The Making of a Soviet Scientist: My Adventures in Nuclear Fusion and Space from Stalin to Star Wars

Sagdeev, a physicist who directed the former Soviet Union's Space Research Institute from 1973 to 1990, played a crucial role in restraining a Soviet counteroffensive to the U.S. ``Star Wars'' program, thereby helping to forestall an acceleration of the nuclear arms race in space. This modest, anecdotal memoir provides a rare, valuable insider's look at the Soviet military-industrial machine. Working on the U.S.S.R.'s abortive controlled-fusion program in the 1950s, Sagdeev witnessed Stalin's destructive interference with the scientific community. Providing close-ups of Brezhnev, Gorbachev and physicist/dissident Andrei Sakharov, his narrative shows how space projects of real scientific value were hobbled while top priority was given to costly, prestige-oriented feats meant to rival those of NASA. Sagdeev is now a physics professor at the University of Maryland; his wife, Susan Eisenhower, the book's editor, is Ike's granddaughter, adding a twist to this Cold War account. (Apr.)