How the Poltava Gravimetric Observatory was saved by “astronomical bisons” in 1934-1938

From the pages of the archival manuscript of O.Ya. Orlov dated 1938

Abstract

The article reveals one of the little-known pages of the life of the outstanding scientist-astronomer and geophysicist, founder of the scientific school of geodynamics, founder of the Poltava Gravimetric Observatory and the Main Astronomical Observatory of the NAS of Ukraine, Academician Oleksandr Orlov. In the archives of the Poltava Gravimetric Observatory a document was found — an unfinished manuscript of O.Ya. Orlov titled “Astronomical Bisons”, dated November 15, 1938, which provides a new look at some events of that time.