| Description | The visit was for the celebration of the 220th Anniversary of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.
Invitations to a large number of British representatives were issued and accepted (see G.85 or a list of those invited, and Blackett's own invitation and acceptance). At the last moment, visas were refused for J.D. Bernal, P.M.S Blackett, Sir Charles Darwin, P.A.M. Dirac, E.A. Milne, N.F. Mott, R.G.W. Norrish and E.K. Rideal, on the grounds that they could not be spared until the conclusion of hostilities with Japan.
Blackett led protests against this, by letters and interviews, but the ban remained.
The items in this section are kept in Blackett's folder, variously marked '1945 Russia', 'visas Refused', 'Blackett Bernal Mott Norrish'; these notes were probably added at a later date in his career, indicating the lasting impression made on him by the matter, or perhaps the intention to refer to it in a proposed autobiography. |