Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory’s Aragats cosmic ray research station, Armenia
After the collapse of the USSR, with funding discontinued, the station’s survival seemed uncertain. International grants and support from the Armenian diaspora bridged the gap, allowing Aragats to continue its work.
Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute’s Assy-Turgen observatory, Kazakhstan
In the late-1980s, construction started on a 45-metre-tall pavilion for the observatory’s new 1.5-metre AZT-20 telescope. The dome and the building structure were completed but funding was suspended after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 2014, the institute was able to resume construction using its own resources, and it finally began operating in 2017.
Control panel and mural at the Byurakan astrophysical observatory, Armenia
The Soviets presented science as a utopian ideal. Thousands of researchers worked in imperfect secrecy on ‘big science’ initiatives, mostly for cold war military objectives. In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many institutions were left destitute and their advanced technology was doomed to extinction.
