The years of the Great Patriotic War in the development of modern agrophysics

Abstract

The article examines the activities of the Agrophysical Research Institute during the first decade following its establishment. (Research purpose) The study aims to examine and summarize, for the first time, archival materials on the activities of the Agrophysical Institute during the Siege of Leningrad, from autumn 1941 to 1944. (Materials and methods) The historical and scientific study is based on reports documenting the activities of the Agrophysical Institute stored in the Central State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documentation of St. Petersburg, as well as on published monographs and articles concerning the work of Russian scientists during the Siege of Leningrad. (Results and discussion) The study systematizes information on the institute’s key scientists and their contributions to the development of agrophysical science. It identifies research groups according to their subject areas and leading researchers. The institute’s staff carried out dedicated work aimed at solving practical problems in agriculture and the city’s defense. (Conclusions) The institute not only continued its research on hydrophobic soils and the theory of water and heat transfer processes in soils, but also successfully carried out production trials of previously developed agrotechnical solutions in the Cis-Ural region. The completion of Candidate and Doctoral dissertations, together with the publication of comprehensive monographs summarizing the results of pre-war research, became an important indicator of the normalization of scientific life.