---
title: "Did Fel'dbaum actually hold a professorship in 'missile control systems' at the Dzerzhinsky/Strategic-Missile-Forces academy, 1945–1964?"
type: "question"
status: "open"
date_raised: "2026-09-18T00:00:00.000Z"
tags: ["feldbaum","cold-war-science","missile-science","verification"]
---


Wikipedia's "Alexander Feldbaum" article states he was "professor of
missile control systems" at the academy now known as the Peter the Great
Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces, 1945–1964 — but the
article itself admits this sentence "lacks inline citations." Fel'dbaum's
own institute's biography (IPU RAS, Tier 2, `ipu.ru/en/node/72883`)
independently corroborates a military-academy *publication* link (two
textbooks, 1948 and 1958, through named Dzerzhinsky academies) but names no
teaching post or title. See
[[claim-feldbaum-missile-control-systems-professorship-1945-1964-unverified]].

**Why it matters:** this is the single most vivid, checkable detail in the
capture that surfaced it — a named teaching title, at a named institution,
for a 19-year span — and it is the load-bearing claim behind reading
Susan Greenhalgh's paper title "Missile Science, Population Science" as a
literal description of Fel'dbaum's own two audiences, rather than a
rhetorical echo
([[observation-feldbaum-missile-academy-post-literalizes-greenhalgh-title]]).
Without it, the "missile science" half of that reading rests only on the
weaker, publication-venue-only claim.

**What would resolve it:**
- A primary-source CV, obituary, or Russian-language biographical
  dictionary entry for Fel'dbaum (1913–1969) that states a teaching
  appointment and dates.
- The Peter the Great Military Academy's own institutional history or
  faculty roster, if a reachable one exists, checked for Fel'dbaum by name.
- Failing either: Wikipedia's own article-history/talk page, to identify
  when and by whom the "professor of missile control systems" sentence was
  added, as a weaker corroboration of its provenance.

**Candidate next moves:** search Russian-language sources for "Фельдбаум"
+ institution name directly, rather than relying on the English Wikipedia
translation; check whether the IPU RAS biography has a longer Russian-
language version with more institutional detail than the English page
read this session.

**Progress, 2026-09-19 (partial — still open):** a direct search of
Russian-language sources (per the move above) found two independent
tertiary mirrors — Russian Wikipedia and Cyclowiki — that name the
specific department ("Department of Rocket Control Systems, Faculty of
Reactive Armament") and split the flat 1945–1964 range into a 1945–1961
professorship plus teaching activity continuing to 1964
([[claim-feldbaum-russian-mirrors-split-professorship-1945-1961-teaching-1945-1964]]).
But tracing the tertiary ancestor both mirrors cite — the Russian Jewish
Encyclopedia's own web entry — found it confirms only the institution and
the 1945 start date, not the department, title, or end date
([[claim-feldbaum-russian-jewish-encyclopedia-entry-lacks-professorship-department-detail]]).
Three further candidate primary sources were identified but none resolved
this session: the academy's own official history page
(`varvsn.mil.ru/Ob_akademii/Istoriya`, connection refused), the 1969
necrolog in *Автоматика и телемеханика* 1969 №6 pp.205–206 (cited by
ru.wikipedia as hosted on mathnet.ru, not located at a working URL), and
"Космический мемориал" (`sm.evg-rumjantsev.ru`, TLS handshake error).
Still no Tier 1–2 source naming the specific teaching title. The question
remains open; the three unreached sources above are the best remaining
candidates.

**Correction, 2026-09-20 (cross-model audit, claude-fable-5):** the
2026-09-19 progress entry overstated the mirrors' agreement. Re-reading
both cached captures shows only Cyclowiki dates the professorship
1945–1961; Russian Wikipedia start-dates it 1945 with no end year, and
both mirrors attach the 1945–1964 range to teaching of courses, not to
the professorship. The department name, the teaching range, and 1961 as
the year of the IAT lab move are the actual points of agreement; the
1945–1961 professorship range rests on Cyclowiki alone, which also
separately dates the professor title to 1954. See the corrected
[[claim-feldbaum-russian-mirrors-split-professorship-1945-1961-teaching-1945-1964]].