“There are no unattractive specialties. There are only passive people who are not able to get carried away by what is in front of them."
A. I. Berg
Axel Ivanovich was born on November 10, 1893 in Orenburg. His father, Russian general Johann Aleksandrovich Berg, was a Swede by birth. All his ancestors were also Swedes, but they lived in the Finnish Vyborg, and therefore called themselves “Finnish Swedes”. Johann Alexandrovich was born into the family of a pharmacist and was sent to study in the cadet corps, and after graduation - in the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment, located in St. Petersburg. In Peterhof, he met Elizaveta Kamillovna Bertholdi, an Italian woman whose ancestors moved to Russia. The young people fell in love with each other, and soon the wedding was played. In 1885 Berg was transferred to the Ukraine in the city of Zhitomir. There the family of Johann Alexandrovich lived for more than eight years and there he had three daughters. By that time, he had become a major general, and in July 1893 received a new appointment - in the city of Orenburg, the head of a local brigade.
Soon after arriving in the Urals, Johann Alexandrovich had a son, who, at birth, according to Lutheran custom, was given the double name Axel-Martin. Axel Ivanovich recalled his childhood: “I don’t remember that in our family there was a noise and scandal, that someone was drinking or gossiping. A calm, businesslike atmosphere reigned in our country. Nobody lied. When I first learned that people lie, I was very surprised … Mother created a special style of relationship. She always did something, although, of course, we had a servant. Educated, intelligent, she was fond of Spencer, Schopenhauer and Vladimir Solovyov, instilled in us a love of analysis and reflection, made sure that the children did not hang out, but did something useful. In January 1900, Johann Alexandrovich, who had exchanged his seventh decade, retired. The last journey through the entrusted district, which took place in the winter of 1899-1900, exhausted the general and put him to bed. Having never recovered from his illness, he died in early April 1900 of a heart attack. Axel was in his seventh year at this time.
After the death of her husband, Elizaveta Kamillovna remained, according to Berg's recollections, "with a large family and a small pension." She decided to go to Vyborg to her husband's sister. There the girls went to school, and Axel was placed in a German group. Life in Vyborg was not as easy as it seemed, and at the beginning of 1901 Elizaveta Kamillovna moved to her parents in St. Petersburg. Two years later, when the children grew up, she decided to live independently and rented an apartment of five rooms on Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street. Bergi lived in two rooms, and Elizaveta Kamillovna rented out the rest. The pension received was small, and the tenants' money served as a good help to the family.
Soon Axel went to school. Everyone expected extraordinary success from him, since on the whole he was better prepared than the average first grader. However, at this time in Revel, the husband of Elizaveta Kamillovna's sister died, and the widow sent one of her sons to St. Petersburg. Elizaveta Kamillovna, well understanding her sister's condition, willingly accepted her nephew. He was two years older than Axel, spoke excellent German and was very smart. However, the "male community" did not justify hopes. The boys who became friends dropped out of school, and as a result, Axel was left for the second year, and his friend was sent to be raised by another aunt. All summer, the family decided what to do with the boy next. Bertholdi's grandfather insisted on a closed educational institution, but the Bergs did not have enough funds for it. There was only one way out - the cadet corps, in which the son of the deceased general could study at public expense.
The mother's choice fell on the Alexander Cadet Corps, located on Italyanskaya Street. Elizaveta Kamillovna took her son there at the end of 1904. Axel was admitted to an educational institution, and his life went according to the established routine - the cadets got up at seven in the morning and went to morning exercises, then went in formation to prayer, read the Our Father in chorus, and then they took spoons in the dining room. Gradually, the boy got used to it, he made his first friends. In the cadet corps, by the way, discipline and purity reigned, and there was no trace of cruelty, drills and "hazing". Axel's classmates were mostly children of the military, came from intelligent families, who learned the concepts of decency and honor from childhood. The staff captain also turned out to be a wonderful person - he treated his pupils warmly, tried to bring them closer and develop the talents of each. By the way, in the Alexander building, in addition to production workshops and gyms, there were music rooms. Axel spent a lot of time in them, perfecting himself under the supervision of a musician from the Mariinsky Theater in playing the violin.
Berg spent four years in the cadet corps. Many graduates of this institution then entered universities or higher technical schools, but the young man decided for himself that he would only go to the Marine Corps. To this end, while still an Alexandrov cadet, he independently studied cosmography and astronomy. In 1908, Berg passed all the necessary exams and ended up in the junior class of the Marine Corps. Education there was calculated for six years, and in accordance with this, all students were divided into six companies. The youngest - the fourth, fifth and sixth - were considered "baby" or cadet. At the time of transfer to the third company, the "naval cadet" became a "midshipman", took the oath and was listed in active naval service. Berg made this transition in 1912. Axel Ivanovich wrote: “I was never interested in artillery, mines and torpedoes, but I was very fond of navigation, pilotage, astronomy and dreamed of becoming a navigator … The best scientists-sailors worked in the Marine Corps, their attitude to the matter obliged and the guys work at full load. " Midshipman Berg went on training summer voyages. He visited Holland, Sweden and Denmark. In Copenhagen, by the way, the king himself received the pupils of the Russian Naval Corps.
During these years, young Axel met the Betlingk family. The head of the family, State Councilor Rudolf Richardovich, was a well-known therapist in St. Petersburg. It was extremely interesting for Axel to visit him. As a surgeon, Betlingk participated in the Russo-Japanese War, was unusually well-read, had a broad outlook and maintained friendly relations with the brightest representatives of the then intelligentsia. In addition, Rudolf Richardovich had two daughters, and Berg imperceptibly became attached to the youngest, whose name was Nora. She studied at art and music schools, spoke several foreign languages, attended Petrishule and painted on porcelain. Berg's affection grew into love, and soon he declared the girl his bride. Their wedding took place in the winter of 1914. The wedding ceremony of the young people took place in the Lutheran Church of Saints Peter and Paul on Nevsky Prospekt. After the wedding, they went to Helsingfors (now Helsinki), where they rented a hotel room. Soon the Betlingki bought the newlyweds an apartment in the city. By that time, the young man had already graduated with the rank of midshipman from the Marine Corps and was sent to serve as the chief of watch on the battleship "Tsesarevich". In the winter of 1915-1916, the "Tsarevich" was in Helsingfors, and Axel Ivanovich was at home every evening. The sailor sailed on this battleship from July 1914 to June 1916, that is, almost two years. For excellent service, he was first transferred to the position of junior navigator, and then to the position of company commander.
In 1916, Berg was transferred to the submarine fleet, being appointed navigator of the submarine E-8. The war was already going on, and on this submarine he fought for more than a year - until December 1917. The Germans, not forgetting the past luck of the submarine E-8 (she launched the cruiser "Prince Adalbert"), kept under supervision of her movement. In this regard, both the commander of the submarine and its new navigator had to be constantly on the alert. To track down the boat from the Germans came out when it entered the Baltic Sea from the Gulf of Riga. On that ill-fated day, she moved in the fog along the winding and narrow fairway of Soelozund and as a result ran aground. The commander tried to remove the boat in reverse, but the shallow was too shallow, and this attempt failed. Meanwhile, the fog cleared, and the Germans faced an excellent target. However, the enemy did not want to approach the submarine - he was afraid of the fire of coastal batteries. All attempts to remove the E-8 from the aground were unsuccessful, and the crew decided to ask for help. Axel Ivanovich and two other sailors volunteered to go ashore. Launching a small boat, they set off. The sailors, wet and covered with mud, reached the shore and immediately parted to the sides in order to quickly find the coastal post. Soon the command learned about what had happened, and a day later a large tug came out of the Gulf of Riga, and with it three destroyers, who did not stop at the submarine in distress and, passing it at full speed, drove the Germans in front of them into the open sea. And the tug safely removed the submarine from the shallows.
In the winter period of 1916-1917, the E-8 did not take part in military operations, and in November 1916 Berg himself was sent to study in the navigator's officer class, which was stationed in Helsingfors on the Mitava transport. In February 1917, Axel Ivanovich graduated from his studies, received the rank of lieutenant and continued to serve on the submarine E-8. During the October Revolution, he was at sea and heard about it only after returning to Revel. The Germans, by the way, continued to track down his submarine. After another long stay under water, the right electric motor caught fire on it. The boat could not rise to the surface, and the sailors one after another began to be poisoned by the gases released during combustion. The crew miraculously managed to bring the E-8 to Helsingfors. The unconscious Berg, among others, was urgently taken to the hospital. He never returned to the submarine - the repaired one set sail with a new navigator.
And soon there was a separation from Russia of Finland. The sailors who served with Axel Ivanovich managed to shove the still weak after poisoning sailor into the last train leaving for Petrograd, and then squeeze his wife. Already in the city Berg met his comrade, captain of the second rank Vladimir Belli, who was appointed commander of the destroyer under construction, named after his famous great-grandfather "Captain Belli". The great-grandson of the Peter's hero was picking up a team for himself and invited Axel Ivanovich to take the place of a navigator's officer with the duties of first assistant. Berg agreed. On this destroyer, he made only one trip - it happened during a foreign intervention, when it was necessary to move away from the Putilov shipyard the unfinished ships that fell into the firing zone. Vessels that could not move independently were retracted with the help of tugs. Berg took "Captain Belli" to the Nikolaevsky Bridge, where enemy artillery could not reach him. When the danger passed, the destroyer was towed back, and Axel Ivanovich was sent to the headquarters of the fleet command and approved as the operational assistant to the flag captain.
At that difficult time, the sailors of the Baltic Fleet represented one of the most combat-ready units of the armed forces of the Soviet Republic. In February 1918, the Germans launched a powerful offensive along the entire front, rushing, among other things, to Revel and Helsingfors in order to capture the warships that were wintering there. Tsentrobalt called on the sailors to save the warships, and Berg, who had experience in the war in the Baltic Sea, working as an assistant flag-captain for the operational part, successfully completed all the tasks associated with the valiant passage of warships (later called the "Ice Campaign"). In February, with his direct participation, the last submarines left Revel, the icebreaker Yermak breaking through the road in the ice. And from the military harbor of Helsingfors, the trailing ships left in the first half of April.
In May 1919, Berg was assigned as navigator of the Panther submarine, and his first military campaign began at the end of June. On the "Panther" Axel Ivanovich sailed until August 1919, and then received an order to go to the submarine "Lynx". The difference was that he was now appointed commander of the submarine. The Lynx was in a terrible state, and Berg's first priority was to organize restoration work on the submarine, as well as work to train the crew. After long round-the-clock work in the dock, the "Lynx" was restored. Then the training trips began, during which the team gained experience. Aksel Ivanovich himself studied, by the way - he was enrolled in the underwater class of the United classes of the command staff of the fleet. In addition, he entered the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute.
Very soon after Berg in the Baltic Fleet the reputation of an officer was strengthened, capable of solving complex problems of restoration and deployment of submarines. In 1921 he was "transferred" to the restoration of the submarine "Wolf". This submarine, due to damage received during the 1919 campaign, was in extremely poor condition. Several months passed, and another restored submarine appeared in the asset of Axel Ivanovich. Its commissioning was immediately followed by a new assignment - to urgently repair the submarine "Snake". During the repair work on it, Berg was seriously injured - he was torn off a phalanx of one finger. At this time, the "Snake" was sailing, and the sailor got to the dressing only a few hours later. As a result, he developed blood poisoning, and he spent a long time in the hospital.
At the end of 1922, the medical board decided to expel Berg from the active fleet. This decision was influenced by sepsis, and poisoning at E-8, and general overstrain in recent years. Axel Ivanovich did not want to finally break with the sea and decided to do science, and specifically radio engineering. Soon he appeared at the electrical engineering faculty of the Naval Academy, but there the former sailor learned that his incomplete higher education was not enough - a diploma from the Higher Naval Engineering School was required. After a year of stubborn studies (in 1923), Axel Ivanovich passed all the missing exams and graduated from the electrical engineering faculty of the engineering school with a diploma of a naval electrical engineer. From now on, the road to the academy was open. Berg combined his studies at the academy with teaching radio engineering at telegraph courses and at schools of various levels, since he was in great need of money, which had not been canceled under Soviet rule. At this time, the first textbooks written by Berg, "Void Devices", "Cathode Lamps" and "General Theory of Radio Engineering" were published. And since there was still not enough money, Axel Ivanovich also worked part-time at a nearby plant as a fitter.
In 1925, Berg graduated from the Naval Academy and was sent to the capital of the country in the apparatus of the People's Commissariat for Naval and Military Affairs. This was an honorable assignment, which assumed the leadership of radio communications in all fleets. And, nevertheless, the former sailor was dissatisfied - he strove for a lively scientific research work. The head of the academy, Peter Lukomsky, intervened in the matter, he managed to leave Berg in Leningrad, and Axel Ivanovich was sent to the Higher Naval School as an ordinary teacher of radio engineering. Along with this, he was given additional workload - he was appointed chairman of the radio navigation and radio communication section of the Marine Scientific and Technical Committee.
The year 1928 was marked by changes in Berg's personal life - he separated from Nora Rudolfovna and married Marianna Penzina. This, by the way, was preceded by a very unusual long-term prehistory. The sailor met her in Tuapse in the fall of 1923. The twenty-three-year-old girl lived alone in a house left by her deceased father and worked as a typist in the port. A year later, Berg came to Marianna Ivanovna in Tuapse with his wife. The women met and then wrote letters to each other for several years. In 1927, Marianna Penzina sold her house and moved to Leningrad to the Berg, which had no children. Axel Ivanovich himself briefly explained the delicate situation with the divorce: "At the family council, it was decided that we should part with Nora."
In September 1928, Berg was sent to Germany to select and purchase sonar instruments. For two months he visited the Electroacoustic plant in Kiel and the Atlas-Werke plant in Bremen, where he took samples of hydroacoustic observation and communication devices for submarines. In April of the following year, Berg was sent on a business trip to the United States, and in September 1930 and February 1932 to Italy. There he was received, by the way, by Mussolini himself. Subsequently, Berg wrote: "Then he was not yet a fascist, he pretended to talk about democracy." When, a few years later, clouds thicken over Berg and an investigation begins in his case, this frequent and long stay on business trips abroad will become a reason for the NKVD workers to suspect the radio engineer of "sabotage" and espionage.
In 1927, at the suggestion of Axel Ivanovich, the Marine Scientific Testing Ground was created at the communications section. There, Berg carried out "working off the tactical and technical tasks of the industry" for the development of new equipment. In 1932, this test site - again on the initiative of Axel Ivanovich - was transformed into the Scientific Research Marine Institute of Communications. It was located in Leningrad in the wing of the Main Admiralty. Berg was appointed head of the new institution, and under his leadership, work was completed on the development and implementation in the fleet of the latest radio weapons system called "Blockade-1". At the same time (in July 1935), Axel Ivanovich became a flagship engineer of the second rank, and in 1936 the attestation commission awarded him the degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences.
In 1937, awarded the Order of the Red Star and fulfilled the brightest plans, Berg began work on a new system of radio equipment for the fleet, "Blockade-2". And in December, Axel Ivanovich was suddenly arrested. They detained him on the night of December 25, 1937 in a Leningrad apartment. The reason was the suspicion of the participation of a radio engineer in the "anti-Soviet military conspiracy" ("the Tukhachevsky case"). Axel Ivanovich himself never talked about the reasons for his arrest and only joked: "My ancestors left the Varangians for the Greeks, and I went from the nobility to the prisoners." First, the former sailor was kept in the general prison of the city of Kronstadt, then (in November 1938) he was transferred to Moscow to the Butyrka prison of the NKVD, and in December 1938 "to end the investigation" he was returned back to Kronstadt. Over the several years that Berg spent in prisons, he had the opportunity to communicate with quite interesting people, for example, with Marshal Rokossovsky, designer Tupolev, academician Lukirsky … Finally, in the spring of 1940, a final decision was made: “The case on charges of the crimes of Axel Ivanovich Berg … for insufficient evidence collected … stop. Release the accused immediately from custody. " The sailor was released from custody at the end of May 1940, so Axel Ivanovich spent two years and five months in prison.
Marina Akselevna, Berg's daughter from her second marriage, recalled her meeting with her freed father: “I opened the door - there was a poorly dressed, thin man in front of me, who was drawn to something familiar, dear and at the same time a stranger”. All titles and academic degrees were returned to Axel Ivanovich, and he was also appointed a teacher of the Naval Academy. First, he headed the department of navigation there, and then - the department of general tactics. A year later (in May 1941) he was awarded the next military rank - engineer-rear admiral, and in August, due to the outbreak of war, he and his academy were evacuated to Astrakhan. Berg spent the winter of 1942-1943 in the city of Samarkand, where the Naval Academy was relocated from Astrakhan, which found itself in the war zone.
In the early years of the war, many forward-thinking military men began to think about a new direction in radio electronics, which was called radar. One of these people - Admiral Lev Galler - presented at the end of 1942 Axel Ivanovich his project for the development of radar work in the USSR. The answer came in March 1943, Lev Mikhailovich sent Berg a telegram with the order to immediately leave for Moscow. Upon arrival in the capital, the radio engineer launched a vigorous activity - he prepared several posters explaining the principles of the operation of radars, and with them he walked through the offices of high-ranking officials, explaining, convincing and reporting. On July 4, 1943, a meeting of the State Defense Committee was held, at which a resolution "On Radar" was adopted and a decision was made to create a Council for Radar. The Council included the entire color of the radar thought of those years - the People's Commissar of the Aviation Industry Shakhurin and the People's Commissar of the Electrical Industry Kabanov, Marshal of Aviation Golovanov, as well as many prominent scientists. Soviet radio physicist Yuri Kobzarev wrote about the creation of the Council: “A room was quickly found in Komsomolsky Lane. The accounting department, the economic sector appeared, the structure of the Council was determined. The future heads of departments, at the suggestion of Berg, prepared the tasks and goals of their departments. In total, three departments were founded - my "scientific" department, Uger's "military department" and Shokin's "industrial department". Berg himself, the seventh paragraph of the resolution, was approved by the Deputy People's Commissar of the Electrical Industry for Radar. And in September of the same year he was appointed deputy chairman of the Council for Radar under the State Defense Committee of the USSR. So Axel Ivanovich established himself in the corridors of the Kremlin power.
In 1944, Berg was awarded the rank of engineer-vice-admiral. In 1945, in connection with the end of the war, the State Defense Committee was abolished. The Council on Radar under the State Defense Committee was transformed into the Council on Radar under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, and then into the Committee on Radar under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. In 1948, Axel Ivanovich was removed from his duties as deputy chairman and transferred to the post of "permanent member" of the Radar Committee, which was undoubtedly a demotion. However, the Radar Committee did not work for long, having fulfilled all the functions assigned to it, it was abolished in August 1949. Berg was dismissed, and the functions of managing the further development of radar were transferred to the defense ministries (in particular, to the USSR Ministry of Defense).
It should be noted that as early as August 1943, Berg, among other things, was entrusted with the duties of the head of the "radar institute", designated in the decree "On Radar". However, the institution existed only on paper - it had neither staff nor its own premises. In September, the institute being organized was named “VNII №108” (today - TsNIRTI named after Berg). Thanks to Axel Ivanovich, who was actively engaged in the selection of specialists, by the end of 1944 the composition of the engineering and scientific personnel of the institute exceeded 250 people. By this time eleven laboratories were created at VNII # 108. Berg worked as director of the institute until 1957 (with a break from the end of 1943 to 1947). Under his leadership, work began in the "one hundred and eighth" in the field of anti-radar and electronic warfare. Subsequently, this not only brought fame to the institute, but also had significant technical and political results - in particular, the suppression of the American AWACS radar reconnaissance systems was ensured, and the Smalta jamming stations influenced the results of the six-day war in the Middle East. Berg himself - as a specialist - was well versed in the most diverse areas of radio electronics (radio communication, radar, radio direction finding, electronic warfare), and only television devices did not pass directly through his hands, here he acted only as an organizer of work created in the "one hundred and eighth" laboratories of television systems.
In 1953, Berg was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR for radio equipment. This was the high point in his career - being the second person in the "power" ministry, he could influence the solution of various issues of the country's defense industry. Possessing the appropriate powers and knowing perfectly well that his "one hundred and eighth" institute is overwhelmed with defense work and is not able to productively deal with pressing issues of radio electronics, Berg decided to organize in the capital of the country the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics under the USSR Academy of Sciences. In September 1953, the corresponding decree of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences was issued, and Axel Ivanovich was appointed "director-organizer" of the new institution. Painstaking work began - a selection of the composition of scientists, correspondence with the Ministry of Culture on the allocation of premises to the new institute, the creation of the first orders.
In August 1955, Berg was awarded the rank of engineer-admiral. Unfortunately, the enormous burden on the posts of Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, which Axel Ivanovich combined with his participation in the Radio Council of the Academy of Sciences and the leadership of TsNII-108, undermined his iron health. In July 1956, when Berg was returning from Leningrad, a sharp pain pierced his chest in the train carriage. The doctor was not on the train, the doctor arrived at the Klin station and rode with the unconscious Axel Ivanovich all the way to Moscow. Thanks to the actions of the doctor, Berg with a bilateral heart attack was taken alive to the hospital. He spent three long months on the bed, and the employees of the "one hundred and eighth" did not forget the chief - they urgently made a special bed for him, brought it and installed it in the ward. After being discharged from the hospital, Berg traveled to sanatoriums for another year and a half. In one of them, he met the nurse Raisa Glazkova. She was thirty-six years younger than Axel Ivanovich, but this difference, due to Berg's "motor" character, was not strongly felt. Soon, the radio engineer decided to marry for the third time. Large, sedate and skillful Raisa Pavlovna was very different from other companions of his life - sickly Nora Rudolfovna and miniature Marianna Ivanovna. It should be noted that Marianna Ivanovna did not agree to divorce for a long time, and only in 1961, after the birth of Margarita, Berg's daughter from Raisa Pavlovna, did she back down. Axel Ivanovich became a "young father" at the age of sixty-eight.
In May 1957, due to his health condition, at a personal request, Berg was relieved of his post as deputy minister of defense and concentrated his efforts on work in scientific research institutions of the Academy of Sciences. In January 1959, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences instructed him to form a commission to prepare a report entitled "Basic Problems of Cybernetics." In April of this year, following the discussion of the report, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences adopted a resolution to establish the Scientific Council on Cybernetics. Even before its birth, the institution received the rights of an independent scientific organization with its own staff. The main structural subdivision of the Council was its sections, to which more than eight hundred scientific workers (including eleven academicians) were involved on a voluntary basis, which corresponded to the size of a large research institute. Gradually, thanks to the efforts of Berg and a number of his associates, cybernetic ideas became widespread among Russian scientists. Every year, symposia, conferences and seminars on cybernetics began to be held, including at the international level. Publishing activity revived - the editions Cybernetics - to the Service of Communism and Problems of Cybernetics were regularly published, ten to twelve collections of Issues of Cybernetics were published annually, and information magazines were published on this issue every month. In the sixties, institutes of cybernetics appeared in all union republics, laboratories and departments in universities, laboratories such as "Cybernetics in Agriculture", "Cybernetics and Mechanical Engineering", "Cybernetics of Chemical Technological Processes" were established in industrial institutes. Also, new areas of cybernetic science have appeared - artificial intelligence, robotics, bionics, situational control, theory of large systems, noise-immune coding. The priorities in mathematics have also changed, since with the presence of a computer, it became possible to process large amounts of information.
In 1963, Berg was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, and in 1970 he received an invitation from Dr. J. Rose, the former general director of the World Organization for General Systems and Cybernetics, to take the post of vice-chairman. It was an honorable offer that meant international recognition. Unfortunately, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences put forward so many obstacles and arranged such red tape that Axel Ivanovich had to give up this place.
With wife and daughter, 1967
Meanwhile, the years took their toll, Axel Ivanovich was increasingly ill, and the dropper became his frequent companion. However, the radio engineer, known for his gladiatorial character, treated illnesses with irony and laughed off all questions about his well-being. In his declining years, he liked to say: “My life has not been lived in vain. And although I have not discovered a single new law, I have not made a single invention - but thirty years of work in the field of radio electronics, undoubtedly, have brought benefits to my country. " It should be noted that during all the years of his work in the field of radio engineering, Berg paid great attention to the propaganda of knowledge among the masses, mainly in radio amateurs. Axel Ivanovich had an outstanding oratorical talent. His speeches left an indelible impression on the audience and were remembered for a lifetime. The non-standard presentation, free handling of statistical data, the breadth of problems, witty aphorisms and remarks - all this captivated, amazed the listener. Berg himself said: "The main thing is to capture the audience," and he succeeded to the fullest. In addition, Axel Ivanovich was the initiator of the founding of the "Mass Radio Library" publishing house, which publishes works of the radio amateur profile. The publishing house began to function in 1947, Axel Ivanovich headed its editorial board until his death. And one more curious fact - according to Evgeny Veltistov, the author of "The Adventures of Electronics", it was Berg who was the prototype of the founder of Electronics, Professor Gromov.
Axel Ivanovich died at the age of eighty-five on the night of July 9, 1979 in a hospital ward. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
