From 19 to 25 July 2026, Dubna will host the “Archival Impulse: the science of collaborative archiving” summer school – a joint initiative of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and the Higher School of Economics (HSE). The event is set to feature a living memory archive at the JINR Museum of History of Science and Technology. Everyone who grew up in the science city is invited to share their reminiscences and co-author the Childhood in Dubna project.
The summer school participants, together with professional sociologists, ethnographers, and historians with experience in recording interviews, will be happy to listen and preserve your stories. The organizers are collecting memories that reflect bright childhood moments:
- outdoor games, scraped knees, and crayon drawings on asphalt;
- recreation at Volga River and other picturesque places, fishing, water skiing;
- school years: first teacher, hobby clubs, hands-on physics and chemistry classes, cheatsheets;
- childhood friends, neighbours and classmates from different countries;
- childhood dreams, view of science, Institute, hometown, country, and the whole world.
The material evidence of the epoch is of particular value to the archive. The organizers welcome childhood photos, old letters, and diary pages supplementing the stories.
Meetings and discussions will take place at the JINR Museum of History of Science and Technology from 9:30 to 13:30. For convenience, they will be divided by historical decades:
- 21 July – childhood in Dubna in mid-1950s–1960s;
- 22 July – mid-1960s–1970s;
- 23 July – mid-1970s–1980s;/li>
- 24 July – mid-1980s–1990s.
The collected materials will form a large “living memory archive”. Plans include publishing a collaborative book about growing up in a science city and preparing a thematic exhibition.
If you would like to share your reminiscences, please email coordinator of the JINR-HSE joint historical and archival initiative Galina Orlova at gaorlova@hse.ru.
Even if you can’t attend on the specified dates, but want to share memories about your childhood in Dubna, please contact the organizers – they will find a way to record your story.
