Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa continued the scientific work of the dynasty of Russian scientists. He conducted educational activities, studied physics, was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (vice president). From the pen of Sergei Kapitsa, the journal "In the world of science" was published. For 39 years, Sergei Kapitsa hosted the TV show "Obvious-Incredible" and did not leave the post until his death.

Childhood and youth

Sergey Petrovich Kapitsa was born on February 14, 1928 in Cambridge. The scientist's parents were a professor, Nobel Prize winner and Anna Alekseevna Krylova, a housewife, daughter of Alexei Nikolaevich Krylov. Maternal grandfather reached heights in shipbuilding and mechanics, was an academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences / Russian Academy of Sciences / Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The younger brother - Andrei Petrovich Kapitsa - achieved heights in geography and geomorphology, since 1970 - a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

The brothers were baptized in infancy. The Russian physiologist became the godfather of little Sergey. At the age of seven, the future scientist went to the Cambridge School. In 1934, Pyotr Leonidovich left for Russia on business and did not return. The authorities of the country did not release Father Sergei from the USSR to England. And a year after her husband's departure, Anna Alekseevna and her sons went to her husband in Moscow.

During the terrible period of the Second World War, Kapitsa and his family left for Kazan and remained in the city until the end of hostilities. Sergei Petrovich studied in the form of an external student and received a certificate in 1943, at the age of 15. Then, returning to the capital again, he applied to the Aviation Institute and studied at the Faculty of Aircraft Engineering.

The science

After graduating in 1949, he worked for two years at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after N.E. Zhukovsky, where he studied the problems of heat transfer and aerodynamic heating at high flow rates. Then, for two years, he conducted research work, holding the position of junior researcher at the Institute of Geophysics.

In 1953 he began research at the Institute of Physical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the SSR (RAS). After some time, he was entrusted with managing the laboratory. This was followed by the position of leading researcher and next - the chief researcher. He worked at the Institute of Physical Problems until 1992. In 1953 he received his Ph.D. in physical and mathematical sciences.

Since 1956, he taught classes at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In 1961, he defended his doctorate in physical and mathematical sciences on the topic "Microtron", after which Sergei Petrovich was awarded the title of professor. He held the position of head of the department of general physics at the Institute of Physics and Technology. Sergey Petrovich Kapitsa is a supporter of independent activity of students and, as head of the department, introduced a similar approach into educational practice.

In 1957, he became interested, and then took up swimming under water. He was one of the first founders of the Soviet scuba gear and even mastered the scuba. Subsequently, he received a diver's certificate under the number 0002.

Sergei Kapitsa did not bypass the world of literature. The first published book, A Life of Science, was published in 1973. It contains introductory words and prefaces of the educator to world scientific works, starting with and. The publication of the book became a prerequisite for the creation of the brainchild of Sergei Kapitsa - the scientific program "Obvious-incredible". In 2008, Kapitsa was awarded the prestigious TEFI award as the permanent host of the TV program. The achievements of the researcher in the development of Russian television were noted.

In 1983, the researcher organized a journal, which he called "In the world of science", and became the head of the printed edition. In 2000 he founded the Nikitsky Club. The association was created to rally the great minds of Russia.

In 2006, Sergei Kapitsa was invited to the presidency of the World of Knowledge International Festival of Popular Science Films.

Shortly before his death, the scientist took up the problems of modern society, globalization and demography, published articles on this issue and published the book "The General Theory of Population Growth".

Sergei Petrovich played a significant role in the development of cliodynamics. The name of Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa is known to every novice researcher. He is the main popularizer of science in the country, and quotes and statements of the professor are found in scientific treatises.

Personal life

The personal life of the scientist was successful. In 1949 he married Tatyana Alimovna Damir. The girl was brought up in the family of a doctor Alim Matveyevich Damir. The future spouses first met while relaxing at a country dacha with friends in 1948. A year later, Sergei Petrovich made an offer of marriage to Tatyana Alimovna, and soon they got married.

Sergey Petrovich and Tatyana Alimovna built a strong family and lived together for 63 years. The couple had three children - the heir Fedor and two beautiful daughters - Maria and Barbara. Over the years of living together, Tatyana Alimovna became a true friend and colleague for her husband. Once an interviewer asked the professor which of his achievements he considers the greatest, and Sergei Petrovich, without hesitation, answered: "Marrying Tanya."

In 1986, the professor was unsuccessfully assassinated by a mentally ill person. The attacker came to the lecture hall and attacked Sergei Kapitsa with an axe. The scientist was seriously injured and was taken to the hospital, but then went back to work.

In 2008, a book-biography of Sergei Kapitsa "My memories" appeared in stores. In his memoirs, he described in detail his life and the difficulties he faced. In the publication, the professor shared a photo from the family archive.

Death

Sergey Petrovich Kapitsa died on August 14, 2012 in Moscow at the age of 84. The cause of death was liver cancer. Tatyana Alimovna lived a year after the death of her husband and passed away on August 28, 2013. In honor of the scientist, a memorial plaque was opened on February 14, 2013.

Awards and achievements

Scientific activity

• Author of 4 monographs, dozens of articles, 14 inventions and 1 discovery.
• 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.

Awards and prizes

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

Bibliography

• 1981 - Science and the media
• 2000 - Model of the growth of the Earth's population and the economic development of mankind
• 2004 - Global demographic revolution and the future of humanity
• 2004 - On the acceleration of historical time
• 2005 - Asymptotic methods and their strange interpretation.
• 2005 - Global demographic revolution
• 2006 - Global population blow-up and after. The demographic revolution and information society.
• 2007 - Demographic Revolution and Russia.
• 2010 - Paradoxes of growth: Laws of human development.

Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa

Kapitsa Petr Leonidovich (1894-1984), Russian physicist, one of the founders of low temperature physics and physics of strong magnetic fields, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1945, 1974). In 1921-34 on a scientific trip to Great Britain. Organizer and first director (1935-46 and since 1955) of the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Discovered the superfluidity of liquid helium (1938). Developed a method for liquefying air using a turbo expander, a new type of powerful microwave generator. He discovered that a stable plasma filament with an electron temperature of 105-106 K is formed during a high-frequency discharge in dense gases. USSR State Prize (1941, 1943), Nobel Prize (1978). Lomonosov Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1959).

Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa was born on July 9, 1894 in Kronstadt in the family of a military engineer, General Leonid Petrovich Kapitsa, builder of the Kronstadt fortifications. Peter first studied for a year at the gymnasium, and then at the Kronstadt real school.

In 1912, Kapitsa entered the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. In the same year, Kapitsa's first article appeared in the Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society.

In 1918, Ioffe founded in Petrograd one of the first scientific research institutes for physics in Russia. After graduating from the Polytechnic Institute in the same year, Peter was left in it as a teacher of the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics.

Soviet physicist Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was born in Kronstadt, a naval fortress located on an island in the Gulf of Finland near St. Petersburg, where his father Leonid Petrovich Kapitsa, lieutenant general of the engineering corps, served. Mother K. Olga Ieronimovna Kapitsa (Stebnitskaya) was a famous teacher and collector of folklore. After graduating from high school in Kronstadt, K. entered the faculty of electrical engineers at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1918. The next three years he taught at the same institute. Under the leadership of A.F. Ioffe, who was the first in Russia to start research in the field of atomic physics, K., together with his classmate Nikolai Semenov, developed a method for measuring the magnetic moment of an atom in a non-uniform magnetic field, which in 1921 was improved by Otto Stern.

Student years and the beginning of teaching K. fell on the October Revolution and the Civil War. It was a time of disaster, famine and epidemics. During one of these epidemics, K.'s young wife, Nadezhda Chernosvitova, whom they married in 1916, and their two small children died. Ioffe insisted that K. need to go abroad, but the revolutionary government did not give permission for this until Maxim Gorky, the most influential Russian writer at that time, intervened. In 1921, Mr.. K. allowed to go to England, where he became an employee of Ernest Rutherford, who worked at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University. K. quickly won the respect of Rutherford and became his friend.

The first studies conducted by K. in Cambridge, were devoted to the deflection of alpha and beta particles emitted by radioactive nuclei in a magnetic field. Experiments prompted him to create powerful electromagnets. By discharging an electric battery through a small coil of copper wire (in this case, a short circuit occurred), K. managed to obtain magnetic fields that were 6 ... 7 times greater than all the previous ones. The discharge did not lead to overheating or mechanical destruction of the device, because its duration was only about 0.01 seconds.

The creation of unique equipment for measuring temperature effects associated with the influence of strong magnetic fields on the properties of matter, such as magnetic resistance, led to. to study the problems of low temperature physics. To achieve such temperatures, it was necessary to have a large amount of liquefied gases. Developing fundamentally new refrigeration machines and installations, K. used all his remarkable talent as a physicist and engineer. The pinnacle of his creativity in this area was the creation in 1934 of an unusually productive installation for the liquefaction of helium, which boils (turns from a liquid state into a gaseous state) or liquefies (turns from a gaseous state into a liquid state) at a temperature of about 4.3K. The liquefaction of this gas was considered the most difficult. Liquid helium was first obtained in 1908 by the Dutch physicist Heike Kammerling-Onnes. But the K. installation was capable of producing 2 liters of liquid helium per hour, while the Kammerling-Onnes method required several days to obtain a small amount of it with impurities. In the K. installation, helium undergoes rapid expansion and cools before the heat of the environment has time to warm it; then the expanded helium enters the machine for further processing. K. also managed to overcome the problem of freezing of the lubricant of moving parts at low temperatures, using liquid helium itself for these purposes.

In Cambridge, the scientific authority of K. grew rapidly. He successfully moved up the steps of the academic hierarchy. In 1923, Mr.. K. became a doctor of science and received a prestigious scholarship from James Clerk Maxwell. In 1924 he was appointed Associate Director of the Cavendish Laboratory for Magnetic Research, and in 1925 became a Fellow of Trinity College. In 1928, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR awarded K. the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and in 1929 elected him its corresponding member. The following year, K. becomes a research professor at the Royal Society of London. At the insistence of Rutherford, the Royal Society is building a new laboratory specifically for K. It was named the Mond Laboratory in honor of the German-born chemist and industrialist Ludwig Mond, whose funds, bequeathed to the Royal Society of London, were built. The opening of the laboratory took place in 1934. K. became its first director, but he was destined to work there for only one year.

Relations between K. and the Soviet government have always been rather mysterious and incomprehensible. During his thirteen-year stay in England, K. returned several times to the Soviet Union with his second wife, nee Anna Alekseevna Krylova, to give lectures, visit his mother and spend holidays in some Russian resort. Soviet officials repeatedly asked him to stay permanently in the USSR. K. was interested in such proposals, but put forward certain conditions, in particular the freedom to travel to the West, because of which the solution of the issue was postponed. At the end of the summer of 1934, K. and his wife once again came to the Soviet Union, but when the couple prepared to return to England, it turned out that their exit visas had been cancelled. After a furious but useless skirmish with officials in Moscow, K. was forced to stay in his homeland, and his wife was allowed to return to England to the children. Somewhat later, Anna Alekseevna joined her husband in Moscow, and the children followed her. Rutherford and other friends of K. appealed to the Soviet government with a request to allow him to leave to continue working in England, but in vain.

In 1935, Mr.. K. offered to become director of the newly created Institute of Physical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, but before giving his consent, K. refused the proposed post for almost a year. Rutherford, resigned to the loss of his outstanding collaborator, allowed the Soviet authorities to buy Mond's laboratory equipment and send it by sea to the USSR. Negotiations, transportation of equipment and its installation at the Institute of Physical Problems took several years.

K. resumed his research on low-temperature physics, including the properties of liquid helium. He designed installations for the liquefaction of other gases. In 1938, Mr.. K. improved a small turbine, very efficient liquefying air. He was able to detect an extraordinary decrease in the viscosity of liquid helium when cooled to a temperature below 2.17 K, at which it changes into a form called helium-2. The loss of viscosity allows it to flow freely through the smallest holes and even climb the walls of the container, as if "not feeling" the action of gravity. The absence of viscosity is also accompanied by an increase in thermal conductivity. K. called the new phenomenon he discovered superfluidity.

Two of K.'s former colleagues at the Cavendish Laboratory, J.F. Allen A.D. Mizener, performed similar studies. All three published articles summarizing their results in the same issue of the British magazine Nature. K.'s article in 1938 and two other papers published in 1942 are among his most important papers in low-temperature physics. K., who had an unusually high authority, boldly defended his views even during the purges carried out by Stalin in the late 30s. When in 1938, Lev Landau, an employee of the Institute for Physical Problems, was arrested on charges of spying for Nazi Germany, K. secured his release. To do this, he had to go to the Kremlin and threaten to resign from the post of director of the institute in case of refusal.

In his reports to the government representatives, K. openly criticized those decisions that he considered wrong. Little is known about K.'s activities during the Second World War in the West. In October 1941, he attracted public attention by issuing a warning about the possibility of building an atomic bomb. He may have been the first physicist to make such a claim. Subsequently, K. denied his participation in the creation of both atomic and hydrogen bombs. There is quite convincing evidence to back up his claims. It is unclear, however, whether his refusal was dictated by moral considerations or a difference of opinion as to the extent to which the proposed part of the project was consistent with the traditions and capabilities of the Institute for Physical Problems.

It is known that in 1945, when the Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and in the Soviet Union, work on the creation of nuclear weapons began with even greater energy, K. was removed from the post of director of the institute and was under house arrest for eight years. He was deprived of the opportunity to communicate with his colleagues from other research institutes. At his dacha, he equipped a small laboratory and continued to do research. Two years after Stalin's death, in 1955, he was reinstated as director of the Institute for Physical Problems and remained in this position until the end of his life.

Post-war scientific work K. cover a variety of areas of physics, including the hydrodynamics of thin layers of liquid and the nature of ball lightning, but his main interests are focused on microwave generators and the study of various properties of plasma. Plasma is commonly understood to mean gases heated to such a high temperature that their atoms lose electrons and turn into charged ions. Unlike neutral atoms and molecules of ordinary gas, ions are affected by large electric forces created by other ions, as well as electric and magnetic fields created by any external source. That is why plasma is sometimes considered a special form of matter. Plasma is used in fusion reactors operating at very high temperatures. In the 50's., While working on the creation of a microwave generator, K. discovered that high-intensity microwaves generate a clearly observed luminous discharge in helium. By measuring the temperature at the center of the helium discharge, he found that at a distance of several millimeters from the discharge boundary, the temperature changes by approximately 2,000,000 K. This discovery formed the basis for the design of a fusion reactor with continuous plasma heating. It is possible that such a reactor will be simpler and cheaper than pulsed fusion reactors used in other fusion experiments.

In addition to achievements in experimental physics, K. proved to be a brilliant administrator and educator. Under his leadership, the Institute for Physical Problems became one of the most productive and prestigious institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences, attracting many of the country's leading physicists. K. took part in the creation of a research center near Novosibirsk - Akademgorodok, and a new type of higher educational institution - the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Plants for liquefying gases built by K. found wide application in industry. The use of oxygen extracted from liquid air for oxygen blasting revolutionized the Soviet steel industry.

In his advanced years, K., who had never been a member of the Communist Party, using all his authority, criticized the tendency prevailing in the Soviet Union to make judgments on scientific issues based on non-scientific grounds. He opposed the construction of a pulp and paper mill, which threatened to pollute Lake Baikal with its wastewater; condemned the undertaken by the CPSU in the mid-60s. attempt to rehabilitate Stalin and, together with Andrei Sakharov and other members of the intelligentsia, signed a letter protesting the forced imprisonment of biologist Zhores Medvedev in a psychiatric hospital. K. was a member of the Soviet Committee of the Pugwash Movement for Peace and Disarmament. He also made several suggestions on how to overcome the alienation between Soviet and American sciences.

In 1965, for the first time after more than thirty years, K. received permission to leave the Soviet Union for Denmark to receive the Niels Bohr International Gold Medal awarded by the Danish Society of Civil Engineers, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. There he visited scientific laboratories and delivered a lecture on high energy physics. In 1966, Mr.. K. again visited England, in his old laboratories, shared his memories of Rutherford in a speech, which he spoke to members of the Royal Society of London. In 1969, Mr.. K. together with his wife for the first time made a trip to the United States.

K. was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978. "For fundamental inventions and discoveries in the field of low temperature physics." He shared his award with Arno A. Penzias and Robert W. Wilson. Introducing the laureates, Lamek Hulten of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences remarked: “K. stands before us as one of the greatest experimenters of our time, an undeniable pioneer, leader and master in his field.

In 1927, during his stay in England, K. married a second time. His wife was Anna Alekseevna Krylova, daughter of the famous shipbuilder, mechanic and mathematician Alexei Nikolaevich Krylov, who, on behalf of the government, was sent to England to oversee the construction of ships commissioned by Soviet Russia. The Kapitsa couple had two sons. Both of them later became scientists. In his youth, K., while in Cambridge, drove a motorcycle, smoked a pipe and wore tweed suits. He retained his English habits throughout his life. In Moscow, next to the Institute of Physical Problems, an English-style cottage was built for him. He ordered clothes and tobacco from England. In his spare time, K. liked to play chess and repair old clocks. He died April 8, 1984.

K. was awarded many awards and honorary titles both at home and in many countries around the world. He was an honorary doctor of eleven universities on four continents, was a member of many scientific societies, academies of the United States of America, the Soviet Union and most European countries, was the owner of numerous awards and prizes for his scientific and political activities, including seven Orders of Lenin.

Nobel Prize Laureates: Encyclopedia: Per. from English - M .: Progress, 1992.
© The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
© Translation into Russian with additions, Progress Publishing House, 1992.

In the USSR, the name of academician Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was well known, who received two Stalin Prizes one after another (1941 and 1943), twice awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (1945 and 1974), Nobel Prize laureate (1978), almost permanent (since 1934) until his death in 1984, with the exception of a ten-year break in 1946-1955), director of the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences, who was awarded many orders (only he had six orders of Lenin). If you do not pay attention to the break in the leadership of the institute (its reasons were not explained in Soviet literature and reference publications), Kapitsa appeared as a high-ranking figure in the scientific establishment, favored by the authorities under all communist rulers: Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev.

And only from the end of the 80s, documents and memoirs began to appear in the press, indicating that the relationship between the scientist and the Soviet rulers was by no means so cloudless, that he actively and courageously used his unique position as a brilliant physicist, whose research was urgently needed by the military industrial complex, to protect their colleagues from the repressive machine, to criticize the vices of the system. Kapitsa was far from dissident. He did not, like A.D. Sakharov, openly challenge totalitarianism. His style was different: he combined boldness and directness when it came to men of science arrested by the authorities, with pragmatism in relations with the authorities.

Our story will, however, be devoted to one relatively short period in the life of a scientist - when, in 1934, having arrived in the USSR for a congress, he was deprived of the opportunity to return to his laboratory. There are only references to this episode in Kapitsa's life in the literature, although it was reflected in correspondence published in the West (see: "Kapitsa in Cambridge and Moscow: Life and Letters of a Russian Phisicist", Amsterdam, 1990).

In 1995, the journal "Bulletin" published a bright article by Moisei Kaganov with memories of P. L. Kapitsa and his institute and a selection of testimonies of people who knew the scientist closely (# 15, pp. 41-51). But even in these materials, apart from a monosyllabic mention of M. Kaganov, nothing is said about how, in fact, Pyotr Leonidovich was forced to stay in the USSR in 1934.

P. L. Kapitsa was born on July 9, 1894 in the family of a military engineer, a colonel, and then a general of the Russian army (his father's military titles were hidden in Soviet publications). Peter graduated from the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute in 1919, having already shown the qualities of an outstanding scientist in his student years. In 1921 he managed to go abroad.

While in the UK, he turned to the famous physicist Ernest Rutherford with a request to accept him for an internship at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. Rutherford initially refused, as the laboratory, according to him, was overcrowded with employees (there are already about 30 of them). Then Kapitsa asked the master what accuracy he strives for in his experiments. "A 2-3 percent error is acceptable," Rutherford replied. "In this case," said Peter, "one extra researcher will not be noticeable, he will be absorbed by the permissible inaccuracy of experience." The witty remark and looseness of the young scientist, combined with his quite decent English, captivated Rutherford, so Kapitsa became his collaborator. Kapitsa often recalled this episode, but Rutherford forgot it. When the venerable scientist was asked what made him take Kapitza, he replied: "I don't remember what it was, but I'm very glad I did it."

Kapitsa worked in Cambridge for 13 years. Here he carried out a cycle of fundamental research, for which already in 1923 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The young experimenter in 1922 founded a scientific seminar in Cambridge, later called the "Kapitsa Club". In 1925 he became deputy director of the Cavendish Laboratory, in 1926 he headed his own Magnetic Laboratory, and in 1930 he began the construction of a powerful laboratory with funds bequeathed by the chemist and industrialist Ludwig Mond. This laboratory was solemnly opened on February 3, 1933. On behalf of the University of Cambridge, it was "received" by the university chancellor, the leader of the Conservative Party, Stanley Baldwin, who repeatedly served as prime minister.

Since 1926, Kapitsa often came to the USSR and returned to England without hindrance. In the Kremlin, he was considered a Soviet scientist who was on a "long business trip abroad." In 1929, Kapitsa was elected a full member of the Royal Society of London (this title is equivalent to academic in other countries). In the same year he became a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, as well as a consultant of the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology (UFTI) in Kharkov (it was in this institute that A.K. Walter, A.I. Leipunsky and K.D. Sinelnikov in 1935 -1936 a linear electron accelerator was created and the first experimental splitting of the atomic nucleus was carried out). In the autumn of 1929, having arrived in the USSR once again, Kapitsa spent about two weeks in Kharkov, where he lectured and gave consultations at the UFTI. In 1932 and 1933 he again visited Moscow, Leningrad and Kharkov, after which he returned to Cambridge.

Best of the day

Nothing foreshadowed a thunderstorm when, on September 1, 1934, Pyotr Leonidovich again arrived in the USSR together with his wife Anna Alekseevna, the daughter of the famous academician, mathematician and mechanic A.N. Krylov, to participate in the Mendeleev Congress. British friends warned Peter that his exceptional position could not continue indefinitely. But the scientist did not heed these words.

This time, his every move as a scientist was monitored by NKVD officers, who informed their superiors of Kapitsa's true and fictitious "anti-Soviet" statements. There were also many informers among scientists. At the same time, it should be noted that Kapitsa loved jokes, practical jokes, in a word, to impress. When he was once asked to give his home address, he replied: "England, Kapitsa." On another occasion (in 1931), Kapitsa introduced the prominent Bolshevik figure N.I. Bukharin, who visited him in Cambridge, as "Comrade Bukharin."

It is quite understandable that even the jokes of the NKVD, which were completely innocent from the point of view of common sense, were qualified in reports to the party leadership as dangerous counter-revolutionary agitation.

The personality of Kapitsa was in the center of attention of the Kremlin leaders. A special government commission was even formed (secretly, of course) to decide his fate. On September 16, this commission, which was chaired by V.V. Kuibyshev, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, decided: “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 from leaving the USSR. As we can see, the resolution essentially paid tribute to Kapitsa's scientific potential, and at the same time there was not a word about his "anti-Sovietism." The latter was kept in reserve, in case he "had to" exert force on the scientist.

The government of the USSR instructed Deputy People's Commissar of Heavy Industry G.L. Pyatakov (formerly a member of the united opposition of Trotsky and Zinoviev, and now a zealous Stalinist sycophant, which did not save him from execution in 1938) to inform Kapitsa of the decision and enter into negotiations with him about the conditions of his work in the USSR. On September 21, Kapitsa arrived in Moscow for a meeting with the deputy people's commissar, who hypocritically suggested that he "consider the proposal" to stay in the USSR and engage in scientific activities "for the benefit of socialist construction." Kapitsa turned down the offer, saying that he had an interesting scientific work, an excellently equipped laboratory, the necessary staff of scientific workers, and that he was well provided financially. Pyatakov tried to send Kapitsa to a higher authority - to V.I. Mezhlauk, deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and chairman of the State Planning Commission (V.M. Molotov was the chairman of the government). Kapitsa, however, did not go to Mezhlauk and returned to Leningrad that same evening.

But the hope that he would be left alone turned out to be futile. Immediately upon his arrival in Leningrad, Kapitsa was awaited by a telegram about a summons to Mezhlauk. The scientist simply ignored her. However, there were threatening phone calls from the secretariat of the Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. As a result, on September 25, Kapitsa again interrupted his participation in the Mendeleev Congress and arrived in Moscow. This time they tried to let him know that he was only a small fry compared to government bigwigs: for two days, Molotov's deputy "was busy" and did not receive Kapitsa, and only on the third day "found time" for a conversation with a scientist. This meeting did not produce any practical results either. Kapitsa again expressed his desire to return to work in Cambridge. Mezhlauk, on the other hand, stated that the USSR government considers the scientist's departure abroad "undesirable", but agreed to a trip to the UK for his wife and two young sons - 6-year-old Sergei and 3-year-old Andrei (now both of them are well-known scientists: S.P. Kapitsa is a physicist, and A.P. Kapitsa is a geographer).

Only gradually and far from completely did P. L. Kapitsa begin to realize the realities of the totalitarian system. The scientist was in a trap. At times he fell into despair. The secretaries reported his words: “You can make me dig canals, build fortresses, you can take my body, but no one will take my spirit. ".

The bouts of despair, however, quickly passed. Kapitsa decided to turn to Rutherford and other prominent scientists, in particular, to Paul Langevin and Albert Einstein, with a request to appear in the press demanding that he be given the opportunity to leave the USSR. This attempt did not yield significant results. The pro-Soviet-minded Langevin simply did not want to do anything in defiance of the "Kremlin highlander." As for Einstein, shortly before that, in 1933, having emigrated from Germany to the USA, he saw in the USSR a powerful force capable of resisting Hitlerism and, although he was very critical of the Bolshevik experiment, did not want to be involved even in the slightest. into an action that could be interpreted as anti-Soviet.

True, Rutherford, informed by Anna Kapitsa of what had happened, turned with a restrained, British-style protest to the Soviet plenipotentiary representative in Great Britain, I.M. Maisky. Maisky, a former Menshevik who was now doing his best to curry favor with Stalin, responded very belatedly with a demagogic letter that read: “The system in force in the Soviet Union is that the Soviet government plans not only the economy of the country, but also the distribution of labor resources, including the distribution of scientific workers. As long as our scientific institutions could solve the problems assigned to them with the help of available scientific workers, the Soviet government did not raise any objections to the work of Mr. Kapitsa in Cambridge. Now, however, as a result of the extraordinary development of the national economy of the USSR, connected With the accelerated completion of the First and the vigorous implementation of the Second Five-Year Plan, the available number of scientists is not enough, and in these conditions the Soviet government found it necessary to use for scientific activities within the country all those scientists - Soviet citizens who had until now worked abroad. ice. Mr. Kapitsa falls into this category. Now he has been offered an extremely responsible job in the Soviet Union in his specialty, which will allow him to fully develop his abilities as a scientist and citizen of his country.

It could be concluded from the letter that Kapitsa had come to terms with his fate. But this was far from the case. Despite the failure of international intervention, Pyotr Leonidovich found it possible to use internal levers to break free. In his opinion, a group of Soviet academicians could turn to N.I. Bukharin, K.E. Voroshilov and M. Gorky "to organize a broad campaign" in his defense. Moreover, the seksots reported that the scientist was trying to find out "where Comrade Stalin is - in Moscow or on vacation (Stalin usually rested in the south in the autumn, and this was widely known - G.Ch.) - and inform him of happened."

It must be said that the vicissitudes of Kapitsa aroused sympathy from some prominent Russian scientists. The secret report of the NKVD noted statements in support of Kapitsa by Academicians V.I. Vernadsky, A.N. Krylov, A.F. Ioffe, N.N. Semenov, I.P. Pavlov, F.I. Favorsky with an expression of sympathy for him. Vernadsky, for example, stated: “If the government’s decision not to let England into England is not canceled, an international scandal will occur. The English Royal Society, of which Kapitsa is a member, will take all measures to return Kapitsa. Science is international, and no one should be banned work where he wants and on topics he finds interesting." "You can't create by order. Kapitsa will refuse to create," said Favorsky. The mood of the academicians was summed up in the following by the NKVD report: they "spoke out in general against the decision made regarding Kapitsa, they consider it unacceptable that Kapitsa be so forcibly separated from his two children living in England, who are being educated there, and the destruction of his well-equipped laboratory."

But the only one who tried to move from words to deeds was Kapitsa's father-in-law, Academician Krylov. He turned to the President of the Academy of Sciences, A.P. Karpinsky, with a request to come to Moscow specifically to the chairman of the USSR Central Executive Committee, M.I. Kalinin, so that he would help Kapitsa return to Cambridge. Alas, the 88-year-old Karpinsky rejected Krylov's request.

In the midst of this story, on September 26, 1934, the newspaper "Izvestia" (its editor was N.I. Bukharin) placed an article by Kapitsa about the problem of obtaining liquid helium and about joint work with scientists from the UFTI in this direction. The publication of the article created the appearance that the position of the author was stable and did not cause concern.

At the same time, the NKVD, through its agents, began to spread rumors that Kapitsa worked for British intelligence and even collected spy data about the situation in the Far East, the capacity of the Siberian Railway, border fortifications, aircraft construction, etc. Against the background of these rumors, Pyatakov in a conversation with Academician Semenov, whose friendship with Kapitsa was known, he uttered words that sounded like a direct threat of arrest: "If rumors about Kapitsa's secret work reach the GPU (the GPU no longer existed, but this abbreviation continued to be widely used in a very sinister sense - G.Ch.), then they can cause severe repression against Kapitsa.

Political, psychological and moral pressure eventually gave results. Kapitsa began to lean towards resuming work in the USSR. Academicians Krylov and Semyonov, perfectly versed in Soviet realities, urged the need to start scientific work, but at the same time demanding worthy conditions - this was the only possible way out of this situation for him. Kapitsa was an experimental scientist whose work required complex, expensive equipment developed under his direct supervision, located in the Mond laboratory in Cambridge. He was very skeptical about the possibility of transferring laboratory equipment to the USSR.

True, he went to some trick - he began to tell his colleagues that he was ready to transfer his work to the USSR, but for this, they say, he needed to go to England for six months in order to "liquidate matters with Rutherford." Of course, nothing came of this plan. N.N. Semenov several times appealed to government agencies, explaining that Kapitsa could really achieve major scientific achievements only if a special laboratory was organized for him. In the end, Semyonov was "recommended," as a secret NKVD report said, to leave Kapitsa alone and wait until he himself turned to the appropriate Soviet institutions with a request to create a laboratory for him. The authorities wanted the surrender to be complete and public...

Letters to his wife in England testified to the state of mind of the scientist. One of them said: "... Life is amazingly empty now with me. Another time my fists are clenched, and I am ready to tear my hair out and go berserk. With my devices, on my ideas in my laboratory, others live and work, and I'm sitting here alone, and what this is for, I don't understand. Sometimes it seems to me that I'm going crazy.

Nevertheless, the authorities did not wait for Kapitsa's complete surrender, and they decided to make an insignificant compromise. On October 31, the scientist was handed a letter from V.I. Mezhlauk, in which the deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars asked Kapitsa to submit his proposals for scientific work in the USSR by November 3. In a reply letter, Kapitsa explained to the Bolshevik official that his work at Cambridge belonged to the extremely technically complex areas of modern physics, that his laboratory was equipped with "the only and original instruments" made by British industrial enterprises, which "willingly took on individual problems." He stated that the USSR does not see any possibility for itself to take responsibility "for the organization of scientific research, similar to those on which he worked in Cambridge." Therefore, he decided to change the field of scientific research, taking up the problems of biophysics together with I.P. Pavlov.

In early November, Kapitsa arrived in Moscow to negotiate the terms of his work in the USSR. Negotiations dragged on. Again and again I had to explain to officials that without his own laboratory, without reliable employees selected by himself, without proven technology, he was not able to develop fundamental research, that it was impossible to expect direct "introduction into production" of the results of his research.

Perhaps all this red tape would have continued for a long time. However, Stalin intervened in the matter, who, obviously, understood that "the game is worth the candle." In any case, in the twentieth of December, things finally got off the ground. On December 22, the question of Kapitsa was brought to the attention of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The adopted resolution provided for the creation of an academic Institute for Physical Problems in Moscow, the approval of Kapitsa as the director of this institute, and the completion by September 1935 of the buildings of the institute with laboratories equipped with the most modern equipment. Kapitsa was given the right to staff the institute with qualified personnel and dispose of the allocated financial resources outside the control of higher authorities. The decree provided for the creation of the most favorable material conditions for Kapitsa, in particular, an apartment in the center of Moscow with 5-7 rooms, a dacha in the Crimea and a personal car. So the iron cage, in which the scientist found himself, began to turn into gold.

The next day, December 23, 1934, the government's decision to establish the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences was published. Kapitsa was immediately transferred from the abandoned Novomoskovskaya Hotel to the prestigious Metropol, where he was given a suite.

The transformation of P. L. Kapitsa into a "person of a grata" did not at all mean an instant overcoming of bureaucratic slingshots in dealing with a scientist. On March 11, 1935, he wrote to his wife in England: “No one here can believe that all I want is just a good, trusting attitude towards myself. No one can believe that I really want to help organize science. Tragedy I've been in my position for three months now, and I want to make people understand what I want, and still there is a distrustful and condescending attitude towards me. I feel like some kind of Don Quixote. I stand up for some Dulcinea Science, and everyone makes fun of me."

Nevertheless, the firm will, organizational skills, the enormous authority of the scientist, coupled with the invisible, but felt, patronizing attitude of the Soviet dictator, gradually led to the necessary results. At the insistence of Kapitsa, the Soviet embassy in London entered into negotiations with the Royal Society on the purchase and transportation of equipment from the Mondov laboratory to the USSR.

The first foreign report about the detention of Kapitsa in the USSR appeared in the Russian newspaper Latest News (Paris) on March 9, 1935. The newspaper expressed the opinion that the Bolsheviks had taken Kapitsa as a hostage for the defector Gamow. This version seemed to the Western public, apparently, not convincing enough, and for the next month and a half the press remained silent on this matter.

A storm erupted when the London News Cronicle, in its morning edition of April 24, published a conversation with Rutherford under the headline "Cambridge shocked by the Soviets". "Kapitsa is a brilliant worker," said Krokodil, as friends and students called the great scientist, "and he would undoubtedly carry out a number of remarkable experiments here in the next year or two." In the evening editions, 70 British newspapers published responses to the conversation that day. "Russia delayed him; end of Cambridge studies," the Star wrote. On April 25, comments appeared in the entire Western press under the headings "Russia detains a professor; England loses a great scientist", "The disappeared professor", "A loss for science at Cambridge", etc. On April 26, Rutherford wrote a letter to the London "Times", published on April 29 under the title "Detention in Russia. A shock to the scientific world." Rutherford wrote that the report of the detention indicated a violation of individual freedom. The Soviet authorities "requisitioned" Kapitsa's services without any prior notice. His student and friend is deeply shaken by the collapse of his work, his health is seriously undermined. "From the point of view of world science as a whole, it will be a great misfortune if, due to a lack of responsiveness or misunderstanding, conditions arise in which Kapitsa will not be able to give the world what he is capable of." A group of leading American scientists appealed to the Soviet plenipotentiary in the United States Troyanovsky with a protest.

At the same time, it was Rutherford's statement about the internationality of science that formed the basis of the decision of the Senate of Cambridge University of November 30, 1935, adopted at the suggestion of Rutherford, on consent to the sale of the USSR for the Kapitsa Institute (this is exactly what was said in the decision, the official name of the institute was ignored ) scientific equipment of the Mondo laboratory. At the very end of 1935, the equipment arrived in the USSR, and at the beginning of 1936, the construction of the Institute for Physical Problems was completed.

Kapitsa took full advantage of his right to staff the institute with researchers and freely dispose of the funds provided. Even a microscopic labor market emerged at the Institute, with positive results flowing from it. Somehow, shortly after the completion of construction, Kapitsa, who was occupied to the limit with research and scientific-organizational affairs, accidentally looked out of the window at the extremely cluttered courtyard. "How many wipers do we have?" he asked the secretary. "Three," came the reply. "Immediately fire two of them, and give the remaining one a triple salary," the director ordered. The next morning the yard was sparkling clean...

Kapitsa was forced to come to terms with being in a "golden cage". In January 1936, his wife and sons returned from Great Britain. The fundamental discoveries of the scientist followed - he developed a new method of liquefying air, which predetermined the development of large installations throughout the world for the production of oxygen, nitrogen and inert gases, established a temperature jump ("Kapitsa jump") during the transition of heat from a solid body to liquid helium, discovered superfluidity liquid helium, etc.

At the same time, the unique position of a brilliant physicist and organizer of science, whose works were widely used in Soviet defense technology (although, as Kapitsa noted, much less effectively than would have been possible without bureaucratic delays and party interference), allowed him to maintain a relative (we emphasize - a very relative) independent position and speak out in defense of scientists who were attacked and arrested.

Already in 1936, he addressed a letter to Molotov in support of the mathematician, academician N.N. Luzin, whom Pravda declared "an enemy in a Soviet mask." The letter was returned with the resolution "Return V. Molotov to Mr. Kapitsa as unnecessary," but they did not dare to arrest Luzin. In February 1937, Kapitsa defended the arrested physicist V.A. Fok, who was soon released, and two years later was elected an academician. In April 1938, Kapitsa stood up for the arrested head of the theoretical department of his institute, L.D. Landau. This time, the troubles continued for a whole year - it was not easy for the director to secure the release of a scientist who compared the Stalinist dictatorship with Hitler's rule. But in the end, Kapitsa achieved his goal - Landau was released under his personal guarantee.

During the war, P. L. Kapitsa was a member of the Scientific and Technical Council under the State Defense Committee and the head of the Main Directorate of the Oxygen Industry under the USSR Council of People's Commissars. Occupying such impressive bureaucratic posts, the scientist never betrayed himself. He wrote to Stalin defending the "idealists", protested against administrative interference in science, ridiculed statements like "if you are not a materialist in physics, you are an enemy of the people." Regarding the refusal of Pravda to publish one of his notes in strict accordance with the author's edition, he even dared to write to Stalin that Pravda is a boring newspaper, to which the "best friend of scientists" replied: "Of course, you are right, not Pravda "".

After atomic weapons were created in the USA and then used for military purposes, on August 20, 1945, a Special Committee was formed in the USSR to direct "all work on the use of intra-atomic energy of uranium." L.P. Beria became the chairman, and only I.V. Kurchatov and P.L. Kapitsa were included among the physicists. But Kapitsa's clashes with Beria immediately began. Twice, on October 3 and November 25, 1945, Kapitsa wrote to Stalin, pointing out that the incompetent intervention of an omnipotent person only hinders scientific developments. This time, however, Stalin took the side of his minion, and Kapitsa was removed from the committee.

Thus began the period of disgrace of the academician (he was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1939). True, the cunning Stalin, realizing the enormous scientific potential of Kapitsa, even at that time maintained the appearance of patronage. On April 4, 1946, he wrote to Kapitsa: "I have received all your letters. There is a lot of instructiveness in the letters - I think to meet with you somehow and talk about them."

In August 1946, Stalin signed a decree removing Kapitsa from all posts. Since that time, the scientist lived near Moscow, on Nikolina Gora, where he organized a home laboratory (recalling his directorship, he called it "a hut of physical problems"). As it turned out now, in the mid-1930s, Kapitsa underestimated his strength - and in a makeshift laboratory, on the basis of equipment made by himself or friends, he conducted research in the field of mechanics and hydrodynamics, developed a new type of generator, and discovered a plasma filament in dense gases at high-frequency discharge. In December 1949, when "all progressive mankind" was crucified in praise of Stalin's 70th birthday, Kapitsa ignored the anniversary events. A month later, another revenge followed - he was expelled from his professorial position at Moscow University.

Only after the death of the bloody dictator and the arrest of Beria, Kapitsa's position in the scientific world and society was restored. In August 1953, the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences adopted a resolution to help P.L. Kapitsa in his work, and in January 1955, after a meeting with N.S. Khrushchev, he again became director of the Institute for Physical Problems.

But Kapitsa continued to write and tell the rulers what he really thought. He warmly congratulated A.I. Solzhenitsyn on being awarded the Nobel Prize, but he refused to join the shameful letter of the academicians "condemning" A.D. Sakharov. "Save Sakharov. He is a great scientist of our country," Pyotr Leonidovich wrote to Brezhnev in 1981. Kapitsa also spoke out in support of the dissident Vadim Delaunay. In 1966, among a group of cultural and scientific figures, he protested against the process of gradual rehabilitation of Stalin, and his letter to Brezhnev undoubtedly had a certain influence, although a creeping, indirect justification of Stalinism continued until Gorbachev's "perestroika".

Yes, it was possible to build a "golden cage" for Kapitsa, but it was impossible to make him an "obedient cog" of the system, to make him work in shackles. A man with a capital letter and a brilliant scientist, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa died in 1984, three months before his ninetieth birthday.

Up to the high rates that are needed for the synthesis of atomic nuclei - such is the range of many years of activity of Academician Kapitsa. He twice became a Hero of Socialist Labor, and also received the Stalin and Nobel Prizes.

Childhood

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, whose biography will be presented in this article, was born in Kronstadt in 1894. His father Leonid Petrovich was a military engineer and was engaged in the construction of Kronstadt fortifications. Mom - Olga Ieronimovna - was a specialist in folklore and children's literature.

In 1905, Petya was sent to study at the gymnasium, but due to poor progress (Latin is poorly given), the boy leaves it after a year. The future academician continues his studies at the Kronstadt School. He graduated with honors in 1912.

Studying at the University

Initially, Pyotr Kapitsa (see photo below) planned to study at the Physics and Mathematics Department of St. Petersburg University, but he was not taken there. The young man decided to try his luck at the "polytechnic", and luck smiled at him. Peter was enrolled in the electromechanical faculty. Already in the first year, Professor A.F. Ioffe drew the attention of a talented young man and attracted the young man to research in his own laboratory.

Army and wedding

In 1914, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa went to Scotland, where he planned to practice his English. But the First World War began, and the young man could not return home in August. He arrived in Petrograd only in November.

In early 1915, Peter volunteered for the Western Front. He was appointed to the position of the driver of an ambulance. He also transported the wounded on his truck.

In 1916 he was demobilized, and Peter returned to the institute. Ioffe immediately loaded the young man with experimental work in a physical laboratory and attracted him to participate in his own physics seminar (the first in Russia). In the same year, Kapitsa published his first article. He also married Nadezhda Chernosvitova, who was the daughter of one of the members of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party.

Work at the new physics institute

In 1918, A.F. Ioffe organized the first scientific research physical institute in Russia. Pyotr Kapitsa, whose quotes can be read below, graduated from the Polytechnic this year and immediately got a job as a teacher there.

The difficult post-revolutionary situation did not bode well for science. Ioffe helped keep the seminars for his own students, among whom was Peter. He urged Kapitsa to leave Russia, but the government did not give permission for this. Maxim Gorky, who was then considered the most influential writer, helped. Peter was allowed to leave for England. Shortly before Kapitsa's departure, an influenza epidemic broke out in St. Petersburg. Within a month, the young scientist lost his wife, newborn daughter, son and father.

Work in England

In May 1921, Peter arrived in England as part of the Russian Commission from the Academy of Sciences. The main goal of scientists was to restore scientific ties broken by war and revolution. Two months later, physicist Pyotr Kapitsa got a job at the Cavendish Laboratory, headed by Rutherford. He accepted the young man for a short-term internship. Over time, the engineering acumen and research skills of the Russian scientist made a strong impression on Rutherford.

In 1922, Kapitsa defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Cambridge. His scientific authority grew in 1923, he was awarded the Maxwell Fellowship. A year later, the scientist became deputy director of the laboratory.

New marriage

In 1925, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was visiting Academician A.N. Krylov in Paris, who introduced him to his daughter Anna. Two years later, she became the wife of a scientist. After the wedding, Peter bought a piece of land on Huntington Road and built a house. Soon his sons, Andrey and Sergey, will be born here.

Magnetic world champion

Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa, whose biography is known to all physicists, actively continues to study the processes of transformation of nuclei and He comes up with a new installation for generating stronger magnetic fields and obtains record results, 6-7 thousand times higher than the previous ones. Then Landau dubbed him "the magnetic champion of the world."

Return to the USSR

Investigating the properties of metals in magnetic fields, Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa realized the need to change the experimental conditions. Lower (gel) temperatures were required. It was in the field of low-temperature physics that the scientist achieved the greatest success. But Peter Leonidovich conducted research on this topic already at home.

Soviet government officials regularly offered him permanent residence in the USSR. The scientist was interested in such proposals, but he always set a number of conditions, the main of which was travel to the West at will. The government did not go along.

In the summer of 1934, Kapitsa and his wife visited the USSR, but when they were about to leave for England, it turned out that their visas had been cancelled. Later, Anna was allowed to return for the children and take them to Moscow. Rutherford and friends of Peter Alekseevich asked the Soviet government to allow Kapitsa to return to England to continue work. Everything was in vain.

In 1935, Pyotr Kapitsa, whose brief biography is known to all scientists, headed the Institute for Physical Problems at the Academy of Sciences. But before agreeing to this position, he demanded to buy the equipment on which he worked abroad. By that time, Rutherford had already come to terms with the loss of a valuable employee and sold the equipment from the laboratory.

Letters to the government

Kapitsa Petr Leonidovich (photo attached to the article) returned to his homeland with the beginning of Stalin's purges. Even during this difficult time, he vehemently defended his views. Knowing that everything in the country is decided by the top leadership, he regularly wrote letters, thereby trying to conduct a frank and direct conversation. From 1934 to 1983, the scientist sent more than 300 letters to the Kremlin. Thanks to the intervention of Peter Leonidovich, many scientists were rescued from prisons and camps.

Further work and discovery

Whatever happened around, the physicist always found time for scientific work. On the installation delivered from England, he continued research in the field of strong magnetic fields. Employees from Cambridge took part in the experiments. These experiments continued for several years and were extremely important.

The scientist managed to improve the turbine of the device, and it began to liquefy the air more efficiently. There was no need to pre-cool the helium in the setup. It was automatically cooled during expansion in a special date tender. Similar gel installations are now used in almost all countries.

In 1937, after long research in this direction, Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa (the Nobel Prize will be awarded to the scientist 30 years later) made a fundamental discovery. He discovered the phenomenon of helium superfluidity. The main conclusion of the study: at temperatures below 2.19 °K there is no viscosity. In subsequent years, Petr Leonidovich discovered other anomalous phenomena occurring in helium. For example, the distribution of heat in it. Thanks to these studies, a new direction appeared in science - the physics of quantum liquids.

Rejection of the atomic bomb

In 1945, the Soviet Union launched a program to develop nuclear weapons. Pyotr Kapitsa, whose books were popular in scientific circles, refused to take part in it. For this, he was suspended from scientific activity and put under house arrest for eight years. Also, the scientist was deprived of the opportunity to communicate with his colleagues. But Petr Leonidovich did not lose heart and decided to organize a laboratory in his country house to continue his research.

It was there, in artisanal conditions, that high-power electronics was born, which became the first stage on the path of subordinating thermonuclear energy. But the scientist was able to return to full-fledged experiments only after his release in 1955. He began by studying high-temperature plasmas. The discoveries made during that period formed the basis of a permanent operation scheme.

Some of his experiments gave a new impetus to the creativity of science fiction writers. Each writer tried to express his thoughts on this matter. Pyotr Kapitsa also studied ball lightning and the hydrodynamics of thin liquid layers during that period. But his burning interest was in the properties of plasmas and microwave generators.

Travel abroad and the Nobel Prize

In 1965, Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa received government permission to travel to Denmark. There he was awarded the gold medal of Niels Bohr. The physicist toured the local laboratories and gave a lecture on high energies. In 1969, the scientist and his wife visited the United States for the first time.

In mid-October 1978, the scientist received a telegram from the Swedish Academy of Sciences. The headline had the inscription: “Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa. Nobel Prize". The physicist received it for fundamental research in the field of low temperatures. This good news "overtook" the scientist during his vacation in "Barvikha" near Moscow.

The journalists who interviewed him asked: “Which of your personal scientific achievements do you consider the most significant?” Petr Leonidovich said that the most important thing for a scientist is his current work. "Personally, I'm doing thermonuclear fusion now," he added.

Kapitza's lecture in Stockholm at the award ceremony was unusual. Contrary to the charter, he gave a lecture not on the topic of low temperature physics, but on plasma and controlled thermonuclear reaction. Pyotr Leonidovich explained the reason for this liberties. The scientist said: “It was difficult for me to choose a topic for the Nobel lecture. I received an award for research in the field of low temperatures, but I have not been engaged in them for more than 30 years. At my institute, of course, they continue to study this topic, but I myself have completely switched to studying the processes necessary for the implementation of a thermonuclear reaction. I believe that at present this area is more interesting and relevant, as it will help in solving the problem of the impending energy crisis.”

The scientist died in 1984, a little short of his 90th birthday. In conclusion, we present his most famous statements.

Quotes

"The freedom of a person can be limited in two ways: by violence or by the education of conditioned reflexes in him."

"A man is young as long as he does stupid things."

"The one who knows what he wants is talented."

"Geniuses do not give birth to an era, but are born by an era."

“In order to be happy, a person needs to imagine himself free.”

“Whoever has patience wins. Only exposure is not for a couple of hours, but for many years.

“Do not gloss over, but emphasize the contradictions. They contribute to the development of science."

“Science should be simple, exciting and fun. The same applies to scientists."

“Deceit is a necessary element of a democratic system, since the progressive principle rests on a small number of people. The wishes of the majority will simply stop progress.”

"Life is like a card game in which you participate without knowing the rules."