--- aliases: - Vladimir Kotelnikov - Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kotelnikov - Vladimir A. Kotelnikov - Vladimir Kotel'nikov - V. A. Kotelnikov - V. A. Kotel'nikov - Kotelnikov category: "Scientists & Researchers" tags: - Person - SovietUnion - RadioEngineering - AcademyOfSciences - Psychoenergetics - Parapsychology - Biofield summary: "Soviet radio engineer, author of the sampling theorem, director of the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics and Academy vice president, under whose direction a 1975 to 1978 commission reviewed psychoenergetics." died: 2005-02-11 location: "Moscow, Russia" relations: - type: member_of with: "[[Soviet Academy of Sciences]]" start: 1953 role: "full member elected in 1953 without passing through associate membership; vice president and later first vice president for about twenty years from 1969" fn: 1 - type: director_of with: "[[Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics]]" start: 1954 role: "deputy director from 1953 and director from 1954; honorary director and chairman of its scientific council by 2005" fn: 1 - type: member_of with: "[[Kobzarev Commission]]" start: 1975 end: 1978 role: "described in a DIA report of 1982 as directing the commission chaired by Yuri Kobzarev, and as a signer with Kobzarev of a document asserting the reality of psychokinetic phenomena" fn: 2 - type: member_of with: "[[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]]" role: "deputy of the USSR Supreme Soviet and president of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, as listed in his obituary" fn: 1 created: 2026-09-22 updated: 2026-10-05 --- Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kotelnikov was born in [[Kazan]], the son of the mathematician Aleksandr Petrovich Kotelnikov, a university professor. He entered the [[Bauman Moscow State Technical University|Bauman Institute of Technology]] in [[Moscow]] in 1926, graduated in 1931 from the [[Moscow Power Engineering Institute|Power Engineering Institute]] split off from it, and from 1931 to 1941 lectured in radio engineering there while carrying out research at the [[Central Institute for Research in Communications]]. In 1933 he formulated the sampling theorem that bears his name; his doctoral thesis of 1947 developed the theory of potential noise immunity. During the war he developed a system of encoded radio communication, for which he received the [[Stalin Prize]] in 1943 and 1946.[^1] He was elected a full member of the [[Soviet Academy of Sciences|USSR Academy of Sciences]] in 1953, at 45, without passing through associate membership, and became deputy director and from 1954 director of the [[Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics]], created in 1953. There he built a planetary radar and led research on radar mapping of planets, refining the scale of the solar system, for which he and collaborators received the [[Lenin Prize]] in 1964. For about twenty years from 1969 he was vice president and then first vice president of the Academy, coordinating research in communications, radio technology, radio astronomy and space research; he headed the [[Interkosmos]] council for radio astronomy, was chief editor of [[Radiotekhnika i Elektronika]] and of [[Vestnik Akademii Nauk SSSR]], and served on the committee for Lenin and State prizes. He was twice a [[Hero of Socialist Labour]], a deputy of the USSR [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|Supreme Soviet]] and president of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, an honorary member of the [[IEEE]], and received the Rein Prize in 1999 and the Bell Gold Medal in 2000. He died on February 11, 2005, in his ninety-seventh year, as honorary director of the institute and chairman of its scientific council.[^1] ### Psychoenergetics review commission A [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] report of March 22, 1982 stated that the Academy's psychoenergetics review commission began its activities in 1975, was chaired by Yu. B. Kobzarev "and was under the direction of V. A. Kotel'nikov, vice president of the Academy of Science and director of IRE." The report added that the commission lasted about three years, "arranged experiments and took part in them as observers," and in 1978 produced a statement signed by [[Yuri Kobzarev]] that the phenomena shown by [[Ninel Kulagina]] "are by no means tricks," and "a similar document" signed by Kotelnikov, Kobzarev and others, which asserted the reality of psychokinetic phenomena. The commission's recommendations led to the creation of the [[Popov Society]] [[Bioelectronics Section]].[^2] A DIA briefing for the [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] in 1987, "Soviet Activities in Psychoenergetics," quoted "V. A. Kotel'nikov, Vice President, USSR Academy of Science": "Psychokinetic abilities of N. Kulagina are real."[^3] See also [[Psychoenergetics]]. ### Laboratory of physical fields of biological objects The physicist [[Eduard Godik]] said that because the actions of psychics were linked to supposed biofields, it occurred to him to visualize the physical fields and radiations of the human body with "methods of passive remote sensing developed at our institute under the direction of Academician V. A. Kotel'nikov."[^4] A [[Central Intelligence Agency]] news abstract of an article by the journalist [[Lev Kolodny]] in [[Moskovskaya Pravda]] of October 10, 1990 lists "academician V. A. Kotel'nikov, head of IRE" among the supporters of the biofield project, with the [[Gosplan]] chairman [[Nikolai Baibakov]], [[Guriy Marchuk]] and [[Anatoly Aleksandrov]], and states that infrared-imager and computer demonstrations convinced Baibakov, Aleksandrov and Kotelnikov that [[Dzhuna Davitashvili]] could detect infrared radiation and generate heat in a patient's body from her hands.[^5] Kolodny wrote that the Academy's president Aleksandrov had her enrolled at the institute as acting senior researcher, and that Kotelnikov, as first deputy president and director of the institute, directed the staff who began to study the phenomena at state level at the instruction of [[Leonid Brezhnev|Brezhnev]] and [[Yuri Andropov]].[^6] The physicist [[Alexander Taratorin]], a member of the laboratory, wrote that the Central Committee's telephone call came to Kotelnikov's office, that Kotelnikov was allotted foreign-currency funds and staff positions to create a special laboratory, and that the Politburo's first idea of a professorship for Dzhuna was lowered to senior researcher because Kotelnikov, whom Taratorin described as "enraged," insisted on it.[^7] Kolodny wrote that in September 1985 a photograph was taken at the laboratory door with Aleksandrov, Kotelnikov and Baibakov, who were briefed there for four hours.[^6] Kolodny also wrote that Aleksandrov had told a joint session of the Academy and the [[Academy of Medical Sciences of the Soviet Union|Academy of Medical Sciences]] that "members of the Academy of Sciences may not support pseudoscientific directions."[^8] ### Footnotes [^1]: "In memory of V. A. Kotel'nikov," *Automation and Remote Control* 66, no. 4 (2005), pp. 674-675, translated from *Avtomatika i Telemekhanika,* no. 4 (2005), pp. 188-189. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10513-005-0111-4.pdf [^2]: Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Technical Intelligence Report DST-1810D-948-82-RPT-4, "The Soviet Psychoenergetics Research Program (U)," March 22, 1982, section II.B, declassified in part 2011, NSA-RDP96X00790R000100020003-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-nsa-rdp96x00790r000100020003-3 [^3]: Henry E. Shinol, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, Studies and Analyses, Headquarters USAF, to the Defense Intelligence Agency, "Soviet Parapsychology Research Briefing," June 12, 1987, and cover note of July 14, 1987, with paper briefing slides "Soviet Activities in Psychoenergetics," CIA-RDP96-00789R002600320001-8 to -004-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP96-00789R002600320004-5 [^4]: "Professor Eduard Godik ob ekstrasensakh s tochki zreniya fiziki," FIAN-Inform. http://www.fian-inform.ru/sobytiya-i-meropriyatiya/item/334-professor-eduard-godik-ob-ekstrasensakh-s-tochki-zreniya-fiziki [^5]: Lev Kolodny, "Biofield Researchers' Equipment, Support from Country's Leaders Noted," *Moskovskaya Pravda*, October 10, 1990, no. 232, p. 3, as abstracted in the Daily SNAP (item SNAP 901023), CIA-RDP96-00792R000500470003-9. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP96-00792R000500470003-9 [^6]: Lev Kolodny, "Mify i pravda o Dzhune," *Moskovsky Komsomolets*, October 14, 2016. https://www.mk.ru/social/2016/10/14/mify-i-pravda-o-dzhune-esli-ne-izvinitsya-to-zadumatsya.html [^7]: Alexander Taratorin, "Nevydumannaya istoriya ekstrasensov v Rossii" (1997), lib.ru. http://lib.ru/ZHURNAL/istoria.txt_with-big-pictures.html The article was written by a member of the laboratory. [^8]: Lev Kolodny, preface to *Dzhuna. Tayna velikoy tselitelnitsy* (first published as *Fenomen "D" i drugie*, Politizdat, 1991). https://mybook.ru/author/lev-kolodnyj/dzhuna-tajna-velikoj-celitelnicy/read/