The problem of controlled nuclear fusion (CNF) is a colossal scientific and technological challenge on a global scale; enormous teams of scientists in many countries are still trying to solve this problem. 50 years ago, on May 5, 1951, the USSR Council of Ministers Resolution enacted a governmental program, apparently the first in the world, ’On conducting research and experimental work to clarify the feasibility of building a magnetic thermonuclear reactor’. The three papers below briefly outline the history and sequence of events together with the evolution of ideas that led to the first governmental decisions to carry out the work that would clarify whether the creation of a controlled thermonuclear reactor was feasible, and also summarize the results of the first decades of research.