The Presidential Library prepared the collection “K. E. Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935)”

April 12, 2018 marks the 57th anniversary of the first manned space flight. To this day, the Presidential Library prepared the collection “K. E. Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935)”, dedicated to the founder of modern astronautics, the philosopher, who laid the foundations of Russian cosmism. In addition, the "Open Space" collection will feature a section "Representatives of Russian cosmism", which will include the scientific works of Konstantin Eduardovich and the world-famous thinker and natural scientist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, as well as rare books about their life and discoveries.

It should be emphasized that the Presidential Library no less attention rather than the "space" series, pays to the philosophical works of Tsiolkovsky. It is peculiar that among the works of Tsiolkovsky published in Soviet times, the works on rocket technology occupy a very modest place, mainly the philosophical essays: “The Will of the Universe” (1928), “The Cause of Space” (1925), “The Scientific Ethics” (1930) and others.

"The population of the universe is absolute, although not factual truth", - Tsiolkovsky writes in the last work. "To say that the universe is empty, devoid of life on the grounds that we do not see it, is a gross error".

The collection, dedicated to Tsiolkovsky, reflects the thesis abstract of V. Lytkin for the title of Doctor of Philosophy "Philosophical and Anthropological Project of K. E. Tsiolkovsky" (2013), where the author writes: "Already at the beginning of XX century Tsiolkovsky, like others cosmists, saw the enormous significance that global threats can have in the future for mankind: ecological catastrophes, cosmic cataclysms, depletion of raw materials, etc. To solve these and other problems, Tsiolkovsky approached from an anthropological point of view, therefore it can be considered the founder of cosmic anthropology, the subject of which is the study of the probable forms of life in the universe, the study of the cosmic future of mankind".

In "The Will of the Universe" the scientist considered the possibilities of man in its relationship with the open cosmos: "The universe gave birth to man, his weak mind and will. But they were earlier still weaker, they then developed to the present strength and, perhaps, will continue their development. What degree it will reach, what fruits it will give - it is now even difficult to imagine".

Nevertheless, he tried to present this in the optimistic story "Outside the Earth" (1920), where Konstantin Eduardovich writes about travels to the Moon, to Mars, to other planets. In the chapter "The state of mankind in 2017" the author seems to model a socio-political environment in which only such successes in space are possible: "There was one beginning on the whole Earth: a congress made up of representatives of all states. It has existed for more than 70 years and solved all issues relating to mankind. Misunderstandings between the peoples were settled peacefully. The armies were very limited. Huge metal airships, raising thousands of tons, made the message and transportation of goods convenient and cheap".

A modest mathematics teacher from a small provincial Kaluga was a great dreamer. "I remember very well", - he wrote in his work "Studies of the World Spaces with Jet Devices" (1926), that my favorite dream in the earliest childhood, before books, was a vague consciousness of a medium without gravity, where movements in all directions are completely free and are boundless and where everyone is better than a bird in the air ... And there are no such tales, but I vaguely believed, felt, and wished for such an environment without gravity".

From this communication directly with the Universe the whole direction of the scientific and technical field of strategic importance was born. It allowed Russia to take a leading position in the field of space exploration. On the portal of the Presidential Library you can see the shooting taken on April 12, 1961, where the Baikonur cosmodrome is depicted. The chronicle also contains historical take-off frames: future first cosmonaut of the Earth travels by bus to the launch site, bids farewell to the designer Korolev, rises to the spacecraft ...

The collection "Open Space" continues to be enriched with new exclusive materials. Among them - a selection of 15 theoretical works by such famous researchers as A. Fersman ("Chemical Elements of Earth and Space" in 1923), J. Perelman ("Interplanetary Travels" in 1935), J. Messer ("Star Atlas for heavenly observations" of 1901), etc. Gere are also memorable issues of newspapers of April 12, 1961, books on space exploration, including those written by cosmonauts, publicists investigating this topic. In addition, these are postcards, medals, photographs, newsreel frames that give a complete picture of the first launches and conquerors of the cosmos.