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Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences

MIKHAIL DMITRIEVICH MILLIONSHCHIKOV

Graduated from the Grozny Oil Institute in 1932 majoring in oil well drilling engineer

Mikhail Dmitrievich Millionshchikov was born on January 16 (old style - January 3), 1913 in the city of Grozny in the family of a turner at the Grozny station of the North Caucasus Railway, Dmitry Ivanovich Millionshchikov and Evdokia Mikhailovna Akimakina.

Mikhail Dmitrievich lived a short but bright life. Possessing an exceptional breadth of scientific interests, M.D. Millionshchikov, a petroleum engineer by training, made a great contribution to the development of many fields of science: aero- and hydrodynamics, applied physics, nuclear energy. He was a prominent statesman and socio-political figure who made a great contribution to the development of international scientific, parliamentary and social cooperation, strengthening mutual understanding between peoples, and the conclusion of fundamental international agreements in the field of disarmament and arms control during the Cold War.

In 1927, after graduating from a seven-year railway school in Grozny, Mikhail Dmitrievich was transferred to the eighth grade of the 2nd Grozny Secondary School, and in 1928 he entered the mining and oil department of the Grozny Higher Oil College, which a year later was transformed into an institute.

At the Petroleum Institute, continuous industrial practice was introduced: students worked in fields and factories for three days, and studied for three days. During the practical training of M.D. Millionshchikov worked in the Grozny oil fields as a worker, a tent worker, a housekeeper, a driller, and then a foreman and technician. After graduating from the Grozny Oil Institute in 1932, he began his first scientific research related to oil production. Even then, his mathematical and engineering abilities were clearly evident: he was one of the initiators of the construction of an experimental adit in the Starogroznensky region for the extraction of residual oil. Simultaneously with his participation in this project, Mikhail Dmitrievich worked as a teacher of higher mathematics and theoretical mechanics at the Oil Institute and as an engineer in the drilling laboratory of the GrozNII. During this period, he published his first scientific articles in the magazines “Grozny Oilman” and “Azerbaijan Oil Economy”.

In the spring of 1934, Mikhail Dmitrievich decided to enroll in graduate school at one of the Moscow universities. In this he received great assistance from Professor V.N. Shchelkachev, who wrote a letter of recommendation to one of the leading scientists in the field of oil and gas filtration theory L.S. Leibenzon with a request to accept M.D. Millionshchikova. In the summer of 1934, after successfully passing the exams M.D. Millionshchikov was enrolled in graduate school at the Department of Aerodynamics of Aircraft at the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) and at the same time began conducting scientific work at the Aerodynamic Laboratory named after. NOT. Zhukovsky MAI.

Widely known M.D. Millionshchikov benefited from the research he carried out at the Moscow Aviation Institute under the scientific supervision of the largest Russian mathematician, Academician A.N. Kolmogorov. At the end of the 1930s, Mikhail Dmitrievich published works on one of the most important branches of mechanics, difficult to describe mathematically, the theory of turbulence. In 1938, upon completion of graduate school at the Moscow Aviation Institute, M.D. Millionshchikov successfully defended his dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences on the topic “Dampening of pulsations under homogeneous isotropic turbulence.”

M.D. Millionshchikov found a solution to the Karman-Howarth equation and established the law of changes in time of the correlation functions of the velocity and temperature fields. The results he obtained for the asymptotic behavior of correlation functions at the final stage of degeneration of homogeneous and isotropic turbulence turned out to be the most convenient for experimental verification.

Millionshchikov's hypothesis was sharply different in nature from the previous ones. Firstly, it is not a model and concerns the general properties of isotropic turbulence. Secondly, methodologically, this hypothesis is in full agreement with the principles of theoretical physics, allowing for a strict justification in the limiting case of the final stage of turbulence degeneration. Thirdly, like any general assumption, Millionshchikov’s hypothesis has numerous applications and makes it possible to study their various consequences.

Actually, the hypothesis of M.D. Millionshchikov calls the following statement: “The fourth-order correlation functions of the velocity field are related to the second moments by relations that are valid in the case of a normal probability distribution”.

In a 1941 paper, Mikhail Dmitrievich formulated this position as follows: “The fourth moments of isotropic turbulence are approximately determined through the second ones using formulas that are exact for the normal law”.

The applications of Millionshchikov's hypothesis are extremely extensive. It was used to calculate correlation functions of pressure and velocity, correlation functions of the acceleration field, etc. - where you have to deal with fourth-order moments. But, first of all, this hypothesis was used by the author himself to close the Karman-Howarth equation, that is, essentially for the spatio-temporal description of homogeneous turbulence. The method proposed by M.D. Millionshchikov, turned out to be a powerful tool for studying the characteristics of turbulence, widely used in theoretical and applied works. Research on the theory of homogeneous and isotropic turbulence brought recognition and wide fame to its author.

Continuing to work at the MAI, Mikhail Dmitrievich began to work closely with the team of the high-speed laboratory of academician S.A. in 1939. Khristianovich at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after. NOT. Zhukovsky (TsAGI).

During the Great Patriotic War and in the first post-war years M.D. Millionshchikov worked on issues of oil production and applied gas dynamics. His research on hydrodynamics, carried out at the Kuibyshev Aviation Institute (1943-1945), contributed to increasing the efficiency of oil exploration and increasing oil production in the regions of the “Second Baku”. At the same time, he led one of the teams that solved the problem of introducing new technologies and materials into aircraft construction, increasing the production of combat air vehicles, as well as engines for them and other products for the needs of the front.

Returning to Moscow in 1945, Mikhail Dmitrievich defended his doctoral dissertation. The theoretical part of his dissertation work was carried out at the Institute of Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and the experimental part at TsAGI.

In the dissertation of M.D. Millionshchikov, entitled “Hydromechanical analysis of some methods of operating oil wells,” a number of interesting and complex problems directly related to oil and gas production were solved.

Proposed by M.D. Millionshchikov's methods of operating oil wells and developing oil deposits with bottom water were of great practical importance for the country's rapidly developing oil industry in those years and were firmly included in textbooks on the operation of oil wells.

Mikhail Dmitrievich together with academician S.A. Khristianovich is one of the founders of the domestic theory of gas ejectors. During the research in the field of applied gas dynamics carried out at the TsAGI High Speed Laboratory and the Institute of Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the second half of the 1940s, he studied the operation of gas ejectors and showed ways of their application.

Mikhail Dmitrievich Millionshchikov made a great contribution to the development of calculation methods and experimental studies of high-speed gas ejectors, which are currently widely used in technology. A gas ejector is the simplest gas machine used to suck out or inject low-pressure gas using the energy of high-pressure gas.

Carrying out studies of the movement of jets in a gas ejector, M.D. Millionshchikov discovered the phenomenon of ejector blocking, when a low-pressure jet, pressed by a high-pressure jet, accelerates to the speed of sound. He called this mode of operation of the gas ejector critical: the efficiency of the ejector is the best when operating in the “critical” mode. M.D. Millionshchikov developed a method for calculating ejectors taking into account the occurrence of a “critical” mode.

Currently, methods for calculating ejectors have been significantly refined, but the “critical” mode is the main one when selecting ejector parameters.

Under the leadership of M.D. Millionshchikov at TsAGI created diffusers and ejectors for wind tunnels, which had a significant impact on the development of high-speed aviation. Another practical application of these works was proposed by M.D. Millionshchikov's method of generating electricity using gas ejectors.

In 1946, Mikhail Dmitrievich was appointed deputy director of the Institute of Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he continued research in the field of filtration.

Works by M.D. Millionshchikov in the field of filtration theory and gas dynamics were important in the calculations of long-distance gas pipelines (Saratov - Moscow) and the creation of gas processing plants (Dashava, Ukraine). Working in the Filtration Department of the Institute of Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, acting. the head of which he was in 1948-1949, Mikhail Dmitrievich found a mathematical solution to the problem of filtration of liquid through a perforated pipe immersed in the ground, replacing the perforation points in a certain section of the pipe with a slot, which was included in mechanics as the “Millionshchikov criterion”.

But soon in the scientific activity of M.D. Millionshchikov, serious changes took place: in 1949, four months before the test of the first Soviet atomic bomb, at the invitation of Academician I.V. Kurchatova M.D. Millionshchikov is involved in solving problems facing domestic nuclear science and technology. Mikhail Dmitrievich's research, carried out at the Laboratory of Measuring Instruments of the USSR Academy of Sciences (LIPAN), relates to various areas of nuclear physics and energy. From 1960 until the end of his life, he was deputy director of the Institute of Atomic Energy named after. I.V. Kurchatov, formed from LIPAN.

Works by M.D. Millionshchikov, deputy scientific director of the problem of isotope separation, made a significant contribution to the theory of gas-dynamic and centrifugal methods of isotope separation, having a significant impact on the organization of research and development work at a number of enterprises in the nuclear industry.

For many years, the activities of M.D. Millionshchikova was closely connected with the Ural Electrochemical Combine (UEKhK), the leading enterprise of the nuclear industry, in which it was formed, largely thanks to the support of M.D. Millionshchikov, a hard-working creative team of scientists, engineers, and technologists. From 1952 to 1960 M.D. Millionshchikov was the deputy scientific director of UEIP.

In 1955 M.D. Millionshchikov was appointed chairman of the State Admissions Committee of the USSR Ministry of Medium Engineering for the acceptance into operation of particularly important industrial facilities and special installations and remained at the head of the commission until 1962.

In the period from 1954 to 1962, Mikhail Dmitrievich was a member of the scientific council for the defense of doctoral and master's theses created at UECC. During the period of participation of M.D. Millionshchikov, 9 doctoral and 35 candidate dissertations were defended by industry workers in the Academic Council of the UEIP.

Since the early 1960s, M.D. Millionshchikov begins to tackle one of the most important problems - the direct (machine-free) method of converting thermal energy into electrical energy.

An important stage in this direction was the launch in 1964 of the world’s first nuclear reactor-converter “Romashka”, created under the leadership of M.D. Millionshchikova. The Romashka nuclear reactor-converter on fast neutrons marked the beginning of the creation and production of space reactor nuclear power plants (NPP) for special purposes - the thermoelectric nuclear power plant "Buk" and the thermionic nuclear power plant "Topaz-1". Under the scientific guidance of Academician M.D. Millionshchikov developed high-temperature gas-cooled reactors for energy, metallurgy and chemistry, and marine space reconnaissance systems. He proposed one of the options for a heterogeneous thermal neutron reactor for the Buk nuclear power plant. The first generation of onboard nuclear power plants, launched into space in the 1970s and 1980s, successfully operated in orbit, ensuring national defense and consolidating our country’s leadership in the field of space technology and nuclear energy.

The teams led by Mikhail Dmitrievich made a significant contribution to high-temperature reactor construction, to the study of the properties of high- and low-temperature plasma, to the development and creation of aircraft-rocket power plants.

M.D. Millionshchikov attached great importance to the problem of direct energy conversion. On his initiative, at the Institute of Atomic Energy named after. I.V. Kurchatov, a department of high-temperature installations was created, which later became the Department of High-Temperature Energy of the Institute of Nuclear Reactors. Mikhail Dmitrievich took an active part in the creation of a branch of the Institute of Atomic Energy in Troitsk, from which the Troitsk Institute of Innovation and Thermonuclear Research was subsequently formed. Since 1967 M.D. Millionshchikov headed the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the complex problem “Methods of direct conversion of thermal energy into electrical energy.”

Mikhail Dmitrievich organized work in many areas related to the main task: the development of appropriate fuels, the study of gas dynamics during braking of a supersonic flow by volumetric electromagnetic force, the development of designs of MHD channels and magnetic systems, as well as new electrical devices. In the process of research, it was possible, in particular, to show that it is possible to slow down the flow from M= 2 to subsonic speed. Over the course of 10 years, mobile pulsed energy sources with a power ranging from tens to hundreds of megawatts have been created based on MHD generators.

Studies of oil and gas fields have shown that with the help of such MHD generators it is possible to determine the boundary between oil and gas, oil and water, and estimate the thickness of the oil reservoir.

At the end of his life, Mikhail Dmitrievich again returned to the problems of turbulence and in 1969-1972 he published works on turbulent flows in the boundary layer and pipes. Thirty years later, Mikhail Dmitrievich again gave a brilliant example of how to analyze experimental data and make very general assumptions character. And yet, in the works of the 70s there is understatement. A large study was brewing, and what was published was preliminary work on a kind of inventory and clearing the field for future activities.

In his last speech at the All-Union Seminar on Problems of Turbulent Flows (April 1972), Mikhail Dmitrievich said: “Emerging as a result of laminar friction, turbulent flow is subject to its own specific features, which are created by specifically ordered movements of “fragments of laminar flow” - collective movements of a certain set vortices." Consequently, even then M.D. Millionshchikov showed a deep understanding of the existence of so-called “coherent” or large-scale structures in the depths of turbulence, which began to be discussed with enthusiasm somewhat later.

Under the leadership of Academician M.D. Millionshchikov at the Physics and Energy Institute (Obninsk) in the late 1960s - early 1970s, unique hydraulic studies were carried out. Nikuradze's experiments with sand roughness were repeated with all care. Experiments showed the value of the resistance coefficient to be 1.5 - 2.5 times higher than what follows from Nikuradze’s works.

Throughout his life, Mikhail Dmitrievich worked to train and educate highly qualified scientific personnel. At the age of seventeen, as a second-year student, he began his teaching career as a teacher in the departments of higher mathematics, theoretical mechanics and drilling theory of the Grozny Oil Institute. Then for many years M.D. Millionshchikov taught a course in aerodynamics at the Department of Applied and Theoretical Aerodynamics at the Moscow Aviation Institute and the Department of Aeromechanics of the Air Force Engineering Academy. NOT. Zhukovsky, was acting dean of the airplane and helicopter faculty of the Moscow Aviation Institute, chairman of the admissions committee of the MAI in Alma-Ata during the institute’s evacuation. In 1943, he was sent as an associate professor of the department of aeromechanics at the Kuibyshev Aviation Institute, where he taught sections of the course on aircraft design and aerodynamics theory at aircraft engine building and aircraft engineering faculties. Returning to Moscow in 1946, M.D. Millionshchikov continued his teaching career. He led a group of graduate students at TsAGI. In 1947, Mikhail Dmitrievich was enrolled as a professor in the Department of Aeromechanics of the Faculty of Physics and Technology of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, from which the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) was soon formed, in whose organization M.D. Millionshchikov took an active part.

In 1949, on the advice of academician I.V. Kurchatov Mikhail Dmitrievich founded the Department of Isotope Separation at the Moscow Mechanical Institute of Munitions, which later became the Department of Molecular Physics at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (now the National Research Nuclear University "MEPhI"). Mikhail Dmitrievich led it for more than twenty years. M.D. Millionshchikov was one of the initiators of the creation of the Department of Applied Nuclear Physics at MEPhI and the Department of Molecular Physics at the Ural Polytechnic Institute. For the first time in the country, he developed a course of lectures “Turbulent flows of liquids and gases.”

For several years M.D. Millionshchikov was the Chairman of the Section of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and a member of the Plenum of the Higher Attestation Commission, a member of the Council for Higher Schools of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the USSR, Chairman of the Special Section and a member of the Plenum of the Committee on Lenin and State Prizes in the Field of Science and Technology, Chairman of the Expert Commission on awarding the Gold Medal to them. M.V. Lomonosov? the highest award of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

On October 23, 1953, Mikhail Dmitrievich Millionshchikov was elected corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Division of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (specialty “physics”), soon becoming a member of the Bureau of this Division.

On June 29, 1962, Mikhail Dmitrievich Millionshchikov was elected a full member (academician) of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Technical Sciences (specialty “mechanics? isotope separation”). On the same day M.D. Millionshchikov was elected vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Academician M.D. Millionshchikov is widely known as an outstanding organizer of science. For more than 10 years he was vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, head of many academic councils, committees and commissions. Mikhail Dmitrievich, as the first deputy chairman of the Council for Coordinating the Activities of the Academies of Sciences of the Union Republics and the Chairman of the Commission on the Prospects for the Development of Science in the RSFSR, made a great contribution to the development of a network of scientific institutions in various regions of the USSR; he was one of the initiators of the creation of the Far Eastern and Ural Scientific Centers of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the resumption of the activities of the Karelian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Commission for the Study of Productive Forces (KEPS), the organization of a number of institutes, both in the system of the Great Academy and in the academies of sciences of the Union republics.

As a result of changes in the structure of the USSR Academy of Sciences that occurred in 1963, new Divisions in areas of science were created in the Academy of Sciences, united in Sections of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Mikhail Dmitrievich became the first academician-secretary of the Department of Physical and Technical Problems of Energy and Chairman of the Section of Physical, Technical and Mathematical Sciences. He paid great attention to the formation of the Section and Branch.

M.D. Millionshchikov did a lot to develop publishing at the Academy, improve operational printing and publish academic journals. He provided assistance to the publishing houses of the academies of sciences of the Union republics, and took an active part in the organization and development of the Library of Natural Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences. For a number of years, Academician M.D. Millionshchikov was chairman of the Editorial, Publishing and Library Councils of the USSR Academy of Sciences, editor-in-chief of the journals “Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR”, “Atomic Energy”, and the international yearbook “Science and Humanity”. He was a member of the Chief Editorial Board of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, a member of the editorial board of the journal “Kvant”, participated in the work of the journals “Applied Mathematics and Mechanics”, “PugwashNewsletter”, and was one of the founders of the journal “Magnetic Hydrodynamics”.

For a number of years, Academician M.D. Millionshchikov was a member of the Bureau of the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the complex problem of “Thermophysics and Thermal Power Engineering”, a member of the Presidium of the Scientific Council “Study of oceans and seas and the use of their resources” of the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology, a member of the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences on problems of geology and development of oil and gas fields.

As a member of the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology and the Presidium of the USSR State Committee for the Use of Atomic Energy, Chairman of the Section “Aircraft and Missile Nuclear Power Plants”, member of the scientific and technical councils of the Ministry of Medium Engineering of the USSR and the Presidium of the Military-Industrial Commission under the Council of Ministers of the USSR , Chairman of the Commission on Scientific Equipment of the USSR Academy of Sciences M.D. Millionshchikov made a significant contribution to the development of domestic instrument making and the introduction of scientific results into industry.

In 1967 M.D. Millionshchikov headed the All-Union Seminar on Problems of Turbulent Flows, created on the initiative of leading Russian mathematicians and mechanics. Mikhail Dmitrievich was one of the active members of the Presidium of the USSR National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, for several years he was deputy chairman of the National Committee of Soviet Physicists, and was a member of the Honorary Committee of the World Petroleum Congress.

One of the most important areas of Mikhail Dmitrievich’s activity was the problems and prospects for the development of international scientific cooperation. Being one of the leaders of Soviet science, he repeatedly traveled abroad, visiting more than 20 countries. Mikhail Dmitrievich did a great job of expanding relations between the USSR Academy of Sciences and foreign academies and scientific societies, earning great respect in the scientific community of the world. For a number of years, Academician M.D. Millionshchikov was a member of and supervised the work of the Commission on International Scientific Relations under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

The activities of M.D. have received wide international recognition. Millionshchikov in the Pugwash Movement of Scientists, an international scientific non-governmental organization awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. As Chairman of the Soviet Pugwash Committee and a member of the Permanent and Executive Pugwash Committees (1964–1973), he largely contributed to the establishment of trusting relationships between scientists of the West and East, which was especially important during the development of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty , in the preparation of which he took an active part. The active and fruitful work of Academician M.D. Millionshchikov in Pugwash was marked by his election in 1968 as president of the Pugwash Movement of Scientists. Neither before nor after have scientists from our country been elected to this high post.

He was one of the first Soviet scientists who had the honor of making a plenary report at a session of the UN General Assembly. For several years, Mikhail Dmitrievich was a member of the Academic Council of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), one of the leading scientific centers in the field of disarmament and security. He was vice-president of the International Nobel Symposium (Sweden), deputy chairman of the Soviet Committee for European Security and chairman of the Commission for Security in Europe of this committee, member of the Presidium of the Soviet Peace Committee, member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Commission on Scientific Problems of Disarmament, member of the Executive Council of the World Federation scientists, a member of the Disarmament Commission of the World Peace Council, a member of the UNICEF Board of Trustees? UN Children's Emergency Fund.

He treated all his numerous responsibilities with the utmost responsibility. This also applies to his active work as a deputy of the Moscow City Council, a deputy, since 1963? Deputy Chairman, and from 1967 - Chairman of the Supreme Council of Russia, which he remained until the end of his life. Despite the enormous workload of scientific, administrative and international affairs, he constantly held parliamentary receptions and provided assistance to many voters from different regions of the country.

Mikhail Dmitrievich paid great attention to environmental problems, as well as to the preservation of the cultural and architectural heritage of the country, being deputy chairman of the Presidium of the Central Council of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments (VOOPiK) and chairman of the Commission on Monuments and Museums of the Soviet Peace Committee.

For the implementation of particularly important special tasks of the Government, which contributed to strengthening the defense capability of the state, for his great contribution to the development of science and technology and the training of highly qualified scientific personnel, for fruitful state, scientific, organizational and social activities, he was awarded the titles of Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin and twice State Prizes of the USSR, awarded five Orders of Lenin, Orders of the October Revolution, the Red Banner of Labor, the “Badge of Honour”, the Order of Labor of the 1st degree of Hungary, medals “For valiant labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945”, “For valiant labor. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin", "In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow", "50 years of the Mongolian People's Revolution" and other state insignia.

Mikhail Dmitrievich was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a corresponding member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, and a foreign member of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. M.D. Millionshchikov was awarded the Gold Medal. N. Copernicus of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Great Medal named after. G.V. Leibniz of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, medal named after. M. Drinova of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Gold Medal “For Services to Science and Humanity” of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, gold medals of the Italian National Academy of Sciences, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences of Cuba, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, medal of the Krakow (Jagiellonian) University, medals United Nations and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the US Atomic Energy Commission medal, was awarded the medal. S.I. Vavilov of the All-Union Society “Knowledge”, “Fighter for Peace” of the Soviet Peace Committee, “For merits in standardization”, “For many years and fruitful activities in the development of atomic science and technology” and other international and Soviet public and departmental awards.

Academician M.D. Millionshchikov was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery, where a monument to the scientist was erected in 1981.

Name of academician M.D. Millionshchikov was assigned to the Grozny Oil Institute in 1973, in front of which a memorial to the scientist was erected. In the 1970s? In the 1980s, in secondary school No. 106 in Grozny, annual lessons were held in memory of the scientist, at which Mikhail Dmitrievich’s friends and colleagues from the Oil Institute spoke.

In memory of Academician M.D. Millionshchikovo was named in 1973 as a street in Moscow; motor ship (the State flag of the USSR was raised on March 24, 1975); auditorium at the National Research Nuclear University "MEPhI", in front of which a memorial hall was opened in 1977, which has the status of a branch of the MEPhI Museum.

A memorial plaque was installed on the main building of the Russian Scientific Center "Kurchatov Institute" in 1979; a memorial hall with a memorial plaque was opened in the Institute of Nuclear Reactors of the Russian Research Center "Kurchatov Institute" in 1983; In 1974, the USSR Ministry of Communications issued postage stamps and envelopes with a portrait of Mikhail Dmitrievich.

The Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1983 established the Prize named after. M.D. Millionshchikov for the best work on the popularization of science. The Troitsk Institute for Innovative and Thermonuclear Research (TRINITI) established a prize named after. M.D. Millionshchikov for the best engineering work. At the RRC “Kurchatov Institute”, with the participation of employees of the Russian Academy of Sciences, National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” and TRINIT, seminars and chess tournaments are held in memory of Academician M.D. Millionshchikova. Scientific and practical conferences in memory of Mikhail Dmitrievich Millionshchikov are regularly held in the scientist’s homeland - in the city of Grozny.

In February 2009, by order of the Administration of Grozny, Trudovaya Street in the capital of the Chechen Republic, on which Mikhail Dmitrievich lived from birth until 1934, was renamed Street named after Academician M.D. Millionshchikova.

The memory of Mikhail Dmitrievich is carefully preserved within the walls of his AlmaMater - Grozny State Petroleum Technical University named after Academician M.D. Millionshchikova.

Mikhail Dmitrievich Millionshchikov(January 3, 1913, Grozny - May 27, 1973, Moscow) - scientist, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since 1962; corresponding member since 1953), statesman and public figure, organizer of science and international scientific cooperation, specialist in the field of aerohydrodynamics, applied physics and nuclear energy. Student of academicians A. N. Kolmogorov and B. N. Yuryev.

Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR (1967-1973).

Biography

Born into the family of a turner at the locomotive depot of the Grozny station of the Vladikavkaz Railway, Dmitry Ivanovich Millionshchikov (1881-1937) and Evdokia Mikhailovna Akimakina (1881-1921). Wife - Lyudmila Mikhailovna Millionshchikova (nee Mukhina) (1914-1986) - aerodynamic engineer, author of five collections of poems published in the publishing houses "Soviet Writer" and "Sovremennik", artist, participant in All-Union exhibitions.

Children - Vladimir Mikhailovich Millionshchikov (1939-2009) - mathematician, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Honored Professor of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosova (2006) and Tatyana Mikhailovna Millionshchikova (born 1948) - candidate of philological sciences, specialist in the field of literary criticism, was married to A. I. Lebedev (1945-1997) - great-grandson of the director of the 1st Moscow gymnasium, active State Councilor I. D. Lebedev, nephew of the Honored Trainer of the USSR A. A. Kolmanovsky.

Graduated from the railway school in Grozny (1927);
Student of secondary school No. 2 in Grozny (1927-1928);
Student of the oilfield faculty of the Grozny Oil Institute (1928-1932);
Graduated from the Grozny Oil Institute with a degree in drilling engineer (1932);
Assistant at the departments of higher mathematics, drilling and theoretical mechanics of the Grozny Oil Institute (1930-1934);
Assistant, senior lecturer, associate professor of the Department of Aerodynamics of Aircraft, Acting Dean of the Aircraft and Helicopter Engineering Faculty of the Moscow Aviation Institute (1934-1943);
Senior researcher at the Department of Mathematical Geophysics of the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1938-1941);
Senior Researcher at the High Speed Laboratories of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after. Professor N. E. Zhukovsky (1939-1951);
Associate Professor, Department of Aeromechanics, Kuibyshev Aviation Institute (1943-1946);
Deputy Director for Scientific Affairs of the Institute of Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1944-1949);
Head of the sector, deputy head of the department of thermal control devices, head of the department of high-temperature installations, deputy director for scientific work of the Institute of Atomic Energy named after. I. V. Kurchatova (1949-1973);
Head of the Department of Molecular Physics at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (1949-1960, 1967-1973);
Professor of the Department of Aeromechanics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (1947-1952);
Joined the Initial composition of the USSR National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (1956);
Died on May 27, 1973. He was buried in Moscow, at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Scientific activity

M.D. Millionshchikov developed the theory of isotropic turbulence, formulated the law of attenuation of turbulent pulsations, and was the first to study the role of inertial terms in the phenomenon of isotropic turbulence. He proposed a new method for exploiting oil reservoirs and formulated a theory for the development of a water cone in oil wells. He was engaged in research of gas ejectors and their applications. He proposed a method of using excess pressure of natural gas in gas lines to generate electricity. The work carried out by M.D. Millionshchikov in the 1940s at TsAGI on the movement of gas flows in channels was the theoretical basis for the calculation of long-distance gas pipelines; Another important application of this research was the development of methods for calculating supersonic jet engine nozzles. Since 1949, M.D. Millionshchikov was a participant in the Soviet atomic project. He developed designs for gas centrifuges for producing weapons-grade uranium (Uranium-235). One of the founders of the domestic reactor industry.

Scientist, statesman and public figure, organizer of science and international scientific cooperation, specialist in the field of aerohydrodynamics, applied physics and nuclear energy. Student of academicians A. N. Kolmogorov and B. N. Yuryev.

Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR (1967-1973).

Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences from June 29, 1962 to May 27, 1973. Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Technical Problems of Energy of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1963-1964).

Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1962)

Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1953)

Professor (1949)

Doctor of Technical Sciences (1946)

Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1968)

Best of the day

Corresponding Member of the German Academy of Sciences (1971)

Foreign Academician of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1972)

Born into the family of a turner at the Grozny station of the North Caucasus Railway, Dmitry Ivanovich Millionshchikov (1881-1937) and Evdokia Mikhailovna Akimakina (1881-1921). Wife - Lyudmila Mikhailovna Millionshchikova (nee Mukhina) (1914-1986) - aerodynamic engineer, author of five collections of poems published in the publishing houses "Soviet Writer" and "Sovremennik", artist, participant in All-Union exhibitions. Children - Vladimir Mikhailovich Millionshchikov (1939-2009) - mathematician, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Honored Professor of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosova (2006) and Tatyana Mikhailovna Millionshchikova (b. 1948), philologist and literary critic.

Graduated from the railway school in Grozny (1927)

Student of secondary school No. 2 in Grozny (1927-1928)

Student of the oilfield faculty of the Grozny Oil Institute (1928-1932).

He graduated from the Grozny Oil Institute with a degree in drilling engineer (1932).

Assistant at the departments of higher mathematics, drilling and theoretical mechanics of the Grozny Oil Institute (1930-1934).

Assistant, senior lecturer, associate professor of the Department of Aerodynamics of Aircraft, Acting Dean of the Aircraft and Helicopter Engineering Faculty of the Moscow Aviation Institute (1934-1943)

Senior Researcher at the High Speed Laboratories of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after. Professor N. E. Zhukovsky (1939-1951)

Associate Professor, Department of Aeromechanics, Kuibyshev Aviation Institute (1943-1946)

Deputy Director for Scientific Affairs of the Institute of Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1944-1949)

Head of the sector, deputy head of the department of thermal control devices, head of the department of high-temperature installations, deputy director for scientific work of the Institute of Atomic Energy named after. I. V. Kurchatova (1949-1973).

Head of the Department of Molecular Physics at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (1949-1960, 1967-1973).

Professor of the Department of Aeromechanics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (1947-1952).

Scientific activity

Government activities

Since 1963, M. D. Millionshchikov was a deputy of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR; Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR of the 6th convocation (1963-1967), Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR of the 7th and 8th convocations (from April 11, 1967 to May 27, 1973).

He was elected as a deputy of the Moscow City Council.

Member of the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Science and Technology since 1964.

Scientific and organizational activities

Chairman of the Commission of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the prospects for the development of science in the RSFSR.

Chairman of the Library Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Chairman of the Commission on Scientific Equipment under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Deputy Chairman of the Council for Coordinating the Activities of the Academies of Sciences of the Union Republics under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Chairman of the Scientific Council on the complex problem “Methods of direct conversion of thermal energy into electrical energy” of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Chairman of the Special Section of the Committee on Lenin and State Prizes under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

Chairman of the section “Aircraft-rocket nuclear power plants” of the scientific and technical council of the Ministry of Medium Engineering of the USSR.

Member of the Presidium of the Scientific and Technical Council of the Military-Industrial Commission under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

Member of the Bureau of the Scientific Council on the complex problem of “Thermophysics and Thermal Power Engineering” of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Member of the scientific council on problems of geology and development of oil fields of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Member of the Council for Higher Schools of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the USSR.

Social and political activities

Chairman of the Soviet Pugwash Committee and member of the Pugwash Standing and Executive Committee in 1964-1973, President of the Pugwash Movement of Scientists in 1968-1969.

First Deputy Chairman of the Soviet Committee for European Security.

Member of the Presidium of the Soviet Peace Committee.

Member of the Presidium of the Central Council of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments.

Member of the Board of the All-Union Society "Znanie".

Awards

State awards

Hero of Socialist Labor (1967)

Lenin Prize laureate (1961)

Winner of the Stalin Prize (1951)

Winner of the Stalin Prize (1954)

Order of Lenin (1951)

Order of Lenin (1961)

Order of Lenin (1963)

Order of Lenin (1967)

Order of Lenin (1973)

Order of the October Revolution (1971)

Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1954)

Order of the Badge of Honor (1953)

Order of Labor, 1st class (Hungary, 1970)

Medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (1946)

Medal "In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow" (1947)

Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (1970)

Medal "50 years of the Mongolian People's Revolution" (1972)

Scientific and public awards

Gold Medal of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italy)

Gold Medal of the Cuban Academy of Sciences

Gold Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences

Gold Medal named after N. Copernicus of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Great Medal named after G. Leibniz of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin

Gold medal "For services to science and humanity" of the Slovak Academy of Sciences

Medal of the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences

Medal named after S. I. Vavilov of the All-Union Society “Knowledge”

Medal "Fighter for Peace" of the Soviet Peace Committee

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Medal

Medal “For long-term and fruitful activity in the development of atomic science”

Medal "For Merit in Standardization"

Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR (1967-1973).

Biography

Born into the family of a turner at the Grozny station of the North Caucasus Railway, Dmitry Ivanovich Millionshchikov (1881-1937) and Evdokia Mikhailovna Akimakina (1881-1921). Wife - Lyudmila Mikhailovna Millionshchikova (nee Mukhina) (1914-1986) - aerodynamic engineer, author of five collections of poems published in the publishing houses "Soviet Writer" and "Sovremennik", artist, participant in All-Union exhibitions. Children - Vladimir Mikhailovich Millionshchikov (1939-2009) - mathematician, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Honored Professor of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosova (2006) and Tatyana Mikhailovna Millionshchikova (born 1948) - candidate of philological sciences, specialist in the field of literary criticism.

Graduated from the railway school in Grozny (1927)
Student of secondary school No. 2 in Grozny (1927-1928)
Student of the oilfield faculty of the Grozny Oil Institute (1928-1932).
He graduated from the Grozny Oil Institute with a degree in drilling engineer (1932).
Assistant at the departments of higher mathematics, drilling and theoretical mechanics of the Grozny Oil Institute (1930-1934).
Assistant, senior lecturer, associate professor of the Department of Aerodynamics of Aircraft, Acting Dean of the Aircraft and Helicopter Engineering Faculty of the Moscow Aviation Institute (1934-1943)
Senior Researcher at the High Speed Laboratories of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after. Professor N. E. Zhukovsky (1939-1951)
Associate Professor, Department of Aeromechanics, Kuibyshev Aviation Institute (1943-1946)
Deputy Director for Scientific Affairs of the Institute of Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1944-1949)
Head of the sector, deputy head of the department of thermal control devices, head of the department of high-temperature installations, deputy director for scientific work of the Institute of Atomic Energy named after. I. V. Kurchatova (1949-1973).
Head of the Department of Molecular Physics at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (1949-1960, 1967-1973).
Professor of the Department of Aeromechanics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (1947-1952).

Scientific activity

The main scientific works of M.D. Millionshchikov are devoted to the theory of turbulence, the theory of filtration, applied gas dynamics, isotope separation, high-temperature reactor construction, methods of energy conversion, as well as science, disarmament and international relations. M.D. Millionshchikov developed the theory of isotropic turbulence, formulated the law of attenuation of turbulent pulsations, and was the first to study the role of inertial terms in the phenomenon of isotropic turbulence. In these works, to solve problems in the theory of turbulence, he was the first to use the modern apparatus of probability theory and obtained a number of important results that gave rise to a large number of further studies. Open M.D. Millionshchikov's law of turbulence decay was confirmed with great accuracy by experiment and is now considered classical. Created an original phenomenological theory of turbulent flow in pipes.

Formulated a theory for the development of a water cone in oil wells; deduced the law of the drop in oil content at debits exceeding the usual conditions for waterless operation of wells; proposed a practical method for operating wells in which the formation of harmful oil emulsions does not occur; developed theories of the mixture of oil and gas movement. Discovered and explained the phenomenon of gas ejector locking, which had a significant impact on the development of high-speed aviation; proposed a method of using excess pressure of natural gas in gas lines to generate electricity. I solved the problem of filtering liquid through a perforated pipe.

He developed designs for gas centrifuges to produce weapons-grade uranium. He made a great contribution to the theory of magnetohydrodynamic energy conversion, creating (together with others) the world's first nuclear reactor-converter "Romashka". He was one of the founders of the domestic reactor industry, having a significant influence on the development of research in the study of the properties of low- and high-temperature plasma, the creation and development of aircraft-rocket nuclear power plants.

Government activities

He was elected as a deputy of the Moscow City Council.

Member of the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Science and Technology since 1964.

Scientific and organizational activities

Chairman of the Commission of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the prospects for the development of science in the RSFSR.
Chairman of the Library Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Chairman of the Commission on Scientific Equipment under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Deputy Chairman of the Council for Coordinating the Activities of the Academies of Sciences of the Union Republics under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Chairman of the Scientific Council on the complex problem “Methods of direct conversion of thermal energy into electrical energy” of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Chairman of the Special Section of the Committee on Lenin and State Prizes under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
Chairman of the section “Aircraft-rocket nuclear power plants” of the scientific and technical council of the Ministry of Medium Engineering of the USSR.
Member of the Presidium of the Scientific and Technical Council of the Military-Industrial Commission under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
Member of the Bureau of the Scientific Council on the complex problem of “Thermophysics and Thermal Power Engineering” of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Member of the scientific council on problems of geology and development of oil fields of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Member of the Council for Higher Schools of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the USSR.
Member of the Presidium of the Scientific Council "Research of Oceans and Seas and Use of Their Resources" of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR

Editorial and publishing activities

Chairman of the Editorial and Publishing Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since 1966).
Editor-in-chief of the magazine "Atomic Energy" (since 1961)
Editor-in-chief of the journal "Bulletin of the USSR Academy of Sciences" (since 1966)
Chairman of the editorial board of the international yearbook “Science and Humanity” (since 1963)
Member of the Chief Editorial Board of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (since 1967).
Member of the editorial board of the journal "Kvant".

Social and political activities

Chairman of the Soviet Pugwash Committee and member of the Pugwash Standing and Executive Committee in 1964-1973, President of the Pugwash Movement of Scientists in 1968-1969.
First Deputy Chairman of the Soviet Committee for European Security.
Member of the Presidium of the Soviet Peace Committee.
Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the Central Council of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments.
Member of the Board of the All-Union Society "Znanie".

Awards

State awards

Hero of Socialist Labor (1967)
5 Orders of Lenin (1951, 1961, 1963, 1967, 1973)
Order of the October Revolution (1971)
Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1954)
Order of the Badge of Honor (1953)
Medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (1946)
Medal "In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow" (1947)
Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (1970)
Lenin Prize laureate (1961)
Winner of the Stalin Prize (1951)
Winner of the Stalin Prize (1954)
Order of Labor, 1st class (Hungary, 1970)
Medal "50 Years of the Mongolian People's Revolution" (1972)

Scientific and public awards

Gold Medal of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italy)
Gold Medal of the Cuban Academy of Sciences
Gold Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
Gold Medal named after N. Copernicus of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Great Medal named after G. Leibniz of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin
Gold medal "For services to science and humanity" of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
Medal of the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences
Medal named after S. I. Vavilov of the All-Union Society “Knowledge”
Medal "Fighter for Peace" of the Soviet Peace Committee
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Medal
Medal “For long-term and fruitful activity in the development of atomic science”
Medal "For Merit in Standardization"

Ranks

Doctor of Technical Sciences (1946).
Professor (1949).
Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1953).
Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1962).
Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences from June 29, 1962 to May 27, 1973.
Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Technical Problems of Energy of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1963-1964).
Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1968).
Corresponding member of the German Academy of Sciences (1971).
Foreign academician of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1972).

Perpetuation of memory

Street in Moscow.
Street named after Academician M.D. Millionshchikov in Grozny (by order of the Administration of Grozny dated February 11, 2009 No. 188, Trudovaya Street in Grozny was renamed into street named after Academician M.D. Millionshchikov).
Grozny State Petroleum Technical University named after Academician M.D. Millionshchikov (Chechen Republic).
Motor ship "Akademik Millionshchikov" (port of registry - Odessa).
Prize named after M.D. Millionshchikov of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Scholarships named after M.D. Millionshchikov at the Grozny State Petroleum Institute named after. M.D. Millionshchikov and the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute.
Auditorium named after M.D. Millionshchikov at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute.
Memorial plaques on the main building of the Russian Scientific Center "Kurchatov Institute", in the building of the Institute of Nuclear Reactors, in the building of the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute.
High relief and bust in front of the building of the Oil Institute in Grozny (destroyed in 1995).
Tombstone in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Museum of Academician M.D. Millionshchikov (Grozny, in the process of organization).
In 1974, a USSR postage stamp dedicated to Millionshchikov was issued.

Publications

Millionshchikov M.D. Degeneration of homogeneous isotropic turbulence in a viscous incompressible fluid // Reports of the USSR Academy of Sciences. - 1939. - T. 22. - No. 5. - P. 236-240.
Millionshchikov M.D. On the theory of homogeneous isotropic turbulence // Reports of the USSR Academy of Sciences. - T. 32. - No. 9. - P. 611-614.
Millionshchikov M.D., Khristianovich S.A., Galperin V.G., Simonov L.A. Applied gas dynamics: In 2 parts. Part 1. - M., 1948. - 146 p.
Millionshchikov M.D., Khristianovich S.A., Galperin V.G., Simonov L.A. Applied gas dynamics: In 2 parts. Part 2. - M., 1949. - 207 p.
Millionshchikov M.D., Babaev N.S., Panasyuk I.S. Energy of the future. - M.: Knowledge, 1965. - 52 p.
Millionshchikov M.D. Turbulent flows in the boundary layer and in pipes. - M.: Nauka, 1969. - 52 p.

Academician Mikhail Dmitrievich Millionshchikov lived a short but colorful life. Distinguished by his exceptional breadth of scientific interests, he, a drilling engineer by training, made a great contribution to the development of many fields of science: aero- and hydrodynamics, applied physics, nuclear energy.
M.D. Millionshchikov was born on January 16 (3 according to the old style) January 1913 in the city of Grozny. His father Dmitry Ivanovich Millionshchikov (1881–1938), originally from the large village of Lyudinovo (now Lyudinovo, Kaluga region), worked as a turner at the railway depot of the Grozny station of the North Caucasus Railway. He was a hereditary railway worker: his father served first as a turner, and then as an assistant driver of the first steam locomotive that reached the Grozny station - then the final destination of the North Caucasus Railway. Mikhail Dmitrievich’s mother, Evdokia Mikhailovna Akimakina (1881–1920), was born in the village of Tikhoretsk, Kuban Region (now the city of Tikhoretsk, Krasnodar Territory). When her son Mikhail was seven years old, she died in Grozny, where the Civil War was raging at that time.
The years of Millionshchikov's childhood and youth fell on a tragic period in the history of our country: the First World War, the October Revolution, the Civil War, Stalinist repressions. For several years, the Millionshchikov family lived in difficult conditions: Grozny constantly moved from Red to White and back to Red again, was subjected to shelling, bandit raids and even bombing from airplanes. Their house was located near the city station, where the most fierce fighting took place. The repressions of the 1930s also did not spare the family of Mikhail Dmitrievich. In 1935, his uncle, Nikolai Ivanovich Millionshchikov, was convicted and died in prison. He was posthumously rehabilitated “for lack of evidence of a crime” only in 1989.
After graduating from a seven-year railway school in Grozny in 1927, Mikhail was transferred to the eighth grade of the 2nd Grozny secondary school, and in 1928 he entered the mining and oil department of the Grozny Higher Oil College, which a year later was transformed into an institute. During his practical training at the institute, he worked in the Grozny oil fields as a worker, a tent worker, a housekeeper, a driller, and then a foreman and technician.
Having received a higher education diploma in 1932, the future scientist began his first scientific research related to oil production. Even then, his mathematical and engineering abilities were clearly evident: he became one of the initiators of the construction of an experimental adit in the Starogroznensky region for the extraction of residual oil. Simultaneously with his participation in this project, Mikhail Dmitrievich worked as a teacher of higher mathematics and theoretical mechanics at the Grozny Oil Institute and as an engineer in the drilling laboratory of the Grozny Scientific Research Institute. During this period he published his first scientific articles.
Young Millionshchikov sought to continue his education. In December 1933, he attempted to enroll in graduate school at the Faculty of Physics at Leningrad State University. Despite the fact that he successfully passed the exams, he was not accepted due to the lack of Leningrad registration.
Mikhail Dmitrievich was greatly assisted by V.N., a professor at the Grozny Oil Institute and a prominent scientist in the field of underground hydraulics. Shchelkachev, who wrote a letter of recommendation to one of the leading scientists in the field of oil and gas filtration theory, future academician L.S. Leibenzon with a request to accept M.D. Millionshchikov at the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI). In Moscow, Mikhail Dmitrievich met with L.S. Leibenzon, as well as with academician S.A. Chaplygin, who also recommended him to graduate school at the Moscow Aviation Institute. In the summer of 1934, Millionshchikov successfully passed the exams, but was again not enrolled in graduate school, this time because he had not passed the “credentials committee” - he was not a Komsomol member. Only thanks to the appeal of the future academician B.N. Yuryev, who headed the department of aerodynamics of aircraft at the Moscow Aviation Institute in the specialized People's Commissariat, Mikhail Dmitrievich entered the graduate school of the institute, which he successfully graduated from in 1938.
In 1939, Millionshchikov's first work on the theory of isotropic turbulence was published. It studied the final period of degeneration, when the processes of energy redistribution along the pulsation spectrum can be neglected in comparison with the processes of dissipation. M.D. Millionshchikov found a solution to the Karman-Howarth equation and established the law of changes in time of the correlation functions of the velocity and temperature fields.
At the time when this hypothesis was expressed, empirical data on the fourth moments of the velocity field were completely absent. In subsequent years, the results of measurements of probability distributions of the fourth moments of velocity pulsations were published, which made it possible to draw certain conclusions about the range of applicability of the hypothesis. It was confirmed that some characteristics of homogeneous and isotropic turbulence are indeed close to normal. At the same time, small-scale pulsations differ significantly from normal ones. But Millionshchikov’s hypothesis does not assume normal distributions. The method proposed by Millionshchikov turned out to be a powerful tool for studying the characteristics of turbulence, widely used in theoretical and applied works. Research on the theory of homogeneous and isotropic turbulence brought recognition and wide fame to its author.
Continuing to work at the Moscow Aviation Institute, M.D. Since 1939, Millionshchikov began to work closely with the staff of the laboratory of Academician S.A. Khristianovich at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after. NOT. Zhukovsky (TsAGI). During the Great Patriotic War and in the early post-war years, he worked on issues of oil production and applied gas dynamics. His research on hydrodynamics, carried out at the Kuibyshev Aviation Institute in 1943–1945, contributed to increasing the efficiency of oil exploration and increasing oil production in the “Second Baku” region. At the same time, he led one of the teams that solved the problem of introducing new technologies and materials into aircraft manufacturing, increasing the production of combat air vehicles, as well as engines for them and other products for the needs of the front.
Returning to Moscow in 1945, Mikhail Dmitrievich defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Some methods of exploiting oil wells.” The theoretical part of the dissertation work was carried out by him at the Institute of Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and the experimental part - at TsAGI. The methods he proposed for operating oil wells and developing oil deposits with bottom water were of enormous practical importance for the country's rapidly developing oil industry in those years.
Mikhail Dmitrievich together with academician S.A. Khristianovich is one of the founders of the domestic theory of gas ejectors. During the research in the field of applied gas dynamics carried out at TsAGI and the Institute of Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the second half of the 1940s, he studied the operation of gas ejectors and showed ways of their application. In particular, he proposed using high-pressure gas to eject gas from low-pressure wells. Under his leadership, the necessary calculations were carried out and special experimental installations were created at TsAGI and an experimental ejector was built. As a result of these studies, Mikhail Dmitrievich and his colleagues discovered and explained a phenomenon called the “critical ejector mode”. This discovery turned out to be especially important for the technology of periodic wind tunnels and the development of high-speed aviation. Under the leadership of M.D. Millionshchikov at TsAGI also created diffusers and ejectors for wind tunnels. Another practical application of this work was the method proposed by Mikhail Dmitrievich for generating electricity using gas ejectors.
In 1946 M.D. Millionshchikov was appointed deputy director of the Institute of Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where research in the field of filtration continued. The scientist’s work in the field of filtration theory and gas dynamics was important in the calculations of long-distance gas pipelines (Saratov - Moscow) and the creation of gas processing plants (Dashava, Ukraine).
But soon in the scientific activity of M.D. Millionshchikov, serious changes took place: in 1949, four months before the test of the first Soviet atomic bomb, at the invitation of Academician I.V. Kurchatov, he is involved in solving problems facing domestic nuclear science and technology. The research he conducted at the Laboratory of Measuring Instruments of the USSR Academy of Sciences (LIPAN) relates to various areas of nuclear physics and energy. From 1960 until the end of his life, he was deputy director of the Institute of Atomic Energy (IAE) named after. I.V. Kurchatov, formed from LIPAN.
Works by M.D. Millionshchikov, deputy scientific director of research on the problem of isotope separation, made a significant contribution to the theory of gas-dynamic and centrifugal methods of isotope separation, having a significant impact on the organization of research and development work at a number of enterprises in the nuclear industry. Mikhail Dmitrievich conducted research and development of corrective devices designed to preserve gas centrifuges under various emergency conditions. A gas centrifuge with a short rigid rotor for separating uranium isotopes, developed with his direct participation, made it possible in 1957 to launch the first pilot plant and then transfer the entire separation industry to centrifugal technology, which greatly reduced energy costs for the production of uranium-235.
Mikhail Dmitrievich paid great attention to the quality of products. Here it is necessary to emphasize his active work as chairman of the State Reception Commission of the Ministry of Medium Engineering of the USSR, which carried out the acceptance into operation of particularly important industrial facilities and special installations. This work of his served to increase and strengthen the country's defense capability.
M.D. Millionshchikov was distinguished by a truly enormous breadth of interests, so his name can be found in many domestic and foreign encyclopedic publications, both universal and special - on physics, mathematics, mechanics, energy, aviation, geology and mining, history of science, international relations. In 1953, the USSR Academy of Sciences elected M.D. Millionshchikov was a corresponding member in the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (specialty “physics”), and in 1962 he became a full member (academician) in the Department of Technical Sciences (specialty “mechanics - isotope separation”) and at the same time vice-president of the academy.
Since the early 1960s, he began to deal with one of the most important problems - the direct (machine-free) method of converting thermal energy into electrical energy. An important stage in this direction was the launch in 1964 of the world's first nuclear reactor-converter on fast neutrons, Romashka, created under the leadership of M.D. Millionshchikova. This marked the beginning of the creation and production of space reactor nuclear power plants (NPP) for special purposes - the thermoelectric nuclear power plant "Buk" and thermionic nuclear power plant "Topaz-1".
Under the scientific guidance of M.D. Millionshchikov developed high-temperature gas-cooled reactors for energy, metallurgy and chemistry, and marine space reconnaissance systems. Scientists proposed one of the options for a heterogeneous thermal neutron reactor for the Buk nuclear power plant. The first generation of on-board nuclear power plants launched into space in the 1970s–1980s successfully operated in orbit, which consolidated our country’s leadership in the field of space technology and nuclear energy and ultimately ensured the defense of the state. The teams led by Mikhail Dmitrievich made a significant contribution to high-temperature reactor construction, to the study of the properties of high- and low-temperature plasma, to the development and creation of aircraft-rocket power plants.
M.D. attached great importance. Millionaires problem of direct energy conversion. On his initiative, a department of high-temperature installations was created at the Institute of Atomic Energy, which later became the Department of High-Temperature Energy of the Institute of Nuclear Reactors. Mikhail Dmitrievich took an active part in the creation of a branch of the Institute of Atomic Energy in Troitsk, from which the Troitsk Institute of Innovation and Thermonuclear Research was subsequently formed. Since 1967 M.D. Millionshchikov headed the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the complex problem “Methods of direct conversion of thermal energy into electrical energy,” and was the chairman of the MHD conversion section of this council. Work on the creation of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generators, in which he was directly involved, also had important applied significance for the oil industry, the development of which he paid constant attention to. In particular, with the help of MHD generators it is possible to determine the boundary between oil and gas, oil and water in a reservoir, and estimate the thickness of the oil reservoir.
Throughout his life, Mikhail Dmitrievich worked to train and educate highly qualified scientific personnel. At the age of 17, as a 2nd year student, he began his teaching career as a teacher of courses in higher mathematics, theoretical mechanics and drilling theory at the Grozny Petroleum Institute, which now bears his name. Then for many years he taught aerodynamics courses at the Moscow Aviation Institute and the Air Force Engineering Academy. NOT. Zhukovsky, was the chairman of the MAI selection committee in Almaty during the evacuation.
In 1943, Associate Professor Millionshchikov was sent to the newly organized Kuibyshev Aviation Institute, where he taught sections of the aircraft design course at the aircraft engine and aircraft engineering faculties. Returning to Moscow in 1946, Mikhail Dmitrievich continued his teaching career: he led a group of graduate students at TsAGI and taught classes at the Faculty of Physics and Technology of Moscow State University. In 1949, he founded the Department of Isotope Separation at the Moscow Mechanical Institute of Munitions, which later became the Department of Molecular Physics at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (now the National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI”), Mikhail Dmitrievich headed it for more than 20 years.
M.D. Millionshchikov was one of the initiators of the creation of the Department of Applied Nuclear Physics at MEPhI and the Department of Molecular Physics at the Ural Polytechnic Institute (now the Ural State Technical University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin). For the first time in the country, he developed a course of lectures “Turbulent flows of liquid and gas.” Under his scientific supervision, a number of candidate and doctoral dissertations were defended in the councils of MEPhI, IAE, and the Ural Polytechnic University. For several years, he was also chairman of the Section of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the Higher Attestation Commission, a member of the Council for Higher Schools of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the USSR, and chairman of the special section of the Committee on Lenin and State Prizes in the field of science and technology.
Widely known M.D. Millionaires and as an outstanding organizer of science. For more than 10 years he served as vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences and headed many academic councils, committees and commissions. As the first deputy chairman of the Council for Coordinating the Activities of the Academies of Sciences of the Union Republics and Chairman of the Commission on the Prospects for the Development of Science in the RSFSR, Mikhail Dmitrievich made a great contribution to the development of a network of scientific institutions in various regions of the USSR. He was one of the initiators of the creation of the Far Eastern and Ural scientific centers of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the North Caucasus Center for Higher Education, took an active part in organizing a number of institutes both in the “big academy” system and in the academies of sciences of the union republics, and supervised the re-establishment of the Karelian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1965. As a result of the transformations in the structure of the USSR Academy of Sciences that occurred in 1963, new departments in areas of science were formed, united in Sections under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Mikhail Dmitrievich became the first academician-secretary of the Department of Physical and Technical Problems of Energy and Chairman of the Section of Physical, Technical and Mathematical Sciences.
M.D. Millionshchikov did a lot to develop publishing in the academy, improve operational printing and publish academic journals. He provided assistance to the publishing houses of the academies of sciences of the Union republics, and took an active part in the organization and development of the Library of Natural Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences. For a number of years he was chairman of the Editorial, Publishing and Library Councils of the USSR Academy of Sciences, editor-in-chief of the journals “Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR”, “Atomic Energy”, the international yearbook “Science and Humanity”, a member of the main editorial board of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, a member of the first editorial board of the journal "Quantum".
As the first vice-president of the Academy of Sciences, who supervised a number of divisions of the apparatus of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Mikhail Dmitrievich contributed to the improvement of its work, interaction with authorities, and improvement of the material and technical support of academic institutions. Being one of the leading scientists and leaders of Russian science, he actively opposed pseudoscientific theories and pseudo-sensations. In particular, on his initiative, anti-scientific articles on UFOs, the Tunguska meteorite and other “research” that contradicted the classical laws of science were banned from publication in the Nauka publishing house.
Over the years, M.D. Millionshchikov was a member of the Bureau of the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the complex problem of “Thermophysics and Thermal Power Engineering”, a member of the Presidium of the Scientific Council “Study of oceans and seas and the use of their resources” of the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology (SCST), a member of the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences on problems of geology and development of oil and gas fields. At the posts of a member of the State Committee for Science and Technology of the USSR, chairman of the section “Aircraft-rocket nuclear power plants”, member of the Scientific and Technical Council of the Ministry of Medium Engineering of the USSR, chairman of the Commission on Scientific Equipment of the USSR Academy of Sciences M.D. Millionshchikov made a significant contribution to the development of domestic instrument making and the introduction of scientific results into industry.
One of the most important areas of Mikhail Dmitrievich’s activity was the problems and prospects for the development of international scientific cooperation. As one of the leaders of Soviet science, he repeatedly traveled abroad, visiting more than 20 countries. He did a great deal of work to expand relations between the USSR Academy of Sciences and foreign academies and scientific societies, which earned him great respect in the world scientific community.
The activities of M.D. have received great international recognition. Millionshchikov in the Pugwash Movement of Scientists, an international scientific non-governmental organization awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. While serving as chairman of the Soviet Pugwash Committee, he greatly contributed to the establishment of trusting relationships between scientists from the West and the East, which was especially important during the development of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems, in the preparation of which he actively participated. Mikhail Dmitrievich’s role was especially significant in establishing and developing a dialogue between scientists of the USSR and the USA on the most important political issues; this was extremely necessary during the Vietnam War and the invasion of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia - during a period when official relations between the two superpowers practically ceased. A prominent scientist involved in the military fields of science and technology, Mikhail Dmitrievich deeply felt his responsibility to society for the consequences of his scientific activities. He is one of the first Soviet scientists who had the honor of making a plenary report at a session of the UN General Assembly. In his numerous speeches and reports at international forums, there was always a call for the use of scientific achievements exclusively for peaceful purposes. For several years M.D. Millionshchikov was a member of the Academic Council of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, one of the leading scientific centers in the field of disarmament and security, as well as deputy chairman of the Soviet Committee for European Security, and a member of the Presidium of the Soviet Peace Committee.
He treated all his numerous and, it must be said, difficult responsibilities with the utmost responsibility. This also applies to his activities as a deputy of the Moscow City Council, a deputy, and, since 1967, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR. Despite his enormous workload with scientific, administrative and international affairs, he regularly held parliamentary receptions and provided assistance to voters from different regions of the country. Mikhail Dmitrievich’s acquaintances and parliamentary journals stored in the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences speak about this.
With such a lot of work, Mikhail Dmitrievich found time to study problems related to ecology, as well as the preservation of the country’s cultural heritage, when he was deputy chairman of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments and chairman of the specialized Commission of the Soviet Peace Committee. In the government of the country, he personally supported scientific, creative, architectural projects related to the restoration of the cities of the Golden Ring, as well as the revival of natural and cultural tourism in Lake Baikal, the Urals, the Far East and the Caucasus. One of his last reports, made in 1972 at the Pugwash meetings, called on scientists to influence politicians on whom peace and security depend, as well as the conservation of biodiversity on Earth.
Carrying out enormous scientific, organizational, administrative and socio-political work, M.D. Millionshchikov remained an active researcher until the end of his days. He made presentations at major international congresses: gas, oil, mathematics, energy, oceanology, nuclear physics, mechanics and a number of others. In 1967, he headed the All-Union Seminar on Problems of Turbulent Flows, created on the initiative of leading Russian mathematicians and mechanics. Mikhail Dmitrievich was one of the active members of the USSR National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and for several years he was deputy chairman of the National Committee of Soviet Physicists. In the last years of his life, he returned to the problems of turbulence, organizing and heading the Laboratory of Theoretical Turbulence at the Kurchatov Institute. In works 1969–1973. Issues of improving empirical dependencies in turbulence were developed; he created an original phenomenological theory of turbulent flow in smooth and rough pipes of arbitrary cross-section.
For the implementation of particularly important special tasks of the government, which contributed to strengthening the country's defense capability, for his great contribution to the development of science and technology and the training of highly qualified scientific personnel, for the fruitful state, scientific, organizational and social activities of M.D. Millionshchikov was awarded the titles of Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin Prize and twice laureate of the State Prize of the USSR, awarded five Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Red Banner of Labor, the “Badge of Honor”, the Hungarian Order of Labor I degree, Soviet and foreign medals. Mikhail Dmitrievich was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a corresponding member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, and a foreign member of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. He was awarded a gold medal. N. Copernicus of the Polish Academy of Sciences, medal named after. G.V. Leibniz of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, medal named after. M. Drinova of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, gold medal “For services to science and humanity” of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, gold medals of the Italian National Academy of Sciences dei Lincei, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences of Cuba, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, medal of the Krakow (Jagiellonian) University, medals of the United Nations and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), a medal of the US Atomic Energy Commission, a medal named after. S.I. Vavilov of the All-Union Society “Knowledge”.
Mikhail Dmitrievich Millionshchikov died on May 27, 1973 at the age of 60; he was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery, where a monument-tombstone was erected to him. In the same year, the name of academician M.D. Millionshchikov was assigned to the Grozny State Petroleum Technical University, in front of which a high relief of the scientist was installed (destroyed in 1995). In February 2009, the street in Grozny, on which Mikhail Dmitrievich was born and lived until 1934, was renamed Academician M.D. Street. Millionshchikova. Currently, on the site where the Oil Institute was located in Grozny in the late 1920s - early 1930s, the administrative and educational building of the Grozny Petroleum Technical University is being built. Academician M.D. Millionshchikov is a university subordinate directly to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. In memory of M.D. A street in Moscow, a motor ship, an auditorium at the National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” are named after Millionshchikov, a memorial plaque was installed on the main building of the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, a memorial hall with a memorial plaque was opened at the Institute of Nuclear Reactors of the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”. In 1974, the USSR Ministry of Communications issued a postage stamp with a portrait of the scientist. In 1973, a postal envelope dedicated to M.D. was put into circulation. Millionshchikov.
A scholarship has been established at the Grozny Petroleum Technical University. M.D. Millionshchikov for students, at the Trinity Institute of Innovative and Thermonuclear Research - prize named after. M.D. Millionshchikov for the best engineering work. Prize named after M.D. Millionshchikov of the USSR Academy of Sciences has been awarded since 1983.
The centenary of the birth of the famous Grozny resident - academician Mikhail Dmitrievich Millionshchikov - will be widely celebrated in our country. On January 16, a ceremony of laying wreaths and flowers at the grave of M.D. will take place in Moscow. Millionshchikov at the Novodevichy Cemetery and to the memorial plaque installed in memory of the scientist on the main building of the Kurchatov Institute. Scientific conferences dedicated to the 100th anniversary of M.D. will be held in Moscow in February, and in Grozny in April. Millionshchikova. The Russian Academy of Sciences and the Kurchatov Institute have prepared three books about the scientist for publication, which will be published during this year. In January, the State postage sign “Mikhail Dmitrievich Millionshchikov (1913-1973), physicist, public figure” - an artistic marked envelope - was put into circulation.
Professor, Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences of the Chechen Republic I.A. KERIMOV,
Member of the Presidium of the Russian Pugwash Committee under the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences M.A. LEBEDEV.