Nobel laureates: Pyotr Kapitsa. The pride of Soviet science: Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa Kapitsa Nobel Prize for what

Pyotr Kapitsa was born on July 8, 1894 in Kronstadt in the family of a military engineer. He graduated from high school, then a real school. He was fond of physics and electrical engineering, he showed a particular passion for clock design.

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa. (wikipedia.org)

While studying at a real school, 1912. (wikipedia.org)

In 1912 he entered the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, but in 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, he went to the front.

At the front, 1915 (wikipedia.org)

After demobilization, he returned to the institute and worked in the laboratory of A.F. Ioffe. The first scientific work (dedicated to obtaining thin quartz filaments) was published in 1916 in the Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society.

Seminar by A. F. Ioffe, 1916. (wikipedia.org)

After graduating from the institute, Kapitsa became a teacher at the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics, then an employee of the Physics Institute created in Petrograd, which was headed by Ioffe.

Ioffe Seminar, 1916. (wikipedia.org)

In 1921, Kapitsa was sent to England - he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, led by E. Rutherford. The Russian physicist quickly made a brilliant career - he became the director of the Mond laboratory at the Royal Scientific Society.

With fellow physicists at Cambridge. (wikipedia.org)

His work in the 1920s 20th century devoted to nuclear physics, physics and technology of superstrong magnetic fields, physics and technology low temperatures, high-power electronics, high-temperature plasma physics.

With Paul Dirac in Cambridge, 1920s. (wikipedia.org)

With wife Anna in Cambridge, 1930. (wikipedia.org)

In 1934 Kapitsa returned to Russia. In Moscow, he founded the Institute of Physical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the post of director of which he took in 1935.

Participants of the Solvay Conference, 1930. (wikipedia.org)

At the opening of his own laboratory in Cambridge, 1933. (wikipedia.org)

Rutherford visiting Kapitsa in the Cambridge laboratory. (wikipedia.org)

At the same time, Kapitsa became a professor at Moscow State University (1936-1947). In 1939, the scientist was elected an Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, since 1957 he was a member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

With referent Shaposhnikov, 1935. (wikipedia.org)

Along with the organization of the scientific process, Kapitsa was constantly engaged in research work. Together with N. N. Semenov, he proposed a method for determining the magnetic moment of an atom.

Kapitsa and Nikolai Semyonov in a painting by Boris Kustodiev. (wikipedia.org)

Kapitsa was the first in the history of science to place a cloud chamber in a strong magnetic field and observe the curvature of the trajectory of alpha particles.

Kapitsa and laboratory assistant Filimonov investigate liquid helium, 1939. (wikipedia.org)

He established the law of a linear increase in the electrical resistance of a number of metals depending on the strength of the magnetic field (Kapitza's law). He created new methods for liquefying hydrogen and helium; developed a method of liquefying air using a turbo-expander.

Soviet and Russian physicist, educator, TV presenter, editor-in-chief of the journal "In the world of science", vice-president of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences

Sergey Kapitsa

short biography

Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa(February 14, 1928, Cambridge - August 14, 2012, Moscow) - Soviet and Russian physicist, educator, TV presenter, editor-in-chief of the journal "In the world of science", vice-president of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. Since 1973, he has consistently hosted the popular science television program Obvious - Incredible. The son of the Nobel Prize winner, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, Academician Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa.

Sergey Petrovich Kapitsa was born on February 14, 1928 in Cambridge (Great Britain). In 1935, the Kapitsa family returned to the USSR, and since that time Kapitsa has been living in Moscow.

In 1949 he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute.

He began his scientific activity in 1949. He worked in such areas of physics as terrestrial magnetism, applied electrodynamics, elementary particle physics. In 1953 he defended his thesis for the degree of Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences on the topic "Investigation of magnetic properties rocks under mechanical stress. Since 1956, Sergei Kapitsa taught at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT). In 1962 (according to another source - in 1961) he became a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, having defended a dissertation at JINR on the topic "Microtron" (the design part of the work was carried out by A. E. Atovmyan).

In 1965 he received the title of professor at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

From 1965 to 1998, at the Department of General Physics, he taught general physics to students of the first three courses. For many years he was the head of this department.

He recalled: “When I started my work on television, then any publication in the field of science was accompanied by detailed acts of examination - that, they say, we do not give out secret information. Sergei Lapin, then chairman of the State Radio and Television, called me and explained: “Sergei Petrovich, we will not demand these examinations from you. You must be responsible for what you say. And we'll watch." This is what I was guided by."

In December 1986, he suffered an unsuccessful assassination attempt by a "madman from Leningrad" (restorer, member of the "Memory" society), as a result of which he was injured. The attacker, who arrived in Dolgoprudny, entered the MIPT academic building, where S.P. Kapitsa lectured on general physics, and during a break in the lecture, when S.P. Kapitsa left the audience, hit him twice from behind with a tourist hatchet on the head. Kapitsa managed to snatch the ax from the attacker's hands and hit him in the forehead with the butt of the axe. Then the bloody Kapitsa with an ax reached the pulpit, asked to call an ambulance and the police, after which he lost consciousness. The attacker was detained, and S.P. Kapitsa was hospitalized in the neurosurgical department of the S.P. Botkin City Clinical Hospital with subdural hemorrhage. He received 17 stitches. Subsequently, he was able to return to work. After this assassination attempt, MIPT introduced emergency security measures, which were partially canceled six months later.

In the feature films Know Me (1979) and Yolki-Sticks! (1988) played himself - the host of the "Obvious - Incredible" program.

Since March 2000 he has been the president of the Nikitsky club.

Since 2006, he has been the president of the World of Knowledge Film Festival.

He died in Moscow on August 14, 2012 from liver cancer. Farewell took place on August 17 in the Palace of Culture of Moscow State University, on the same day he was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery, next to his father's grave (section 10, row 2).

On February 14, 2013, on the day of the 85th birthday of Sergei Kapitsa, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the building of the Russian New University.

Ranks

Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor P. L. Kapitsa.

President of the Eurasian Physical Society, member of the European Academy of Sciences, full member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, member of the Presidential Council for Culture and Art. Member of the Club of Rome, president of the interdisciplinary discussion club "Nikitsky Club of Scientists and Entrepreneurs of Russia", member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Honorary First Vice President public organization Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio. Awarded the Order of Honor (2006). Laureate of the Kalinga Prize (UNESCO), State Prize USSR (for the organization of the TV show "Obvious - Incredible"; 1980), Prizes of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the popularization of science, Prizes of the Government Russian Federation in Education (2002). Long-term host of the television program "Obvious - incredible." Deputy Chairman of the Russian Pugwash Committee at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1987, member of the Pugwash movement of scientists since 1977, member of the Pugwash Council in 1987-1997.

He was a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

Scientific activity

As the head of the department, MIPT has been actively introducing student independence since Soviet times.

From March 15, 2001, he was the scientific director of the Russian New University (RosNOU). Actively participated in the teaching and research activities of the university.

Creator of the phenomenological mathematical model of the hyperbolic growth of the Earth's population. For the first time, he proved the fact of the hyperbolic growth of the Earth's population until 1 year AD. e. In the last months of his life, he wrote a work on demography.

Considered one of the founders of cliodynamics.

Popularization activity

• He was the permanent (from 1973 to 2012) host of the popular science TV program "Obvious - Incredible"
• He was the editor-in-chief of the popular science magazine "In the world of science" from 1983 to 1993 and from 2002 until his death.
• Since 2001 - Chairman of the Board of the Non-Commercial Partnership "World of Science".
• Author and ideological inspirer of the popular science program "Ideas that change the world", which was released after his death. The heroes of the program are people who have had a significant impact on modern humanity in the scientific, humanitarian and public spheres of activity.

sports activities

In 1957, S.P. Kapitsa began scuba diving.

Awards and prizes

• Kalinga Prize (UNESCO) (1979)
• State Prize of the USSR (1980) for the organization of the TV show "Obvious - Incredible"
• RAS Prize for the Popularization of Science
• Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of education (2002)
• Order of Honor (2006)
• Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (2011)
• Gold medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences for outstanding achievements in the field of promotion of scientific knowledge (2012)

In 2008, he received a special TEFI prize for his personal contribution to the development of Russian television as the permanent host of the Obvious - Incredible program. On February 24, 2008, the program itself turned 35 years old. And although S.P. Kapitsa was included in the Guinness Book of Records as a TV presenter with the longest experience in running the program, he received his first TEFI only in 2008.

views

“And I am a Russian Orthodox atheist. This, by the way, is a very common formula of attitude to faith, to spiritual culture. Essentially, science has also grown out of religion.” “I do not rule out that the time will come when ten volumes of Landau's theoretical physics and six classical volumes of Kabbalah will stand side by side.”

Ratings

P. S. Gurevich believes that:

Kapitsa created a certain image on television. He looks not just a researcher, a thinker. The image of Kapitsa is inseparable from the passionate passion for the secrets of nature. He himself believes that if Copernicus, Kepler, Descartes, Newton, Darwin, Mendeleev, Einstein were alive today, he would certainly invite them to the screen to talk about the fate of science. Indeed, today the popularization of science is becoming an active factor in political and social development.

Memory

• On March 5, 2014, the President of the Russian Federation signed Decree No. 113 "On perpetuating the memory of S. P. Kapitsa."
• In honor of S.P. Kapitsa, the asteroid (5094) Seryozha, discovered on October 20, 1982 by Lyudmila Karachkina, an employee of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, was named, the name was assigned on September 1, 1993.
• On February 12, 2015, the Marka Publishing and Trade Center issued a commemorative stamp and a commemorative postmark with the image of S.P. Kapitsa.
• Kapitsa Island in the Lesser Kuril Ridge.

Family

S.P. Kapitsa belongs to the dynasty of Russian scientists. The son of the Nobel Prize winner physicist P. L. Kapitsa, the grandson of the Russian mathematician and shipbuilder A. N. Krylov and the great-nephew of the famous French biochemist Victor Henri (Krylov) (fr. Victor Henri, 1872–1940; on the mother’s side, Anna Alekseevna), great-grandson of the famous geographer I. I. Stebnitsky, elder brother of A. P. Kapitsa.

• Father - Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (1894-1984) - a famous physicist, Nobel Prize winner, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
• Mother - Anna Alekseevna Krylova (1903–1996) - housewife, daughter of Alexei Nikolaevich Krylov, Russian and Soviet shipbuilder, specialist in mechanics, mathematician, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences / RAS / Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
• Wife - Tatyana Alimovna Damir (06/13/1923 - 08/28/2013), daughter of Professor Alim Matveyevich Damir, in 1953-1971 head of the department of propaedeutics of internal diseases of the pediatric faculty of the Second Moscow medical institute. They met in the summer of 1948 at a dacha on Nikolina Gora and got married in 1949.
• Brother - Andrei Petrovich Kapitsa (1931-2011) - Soviet geographer and geomorphologist, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1970.
• Son - Fedor Sergeevich Kapitsa (1950-2017) - philologist and writer, worked at the A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and with his wife - Doctor of Philosophy, Professor - in the journal "In the World of Science".
  • Granddaughter - Vera, researcher at the Department of Manuscripts at the Institute of Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 2002) and head of the reading room (since 2007).
• Daughter - Maria (1954) - a psychologist, works at Moscow State University.
• Daughter - Barbara (1960) - doctor.

The godfather of Sergei Kapitsa is the Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov.

Gallery

The grave of Sergei Kapitsa and his wife at the Novodevichy Cemetery before the installation of the monument.

Kapitsa's grave after the installation of the monument.

Publications by S. P. Kapitsa

• Microtron / S. P. Kapitsa, V. N. Melekhin, foreword by P. L. Kapitza, Moscow, Nauka publishing house, 1969. Circulation 2700 copies, 211 pp., UDC 621.384.611.3.
• Optimal sample sizes in gamma-activation analysis / S. P. Kapitsa, Yu. T. Martynov, V. N. Samosyuk et al., Atomnaya Energiya, 1974, v. 37, no. 4, p. 356-357
• Kapitsa S. P. The role of popularization of science in the formation of the scientific worldview // Questions of scientific atheism. Issue. 22 / Redcol. A. F. Okulov (responsible editor); Acad. societies. Sciences of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Institute of Scientific Atheism. - M.: Thought, 1978. - S. 209-216. - 319 p. - 23,000 copies.
• Science and mass media. M., 1981.
• Kapitsa S.P. Paradoxes of growth: Laws of human development. - M.: "Alpina Non-Fiction", 2010. - S. 192.
• A look into the past and the future // Delphis. 1999. No. 20(4). S.2-6.
• General theory of human growth: How many people lived, live and will live on Earth. Moscow: Nauka, 1999.
• Model of the growth of the world's population and economic development humanity // Questions of Economics. 2000. No. 12.
• Preface to the translation of the book "Intellectual Tricks" by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, 2000
• Kapitsa S. P., Kurdyumov S. P., Malinetsky G. G. Synergetics and forecasts of the future. - 3rd ed. - M.: URSS, 2003. - 288 p. - (Synergetics: from the past to the future).
• Global demographic revolution and the future of mankind // New and recent history. 2004. No. 4.
• On the acceleration of historical time // New and recent history. 2004. No. 6.
• Asymptotic methods and their strange interpretation. //Social sciences and modernity. 2005. No. 2. P.162-165.
• Global demographic revolution // International life. 2005. No. 11. p. 91-105
• On the acceleration of historical time // History and Mathematics. M., 2006. S. 12-30.
• Global population blow-up and after. The demographic revolution and information society. Moscow, 2006.
• Demographic revolution and Russia. M. 2007.
• Demographic revolution and Russia. Age of globalization. Issue No. 1/2008, pp. 128-143.
• Life of science // M.: Tonchu, - 2008 - 592 p.
• Kapitsa S.P. My memories. - M.: Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 2008. - 269 p. - 2500 copies.
• Kapitsa S. P., Yudin B. G. Medicine of the XXI century: ethical problems // Knowledge. Understanding. Skill. - 2005. - No. 3. - S. 75-79.

Categories:

physicist, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939). Founder and director of the IPP of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1945, he was a member of the Special Committee and the Technical Council of the Special Committee of the PSU under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1945, 1974). Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1978), twice winner of the State Prize of the USSR (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 - a military engineer, major general of the Russian army, his mother - 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. Kapitsa "Inertia of electrons in ampere molecular currents" and "Preparation of Wollaston filaments". 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, drove 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 Department of Physics of this institute. In 1919-1920. Kapitsa's father and wife, a son aged 1.5 years and a newborn daughter died from the Spanish flu epidemic three days from birth. 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 an inhomogeneous magnetic field. This scientific work of Kapitza became the first notable experience in the field of atomic physics.

He believed that a promising young physicist needed to continue his studies at an authoritative 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 mission 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 studies he carried out in this laboratory in the field of magnetic fields brought P.L. Kapitsa world fame. In 1923 he became a doctor of Cambridge University, 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 a linear, in magnitude 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, for the first time in the world, he received liquid helium at a plant he had created. This discovery gave a powerful impetus to research in low temperature physics.

Until 1934, P.L. Kapitsa and his family lived in England and regularly came to the USSR to rest and see relatives. The government of the USSR several times offered him to stay in his homeland, but the scientist invariably refused. In 1934, during one of his visits to the USSR for teaching and consulting 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 his research there. In 1934, the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences was established by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, and Kapitsa was temporarily appointed its first director (in 1935 he was approved 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, he was supplied with all the equipment of his laboratory 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 that were abroad - this is even despite the fact that he received a scientific institution at his disposal and practically had no problems with financing. It was depressing that problems that were solved in England with a single phone call were mired in bureaucracy. The sharp statements of the scientist and the exceptional conditions created for him by the authorities did not contribute to the establishment of mutual understanding with colleagues in the academic environment.

From 1936 to 1938 P.L. Kapitsa developed a method of liquefying air using a low-pressure cycle and a high-efficiency turbo-expander, which predetermined the development worldwide of modern large-scale 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 (during the transfer of heat from a solid body to liquid helium, a temperature jump occurs at the interface, called the Kapitsa 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 USSR State Defense Committee. In 1942, P.L. Kapitsa developed an installation for the production of liquid oxygen, on the basis of which, in 1943, an experimental plant was put into operation at the Institute of Physical Problems.

In May 1943, by a decree of the USSR State Defense Committee, 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 plant for the production of liquid oxygen TK-2000 in Balashikha with a capacity of 40 tons of liquid oxygen per day (almost 20% of the entire production of liquid oxygen 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 plant for the production of liquid oxygen, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 30, 1945, Petr 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 involved in work on the USSR atomic project. August 20, 1945 I.V. Stalin signs the Decree on the creation of a body for managing work on uranium - a 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, 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 (assignment of the Special Committee). At the meeting, it was decided: to instruct TT. Kapitsa P.L. (convocation), Kurchatov I.V., Pervukhin M.G. within a month, prepare and submit proposals for consideration by the Council 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 order was not fulfilled. According to a certificate on the progress in fulfilling the orders of the Customs Union, P.L. Kapitsa had to make proposals on the use of production waste for peaceful purposes).

However, on November 25, 1945, P.L. Kapitsa sends a letter to I.V. Stalin on 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 participating in it.

In the organization of work according to A.B., it seems to me that there is much that is abnormal. In any case, what is being done now is not the shortest and cheapest way to create it.

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 reserves of thorium and uranium known to us so far, then they would be enough to destroy everything on the dry surface of the globe 5-7 times in a row.

But it is foolish and absurd to think that the main possibility of using atomic energy will be its destructive power. Its role in culture will undoubtedly be no less than oil, coal and other sources of energy, 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 combustible. A gram of uranium or thorium is equivalent to about 10 tons of coal. A gram of uranium is a piece of half a silver dime, and 10 tons is a load of coal from 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 AB, it is often given to us, no doubt in order to lead us astray.

To implement A.B., the Americans spent 2 billion dollars, which is approximately 30 billion rubles for our industrial products. Almost all of this must be spent on construction and engineering. During the 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 fall behind anyway...

Life has shown that I could force myself to obey only as Kapitsa, head of the head office at the Council of People's Commissars, and not as Kapitsa, a world-famous scientist. Our cultural upbringing is still not enough to place Kapitza the scientist higher than Kapitza the boss. Even a comrade like Beria does not understand this. This is what happens now when solving the problem of A.B. The opinions of scientists are often taken with skepticism and done in their own way behind their backs.

The Special Committee must teach the comrades to trust the scientists, and the scientists, in turn, this will make them feel more responsible, but this is not yet the case.

This can only be done if the scientists and the comrades of the Special Committee are equally responsible. And this is possible only when the position of science and the scientist will be accepted by everyone as the main force, and not an auxiliary one, as it is now ...

Comrades Beria, Malenkov, Voznesensky behave in the Special Committee like supermen. In particular Comrade. Beria...

I would like Comrade Beria got acquainted with this letter, because this is not a denunciation, but useful criticism. I would have told him everything myself, but it would be very troublesome to see him.”

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 Glavkisloroda 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 outside Moscow, where he worked on 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 defiant refusal to attend the celebrations 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 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 Physical Laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which was created at the same time. In 1955, he was again appointed 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 the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics. In these positions, the academician worked until the end of his life.

At the same time, since 1956, P.L. Kapitsa headed the Department of Physics and Technology at Low Temperatures and was the chairman of the Coordinating Council of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Supervised fundamental work in the field of low-temperature physics, strong magnetic fields, high-power electronics, and plasma physics. The author of fundamental scientific works on this topic, published many times in the USSR and many countries of 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 award of the Order of Lenin.

In recent years, P.L. Kapitsa became interested in a controlled thermonuclear reaction. In 1978, Academician Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for fundamental inventions and discoveries in the field of low temperature physics." The news of the award was received by the academician during his vacation at the Barvikha sanatorium. Kapitsa, contrary to tradition, devoted his Nobel speech not to those 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 carried away by other ideas. The Nobel speech of the laureate was called "Plasma and controlled thermonuclear reaction".

In difficult periods in the history of the Motherland, P.L. Kapitsa always showed civic courage and adherence to principles. So, during the period of mass repressions of the late 1930s, he achieved his release under the personal guarantee of future academicians and world-famous scientists V.A. Fock and . In the 1950s, he actively opposed the anti-scientific activities of T.D. Lysenko, having come into conflict with N.S. Khrushchev. In the 1970s, P.L. Kapitsa refused to sign a letter condemning the academician, at the same time he also spoke with calls to take measures to improve the safety of nuclear power plants (10 years before the Chernobyl accident).

P.L. Kapitsa is the winner of two Stalin Prizes of the 1st degree (1941 - for the development of a turbo-expander for obtaining low temperatures and its use for air liquefaction, 1943 - for the discovery and study of the phenomenon of superfluidity of liquid helium). Big Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR 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), British Physical Society (1932), member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston (USA, 1968), the US Physical Society (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. Kapitsa has a bronze bust in the Soviet park of Kronstadt. In the same place, in Kronstadt, on the facade of the building of school No. 425 on Uritsky Street, house No. 7/1, there is a memorial plaque made of red granite, on which is carved: “Pyotr Leonidovich studied in this building, a former real school, in 1907-1912 Kapitsa, an outstanding Soviet physicist, academician, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, Nobel Prize laureate. Memorial plaques are also installed in St. Petersburg on the building of the Polytechnic University and in Moscow on the building of the Institute for Physical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he worked. The Russian Academy of Sciences established the P.L. Kapitsa (1994).

Literature

Kapitsa, Tamm, Semenov: in essays and letters.

M.: Vagrius, Priroda, 1998. - 575 p., ill.

TO Apica Pyotr Leonidovich - an outstanding physicist, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (AS USSR), 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 the island of Kotlin in the Gulf of Finland, now - the city of 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. Kapitza (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 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 filaments" were published in the "Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society". In January 1915 he was mobilized into the army and was on duty for several months. Western front World War I as an ambulance driver.

Due to the turbulent revolutionary events, he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute only in 1919. From 1918 to 1921 - a teacher at the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute, at the same time worked as a researcher in the department of physics of this institute. In 1918-1921 he was also an employee of the Physics and Technology Department of the State X-ray and Radiological Institute. In 1919-1920, Kapitsa's father and wife, a son aged 1.5 years and a newborn daughter three days old, 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 propose a method for determining the magnetic moment of an atom, based on the interaction of an atomic beam with an inhomogeneous magnetic field. This is Kapitsa's first major work in the field of atomic physics.

In May 1921 he was sent on a scientific mission 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 researches in the field of magnetic fields made by him in this laboratory brought P. L. Kapitsa world 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 a linear, in magnitude magnetic field, increase in the electrical resistance of metals (Kapitsa's law).

For this and other achievements in 1929 he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and in the same year he was elected a full member of the Royal Society of London. In April 1934, for the first time in the world, he received liquid helium at a facility 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 consulting 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 at home. Kapitsa was initially against this decision, since he had an excellent scientific base in England and wanted to continue his research there. However, in 1934, the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences was established by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, and Kapitsa was temporarily appointed its first director (in 1935 he was approved in this position at a session of the USSR Academy of Sciences). He was invited 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, Kapitsa developed a method for liquefying air using a cycle low pressure and the high-performance turbo-expander, which has led to the development of modern large-scale air separation plants worldwide for the production of oxygen, nitrogen and inert gases. In 1940, he makes a new fundamental discovery - the superfluidity of liquid helium (during the transfer of heat from solid body to liquid helium at the interface there is a temperature jump, 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 Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, 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 USSR State Defense Committee. In 1942, he developed an installation for the production of liquid oxygen, on the basis of which, in 1943, an experimental plant was put into operation at the Institute of Physical Problems.

In May 1943, by a decree of the USSR State Defense Committee, 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 plant for the production of liquid oxygen TK-2000 in Balashikha with a capacity of 40 tons of liquid oxygen per day (almost 20% of the entire production of liquid oxygen in the USSR) was put into operation.

Z a successful scientific development of a new turbine method for producing oxygen and for the creation of a powerful turbo-oxygen plant for the production of liquid oxygen by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 30, 1945 Kapitsa Petr Leonidovich 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 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 uranium energy, 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 Glavkisloroda 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 atomic weapons he had been unemployed for some time. He created a home laboratory at a dacha near Moscow, where he studied the 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 defiant refusal to attend solemn 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 the 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 Physical 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 the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics. In these positions, the academician worked until the end of his life.

At the same time, since 1956, he headed the Department of Physics and Technology of Low Temperatures and was the chairman of the Coordinating Council of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Supervised fundamental work in the field of low-temperature physics, strong magnetic fields, high-power electronics, and plasma physics. The author of the fundamental scientific papers on this topic, published many times in the USSR and many countries of the world.

Z and 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 Kapitsa Petr Leonidovich He was awarded the second gold medal "Hammer and Sickle" with the award of the Order of Lenin.

For fundamental inventions and discoveries in the field of low temperature physics in 1978, Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

In difficult periods in the history of the Motherland, P. L. Kapitsa always showed civic courage and adherence to principles. So, during the period of mass repressions of the late 1930s, he achieved his release under the personal guarantee of future academicians and world-famous scientists V.A. Fock and L.D. Landau. In the 1950s, he actively opposed the anti-scientific policies of T.D. Lysenko, having come into conflict with N.S. 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 Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939). Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR since 1929. Member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (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 study of the phenomenon of superfluidity of liquid helium). Big Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR 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), an honorary member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences (1946), the New York Academy of Sciences (USA, 1946), the Irish Royal Academy of Sciences (1948), the Academy of Sciences in Allahabad, India (1948), a member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society ( Great Britain, 1923), the Royal Society of London (Great Britain, 1929), the Physical Society of France (1935), the 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).

Member of Trinity College, Cambridge University (Great Britain, 1925), Institute of Physics of Great Britain (1934), Member of the Institute fundamental research them. D. Tata (India, 1977). Honorary member of the Institute of Metals of Great Britain (1943), the B. Franklin Institute (USA, 1944), the National Institute of Sciences of India (1957).

Awarded with prestigious scientific awards, including the Faraday Medal (USA, 1943), the Franklin Medal (USA, 1944), the Niels Bohr Medal (Denmark, 1965), the Rutherford Medal (Great Britain, 1966), the Kamerling-Onnes Medal (Netherlands, 1968) .

He was awarded six Orders of Lenin (04/30/1943, 07/09/1944, 04/30/1945, 07/09/1964, 07/20/1971, 07/08/1974), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (03/27/1954), medals, a foreign award - the Order of the "Partisan Star" (Yugoslavia, 1964).

Lived in the hero city of Moscow. Died April 8, 1984. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (plot 10).

The great scientist, twice Hero of Socialist Labor P.L. A bronze bust was erected to Kapitsa in the Soviet park of Kronstadt (1979). In the same place, in Kronstadt, on the facade of the building of school No. 425 (the former real school) along Uritsky Street, a memorial plaque was installed. Memorial plaques are also installed in St. Petersburg on the building of the Polytechnic University at the address: Politekhnicheskaya street, house No. 29 and in Moscow on the building of the Institute for Physical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he worked. The Russian Academy of Sciences established the P.L. Kapitsa (1994).

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa(June 26 [July 8], Kronstadt - April 8, Moscow) - Soviet physicist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939).

Prominent organizer of science. Founder (IFP), whose director remained until the last days of his life. One of the founders. The first head of the Department of Low Temperature Physics of the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University.

Seminar by A. F. Ioffe at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute (1916). The chapel is on the far right

Even before defending his diploma, A.F. Ioffe invites Peter Kapitsa to work in the Physical and Technical Department of the newly created X-ray and Radiological Institute (reformed in November 1921 into). The scientist publishes his first scientific work in the ZhRFHO and begins teaching.

Ioffe believed that a promising young physicist needed to continue his studies at a reputable foreign scientific school, but it took a long time to organize a trip abroad. Thanks to the assistance of Krylov and the intervention of Maxim Gorky, in 1921 Kapitsa, as part of a special commission, was sent to England. Thanks to Ioffe's recommendation, he manages to get a job at the Cavendish Laboratory under the supervision of Ernest Rutherford, and from July 22 Kapitsa begins to work in Cambridge. The young Soviet scientist quickly earns the respect of his colleagues and management thanks to his talent as an engineer and experimenter. Works in the field of superstrong magnetic fields bring him wide popularity in scientific circles. 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. Kapitsa gave Rutherford the famous nickname "crocodile". Already in 1921, when the famous experimenter Robert Wood visited the Cavendish Laboratory, Rutherford instructed Peter Kapitsa to conduct a spectacular demonstration experiment in front of the famous guest.

The topic of his doctoral dissertation, which Kapitsa defended at Cambridge in 1922, was "The passage of alpha particles through matter and methods for producing magnetic fields." From January 1925, Kapitsa was deputy director of the Cavendish Laboratory for magnetic research. In 1929 Kapitsa was elected a full member of the Royal Society of London. In November 1930, the Council of the Royal Society decides to allocate £15,000 for the construction of a special laboratory for Kapitza in Cambridge. The inauguration of the Mond Laboratory (named after the industrialist and philanthropist Mond) took place on February 3, 1933. Kapitsa is elected Messel Professor of the Royal Society. The leader of the Conservative Party of England, former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, in his speech at the opening, noted:

We are happy that Professor Kapitsa, who so brilliantly combines both a physicist and an engineer, is working for us as the director of the laboratory. We are convinced that under his able leadership the new laboratory will contribute to the knowledge of natural processes.

Kapitsa maintains ties with the USSR and promotes international scientific exchange of experience in every possible way. In the "International Series of Monographs in Physics" Oxford University Press, one of the editors of which was Kapitsa, monographs by Georgy Gamow, Yakov Frenkel, Nikolai Semyonov are published. Julius Khariton and Kirill Sinelnikov come to England at his invitation for an internship.

Image of a crocodile on the wall of the Cavendish Laboratory.

Return to the USSR

Numerous cases of non-return of Soviet scientists did not go unnoticed. In 1936, V. N. Ipatiev and A. E. Chichibabin were deprived of Soviet citizenship and expelled from the Academy of Sciences because they remained abroad after a business trip. A similar story with young scientists G. A. Gamov and F. G. Dobzhansky had a wide resonance in scientific circles.

Kapitsa's activities in Cambridge did not go unnoticed. Of particular concern to the authorities was the fact that Kapitsa provided advice to European industrialists. According to historian Vladimir Esakov, long before 1934, a plan was developed related to Kapitsa, and Stalin knew about it. From August to October 1934, a number of Politburo resolutions were adopted, signed by Kaganovich, ordering to detain the scientist in the USSR. The final resolution read:

Based on the considerations that Kapitsa renders significant services to the British, informing them about the situation in the science of the USSR, as well as the fact that he provides British firms, including the military, with the largest services, selling them his patents and working on their orders, to prohibit P L. Kapitsa departure from the USSR.

Until 1934, Kapitsa and his family lived in England and regularly came to the USSR to rest and see relatives. The government of the USSR several times offered him to stay in his homeland, but the scientist invariably refused. At the end of August, Pyotr Leonidovich, as in previous years, was going to visit his mother and take part in an international congress dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dmitry Mendeleev.

After arriving in Leningrad on September 21, 1934, Kapitsa was summoned to Moscow, to the Council of People's Commissars, where he met with Pyatakov. The Deputy People's Commissar for Heavy Industry recommended that the proposal to remain be carefully considered. Kapitsa refused, and he was sent to a higher authority to Mezhlauk. The chairman of the State Planning Commission informed the scientist that it was impossible to travel abroad and the visa had been cancelled. Kapitsa was forced to move in with his mother, and his wife, Anna Alekseevna, went to Cambridge to live with her children alone. The English press, commenting on what happened, wrote that Professor Kapitsa was forcibly detained in the USSR.

Kapitsa (left) and Semyonov (right). In the autumn 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. The young scientists paid the artist for a rub with a sack of millet and a rooster.

Pyotr Leonidovich was deeply disappointed. At first, I even wanted to leave physics and switch to biophysics, becoming Pavlov's assistant. Appealed for help and intervention to Paul Langevin, Albert Einstein and Ernest Rutherford. In a letter to Rutherford, he wrote that he had barely recovered from the shock of what had happened, and thanked the teacher for helping his family, who remained in England. Rutherford, in a letter to the plenipotentiary of the USSR in England, asked for clarification - why the famous physicist was denied a return to Cambridge. In a reply letter, he was informed that Kapitsa's return to the USSR was dictated by the accelerated development of Soviet science and industry planned in the five-year plan.

1934-1941

The first months in the USSR were difficult - there was no work and certainty with the future. I had to live in the cramped conditions of a communal apartment with the mother of Peter Leonidovich. His friends helped him a lot at that moment Nikolai Semyonov, Alexei Bakh, Fedor Shcherbatskoy. Gradually, Pyotr Leonidovich came to his senses and agreed to continue working in his specialty. As a condition, he demanded that the Mondo laboratory, where he worked, be moved to the USSR. If Rutherford refuses to transfer or sell the equipment, duplicates of the unique instruments will need to be purchased. By decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, 30 thousand pounds were allocated for the purchase of equipment.

In his letters of the late 1930s, Kapitsa admitted that the opportunities for work in the USSR were inferior to those that were abroad - this is even despite the fact that he received a scientific institution at his disposal and practically had no problems with financing. It was depressing that problems that were solved in England with a single phone call were mired in bureaucracy. The sharp statements of the scientist and the exceptional conditions created for him by the authorities did not contribute to the establishment of mutual understanding with colleagues in the academic environment.

The situation is oppressive. Interest in my work fell, and on the other hand, fellow scientists became so indignant that attempts were made, at least in words, to put my work in conditions that simply had to be considered normal, that they are outraged without hesitation: “If<бы>they did the same to us, then we will not do the same as Kapitsa ”... In addition to envy, suspicion and everything else, the atmosphere was created impossible and downright creepy ... Local scientists definitely have an unfriendly attitude towards my moving here.

In 1935, Kapitsa's candidacy was not even considered for elections to full members of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He repeatedly writes notes and letters about the possibilities of reforming Soviet science and the academic system to government officials, but does not receive a clear response. Several times Kapitsa took part in meetings of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, but, as he himself recalled, after two or three times"eliminated". In organizing the work of the Institute for Physical Problems, Kapitsa did not receive any serious help and relied mainly on his own strength.

In January 1936, Anna Alekseevna returned from England with her children, and the Kapitsa family moved to a cottage built on the territory of the institute. By March 1937, the construction of a new institute was completed, most of the instruments were transported and installed, and Kapitsa returned to active scientific work. At the same time, at the Institute of Physical Problems, a “kapichnik” began to work - the famous seminar of Pyotr Leonidovich, which soon gained all-Union fame.

In January 1938, Kapitsa published an article in the journal Nature about a fundamental discovery - the phenomenon of superfluidity of liquid helium - and continued research in a new direction in physics. At the same time, the staff of the Institute, headed by Petr Leonidovich, is actively working on a purely practical task of improving the design new installation for the production of liquid air and oxygen - a turboexpander. The fundamentally new approach of the academician to the functioning of cryogenic installations causes heated discussions both in the USSR and abroad. However, Kapitsa's activities are approved, and the institute he heads is held up as an example of the effective organization of the scientific process. At the general meeting of the Department of Mathematical and Natural Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences on January 24, 1939, by unanimous vote, Kapitsa was accepted as a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa on a Russian postage stamp, 1994

War and post-war years

During the war, the IFP was evacuated to Kazan, where the family of Pyotr Leonidovich moved from Leningrad. During the war years, the need for the production of liquid oxygen from air on an industrial scale increases dramatically. Kapitsa is working on the introduction into production of the oxygen cryogenic plant he developed. In 1942, the first copy of "Object No. 1" - the TK-200 turbo-oxygen unit with a capacity of up to 200 kg / h of liquid oxygen - was manufactured and put into operation in early 1943. In 1945, "Object No. 2" was commissioned - the TK-2000 installation with a capacity ten times greater.

At his suggestion, on May 8, 1943, by a decree of the State Defense Committee, the Main Directorate for Oxygen under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was created, and Pyotr Kapitsa was appointed head of the Chief Oxygen. In 1945, a special institute for oxygen engineering, VNIIKIMASH, was organized and a new magazine, Oxygen, began to be published. In 1945 he received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, and the institute he headed was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

In addition to practical activities, Kapitsa also finds time for teaching. On October 1, 1943, Kapitsa was enrolled as head of the Department of Low Temperatures at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University. In 1944, at the time of the change of the head of the department, he became the main author of a letter to 14 academicians, which drew the attention of the government to the situation at the Department of Theoretical Physics of the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University. As a result, not Anatoly Vlasov, but Vladimir Fok became the head of the department after Igor Tamm. After working in this position for a short time, Fock left this post two months later. Kapitsa signed a letter from four academicians to Molotov, the author of which was A.F. Ioffe. This letter initiated the resolution of the confrontation between the so-called "academic" And "university" physics.

Meanwhile, in the second half of 1945, immediately after the end of the war, the Soviet atomic project enters the active phase. On August 20, 1945, an atomic Special Committee was created under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, headed by Lavrenty Beria. The committee initially included only two physicists. Kurchatov was appointed scientific director of all works. Kapitsa, who was not a specialist in nuclear physics, was assigned to lead certain areas (low-temperature technology for the separation of uranium isotopes). Kapitsa immediately becomes dissatisfied with the methods of Beria's leadership. He speaks very impartially and sharply about the General Commissar of State Security - both personally and professionally. On October 3, 1945, Kapitsa wrote a letter to Stalin with a request to release him from work in the Committee. There was no answer. November 25 Kapitsa writes a second letter, more detailed (on 8 pages). December 21, 1945 Stalin authorizes Kapitsa's resignation.

Actually, in the second letter, Kapitsa described how, in his opinion, it was necessary to implement the nuclear project, defining in detail the action plan for two years. According to the biographers of the academician, Kapitsa at that time did not know that Kurchatov and Beria at that time already had data on the American atomic program received by Soviet intelligence. The plan proposed by Kapitsa, although it was fast enough in execution, was not fast enough for the current political situation around the development of the first Soviet atomic bomb. In the historical literature, it is often mentioned that Stalin handed over to Beria, who offered to arrest the independent and sharp-minded academician "I'll take it off for you, but don't touch it." Authoritative biographers of Pyotr Leonidovich do not confirm the historical accuracy of such words of Stalin, although it is known that Kapitsa allowed himself behavior that was completely exceptional for a Soviet scientist and citizen. According to historian Lauren Graham, Stalin valued directness and frankness in Kapitsa. Despite the severity of the problems raised by them, Kapitsa kept his messages to the Soviet leaders secret (the content of most of the letters was disclosed after his death) and did not widely promote his ideas.

At the same time, in 1945-1946, the controversy around the turboexpander and the industrial production of liquid oxygen again intensified. Kapitsa enters into a discussion with leading Soviet cryogenic engineers who do not recognize him as a specialist in this field. The State Commission recognizes the promise of Kapitsa's developments, but believes that the launch into an industrial series will be premature. Kapitza's installations are dismantled, and the project is frozen.

On August 17, 1946, Kapitsa was removed from the post of director of the IFP. He retires to the state dacha, to Nikolina Gora. Instead of Kapitsa, Alexandrov was appointed director of the institute. According to Academician Feinberg, at that time Kapitsa was "in exile, under house arrest". The dacha was the property of Pyotr Leonidovich, but the property and furniture inside were mostly state-owned and were almost completely taken out. In 1950, he was also dismissed from the Faculty of Physics and Technology of Moscow State University, where he lectured.

In his memoirs, Pyotr Leonidovich wrote about persecution by law enforcement agencies, direct surveillance initiated by Lavrenty Beria. Nevertheless, the academician does not leave scientific activity and continues research in the field of low temperature physics, separation of uranium and hydrogen isotopes, and improves knowledge in mathematics. Thanks to the assistance of the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Sergei Vavilov, it was possible to obtain a minimum set of laboratory equipment and mount it in the country. In numerous letters to Molotov and Malenkov, Kapitsa writes about experiments carried out in artisanal conditions and asks for the opportunity to return to normal work. In December 1949, Kapitsa, despite the invitation, ignored the solemn meeting at Moscow State University dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Stalin.

Last years

The situation changed only in 1953 after the death of Stalin and the arrest of Beria. On June 3, 1955, after a meeting with Khrushchev, Kapitsa returned to the post of director of the IFP. At the same time, he was appointed editor-in-chief of the country's leading physics journal, the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics. Since 1956, Kapitsa has been one of the organizers and the first head of the Department of Physics and Low Temperature Engineering at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In 1957-1984 he was a member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Kapitsa continues active scientific and pedagogical activity. During this period, the scientist's attention was attracted by the properties of plasma, the hydrodynamics of thin layers of liquid, and even the nature of ball lightning. He continues to lead his seminar, where the best physicists of the country were considered an honor to speak. "Kapichnik" became, in a way, a scientific club where not only physicists were invited, but also representatives of other sciences, cultural and art figures.

In addition to achievements in science, Kapitsa proved himself as an administrator and organizer. Under his leadership, the Institute for Physical Problems became one of the most productive institutions of the USSR Academy of Sciences and attracted many of the country's leading specialists. In 1964, the academician expressed the idea of ​​​​creating a popular scientific publication for young people. The first issue of the Kvant magazine was published in 1970. Kapitsa took part in the creation of the research center of Akademgorodok near Novosibirsk, and the higher educational institution new type - . After a long controversy in the late 1940s, the gas liquefaction plants built by Kapitza found wide application in industry. The use of oxygen for oxygen blasting led to a revolution in the steel industry.

In 1965, for the first time after more than thirty years, Kapitsa received permission to leave the Soviet Union for Denmark to receive the Niels Bohr International Gold Medal. There he visited scientific laboratories and delivered a lecture on high energy physics. In 1969, the scientist and his wife visited the United States for the first time.

In recent years, Kapitsa has become interested in controlled thermonuclear reaction. In 1978, Academician Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for fundamental inventions and discoveries in the field of low temperature physics." The news of the award was received by the academician during his vacation at the Barvikha sanatorium. Kapitsa, contrary to tradition, devoted his Nobel speech not to those 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 carried away by other ideas. The Nobel speech of the laureate was called "Plasma and controlled thermonuclear reaction" (Plasma and the controlled thermonuclear reaction). Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa recalled that his father completely left the bonus to himself (put it in his name in one of the Swedish banks) and did not give anything to the state.

These observations led to the idea that ball lightning is also a phenomenon created by high-frequency oscillations that occur in thunderclouds after ordinary lightning. In this way, the energy needed to maintain the continuous glow of ball lightning was supplied. This hypothesis was published in 1955. A few years later we had the opportunity to resume these experiments. In March 1958, already in a spherical resonator filled with helium at atmospheric pressure, in the resonant regime with intense continuous oscillations of the Hox type, a free-floating oval gas discharge arose. This discharge was formed in the region of the maximum electric field and slowly moved in a circle coinciding with the line of force.

original text(English)

These observations led us to the suggestion that the ball lightening may be due to high frequency waves, produced by a thunderstorm cloud after the conventional lightening discharge. Thus the necessary energy is produced for sustaining the extensive luminosity, observed in a ball lightening. This was a hypothesis published in 1955. After some years we were in a position to resume our experiments. In March 1958 in a spherical resonator filled with helium at atmospheric pressure under resonance conditions with intense H, oscillations we obtained a free gas discharge, oval in form. This discharge was formed in the region of the maximum of the electric field and slowly moved following the circular lines of force.

Fragment of Kapitza's Nobel lecture.

On March 22, 1984, Pyotr Leonidovich felt unwell and was taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a stroke. On April 8, without regaining consciousness, Kapitsa died. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Scientific legacy

Works 1920-1980

Stamp of Russia, 2000. Kapitsa's experience in measuring the characteristics of liquid helium is demonstrated. We made a device like a Segner wheel with several legs coming out of the total volume, and then heated inner part this vessel with a beam of light. Such a "spider" has set in motion. Thus the heat was transferred into motion .

One of the first significant scientific works(together with Nikolai Semyonov, 1918) is devoted to measuring the magnetic moment of an atom in an inhomogeneous magnetic field, which was improved in 1922 in the so-called Stern-Gerlach experiment.

While working in Cambridge, Kapitsa came to grips with the study of superstrong magnetic fields and their influence on the trajectory of elementary particles. One of the first Kapitsa in 1923 placed a cloud chamber in a strong magnetic field and observed the curvature of the tracks of alpha particles. In 1924, he received a magnetic field with an induction of 32 tesla in a volume of 2 cm 3. In 1928, he formulated the law of linear increase in the electrical resistance of a number of metals from the magnetic field strength (Kapitsa's law).

The creation of equipment for studying the effects associated with the influence of strong magnetic fields on the properties of matter, in particular on magnetic resistance, led Kapitsa to the problems of low temperature physics. To carry out experiments, first of all, it was necessary to have a significant amount of liquefied gases. The methods that existed in the 1920s and 1930s were ineffective. Developing fundamentally new refrigeration machines and installations, Kapitsa in 1934, using an original engineering approach, built a high-performance gas liquefaction plant. He managed to develop a process that eliminated the phase of compression and high air purification. Now it was not required to compress the air up to 200 atmospheres - five were enough. Due to this, it was possible to increase the efficiency from 0.65 to 0.85-0.90, and reduce the price of the installation by almost ten times. In the course of work on the improvement of the turbo expander, it was possible to overcome an interesting engineering problem of freezing of the lubricant of moving parts at low temperatures - liquid helium itself was used for lubrication. The scientist made a significant contribution not only to the development of an experimental sample, but also to bringing the technology to mass production.

In the post-war years, Kapitsa was attracted by high-power electronics. He developed the general theory of electronic devices of the magnetron type and created continuous magnetron generators. Kapitsa put forward a hypothesis about the nature of ball lightning. Experimentally discovered the formation of high-temperature plasma in a high-frequency discharge. Kapitsa expressed a number original ideas, for example - the destruction of nuclear weapons in the air with the help of powerful beams of electromagnetic waves. In recent years, he worked on the issues of thermonuclear fusion and the problem of confining high-temperature plasma in a magnetic field.

Discovery of superfluidity

Historians of science, talking about the events at the turn of 1937-1938, note that there are some controversial points in the competition between the priorities of Kapitsa and Allen and Jones. Pyotr Leonidovich formally sent materials to Nature before his foreign competitors - the editors received them on December 3, 1937, but were in no hurry to publish, waiting for verification. Knowing that the check could be delayed, Kapitsa clarified in a letter that the proofs could be checked by John Cockcroft, director of the Mond laboratory. Cockcroft, having read the article, informed his employees, Allen and Jones, about it, urging them to publish it. Cockcroft, a close friend of Kapitsa, was surprised that Kapitsa only at the last moment let him know about the fundamental discovery. It is worth noting that back in June 1937, in a letter to Niels Bohr, Kapitsa reported that he had made significant progress in the study of liquid helium.

As a result, both articles were published in the same issue of Nature on January 8, 1938. They reported an abrupt change in the viscosity of helium at temperatures below 2.17 Kelvin. The complexity of the problem solved by the scientists was that the exact measurement of the viscosity of a liquid that freely flowed into a half-micron hole was not easy to estimate. The resulting turbulence of the liquid introduced a significant error in the measurement. Scientists professed a different experimental approach. Allen and Meisner considered the behavior of helium-II in thin capillaries (the same technique was used by the discoverer of liquid helium Kamerling-Onnes). Kapitsa investigated the behavior of the fluid between two polished discs and estimated the resulting viscosity to be less than 10 −9 . Kapitsa called the new phase state the superfluidity of helium. The Soviet scientist did not deny that the contribution to the discovery was largely joint. For example, in his lecture, Kapitsa emphasized that the unique phenomenon of helium-II spouting was first observed and described by Alain and Meizner.

These works were followed by a theoretical substantiation of the observed phenomenon. It was given in 1939-1941 by Lev Landau, Fritz London and Laszlo Tissa, who proposed the so-called two-fluid model. Kapitsa himself in 1938-1941 continued research on helium-II, in particular, confirming the speed of sound predicted by Landau in liquid helium. The study of liquid helium as a quantum liquid (Bose-Einstein condensate) has become an important direction in physics, which has given rise to a number of remarkable scientific papers. Lev Landau received the Nobel Prize in 1962 in recognition of his contribution to the construction of a theoretical model for the superfluidity of liquid helium.

Niels Bohr recommended the candidacy of Petr Leonidovich to the Nobel Committee three times: in 1948, 1956 and 1960. However, the prize was awarded only in 1978. The controversial situation with the priority of the discovery, according to many researchers of science, led the Nobel Committee to delay for many years the award of the prize to the Soviet physicist. Allen and Meisner were not awarded the prize, although the scientific community recognizes their important contribution to the discovery of the phenomenon.

civil position

Historians of science and those who knew Pyotr Leonidovich closely described him as a multifaceted and unique personality. He combined many qualities: the intuition and engineering instinct of an experimental physicist; pragmatism and business approach of the organizer of science; independence of judgment in dealing with the authorities .

If it was necessary to resolve some organizational issues, Kapitsa preferred not to make a phone call, but to write a letter and clearly state the essence of the matter. This form of appeal required an equally clear written response. Kapitsa believed that it was more difficult to wrap up a case in a letter than in telephone conversation. In defending his civic position, Kapitsa was consistent and persistent, writing about 300 messages to the top leaders of the USSR, touching on the most pressing topics. As Yuri Osipyan wrote, he knew how it is reasonable to combine destructive pathos with creative activity .

There are examples of how, in the difficult times of the 1930s, Kapitsa defended his colleagues who fell under the suspicion of law enforcement agencies. Academicians Fock and Landau owe Kapitsa's release. Landau was released from the NKVD prison under the personal guarantee of Pyotr Leonidovich. The formal pretext was the need for support from a theoretical physicist to substantiate the model of superconductivity. Meanwhile, the accusations against Landau were extremely serious, since he openly opposed the authorities and really participated in the distribution of materials critical of the dominant ideology.

Kapitsa also defended the disgraced Andrei Sakharov. In 1968, at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Keldysh called on members of the academy to condemn Sakharov, and Kapitsa spoke in his defense, stating that one cannot speak out against a person if one could not first get acquainted with what he wrote. In 1978, when Keldysh once again offered Kapitsa to sign a collective letter, he remembered how the Prussian Academy of Sciences excluded Einstein from its membership and refused to sign the letter.

On February 8, 1956 (two weeks before the XX Congress of the CPSU), Nikolai Timofeev-Resovsky and Igor Tamm made a report on the problems of modern genetics at a meeting of Kapitsa's physics seminar. For the first time since 1948, an official scientific meeting was held on the problems of the disgraced science of genetics, which Lysenko's supporters tried to disrupt in the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences and in the Central Committee of the CPSU. Kapitsa entered into a debate with Lysenko, trying to offer him an improved method for experimentally testing the perfection of the square-nested tree planting method. In 1973, Kapitsa addressed Andropov in a letter with a request to release the wife of the famous dissident Vadim Delaunay. Kapitsa took an active part in the Pugwash Movement, advocating the use of science exclusively for peaceful purposes.

Kapitsa always believed that the continuity of generations in science is of great importance, and the life of a scientist in a scientific environment acquires real meaning if he leaves his students. He strongly encouraged work with youth and education of personnel. So in the 1930s, when liquid helium was a rarity even in the best laboratories in the world, students of Moscow State University could get it in the IFP laboratory for experiments.

Family and personal life

Mother - Olga Ieronimovna Kapitsa (1866-1937), nee Stebnitskaya, teacher, specialist in children's literature and folklore. Her father Ieronim Ivanovich Stebnitsky (1832-1897) - cartographer, corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, was the chief cartographer and surveyor of the Caucasus, so she was born in Tiflis. Then from Tiflis she came to St. Petersburg and entered the Bestuzhev courses. She taught at the preschool department.

In 1916, Kapitsa married Nadezhda Chernosvitova. Her father, member of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party, deputy of the State Duma Kirill Chernosvitov, was later, in 1919, shot. From the first marriage, Peter Leonidovich had children:

• Jerome (June 22, 1917 - December 13, 1919, Petrograd)
• Nadezhda (January 6, 1920 - January 8, 1920, Petrograd).

In October 1926, in Paris, Kapitsa became closely acquainted with Anna Krylova (1903-1996). In April 1927 they got married. Interestingly, Anna Krylova was the first to make a marriage proposal. Her father, Academician Alexei Nikolaevich Krylov, Pyotr Leonidovich knew for a very long time, since the commission of 1921. From the second marriage, two sons were born in the Kapitsa family:

• Sergei (February 14, 1928, Cambridge - August 14, 2012, Moscow)
• Andrei (July 9, 1931, Cambridge - August 2, 2011, Moscow).

They returned to the USSR in January 1936.

Together with Anna Alekseevna, Pyotr Leonidovich lived for 57 years. The wife helped Peter Leonidovich in the preparation of manuscripts. After the death of the scientist, she organized a museum in his house.

In his free time, Pyotr Leonidovich was fond of chess. While working in England, he won the Cambridgeshire County Chess Championship. He liked to make household utensils and furniture in his own workshop. Repaired antique clock.

Awards and prizes

• Hero of Socialist Labor (1945, 1974)
• Stalin Prize (1941, 1943)
• Gold medal to them. Lomonosov Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1959)
• Medals named after Faraday (England, 1943), Franklin (USA, 1944), Niels Bohr (Denmark, 1965), Rutherford (England, 1966), Kamerling-Onnes (Netherlands, 1968)

6 Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labor

Bibliography

• “Everything simple is true” (To the 100th anniversary of the birth of P. L. Kapitsa). ed. P. Rubinina, Moscow: MIPT, 1994. ISBN 5-7417-0003-9

Books about P. L. Kapitsa

• Baldin A. M. and others.: Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa. Memories. Letters. Documentation.
• Esakov V. D., Rubinin P. E. Kapitsa, the Kremlin and Science. - M .: Nauka, 2003. - T. T. 1: Creation of the Institute of Physical Problems: 1934-1938. - 654 p. - ISBN 5-02-006281-2
• Dobrovolsky E. N.: Kapitza's handwriting.
• Kedrov F. B.: Kapitsa. Life and discoveries.
• Andronikashvili E. L. In: Memories of Liquid Helium.

Memory

• The Russian Academy of Sciences established the P. L. Kapitsa Gold Medal
• Aircraft A330 VQ-BMV named in honor of P. L. Kapitza in the fleet of JSC Aeroflot
• In the city of Kronstadt, a monument-bust was erected to a native of the city, Academician Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa. The bust was opened during his lifetime, on June 18, 1979 (twice Heroes in the USSR were supposed to install a bust in their homeland). Sculptor - A. Portyanko, architects - V. Bogdanov and L. Kapitsa.

Notes

1. Pyotr Kapitsa (Russian) . people.ru archived
2. Igor Zotikov. Three houses of Peter Kapitza (Russian) // New world. - 1995. - No. 7. - S. 55-56. - ISSN 0032-874X.
3. S. Mussky. 100 Great Nobel Laureates. - M .: Veche, 2009. - 480 p. - ISBN 978-5-9533-3857-8
4. Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa. Documentary film from the series "Historical Chronicles" with Nikolai Svanidze // RTR channel
5. Robert Wood (Russian) . First channel . Archived from the original on 3 February 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
6. Pavel Rubinin A free man in an unfree country (Russian) //
7. , With. 545
8. , With. 546
9. Nobel Prize Winners. Encyclopedia. - M .: Progress, 1992. - 775 p. - ISBN 5-01-002539-6
10. A.A. Kapitsa. We needed each other... (Russian) // Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - 2000. - T. 70. - No. 11. - S. 1027-1043.
11. Boris Kustodiev. Favorite picture. (Russian). Archived from the original on 3 February 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
12. Evgeny Feinberg Monologues about Kapitsa (Russian) // Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - 1994. - T. 64. - No. 6. - S. 497-510.
13. , With. 547
14. Biography of Peter Kapitza (Russian). to-name.ru. Archived from the original on 3 February 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
15. , With. 548
16. , With. 28
17. Evgeny Feinberg Landau, Kapitsa and Stalin. To the 90th anniversary of L.D. Landau (Russian) // Nature. - 1998. - No. 1. - S. 65-75.
18. Victor Brodyansky Oxygen epic (Russian) // Nature. - 1994. - № 4.
19. Pavel Rubinin Twenty-two reports of Academician P.L. Kapitsa (Russian) // Chemistry and life. - 1985. - № 3-5.
20. Yu.P. Gaidukov, N.P. Danilova, N.P. Danilova, Moscow State University On the history of the creation of the Department of Low Temperature Physics of the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University (Russian) . Archived from the original on 3 February 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
21. Vladimir Esakov Episodes from the History of the Atomic Project Archivist's Notes (Russian) // Nature. - 2003. - № 10.
22. Hargittai, M. Hargittai, I. candid science four. - Imperial College Press, 2001. - V. 6. - 1612 p. - ISBN 9781860944161
23. Yuri Osipyan Monologues about Kapitsa (Russian) // Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - 1994. - T. 64. - No. 6. - S. 497-510.