Dubna: From a secret Research Laboratory to the International Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.

The first research laboratory in Dubna, a village 120 km north of Moscow, was founded in 1949 as the place for the then world’s largest 680 MeV particle accelerator. The institution initially was part of the classified atomic bomb project. Soon afterwards started the construction of another, 10 GeV proton accelerator. In 1956 these secret laboratories were reorganized into an international center for fundamental physics, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, an analog for CERN, but with the participation of all socialist countries. The talk will cover the early history of the Dubna laboratories and some of their research accomplishments.