Alexander Alexandrovich Bolonkin | |
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Александр Александрович Болонкин | |
| Born | 14 March 1933 |
| Died | 25 December 2020(2020-12-25) (aged 87) |
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| Alma mater | Perm Aviation College,Kazan Aviation Institute,Kiev State University,Moscow Aviation Institute,Leningrad Polytechnic University |
| Known for | human rights activism with participation indissident movement in the Soviet Union |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | cybernetician |
| Institutions | |
Alexander Alexandrovich Bolonkin (Russian:Александр Александрович Болонкин; 14 March 1933 – 25 December 2020[1]) was a Russian-American scientist and academic who worked in the Soviet aviation, space and rocket industries and lectured in Moscow universities, before being arrested in 1972 by theKGB as adissident. He served terms of imprisonment andexile for 15 years until 1987, when he emigrated to the US as a political refugee.
After that he lectured at American universities and worked as a researcher atNASA, U.S. Air Force, and for theNational Research Council. He was a member of the board of directors of the International Space Agency;[2] chairman of the Space Flights section; member of the advisory board of theLifeboat Foundation and its Space Settlement Board; the founding president of the International Association of Former Soviet Political Prisoners and Victims of the Communist Regime (IASPPV);[3] and co-founder and co-chair of the board of directors of American Russian-speaking Association for Civil & Human Rights (ARA).[4]
Bolonkin was born inPerm. He got a higher secondary education in aviation engineering from Perm Aviation College, receiving its diploma in 1952. His higher education resulted in a master's degree inaviation engineering fromKazan Aviation Institute in 1958, a master's degree in mathematics fromKiev University in 1963, a doctorate in aerospace engineering from theMoscow Aviation Institute in 1964, and ahabilitated doctor degree incybernetics and mathematics fromLeningrad Polytechnic University in 1971.
He worked at theAntonov aviation design company as a senior engineer and head of the aerodynamics group, participating in the design of aircraft from theAn-8 to theAn-124, and at theGlushko rocketry company, participating in the design of rocket engines, and lectured at the Moscow Aviation Institute, theMoscow Aviation Technology Institute, and theBauman Moscow State Technical University.[5]
In 1972 he wasarrested by theKGB for dissemination of an undergrounddissident newsletter,[6] listening to theVoice of America and reading and disseminating works byAndrei Sakharov andAleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Bolonkin was sentenced to 4 years in alabour camp and 2 years in exile inBuryatia.[6] Shortly before his sentence of exile ended Bolonkin was given a sentence of 2 years in a labour camp on a charge of stealing state property.[6] For 15 years he was tortured, imprisoned, and exiled inMordovia andSiberia.[5] In 1981 Sakharov appealed for international support to have him freed.[7] In April 1982 he made a televised recantation[8] thatAmnesty International ascribed to threats of beatings and rape.[9]
In 1987, during the earlyperestroika, he was released and gained entry to theUnited States as apolitical refugee. In the United States he has lectured atNew Jersey Institute of Technology and worked atNASA as asenior researcher and in the scientific laboratories of theUS Air Force as a senior research fellow of theNational Research Council.[4] He subsequently worked inIsrael as chief scientist at the Strategic Solutions Technology Group.[10]
On November 21, 1990, he was acquitted of the conviction of November 23, 1973, and on March 22, 1991 — of the conviction of February 8, 1982, in both cases “for lack of corpus delicti.”[11]
By 2009, Bolonkin held 17 patents. Among his innovations in space exploration are acable space launcher, ahypersonic tube launcher,[12] a kinetic anti-gravitation system,[13] a multi-reflex propulsion device,[14] space towers, an electrostaticsolar sail, an electricramjet space propulsion device, and the cable aviation[15] device.[5] In anIzvestia interview in 1998, he predicted the achievement ofcybernetic immortality by 2020,[16] and in 2011 he was consulted as an expert by the2045 Initiative.[17] He also developed the idea of domed cities as a protection againstfallout,[10][18] and in physics researched the production of what he called "AB-Matter" throughfemtotechnology.[10]
Bolonkin was a member of the board of directors of the International Space Agency and chairman of the space flights section.[5][19]
He is also a member of the advisory board of theLifeboat Foundation and its space settlement board,[20] and the founding president of the International Association of Former Soviet Political Prisoners and Victims of the Communist Regime (IASPPV) and co-founder and co-chair of American Russian-speaking Association for Civil & Human Rights, an organization for the civil and human rights ofRussian-Americans.[5][4] In this role, he co-authored with Dmitri Glinski a testimony for the hearings on theMagnitsky Act held by theU.S. House of Representatives'Tom LantosHuman Rights Committee before the passage of the Act in November 2012.[21]
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