Mikhail Bonch-Bruyevich (engineer)

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bonch-Bruevich (Russian: Михаил Александрович Бонч-Бруевич, IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪdʑ ˈbondʑ brʊˈjevʲɪtɕ] ⓘ; 22 February 1888 – 7 March 1940), sometimes spelled Bonch-Bruyevich, was an engineer, scientist, and professor.

Generally considered the leading authority on radio in Russian Empire and Soviet Union in the first decades of the 20th century, he greatly influenced the pre-radar development of radio-location in that nation.

Bonch-Bruevich was named the Technical Director, and over the next several years gained world acclaim for his work on radio equipment.

He conducted extensive experiments on high-frequency communications, and, in one project, used pulsed transmission to analyze the nature of the ionosphere.

In 1931, this research center was moved to Leningrad and enlarged to become the Tsentral’naya radiolaboratoriya (TsRL, Central Radio Laboratory); Bonch-Bruevich remained the Technical Director.

[2] For some time the Glavnoe artilleriyskoe upravlenie (GAU, Main Artillery Administration) of the Red Army had been seeking means of detecting enemy aircraft at night or above the clouds.

In mid-January 1934, the Russian Academy of Sciences held a major conference in Leningrad to discuss this work at LEPI and TsRL as well as similar activities elsewhere.

The conference proceedings were published in a journal, available (in the Russian language) for researchers worldwide to learn of this technology in the USSR.

[5] In 1935, both LEPI and TsRL were made a part of Nauchno-issledovatelskii institut-9 (NII-9, Scientific Research Institute #9), a new GAU organization opened in Leningrad.

The infamous Great Purge of Joseph Stalin swept over the military high commands and the supporting scientific community.

Through the influence of Bonch-Bruevich, who had been a favorite of Lenin in the prior decade, NII-9 as an organization was saved, and Bonch-Bruyevich was named the new director.

[3] During his career, Bonch-Bruevich wrote and published over 80 scientific papers and books, and patented and transferred to industry about 60 inventions.