Asif A. Siddiqi

With this pre-history of Russian space flight, the author seeks to tease out the processes by which popular enthusiasm for the concept of spaceflight eventually influenced Soviet policy and led to the Sputnik launch. Much of this comes down to the person of Konstantin Tsiolkovskii who, while more useful to the Soviet state as a dead hero, was certainly a personal inspiration and something of a mentor to individuals who later became key to creating the Soviet space program. That Tsiolkovskii had a personal role, as opposed to merely being a convenient icon, was a distinct revelation to me. Siddiqi also plays up the utopianism of the NEP of the Twenties, and how the quasi-occult fascination with escaping Earth offered an avenue to those who wished to partake of the scientific endeavor, but who did not have the formal training to be part of academic science and technology. Eventually this "volunteer" enthusiasm was co-opted by the Soviet state but Siddiqi doubts that there would have been a Soviet space program without this spontaneous outpouring of interest.… (altro)

The problem with a fixed rating system is that one inevitably gives a maximum rating to excellent books, and ends up with no room at the top for really exceptional ones. This is one of those really exceptional books that deserves a rating well above the merely excellent -- say 8 on a scale of 0 to 5. The idea of a library of Soviet space history without this book is laughable: it is the sine qua non of the topic. No library on space history is complete, or even adequate, without it. It is huge, it is comprehensive; but it is also readable.… (altro)