MAIN DATES IN THE LIFE AND WORK OF N. A. KLYUEV 1884, October 10<22 октября н. с.) - в одной из деревень (предположительно, в деревне Андоме) в семье Алексея Тимофеевича и Параскевы Дмитриевны Клюевых родился сын Николай. 1893(?)-1895(?) - Николай Клюев учится в Вытегорском

On September 17, 1857, exactly 160 years ago, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was born - a brilliant Russian scientist, a man who stood at the origins of theoretical cosmonautics. “Russians in space” is the result of his whole life too.

The uniqueness of Tsiolkovsky lies not only in his colossal contribution to the comprehension of celestial and outer space, but also in general in the versatility of his nature. Tsiolkovsky not only formulated and developed cosmonautics, rocket science, aeronautics and aerodynamics. He was a philosopher and writer, one of the brightest representatives of Russian cosmism and the author of a number of works at the intersection of science and science fiction literature, in which he called for the exploration and settlement of outer space.

The very origin of Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky seemed to symbolize the unity of the two components of Russia - the Western, European, and the Eastern, Asian, and they were, of course, connected by Russian culture. On his father's side, Konstantin belonged to the Polish noble family of the Tsiolkovskys, whose representatives already at the end of the 18th century became greatly impoverished and actually led the life of ordinary employees. The father of the future founder of astronautics, Eduard Ignatievich Tsiolkovsky (Makar-Eduard-Erasmus Tsiolkovsky), graduated from the Forestry and Land Surveying Institute in St. Petersburg and served as a forester. The maternal line of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky is the Yumashev family, of Tatar origin. Even under John IV, the ancestors of his mother Maria Ivanovna Yumasheva, small landed nobles, moved to the Pskov region. There they gradually became Russified and adopted the Russian tradition.

Konstantin Eduardovich was born in the village of Izhevsk near Ryazan, where his father served at that time. In 1868, my father transferred to Vyatka, where he received the position of chief of the Forestry Department. In Vyatka, Konstantin went to the local gymnasium. Studying at the gymnasium was difficult for the future genius. The situation was complicated by the fact that in childhood, while sledding, Konstantin caught a cold, suffered from scarlet fever and, as a result of complications, suffered partial hearing loss. This illness also did not contribute to good studies. Moreover, in 1869, Konstantin’s older brother Dmitry, who studied at the Naval School in St. Petersburg, suddenly died. The death of her eldest son was a terrible blow for her mother, Maria Ivanovna, and in 1870 she died suddenly. Left without a mother, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky began to show even less zeal for his studies, stayed for the second year, and in 1873 he was expelled from the gymnasium with a recommendation “to enter a technical school.” This is how Tsiolkovsky’s formal education ended - after being expelled from the gymnasium, he never studied anywhere else. I didn’t study – in the official, formal sense of the word. In fact, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky studied all his life. It was self-education that allowed him to become the person who is remembered 160 years after his birth.

In July 1873, his father sent Konstantin to Moscow to enter the Higher Technical School (now Bauman Moscow State Technical University). The young man received with him a letter to his father’s friend, in which Edward asked him to help his son settle in a new place. But this letter was lost by Tsiolkovsky, after which the young man rented a room on Nemetskaya Street and began self-education in the free Chertkovsky public library. It must be said that Tsiolkovsky approached his self-education very thoroughly. He didn’t have enough money - his father sent him only 10-15 rubles a month. Therefore, Tsiolkovsky lived on bread and water - literally. But he patiently went to the library and gnawed on the granite of sciences - physics, mathematics, chemistry, geometry, astronomy, mechanics. Constantine did not ignore the humanities either.

Konstantin lived in Moscow for 3 years. He had to return to Vyatka for the reason that his father, who was aging and about to retire, could no longer send him even the meager money that he had sent before. Upon his return, Tsiolkovsky, thanks to his parents’ connections, was able to quickly find a clientele and give private lessons. After his father retired in 1878, the entire remaining Tsiolkovsky family returned to Ryazan. In the fall of 1879, at the First Provincial Gymnasium of Ryazan, Konstantin successfully passed the full exam to become a district mathematics teacher. After passing the exam, Konstantin was sent to the Borovsk district school as an arithmetic teacher, where he left in January 1880. In Borovsk, located 100 km from Moscow, Konstantin spent the next 12 years of his life. It was during the years of his life in Borovsk that Tsiolkovsky began to develop the theory of aerodynamics, dreaming of conquering the sky. In 1886, he completed the work “Theory and experience of a balloon having an elongated shape in the horizontal direction,” based on the experience of constructing and testing his own balloon design. Around the same time, in 1887, Tsiolkovsky published his first literary work, the science fiction story “On the Moon.” From now on, science fiction will occupy him no less than the theoretical foundations of aeronautics.

In 1892, Tsiolkovsky, who by this time was considered one of the best teachers in Borovsk, on the recommendation of the director of public schools D.S. Unkovsky was transferred to Kaluga - to the Kaluga District School. Konstantin Eduardovich settled in Kaluga for the rest of his life. It was here that he carried out most of his scientific developments and formed his scientific and philosophical system of views.

As you know, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was not only a practical scientist, but also a philosopher of science. In his philosophical views, he aligned himself with the Russian cosmists. Even in his youth, while studying at the Moscow library, Tsiolkovsky met Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov, an assistant librarian who was in fact a prominent religious philosopher and scientist, the “Moscow Socrates,” as his enthusiastic students called him. However, due to his natural shyness and “wildness,” as Tsiolkovsky himself later recalled, he never became acquainted with the philosophical concept of Nikolai Fedorov, one of the founders of Russian cosmism.

Fedorov believed that chaos prevails in the Universe, which has destructive consequences. To avoid the destruction of the Universe, it is necessary to transform the world, combining science and religious truths, uniting humanity around a certain “Common Cause”. In Fedorov’s concept, religion did not contradict science, and humanity had to achieve the ability to control nature, overcome the finiteness of space and time, and master space. The very idea of ​​resurrecting dead people through the use of scientific achievements was surprising. Tsiolkovsky, following generally in line with the ideas of Russian cosmism, no longer represented its religious, but its natural science direction.

One of the most important achievements of Tsiolkovsky’s philosophy was the understanding of space not just as a physical environment containing matter and energy, but as a space for the application of human creative energy and abilities. Tsiolkovsky was enthusiastic about space, considering it a container of contentment and joy, since outer space should be inhabited by perfect organisms that were able to conquer and master it. Man, mastering space, also improves and approaches these perfect organisms.

According to Tsiolkovsky, space exploration is an integral and most important stage in the evolution of mankind. Believing in the improvement and development of humanity, Tsiolkovsky was convinced that modern man had room to develop. He must overcome his immaturity, the consequences of which are wars and crimes. It was in scientific and technological progress that Tsiolkovsky saw a way of radical transformation of both the surrounding world and humanity itself. But, at the same time, being a consistent supporter of the scientific and technological revolution, Tsiolkovsky did not forget about ethical issues, which were of great importance within the framework of his philosophical concept.

Tsiolkovsky's space ethics is very original. For example, it recognizes the superiority of some forms of life, which are developed and have a future, over others - imperfect, undeveloped. The colonization of outer space is carried out precisely by developed, perfect forms that eradicate primitive organisms. At the same time, Tsiolkovsky shares the idea of ​​“reasonable egoism,” which consists of “true selfishness, concern for the future of one’s atoms.” Since atoms are exchanged in space, intelligent beings are in a moral relationship. The conditions for the successful development of atoms in the Universe are created precisely by perfect and developed organisms. Any further complication of organisms is, from Tsiolkovsky’s point of view, a great benefit.

Such views of Tsiolkovsky also influenced his position regarding the social and demographic development of society. Although Tsiolkovsky always paid the main attention in his philosophical concept to issues of space and cosmic mind, he was not alien to the so-called. “social engineering”, formulating his own vision of eugenics. No, Tsiolkovsky’s eugenics had nothing in common with the eugenic theories of European racists, popular at the beginning of the twentieth century. But Tsiolkovsky argued that the future of humanity, its improvement and prosperous development depend on how many geniuses are born in the world - the locomotives of this development. In order for more geniuses to be born, this process, from Tsiolkovsky’s point of view, must be controlled. In every city or town it is necessary to create and equip the so-called. "best houses" They should allocate apartments for the most capable and talented men and women. Marriages of such “brilliant people” should be concluded only with appropriate permission, just as appropriate permission must also be obtained for childbearing. Tsiolkovsky believed that the implementation of this measure would lead to the fact that in a few generations the number of talented and capable people and even geniuses would rapidly increase, because geniuses will marry only with their own kind and children will be born from a genius father and a genius mother, inheriting all the qualities of their biological parents.

Of course, many of Tsiolkovsky’s views now seem naive, and some seem overly radical. For example, he argued the need to rid society of the sick, crippled, and feeble-minded. Such people must be taken good care of, but they should not give birth to offspring, and if they are prevented from reproducing, then humanity will become better over time, Tsiolkovsky believed. As for the criminals, the scientist and philosopher suggested “splitting them into atoms.”

Tsiolkovsky had a special attitude towards issues of death and immortality. Tsiolkovsky, as well as some other representatives of the philosophy of Russian cosmism, was characterized by belief in the possibility of rational achievement of human immortality - with the help of scientific progress. The possibility of immortality was derived by them from the greatness of the Cosmos, the life of which cannot but be endless. At the same time, cosmists understood that immortality is not necessary for an imperfect person; the infinity of existence makes sense only for perfect, intelligent creatures. From Tsiolkovsky’s point of view, at the current stage of human development, death plays the role of artificial selection, contributing to the further improvement of the human race. The relative death of a person, like that of another creature, from Tsiolkovsky’s point of view, is a certain stop in existence that does not bring absolute death. After the death of man, atoms take on a simpler form, but they can be reborn again.
At the same time, since dying always brings suffering, Tsiolkovsky views it as an undesirable process. The dying of a “reasonable being” is especially undesirable, since it interrupts the implementation of the latter’s plans and tasks and this slows down the overall development of humanity, negatively affecting its improvement. Here Tsiolkovsky approaches the idea of ​​immortalism - personal physical immortality for a specific person, which, in his opinion, can be realized in three ways: extending human life (to begin with, up to 125-200 years), changing the very nature of man and his body, and degenerating the human personality.

The October Revolution occurred when Tsiolkovsky was already an elderly man. For the next 18 years he lived in the Soviet state and, it must be said, Tsiolkovsky had quite good relations with the Soviet government. For example, back in 1921, he was awarded a lifetime pension for services to domestic and world science. It is unlikely that in tsarist Russia he would have received such encouragement. The Soviet authorities took Tsiolkovsky's research extremely seriously. After the death of the scientist, he became one of the “icons” of Soviet cosmonautics and rocket science, which were built, among other things, by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Many streets in a number of cities of the Soviet Union, educational institutions, and museums were named after him. In many ways, it was thanks to the Soviet government that the “Kaluga dreamer” remained forever in Russia - not only as a projector, philosopher and science fiction writer, but also as a herald and theorist of space exploration.

For years people have been trying to find answers about the structure of the Universe, looking at mysterious stars and dreaming of conquering space. Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky brought humanity closer to the conquest of airspace.

His works served as an incentive to create powerful rockets, aircraft and orbital stations. The progressive and innovative ideas of the thinker often did not coincide with public opinion, but the scientist did not give up. Tsiolkovsky's ingenious research glorified Russian science in the world community.

Childhood and youth

In the fall of 1857, a boy was born into the Tsiolkovsky family. The child’s parents lived in the village of Izhevskoye, Ryazan province. The priest named the baby Constantine at baptism. Eduard Ignatievich (father) was considered the scion of an impoverished noble family, whose roots went back to Poland. Maria Yumasheva (mother) is Tatar by origin, was educated at a gymnasium, so she could teach her children to read and write herself.

Mom taught her son to write and read. Afanasiev's "Fairy Tales" becomes Konstantin's primer. According to this book, a smart boy puts letters into syllables and words. Having mastered the technique of reading, the inquisitive child became acquainted with the numerous books that were present in the house. Tsiolkovsky’s older brothers and sisters considered the baby an inventor and a dreamer and did not like to listen to children’s “nonsense.” Therefore, Kostya inspiredly told his little brother his own thoughts.

At the age of 9, the child contracted scarlet fever. The painful illness caused hearing complications. Hearing loss deprived Konstantin of most of his childhood experiences, but he did not give up and became interested in craftsmanship. Cuts and glues crafts from cardboard and wood. From under the hands of a gifted child come sleighs, clocks, houses and tiny castles. He also invented a stroller that ran against the wind, thanks to a spring and a mill.

In 1868, the family was forced to move to Kirov, Vyatka province, as the father lost his job and went to join his brothers. Relatives helped the man with work, finding him a job as a forester. The Tsiolkovskys got a merchant's house - the former property of Shuravin. A year later, the teenager and his brother enter the men's “Vyatka Gymnasium”. The teachers turned out to be strict and the subjects difficult. Studying is difficult for Konstantin.

In 1869, his older brother, who studied at the Naval School, died. The mother, unable to survive the loss of her child, died a year later. Kostya, who dearly loved his mother, plunges into mourning. The tragic moments of his biography had a negative impact on the boy’s studies, who had not achieved excellent grades before. A 2nd grade student is left for the second year due to poor academic performance, and his peers cruelly mock him for his deafness.

A student who was lagging behind in grade 3 was expelled. After this, Tsiolkovsky was forced to engage in self-education. Being at home, the teenager calmed down and began to read a lot again. The books provided the necessary knowledge and did not reproach the young man, unlike the teachers. In his parents' library, Konstantin discovered the works of eminent scientists and began studying them with gusto.

By the age of 14, a gifted boy develops his own engineering abilities. He independently creates a home lathe, with which he makes non-standard gizmos: moving strollers, a windmill, a wooden locomotive and even an astrolabe. His passion for magic tricks prompted Konstantin to create “magic” chests of drawers and drawers in which objects mysteriously “disappeared.”

Studies

The father, having examined the inventions, believed in his son’s talent. Eduard Ignatievich sent the young talent to Moscow, where he was supposed to enter the Higher Technical School. It was planned that she would live with my father’s friend, to whom they wrote a letter. Absent-mindedly, Konstantin dropped the piece of paper with the address, remembering only the name of the street. Arriving at Nemetsky (Baumansky) passage, he rented a room and continued his self-education.

Due to natural shyness, the young man did not decide to enroll, but remained in the city. The father sent the child 15 rubles a month, but this money was sorely lacking.

The young man saved on food because he spent money on books and reagents. From the diaries it is known that he managed to live on 90 kopecks a month, eating only bread and water.

Every day from 10:00 to 16:00 he sits in the Chertkovsky library, where he studies mathematics, physics, literature, and chemistry. Here Konstantin meets the founder of Russian cosmism - Fedorov. Thanks to conversations with the thinker, the young man received more information than he could have learned from professors and teachers. It took the young talent three years to fully master the gymnasium program.

In 1876, Tsiolkovsky’s father became seriously ill and called his son home. Returning to Kirov, the young man recruited a class of students. He invented his own teaching methodology, which helped children fully absorb the material. Each lesson was demonstrated clearly, which made it easier to consolidate what was learned.

At the end of the year, Ignat, Konstantin’s younger brother, died. The man took this news hard, since he had loved Ignat since childhood and trusted him with his innermost secrets. After 2 years, the family returned to Ryazan, planning to buy an apartment building. At this moment, a quarrel occurs between father and son, and the young teacher leaves the family. With the money he earned from tutoring in Vyatka, he rents a room and looks for new students.

To confirm his qualifications, a man takes exams as an external student at the First Gymnasium. Having received the certificate, he is assigned to Borovsk, to his place of public service.

Scientific achievements

The young theorist draws graphs every day and systematically composes manuscripts. At home he constantly experiments, as a result of which miniature thunder rumbles in the rooms, tiny lightning flashes, and paper people dance on their own.

The Scientific Council of the Russian Federal Chemical Society decided to include Tsiolkovsky among the scientists. The committee staff realized that the self-taught genius would make a significant contribution to science.

In Kaluga, a man wrote works on astronautics, medicine, and space biology. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky is known not only for his inventions, but also for his amazing thoughts about space. His “cosmic philosophy” expanded the boundaries of living space and opened the way to heaven for man. The brilliant work “The Will of the Universe” proved to humanity that the stars are much closer than it seems.

List of scientific discoveries

• In 1886 he developed a balloon based on his own drawings.
• For 3 years, the scientist has been working on ideas related to rocket science. Tries to put a metal airship into operation.
• Using mathematical drawings and calculations, it confirms the theory about the admissibility of launching a rocket into space.
• He developed the first models of rockets launched from an inclined plane. The professor's drawings were used to create the Katyusha artillery mount.
• Built a wind tunnel.

• Designed an engine with gas turbine traction.
• He created a drawing of a monoplane and substantiated the idea of ​​a two-wing aircraft.
• I came up with a diagram of a train moving on a hovercraft.
• Invented a landing gear that extends from the lower cavity of an aircraft.
• Researched types of rocket fuels, recommending a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen.
• He wrote a science-fantasy book, “Beyond Earth,” in which he talked about man’s amazing journey to the Moon.

Personal life

Tsiolkovsky's wedding took place in the summer of 1880. Having married without love, I hoped that such a marriage would not interfere with work. The wife was the daughter of a widower priest. Varvara and Konstantin were married for 30 years and gave birth to 7 children. Five of the children died in infancy, and the remaining two died as adults. Both sons committed suicide.

The biography of Konstantin Eduardovich is replete with tragic events. The scientist is haunted by the death of relatives, fires and floods. In 1887, the Tsiolkovsky house burned to the ground. Manuscripts, drawings and models were lost in the fire. The year 1908 is no less sad. The Oka overflowed its banks and flooded the professor's home, destroying unique circuits and machines.

The scientific achievements of the genius were not appreciated by the workers of the Socialist Academy. The Society of World Studies Lovers saved Tsiolkovsky from starvation by awarding him a pension. The authorities remembered the existence of a talented thinker only in 1923, when the press published a report by a German physicist on space flight. The state assigned the Russian genius a lifelong subsidy.

Death

In the spring of 1935, doctors diagnosed the professor with stomach cancer. Having learned the diagnosis, the man made a will, but refused to go to hospital. Exhausted by constant pain, he agreed to undergo surgery in the fall.

Doctors urgently removed the tumor, but were unable to stop the division of cancer cells. The next day, a telegram was delivered to the hospital from, who wished a speedy recovery.

The great scientist died in the fall of the same year.

• I went deaf after scarlet fever,
• I studied the university program on my own for 3 years,
• Known as a phenomenal teacher and a favorite of children,
• Considered an atheist
• A museum was built in Kaluga, where photographs and household items of the scientist are displayed,
• Dreamed of an ideal world where there are no crimes,
• He proposed dismembering murderers into atoms,
• Calculated the flight length of a multi-stage rocket.

Quotes

• “We must abandon all the rules of morality and law that have been instilled in us if they harm higher goals. Everything is possible for us and everything is useful - this is the basic law of the new morality.”
• “Time may exist, but we do not know where to look for it. If time exists in nature, then it has not yet been discovered.”
• “For me, a rocket is only a way, only a method of penetrating into the depths of space, but by no means an end in itself... There will be another way of traveling into the depths of space, and I will accept that too. The whole point is to move from Earth and populate space.”
• “Humanity will not remain forever on Earth, but in pursuit of light and space, it will first timidly penetrate beyond the atmosphere, and then conquer the entire circumsolar space.”
• “There is no creator god, but there is a cosmos that produces suns, planets and living beings: there is no omnipotent god, but there is a Universe that controls the fate of all celestial bodies and their inhabitants.”
• “What is impossible today will be possible tomorrow.”

Bibliography

• 1886 - Balloon theory
• 1890 - On the issue of flying with wings
• 1903 - Natural foundations of morality
• 1913 - Separation of man from the animal kingdom
• 1916 - Living conditions on other worlds
• 1920 - The influence of different severity on life
• 1921 - World disasters
• 1923 - The meaning of the science of matter
• 1926 - Simple solar heater
• 1927 - Conditions of biological life in the universe
• 1928 - Perfection of the Universe
• 1930 - The era of airship construction
• 1931 - Reversibility of chemical phenomena
• 1932 - Is perpetual motion possible?

Russian Soviet scientist and inventor in the field of aerodynamics, rocket dynamics, airplane and airship theory, founder of modern cosmonautics Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was born on September 17 (September 5, old style) 1857 in the village of Izhevskoye, Ryazan province, in the family of a forester.

Since 1868, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky lived with his parents in Vyatka (now Kirov), where he studied at the gymnasium.

After suffering from scarlet fever in childhood, he almost completely lost his hearing. Deafness did not allow him to continue his studies at the gymnasium, and from the age of 14 Tsiolkovsky studied independently.

From 1873 to 1876 he lived in Moscow and studied in the library of the Rumyantsev Museum (now the Russian State Library), studying chemistry and physical and mathematical sciences.

In 1876 he returned to Vyatka and.

In the fall of 1879, Tsiolkovsky passed exams as an external student at the Ryazan gymnasium for the title of teacher of district schools.

In 1880, he was appointed teacher of arithmetic and geometry at the Borovsk district school in the Kaluga province. For 12 years, Tsiolkovsky lived and worked in Borovsk. In 1892, he was transferred to service in Kaluga, where he taught physics and mathematics at the gymnasium and diocesan school.

Tsiolkovsky, almost from the very beginning of his career, combined teaching with scientific work. In 1880-1881, not knowing about the discoveries already made, he wrote his first scientific work, “The Theory of Gases.” His second work, published in the same years, “Mechanics of the Animal Organism,” received positive reviews from major scientists and was published. After its publication, Tsiolkovsky was accepted into the Russian Physical and Chemical Society.

In 1883, he wrote the work "Free Space", where he first formulated the principle of operation of a jet engine.

Since 1884, Tsiolkovsky worked on the problems of creating an airship and a “streamlined” airplane, and since 1886 - on the scientific substantiation of rockets for interplanetary flights. He systematically developed the theory of motion of jet vehicles and proposed several of their schemes.

In 1892, his work “Controllable Metal Balloon” (about an airship) was published. In 1897, Tsiolkovsky designed the first wind tunnel in Russia with an open working part.

He developed an experimental technique in it and in 1900, with a subsidy from the Academy of Sciences, he made purging of the simplest models and determined the drag coefficient of a ball, flat plate, cylinder, cone and other bodies.

In 1903, Tsiolkovsky’s first article on rocket technology, “Exploration of world spaces using jet instruments,” appeared in the journal “Scientific Review,” which substantiated the real possibility of using jet instruments for interplanetary communications.

It went unnoticed by the wider scientific community. The second part of the article, published in the journal "Bulletin of Aeronautics" in 1911-1912, caused a great resonance. In 1914, Tsiolkovsky published a separate brochure, “Addition to the Study of World Spaces with Reactive Instruments.”

After 1917, his scientific activities received state support. In 1918, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was elected a member of the Socialist Academy of Social Sciences (since 1924 - the Communist Academy).

In 1921, the scientist left his teaching job. During these years, he worked on creating a theory of jet flight and invented his own gas turbine engine design.

In 1926-1929, Tsiolkovsky developed the theory of multi-stage rocket science, solved important problems related to the movement of rockets in a non-uniform gravitational field, landing a spacecraft on the surface of planets without an atmosphere, considered the influence of the atmosphere on the flight of a rocket, put forward ideas about creating a rocket - an artificial Earth satellite and near-Earth orbital stations.

In 1932, he developed the theory of jet flight in the stratosphere and designs for aircraft at hypersonic speeds.
Tsiolkovsky is the founder of the theory of interplanetary communications. His research was the first to show the possibility of achieving cosmic speeds, the feasibility of interplanetary flights and human exploration of outer space. He was the first to consider questions about medical and biological problems arising during long-term space flights. In addition, the scientist put forward a number of ideas that have found application in rocket science. They proposed gas rudders to control the flight of a rocket, the use of propellant components to cool the outer shell of a spacecraft, and much more.

On September 19, 1935, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky died. He was buried in Kaluga in the Country Garden (now a park named after him).

In 1954, the USSR Academy of Sciences established a gold medal named after K.E. Tsiolkovsky "For outstanding work in the field of interplanetary communications." Since 1996, the Russian Academy of Sciences has awarded the K.E. Tsiolkovsky for outstanding work in the field of interplanetary communications and the use of outer space.

Monuments to the scientist were erected in Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan and other cities. A memorial house-museum of Tsiolkovsky has been created in Kaluga, which is a memorial department of the Kaluga State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics named after K.E. Tsiolkovsky. The K.E. Museum has been opened in Kirov. Tsiolkovsky, aviation and astronautics, there is also a museum of the scientist in the village of Izhevskoye, Spassky district, Ryazan region. A crater on the Moon was named after Tsiolkovsky.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

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“Tsiolkovsky’s contribution to astronautics,” wrote the founder of domestic rocket engine production V.P. Glushko is immeasurably great. We can safely say: almost everything that we are doing now in this area was foreseen by a modest provincial teacher from the turn of the century.”

And here is how S.P. noted the role of Konstantin Eduardovich. Korolev: “The most remarkable, courageous and original creation of Tsiolkovsky’s creative mind is his ideas and work in the field of rocket technology. Here he has no predecessors and is far ahead of scientists from all countries and his contemporary era.”

Origin. Tsiolkovsky family

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky came from the Polish noble family of the Tsiolkovskys (Polish. Ciołkowski) coat of arms of Yastrzembets.

The first mention of the Tsiolkovskys belonging to the noble class dates back to 1697.

According to family legend, the Tsiolkovsky family traced its genealogy back to the Cossack Severin Nalivaiko, the leader of the anti-feudal peasant-Cossack uprising in Ukraine in the 16th century.

Severin Nalivaiko

Answering the question of how the Cossack family became noble, Sergei Samoilovich, a researcher of Tsiolkovsky’s work and biography, suggests that Nalivaiko’s descendants were exiled to the Plock Voivodeship, where they became related to a noble family and adopted their surname - Tsiolkovsky; This surname allegedly came from the name of the village of Tselkovo (that is, Telyatnikovo, Polish. Ciołkowo).

It is documented that the founder of the family was a certain Maciej (Polish. Maciey, in modern Polish spelling. Maciej), who had three sons: Stanislav, Yakov (Yakub, Polish. Jakub) and Valerian, who after the death of their father became the owners of the villages of Velikoye Tselkovo, Maloe Tselkovo and Snegovo. The surviving record says that the landowners of the Płock Voivodeship, the Tsiolkovsky brothers, took part in the election of the Polish king Augustus the Strong in 1697. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky is a descendant of Yakov.

By the end of the 18th century, the Tsiolkovsky family became greatly impoverished. In conditions of deep crisis and collapse of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Polish nobility also experienced difficult times. In 1777, 5 years after the first partition of Poland, K. E. Tsiolkovsky’s great-grandfather Tomas (Foma) sold the Velikoye Tselkovo estate and moved to the Berdichev district of the Kyiv voivodeship in Right Bank Ukraine, and then to the Zhitomir district of the Volyn province. Many subsequent members of the family held minor positions in the judiciary. Not having any significant privileges from their nobility, they forgot about it and their coat of arms for a long time.

On May 28, 1834, K. E. Tsiolkovsky’s grandfather, Ignatius Fomich, received certificates of “noble dignity” so that his sons, according to the laws of that time, would have the opportunity to continue their education. Thus, starting with father K. E. Tsiolkovsky, the family regained its noble title.

Parents of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Konstantin's father, Eduard Ignatievich Tsiolkovsky (1820-1881, full name - Makar-Eduard-Erasm, Makary Edward Erazm). Born in the village of Korostyanin (now Goshchansky district, Rivne region in northwestern Ukraine). In 1841 he graduated from the Forestry and Land Surveying Institute in St. Petersburg, then served as a forester in the Olonets and St. Petersburg provinces. In 1843 he was transferred to the Pronsky forestry of the Spassky district of the Ryazan province. While living in the village of Izhevsk, he met his future wife Maria Ivanovna Yumasheva (1832-1870), mother of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Having Tatar roots, she was raised in the Russian tradition. The ancestors of Maria Ivanovna moved to the Pskov province under Ivan the Terrible. Her parents, small landed nobles, also owned a cooperage and basketry workshop. Maria Ivanovna was an educated woman: she graduated from high school, knew Latin, mathematics and other sciences. Almost immediately after the wedding in 1849, the Tsiolkovsky couple moved to the village of Izhevskoye, Spassky district, where they lived until 1860.

K.E. was born. Tsiolkovsky September 17, 1857 in the village of Izhevsky, Spassky district, Ryazan province, in the family of a forester.

He had a difficult childhood. At the age of nine, after complications from scarlet fever, he became deaf. A year later my mother died. The boy stayed with his father. Naturally very shy, after the death of his mother he became even more withdrawn into himself. The loneliness no longer left him. Deafness interfered with my studies. Therefore, after the second grade of the Vyatka gymnasium, he had to leave.

gymnasium in Vyatka

In 1873, the father, noticing technical abilities in his son, sent the 16-year-old boy to Moscow to study. However, he failed to enroll somewhere, and he continued his self-education.

Getting acquainted with this difficult period of the Moscow life of young Tsiolkovsky, you never cease to be amazed at his thoroughness, systematic thinking, and amazing determination. Confirmation of this is the recognition of Tsiolkovsky himself. “I took a thorough and systematic course in elementary mathematics and physics for the first year. In the second year I took up higher mathematics. I read courses in higher algebra, differential and integral calculus, analytical geometry, spherical trigonometry, etc.” And this is at 16-17 years old! With a half-starved existence. After all, the guy ate bread and potatoes. And the money that my father sent monthly was spent on books.

He lived in Moscow for three difficult years. It was necessary to decide what to do next. At his father’s request he returned to Vyatka. And again - self-education, experiments, minor inventions. In 1879, Tsiolkovsky passed the exams to become a primary school teacher. And soon he became a mathematics teacher at a district school in the city of Borovsk.

house-museum of K.E. Tsiolkovsky in Borovsk

office-workshop K.E. Tsiolkovsky in Borovsk

August 20 - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky marries Varvara Evgrafovna Sokolova. The young couple begins to live separately and the young scientist continues his physical experiments and technical creativity. In Tsiolkovsky's house, electric lightning flashes, thunder rumbles, bells ring, paper dolls dance. Visitors were also amazed at the “electric octopus,” which grabbed everyone’s nose or fingers with its legs, and then the hair of those caught in its “paws” stood on end and sparks jumped out from any part of the body. A rubber bag was inflated with hydrogen and carefully balanced using a paper boat with sand. As if alive, he wandered from room to room, following the air currents, rising and falling.

K.Ya. Tsiolkovsky with his family

And after 12 years of living in Borovsk, he moved to Kaluga.

In this city he lived the rest of his life, where he wrote his main works and made his greatest discoveries.

house-museum of K.E. Tsiolkovsky in Kaluga

Even in his youth, he had a thought: is it possible for a person to rise into the stratosphere? He is thinking about an aircraft for such a flight and for several years has been creating a controllable all-metal airship.

Model of a balloon shell made of corrugated metal(house-museum of K.E. Tsiolkovsky in Borovsk)

Tsiolkovsky published his theoretical justifications and calculations in the book “Controllable Metal Balloon,” which was published in 1892. This work contained many valuable thoughts.

First of all, it was valuable for one important discovery: the scientist was the first to develop a device and a regulator for the stable direction of the axis, that is, the prototype of a modern autopilot.

Konstantin Eduardovich was and for a long time remained a staunch supporter of the all-metal balloon. Mistaken about the advantageous prospects of airships over heavier-than-air vehicles, he nevertheless studied the theory of the aircraft. In 1894, he wrote the article “Airplane, or Bird-like (aviation) flying machine.” He is interested in everything connected with the airplane: what is the role of speed for it and what engines can give it speed; what should be the flight control rudders and the most advantageous shapes of the aircraft. “It is necessary to give the apparatus,” he wrote, “the sharpest and smoothest possible shape (as in birds and fish) and not to give the wings very large sizes, so as not to excessively increase friction and resistance of the environment.”

Since 1896, he has been seriously studying the theory of jet propulsion. “For a long time,” the scientist recalled, “I looked at the rocket like everyone else: from the point of view of entertainment and small applications. I don’t remember well how it occurred to me to make calculations related to the rocket. It seems to me that the first seeds - thoughts - were conceived by the famous dreamer Jules Verne, he awakened the work of my brain.”
So, a rocket. Why did the scientist take up this issue? Yes, because, according to Tsiolkovsky, she is destined to overcome the gravity of the Earth and escape into space. After all, neither an airship, nor an artillery shell, nor an airplane can do this. Only a rocket can provide the speed necessary to break Earth's gravity. It also solves another problem: rocket fuel. Powder? No. Too much of it would be required to travel into interplanetary space. And how would this negatively affect the weight of the spacecraft. What if gunpowder is replaced with liquid fuel?

After painstaking calculations, formulas, the conclusion: for space flights, liquid fuel engines are needed... He outlined all this in his work “Exploration of World Spaces with Jet Instruments,” published in 1903. By the way, the scientist not only outlined the theoretical foundations of the rocket, not only substantiated the possibility of its use for interplanetary communications, but also described this rocket ship: “Let’s imagine such a projectile: a metal oblong chamber (the form of least resistance), equipped with light, oxygen, and a carbon dioxide absorber , miasma and other animal secretions, is intended not only for storing various physical devices, but also for the intelligent being controlling the chamber. The chamber has a large supply of substances, which, when mixed, immediately form an explosive mass. These substances, exploding correctly and fairly evenly in a specific place, flow in the form of hot gases through pipes that expand towards the end, like a horn or a wind musical instrument.” The fuel was hydrogen, and the oxidizing agent was liquid oxygen. The rocket was controlled by gas graphite rudders.

Years later, he returns again and again to his work “Exploration of world spaces using jet instruments.” Publishes its second and third parts. In them, he further develops his theoretical views on the use of rockets for interplanetary flights and rethinks what he had written earlier. The scientist reaffirms: only a rocket is suitable for space flight. Moreover, the spaceship-rocket must be placed on another rocket, an earthly one, or embedded in it. The terrestrial rocket, without leaving the surface, gives it the desired takeoff. In other words, Tsiolkovsky put forward the idea of ​​space rocket trains.

Composite rockets were proposed before Tsiolkovsky. He was the first to mathematically accurately and in detail study the problem of achieving high cosmic velocities using rockets, and substantiated the reality of its solution given the existing level of technology. This idea is today implemented in multi-stage space launch vehicles.

Tsiolkovsky’s bold, daring flight of thoughts was mistaken by many around him for the delirium of an unbalanced mind. Of course, he had friends N.E. Zhukovsky, D.I. Mendeleev, A.G. Stoletov and others. They passionately supported the scientist's ideas. But these were only individual voices that were drowning in a sea of ​​mistrust, hostility and mocking attitude of official representatives of the scientific community of that time. The smartest man, Konstantin Eduardovich, deeply experienced this attitude towards him.

The theory of jet propulsion was also developed by Tsiolkovsky’s contemporaries, foreign scientists - the Frenchman Esnault-Peltry, the German Gobert and others. They published their works in 1913-1923, that is, much later than Konstantin Eduardovich.

In the 1920s, reports appeared in European publications about the works of Hermann Oberth. In them, he came to similar conclusions as Tsiolkovsky, but much later. Nevertheless, his articles did not even mention the name of the Russian scientist.

Robert Albert Charles Esnault-Peltry Hermann Julius Oberth

Chairman of the Association of Naturalists Professor A.P. Modestov spoke in print in defense of Tsiolkovsky's priority. He named the works of Konstantin Eduardovich, published earlier than the works of foreign colleagues, and cited reviews of famous domestic scientists on the works of Tsiolkovsky. “By printing these certificates, the Presidium of the All-Russian Association of Naturalists aims to restore Tsiolkovsky’s priority in developing the issue of a jet device (rocket) for extra-atmospheric and interplanetary spaces.” And when Tsiolkovsky’s new book “Rocket in Outer Space” was published the following year, Oberth, having read it, wrote to him: “You lit a fire, and we will not let it go out, but we will make every effort to make the great dream of mankind come true.”

The priority of the Russian scientist was also recognized by the German Society for Interplanetary Communications. On the day of Konstantin Eduardovich’s 75th birthday, the Germans addressed him with greetings. “From the day of its foundation, the Society for Interplanetary Communications has always considered you one of its spiritual leaders and has never missed an opportunity to point out, verbally and in print, your high merits and your undeniable priority in the scientific development of our great idea.”

family of K.E. Tsiolkovsky in Kaluga

Of course, Tsiolkovsky’s contribution to space science is colossal. But Konstantin Eduardovich’s letters, his support, approval, and attention were very important for young scientists, designers, engineers. Among those aspiring designers supported by the great scientist was the young S.P. Korolev. He visited Tsiolkovsky, talked with him for a long time, listened to his advice. It was the meeting with Tsiolkovsky, according to Korolev, that played a decisive role in the direction of his activities.

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky and Sergei Pavlovich Korolev

On September 19, 1935, Tsiolkovsky passed away. They called him a dreamer. Yes, he was a dreamer in the highest sense of the word. Many of his dreams have already come true, many will certainly become reality in the future.

When talking about Tsiolkovsky’s contribution to space science, we regularly use the word first. He was the first to substantiate the possibility of providing a rocket with escape velocity, and the first to solve the problem of landing a spacecraft on the surface of atmosphereless planets. He was the first scientist to put forward the idea of ​​an artificial Earth satellite.

Tsiolkovsky left more than 450 manuscripts of scientific, popular science and educational works, thousands of letters to his colleagues and like-minded people, some of which he hoped to publish. His legacy is invaluable. Not everything from Konstantin Eduardovich’s archive has been published to this day. According to experts, only one third of the archive has been studied.

Model of a rocket developed by Tsiolkovsky. State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics

monument in Moscow

in Dolgoprudny

monument to K.E. Tsiolkovsky in Borovsk

K.E. Tsiolkovsky in Kaluga

medal K.E. Tsiolkovsky

spaceship “K.E. Tsiolkovsky “