were also reprimanded and faced difficulties with their superiors. Personal communications by Kip Thorne and Trautman. If we trust Khalatnikov’s short description of the events, the report accusing his colleagues was drafted by Petrov.
- 129.
Ivanenko to Møller, 22 July 1971, GR6P, Box A-L.
- 130.
Mercier to Relativists throughout the World, November 1972, ISGRGR.
- 131.
Dautcourt, “Bericht über die 6. Internationale Gravitationskonferenz in Kopenhagen,” DAUT; “Minutes of the Meetings on the Committee on GRG, held on occasion of the GR6-Conference in Copenhagen,” p. 19, DAUT.
- 132.
Treder to Mercier, 15 July 1971, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 133.
Treder to Dautcourt, 15 July 1971, DAUT.
- 134.
Dautcourt to Hermann Klare, 20 October 1971, DAUT.
- 135.
Dautcourt to Møller 9 December 1971; Dautcourt to Møller, 10 December 1971, DAUT; and Dautcourt to Møller, 29 October 1971, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 136.
Mercier to the members of the ICGRG, 30 May 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.2. Although Bergmann had nothing against Schmutzer, he wanted to better understand the motivations behind Dautcourt’s withdrawal. He did not buy Mercier’s explanation that Dautcourt disliked the idea that he was “taking the place so brilliantly occupied by his former teacher [sic], H. J. Treder, precisely at the time when […] the latter has been very ill for a prolonged period.” Mercier to the members of the ICGRG, 30 May 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.2; and Bergmann to Mercier, 13 June 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 137.
Schmutzer to Mercier, 24 April 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 138.
Ivanenko to Møller, 22 July 1971, GR6P, Box A-L. During the dramatic period in which he was trying to maintain his membership despite the pressure from Treder, Dautcourt argued that “[t]he exposed situation and its one-sided orientated policy make Israel appear as unsuitable for organizing an international conference” -“[d]ie exponierte Lage und seine einseitig orientirte Politik lassen Israel als ungeeignet für die Ausrichtung einer internationalen Konferenz erscheinen.” Dautcourt to Møller, 29 October 1971, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 139.
Møller to Ivanenko, 10 September 1971, GR6P, Box A-L.
- 140.
Bertotti to Mercier, 21 September 1971, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 141.
Dautcourt to Møller, 10 December 1971, PISGRG, folder 1.3; Ivanenko to Mercier, undated, probably June 1972, attached to Mercier to sub-committee, 14 July 72, PISGRG, folder 1.3; Wheeler to Møller, 4 April 1972, JWP, Box 18, folder Møller.
- 142.
Wheeler to Møller, 4 April 1972, JWP, Box 18, folder Møller.
- 143.
Kilmister to Mercier, 12 June 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 144.
Thorne to Mercier, 25 July 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 145.
Mercier to the members of the ICGRG, 30 May 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.2; Mercier to Rosen, 10 October 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 146.
Ivanenko to Mercier, undated, probably June 1972, attached to the letter from Mercier to sub-committee, 14 July 72, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 147.
Bertotti to Møller, 12 September 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 148.
Mercier to Rosen, 10 October 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 149.
Møller to Bertotti, 18 October 1972; and Rosen to Mercier, 9 January 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 150.
Møller to Bertotti, 18 October 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 151.
Thorne to Sciama, 1 November 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 152.
Draft Constitution of The International Society for General Relativity and Gravitation, attached to the letter from Mercier to the members of the ICGRG, 18 November 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.2.
- 153.
Among the international scientific institutional bodies of that period, the only two that seemed to resemble the structure of the ISGRG were the International Society of Biometeorology, founded in 1956 and the International Society of Electrochemistry established in 1970 as the evolution of the Comité International de Thermodynamique et de la Cinétique Electrochimiques, founded in 1949 (see Tromp 1960; Bockris 1991; Tannenberger 2000). I am grateful to Helmut Tannenberger and Dieter Landolt for information concerning the structure and historical developments of the CITCE-ISE.
- 154.
Mercier to the members of the ICGRG, 18 November 1972, PISGRG, folder 1.2.
- 155.
André Mercier to Relativists throughout the World, November 1972, ISGRGR.
- 156.
A. A. Sokolov to Mercier, 10 January 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.2; N. V. Mitskiévic to Mercier, 11 January 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.2; Bergmann and Goldberg to Mercier, 25 January 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.2.
- 157.
Bergmann and Goldberg to Mercier, 25 January 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.2.
- 158.
Rosen to Mercier, 9 January 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 159.
Mercier to Bergmann and Goldberg, 1 February 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.2.
- 160.
Mercier to Mitskiévic and Sokolov, 1 February 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.2.
- 161.
Mercier to Rosen, 18 January 193, PISGRG, folder 1.3, emphasis mine.
- 162.
Mercier to Utiyama, 1 February 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.3.
- 163.
Mercier to Rosen, 1 February 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.3. In this letter, Mercier declared that he understood Rosen’s point of view, but he was worried that no feasible solution had been proposed. He was trying to define the “philosophical condition of peace,” in agreement with the views he had already expressed in his writings (Mercier 1959).
- 164.
Møller to Mercier, 5 February 1973, CMP, folder GR7 1974.
- 165.
Bergmann and Goldberg, Memorandum: Revised Draft of GRG Constitution, 28 March 1973, RISGRG.
- 166.
Mercier to Y. Choquet-Bruhat and D. W. Sciama, 21 May 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.2.
- 167.
Mercier to Relativists throughout the World, 10 October 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.4.
- 168.
Mercier to Rosen, 1 February 1973; and Rosen to Mercier, 23 February 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.3; Møller to Mercier, 5 February 1973, CMP, folder GR7 1974.
- 169.
Mercier to Christian Møller, 7 January 1974, PISGRG, folder 1.4.
- 170.
Mercier to Members at large of the International Society on GRG, 28 March 1974, ISGRGR. The three Soviet members were Vladimir A. Belinsky, Khalatnikov, and Evgeny Lifshitz, all working in institutes of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
- 171.
Constitution of the International Society for General Relativity and Gravitation (as finalized by the ICGRG at its meeting in Paris on 22 June 1973), ISGRGR.
- 172.
Mercier to Møller, 3 November 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.4.
- 173.
Mercier to Møller, 1 December 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.4.
- 174.
Mercier to the Members of Nominating Committee GRG, 27 March 1974, PISGRG, folder 1.4.
- 175.
Møller to Mercier, 10 April 1974, PISGRG, folder 1.4.
- 176.
Rosen to Møller, 26 March 1973, PISGRG, folder 1.2.
- 177.
Minutes of the General Assembly of the International Society on GRG, 25 June 1974, ISGRGR.
- 178.
Andrzej Trautman to Mercier, 7 May 1975, PISGRG, folder 1.4.
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Lalli, R. (2017). From Crisis to a New Institutional Body. In: Building the General Relativity and Gravitation Community During the Cold War . SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54654-4_5
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