TO eldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich - Soviet scientist in the field of mathematics, mechanics, space science and technicians, organizer of science, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, professor.
Born on January 29 (February 10), 1911 in the city of Riga in the family of an adjunct professor at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, a major civil engineer (later an academician of architecture) Vsevolod Mikhailovich Keldysh and a housewife Maria Alexandrovna Skvortsova. In 1915, the Keldysh family moved from front-line Riga to Moscow. In 1919-1923, M.V. Keldysh lived in the city of Ivanovo, where his father taught at Polytechnic Institute, organized on the initiative of M.V. Frunze. In Ivanovo he began studying at high school, having received the necessary initial training at home. Upon returning to Moscow (1923), he studied at a school with a construction focus, in the summer he went with his father to construction sites and worked as a laborer.
In 1927 he graduated from school and wanted to get his father’s profession as a civil engineer, but in construction institute, where his father taught, he was not accepted due to his youth. On the advice of his older sister, who graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow state university named after M.V. Lomonosov (MSU), who studied mathematics under scientific guidance N.N. Luzin, he entered the same faculty of Moscow State University. While studying at the university, M.V. Keldysh quit scientific contacts with M.A. Lavrentiev, which later grew into a long-term scientific cooperation and friendship. In the spring of 1930, simultaneously with his studies, he began working as an assistant at the Electrical Mechanical Engineering Institute, then at the Machine Tool Institute.
After graduating from Moscow State University in 1931, on the recommendation of academician A.I. Nekrasov, M.V. Keldysh was sent to the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after N.E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI). Scientific life TsAGI at that time was headed by S.A. Chaplygin, and seminars were regularly held under his leadership. Participants in the seminar were also M.A. Lavrentiev, N.E. Kochin, L.S. Leibenzon, A.I. Nekrasov, G.I. Petrov, L.I. Sedov, L.N. Sretensky, F.I. Frankl, S.A. Khristianovich; many of them later became famous mechanical scientists. M.V. Keldysh worked at TsAGI until December 1946, first as an engineer, then as a senior engineer, head of a group, and from 1941 as head of the dynamic strength department.
The initial period of M.V. Keldysh’s work at TsAGI was associated with studies of nonlinear flow problems. In the works of this cycle " External task Neumann for nonlinear elliptic equations with an application to the theory of a wing in a compressed gas" (1934) and "A rigorous substantiation of the theory of the Zhukovsky propeller" (1935, co-authored with F.I. Frankl), "To the theory of an oscillating wing (1935, together with M.A. Lavrentiev) for the first time, the influence of the compressibility of the medium on the aerodynamic characteristics of streamlined bodies was strictly considered and the well-known Zhukovsky theorem on lift force was generalized; It was established for the first time that thrust occurs under certain modes of wing oscillation. He studied the theory of the impact of a body on a liquid and the movement of bodies under the surface of a liquid.
Continuing to work at TsAGI, M.V. Keldysh entered the graduate school in the fall of 1934 (then supplemented by a two-year doctorate) of the V.A. Steklov Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences under M.A. Lavrentiev, where he studied issues of the theory of approximation of functions, closely related to applied the subject of his work (hydro-, aerodynamics). In 1935, without defending a dissertation, he was awarded the academic degree of Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, in 1937 - the academic degree of Candidate of Sciences technical sciences and the title of professor in aerodynamics.
On January 26, 1938, he defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences on the topic “On the representation of functions of a complex variable and harmonic functions by series of polynomials.”
A series of works by M.V. Keldysh and his collaborators in the pre-war and war years was devoted to vibrations and self-oscillations of aircraft structures. His research laid the foundations for methods of numerical calculation and modeling in wind tunnels of the flutter phenomenon (strong vibrations of aircraft wings that occurred at certain speeds of the aircraft and led to its destruction). The results of M.V. Keldysh not only led to the development of simple and reliable measures to prevent flutter, but also became the basis of a new branch of science on the strength of aircraft structures. It is known that in German aviation in the period 1935-1943, 146 accidents due to flutter were recorded. The results of the work of M.V. Keldysh played a role big role in creating high-speed aviation in our country.
In October 1941, M.V. Keldysh with his wife and three children, along with other TsAGI employees, was evacuated to the city of Kazan, where he continued to work. In April 1942 he was awarded the Stalin Prize 2nd degree for scientific works to prevent aircraft destruction due to wing and tail flutter. During the war years, along with scientific and experimental research at TsAGI, he was involved in the implementation of the developed recommendations in aircraft design bureaus and to aircraft factories. This activity was marked by the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the Order of Lenin.
Closely related to his studies of aircraft vibrations and flutter are his studies of the stability of the front wheel of a three-wheeled landing gear, which made it possible to propose expedient and simple design measures to eliminate shimming (self-excited rotations and displacements) of an aircraft wheel during takeoff or landing, which led to the destruction of the front landing gear of the aircraft. According to available data, in German aviation there were more than 150 accidents associated with “shimmy”, in the domestic one - not a single one. In 1946, he was again awarded the Stalin Prize, 2nd degree, for the creation of aircraft landing gear, which prevented wheel vibration when sliding along the runway.
The success of M.V. Keldysh’s applied work is due not only to his deep intuition as a mechanical engineer and experimenter, but also to his outstanding talent as a mathematician, a sophisticated theorist and creator of computational algorithms and methods. Conversely, many of its fundamental mathematical research have their origin in problems arising from his work on mechanics. As a mathematician M.V. Keldysh contributed to the theory of functions, potential theory, differential equations, functional analysis. Great importance have the results of M.V. Keldysh in mechanics, covering hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, gas dynamics, mechanics of aircraft structures. M.V. Keldysh learned a lot from communicating with aircraft designers, primarily S.A. Lavochkin and A.N. Tupolev.
On September 29, 1943, M.V. Keldysh was elected corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. In June 1944, he became the head of the recently created department of mechanics at the Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences and worked in this position until 1953. The department held a scientific seminar that brought together specialists in aeromechanics. At the same time resumed teaching activities at Moscow State University, which began in 1932, he lectured at the faculties of mechanics, mathematics and physics and technology, headed the department of thermodynamics, and led a research seminar on the theory of functions of a complex variable. From 1942 to 1953 M.V. Keldysh was a professor at Moscow State University. Many of his students of that time became prominent scientists, among them academicians A.A. Gonchar, D.E. Okhotsimsky and T.M. Eneev.
On November 30, 1946, M.V. Keldysh was elected full member(academician) of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Technical Sciences. Has begun new period his activities, associated with the names of the “three Ks” - I.V. Kurchatov, S.P. Korolev and M.V. Keldysh. Immediately after his election as an academician, he was appointed head (from August 1950 - scientific supervisor) head research institute (NII-1 of the Ministry aviation industry; now the M.V. Keldysh Center), which dealt with applied problems of rocket science. Since that time, the main direction of M.V. Keldysh’s activity has been associated with rocket technology. The world's first intercontinental missile was launched in the USSR on August 21, 1957.
In 1949, M.V. Keldysh became a member of the CPSU, was subsequently elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee (since 1961), and was a delegate to the CPSU congresses (XXII, 1961; XXIII, 1966; XXIV, 1971; XXV, 1977).
IN post-war years M.V. Keldysh was engaged in solving problems of nuclear energy and computational mathematics. New research methods were required, first of all effective methods and means of mathematical calculation. The need to create them caused a revolution in the field of computational mathematics, which radically changed its general scientific significance. M.V. Keldysh was one of the first to predict the role of computational mathematics in increasing the efficiency of scientific and technical research. Having met the creators of the first domestic computer, M.A. Lesechko and Yu.Ya. Bazilevsky, he became an expert in this field. In 1953, he became the founder of the Institute (until 1966 – Department) of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and its permanent director. The development of modern computational mathematics in our country is largely connected with the activities of this institute, which now bears his name.
M.V. Keldysh took part in the work on creating a nuclear missile shield both as the leader of large teams and as the author of many scientific and technical ideas and computational methods. At this time he published works on assessing the consequences nuclear explosion“On assessing the effect of an explosion at high altitudes” (1950, together with L.I. Sedov) and “Point explosion in the atmosphere (1955, together with D.E. Okhotsimsky).
U kazom of the Presidium Supreme Council USSR (classified as “secret”) dated September 11, 1956 for exceptional services to the state in carrying out a special government assignment (for contribution to the creation of a nuclear missile shield and for work on the creation of the “Storm” cruise missile) Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich awarded the title of Hero Socialist Labor with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
He brought in outstanding contribution in the development of Soviet space science and technology. Having started working on space topics in 1946 in creative collaboration with S.P. Korolev, he was one of the initiators of a wide expansion of work on the study and exploration of space. From the beginning of 1956, he headed one of the leading areas in their implementation. His contribution to the formation and successful development such scientific directions like mechanics space flight and space navigation. Since 1953, work has been carried out at the Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences to solve problems of launching into Earth orbit artificial satellite, culminating on October 4, 1957 with its successful launch and insertion into orbit.
M.V. Keldysh played a decisive role in the creation of a relatively cheap launch vehicle for launching satellites into orbit scientific programs(satellites of the Cosmos family). He led the “Lunar” program, including flights of automatic stations of the “Luna” family. Involved scientific teams to participate in the program, led meetings and seminars to discuss research results and accept future plans. The first spacecraft was sent to the Moon on January 2, 1959. On October 4, 1959, photographs of the far side of the Moon were obtained (from the Luna-3 apparatus). In 1966, a soft landing was made on the surface of the Moon, and an artificial satellite (“Luna-10”) was launched into its orbit. In October 1970, Luna 16 launched, delivering samples lunar soil to Earth, then the launch of the automatic station “Luna-17” with the self-propelled vehicle “Lunokhod-1”; In total, by 1976, 34 devices of the Luna series were launched. The first three launches of spacecraft to the Moon ended in disasters: the R-7 rockets, which successfully launched artificial satellites into Earth orbit, exploded in flight. M.V. Keldysh was able to understand the cause of the disasters - the development of oscillations in the rocket fuel system.
No less effective was the participation of M.V. Keldysh in the Venus research program associated with the automatic stations of the Venus family (starting with Venera-4, 1967); the Venera-7 apparatus (1970) showed that the pressure on the surface of Venus is 100 earth's atmosphere, temperature 400 degrees Celsius. The great role of M.V. Keldysh in the exploration of Mars. In 1960, in preparation for the launch of the first automatic station to Mars, M.V. Keldysh proposed testing instruments intended for the study of Mars under terrestrial conditions. This made it possible to identify ineffective equipment and save tens of kilograms in the weight of the automatic station. He traveled to test sites and cosmodromes during the preparation and launch of spacecraft, was a member of various commissions on space problems, was the chairman of expert commissions, commissions to analyze the causes of accidents, in particular, was the chairman of an emergency commission to determine the causes of crew death spacecraft“Soyuz-11” (1971, cosmonauts G.T. Dobrovolsky, V.N. Volkov and V.I. Patsaev). Identification of new scientific and technical problems, development space technology, the formation of comprehensive scientific and technical programs, flight control issues are far from full list problems that were part of the activities of M.V. Keldysh.
U Kazakh Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (classified “secret”) dated June 17, 1961 for special services in the development of rocket technology and for work on the creation and successful launch of the world’s first spaceship"Vostok" with a man on board was awarded the second gold medal "Hammer and Sickle".
On March 18, 1965, with the direct participation of M.V. Keldysh, a person was first released into open space(cosmonaut A.A. Leonov). M.V. Keldysh made a huge contribution to the implementation of the joint Soviet-American space flight Soyuz-Apollo (1975) and the development of flights under the Intercosmos program.
A large period of M.V. Keldysh’s life is associated with his activities in the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which began in October 1953 and continued until the end of his life. Since 1953, he has been Academician-Secretary of the Department of Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1960, M.V. Keldysh was elected vice-president, and on May 19, 1961, president of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Heading the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1961 to 1975, M.V. Keldysh provided all possible support for the development in our country not only of mathematics and mechanics, but also of new directions modern science, such as cybernetics, quantum electronics, molecular biology and genetics. In 1962, the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences decided to build a complex of biological institutes in the city of Pushchino. Under M.V. Keldysh, a comprehensive audit of the activities of T.D. Lysenko took place, which made it possible to expose the pseudoscientific concepts of “Lysenkoism”, which denied genetics. N.I. Vavilov was posthumously restored to the lists of full members of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and his merits in biology and agricultural sciences were confirmed. The years when M.V. Keldysh held the post of President of the USSR Academy of Sciences were the most rapid growth Academy, turning it into largest center fundamental science.
U Kazakh Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on February 9, 1971 for exceptional services to the state in development Soviet science and technology, great scientific and social activities and on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday he was awarded the third gold medal “Hammer and Sickle”.
M.V. Keldysh did a lot of work in the Committee for Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR in the field of science and technology, heading it from 1961 until his death. His reviews of the presented works have an independent scientific interest. He fully supported the transition to mass machine production, which made labor easier. He highly appreciated the introduction of cotton and tea harvesting machines. IN last years life M.V. Keldysh was interested in the problem of creating solar power plants in space orbit.
Developed international scientific cooperation and coordination in every possible way scientific research. On scientific visits he visited Germany and England (1965), Czechoslovakia (1963, 1970), Japan (1964), Poland (1964, 1973), France (1965,1967), Romania (1966), Bulgaria (1966, 1969), Hungary (1967), Canada (1967), Italy (1969), Sweden (1969), Spain (1970), USA (the first official visit of the Russian Academy of Sciences for its entire existence, 1972). M.V. Keldysh spoke fluent German and French, also read in Italian, already in mature age began to study English. His merits received international recognition, among his titles: academician of the German Academy of Naturalists “Leopoldina” (1961), academician of the Academy of Sciences of Mongolia (1961), academician of the Academy of Sciences of Poland (1962), academician of the Academy of Sciences of Czechoslovakia (1962), honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Romania (1965), honorary foreign member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1966), honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Sciences and Arts in Boston (1966), honorary member Royal Society in Edinburgh (1968), honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Hungary (1970), honorary member of the Academy of Finland (1974), honorary doctor of the University of Delhi (1967), honorary doctor of the University of Budapest (1967), honorary doctor of the University of Lagos (1968), honorary doctor of Charles University in Prague (1974), honorary doctor of the Indian Statistical Institute (1974).
Lived and worked in the hero city of Moscow. He died on June 24, 1978 under circumstances that do not exclude his suicide. The urn with his ashes is buried in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.
Awarded seven Orders of Lenin (09.16.1945, 1954, 1954, 09.11.1956, 02.9.1961, 1967, 1975), three Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (07.11.1943, 06.10.1945, 1953), medals, foreign awards - Orders of Geography orgy Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 1971), Cyril and Methodius 1st degree (Bulgaria, 1969), Bernardo O. Higins 2nd degree (Chile, 1969), Red Banner (Hungary, 1970), Legion of Honor (France, 1971), Sukhbaatar (Mongolia, 1975), medal "50 years of the Mongolian people's revolution"(Mongolia, 1972).
Laureate Lenin Prize(1957), Stalin Prize 2nd degree (1942, 1946). Awarded the Great Gold Medal named after M.V. Lomonosov of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1975), the K.E. Tsiolkovsky Gold Medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1972), the S.I. Vavilov Medal (1971), the S.P. Korolev Medal (1976 ).
In Moscow, memorial plaques are installed on the house where he lived (Kosygina Street, 6), on the building of the main building of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University and on the building of the Institute of Applied Mathematics (Miusskaya Square, 4). Busts in Moscow are installed on the Alley of Cosmonauts (near Mira Avenue) and at the M.V. Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The bust was also installed in the homeland of M.V. Keldysh in Riga, on the house where he was born - Memorial plaque. The crater on back side Moons, one of the minor planets, research vessel "Akademik Mstislav Keldysh", square in Moscow. In 1978, the USSR Academy of Sciences established Gold medal named after M.V. Keldysh “3a outstanding scientific works in the field of applied mathematics and mechanics, as well as theoretical research on space exploration.”
February 10 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the famous Soviet scientist in the field of mathematics, mechanics, space science and technology, statesman, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Mstislav Keldysh.
Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh was born on February 10 (January 29, old style) 1911 in Riga (Latvia) in the family of Vsevolod Mikhailovich Keldysh, an adjunct professor at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, a major civil engineer (later an academician of architecture), and housewife Maria Alexandrovna Skvortsova.
At the end of 1946, Keldysh was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Division of Technical Sciences.
In 1946, he was appointed head of the Jet Research Institute (NII-1, now Research Center(IC) named after M.V. Keldysh), who was engaged in applied problems of rocket science. From August 1950 to 1961, Keldysh was the scientific director of NII-1. Keldysh's main activity was related to rocketry.
In the post-war years, he was involved in solving problems of nuclear energy. On this topic, he created and headed a settlement bureau.
In 1953, Keldysh became the founder of the Institute (until 1966 - Department) of Applied Mathematics (IPM) of the USSR Academy of Sciences and its permanent director until 1978. The development of computational mathematics in the country is associated with the activities of the institute.
In 1954, Mstislav Keldysh, Sergei Korolev and Mikhail Tikhonravov submitted a letter to the Government with a proposal to create an artificial Earth satellite (AES). On January 30, 1956, Keldysh was appointed chairman special commission Academy of Sciences on an artificial Earth satellite.
The scientist played decisive role in the creation of a launch vehicle for launching satellites into orbit for scientific programs (satellites of the Cosmos family). He led the “lunar” program, including flights of automatic stations of the “Luna” family. He also participated in the Venus research program associated with the automatic stations of the Venus family.
In 1960, he was appointed chairman of the established Interdepartmental Scientific and Technical Council for Space Research at the USSR Academy of Sciences.
From 1961 to 1975 Mstislav Keldysh was president of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Heading the USSR Academy of Sciences, he provided all possible support for the development of mathematics and mechanics in the USSR, as well as new areas of science, such as cybernetics, quantum electronics, molecular biology and genetics.
Since 1961, he headed the Committee for Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR in the field of science and technology.
Mstislav Keldysh was a member of various commissions on space problems, in particular, he was the chairman of the emergency commission to determine the causes of the death of the crew of the Soyuz-11 spacecraft.
He made a huge contribution to the joint Soviet-American space flight Soyuz-Apollo (1975). He developed international scientific cooperation and coordination of scientific research in every possible way, created the Intercosmos cooperation program, and made scientific visits to a number of foreign countries(USA, Japan, Germany, England, Czechoslovakia and others).
He was one of the initiators of the creation in 1951 of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology(in the city of Dolgoprudny, Moscow region), in which he lectured, was the head of the department.
In the last years of his life, Keldysh was interested in the problem of creating solar power plants in space orbit.
The merits of Academician Mstislav Keldysh are highly appreciated. He is three times Hero of Socialist Labor (1956, 1961, 1971), laureate of the Lenin (1957) and State (1942, 1946) prizes, awarded seven Orders of Lenin (1945, 1954, 1954,1956,1961, 1967, 1975), three Orders of Labor Red Banner (1943, 1945, 1953), medals, as well as orders and medals of foreign countries.
Mstislav Keldysh was elected a foreign member of 16 Academies of the world, an honorary doctor of six universities.
In 1973, the scientist underwent a complex operation on the blood vessels. Mstislav Keldysh died on June 24, 1978. The urn with his ashes was buried in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.
Monuments to Mstislav Keldysh were erected in Moscow and Riga, memorial plaques on the buildings where he lived (Vorobevskoe Highway) and worked (MSU and IPM). The memory of the scientist is immortalized in the names of institutes (IPM and IC), a research vessel, a square in Moscow, a crater on the Moon and small planet solar system.
Gold medal named after M.V. Keldysh hands over Russian Academy Sciences for outstanding scientific work in the field of applied mathematics and mechanics, as well as theoretical research on space exploration.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh
Biographical sketch
Galina Nikolaevna Ezerova,
M.V.Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics
Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh was born on February 10, 1911 in Riga in the family of associate professor of the Riga Polytechnic Institute Vsevolod Mikhailovich Keldysh, a major civil engineer, later academician and vice-president of the Academy of Construction and Architecture. Mstislav's father and mother came from noble families, knew French and German languages, played the piano, loved music and art. They developed Creative skills children and were involved in their education. Of the four sons, only the youngest, Slava, liked his father’s profession, so he graduated from school with a construction focus. But he was not accepted into the Civil Engineering Institute (he was only 16 years old), and on the advice of his sister, in 1927 he entered Moscow University in the mathematics department. Aptitude for mathematics and others exact sciences Mstislav showed up at school. Those who worked with him later also noted his extraordinary engineering and construction intuition.
Memorial plaque on a house in Riga
After graduating from Moscow State University M.V. Keldysh in 1931 was sent to the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), where he worked until December 1946, first as an engineer, and from 1941 as head of the dynamic strength department. The young specialist immediately became famous in scientific team Institute, I was amazed by his ability to quickly solve new problems.
TsAGI employees Ya.M. Parkhomovsky and L.S. Popov recalled: “M.V. Keldysh loved and knew how to study (this manifested itself later, in adulthood), and at TsAGI there was someone to learn from... Later little time he became an attentive visitor to the seminars of the General Theoretical Group, a listener and a participant... Quite quickly, Keldysh’s range of interests was determined - issues of hydrodynamics and unsteady aerodynamics... He had, probably from his upbringing, an increased sense of responsibility for the work entrusted to him, regardless of what whether it is big or small. “It’s a shame to be ashamed”—we heard such a saying from him more than once.”
In 1935, academician S.A. Chaplygin translated by M.V. Keldysh to the TsAGI vibration group and instructed him to solve the problem of aircraft flutter. Mstislav Vsevolodovich reacted to this task without enthusiasm: the new tasks were too far from the previous ones. But a disciplined and responsible scientist, he began to work with full dedication in his new place.
Since 1934, Mstislav Vsevolodovich has been combining work at TsAGI and the Mathematical Institute. V.A. Steklov Academy of Sciences of the USSR (MIAN). He led Scientific research at the Steklov Mathematical Institute, interrupting them for three war years, until 1953. The dates eloquently testify to the rapid scientific growth of the young mathematician: September 1934 - enters graduate school at the Steklov Mathematical Institute; 1935 - without defending a dissertation M.V. Keldysh was awarded the academic degree of Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences; 1936 - without defense receives the degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences and the title of professor in the specialty "aerodynamics"; January 1938 - defense of his doctoral dissertation on the topic “On the representation of functions of a complex variable and harmonic functions by series of polynomials.”
On July 20, 1938, the Scientific and Technical Council of TsAGI was created, Mstislav Vsevolodovich joined it; then he becomes a member of the TsAGI Scientific Council. Since 1939, the name of the scientist and his work have been classified as government assignments of special importance.
During the war, the family of M.V. Keldysh was evacuated to Kazan. At first we lived in a gymnasium, partitioned off with sheets, then we got a room in the House of Kazan Professors aviation institute. The family survived hunger, cold, serious disease a four-month-old son... Mstislav Vsevolodovich took care of the family, but could only fly to Kazan for a few days. During these years, he worked at aircraft factories and, as head of the TsAGI dynamic strength department, oversaw the problem of vibrations in aircraft construction.
In April 1942 M.V. Keldysh (together with E.P. Grossman) was awarded the Stalin Prize of the 2nd degree for scientific work on the prevention of aircraft destruction: “Calculation of an aircraft for flutter” (1940), “Vibrations of a wing with an elastically attached motor” and “Bending-aileron flutter” (1941). In June 1943, for outstanding services in the field of research work in aviation, M.V. Keldysh awarded the order Red Banner of Labor.
On September 30, 1943, he was elected corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Division of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. From 1942 to 1953 he was a professor at Moscow State University. On Faculty of Physics and Technology MSU Mstislav Vsevolodovich headed the department of thermodynamics and taught the course mathematical physics, and in mechanics and mathematics he lectured and led a research seminar on the theory of functions of a complex variable. Many of his students became prominent scientists, among them academicians A.A. Gonchar, D.E. Okhotsimsky, T.M. Eneev, corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences K.I. Babenko and S.N. Mergelyan. Mstislav Vsevolodovich was a wonderful teacher, communication with whom left an indelible mark on grateful memory from everyone who had the good fortune to study with him. He stopped lecturing at universities due to his heavy workload.
In April 1944, a department of mechanics was created at the Steklov Mathematical Institute, which was headed by M.V. from June 1944 to June 1953. Keldysh. A scientific seminar began to work at the department, bringing together aerodynamics specialists. Since that time, he has been working on problems of rocket dynamics and applied celestial mechanics.
In 1946 M.V. Keldysh gets Stalin Prize II degree for scientific research in the field of theory and methods for calculating self-oscillations of aircraft structures, the results of which are presented in the monograph “Shimmy of the front wheel of a three-wheeled landing gear” (1945). Mathematicians still use the epithet “beautiful” to refer to this work. It provides a solution to the problem and offers practical engineering recommendations.
During the same period, on the initiative of nuclear physicists M.V. Keldysh is involved in calculations atomic weapons. According to the director of the Steklov Mathematical Institute, academician I.M. Vinogradov, “he is able to understand any application of mathematics better than anyone.”
November 30, 1946 M.V. Keldysh was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences in the Division of Technical Sciences. The very next day he was appointed head, and in August 1950 - scientific director of Scientific Research Institute-1 (now the M.V. Keldysh Research Center), dealing with problems applied problems rocket science. Since that time, Mstislav Vsevolodovich’s activities have been connected with rocket technology, nuclear energy, space exploration and computational mathematics. New methods of scientific research were required, primarily effective mathematical calculation. Their birth and use radically changed the general scientific significance of computational mathematics.
Bust of M.V. Keldysh in Riga.
Sculptor L. Bukovsky.
Installed during the life of M.V. Keldysh
M.V. Keldysh led large teams that created nuclear missile shield our Motherland. The author of many research ideas, he was one of the first to predict the role of computational mathematics and technology in increasing the efficiency of scientific and technical research.
The success of the scientist’s applied work was often due not only to his deep intuition as a mechanical engineer and experimenter, but also to his outstanding talent as a mathematician—a subtle theorist and creator of computational methods. In 1953, the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (IPM) was created, headed by M.V. Keldysh, who remained its permanent director until June 24, 1978. The development of computational mathematics in our country is associated with the activities of the institute. The flower of scientific thought worked here.
With his scientific authority and purposeful activities, Mstislav Vsevolodovich determined the style and direction of the Institute’s research. M.V. Keldysh believed that “a real scientist does not stop before choosing research means.” In other words, you need to find and use the most suitable means to obtain a specific result. ““The best is the enemy of the good,” he often said, stopping attempts to get bogged down in a lengthy analysis of minor details to the detriment of the quick and high-quality achievement of the main result,” recalls Researcher IPM is now Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.V. Beletsky. Another IPM employee, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences A.K. Platonov writes: “Mstislav Vsevolodovich was carefully punctual in all relationships with employees, not allowing (of course, involuntarily!) anyone to forget that “precision is the politeness of kings.” Exactly at 9 am the gates opened, and “Chaika” drove into the yard - it was possible to check the clock... Was Mstislav Vsevolodovich a “democratic” director? Definitely not. He was a very tough and demanding leader with enormous authority. Therefore, his decisions were not discussed, but were carried out “in an army style.” At the same time, the atmosphere at the institute was full of democracy.”
Election May 19, 1961 M.V. Keldysh's presidency as president of the USSR Academy of Sciences meant his well-deserved recognition not only as an outstanding scientist, but also as a brilliant organizer of science. He was president of the USSR Academy of Sciences until 1975, during these years the Academy became the world's largest center of fundamental science. Heading the Academy, Mstislav Vsevolodovich fully supported new areas of science (quantum electronics and molecular biology), contributed international cooperation scientists, believing that science should serve all humanity. Thanks to his talent, he quickly navigated various areas modern science, noticed the sprouts of something new, promoted research on the most relevant and promising directions. In conditions of limited funds, M.V. Keldysh called on scientists to determine in the most reasonable manner “what to support and what to support less.”
Mstislav Vsevolodovich was known all over the world, identifying the successes of Soviet science with his personality. During this period, astronautics became the subject of close attention of Mstislav Vsevolodovich; it was not without reason that he was considered a theorist of astronautics. Under his leadership, new directions in space exploration developed, the Institute space research and Institute of Medical and Biological Problems. With the participation of Mstislav Vsevolodovich, programs for manned flights and planetary exploration were discussed, promising projects. For example, he put forward plans to study the atmosphere of Venus using balloon probes, fly to a comet, create a rover and return Martian soil to Earth, and build manned orbital complexes by expanding modular structures, launching astrophysical observatories. To get the point individual problems astronautics and have the opportunity to influence decision-making, M.V. Keldysh actively worked in the Council of Chief Designers. Mstislav Vsevolodovich contributed to the establishment scientific connections with other countries in space exploration and the participation of our scientists in prestigious international space projects. For example, he created the Intercosmos Council. Thanks to his work, such large programs as the Soyuz-Apollo program, flights of foreign cosmonauts on domestic orbital stations(the ASTP program) and scientific research carried out on the Intercosmos satellites.
Academician M.V. Keldysh dealt with the most pressing government issues. Talented, enthusiastic people, like-minded people and opponents worked with him. He has always been their recognized leader, a competent and impartial arbiter.
Until the end of his life, he remained a patriot of the country, a true Russian intellectual. When a serious illness and vascular surgery, which he underwent in 1973, did not allow him to continue working at his usual pace, he resigned from the post of president of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In the last three years of M.V.’s life. Keldysh is a member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences, chairman of the Committee for Lenin and State Prizes under the Council of Ministers of the USSR and director of the IPM.
A.P. Alexandrov presents the first Gold Medal to M.V. Keldysh to G.I. Marchuk. February 10, 1981
(on the left is St.V. Keldysh - the wife of M.V. Keldysh, on the right is P.N. Fedoseev)
Merits of Academician M.V. Keldysh are highly rated. He is three times Hero of Socialist Labor (1956, 1961, 1971), laureate of the Lenin (1957) and State (1942, 1946) prizes, awarded seven Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, six foreign orders and many medals. Mstislav Vsevolodovich was elected a foreign member of 16 Academies of the world, an honorary doctor of 6 universities. There were monuments to him in Moscow and Riga, memorial plaques on the buildings where he lived (Vorobevskoe Highway) and worked (MSU and IPM). Memory of M.V. Keldyshe is immortalized in the names of institutes (IPM and IC), a research vessel, a square in Moscow, a crater on the Moon and a small planet in the solar system. Gold medal named after M.V. The Keldysh is awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences for outstanding scientific work in the field of applied mathematics and mechanics, as well as theoretical research in space exploration.
Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich 1911-1978). Soviet scientist in the field of mathematics, mechanics, space science and technology, statesman, science organizer.
Born on January 29 (February 10), 1911 in Riga in the family of Vsevolod Mikhailovich Keldysh, an adjunct professor at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, a major civil engineer (later an academician of architecture). Mother - Maria Alexandrovna (nee Skvortsova) - a housewife. In 1915, the Keldysh family moved from front-line Riga to Moscow. In 1919-1923 Keldysh lived in Ivanovo, where his father taught at the Polytechnic Institute, organized on the initiative of M.V. Frunze. In Ivanovo, he began his studies in high school, receiving the necessary initial training at home from Maria Alexandrovna. Upon returning to Moscow (1923), he studied at a school with a construction focus, in the summer he went with his father to construction sites and worked as a laborer. Keldysh’s penchant for mathematics manifested itself in the 7th and 8th grades; teachers even then recognized his extraordinary abilities in the exact sciences.
The Academy became the headquarters of Soviet science.
Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich
In 1927 he graduated from school and wanted to get his father’s profession of a civil engineer, which he liked, but he was not accepted into the construction institute where his father taught because of his youth (only 16). On the advice of his older sister Lyudmila, who graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University and studied mathematics under the scientific guidance of N.N. Luzin, he entered the same faculty of Moscow State University. While studying at the university, Keldysh established scientific contacts with M.A. Lavrentiev, which later grew into many years of scientific cooperation and friendship. In the spring of 1930, simultaneously with his studies, he began working as an assistant at the Electrical Mechanical Engineering Institute, then also at the Stanko-Instrumental Institute (STANKIN).
After graduating from Moscow State University in 1931, on the recommendation of Academician A.I. Nekrasov, Keldysh was sent to the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after N.E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI). The scientific life of TsAGI at that time was headed by S.A. Chaplygin, and seminars were regularly held under his leadership. Participants in the seminar were also M.A. Lavrentiev, N.E. Kochin, L.S. Leibenzon, A.I. Nekrasov, G.I. Petrov, L.I. Sedov, L.N. Sretensky, F.I. Frankl, S.A. Khristianovich; many of them subsequently became famous mechanical scientists. Keldysh worked at TsAGI until December 1946, first as an engineer, then as a senior engineer, head of a group, and from 1941 as head of the dynamic strength department.
The initial period of Keldysh’s work at TsAGI was associated with research into nonlinear flow problems. In the works of this cycle, Neumann's external problem for nonlinear elliptic equations with application to the theory of a wing in a compressed gas (1934) and Rigorous justification of the theory of Zhukovsky's propeller (1935) (done in collaboration with F.I. Frankl), To the theory of an oscillating wing (1935, together with M.A. Lavrentiev) for the first time, the influence of the compressibility of the medium on the aerodynamic characteristics of streamlined bodies was strictly considered and the well-known Zhukovsky theorem on lift force was generalized; It was established for the first time that thrust occurs under certain modes of wing oscillation. He studied the theory of the impact of a body on a liquid and the movement of bodies under the surface of the liquid (float of a seaplane, hydrofoil.
Continuing to work at TsAGI, in the fall of 1934 Keldysh entered graduate school (then supplemented by a two-year doctoral program) at the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences under Lavrentiev, where he studied issues of the theory of approximation of functions, closely related to the applied topics of his work (hydro-, aerodynamics) . In 1935 he was assigned without protection academic degree candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, in 1937 - the degree of candidate of technical sciences and the title of professor in the specialty "aerodynamics". On January 26, 1938, he defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic On the representation of functions of a complex variable and harmonic functions by series of polynomials.
The repressions of the 1930s did not spare the Keldysh family. In 1935, Maria Alexandrovna spent several days in prison; a company was taking place in the country to confiscate gold from the population. In 1936, brother Mikhail was arrested, at that time a graduate student at the university’s history department, studying medieval Germany. He received 10 years without the right to correspondence (as was later established, he was shot in the spring of 1937). In 1938, brother Alexander was arrested on charges of espionage, then the charge was changed to anti-Semitism. In court, however, the charges were dropped and he was released.
The cycle of works by Keldysh and his colleagues in the pre-war and war years was devoted to vibrations and self-oscillations of aircraft structures. His research laid the foundations for methods of numerical calculation and modeling in wind tunnels of the flutter phenomenon (strong vibrations of aircraft wings that occurred at certain aircraft speeds and led to its destruction). Keldysh's results not only led to the development of simple and reliable measures to prevent flutter, but also became the basis of a new branch of science on the strength of aircraft structures. It is known that in German aviation in the period 1935-1943, 146 accidents due to flutter were recorded. In the process of work, Keldysh’s group had to endure intense controversy; opponents appealed to high authorities(up to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (b)).
Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich (1911-1978), mathematician, mechanic.
In 1915, the family was evacuated to Moscow. In 1927, Keldysh graduated from school, but was not accepted into the institute; There were also difficulties with admission to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University due to social origin and the presence of an uncle who left with the White Army. However, thanks to his outstanding abilities, in 1931 Keldysh graduated from the university and became an employee of TsAGI (in the city of Zhukovsky, Moscow region). Then he worked at Moscow State University and the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1938 he became a Doctor of Science, in 1946 - an academician. In 1946, together with S.P. Korolev and I.V. Kurchatov, he led the creation of nuclear missile weapons.
In 1953, Keldysh took the position of director of the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The scientist’s main works relate to the fields of mathematics, mechanics and aerogasdynamics aircraft. Keldysh made a great contribution to the development of computational and machine mathematics, and led the work on the creation of computers.
He was one of the initiators of the development of space exploration, heading it from the mid-50s. development of theoretical premises for the conclusion artificial bodies to near-Earth orbits; took part in the creation of the first artificial Earth satellite.
Formed a number of basic theoretical principles of modern aerodynamics and rocket and space technology.
In 1961, after the flight of Yu. A. Gagarin, Keldysh became president of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was an honorary member of many foreign academies. He was awarded seven Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, medals and various foreign orders.