physicist, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939). Founder and director of the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1945, member of the Special Committee and Technical Council of the Special Committee of the PGU under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1945, 1974). Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1978), twice winner of the USSR State Prize (1941, 1943).
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was born on June 26 (July 9), 1894 in the port and naval fortress of Kronstadt into a noble family. His father, Leonid Kapitsa, is a military engineer, major general of the Russian army, his mother is a teacher, researcher of Russian folklore.
In 1905 he entered the gymnasium. A year later, due to poor performance in Latin, he transferred to the Kronstadt Real School. In 1914 P.L. Kapitsa entered the electromechanical faculty of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. There, an outstanding physicist became his supervisor, who noted the student’s abilities in physics and played an outstanding role in his development as a scientist. In 1916, the first scientific works of P.L. were published in the Journal of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society. Kapitsa “Inertia of electrons in ampere molecular currents” and “Preparation of Wollaston threads”. At the beginning of 1915 P.L. Kapitsa spent several months at the front of the First World War, and, working as an ambulance driver, he carried the wounded on the Polish front.
Due to the turbulent revolutionary events P.L. Kapitsa graduated from the Polytechnic Institute only in 1919. From 1918 to 1921 - teacher at the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute, at the same time worked as a researcher at the physics department of this institute. In 1919-1920 The Spanish flu epidemic killed Kapitsa's father and wife, a 1.5-year-old son, and a three-day-old newborn daughter. In the same 1920, P.L. Kapitsa and the future world-famous physicist and Nobel laureate propose a method for determining the magnetic moment of an atom, based on the interaction of an atomic beam with a non-uniform magnetic field. This scientific work by Kapitsa became the first notable experience in the field of atomic physics.
I believed that a promising young physicist needed to continue his studies at a reputable foreign scientific school, but for a long time it was not possible to organize a trip abroad. Thanks to the intervention of Maxim Gorky in 1921, Kapitsa, as part of a special commission, was sent on a scientific trip to England. Kapitsa secured an internship at the Cavendish Laboratory of the great physicist Ernst Rutherford in Cambridge. At first, the relationship between Rutherford and Kapitsa was not easy, but gradually the Soviet physicist managed to win his trust and they soon became very close friends. The research he carried out in this laboratory in the field of magnetic fields brought P.L. Kapitsa worldwide fame. In 1923, he became a doctor at the University of Cambridge, in 1925 - assistant director for magnetic research at the Cavendish Laboratory, in 1926 - director of the Magnetic Laboratory he created as part of the Cavendish Laboratory. In 1928, he discovered the law of linear, according to the magnitude of the magnetic field, increase in the electrical resistance of metals (Kapitsa's law).
For these and other scientific achievements in 1929 P.L. Kapitsa was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and in the same year - a full member of the Royal Society of London. In April 1934, he produced liquid helium for the first time in the world using an installation he created. This discovery gave a powerful impetus to research in low temperature physics.
Until 1934 P.L. Kapitsa lived with his family in England and regularly came to the USSR on vacation and to see his relatives. The USSR government several times invited him to stay in his homeland, but the scientist invariably refused. In 1934, during one of his visits to the USSR for teaching and advisory work, P.L. Kapitsa was detained in the USSR (he was denied permission to leave). The reason was the fear of the Soviet leadership that he would remain abroad, and the desire to continue his scientific work in the USSR. Kapitsa was initially categorically against this decision, since he had an excellent scientific base in England and wanted to continue research there. In 1934, by a Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences was created, and Kapitsa was temporarily appointed its first director (in 1935 he was confirmed in this position at a session of the USSR Academy of Sciences). He was asked to create a powerful scientific center in the USSR, for which, with the assistance of the Soviet government, all the equipment of his laboratory was delivered to him from England.
In his letters of the late 1930s, P.L. Kapitsa admitted that the opportunities for work in the USSR were inferior to those abroad - this was even despite the fact that he had a scientific institution at his disposal and had virtually no problems with funding. It was depressing that problems that could be solved in England with one phone call were mired in bureaucracy. The scientist’s harsh statements and the exceptional conditions created for him by the authorities did not contribute to establishing mutual understanding with colleagues in the academic environment.
From 1936 to 1938 P.L. Kapitsa developed a method of air liquefaction using a low-pressure cycle and a highly efficient turboexpander, which predetermined the development throughout the world of modern large air separation plants for the production of oxygen, nitrogen and inert gases. In 1940, he made a new fundamental scientific discovery - the superfluidity of liquid helium (when heat transfers from a solid to liquid helium, a temperature jump occurs at the interface, called the Kapitza jump; the magnitude of this jump increases sharply with decreasing temperature).
In January 1939, P.L. Kapitsa was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
During the Great Patriotic War, together with the Institute of Physical Problems P.L. Kapitsa was evacuated to Kazan and returned to Moscow in August 1943. In 1941-1945. he was a member of the Scientific and Technical Council under the Commissioner of the State Defense Committee of the USSR. In 1942 P.L. Kapitsa developed an installation for the production of liquid oxygen, on the basis of which a pilot plant was put into operation in 1943 at the Institute of Physical Problems.
In May 1943, by decree of the State Defense Committee of the USSR, Academician P.L. Kapitsa was appointed head of the Main Directorate of the Oxygen Industry under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (Glavkislorod).
In January 1945, the TK-2000 liquid oxygen production plant in Balashikha with a capacity of 40 tons of liquid oxygen per day (almost 20% of the total liquid oxygen production in the USSR) was put into operation.
For the successful scientific development of a new turbine method for producing oxygen and for the creation of a powerful turbo-oxygen installation for the production of liquid oxygen, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated April 30, 1945, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
Naturally, a world-famous physicist was one of the first to be recruited to work on the USSR atomic project. August 20, 1945 I.V. Stalin signs the Decree on the creation of a body to manage uranium work - the Special Committee under the State Defense Committee of the USSR. By the same decree, a Technical Council of 10 people was created under the Special Committee for the direct management of research... and industrial enterprises for the use of intra-atomic energy of uranium and the production of atomic bombs, which included P.L. Kapitsa. In the Technical Council, he headed the commission for the production of heavy water.
On November 13, 1945, the Technical Council of the Special Committee heard the question: “V. On the organization of research work on the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes (instruction of the Special Committee). At the meeting it was decided: to entrust Comr. Kapitsa P.L. (convocation), Kurchatov I.V., Pervukhin M.G. within a month, prepare and submit for consideration of the Council proposals on the organization (volume, program and participants) of research work on the use of intra-atomic energy for peaceful purposes...” (For a number of reasons, this instruction was not fulfilled. According to the certificate on the progress of the implementation of instructions from the TS, P.L. Kapitsa was supposed to make proposals on the use of industrial waste for peaceful purposes).
However, on November 25, 1945, P.L. Kapitsa sends a letter to I.V. Stalin about the organization of work on the problem of the atomic bomb and with a request for his release from work in the Special Committee and the Technical Council.
“Comrade Stalin, for almost four months I have been sitting and actively participating in the work of the Special Committee and the Technical Council on the Atomic Bomb (A.B.).
In this letter, I decided to report to you in detail my thoughts on the organization of this work with us and also ask you once again to release me from participation in it.
It seems to me that there is a lot of abnormality in the organization of work on A.B. In any case, what is being done now is not the shortest and cheapest way to its creation.
The task before us is this: America, having spent 2 billion dollars, in 3-4 years made AB, which is now the most powerful weapon of war and destruction. If we use the currently known reserves of thorium and uranium, they would be enough to destroy everything on the dry surface of the globe 5-7 times in a row.
But it is stupid and absurd to think that the main use of atomic energy will be its destructive power. Its role in culture will undoubtedly be no less than oil, coal and other energy sources; moreover, its energy reserves in the earth’s crust are greater and it has the unusual advantage that the same energy is concentrated in ten million times less weight than in ordinary flammable A gram of uranium or thorium is equivalent to approximately 10 tons of coal. A gram of uranium is a piece of half a silver dime, and 10 tons is a load of coal for almost an entire platform.
Secret A.B. unknown to us. The secret to key issues is very carefully guarded and is the most important state secret of America alone. While the information received is not sufficient to create an AB, it is often given to us, undoubtedly in order to lead us astray.
To implement AB, the Americans spent 2 billion dollars, which is approximately 30 billion rubles for our industrial products. Almost all of this should be spent on construction and mechanical engineering. During reconstruction and in 2-3 years, we are unlikely to raise this. So we cannot quickly follow the American path, and if we do, we will still fall behind...
Life showed that I could force myself to obey only as Kapitsa, the head of the central administration of the Council of People's Commissars, and not as Kapitsa, a world-famous scientist. Our cultural upbringing is not yet sufficient to place Kapitsa the scientist above Kapitsa the boss. Even a comrade like Beria does not understand this. This is what happens now when solving A.B.’s problem. The opinions of scientists are often taken with skepticism and they do things their own way behind their backs.
A special committee should teach comrades to trust scientists, and this, in turn, will make scientists feel more responsible, but this is not yet the case.
This can only be done if responsibility is placed on the scientists and comrades from the Special Committee in equal measure. And this is possible only when the position of science and the scientist is accepted by everyone as the main force, and not an auxiliary force, as it is now...
Comrades Beria, Malenkov, Voznesensky behave in the Special Committee like supermen. In particular, Comrade Beria...
I would like Comrade. Beria became acquainted with this letter, because it is not a denunciation, but useful criticism. I would tell him everything myself, but seeing him is very troublesome.”
I.V. Stalin decided to withdraw P.L. Kapitsa from the committee, but this conflict with L.P. Beria cost the scientist dearly: in 1946 he was removed from the post of head of the Main Oxygen Department under the Council of Ministers of the USSR and from the post of director of the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The only consolation was that he was not arrested.
Since Kapitsa was deprived of access to secret developments, and almost all the leading scientific and research institutions of the USSR were involved in work on the creation of atomic weapons, he was left without work for some time. In order not to sit idle, P.L. Kapitsa created a home laboratory at a dacha near Moscow, where he studied problems of mechanics, hydrodynamics, high-power electronics and plasma physics.
In 1941-1949. he became a professor and head of the department of general physics at the Faculty of Physics and Technology of Moscow State University, but in January 1950, for his demonstrative refusal to attend ceremonial events in honor of the 70th anniversary of I.V. Stalin was fired from there. In the summer of 1950 P.L. Kapitsa was enrolled as a senior researcher at the Institute of Crystallography of the USSR Academy of Sciences, while at the same time he continued research in his laboratory.
In the summer of 1953, after his arrest, Kapitsa reported on his personal developments and the results obtained to the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It was decided to continue research and in August 1953 P.L. Kapitsa was appointed director of the Physics Laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which was created at the same time. In 1955, he was reappointed director of the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences (he headed it until the end of his life), as well as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics. The academician worked in these positions until the end of his life.
At the same time, since 1956, P.L. Kapitsa headed the department of low temperature physics and technology and was the chairman of the Coordination Council of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He led fundamental work in the field of low temperature physics, strong magnetic fields, high power electronics, and plasma physics. Author of fundamental scientific works on this topic, published many times in the USSR and many countries around the world.
For outstanding achievements in the field of physics, many years of scientific and teaching activity, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 8, 1974, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was awarded the second gold medal “Hammer and Sickle” with the Order of Lenin.
In recent years, P.L. Kapitsa became interested in controlled thermonuclear reactions. In 1978, academician Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics “for fundamental inventions and discoveries in the field of low-temperature physics.” The academician received the news of the award while on vacation at the Barvikha sanatorium. Kapitsa, contrary to tradition, dedicated his Nobel speech not to the works that were awarded the prize, but to modern research. Kapitsa referred to the fact that he moved away from questions in the field of low-temperature physics about 30 years ago and is now fascinated by other ideas. The Nobel laureate's speech was entitled “Plasma and controlled thermonuclear reaction.”
During difficult periods in the history of the Motherland, P.L. Kapitsa always showed civic courage and integrity. Thus, during the period of mass repressions of the late 1930s, he achieved the release under personal guarantee of future academicians and world-famous scientists V.A. Foka and . In the 1950s, he actively opposed the anti-scientific activities of T.D. Lysenko, having entered into conflict with N.S., who supported the latter. Khrushchev. In the 1970s, P.L. Kapitsa refused to sign a letter condemning the academician, and at the same time he also made calls to take measures to improve the safety of nuclear power plants (10 years before the Chernobyl accident).
P.L. Kapitsa is the laureate of two Stalin Prizes of the 1st degree (1941 - for the development of a turboexpander for obtaining low temperatures and its use for air liquefaction, 1943 - for the discovery and research of the phenomenon of superfluidity of liquid helium). Big gold medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences named after M.V. Lomonosov (1959).
The scientist received worldwide recognition during his lifetime, being elected a member of many academies and scientific societies. In particular, he was elected a member of the International Academy of Astronautics (1964), the International Academy of the History of Science (1971), a foreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences (1946), the Polish Academy of Sciences (1962), the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( 1966), Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (1969), Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Yugoslavia, 1971), Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1980), Physical Society of Great Britain (1932), member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston (USA, 1968), Physical Society of the USA (1937), etc. P.L. Kapitsa is an honorary doctor of 10 universities, a full member of 6 scientific institutes.
P.L. Kapitsa was awarded six Orders of Lenin (1943, 1944, 1945, 1964, 1971, 1974), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1954), medals, the Order of the Partisan Star (Yugoslavia) , 1964).
P.L. Kapitsa died on April 8, 1984. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.
P.L. There is a bronze bust of Kapitsa in the Soviet Park of Kronstadt. There, in Kronstadt, on the facade of school building No. 425 on Uritsky Street, building No. 7/1, there is a memorial plaque made of red granite, on which is carved: “In this building, a former real school, Pyotr Leonidovich studied in 1907-1912 Kapitsa, an outstanding Soviet physicist, academician, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, Nobel Prize laureate.” Memorial plaques were also installed in St. Petersburg on the building of the Polytechnic University and in Moscow on the building of the Institute of Physical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he worked. The Russian Academy of Sciences established the Gold Medal named after P.L. Kapitsa (1994).
Literature
Kapitsa, Tamm, Semenov: in essays and letters.
M.: Vagrius, Priroda, 1998. - 575 p., ill.
In the USSR, the name of academician Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was well known, who received two Stalin Prizes one after another (1941 and 1943), was twice awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (1945 and 1974), a Nobel Prize laureate (1978), almost permanently (since 1934). until his death in 1984, with the exception of a ten-year break in 1946-1955) director of the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences, awarded many orders (he had six Orders of Lenin alone). If you do not pay attention to the break in the leadership of the institute (its reasons were not explained in Soviet literature and reference publications), Kapitsa appeared as a high-ranking figure of the scientific establishment, favored by the authorities under all the communist rulers: Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev.
And only from the late 80s did documents and memoirs begin to appear in the press, indicating that the scientist’s relationship with the Soviet rulers was by no means so cloudless, that he actively and courageously used his unique position as a brilliant physicist, whose research was urgently needed by the military. industrial complex, to protect their colleagues from the repressive machine, to criticize the evils of the system. Kapitsa was far from dissident. He did not, like A.D. Sakharov, openly challenge totalitarianism. His style was different: he combined courage and directness when it came to people of science arrested by the authorities, with pragmatism in relations with the authorities.
Our story, however, will be devoted to one, relatively short period in the life of a scientist - when he, having arrived in the USSR for a congress in 1934, was deprived of the opportunity to return to his laboratory. There are only mentions of this episode in Kapitsa’s life in the literature, although it was reflected in correspondence published in the West (see: “Kapitsa in Cambridge and Moscow: Life and Letters of a Russian Physicist”, Amsterdam, 1990).
In 1995, the magazine "Vestnik" published a bright article by Moses Kaganov with memories of P.L. Kapitsa and his institute and a selection of testimonies of people who knew the scientist closely (#15, pp. 41-51). But even in these materials, except for the monosyllabic mention of M. Kaganov, nothing is said about how, in fact, Pyotr Leonidovich was forced to stay in the USSR in 1934.
P.L. Kapitsa was born on July 9, 1894 in the family of a military engineer, colonel, and then a general of the Russian army (his father’s military titles were hidden in Soviet publications). Peter graduated from the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute in 1919, showing already in his student years the qualities of an outstanding scientist. In 1921 he managed to go abroad.
While in Great Britain, he turned to the famous physicist Ernest Rutherford with a request to accept him for an internship at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. Rutherford initially refused, since the laboratory, according to him, was overcrowded with employees (there are already about 30 people). Then Kapitsa asked the master what accuracy he strives for in his experiments. “A 2-3 percent error is acceptable,” Rutherford replied. “In this case,” said Peter, “one extra researcher will not be noticeable; he will be absorbed by the permissible inaccuracy of the experiment.” The young scientist’s witty remark and relaxed manner, combined with his quite decent English, captivated Rutherford, so Kapitsa became his employee. Kapitsa often recalled this episode, but Rutherford forgot it. When the venerable scientist was asked what made him accept Kapitsa, he answered: “I don’t remember what exactly, but I’m very glad that I did it.”
Kapitsa worked in Cambridge for 13 years. Here he carried out a series of fundamental research, for which he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1923. The young experimenter founded a scientific seminar in Cambridge in 1922, later called the Kapitsa Club. In 1925, he became deputy director of the Cavendish Laboratory, in 1926 he headed his own Magnetic Laboratory, and in 1930 he began construction of a powerful laboratory with funds bequeathed by the chemist and industrialist Ludwig Mond. This laboratory was inaugurated on February 3, 1933. On behalf of the University of Cambridge, it was “accepted” by the University Chancellor, the leader of the Conservative Party, Stanley Baldwin, who repeatedly served as Prime Minister.
Since 1926, Kapitsa often came to the USSR and returned to England without hindrance. In the Kremlin, he was considered a Soviet scientist who was on a “long trip abroad.” In 1929, Kapitsa was elected a full member of the Royal Society of London (this title is equivalent to an academic one in other countries). In the same year, he became a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, as well as a consultant at the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology (UPTI) in Kharkov (it was at this institute that A.K. Walter, A.I. Leipunsky and K.D. Sinelnikov in 1935 -1936 a linear electron accelerator was created and the first experimental splitting of an atomic nucleus was carried out). In the fall of 1929, having arrived in the USSR once again, Kapitsa spent about two weeks in Kharkov, where he lectured and gave consultations at the UPTI. In 1932 and 1933 he again visited Moscow, Leningrad and Kharkov, after which he returned to Cambridge.
Nothing foreshadowed a thunderstorm when, on September 1, 1934, Pyotr Leonidovich again came to the USSR together with his wife Anna Alekseevna, the daughter of the famous academician, mathematician and mechanic A.N. Krylov, to participate in the Mendeleev Congress. British friends warned Peter that his exceptional position could not continue indefinitely. But the scientist did not heed these words.
This time, the scientist’s every move was monitored by NKVD officers, who reported Kapitsa’s real and fictitious “anti-Soviet” statements to their superiors. There were also many informers among scientists. It should be noted that Kapitsa loved jokes, pranks, and, in short, making an impression. When he was once asked to give his home address, he replied: “England, Kapitsa.” Another time (in 1931), Kapitsa introduced the prominent Bolshevik figure N.I. Bukharin, who visited him in Cambridge, as “Comrade Bukharin.”
It is quite understandable that even completely innocent jokes from the point of view of common sense were classified by the NKVD in reports to the party leadership as dangerous counter-revolutionary agitation.
Kapitsa's personality became the center of attention of Kremlin leaders. A special government commission was even formed (secretly, of course), which was to decide his fate. On September 16, this commission, chaired by V.V. Kuibyshev, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, made a decision: “Based on the considerations that Kapitsa provides significant services to the British, informing them about the situation in science in the USSR, and also that he provides major services to English companies, including the military, by selling them his patents and working on their orders, to prohibit P.L. Kapitsa from leaving the USSR.” As we can see, the resolution essentially paid tribute to Kapitsa’s scientific potential, and at the same time there was not a word about his “anti-Sovietism.” The latter was kept in reserve, in case it was “necessary” to exert force on the scientist.
The USSR government instructed the Deputy People's Commissar of Heavy Industry G.L. Pyatakov (formerly a member of the united opposition of Trotsky and Zinoviev, and now a zealous Stalinist sycophant, which did not save him from execution in 1938) to inform Kapitsa about the decision and enter into negotiations with him about the conditions of his work in the USSR. On September 21, Kapitsa came to Moscow to meet with the Deputy People's Commissar, who hypocritically invited him to “consider the proposal” to stay in the USSR and get involved in scientific activities “for the benefit of socialist construction.” Kapitsa rejected the offer, saying that he had an interesting scientific work, an excellently equipped laboratory, the necessary staff of scientists, and that he was well-off financially. Pyatakov tried to send Kapitsa to a higher authority - to V.I. Mezhlauk, deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and chairman of the State Planning Committee (the chairman of the government was V.M. Molotov). Kapitsa, however, did not go to Mezhlauk and returned to Leningrad that same evening.
But the hope that he would be left alone was in vain. Immediately upon his arrival in Leningrad, Kapitsa received a telegram about a summons to Mezhlauk. The scientist simply did not pay attention to her. However, threatening phone calls followed from the secretariat of the deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. As a result, on September 25, Kapitsa, again interrupting his participation in the Mendeleev Congress, came to Moscow. This time they tried to make him understand that he was only a small fry compared to the government bigwigs: for two days, Molotov’s deputy “was busy” and did not receive Kapitsa, and only on the third day “found time” for a conversation with the scientist. This meeting did not produce any practical results. Kapitsa again expressed his desire to return to work in Cambridge. Mezhlauk stated that the USSR government considered the scientist’s departure abroad “undesirable,” but agreed to a trip to the UK for his wife and two young sons - 6-year-old Sergei and 3-year-old Andrei (now both of them are famous scientists: S.P. Kapitsa is a physicist, and A.P. Kapitsa is a geographer).
Only gradually and not yet completely did P.L. Kapitsa begin to realize the realities of the totalitarian system. The scientist found himself in a trap. At times he fell into despair. Sexots reported his words: “You can force me to dig canals, build fortresses, you can take my body, but no one will take my spirit. And if they mock me, I will quickly commit suicide in any way, I would rather put a bullet in my forehead ".
The attacks of despair, however, quickly passed. Kapitsa decided to turn to Rutherford and other major scientists, in particular, Paul Langevin and Albert Einstein, with a request to appear in the press demanding that he be given the opportunity to leave the USSR. This attempt did not produce significant results. The pro-Soviet Langevin simply did not want to do anything to spite the “Kremlin highlander.” As for Einstein, shortly before this, in 1933, he emigrated from Germany to the USA, saw in the USSR a powerful force capable of resisting Hitlerism and, although he was very critical of the Bolshevik experiment, did not want to be involved in even the slightest degree into an action that could be interpreted as anti-Soviet.
True, Rutherford, informed by Anna Kapitsa about what had happened, addressed a restrained, British-style protest to the Soviet plenipotentiary in Great Britain I.M. Maisky. Maisky, a former Menshevik who was now doing his best to curry favor with Stalin, responded much belatedly with a demagogic letter with the following content: “The system in force in the Soviet Union is that the Soviet government plans not only the economy of the country, but also the distribution of labor resources, including the distribution of scientific workers. As long as our scientific institutions could solve the tasks assigned to them with the help of available scientific workers, the Soviet government did not raise any objections to the work of Mr. Kapitsa at Cambridge. Now, however, as a result of the extraordinary development of the national economy of the USSR, associated With the accelerated completion of the First and vigorous implementation of the Second Five-Year Plan, the available number of scientific workers is not enough, and in these conditions the Soviet government considered it necessary to use for scientific activities within the country all those scientists - Soviet citizens who had hitherto worked abroad. Mr. Kapitsa falls into this category. Now he has been offered an extremely responsible job in the Soviet Union in his specialty, which will allow him to fully develop his abilities as a scientist and citizen of his country."
From the letter one could conclude that Kapitsa had come to terms with his fate. But this was far from the case. Despite the failure with international intervention, Pyotr Leonidovich found it possible to use internal leverage to break free. In his opinion, a group of Soviet academicians could turn to N.I. Bukharin, K.E. Voroshilov and M. Gorky “to organize a broad campaign” in his defense. Moreover, sexots reported that the scientist was trying to find out “where Comrade Stalin was - in Moscow or on vacation (Stalin usually vacationed in the south in the fall, and this was widely known - G.Ch.) - and to inform him about what happened."
It must be said that Kapitsa’s ups and downs aroused sympathy from some prominent Russian scientists. The secret report of the NKVD noted statements in support of Kapitsa by academicians V.I. Vernadsky, A.N. Krylov, A.F. Ioffe, N.N. Semenov, I.P. Pavlov, F.I. Shcherbatsky, A.E. Favorsky with an expression of sympathy. Vernadsky, for example, stated: “If the government’s decision not to allow entry into England is not canceled, an international scandal will occur. The English Royal Society, of which Kapitsa is a member, will take all measures to return Kapitsa. Science is international, and no one should be prohibited work where he wants and on topics he finds interesting." “You cannot create by order. Kapitsa will refuse to create,” said Favorsky. The mood of the academicians was summed up in the following way by the NKVD certificate: they “generally spoke out against the decision made regarding Kapitsa, and consider such a forcible separation of Kapitsa from his two children living in England, receiving education there, and the destruction of his well-equipped laboratory, unacceptable.”
But the only one who tried to move from words to action was Kapitsa’s father-in-law, Academician Krylov. He turned to the President of the Academy of Sciences A.P. Karpinsky with a request to specially come to Moscow to the Chairman of the USSR Central Executive Committee M.I. Kalinin so that he would help Kapitsa return to Cambridge. Alas, 88-year-old Karpinsky rejected Krylov’s request.
At the very height of this story, on September 26, 1934, the Izvestia newspaper (its editor was N.I. Bukharin) published an article by Kapitsa, provided long before and lying in his briefcase, about the problem of obtaining liquid helium and about joint work with UPTI scientists in this direction. The publication of the article created the appearance that the author’s position was stable and did not cause concern.
At the same time, the NKVD, through its agents, began to spread rumors that Kapitsa was working for British intelligence and was even collecting espionage data about the situation in the Far East, the capacity of the Siberian Railway, border fortifications, aircraft construction, etc., for transmission to the British. Against the background of these rumors, Pyatakov in a conversation with Academician Semenov, whose friendship with Kapitsa was known, he uttered words that sounded like a direct threat of arrest: “If rumors about Kapitsa’s secret work reach the GPU (the GPU no longer existed, but this abbreviation continued to be widely used in a very sinister sense - G.Ch.), this could cause severe reprisals against Kapitsa.”
Political, psychological and moral pressure eventually yielded results. Kapitsa began to be inclined to resume work in the USSR. Academicians Krylov and Semenov, who had an excellent understanding of Soviet realities, convinced him of the need to begin scientific work, but at the same time demanding decent conditions - this was the only possible way out of this situation. Kapitsa was an experimental scientist whose work required complex, expensive equipment developed under his direct supervision, located in the Mondov Laboratory in Cambridge. He was very skeptical about the possibility of transferring laboratory equipment to the USSR.
True, he resorted to some cunning - he began to tell his colleagues that he was ready to transfer his work to the USSR, but for this, they say, he needed to go to England for six months to “liquidate matters with Rutherford.” Of course, nothing came of this plan. N.N. Semenov addressed government agencies several times, explaining that Kapitsa could truly achieve major scientific achievements only if a special laboratory was organized for him. In the end, Semenov was “recommended,” as stated in a secret report from the NKVD, to leave Kapitsa alone and wait until he himself applied to the relevant Soviet institutions with a request to create a laboratory for him. The authorities wanted the surrender to be complete and public...
Letters to his wife in England testified to the scientist’s state of mind. One of them said: “...Life is amazingly empty for me now. Other times my fists clench, and I’m ready to tear my hair out and rage. With my instruments, on my ideas in my laboratory, others live and work, but "I'm sitting here alone, and I don't understand why this is needed. Sometimes it seems to me that I'm going crazy."
Still, the authorities did not wait for Kapitsa’s complete capitulation, and they decided to make a minor compromise. On October 31, the scientist was given a letter from V.I. Mezhlauk, in which the deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars asked Kapitsa to submit his proposals for scientific work in the USSR by November 3. In a reply letter, Kapitsa explained to the Bolshevik official that his work at Cambridge related to extremely technically complex areas of modern physics, that his laboratory was equipped with “the only and original instruments” manufactured by British industrial enterprises, which “willingly took on individual problems.” He stated that in the USSR he did not see an opportunity for himself to take responsibility “for organizing scientific research similar to those on which he worked at Cambridge.” Therefore, he decided to change the field of scientific research, taking up the problems of biophysics together with I.P. Pavlov.
In early November, Kapitsa came to Moscow for negotiations on the conditions of his work in the USSR. Negotiations dragged on. Time and again he had to explain to officials that without his laboratory, without reliable employees selected by him, without proven technology, he was not able to carry out fundamental research, and that it was impossible to expect direct “introduction into production” of the results of his research.
Perhaps all this red tape would have continued for a long time. However, Stalin intervened in the matter, who obviously realized that “the game is worth the candle.” In any case, in the twenties of December, things finally moved forward. On December 22, the question of Kapitsa was raised at the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The adopted resolution provided for the creation of the academic Institute of Physical Problems in Moscow, the approval of Kapitsa as the director of this institute, and the completion of the construction of institute buildings with laboratories equipped with the most modern equipment by September 1935. Kapitsa was given the right to staff the institute himself with qualified personnel and manage the allocated financial resources without the control of higher authorities. The resolution provided for the creation of the most favorable material conditions for Kapitsa, in particular - an apartment in the center of Moscow with 5-7 rooms, a dacha in Crimea and a personal car. So the iron cage in which the scientist found himself began to turn into gold.
The next day, December 23, 1934, the government’s decision to create the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences was published. Kapitsa was immediately transferred from the abandoned Novomoskovskaya Hotel to the prestigious Metropol, where he was given a luxury room.
The transformation of P.L. Kapitsa into a “persona grata” did not at all mean an immediate overcoming of bureaucratic slingshots in dealing with scientists. On March 11, 1935, he wrote to his wife in England: “No one here can believe that all I want is just a good, trusting attitude towards myself. No one can believe that I really want to help organize science. Tragedy my position, that [it’s been] three months since I want to make people understand what I want, and I still have an incredulous and condescending attitude toward me. I feel like some kind of Don Quixote. I stand up for some kind of Dulcinea Science, and everyone makes fun of me."
Nevertheless, the strong will, organizational skills, enormous authority of the scientist, coupled with the invisible, but felt, patronizing attitude of the Soviet dictator gradually led to the necessary results. At the insistence of Kapitsa, the Soviet embassy in London entered into negotiations with the Royal Society on the purchase and transportation of equipment from the Mondov laboratory to the USSR.
The first foreign report about the detention of Kapitsa in the USSR appeared in the Russian newspaper "Last News" (Paris) on March 9, 1935. The newspaper expressed the opinion that the Bolsheviks captured Kapitsa as a hostage for the defector Gamow. The Western public apparently found this version not convincing enough, and for the next month and a half the press remained silent on this matter.
The storm erupted when the London News Chronicle published a conversation with Rutherford in its morning edition on April 24 under the headline “Cambridge Shocked by Soviets.” “Kapitsa is a brilliant worker,” said “Crocodile,” as the great scientist was called by friends and students, “and he would undoubtedly carry out a number of wonderful experiments here in the next year or two.” In the evening editions of 70 UK newspapers published responses to the conversation that day. "Russia detained him; end of Cambridge studies," wrote the Star. On April 25, comments appeared throughout the Western press under the headings “Russia detains a professor; England loses a great scientist,” “Disappeared professor,” “Loss for science at Cambridge,” etc. On April 26, Rutherford sent a letter to the London Times, published on April 29 under the title "Detention in Russia. Shock for the scientific world." Rutherford wrote that the report of the arrest indicated a violation of personal freedom. The Soviet authorities "requisitioned" Kapitsa's services without any prior notice. His student and friend was deeply shocked by the collapse of his work, his health was seriously undermined. “From the point of view of world science as a whole, it will be a great misfortune if, due to a lack of responsiveness or misunderstanding, conditions arise in which Kapitsa cannot give the world what he is capable of.” A group of leading American scientists appealed to the Soviet plenipotentiary representative in the United States, Troyanovsky, with a protest.
At the same time, it was Rutherford’s statement about the internationality of science that formed the basis for the decision of the Senate of Cambridge University on November 30, 1935, adopted at Rutherford’s proposal, to agree to the sale of the USSR for the Kapitsa Institute (this is exactly what was said in the decision, the official name of the institute was ignored ) scientific equipment of the Mondov laboratory. At the very end of 1935, the equipment arrived in the USSR, and at the beginning of 1936, the construction of the Institute of Physical Problems was completed.
Kapitsa took full advantage of his right to staff the institute with scientific staff and freely dispose of the funds provided. There was even a kind of microscopic labor market at the institute, with positive results flowing from it. Somehow, shortly after the completion of construction, Kapitsa, extremely busy with research and scientific-organizational affairs, accidentally looked out of the window at the extremely cluttered courtyard. "How many janitors do we have?" - he asked the secretary. “Three,” came the answer. “Immediately fire two, and give the remaining one triple salary,” the director ordered. The next morning the yard sparkled clean...
Kapitsa was forced to come to terms with being in a “golden cage”. In January 1936, his wife and sons returned from Great Britain. Fundamental discoveries of the scientist followed - he developed a new method of air liquefaction, which predetermined the development throughout the world of large installations for the production of oxygen, nitrogen and inert gases, established a temperature jump (the “Kapitsa jump”) during the transition of heat from a solid to liquid helium, and discovered superfluidity liquid helium, etc.
At the same time, the unique position of a brilliant physicist and organizer of science, whose works were widely used in Soviet defense technology (although, as Kapitsa noted, much less effectively than would have been possible without bureaucratic delays and party interference), allowed him to preserve the relative (we emphasize - a very relative) independent position and speak out in defense of scientists who have been attacked and arrested.
Already in 1936, he addressed a letter to Molotov in support of the mathematician, academician N.N. Luzin, whom Pravda declared “an enemy in a Soviet mask.” The letter was returned with the resolution “It is unnecessary to return Mr. Kapitsa. V. Molotov,” but they did not dare to arrest Luzin. In February 1937, Kapitsa spoke out in defense of the arrested physicist V.A. Fok, who was soon released and two years later elected academician. In April 1938, Kapitsa stood up for the arrested head of the theoretical department of his institute, L.D. Landau. This time, the troubles continued for a whole year - it was not easy for the director to achieve the release of the scientist who compared the Stalinist dictatorship with the power of Hitler. But in the end, Kapitsa achieved his goal - Landau was released on his personal guarantee.
During the war, P.L. Kapitsa was a member of the Scientific and Technical Council under the State Defense Committee and the head of the Main Directorate of the Oxygen Industry under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. Occupying such impressive bureaucratic posts, the scientist never betrayed himself. He wrote to Stalin, defending “idealists,” protested against administrative interference in science, and ridiculed statements like “if you are not a materialist in physics, you are an enemy of the people.” Regarding Pravda’s refusal to print one of his notes in strict accordance with the author’s edition, he even dared to write to Stalin that Pravda was a boring newspaper, to which the “best friend of scientists” replied: “Of course, you are right, not Pravda.” "".
After atomic weapons were created in the United States and then used for military purposes, on August 20, 1945, a Special Committee was formed in the USSR to manage “all work on the use of intra-atomic energy of uranium.” L.P. Beria became the chairman, and among the physicists only I.V. Kurchatov and P.L. Kapitsa were included. But clashes between Kapitsa and Beria immediately began. Twice, on October 3 and November 25, 1945, Kapitsa addressed letters to Stalin, pointing out that the incompetent intervention of an omnipotent person only hindered scientific developments. This time, however, Stalin took the side of his minion, and Kapitsa was removed from the committee.
Thus began the period of disgrace for the academician (he was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1939). True, the cunning Stalin, realizing Kapitsa’s enormous scientific potential, even at this time maintained the appearance of patronage. On April 4, 1946, he writes to Kapitsa: “I received all your letters. There are a lot of instructive things in the letters, I’m thinking of meeting you someday and talking about them.”
In August 1946, Stalin signed a decree removing Kapitsa from all posts. From that time on, the scientist lived near Moscow, on Nikolina Gora, where he organized a home laboratory (remembering his directorship, he called it “a hut of physical problems”). As it now turns out, in the mid-30s, Kapitsa underestimated his strength - and in a makeshift laboratory, using equipment made by himself or friends, he conducted research in the field of mechanics and hydrodynamics, developed a new type of generator, and discovered a plasma cord in dense gases during high-frequency discharge. In December 1949, when “all progressive humanity” was singing praises on the occasion of Stalin’s 70th birthday, Kapitsa ignored the anniversary events. A month later, another revenge followed - he was expelled from his professorship at Moscow University.
Only after the death of the bloody dictator and the arrest of Beria, Kapitsa’s position in the scientific world and society was restored. In August 1953, the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences adopted a resolution to assist P.L. Kapitsa in his work, and in January 1955, after a meeting with N.S. Khrushchev, he again became director of the Institute of Physical Problems.
But Kapitsa continued to write and tell the rulers what he really thought. He warmly congratulated A.I. Solzhenitsyn on being awarded the Nobel Prize, but refused to join the shameful letter from academicians “condemning” A.D. Sakharov. “Save Sakharov. He is a great scientist of our country,” wrote Pyotr Leonidovich Brezhnev in 1981. Kapitsa also spoke out in support of dissident Vadim Delaunay. Among a group of cultural and scientific figures, he protested in 1966 against the process of gradual rehabilitation of Stalin, and his letter to Brezhnev undoubtedly had a certain influence, although the creeping, indirect justification of Stalinism occurred until Gorbachev’s “perestroika”.
Yes, it was possible to build a “golden cage” for Kapitsa, but it was impossible to make him an “obedient cog” of the system, to force him to work in shackles. A man with a capital M and a brilliant scientist, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa died in 1984, three months short of his ninetieth birthday.
“Life is an incomprehensible thing. I think people will never be able to understand human destiny, especially one as complex as mine.”
P. L. Kapitsa
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was born in Kronstadt on July 9, 1894 in the family of the Tsarist general, military engineer Leonid Kapitsa. His mother, Olga Ieronimovna Stebnitskaya, worked as a philologist and wrote children's books, and her father, Peter's grandfather - Jerome Ivanovich Stebnitsky - was a famous military cartographer and surveyor, an infantry general. The future scientist also had a brother, named Leonid after his father.
In 1905, eleven-year-old Kapitsa was enrolled in a gymnasium, but a year later, due to problems with Latin, he left it and continued his studies at the Kronstadt Real School. Peter graduated with honors in 1912, after which he wished to enter St. Petersburg University. However, “realists” were not accepted there, and Kapitsa eventually ended up at the electromechanical department of the Polytechnic Institute. His physics teacher turned out to be the outstanding Russian scientist Abram Fedorovich Ioffe. He is rightly called the “father of Soviet physics”; at various times, Nobel laureate Nikolai Semenov, the creator of the atomic bomb Igor Kurchatov, physical chemist Yuli Khariton, and experimental physicist Alexander Leypunsky studied with him.
Already at the beginning of his studies, Ioffe drew attention to Pyotr Leonidovich and attracted him to studies in his laboratory. During the summer holidays of 1914, Kapitsa went to Scotland to study English. But in August the First World War broke out, and Kapitsa managed to return home only in mid-autumn. At the beginning of 1915, he volunteered to go to the front, where he worked as a driver of an ambulance, part of the medical detachment of the All-Russian Union of Cities. His work was by no means calm; the detachment often found itself in shelling zones.
Having been demobilized in 1916, Pyotr Leonidovich returned to his native institute. Ioffe immediately attracted him to experimental work in the physics laboratory he directed, and also obliged him to participate in his seminars - the first physics seminars in Russia. In the same year, the scientist married the daughter of a member of the Cadet Party, Nadezhda Kirillovna Chernosvitova. It is known that he even had to go to China for her, where she went with her parents. From this marriage Kapitsa had two children - son Jerome and daughter Nadezhda.
Pyotr Leonidovich published his first works in 1916, while a third-year student. In September 1919, he successfully defended his thesis and was retained at the Polytechnic Institute as a teacher in the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics. In addition, at the invitation of Ioffe, since the fall of 1918, he was an employee of the X-ray and Radiological Institute, which was reorganized at the end of 1921 into the Physico-Technical Institute.
During this harsh time, Pyotr Leonidovich became close to his classmate Nikolai Semenov. In 1920, under the leadership of Abram Fedorovich, young scientists developed a unique technique for measuring the magnetic moments of atoms in inhomogeneous magnetic fields. At that time, no one knew about the works of Soviet physicists, but in 1921 a similar experiment was repeated by the Germans Otto Stern and Walter Gerlach. This famous and later classic experiment remained under the name Stern-Gerlach.
In 1919, Kapitsa's father-in-law was arrested by the Cheka and executed. And in the winter of 1919-1920, during the Spanish flu epidemic, a young scientist lost his wife, father, two-year-old son and newborn daughter in eighteen days. It is known that in those days Kapitsa wanted to commit suicide, but his comrades kept him from this act. However, Pyotr Leonidovich could not become the same and return to normal life - he walked around the institute like a shadow. At the same time, Abram Fedorovich turned to the Soviet authorities with a request to allow his students to go on an internship to leading English laboratories. The then influential Russian writer Maxim Gorky intervened in the matter, and as a result, Joffe’s letter was signed.
In 1921, Kapitsa, as a representative of the Russian Academy, went to Western Europe in order to restore former scientific ties. The Soviet scientist was not given permission to enter for a long time - Europe was fencing off in every possible way from the Bolshevik infection. In the end, entry was allowed, and on May 22 the young scientist arrived in England. However, here he encountered another problem - they did not want to let him into Rutherford’s laboratory, where he was sent for an internship. Ernest Rutherford himself bluntly stated that his workers were engaged in science, not in preparing a revolution, and Kapitsa had nothing to do here. All the Russian’s persuasion that he came for the sake of science had no effect on the British physicist of New Zealand origin. Then, according to one version, Pyotr Leonidovich asked Rutherford the following question: “What is the accuracy of your experiments?” The Englishman, surprised, said that somewhere around ten percent, and then Kapitsa said the following phrase: “So, with the number of employees in your laboratory being thirty people, you will not notice me.” After cursing, Rutherford agreed to accept the “impudent Russian” for a probationary period.
From a young age in Kapitsa, there was an engineer, a physicist and a master “golden hands” in one person. The Russian scientist's engineering acumen and experimental skill impressed Rutherford so much that he personally secured special subsidies for his work. A year later, Pyotr Leonidovich became the favorite student of the “father” of nuclear physics, remaining so until his death. Throughout their lives, the two legendary scientists maintained close human and scientific relations with each other, as evidenced by their numerous messages to each other.
The topic of Kapitsa’s doctoral dissertation was “Methods for producing magnetic fields and the passage of alpha particles through matter.” In 1923, having brilliantly defended it at Cambridge, he became a Doctor of Science, incidentally achieving the prestigious James Maxwell Fellowship. And in 1924, the Russian genius was appointed deputy director of the Cavendish Laboratory for magnetic research. His scientific authority grew rapidly. Rutherford, not given to praise, called Kapitsa “an experimenter from God.” The scientist was often invited by British companies to advise them.
However, Pyotr Leonidovich still paid his main attention to work at the Cavendish Laboratory. To study the processes of radioactive decay, he needed to create powerful magnetic fields. Kapitsa's experimental installation produced magnetic fields that were record-breaking for those years, exceeding all previous ones by six thousand times. As Landau put it, this made the Russian scientist a “magnetic world champion.” The physicist himself liked to repeat: “A good engineer must be 25 percent an artist. Cars cannot be designed, they must be drawn.”
In 1925, Pyotr Leonidovich became a member of the local Trinity College, where many members of the royal family studied, and in 1929 he was elected a full member of the Royal Society of London. His teacher Ioffe nominated Kapitsa as a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1929, which was later supported by other Soviet scientists. Also in 1931, Kapitsa was elected a member of the French Physical Society. By this time, Pyotr Leonidovich had developed warm and trusting relationships with many outstanding scientists.
The situation in Cambridge radically changed Kapitsa's condition and mood. At first he plunged headlong into scientific work, and then gradually returned completely to normal life. He studied English literature and history, bought a plot of land on Huntington Road and began building a house there to his own design. Subsequently, the scientist organized the so-called “Kapitsa Club” - seminars for the scientific community of the University of Cambridge, held once a week in Rutherford’s laboratory. At these meetings, a variety of issues regarding the development of sciences, literature and art were discussed. These meetings quickly gained wild popularity in England; they were attended by the most eminent English persons. And virtually all the “whales” of world science attended the discussion of physics issues - Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac and many others.
In England, an unpleasant story happened to Kapitsa. The young scientist bought himself a motorcycle, which he rode at breakneck speed. One day he lost control, flew off his motorcycle, rolled into a ditch and only miraculously survived. However, he badly injured his right leg and walked with a cane for the rest of his life.
Already in the mid-twenties, the experimental installations of the two great scientists became crowded in one laboratory, and Ernest Rutherford convinced the British government to begin construction of a new huge complex for conducting physical experiments on ultra-high magnetic fields. In November 1930, the Council of the Royal Society, from money bequeathed by the industrialist and chemist Ludwig Mond, allocated fifteen thousand pounds to build new research facilities in Cambridge. The opening of the laboratory, called Mondovskaya, took place on February 3, 1933. The former Prime Minister of the country, Chancellor of the University Stanley Baldwin said: “We are glad that Professor Kapitsa is working as our laboratory director. We are firmly convinced that under his leadership it will make a huge contribution to the understanding of natural processes.”
At the same time, Kapitsa’s friends tried to arrange his personal life. However, the scientist himself categorically refused any serious relationship, continuing to demonstrate amazing successes in science. However, one fine day in 1926, Alexei Nikolaevich Krylov, the famous Russian shipbuilder and mathematician, came to Cambridge. Together with him was his daughter, Anna Alekseevna, who lived with her mother in Paris. Anna Alekseevna herself recalled: “Petya put me in the car, and we drove to museums all over England. We were always on the road together and, generally speaking, I expected some personal confessions from him... Day after day passed, but nothing changed. Without saying anything personal, Petya came to the station to see us off. However, a day later he appeared with us in Paris, again put me in the car, and the endless displays of now French sights began again. And I realized that this man would NEVER ask me to become his wife. I should have done this. And I did it...” All the people who knew Anna Alekseevna said that she was an outstanding woman. Her role in Kapitsa’s life is unique and indescribable; she never worked anywhere and devoted all her attention to the scientist. Pyotr Leonidovich almost never parted with her and idolized her until the last day of his life. They got married in the spring of 1927, they had two sons: Sergei and Andrei. Subsequently, both became famous scientists. Despite the fact that Kapitsa’s children were born in Cambridge, everyone in the family circle spoke exclusively Russian. Sergei Kapitsa later wrote: “If my mother started speaking English, then my brother and I understood that now they would start scolding us.”
During thirteen years of work in England, Pyotr Leonidovich remained a devoted patriot of his country. Thanks to his influence and support, many young Soviet scientists got the chance to visit foreign laboratories. In 1934, Kapitsa wrote: “By constantly communicating with various scientists in Europe and England, I can assist those sent abroad to work in various places, which would otherwise be difficult for them, since my assistance is based not on official connections, but on favors.” , mutual favors and personal acquaintance with senior officials.” Petr Leonidovich also contributed in every possible way to the international exchange of experience in the scientific field. He was one of the editors of the International Monograph Series in Physics, published at Oxford University. It was from these monographs that the world learned about the scientific works of Soviet theoretical physicists Nikolai Semenov, Yakov Frenkel and Georgy Gamov.
Kapitsa (left) and Semenov (right). In the fall of 1921, Kapitsa appeared in the studio of Boris Kustodiev and asked him why he painted portraits of celebrities and why the artist should not paint those who would become famous. Young scientists paid the artist for the portrait with a sack of millet and a rooster
The physicist's activities at Cambridge did not go unnoticed. The leadership of our country was concerned by the fact that Kapitsa provides consultations to European industrialists, and also often works on their orders. Repeatedly, officials turned to the scientist with a request to stay in our country for permanent residence. Pyotr Leonidovich promised to consider such proposals, but set a number of conditions, the first of which was permission to travel abroad. Because of this, the resolution of the issue was constantly postponed.
Every year Kapitsa returned to the USSR to visit his mother and comrades. At the end of the summer of 1934, the scientist once again returned to his homeland. Among other things, he was going to visit the city of Kharkov, since since May 1929 he had been a consultant to the local Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology, and also to take part in a major international congress dedicated to the centenary of the birth of Mendeleev. But on September 25, Pyotr Leonidovich was summoned from Leningrad to Moscow. There, Deputy People's Commissar of Heavy Industry Georgy Pyatakov recommended that he reconsider the offer to stay in the country. Kapitsa refused and was sent to a higher authority to Valery Mezhlauk, who was the chairman of the State Planning Committee. It was he who first informed the scientist that he would now be obliged to work in the USSR, and his English visa would be cancelled. Kapitsa was forced to live in a communal apartment with his mother in Leningrad, and Anna Alekseevna, who came with him, returned to her children in Cambridge.
Thus began one of the most difficult periods in the life of the brilliant scientist. He was left alone, without his favorite job, without his laboratory, without family, without students, and even without Rutherford, to whom he became very attached and who always supported him. At one time, Kapitsa even seriously thought about changing the field of his research and switching to biophysics, which had long interested him, namely the problem of muscle contractions. It is known that he turned to his friend, the famous physiologist Ivan Pavlov, on this issue, and he promised to find him something to do at his Institute of Physiology.
On December 23, 1934, Molotov signed a decree on the creation of the Institute of Physical Problems, which is part of the Academy of Sciences. Kapitsa was offered to become the director of the new institute. In the winter of 1935, Pyotr Leonidovich moved to Moscow and settled in the Metropol Hotel; a personal car was provided to him. Construction of the first laboratory building began in May on Vorobyovy Gory. From the very beginning of construction, Kapitsa began to be helped by the outstanding Soviet experimental scientist, future academician Alexander Shalnikov. It was he who had the honor of becoming the legendary physicist’s closest assistant for the rest of his life. Alexander Iosifovich said that the construction of the institute buildings took place in extremely difficult conditions; often he and Kapitsa “had to explain to the builders that there is a right angle...” And yet, thanks to the ebullient nature of Pyotr Leonidovich, they managed to build the institute in a record two years.
The most important problem of the new institution was the critical shortage of equipment and instruments for laboratories. Everything that Kapitsa did in England was unique, unfortunately, most of it was beyond the capabilities of our industry. In order to continue his advanced research in Moscow, Kapitsa was forced to inform the country's leadership that he needed all the scientific instruments and installations he had developed in England. If it was impossible to transport the equipment of the Mondov laboratory to the USSR, the physicist insisted on the need to purchase duplicates of these rare devices.
By decision of the Politburo, 30 thousand pounds were allocated for the purchase of Kapitsa equipment in August 1935. After difficult negotiations with Rutherford, the parties managed to come to an agreement, and in December 1935 the first devices arrived in Moscow. Equipment from Mond's laboratory continued to be supplied until 1937. The matter was constantly stalled due to the sluggishness of the officials involved in the supply, and Kapitsa needed to write more than one letter to the country’s top leadership. Also, two experienced English engineers arrived in Moscow to help Kapitsa install and configure the instruments: laboratory assistant Lauerman and mechanic Pearson.
The harsh statements characteristic of the talented physicist, as well as the exceptional conditions that the authorities created for him, did not contribute to establishing contacts with colleagues from the academic environment. Kapitsa wrote: “The situation is depressing. Interest in my works has fallen, many fellow scientists are indignant without embarrassment: “If they did the same for us, we still won’t do what Kapitsa did.” In 1935, the physicist’s candidacy was not even considered for election to membership in the Academy of Sciences. Kapitsa took part in meetings of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences a couple of times, but then, in his own words, “withdrew.” All this led to the fact that in organizing the work of the Institute of Physical Problems, the scientist mainly relied on his own strength.
At the beginning of 1936, the scientist’s family received permission to return to the USSR, and soon Anna Alekseevna and her children joined him in the capital. Together with his relatives, Pyotr Leonidovich moved to live in a small cottage of several rooms located on the territory of the institute. And in the spring of 1937, construction finally ended. By this time, most of the scientist’s equipment had already been transported and installed. All this gave Kapitsa the opportunity to return to active scientific work.
First of all, he continued research into ultra-strong magnetic fields, as well as the field of ultra-low temperature physics. This work took him several years. The scientist was able to discover that in the temperature range of 4.2-2.19°K liquid helium exhibits the properties of an ordinary liquid, and when it is cooled to temperatures below 2.19°K, various anomalies appear in its characteristics, among which the main one is a surprising decrease in viscosity . The loss of viscosity allowed liquid helium to flow freely through the smallest holes and even rise along the walls of the container, as if not being affected by gravity. The scientist called this phenomenon superfluidity. In the studies of 1937-1941, Kapitsa discovered and examined other anomalous phenomena occurring in liquid helium, for example, an increase in its thermal conductivity. These experimental works by Kapitsa marked the beginning of the development of a whole new field of physics - quantum liquids. It should be noted that in his work on studying the properties of superfluid helium, Kapitsa was helped by Lev Landau, whom Pyotr Leonidovich invited to visit him from Kharkov.
Simultaneously with the above-mentioned activities, Kapitsa was engaged in the design of installations for the liquefaction of various gases. Back in 1934, the scientist built a high-performance liquefaction apparatus designed for adiabatic cooling of gases. He managed to eliminate a number of key phases from the technical process, due to which the efficiency of the installation increased from 65 to 90 percent, and its price fell tenfold. In 1938, he modernized the existing turboexpander design, achieving extremely efficient air liquefaction. Compared to the world's best devices from the German company Linde, Kapitsa's turboexpanders had three times lower losses. This was a fantastic breakthrough; from now on, the production of liquid oxygen could be safely put on an industrial scale. In turn, this revolutionized the steel industry and it is not an exaggeration to note that during the war the production of huge numbers of tanks by Soviet industry would have been impossible without this discovery. By the way, Kapitsa did not stop there - he personally began implementing his methodology and did not give up until production started working. For this, in 1944, Pyotr Leonidovich was awarded the title of Hero of Labor. His works caused heated discussions among scientists, both in our country and abroad. On January 24, 1939, Pyotr Leonidovich was accepted as a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1937, the famous seminars, the so-called “Kapichniki”, began at the Kapitsa Institute, which soon gained all-Union fame. Pyotr Leonidovich invited not only famous physicists, but also engineers, teachers, doctors, and in general any person who had proven himself in some way. At the seminar, in addition to special physical problems, issues of social thought, philosophy, and genetics were discussed. After the seminar, all the main participants were invited to Kapitsa’s office for tea and sandwiches. The opportunity to speak openly and the atmosphere of trust were characteristic features of Kapitsa’s “club” and played the most significant role in the development of domestic physics.
The specific features of Kapitsa the citizen and scientist can be called absolute honesty combined with a complete absence of fear and a character as solid as a stone. The return of Pyotr Leonidovich to his homeland coincided with the repressions carried out in the country. Kapitsa at that time already had high enough authority to dare to defend his views. During the period from 1934 to 1983, the physicist, who was never a member of the Communist Party, wrote over three hundred letters “to the Kremlin,” of which fifty were addressed personally to Joseph Stalin, seventy-one to Vyacheslav Molotov, sixty-three to Georgy Malenkov, twenty-six to Nikita Khrushchev. In his letters and reports, Pyotr Leonidovich openly criticized decisions that he considered wrong, and proposed his own versions of academic systems and reforms of Soviet science. He lived in full accordance with the rule he himself established: “In any circumstances you can learn to be happy. Only the one who has entered into a deal with his conscience is unhappy.” Thanks to his activities, outstanding physicists Vladimir Fok and Ivan Obreimov were saved from death in camps and prisons. When Lev Landau was arrested on charges of espionage in 1938, Pyotr Leonidovich managed to secure his release, although to do this the scientist had to threaten to resign from his post as director of the institute. In the fall of 1941, the scientist attracted public attention by making a warning statement about the likelihood of creating an atomic one in the future. And in 1972, when the authorities of our country initiated the issue of expelling Andrei Sakharov from the Academy of Sciences, only Kapitsa spoke out against this. He said: “A similar shameful precedent has already happened once. In 1933, the Nazis expelled Albert Einstein from the Berlin Academy of Sciences.” In addition, Kapitsa always fiercely defended the position of scientific internationalism. In his letter to Molotov on May 7, 1935, he said: “I firmly believe that real science must be outside of political passions and struggle, no matter how they try to lure it there. I believe that the scientific work that I have been doing all my life is the heritage of all humanity.”
After the war began, the Kapitsa Institute was evacuated to the city of Kazan. Sergei Kapitsa wrote: “During the evacuation, my mother and father and I spent two nights in the tunnels of the Kursk station - the same ones from which passengers now exit onto the platforms.” Upon arrival, the Institute of Physical Problems was located in the buildings of Kazan University. During the war years, the physicist worked on introducing the oxygen plants he created into industrial production. On May 8, 1943, by decree of the State Defense Committee, the Main Directorate for Oxygen was established, of which Kapitsa was appointed head.
In August 1945, a Special Atomic Committee was created under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, which was entrusted with leading the development of the atomic bomb. Pyotr Leonidovich was a member of this committee, but this activity burdened him. This was largely due to the fact that it was about making “weapons of destruction and murder.” Taking advantage of the conflict that arose with Lavrentiy Beria, who headed the atomic project, the outstanding scientist asked Stalin to relieve him of his work on the committee. The result was years of disgrace. In August 1946, he was removed from his post as head of the Main Directorate for Oxygen, and was also expelled from the institute he created. For eight years, Kapitsa was deprived of the opportunity to communicate with friends and colleagues and was under house arrest. He turned his dacha on Nikolina Gora into a small laboratory in which he continued to carry out research. He called it a “hut laboratory” and conducted many unique experiments on hydrodynamics, mechanics and plasma physics there. Here he first turned to high-power electronics - a new direction of his activity, which became the first step towards taming thermonuclear energy.
In 1947, the Faculty of Physics and Technology began operating at MSU (which in 1951 became the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology), one of the organizers and founders of which was Kapitsa. He himself was appointed head of the department of general physics and began giving lectures to students. However, at the end of 1949, the famous physicist refused to participate in ceremonial meetings in honor of Stalin’s seventieth birthday. This behavior did not go unnoticed; Kapitsa was immediately fired.
The scientist’s rehabilitation began after the leader’s death. The Presidium of the Academy of Sciences adopted a resolution “On assistance to Academician Kapitsa in the work being carried out.” Pyotr Leonidovich was appointed head of the Physics Laboratory of the Academy of Sciences, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, and in 1955 he was reinstated as director of the Institute of Physical Problems. From 1956 he also became the head of the Department of Low Temperature Engineering and Physics at MIPT, and from 1957 he was elected to the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences.
After Kapitsa returned to his institute, he was finally able to fully continue his research. The physicist's scientific activities in the 50-60s covered a variety of areas, including the nature of ball lightning and the hydrodynamics of the thinnest layers of liquid. However, his main interests focused on studying the properties of plasma and designing high-power microwave generators. Later, his discoveries formed the basis of a program to develop a thermonuclear reactor with continuously heated plasma.
In addition to his achievements in the scientific field, Pyotr Leonidovich proved himself to be a wonderful administrator and teacher. The Institute of Physical Problems, under his strict leadership, turned into one of the most prestigious and most productive institutions of the Academy of Sciences, attracting many famous Russian physicists to its walls. The success of Kapitsa’s organizational activities was based on one simple principle: “To lead means not to interfere with good people working.” By the way, Kapitsa did not have direct students, but the entire scientific atmosphere he created at the institute had enormous educational significance in the preparation of new generations of physicists. In this regard, all employees of this institution could safely be called his students. During the entire time that Pyotr Leonidovich headed the institute, not a single experimental work done in it was sent to press without his careful study. Kapitsa liked to repeat to his colleagues: “True patriotism does not lie in praising the homeland, but in working for its benefit, in correcting one’s mistakes.”
In 1965, after a thirty-year break, Kapitsa was given permission to travel abroad. He went to Denmark, where he visited leading scientific laboratories and gave a number of lectures. Here he was awarded the prestigious award of the Danish Engineering Society - the N. Bohr medal. In 1966, Pyotr Leonidovich visited England and gave a speech dedicated to the memory of Rutherford to members of the Royal Society of London. And in 1969, Kapitsa, together with Anna Alekseevna, visited the United States for the first time.
On October 17, 1978, the Swedish Academy of Sciences sent a telegram to Pyotr Leonidovich, informing him that the physicist had been awarded the Nobel Prize for research in the field of low temperatures. It took the Nobel Committee almost half a century to recognize the merits of the Russian scientist. Kapitsa shared his award with the Americans Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias, who jointly made the discovery of cosmic background microwave radiation. In general, during his life, Pyotr Leonidovich was awarded many high awards and titles. It is only worth noting that he was an honorary doctor of 11 universities located on four continents, as well as the owner of six Orders of Lenin. He himself took this calmly, saying: “Why do we need fame and glory? Only so that conditions for work would appear, so that it would be better to work, so that orders would be completed faster. Otherwise, fame just gets in the way.”
In everyday life, the great scientist was unpretentious, loved to wear tweed suits and smoke a pipe. Tobacco and clothes were brought to him from England. In his spare time, Kapitsa repaired antique watches and played excellent chess. According to his contemporaries, he put a lot of emotion into the game and really did not like to lose. However, he did not like to lose in any business. The decision to take on or abandon any task - social or scientific - was not a surge of emotion for him, but the result of the deepest analysis. If the physicist was sure that the matter was hopeless, nothing could force him to take it up. The character of the great scientist, again according to the memoirs of contemporaries, is best characterized by the Russian word “cool”. He stated: “Excessive modesty is an even greater disadvantage than excess self-confidence.” Talking to him was not always easy; Kapitsa “always knew exactly what he wanted, he could immediately and bluntly say “no,” but if he said “yes,” you could be sure that he would do so.” Kapitsa directed the Institute as he considered necessary. Regardless of the schemes imposed from above, he managed the institution’s budget independently and quite freely. There is a well-known story when, seeing garbage on the territory, Pyotr Leonidovich fired two of the three institute janitors, and began to pay the remaining one triple salary. Even during times of political repression in the country, Kapitsa maintained correspondence with leading foreign scientists. Several times they even came to the capital of Russia to visit his institute.
Already in his old age, the physicist, using his own authority, fiercely criticized the tendency, in his opinion, that had developed in our country to make decisions on scientific problems from non-scientific positions. He also opposed the construction of a pulp and paper plant that threatened to pollute Baikal, and condemned the attempt to rehabilitate Joseph Stalin, which began in the mid-60s. Kapitsa participated in the Pugwash movement of scientists for disarmament, peace and international security, and made proposals on ways to overcome the alienation between American and Soviet science.
Pyotr Leonidovich spent March 22, 1984, as usual, in his laboratory. At night he suffered a stroke and was taken to the hospital, where he died on April 8 without regaining consciousness. Kapitsa did not live long enough to reach his ninetieth birthday. The legendary scientist was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Based on materials from the book by V.V. Cheparukhin “Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa: the orbits of life” and the site http://biopeoples.ru.
TO Apitsa Pyotr Leonidovich is an outstanding physicist, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR Academy of Sciences), director of the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences, member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Born on June 26 (July 9), 1894 in the port and naval fortress of Kronstadt on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland, now a city in the Kronstadt district of St. Petersburg. Russian. From the nobility, the son of a military engineer, staff captain, future Major General of the Russian Imperial Army L.P. Kapitsa (1864-1919) and teacher, researcher of Russian folklore.
In 1912 he graduated from the Kronstadt Real School and entered the electromechanical faculty of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. There his scientific supervisor was the outstanding physicist A.F. Ioffe, who noted Kapitsa’s abilities in physics and played an outstanding role in his development as a scientist. In 1916, the first scientific works of P.L. Kapitsa, “Inertia of electrons in ampere molecular currents” and “Preparation of Wollaston threads,” were published in the “Journal of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society.” In January 1915, he was mobilized into the army and spent several months on the Western Front of the First World War, as an ambulance driver.
Due to the turbulent revolutionary events, he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute only in 1919. From 1918 to 1921 he was a teacher at the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute, and at the same time worked as a research assistant in the physics department of this institute. In 1918-1921 he was also an employee of the physical and technological department of the State X-ray and Radiological Institute. In 1919-1920, Kapitsa’s father and wife, a 1.5-year-old son, and a three-day-old newborn daughter died from the Spanish flu epidemic. In the same 1920, P.L. Kapitsa and the future world-famous physicist and Nobel laureate N.N. Semenov proposed a method for determining the magnetic moment of an atom, based on the interaction of an atomic beam with a non-uniform magnetic field. This is Kapitsa's first major work in the field of atomic physics.
In May 1921, he was sent on a scientific trip to England with a group of Russian scientists. Kapitsa secured an internship at the Cavendish Laboratory of the great physicist Ernst Rutherford in Cambridge. The research he carried out in this laboratory in the field of magnetic fields brought P.L. Kapitsa worldwide fame. In 1923, he became a doctor at the University of Cambridge, in 1925 - assistant director for magnetic research at the Cavendish Laboratory, and in 1926 - director of the Magnetic Laboratory he created as part of the Cavendish Laboratory. In 1928, he discovered the law of a linear increase in the electrical resistance of metals, based on the magnitude of the magnetic field (Kapitza’s law).
For this and other achievements, in 1929 he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and in the same year he was elected a full member of the Royal Society of London. In April 1934, he produced liquid helium for the first time in the world using an installation he created. This discovery gave a powerful impetus to research in low temperature physics.
In the same year, during one of his frequent visits to the USSR for teaching and advisory work, P.L. Kapitsa was detained in the USSR (he was denied permission to leave). The reason was the desire of the Soviet leadership to continue his scientific work in his homeland. Kapitsa was initially against this decision, since he had an excellent scientific base in England and wanted to continue research there. However, in 1934, by a Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences was created and Kapitsa was temporarily appointed its first director (in 1935 he was confirmed in this position at a session of the USSR Academy of Sciences). He was asked to create a powerful scientific center in the USSR himself, and with the assistance of the Soviet government, all the equipment of his laboratory was delivered from Cavendish.
From 1936 to 1938, Kapitza developed a method of air liquefaction using a low-pressure cycle and a highly efficient turboexpander, which predetermined the development throughout the world of modern large air separation plants for the production of oxygen, nitrogen and inert gases. In 1940, he made a new fundamental discovery - the superfluidity of liquid helium (when heat transfers from a solid to liquid helium, a temperature jump occurs at the interface, called the Kapitsa jump; the magnitude of this jump increases very sharply with decreasing temperature). In January 1939 he was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
During the Great Patriotic War, together with the Institute of Physical Problems, he was evacuated to the capital of the Tatar ASSR, the city of Kazan (returned to Moscow in August 1943). In 1941-1945 he was a member of the Scientific and Technical Council under the Commissioner of the State Defense Committee of the USSR. In 1942, he developed an installation for the production of liquid oxygen, on the basis of which a pilot plant was put into operation in 1943 at the Institute of Physical Problems.
In May 1943, by decree of the State Defense Committee of the USSR, Academician P.L. Kapitsa was appointed head of the Main Directorate of the Oxygen Industry under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (Glavkislorod).
In January 1945, the TK-2000 liquid oxygen production plant in Balashikha with a capacity of 40 tons of liquid oxygen per day (almost 20% of the total liquid oxygen production in the USSR) was put into operation.
Z and the successful scientific development of a new turbine method for producing oxygen and for the creation of a powerful turbo-oxygen installation for the production of liquid oxygen by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 30, 1945 Kapitsa Peter Leonidovich awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
Naturally, a world-famous physicist was recruited to work on the USSR atomic project. So, when in August 1945, Special Committee No. 1 was created under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR to manage all work on the use of intra-atomic energy of uranium, Kapitsa was included in its composition. But he immediately came into conflict with the head of the committee, the all-powerful L.P. Beria, and already at the end of 1945, at his request, I.V. Stalin decided to withdraw P.L. Kapitsa from the committee. This conflict cost the scientist dearly: in 1946, he was removed from the post of head of the Main Oxygen Department under the Council of Ministers of the USSR and from the post of director of the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The only consolation was that he was not arrested.
Since Kapitsa was deprived of access to secret developments, and all scientific and research institutions of the USSR were involved in work on the creation of atomic weapons, he did not have a job for some time. He created a home laboratory at a dacha near Moscow, where he studied problems of mechanics, hydrodynamics, high-power electronics and plasma physics. In 1941-1949 he was a professor and head of the department of general physics at the Faculty of Physics and Technology of Moscow State University. But in January 1950, for a demonstrative refusal to attend ceremonial events in honor of the 70th anniversary of I.V. Stalin was fired from there. In the summer of 1950, he was enrolled as a senior researcher at the Institute of Crystallography of the USSR Academy of Sciences, continuing research in his laboratory.
In the summer of 1953, after the arrest of L.P. Beria, Kapitsa reported on his personal developments and results obtained at the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It was decided to continue research and in August 1953 P.L. Kapitsa was appointed director of the Physics Laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which was created at the same time. In 1955, he was reappointed director of the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences (he headed it until the end of his life), as well as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics. The academician worked in these positions until the end of his life.
At the same time, since 1956, he headed the department of physics and low-temperature technology and was the chairman of the Coordination Council of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He led fundamental work in the field of low temperature physics, strong magnetic fields, high power electronics, and plasma physics. Author of fundamental scientific works on this topic, published many times in the USSR and many countries around the world.
Z and outstanding achievements in the field of physics, many years of scientific and teaching activity by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 8, 1974 Kapitsa Petr Leonidovich awarded the second gold medal "Hammer and Sickle" with the Order of Lenin.
For fundamental inventions and discoveries in the field of low temperature physics in 1978, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
During difficult periods in the history of the Motherland, P.L. Kapitsa always showed civic courage and integrity. Thus, during the period of mass repressions of the late 1930s, he achieved the release under personal guarantee of future academicians and world-famous scientists V.A. Foka and L.D. Landau. In the 1950s, he actively opposed the anti-scientific policies of T.D. Lysenko, having entered into conflict with N.S., who supported the latter. Khrushchev. In the 1970s, he refused to sign a letter condemning Academician A.D. Sakharov, at the same time he also called for measures to improve the safety of nuclear power plants (10 years before the Chernobyl accident).
Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939). Corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1929. Member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1957-1984). Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (1928). Professor (1939).
Winner of two Stalin Prizes of the 1st degree (1941 - for the development of a turboexpander for obtaining low temperatures and its use for air liquefaction, 1943 - for the discovery and research of the phenomenon of superfluidity of liquid helium). Big gold medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences named after M.V. Lomonosov (1959).
The great scientist received worldwide recognition during his lifetime, being elected a member of many academies and scientific societies. In particular, he was elected a member of the International Academy of Astronautics (1964), the International Academy of the History of Science (1971), a foreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences (1946), the Polish Academy of Sciences (1962), the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1966), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences ( 1969), Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Yugoslavia, 1971), Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1980), full member of the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina" (GDR, 1958), Physical Society of Great Britain (1932), member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston (USA, 1968), honorary member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences (1946), New York Academy of Sciences (USA, 1946), Royal Irish Academy of Sciences (1948), Academy of Sciences in Allahabad, India (1948), member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society ( Great Britain, 1923), Royal Society of London (Great Britain, 1929), Physical Society of France (1935), Physical Society of the USA (1937).
Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Algiers (1944), University of Paris (France, Sorbonne, 1945), University of Oslo (Norway, 1946), Charles (Prague) University (Czechoslovakia, 1964), Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland, 1964), Dresden Technical University (GDR, 1964), University of Delhi (India, 1966), Columbia University (USA, 1969), Wroclaw University. B. Bierut (Poland, 1972), University of Turku (Finland, 1977).
Full member of Trinity College, Cambridge University (Great Britain, 1925), Institute of Physics of Great Britain (1934), member of the Institute of Fundamental Research. D. Tata (India, 1977). Honorary member of the Institute of Metals of Great Britain (1943), the B. Franklin Institute (USA, 1944), and the National Institute of Sciences of India (1957).
Awarded prestigious scientific awards, including the Faraday Medal (USA, 1943), Franklin Medal (USA, 1944), Niels Bohr Medal (Denmark, 1965), Rutherford Medal (Great Britain, 1966), Kamerlingh Onnes Medal (Netherlands, 1968) .
Awarded six Orders of Lenin (04/30/1943, 07/9/1944, 04/30/1945, 07/9/1964, 07/20/1971, 07/8/1974), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (03/27/1954), medals, a foreign award - the Order of Partisan Stars a" (Yugoslavia, 1964).
Lived in the hero city of Moscow. Died on April 8, 1984. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery (section 10).
To the great scientist, twice Hero of Socialist Labor P.L. A bronze bust of Kapitsa was erected in the Soviet Park of Kronstadt (1979). There, in Kronstadt, on the facade of the building of school No. 425 (former real school) on Uritsky Street, a memorial plaque was installed. Memorial plaques were also installed in St. Petersburg on the building of the Polytechnic University at the address: Politekhnicheskaya Street, building No. 29 and in Moscow on the building of the Institute of Physical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he worked. The Russian Academy of Sciences established the Gold Medal named after P.L. Kapitsa (1994).
Kapitsa P.L. Life for science. Lomonosov, Franklin, Rutherford, Langevin. - M.: Knowledge, 1965. - 63 p. 53-K.202 farm
Kapitsa P.L. Strong magnetic fields: Scientific. tr. - M.: Nauka, 1988. - 461 p. V33-K.20 BUT| About Kapitsa |
T. 4: [About geniuses: stories, essays; Bison: story / ill. V.A. Mishin]. - 2009. - P.202-214. B-G.771/N 4 kh4
T.2. 1951-1980. - St. Petersburg, 2009. - 936-938. V3-L.285/N 2 But
| Scientific connections of P.L. Kapitsa |