The Byurakan Conference was held at the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory in Armenia in 1964, at the initiative of the young scientist Nikolai Kardashev. It brought together a large number of Soviet astronomers and astrophysicists to take stock of knowledge and results in the search for traces of extraterrestrial life. The possibility of detecting extraterrestrial civilizations with the instruments available at the time was also discussed, as well as the criteria for communication with extraterrestrial intelligence.