Between stalinism and infrastructural globalism: The international geophysical year (1957-8) in Czechoslovakia, Poland and the German democratic republic

Abstract

This article analyses the political, scientific, and social circumstances of the beginning of infrastructural globalism in Eastern Europe, using the example of the International Geophysical Year (1957-8). This research programme led to the establishment of the first large global infrastructures operating in Eastern Europe, i.e. behind the Iron Curtain, under the auspices of international organizations (UNESCO, ICSU). Following the Geneva conference in 1955, large infrastructures and 'big data' science were supposed to become part of Soviet science diplomacy. The paper shows that while the Soviet Union and East-European countries accepted the challenge and became part of the global scientific community, nevertheless specific features of data and information control remained under the strict surveillance of the USSR.