Each scientist of the 20th century had a number of cards (actually, very small-sized books) confirming his membership at various public organizations.

For example, at the All-Union Society “Znanie” (Knowledge). Do you remember the lecturer form the comedy movies “The New-Year Fancy Ball”: “Whether life exists on Mars or it does not, science is unaware of it.” It is he, the “Znanie” Society lecturer.

The society was established in 1947 and gradually became quite a large-scale mass organization engaged in promoting political propaganda and popularizing science.
Curiously, the newspaper Arguments and Facts was originally a bulletin of typical questions asked by the audience at the “Znanie” Society lectures, which was published as an aid for lecturers, providing them with correct and ideologically appropriate answers.

By the early 1990s, the society had almost four million members, among them academicians, doctors of science, engineers, health care professionals, and other specialists. Academician Bruno Pontecorvo was also a member of the “Znanie” Society, and his membership card is kept in his Museum-Study.

Here are also his membership cards of the Bibliophile Society and the All-Russian Society for Protection of Nature.

By the way, all these societies are still active. But we do not know whether they still issue membership cards. :)