The pride of Soviet science: Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa. Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa about life, people, creativity

Kapitsa Pyotr Leonidovich (1894-1984), physicist, one of the founders of physics low temperatures and physics of strong magnetic fields.

Born on July 8, 1894 in Kronstadt in the family of a military engineer. He graduated from high school, then from real school. He was interested in physics and electrical engineering, and showed a special passion for clock construction. 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.

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

In 1921, Kapitsa was sent to England - he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, headed by E. Rutherford. The Russian physicist quickly made a brilliant career - he became director of the Mond Laboratory at the Royal Scientific Society. His works of the 20s. XX century dedicated nuclear physics, physics and technology of ultra-strong magnetic fields, physics and technology of low temperatures, high-power electronics, physics of high-temperature plasma.

In 1934, Kapitsa returned to Russia. In Moscow, he founded the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the post of director of which he took over in 1935. At the same time, Kapitsa became a professor at Moscow State University (1936-1947). In 1939, the scientist was elected academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and since 1957 he was a member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Along with organizing 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 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. He established the law of linear increase in electrical resistance of a number of metals depending on the voltage magnetic field(Kapitsa's law). He created new methods for liquefying hydrogen and helium; A method has been developed for liquefying air using a turboexpander.

Kapitsa developed the general theory of magnetron-type electronic devices and obtained continuous generators - the planotron and nigotron.

In 1959, he experimentally discovered the formation of high-temperature plasma in a high-frequency discharge and proposed a design for a thermonuclear reactor. The scientist’s merits were highly appreciated by the Soviet and world scientific community.

Kapitsa twice became a Hero of Socialist Labor (1945, 1974) and twice - laureate of the USSR State Prize (1941, 1943).

In 1978 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Date of birth: July 8, 1894
Place of birth: Kronstadt, Russian Empire
Date of death: April 8, 1984
Place of death: Moscow, Russia

Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa- Soviet physicist.

Pyotr Kapitsa was born on July 8, 1894 in Kronstadt in the family of a lieutenant general and a teacher. In 1905 he began studying at the gymnasium, but in 1906, due to problems with studying Latin, he began studying at the Kronstadt Real School.

From 1914 to 1918 he studied at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, where he received his education as an electrical engineer.

From 1918 to 1921 he worked as a teacher and his talent was noticed by the physicist Ioffe, who invited Peter to collaborate in the study of atomic physics.

So, together with Ioffe and another physicist, his classmate Semenov, Kapitsa invented a method with which it was possible to measure the magnetic moment of an atom.

In 1916, he got married, his wife gave birth to two children, but in 1920 all members of his family died from the epidemic - only Kapitsa remained.

In 1921, at the request of Maxim Gorky, Kapitsa went to England, where he began working in Rutherford’s laboratory in Cambridge. They soon became friends.

At Cambridge, Kapitsa studied radioactive particle nuclei in a magnetic field, which made it possible to create a strong electromagnet and corresponding magnetic fields. Such equipment allowed the scientist to study the physics of low temperatures.

In 1934, he created a facility that made it possible to obtain liquid helium for more than short terms and in more quantity than was previously possible.

In 1923, Kapitsa received the title of Doctor of Science and a Maxwell Fellowship, and a year later he became deputy director of the laboratory for magnetic research, and in 1925 he became a member of Trinity College. In 1928, he received a doctorate in physical and mathematical sciences from the USSR, and a year later became a member of the Academy of Sciences.

In 1930, Kapitsa was appointed professor at the Royal Society of London, which built a specially designated laboratory for him at the request of Rutherford.

In 1934, the laboratory opened, received the name Monda, and Kapitsa became its director, but a year later it had to be left, since the Soviet government canceled the visas of Kapitsa and his wife to leave the country.

Kapitsa remained in Moscow, and his wife returned to England, but later also moved to Moscow with the children to join her husband. Kapitsa unsuccessfully tried to get the visas back and brought in Rutherford for this, but the Soviet government was adamant.

In 1935, he became director of the Institute of Physical Problems at the Academy of Sciences, agreeing to the post on the condition that his equipment from England would be delivered to Moscow.

At the institute, Kapitsa again took up low-temperature physics and studied the properties of liquid helium. In 1938 he created a new turbine for liquefying air.

New equipment allowed him to discover the superfluidity of helium and publish an article on this property. Taking advantage of his exceptional position, Kapitsa more than once defended physicists and colleagues from the purges carried out by Stalin at that time.

During the war years he lived in Kazan, worked on the development of an oxygen cryogenic installation, in 1943 he founded the Main Directorate for Oxygen and became its lava.

In those same years, the government invited him to work on an atomic bomb together with Kurchatov, but Kapitsa, dissatisfied with Beria’s leadership, wrote a letter to Stalin asking to be released from the project and was released.

In 1946, he was dismissed from his post and put under house arrest; he managed to recover only after Stalin’s death.

In 1955, Kapitsa was again appointed director of the Institute of Physical Problems and worked there until his death.

After the war, he studied hydrodynamics, the study of ball lightning, and plasma. In the late 50s he created a project for a thermonuclear reactor.

While serving as director of the institute, he founded many scientific towns throughout the country - in Novosibirsk, Moscow and other cities.

In 1965, he left the USSR for the first time during the years of the travel ban and visited Denmark, where he received the Bohr medal, a year later he visited England with a speech about Rutherford, and in 1969 the USA.

In 1978 he received the Nobel Prize.

Achievements of Peter Kapitsa:

Discovery of helium superfluidity, fusion reactor
Nobel Prize
Honorary Doctor of the World Academies of Sciences
6 Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labor, many awards from other countries
Stalin Prize
Lomonosov Medal

Dates from the biography of Peter Kapitsa:

July 8, 1894 - born in Kronstadt
1906-1914 – training at a real school
1914-1918 - studies at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute
1921-1934 - work in Cambridge
1938 – discovery of helium superfluidity
1946-1955 – house arrest
1965 – Bohr medal
1978 – Nobel Prize
April 8, 1984 - death

Interesting facts about Peter Kapitsa:

He was married twice, two children from his first marriage died, but in his second marriage he had two sons
Until the end of his life he retained English habits - he smoked a pipe, lived in a cottage and wore tweed suits.
He was interested in chess and studying clock mechanisms
Constantly criticized the USSR and Stalin’s policies, was adamant in his opinion and stubborn
A street, a school, an airplane and a small planet are named after the scientist.
A medal was established in his honor

TO Apitsa Pyotr Leonidovich is an outstanding physicist, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR Academy of Sciences), director of the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences, member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Born on June 26 (July 9), 1894 in the port and naval fortress of Kronstadt on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland, now a city in the Kronstadt district of St. Petersburg. Russian. From the nobility, the son of a military engineer, staff captain, future Major General of the Russian Imperial Army L.P. Kapitsa (1864-1919) and teacher, researcher of Russian folklore.
In 1912 he graduated from the Kronstadt Real School and entered the electromechanical faculty of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. There his scientific supervisor was the outstanding physicist A.F. Ioffe, who noted Kapitsa’s abilities in physics and played an outstanding role in his development as a scientist. In 1916, the first scientific works of P.L. Kapitsa, “Inertia of electrons in ampere molecular currents” and “Preparation of Wollaston threads,” were published in the “Journal of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society.” In January 1915, he was mobilized into the army and spent several months on the Western Front of the First World War, as an ambulance driver.
Due to the turbulent revolutionary events, he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute only in 1919. From 1918 to 1921 he was a teacher at the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute, and at the same time worked as a research assistant in the physics department of this institute. In 1918-1921 he was also an employee of the physical and technological department of the State X-ray and Radiological Institute. In 1919-1920, Kapitsa’s father and wife, a 1.5-year-old son and a 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 N.N. Semenov propose a method for determining the magnetic moment of an atom, based on the interaction of an atomic beam with a non-uniform magnetic field. This is Kapitsa's first major work in the field of atomic physics.
In May 1921, he was sent on a scientific trip to England with a group of Russian scientists. Kapitsa secured an internship at the Cavendish Laboratory of the great physicist Ernst Rutherford in Cambridge. The research he carried out in this laboratory in the field of magnetic fields brought P.L. Kapitza worldwide fame. In 1923, he became a doctor at the University of Cambridge, in 1925 - assistant director for magnetic research at the Cavendish Laboratory, and in 1926 - director of the Magnetic Laboratory he created as part of the Cavendish Laboratory. In 1928, he discovered the law of a linear increase in the electrical resistance of metals, based on the magnitude of the magnetic field (Kapitza’s law).
For this and other achievements, in 1929 he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and in the same year he was elected a full member of the Royal Society of London. In April 1934, he produced liquid helium for the first time in the world using an installation he created. This discovery gave a powerful impetus to research in low temperature physics.
In the same year, during one of his frequent visits to the USSR for teaching and advisory work, P.L. Kapitsa was detained in the USSR (he was denied permission to leave). The reason was the desire of the Soviet leadership to continue his scientific work in his homeland. Kapitsa was initially against this decision, since he had an excellent scientific base in England and wanted to continue research there. However, in 1934, by a Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences was created and Kapitsa was temporarily appointed its first director (in 1935 he was confirmed in this position at a session of the USSR Academy of Sciences). He was asked to create a powerful science center to the USSR, and also 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 highly efficient turboexpander, which pioneered the worldwide development of modern, large air separation plants for the production of oxygen, nitrogen and inert gases. In 1940, he made a new fundamental discovery - the superfluidity of liquid helium (when heat transfers from a solid to liquid helium, a temperature jump occurs at the interface, called the Kapitsa jump; the magnitude of this jump increases very sharply with decreasing temperature). In January 1939 he was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
During the Great Patriotic War, together with the Institute of Physical Problems, he was evacuated to the capital of the Tatar ASSR, the city of Kazan (returned to Moscow in August 1943). In 1941-1945 he was a member of the Scientific and Technical Council under the Commissioner State Committee defense of the USSR. In 1942, he developed an installation for the production of liquid oxygen, on the basis of which a pilot plant was put into operation in 1943 at the Institute of Physical Problems.
In May 1943, by decree of the State Defense Committee of the USSR, Academician P.L. Kapitsa was appointed head of the Main Directorate of the Oxygen Industry under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (Glavkislorod).
In January 1945, the TK-2000 liquid oxygen production plant in Balashikha with a capacity of 40 tons of liquid oxygen per day (almost 20% of the total liquid oxygen production in the USSR) was put into operation.
Z and the successful scientific development of a new turbine method for producing oxygen and for the creation of a powerful turbo-oxygen installation for the production of liquid oxygen by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 30, 1945 Kapitsa Peter Leonidovich awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
Naturally, a world-famous physicist was recruited to work on the USSR atomic project. So, when in August 1945, Special Committee No. 1 was created under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR to manage all work on the use of intra-atomic energy of uranium, Kapitsa was included in its composition. But he immediately came into conflict with the head of the committee, the all-powerful L.P. Beria, and already at the end of 1945, at his request, I.V. Stalin decided to withdraw P.L. Kapitsa from the committee. This conflict cost the scientist dearly: in 1946, he was removed from the post of head of the Main Oxygen Department under the Council of Ministers of the USSR and from the post of director of the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The only consolation was that he was not arrested.
Since Kapitsa was deprived of access to secret developments, and all scientific and research institutions of the USSR were involved in work on the creation of atomic weapons, he did not have a job for some time. He created a home laboratory at a dacha near Moscow, where he studied problems of mechanics, hydrodynamics, high-power electronics and plasma physics. In 1941-1949 he was a professor and head of the department of general physics at the Faculty of Physics and Technology of Moscow State University. But in January 1950, for a demonstrative refusal to attend ceremonial events in honor of the 70th anniversary of I.V. Stalin was fired from there. In the summer of 1950, he was enrolled as a senior researcher at the Institute of Crystallography of the USSR Academy of Sciences, continuing research in his laboratory.
In the summer of 1953, after the arrest of L.P. Beria, Kapitsa reported on his personal developments and results obtained at the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It was decided to continue research and in August 1953 P.L. Kapitsa was appointed director of the Physics Laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which was created at the same time. In 1955, he was reappointed director of the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences (he headed it until the end of his life), as well as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics. The academician worked in these positions until the end of his life.
At the same time, since 1956, he headed the department of physics and low temperature technology and was the chairman of the Coordination Council of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He led fundamental work in the field of low temperature physics, strong magnetic fields, high-power electronics, and plasma physics. Author of fundamental scientific works on this topic, published many times in the USSR and many countries around the world.
Z A outstanding achievements in the field of physics, many years of scientific and teaching activity by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 8, 1974 Kapitsa Petr Leonidovich awarded the second gold medal "Hammer and Sickle" with the Order of Lenin.
For fundamental inventions and discoveries in the field of low temperature physics in 1978, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
During difficult periods in the history of the Motherland, P.L. Kapitsa always showed civic courage and integrity. Thus, during the period of mass repressions of the late 1930s, he achieved the release under personal guarantee of future academicians and world-famous scientists V.A. Foka and L.D. Landau. In the 1950s, he actively opposed the anti-scientific policies of T.D. Lysenko, having entered into conflict with N.S., who supported the latter. Khrushchev. In the 1970s, he refused to sign a letter condemning Academician A.D. Sakharov, at the same time he also made calls to take measures to improve security nuclear power plants(10 years before the Chernobyl accident).
Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939). Corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1929. Member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1957-1984). Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (1928). Professor (1939).
Winner of two Stalin Prizes of the 1st degree (1941 - for the development of a turboexpander for obtaining low temperatures and its use for air liquefaction, 1943 - for the discovery and research of the phenomenon of superfluidity of liquid helium). Big gold medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences named after M.V. Lomonosov (1959).
The great scientist received worldwide recognition during his lifetime, being elected a member of many academies and scientific societies. In particular, he was elected a member of the International Academy of Astronautics (1964), the International Academy of the History of Science (1971), a foreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences (1946), the Polish Academy of Sciences (1962), the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1966), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences ( 1969), Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Yugoslavia, 1971), Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1980), full member of the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina" (GDR, 1958), Physical Society of Great Britain (1932), member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston (USA, 1968), honorary member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences (1946), New York Academy of Sciences (USA, 1946), Royal Irish Academy of Sciences (1948), Academy of Sciences in Allahabad, India (1948), member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society ( Great Britain, 1923), Royal Society of London (Great Britain, 1929), Physical Society of France (1935), Physical Society of the USA (1937).
Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Algiers (1944), University of Paris (France, Sorbonne, 1945), University of Oslo (Norway, 1946), Charles (Prague) University (Czechoslovakia, 1964), Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland, 1964), Dresden Technical University (GDR, 1964), University of Delhi (India, 1966), Columbia University (USA, 1969), Wroclaw University. B. Bierut (Poland, 1972), University of Turku (Finland, 1977).
Full member of Trinity College, Cambridge University (Great Britain, 1925), Institute of Physics of Great Britain (1934), member of the Institute basic research them. D. Tata (India, 1977). Honorary member of the Institute of Metals of Great Britain (1943), the B. Franklin Institute (USA, 1944), and the National Institute of Sciences of India (1957).
Awarded prestigious scientific awards, including the Faraday Medal (USA, 1943), Franklin Medal (USA, 1944), Niels Bohr Medal (Denmark, 1965), Rutherford Medal (Great Britain, 1966), Kamerlingh Onnes Medal (Netherlands, 1968) .
Awarded six Orders of Lenin (04/30/1943, 07/9/1944, 04/30/1945, 07/9/1964, 07/20/1971, 07/8/1974), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (03/27/1954), medals, a foreign award - the Order of the Partisan Star" (Yugoslavia, 1964).
Lived in the hero city of Moscow. Died on April 8, 1984. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery (section 10).
To the great scientist, twice Hero of Socialist Labor P.L. A bronze bust of Kapitsa was erected in the Soviet Park of Kronstadt (1979). There, in Kronstadt, on the facade of the building of school No. 425 (former real school) on Uritsky Street, a memorial plaque was installed. Memorial plaques were also installed in St. Petersburg on the building of the Polytechnic University at the address: Politekhnicheskaya Street, building No. 29 and in Moscow on the building of the Institute of Physical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he worked. The Russian Academy of Sciences established the Gold Medal named after P.L. Kapitsa (1994).

Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa short biography famous physicist is presented in this article.

Peter Kapitsa short biography

Born on July 8, 1894 in Kronstadt.
In 1905 he entered the gymnasium. A year later, due to poor performance in Latin, he transferred to the Kronstadt Real School. After graduating from college, in 1914 he entered the electromechanical faculty of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. He graduated with honors from the institute and began teaching. But after the death of his wife and children in 1921, he decided to leave and took a job at the University of Cambridge in England, where he worked under Lord.
In 1929 he was elected to the British Academy of Sciences.

In 1934, Kapitsa, who was then working on an expansion refrigeration unit - a turboexpander capable of receiving liquid oxygen and other gases, went to a scientific seminar in Russia. There his passport was taken away and he was not allowed back into England. He was forcibly left in his homeland and appointed director of the Institute of Physical Problems.

In 1938 he made a major discovery - he discovered the superfluidity of liquid helium. For this work he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1978. But when in 1946 Beria invited him to work on nuclear weapons, Kapitsa, a man of high courage and incomparable moral principles, flatly refused. He was subjected to many years of house arrest at his dacha in the village of Nikolina Gora. He didn’t waste any time there either: he created a unique high-frequency generator called the “nigotron.”

Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Kapitsa.

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, 1964

Date of birth:

Place of birth:

Kronstadt, St. Petersburg Governorate, Russian Empire

Date of death:

April 8, 1984 (((padleft:1984|4|0))-((padleft:4|2|0))-((padleft:8|2|0))) (89 years old)

Place of death:

Moscow, RSFSR, USSR

Country:

Russian Empire
USSR

Scientific field:

Place of work:

SPbPI, Cambridge, IPP RAS, MIPT, MSU, IC RAS

Academic title:

Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939)

Alma mater:

St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute

Scientific supervisor:

A. F. Ioffe,
E. Rutherford

Notable students:

A. I. Shalnikov,
N. E. Alekseevsky

Awards and prizes

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa on Wikimedia Commons

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa(1894 - 1984) - Soviet physicist.

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

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1978) for the discovery of the phenomenon of superfluidity of liquid helium, introduced the term “superfluidity” into scientific use. He is also known for his work in the field of low-temperature physics, the study of ultra-strong magnetic fields and the confinement of high-temperature plasma. Developed a high-performance industrial installation for liquefying gases (turboexpander). From 1921 to 1934 he worked in Cambridge under the leadership of Rutherford. In 1934, having returned to the USSR for a while, he was forcibly left in his homeland. In 1945, he was a member of the Special Committee on the Soviet Atomic Project, but his two-year plan for the implementation of the atomic project was not approved, and therefore he asked for resignation, the request was granted. From 1946 to 1955 he was dismissed from state Soviet institutions, but he was given the opportunity to work as a professor at Moscow State University until 1950. Lomonosov.

Twice winner of the Stalin Prize (1941, 1943). Awarded a large gold medal named after M.V. Lomonosov of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1959). Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1945, 1974). Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

Biography

Early life

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was born on June 26 (July 8), 1894 in Kronstadt (now an administrative district of St. Petersburg), in the family of military engineer Leonid Petrovich Kapitsa and his wife Olga Ieronimovna, daughter of topographer Hieronymus Stebnitsky. Russian In 1905 he entered the gymnasium. A year later, due to poor performance in Latin, he transferred to the Kronstadt Real School. After graduating from college, in 1914 he entered the electromechanical faculty of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. A. F. Ioffe quickly notices a capable student and attracts him to his seminar and work in the laboratory.

First world war found young man in Scotland, which he visited during the summer holidays to study the language. He returned to Russia in November 1914 and a year later volunteered to go to the front. Kapitsa served as an ambulance driver and carried the wounded on the Polish front. In 1916, having been demobilized, he returned to St. Petersburg to continue his studies. Kapitsa's father dies of the Spanish flu in revolutionary Petrograd, followed by the deaths of his first wife, two-year-old son and newborn daughter.

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

Even before defending his diploma, A.F. Ioffe invited Pyotr Kapitsa to work in the Physico-Technical Department of the newly created X-ray and Radiological Institute (transformed in November 1921 into the Physico-Technical Institute). The scientist publishes his first scientific works in ZhRFKhO and begins teaching.

Ioffe believed that a promising young physicist needed to continue his studies at a reputable foreign scientific school, but for a long time it was not possible to organize a trip abroad. Thanks to the 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 Ernest Rutherford, and on July 22, Kapitsa begins working in Cambridge. The young Soviet scientist quickly earned the respect of his colleagues and management thanks to his talent as an engineer and experimenter. His work in the field of superstrong magnetic fields brought him wide fame 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.” Since January 1925, Kapitsa has been 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 decided to allocate £15,000 for the construction of a special laboratory for Kapitsa in Cambridge. The grand opening 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, noted in his opening speech:

We are happy that Professor Kapitsa, who so brilliantly combines both physicist and engineer, works as our laboratory director. We are convinced that under his able leadership the new laboratory will make its contribution to the knowledge of natural processes.

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

Back in 1922, Fyodor Shcherbatskoy spoke about the possibility of electing Pyotr Kapitsa to the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1929, a number of leading scientists signed a proposal for election to the USSR Academy of Sciences. On February 22, 1929, the Permanent Secretary of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Oldenburg, informed Kapitsa that “the Academy of Sciences, wishing to express its deep respect for your scientific achievements in the field of physical sciences, elected you at the General Meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences on February 13th. as its corresponding members."

An image of a crocodile on the wall of the Cavendish Laboratory.

Return to the USSR

The XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) appreciated the significant contribution of scientists and specialists to the success of the country’s industrialization and the implementation of the first five-year plan. However, at the same time, the rules for the travel of specialists abroad became more strict and their implementation was now monitored by a special commission.

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 for remaining 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. The authorities were especially concerned about the fact that Kapitsa provided consultations to European industrialists. According to historian Vladimir Yesakov, long before 1934, a plan related to Kapitsa was developed, and Stalin knew about it. From August to October 1934, a series of Politburo resolutions were adopted, signed by L. M. Kaganovich, ordering the detention of the scientist in the USSR. The final resolution read:

Based on the considerations that Kapitsa provides significant services to the British, informing them about the situation in science in the USSR, and also that he provides major services to English firms, including the military, by 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 on vacation and to see relatives. The USSR government 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 the 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 of Heavy Industry recommended that we carefully consider the offer to stay. Kapitsa refused, and he was sent to a higher authority to see Mezhlauk. The Chairman of the State Planning Committee informed the scientist that traveling abroad was impossible and the visa was cancelled. Kapitsa was forced to move in with his mother, and his wife, Anna Alekseevna, went to Cambridge to visit her children alone. The English press, commenting on what happened, wrote that Professor Kapitsa was forcibly detained in the USSR.

Kapitsa (left) and Semenov (right). In the fall of 1921, Kapitsa appeared in the studio of Boris Kustodiev and asked him why he painted portraits of celebrities and why the artist should not paint those who would become famous. The young scientists paid the artist for the portrait with a bag 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. He asked Paul Langevin, Albert Einstein and Ernest Rutherford for help and intervention. 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 wrote a letter to the USSR Plenipotentiary Representative in England for clarification as to why the famous physicist was being refused to return to Cambridge. In a response letter he was informed that Kapitsa’s return to the USSR was dictated by the accelerated development planned in the five-year plan Soviet science and industry.

1934-1941

The first months in the USSR were difficult - there was no work and no certainty about the future. I had to live in cramped conditions in a communal apartment with Pyotr Leonidovich’s mother. His friends Nikolai Semyonov, Alexei Bakh, and Fyodor Shcherbatskoy helped him a lot at that moment. Gradually, Pyotr Leonidovich came to his senses and agreed to continue working in his specialty. As a condition, he demanded that the Mondov laboratory, in which he worked, be transported to the USSR. If Rutherford refuses to transfer or sell the equipment, then 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 sterling was allocated for the purchase of equipment.

On December 23, 1934, Vyacheslav Molotov signed a decree on organizing the Institute of Physical Problems (IPP) within the USSR Academy of Sciences. On January 3, 1935, the newspapers Pravda and Izvestia reported the appointment of Kapitsa as director of the new institute. At the beginning of 1935, Kapitsa moved from Leningrad to Moscow - to the Metropol Hotel, and received a personal car. In May 1935, construction began on the institute's laboratory building on Sparrow Hills. After rather difficult negotiations with Rutherford and Cockcroft (Kapitsa did not take part in them), it was possible to reach an agreement on the conditions for transferring the laboratory to the USSR. Between 1935 and 1937, equipment was gradually received from England. The matter was greatly delayed due to the sluggishness of the officials involved in the delivery, and letters had to be written senior management USSR, right up to Stalin. As a result, we managed to get everything that Pyotr Leonidovich required. Two experienced engineers came to Moscow to help with installation and setup - mechanic Pearson and laboratory assistant Lauerman.

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

The situation is depressing. Interest in my work fell, and on the other hand, fellow scientists were so indignant that attempts were made, at least in words, to put my work in conditions that simply should have been considered normal, that they were indignant without hesitation: “If<бы>They did the same to us, then we’ll do the same as Kapitsa”... In addition to envy, suspicion and everything else, an atmosphere was created that was impossible and downright creepy... The scientists here are definitely unkind to my move here.

In 1935, Kapitsa's candidacy was not even considered in the elections to full membership 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 USSR Academy of Sciences, but, as he himself recalled, after two or three times"withdrew." In organizing the work of the Institute of 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, construction of the new institute was completed, most of the instruments were transported and installed, and Kapitsa returned to active work. scientific activity. At the same time, a “kapichnik” began working at the Institute of Physical Problems - 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 of physics. At the same time, the team of the institute, headed by Pyotr Leonidovich, is actively working on the purely practical task of improving the design of a new installation for the production of liquid air and oxygen - a turboexpander. The academician’s fundamentally new approach to the functioning of cryogenic installations is causing heated discussions both in the USSR and abroad. However, Kapitsa’s activities are approved, and the institute he heads is set as an example effective organization scientific process. At the general meeting of the Department of Mathematical and Natural Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences on January 24, 1939, Kapitsa was accepted as a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences by unanimous vote.

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa on a Russian postage stamp, 1994

War and post-war years

During the war, the IFP was evacuated to Kazan, and Pyotr Leonidovich’s family moved there from Leningrad. During the war years, the need to produce liquid oxygen from the air in industrial scale increases sharply (in particular, for the production of explosives). Kapitsa is working on introducing into production the oxygen cryogenic plant he developed. In 1942, the first copy of “Object No. 1” - the TK-200 turbo-oxygen installation with a capacity of up to 200 kg/h of liquid oxygen - was manufactured and put into operation at the beginning of 1943. In 1945, “Object No. 2” was commissioned - a TK-2000 installation with a productivity ten times greater.

At his suggestion, on May 8, 1943, by decree of the State Defense Committee, the Main Directorate for Oxygen was created under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, and Pyotr Kapitsa was appointed head of the Main Oxygen Department. In 1945, a special institute of 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 appointed to the post of head of the Department of Low Temperatures of the Physics Faculty 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 from 14 academicians, which drew the government's attention to the situation at the Department of Theoretical Physics of the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University. As a result, the head of the department after Igor Tamm was not Anatoly Vlasov, but Vladimir Fok. Having worked in this position for a short time, Fok 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 entered an active phase. On August 20, 1945, the Atomic Special Committee was created under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, headed by Lavrentiy Beria. The committee initially included only two physicists:

Kurchatov was appointed scientific supervisor of all works.
Kapitsa, who was not a specialist in nuclear physics, was supposed to oversee separate directions(low-temperature technology for separating uranium isotopes).

Both Kurchatov and Kapitsa are part of Technical Council special committee, additionally I.K. Kikoin, A.F. Ioffe, Yu.B. Khariton and V.G. Khlopin are invited there. Kapitsa immediately becomes dissatisfied with Beria’s leadership methods; 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 asking him to be relieved of his work on the Committee, but there was no response. On November 25, Kapitsa writes a second letter, more detailed (on 8 pages) and on December 21, 1945, Stalin allows Kapitsa’s resignation. Protocol No. 9 of November 30, 1945, “minutes of the meeting of the Special Committee of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR,” was published, in which P. L. Kapitsa makes a report on the conclusions he made based on the analysis of data on the consequences of the use of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and not No instructions are given; a detailed analysis of the bombing of these cities is entrusted to a commission headed by A. I. Alikhanov.

Actually, in the second letter, Kapitsa described how necessary, in his opinion, to implement the nuclear project, defining in detail an action plan for two years. As the biographers of the academician believe, 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 quite quick in execution, was not fast enough for the current political situation around the development of the first Soviet atomic bomb. In historical literature it is often mentioned that Stalin conveyed to Beria, who proposed to arrest the independent and sharp-minded academician: “I’ll take him off for you, but don’t touch him.” 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 Kapitsa's frankness and frankness. Kapitsa, despite the severity of the problems they raised, kept his messages to Soviet leaders secret (the contents of most of the letters were revealed after his death) and did not widely propagate his ideas.

At the same time, in 1945-1946, the controversy around the turboexpander and industrial production liquid oxygen. 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 launch into an industrial series will be premature. Kapitsa's installations are dismantled, and the project is frozen.

On August 17, 1946, Kapitsa was removed from the post of director of the IPP. He retires to the state dacha, to Nikolina Mountain. Instead of Kapitsa, Alexandrov is 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 away. In 1950, he was fired from the Faculty of Physics and Technology of Moscow State University, where he lectured.

In his memoirs, Pyotr Leonidovich wrote about persecution by security forces, direct surveillance initiated by Lavrentiy Beria. Nevertheless, the academician does not abandon scientific activity and continues research in the field of low temperature physics, separation of uranium and hydrogen isotopes, and improves his knowledge of 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 install it at the dacha. 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 ceremonial meeting at Moscow State University dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Stalin.

Recent years

The situation changed only in 1953 after the death of Stalin and the arrest of Beria. On June 3, 1955, Kapitsa, after a meeting with Khrushchev, 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 first head of the Department of Physics and Low Temperature Engineering at MIPT. In 1957-1984 - member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Kapitsa continues active scientific and teaching activities. 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 conduct his seminar, where the best physicists in the country were considered an honor to speak. “Kapichnik” became a kind of scientific club where not only physicists were invited, but also representatives of other sciences, cultural and artistic figures.

The persuasiveness of scientific foresight and the weight of the opinion of P.L. Kapitsa sometimes showed up in unexpected areas. Thus, in August 1955, he influenced the decision to create the first artificial Earth satellite. This is how the Lenin Prize laureate, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Prof. writes about it. Anatoly Viktorovich Brykov:

At the end of August 1955, a meeting of the country's leading scientists in the field of rocket science was held at the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where, at the suggestion of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, a special body was established to organize scientific research using a series of artificial Earth satellites. This newly created body was headed by M.V. Keldysh. Mstislav Vsevolodovich acted very energetically. The next day, all members of the newly created body gathered at the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where M.K. Tikhonravov made a report on the proposed design of the satellite and its weight characteristics. At the same time, Mikhail Klavdievich was based on the development of the simplest satellite of the first stage, since work on the second stage had not yet been completed. After the report, Tikhonravov gave answers to numerous questions about the thermal regime of the satellite, power sources, weight of scientific instruments, etc. Igor Marianovich Yatsunsky participated in this meeting and spoke about the discussion of the report as follows:
- After a heated discussion and scientists expressing a number of valuable proposals on the use of the satellite, Mstislav Vsevolodovich was still not satisfied and could not make a decision on this issue. The tension was resolved by Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa. He formulated the results of the discussion something like this: “This is a completely new matter, here we are only entering the realm of the unknown, and this always brings fruits to science that cannot be foreseen in advance. But they will definitely be there. We need to make an artificial earth satellite!” Everyone agreed with him, including Keldysh. The decision to create the first artificial Earth satellite was made.

In addition to achievements in science, Kapitsa proved himself as an administrator and organizer. Under his leadership, the Institute of Physical Problems became one of the most productive institutions of the USSR Academy of Sciences, attracting 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 Akademgorodok research center near Novosibirsk, and the higher educational institution a new type - the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. The gas liquefaction plants built by Kapitsa, after a long controversy in the late 1940s, found wide application in industry. The use of oxygen for oxygen blasting revolutionized the steel industry.

Kapitsa's grave at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

In 1965, for the first time after a break of 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 gave 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 reactions. In 1978, academician Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics “for fundamental inventions and discoveries in the field of low-temperature physics.” The academician received the news of the award while on vacation at the Barvikha sanatorium. Kapitsa, contrary to tradition, dedicated his Nobel speech not to the works that were awarded the prize, but to modern research. Kapitsa referred to the fact that he moved away from questions in the field of low-temperature physics about 30 years ago and is now fascinated by other ideas. The Nobel laureate's speech was entitled “Plasma and the controlled thermonuclear reaction.” Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa recalled that his father completely kept the bonus for himself (he deposited 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 necessary to maintain the long-lasting 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 a resonant mode with intense continuous oscillations of the Hox type, a freely floating oval-shaped gas discharge arose. This discharge was formed in the region of maximum electric field and slowly moved in a circle coinciding with the field line.

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 hypothesis was 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 Kapitsa's Nobel lecture.

Until the last days of his life, Kapitsa maintained an interest in scientific activities, continued to work in the laboratory and remained as director of the Institute of Physical Problems.

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 heritage

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 emanating from a common volume, and then heated the inside of this vessel with a beam of light. This “spider” began to move. Thus, heat was transferred into movement.

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

While working at Cambridge, Kapitsa became closely involved in research into super-strong magnetic fields and their effect on the trajectory elementary particles. Kapitsa was one of the first to place a cloud chamber in a strong magnetic field in 1923 and observed the curvature of the tracks of alpha particles. In 1924, he obtained 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 depending on 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 magnetic resistance, led Kapitsa to the problems of low temperature physics. To carry out the experiments, first of all, it was necessary to have a significant amount of liquefied gases. The methods that existed in the 1920-1930s 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 compression phase and highly purified air. Now there was no need to compress the air to 200 atmospheres - five was enough. Due to this, it was possible to increase the efficiency from 0.65 to 0.85-0.90, and reduce the installation price by almost ten times. In the course of work to improve the turboexpander, it was possible to overcome the interesting engineering problem of freezing of the lubricant of moving parts at low temperatures - liquid helium itself was used for lubrication. The scientist’s significant contribution was 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 to high-power electronics. He developed the general theory of magnetron-type electronic devices 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 of original ideas, for example - destroying nuclear weapons in the air using powerful beams electromagnetic waves. In recent years, he has worked on issues of thermonuclear fusion and the problem of confining high-temperature plasma in a magnetic field.

The “Kapitza pendulum” is named after Kapitza, a mechanical phenomenon that demonstrates stability outside of an equilibrium position. The quantum mechanical Kapitza-Dirac effect is also known, demonstrating the scattering of electrons in the field of a standing electromagnetic wave.

Discovery of superfluidity

Kamerlingh Onnes, while studying the properties of the liquid helium he first obtained, noted its unusually high thermal conductivity. A liquid with anomalous physical properties attracted the attention of scientists. Thanks to the Kapitsa installation, which began operating in 1934, it was possible to obtain liquid helium in significant quantities. Kamerlingh Onnes in his first experiments obtained about 60 cm 3 of helium, while Kapitsa's first installation had a productivity of about 2 liters per hour. The events of 1934-1937 associated with excommunication from work at the Mondov laboratory and forced detention in the USSR greatly delayed the progress of research. Only in 1937 did Kapitsa restore the laboratory equipment and return to his previous work in the field of low-temperature physics at the new institute. Meanwhile, at Kapitsa’s former workplace, at the invitation of Rutherford, young Canadian scientists John Allen and Austin Meisner began working in the same field. Kapitsa’s experimental installation for producing liquid helium remained in the Mondov laboratory - Alain and Maizner worked with it. In November 1937, they obtained reliable experimental results on changes in the properties of helium.

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 Kapitza and Allen with 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, awaiting verification. Knowing that the verification could take a long time, Kapitsa clarified in a letter that the proofs could be checked by John Cockroft, director of the Mondov laboratory. Cockroft, having read the article, informed his employees, Allen and Jones, about it, hastening them to publish it. Cockcroft, a close friend of Kapitsa, was surprised that Kapitsa only let him know about the fundamental discovery at the last moment. It is worth noting that back in June 1937, Kapitsa, in a letter to Niels Bohr, reported that he had made significant progress in the research of liquid helium.

As a result, both articles were published in the same issue of Nature dated 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 scientists was that precise measurement The viscosity of the fluid that flowed freely into the half-micron hole was not easy to estimate. The resulting turbulence of the liquid introduced a significant error into the measurement. Scientists have taken different experimental approaches. Allen and Meisner looked at the behavior of helium-II in thin capillaries (the same technique was used by the discoverer of liquid helium, Kamerlingh Onnes). Kapitsa studied the behavior of a liquid between two polished disks and estimated the resulting viscosity value to be below 10 −9 P. Kapitsa called the new phase state helium superfluidity. 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 gushing was first observed and described by Alain and Meisner.

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 continued his research on helium-II in 1938-1941, in particular confirming the speed of sound in liquid helium predicted by Landau. The study of liquid helium as a quantum liquid (Bose-Einstein Condensate) has become an important direction in physics, producing a number of remarkable scientific works. Lev Landau received the Nobel Prize in 1962 in recognition of his achievements in constructing a theoretical model of the superfluidity of liquid helium.

Niels Bohr recommended the candidacy of Pyotr Leonidovich to the Nobel Committee three times: in 1948, 1956 and 1960. However, the award of the prize occurred only in 1978. The contradictory situation with the priority of the discovery, in the opinion of many scientific researchers, led to the fact that the Nobel Committee delayed for many years in awarding the prize to the Soviet physicist. Allen and Meisner were not awarded the prize, although the scientific community recognizes their important contributions 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: intuition and engineering flair of an experimental physicist; pragmatism and business approach of the organizer of science; independence of judgment in dealing with authorities.

If any organizational issues needed to be resolved, Kapitsa preferred not to make phone calls, but to write a letter and clearly state the essence of the matter. This form of address required an equally clear written response. Kapitsa believed that it was more difficult to wrap up a case in a letter than in a 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 known examples of how difficult time In the 1930s, Kapitsa defended his colleagues who came under the suspicion of security forces. Academicians Fock and Landau owe the liberation to Kapitsa. 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 superfluidity model. Meanwhile, the charges against Landau were extremely serious, since he openly opposed the authorities and actually participated in the dissemination of materials critical of the dominant ideology.

In 1966, he signed a letter from 25 cultural and scientific figures Secretary General The Central Committee of the CPSU to L. I. Brezhnev is against the rehabilitation of Stalin. Kapitsa also defended the disgraced Andrei Sakharov. In 1968, at a meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Keldysh called on members of the academy to condemn Sakharov and Kapitsa spoke in his defense, saying that one cannot speak out against a person if one has not been able to first become acquainted with what he wrote. In 1978, when Keldysh once again invited 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 20th 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 dedicated to 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 CPSU Central Committee. Kapitsa entered into a debate with Lysenko, trying to offer him an improved method of experimentally testing the perfection of the square-cluster method of tree planting. In 1973, Kapitsa wrote to Andropov with a request to release the wife of the famous dissident Vadim Delaunay. Kapitsa received active participation in the Pugwash Movement, advocating the use of science exclusively for peaceful purposes.

Even during the Stalinist purges, Kapitsa maintained a scientific exchange of experience, friendly relations and correspondence with foreign scientists. They came to Moscow and visited the Kapitsa Institute. So in 1937, the American physicist William Webster visited Kapitza’s laboratory. Kapitsa's friend Paul Dirac visited the USSR several times

Kapitsa always believed that the continuity of generations in science has great value and the life of a scientist in a scientific environment takes on real meaning if he leaves behind students. He strongly encouraged work with youth and training of personnel. So in the 1930s, when liquid helium was very rare even in the best laboratories in the world, MSU students could get it in the IPP laboratory for experiments.

Under the conditions of a one-party system and a planned socialist economy, Kapitsa led the institute as he himself considered necessary. Initially, he was appointed by Leopold Olbert as a “party deputy” from above. A year later, Kapitsa gets rid of him, choosing his own deputy - Olga Alekseevna Stetskaya. At one time, the institute did not have a head of the personnel department at all, and Pyotr Leonidovich himself was in charge of personnel issues. He managed the institute’s budget quite freely on his own, regardless of the schemes imposed from above. It is known that Pyotr Leonidovich, seeing the chaos on the territory, ordered the dismissal of two of the three janitors of the institute and the remaining one to be paid triple salary. The Institute of Physical Problems employed only 15-20 researchers, and in total there were about two hundred people, while usually the staff of a specialized research institute of those times (for example, Lebedev Physical Institute or Physics and Technology) numbered several thousand employees. Kapitsa entered into polemics about the methods of running a socialist economy, speaking very freely about comparisons with the capitalist world.

If we take the last two decades, it turns out that fundamentally new directions in world technology, which are based on new discoveries in physics, all developed abroad and we adopted them after they received undeniable recognition. I will list the main ones: shortwave technology (including radar), television, all types jet engines in aviation, gas turbine, nuclear energy, isotope separation, accelerators<…>. But the most offensive thing is that the main ideas of these fundamentally new directions in the development of technology often originated in our country earlier, but were not successfully developed. Because they did not find recognition or favorable conditions for themselves.

From Kapitsa's letter to Stalin

Family and personal life

Father - Leonid Petrovich Kapitsa (1864-1919), major general of the engineering corps, who built the Kronstadt forts, a graduate of the Nikolaev Engineering Academy, who came from the Moldavian noble family of Kapits-Milevsky (belonged to the Polish coat of arms "Yastrzhembets").

Mother - Olga Ieronimovna Kapitsa (1866-1937), née Stebnitskaya, teacher, specialist in children's literature and folklore. Her father Jerome Ivanovich Stebnitsky (1832-1897), a 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 she came from Tiflis to St. Petersburg and entered the Bestuzhev courses. She taught at the preschool department of the Pedagogical Institute named after. Herzen.

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

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

They died along with their mother from the Spanish flu. They were all buried in one grave, at the Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery in St. Petersburg. Pyotr Leonidovich grieved the loss and, as he himself recalled, only his mother brought him back to life.

In October 1926, in Paris, Kapitsa became closely acquainted with Anna Krylova (1903-1996). In April 1927 they got married. It is interesting that Anna Krylova was the first to propose marriage. Pyotr Leonidovich knew her father, academician Alexei Nikolaevich Krylov, for a very long time, since the time of the 1921 commission. From his second marriage, two sons were born into the Kapitsa family:

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

They returned to the USSR in January 1936.

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

IN free time Pyotr Leonidovich was fond of chess. While working in England, he won the Cambridgeshire County Chess Championship. He loved making household utensils and furniture in his own workshop. Repaired antique watches.

Awards and prizes

Hero of Socialist Labor (1945, 1974)
Nobel Prize in Physics (1978)
Stalin Prize (1941, 1943)
Gold medal named after M. V. Lomonosov of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1959)
Medals named after Faraday (England, 1942), Franklin (USA, 1944), Kotenius (GDR, 1959), Niels Bohr (Denmark, 1965), Rutherford (England, 1966), Kamerlingh Onnes (Netherlands, 1968), Helmholtz (GDR, 1981)
six orders of Lenin
Order of the Red Banner of Labor
Order of the Partisan Star (Yugoslavia, 1964)
medals
Honorary lectures Rutherford Memorial Lecture (1969) and Bernal Lecture (1977) in England

Books about P. L. Kapitsa

Baldin A. M. et al.: Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa. Memories. Letters. Documents.
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 s. - ISBN 5-02-006281-2.
Dobrovolsky E. N.: Kapitsa's handwriting.
Kedrov F. B.: Kapitsa. Life and discoveries.
Andronikashvili E. L. Memories of liquid helium. Tbilisi: Ganatleba, 1980.
http://prometeus.nsc.ru/archives/exhibit2/kapitsa.ssi#m2 Biobibliography of P.L. Kapitsa, prepared by the Department of the State Public Scientific Library of the SB RAS

Memory

The Russian Academy of Sciences established the Gold Medal named after P. L. Kapitsa
A street in Moscow was named in honor of P. L. Kapitsa in 1986
The A330 VQ-BMV aircraft in the Aeroflot fleet was named in honor of P. L. Kapitsa
In the city of Kronstadt, a monument-bust was erected to a native of the city, academician Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa. The bust was unveiled during his lifetime, on June 18, 1979 (twice Heroes in the USSR were supposed to have a bust installed in their homeland). Sculptor - A. Portyanko, architects - V. Bogdanov and L. Kapitsa.
In honor of P. L. Kapitsa, the minor planet (3437) Kapitsa, discovered on October 20, 1982, was named by an employee of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory Lyudmila Karachkina. In honor of his wife Anna Alekseevna Kapitsa (Krylova), the discoverer L. Karachkina named the small planet (5021) Krylania, discovered on November 13, 1982.

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Kapitsa, Pyotr Leonidovich

Nobel Prize Laureates in Physics 1976-2000

Richter/Ting (1976) F. Anderson/Mott/Van Vleck (1977) Kapitsa/ Penzias / R. Wilson (1978) Glashow/Salam/Weinberg (1979) Cronin/Fitch (1980) Blombergen / Schawlow / K. Sigbahn (1981) K. Wilson (1982) S. Chandrasekhar / Fowler (1983) Rubbia / van der Meer (1984) von Klitzing (1985) Ruska / Binnig / Rohrer (1986) Bednorz/Müller (1987) Lederman/Schwartz/Steinberger (1988) Ramsay/Demelt/Paul (1989) Friedman/Kendall/R. Taylor (1990) de Gennes (1991) Sharpak (1992) Hulse / J. Taylor (1993) Brockhouse/Shull (1994) Pearl/Reines (1995) D. Lee / Osherov / Richardson (1996) Chu/Cohen-Tannoudji/Phillips (1997) Loughlin/Stoermer/Tsui (1998) ’t Hooft/Veltman (1999) Alferov / Kroemer / Kilby (2000)

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