In the mid-1950s, experimental studies of condensed matter at extremely high pressures (i.e., high energy densities) started to appear in the scientific literature, made possible by using strong shock waves to influence intensively the state of the substance being studied. Russian Federal Nuclear Centres in Sarov and Snezhinsk and their Academy of Sciences counterparts in Moscow, Chernogolovka, and Novosibirsk were instrumental in developing dynamic measurement techniques and forming this new line of investigation of extreme states of matter, based on application of shock waves in high-pressure physics.