Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa: biography, photos, quotes. Peter Kapitsa Brief biography

Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa. Born on June 26 (July 8), 1894 in Kronstadt - died on April 8, 1984 in Moscow. Soviet physicist. A prominent organizer of science. Founder of the Institute physical problems (IFP), the director of which remained up to last days Life. One of the founders of the Moscow Physico-Technical Institute. First Head of Physics Department low temperatures Physical Faculty of Moscow State University. The laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1978) for the opening of the phenomenon of superfluidity of liquid helium, introduced the term "superfluidity" into the scientific way.

Also known works in the field of physics of low temperatures, studying supreme magnetic fields and retaining high-temperature plasma. Developed a high-performance industrial installation for gases (turbowetander). From 1921 to 1934 he worked in Cambridge under the leadership of Rutherford. In 1934, returned to the time in the USSR, was forcibly left in his homeland. In 1945, he was part of the Special Committee on the Soviet Atomic Project, but its two-year plan for the implementation of the atomic project was not approved, in connection with which he asked for resignation, the request was satisfied. From 1946 to 1955, he was dismissed from state Soviet institutions, but he was left to work as a professor in Moscow State University to work as 1950. Lomonosov.

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

Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa was born on June 26 (July 8) of 1894 in Kronstadt (now the administrative district of St. Petersburg), in the family of the military engineer Leonid Petrovich Kapitsa and his wives Olga Jeronimovna, the daughter of the Topograph of Jerome St Bniktsky. In 1905 he entered the gymnasium. A year later, due to weak progress in Latin, it goes into the Kronstadt Real School. After graduating from the school, in 1914 he entered the Electromechanical Faculty of St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. The capable student quickly notices A. F. Ioffe, attracts to his seminar and work in the laboratory.

First world War Caught a young man in Scotland, which he visited on the summer vacation to study the language. He returned to Russia in November 1914 and in a year volunteer goes to the front. Kapitsa served as a driver on a sanitary car and drove the wounded on the Polish Front. In 1916, demobilized, returns back to St. Petersburg to continue study. The father of Kapitsa dies from Spanish in Revolutionary Petrograd, then his first wife, a two-year-old son and a newborn daughter died.

Even before the protection of the diploma, A. F. Ioffe invites Peter Kapitsa to work in the physico-technical department of the newly created X-ray and radiological institute (transformed in November 1921 in the Physics and Technology). Scientist publishes his first scientific work In ZhRFHO and starts teaching activities.

Ioffe considered that promising young physics need to continue studying in an authoritative foreign scientific school, but it was not possible to organize the departure abroad for a long time. Thanks to the promotion of Krylov and the intervention of Maxim Gorky in 1921, Kapitsa, as part of the Special Commission, sent to England. Thanks to the recommendation of Ioffe, he managed to get a job in the Cavendish laboratory under the beginning of Ernest Rutherford and from July 22, Kapitsa begins to work in Cambridge. Young Soviet scientist quickly deserves respect for colleagues and leadership thanks to the talent of the engineer and the experimenter. Works in the field of supreme magnetic fields bring him widely fame in scientific circles. At first the relationship between Rutherford and Kapitsa was not easy, but gradually the Soviet physics managed to conquer and his trust and soon they became very close friends. Kapitsa gave Rutherford the famous nickname "Crocodile". Already in 1921, when the Kavendish laboratory visited the famous experimenter Robert Wood, Rutherford instructed to spend a spectacular impact experience in front of the famous guest by Peter Kapitsa.

The theme of a doctoral dissertation, which Kapitsa defended in Cambridge in 1922, was "passing alpha particles through a substance and methods for producing magnetic fields." From January 1925, Kapitsa - Deputy Director of the Cavendish Laboratory for Magnetic Studies. In 1929, Kapitsa was elected a full member of the Royal Society London. In November 1930, the Council of the Royal Society decides on the allocation of 15,000 pounds of sterling for construction in Cambridge a special laboratory for Kapitsa. The solemn opening of the Mondovskaya laboratory (by the name of the industrialist and philanthropy monda) took place on February 3, 1933. Kapitsa is elected by the Messel professor of the Royal Society.

Kapitsa supports communication with the USSR and in every way promotes the international scientific exchange of experience. In the "International Monographs in Physics" publishing house of the University of Oxford, one of the editors of which was Kapitsa, the monographs of Georgy Gamova, Yakova Frankel, Nikolai Semenova. In England, at his invitation comes to the internship of Julius Khariton and Cyril Sinelnikov.

Back in 1922, Fedor Shcherbatskaya was expressed about the possibility of electioning Peter Kapitsa to the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1929. whole line Leading scientists have signed under the idea of \u200b\u200belection to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. On February 22, 1929, an indispensable secretary of the USSR Academy of Sciences of the USSR Oldenburg informs the capital that "Academy of Sciences, wanting to express his deep respect for scientists with your deserves in the field of physical sciences, elected you at the general meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences on February 13 p. In its correspondent members. "

The XVII Congress of WCPs (b) appreciated the significant contribution of scientists and specialists in the success of the industrialization of the country and the fulfillment of the first five-year plan. However, at the same time, the rules of departure of experts abroad became more stringent and the Special Commission has now followed their fulfillment.

Numerous cases of non-return of Soviet scientists were not ignored. In 1936 V. N. Ipatiev and A. E. Chichibabin were deprived of Soviet citizenship and excluded from the Academy of Sciences for what remained abroad after a business trip. Wide resonance in scientific circles had a similar story with young scientists. A. Gamov and F. G. Dobjan.

The activities of Kapitsa in Cambridge did not remain unnoticed. The particular concern of the authorities caused the fact that Kapitsa provided consultations to European industrialists. According to the historian Vladimir Esakov, a plan associated with Kapitsa was developed long before 1934, and he knew Stalin about him. From August to October 1934, a number of Politburo Resolutions, signed by L. M. Kaganovich, prescribed to detain a scientist in the USSR.

Until 1934, Kapitsa and family lived in England and regularly came to the USSR to rest and see his relatives. The Government of the USSR has several times offered him to stay in his homeland, but the scientist invariably refused. At the end of August, Peter Leonidovich, as in previous years, was going to visit the 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 Commissar, where he met with Pyatakov. The Deputy Complex of the Grave Industry recommended how to think about the proposal to remain. Kapitsa refused, and he was sent to the reception to the superior instance to the interlassule. The Chairman of the State Dummy informed the scientist that the departure abroad was impossible and the visa was revoked. Kapitsa was forced to move to the mother, and his spouse, Anna Alekseevna, went to Cambridge to children alone. The English press, commenting on what happened, wrote that Professor Kapitsa was forcibly detained in the USSR.

Peter Leonidovich was deeply disappointed. At first I even wanted to leave physics and switch to biophysics, becoming an assistant Pavlov. Approached helping and interference with the field of Langezhen, and Ernest Rutherford. In a letter, Rutherford, he wrote that he barely came to his senses after shock from what had happened, and thanked the teacher for his help his family remaining in England. Rutherford letter to the USSR police station in England appealed to clarifications - why a well-known physics refuse to return to Cambridge. In a response letter, he was reported that the return of Kapitsa in the USSR was dictated by the rapid development of Soviet science and industry as planned in a five-year plan.

The first months in the USSR were difficult - there was no work and certainty with the future. To live in the constricted conditions of the communal apartment from Mother Peter Leonidovich. My friends Nikolai Semenov, Alexey Bach, Fedor Shcherbatskaya, helped him very much. Gradually, Peter Leonidovich came to himself and agreed to continue work in the specialty. As a condition, I demanded to transport the Mondovsky laboratory in which he worked in the USSR. If Rutherford refuses to transfer or sell equipment, it will be necessary to purchase duplicates of unique devices. The decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) 30 thousand pounds of sterling for the purchase of equipment was allocated.

December 23, 1934 signed a decision on the organization as part of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Institute of Physical Problems (IFM). On January 3, 1935, the newspaper "Pravda" and Izvestia reported on the appointment of Kapita director of the new institute. In early 1935, Kapitsa moves from Leningrad to Moscow - to the hotel Metropol, receives a personal car. In May 1935, the construction of the Institutional Laboratory Corps on Sparrow Mountains began. After quite difficult negotiations with Rangeford and Cockrift (Kapitsa did not participate in them) managed to come to an agreement on the conditions for transferring the laboratory in the USSR. In the period from 1935 to 1937, equipment from England was gradually obtained. The case was strongly stopped because of the non-historicalness of the delivery officials, and it was necessary to write letters to the highest leadership of the USSR, right up to Stalin. As a result, I managed to get everything that Peter Leonidovich demanded. Two experienced engineers came to Moscow who helped in mounting and setting up - Mechanic Pearson and Laberante Loweerman.

In his letters of the late 1930s, Kapitsa confessed that the possibilities for work in the USSR are inferior to the fact that they were abroad - it is even though he received a scientific institution at his disposal and practically did not experience problems with financing. The problems that were solved in England in England were mocked in Bureaucratism. The sharp statements of the scientist and the exceptional conditions created by the authorities did not contribute to the establishment of mutual understanding with colleagues in an academic environment.

In 1935, the candidacy of Kapitsa is not even considered in the elections to the actual members of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He repeatedly writes notes and letters about the possibilities of the reform of the Soviet science and the academic system to representatives of the authorities, but does not receive a clear reaction. Several times Kapitsa took part in the meetings of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, but, as he recalled himself, after two or three times "eliminated". In the organization of the work of the Institute of Physical Problems, Kapitsa did not receive any serious assistance and relied, mainly for his strength.

In January 1936, Anna Alekseevna with children is returned from England, and the Kapitsa family moves to the cottage built on the territory of the Institute. By March 1937, the construction of a new institute was completed, most of the instruments were transported and mounted, and Kapitsa returns to active scientific activity. At the same time, the "Headfit" is beginning to work at the Institute of Physical Problems - the famous Seminar Peter Leonidovich, who soon acquires all-union fame.

In January 1938, Kapitsa publishes in the journal Nature an article about the fundamental opening - the phenomenon of superfluidity of liquid helium and continues research in the new direction of physics. At the same time, the Collective of the Institute, headed by Peter Leonidovich, is actively working on a purely practical task of improving the design new Installation For the production of liquid air and oxygen - Turbowetander. A fundamentally new approach of academician to the functioning of cryogenic installations causes stormy discussions both in the USSR and abroad. However, the activity of Kapitsa receives approval, and the institute led by them is as an example effective organization scientific process. At the general meeting of the branch of the Mathematical and Natural Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences on January 24, 1939, the unanimous voting of Kapitsa was admitted to the actual members of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

During the years of repression, the arrested colleagues took up. Below - a letter in the name of Stalin dated April 28, 1938 in connection with the arrest of Landau:

"Comrade Stalin!

This morning they were arrested by a researcher at the Institute of L.D.. Despite his 29 years old, he together with Fock is the largest theoretical physicists in our Union. His work on magnetism and quantum theory is often quoted both in our and foreign scientific literature. Only last year, he published one remarkable work, where the first pointed out a new source of star radiating energy. This work is given possible Solution: "Why the energy of the Sun and Stars does not decrease noticeably over time and has not yet been exhausted." The big future of these ideas Landau recognizes Bohr and other leading scientists.

There is no doubt that Landau's loss as a scientist for our institute, as well as for the Soviet, and for world science will not pass imperceptibly and will be strongly felt. Of course, the scholarship and talentedness, no matter how large they were, do not give the right to man to violate the laws of their country, and, if Landau is guilty, he must answer. But I really ask you, in view of his exceptional talentedness, give the appropriate instructions to be treated very carefully. Also, it seems to me that the character of Landau should be taken into account, which, simply speaking, is bad. He looked around and Zabi, likes to look for other mistakes and, when it finds them, especially the important elders, such as our academics, it begins to tease inconspicuously. By this, he gave many enemies.

In our institute, it was not easy with him, although he succumbed to persuasion and became better. I told him his antics because of his exceptional darity. But with all its shortcomings, it is very difficult for me to believe that Landau was capable of something dishonest.

Landau is young, it seems to do a lot in science. No one, like another scientist, can not write about all this, so I write to you.

P.Kapitsa ".

During the war, the IFP was evacuated to Kazan, the family of Peter Leonidovich was moved there from Leningrad. In the war years, the need to produce liquid oxygen from the air in industrial scale Radically increases (in particular, for the production of explosives). Kapitsa is working on the introduction of an oxygen cryogenic unit developed by it. In 1942, the first copy of the "Object No. 1" - turbo acid plant TC-200 with a capacity of up to 200 kg / h of liquid oxygen - was manufactured and commissioned in early 1943. In 1945, "Object No. 2" was commissioned - the installation of TK-2000 with a productivity of ten times more.

According to his proposal, on May 8, 1943, the State Committee for Oxygen was created by the State Committee for Oxygen in the USSR SCA, the head of the chief of chislood is appointed by Peter Kapitsa. In 1945, a special Institute of Oxygen Engineering - VNIKIMASH was organized and a new oxygen magazine began to leave. In 1945 he received the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor, and the institute led by him was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of the Red Banner.

In addition to the practical activity of Kapitsa, it is time for teaching. From October 1, 1943, Kapitsa is credited to the position of head of the Department of Low Temperatures of the Physical 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 the letter of 14 academics, which attracted the attention of the government to the situation at the Department of Theoretical Physics of the Physical Faculty of Moscow State University. As a result, the head of the department after Igor Tamma was not Anatoly Vlasov, but Vladimir Fock. For a short time, worked in this post, Fock again left this post. Kapitsa signed a letter of four academics 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.

In the meantime, in the second half of 1945, immediately at the end of the war, the Soviet atomic project is entering the active phase. On August 20, 1945, a nuclear specialty was created in the Soviet University of the USSR, whose supervisor became Lavrenty Beria. The Committee initially included only two physics: Kurchatov was appointed supervisor of all works. Kapitsa, who was not a specialist in nuclear physics, was to oversee certain areas (low-temperature technology for separating uranium isotopes).

And Kurchatov and Kapitsa are part of the Technical Council of the Special Committee, I. K. Kikoin, A. F. Iofe, Yu. B. Khariton and V. G. Kholopan are invited to additionally. Kapitsa immediately arises dissatisfaction with the methods of leadership of Beria, it is very impartial and acutely responded about the General Commissioner of the State Security - both in person and in a professional plan. On October 3, 1945, Kapitsa writes Stalin a letter with a request to release him from work in the Committee, but the answer did not follow. On November 25, Kapitsa writes a second letter, more detailed (on 8 pages) and December 21, 1945 permits the resignation of Kapitsa. Protocol No. 9 dated November 30, 1945 "Protocol meeting of the Special Committee in the Soviet Committee of the USSR", on which P. L. Kapitsa makes the report on the conclusions that he did on the basis of the analysis of data on the consequences of the use of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and not There are no instructions, a detailed analysis of the bombardment of these cities is entrusted to make commissions headed by A. I. Alikhanov.

Actually, in the second letter, Kapitsa described as necessary, in his opinion, to carry out an atomic project, determining in detail the action plan for two years. According to Biographers Academician - Kapitsa at that time did not know that at the hands of Kurchatov and Beria at that time, data was already received by Soviet intelligence data on the American atomic program. The plan offered by Kapitsa, although it was fairly fast in execution, but not enough soon for the current political situation around the development of the first Soviet atomic bomb. In historical literature, it is often mentioned that Stalin handed over Beria, who offered to arrest independent and sharp academician "I will rent it, but you don't touch it." Petra Leonidovich's authoritative biographers do not confirm the historical accuracy of such words of Stalin, although it is known that Kapitsa allowed himself a completely exclusive behavior for the Soviet scientist and citizen. According to the historian Lauren Graham Stalin grated in the capital to direct and frankness. His messages to the Soviet leaders of Kapitsa, with all the sharpness of their problems, held in secret (the content of most letters was revealed after his death) and did not propaganda their ideas.

Letters of Kapitsa Stalin may have become an impetus for the campaign to combat lowlands in front of the West.

January 2, 1946 P.L. Kapitsa sent a letter to Stalinwhich was supposed to be publicized only in 1989. Together with the letter Kapitsa sent Stalin also the manuscript of the writer of the Gumilevsky "Russian engineers". Kapitsa pointed out that the book "Russian engineers" was written by Gumilevsky according to him, Peter Leonidovich, asking. And in the letter Kapitsa wrote the following:

"We have little imagine, what a big storehouse of creative talent has always been in our engineering thought. From the book clear: the first - a large number of the largest engineering undertakings were born with us; the second - we ourselves almost never knew how to develop them; The third is often the reason for the use of innovation in the fact that we usually underestimated our foreign ones. Usually prevented our technical pioneering work to develop and influence the global techniques of organizational disadvantages. Many of these shortcomings still exist to this day, and one of the mains is the underestimation of their and revaluation of foreign forces. It is clear that now we need to raise our own original technique to raise our own original technique. We must do in your own and atomic bomb, and the jet engine, and the intensification of oxygen, and much more. We successfully do it only when we believe in the talent of our engineer and a scientist and respect him and when we finally understand that the creative potential of our people is no less, but even more others and it can be safely relying. That this is so, apparently, it is proved by the fact that no one has managed to swallow us for all these centuries. ".

A year later, in 1947, Stalin put forward the task of combating "low-stylism" before the West, primarily in natural and technical sciences. On May 13, 1947, Stalin said in the Union of Writers, where he said: "But there is such a topic that is very important ... If we take our average intelligentsia, scientific intelligentsia, professors ... they have an unjustified adolescence in front of the overseas culture. Everyone feels even minor, not one hundred percent, used to consider themselves in the position of eternal students ... Why are we worse? What's the matter? It happens like this: a person makes a great thing and does not understand this itself ... it is necessary to fight with the spirit of self-esteem ... ".

At the same time, in 1945-1946, the controversy around Turbodetander and industrial production liquid oxygen. Kapitsa enters into a discussion with leading Soviet cryogenetic engineers who do not recognize him as a specialist in this area. The State Commission recognizes the prospects for developing Kapitsa, but it believes that the launch in the industrial series will be premature. Installation Kapitsa disassemble, and the project turns out to be frozen.

On August 17, 1946, Kapitsa is removed from the office of the Director of the IFP. He is removed to the State Cottage, Nikolina Mountain. Instead, Kapita Director of the Institute appoint Alexandrova. According to Academician Feynberg at this time, Kapitsa was "in the link, under house arrest." Dacha was the property of Peter Leonidovich, but the property and furniture inside were most of the state and almost completely removed. In 1950, he was fired from the Physics and Technology Faculty of Moscow State University, where he lectured.

In his memoirs, Peter Leonidovich wrote about the persecution by the power structures, direct surveillance initiated by the Lavrenting of Beria. Nevertheless, the academician does not leave scientific activities and continues research in the field of low-temperature physics, the separation of uranium and hydrogen isotopes, improves knowledge in mathematics. Thanks to the promotion of the President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Sergey Vavilov, it was possible to get a minimum set of laboratory equipment and mounted it at the cottage. In numerous letters of Molotov and Malenkov, Kapitsa writes about experiments conducted in handicraft conditions and asks for the opportunity to return to normal operation. In December 1949, Kapitsa, despite the invitation, ignored the solemn meeting in Moscow State University dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Stalin.

The situation has 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. Then he was appointed chief editor of the leading physical journal of the country - "Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics". Since 1956, Kapitsa is one of the organizers and the first head of the Department of Physics and Technology of Low Temperatures of MFT. In 1957-1984 - Member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Kapitsa continues active scientific and pedagogical activities. During this period, the attention of the scientist attract plasma properties, hydrodynamics of thin layers of liquid and even the nature of ball lightning. He continues to lead his seminar, where he was honored to speak the best physicists of the country. "The Heads" became a kind, a scientific club where not only physicists were invited, but also representatives of other sciences, cultural and art figures.

The persuasiveness of the scientific foresight and the weight of the opinion of P.L. Kapitsa sometimes appeared in unexpected areas. So, in August 1955, he influenced the decision to create the first artificial satellite of the Earth.

In addition to achievements in science, Kapitsa showed itself as an administrator and organizer. Under his leadership, the Institute of Physical Problems has become one of the most productive institutions of the USSR Academy of Sciences, attracted many leading specialists in the country. In 1964, the academician expressed the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a scientifically popular publication for young people. The first issue of the journal "Kvant" came out in 1970. Kapitsa took part in the creation of the Academgorodok Research Center near Novosibirsk, and the highest educational institution of a new type - Moscow Physico-Technical Institute. Built by the capital of the installation for liquefying gases after a long controversy of the late 1940s found wide use in industry. The use of oxygen for the oxygen blast led to a coup in the steel industry.

In 1965, for the first time after more than a thirty-year break, Kapitsa received permission to leave Soviet Union In Denmark, for obtaining an international gold medal Niels Bora. There he visited the scientific laboratories and made a lecture on the physics of high energies. In 1969, a scientist, together with his wife, visited the United States for the first time.

IN last years Kapitsa became interested in a controlled by thermonuclear reaction. In 1978, the Academician Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "For fundamental inventions and discoveries in the field of physics of low temperatures". The news of the award of the Academic Award met during the rest in the sanatorium of Barvikha. The Nobel speech of Kapitsa, contrary to tradition, dedicated not to those who were noted by the award, but to modern research. Kapitsa referred to the fact that he was departed from questions in the field of low-temperatures physics about 30 years ago and is now passionate about other ideas. The Nobel's speech of the laureate was called "Plasma and the Controlled Theronuclear Reaction" (PLASMA AND THE CONTROLED THERMONUCLEAR REACTION). Sergey Petrovich Kapitsa recalled that his father completely left the award to himself (he put on his name to one of the Swedish banks) and did not give anything to the state.

Until recent days of life, Kapitsa retained interest in scientific activity, continued to work in the laboratory and remained as director of the Institute of Physical Problems.

On March 22, 1984, Peter Leonidovich felt bad and took him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with stroke. April 8, without coming into consciousness, Kapitsa died. Buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Family and personal life of Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa:

Father Leonid Petrovich Kapitsa (1864-1919), Major General of the Engineering Corps, built Kronstadt Forts, a graduate of the Nikolaev Engineering Academy, who came from the Moldovan Shankhetsky clan of Kapits Milevsky (belonged to the Polish coat of archer "Yastrzhembets").

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

In 1916, Kapitsa married the hoping of the mannevita. Her father, member of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party, Deputy State Duma Cyril Prunevitov, was later, in 1919, shot. From the first marriage of Peter Leonidovich, children were born:

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

Died along with the mother from Spanish. Everyone is buried in one grave, at the Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery in St. Petersburg. Petr Leonidovich was seriously survived and, as he himself recalled, only his mother returned him back to life.

In October 1926, in Paris, Kapitsa closely met Anna Krylova (1903-1996). In April 1927, they got married. Interestingly, the proposal of the hand and hearts of the first made Anna Krylov. Her Father, Academician Alexei Nikolayevich Krylova Peter Leonidovich knew a long time ago, since the 1921 Commission. Two sons were born from the second marriage in the family Kapitsa:

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

In the USSR returned in January 1936.

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

In his spare time, Peter Leonidovich was fond of chess. During work in England, the Championship of Cambridgeshire Chess Championship won. He liked to make homemade utensils and furniture in his own workshop. Repaired vintage clock.

Peter Leonidovich plays chess with Maurice Dirac.
Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa. The largest physicist experimenter, one of the founders of low-temperatures physics. He opened a superfluidity of liquid helium at temperatures below 2.17 K, the method of obtaining superal magnetic fields, the production of liquid helium on an industrial scale, and many other physical phenomena, set a number of patterns.
Different witty, independence and courage, established unique relations with foreign scientists and the Soviet government, played an important public role. Academician RAS, Nobel Prize winner in 1978 physics. Founder of the Mondovskaya Laboratory of the University of Cambridge (England), the Institute of Physical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, one of the founders of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Dry lines from the Internet. But few know about the courage and principle of a scientist who saved his colleagues during the massive repression of the end of the 30th century.
In 1935 he sent a sharp letter to the head of the USSR government to defend the talented mathematics N.N. Luzina on which the case was brought. It was thanks to his intercession of Luzin was not arrested. In 1937, an outstanding physicist Theorient Vladimir Alexandrovich Fock was arrested. Intercession of P.L. Kapitsa again saved the life of the scientist. In 1938, the future was arrested Nobel laureateand at the time the head of theorists of the Institute of Physical Problems (IFN) ld Landau. The intercession of Kapitsa again saved the life of a repressed scientist.
It must be said that in 1945, Kapitsa, together with Kurchatov, was included in the Special Committee to work on the creation of the USSR atomic weapons. The head of the committee was appointed L.P. Beria that, according to Kapitsa, made it difficult to work on an atomic project. Kapitsa reported to Stalin, and, in the open, showing a letter of Beria. This caused a storm of indignation and the desire to destroy the recalcitrant academician. Saved Kapitsa himself Stalin, saying Beria: "I will rent it, but you do not touch him." Although without consequences, the courage of the scientist remained. At first, he was asked from the Committee, then expelled from the Institute organized by Kapitsa himself. Only after the death of Stalin P.L. Kapitsa again headed the IFP. Kapitsa also defended the Opt Andrei Sakharov
The Nobel Prize received in 84 years old. Niels Bohr recommended that the Nobel Committee was the candidacy of Peter Leonidovich: in 1948, 1956 and 1960. However, the award award occurred only in 1978.
Some sayings P.L. Kapitsa about life.
Life is similar to the card game, in which you play, not knowing the rules.
Each person has its own meaning of life. The one who found it is happy. And who did not find it - unhappy. And it is impossible to give one answer to this question.
Happy can be learned to be in any circumstances. Unhappy only one who enters into a deal with his conscience.
A young man when he is not yet afraid to do nonsense.
Perseverance and excerpt is the only force with which people are considered.
Life allows the most difficult problems if it gives enough time to it.
Chief sign Talent is when a person knows what he wants.
The first sign of a big person - he is not afraid of mistakes.
At the heart of creative labor always lies a sense of protest and discontent. This is the reason that the so-called bad character is often inherent in creative workers.
Clearness contributes to personal well-being.
Excessive modesty is an even more disadvantage than excessive self-confidence.
The topic of work should be changed every 8 years, because during this time the cells are completely changing - you are already another person.
If a person immediately gets a big salary, he does not grow.
Nothing in life does not clearly define the position of things as a comparison.
A clever person cannot but be progressive. Understand new and what it leads can only smart manendowed with courage and imagination. But this is not enough. We still have to have a wrestler temperament.
The larger the person, the more contradictions in it, and the more contradictions in those tasks that life poses in front of him.
The process of creativity is manifested in any activity when a person has no accurate instruction, but he must decide how to do it.
The more qualified specialist, the less he is specialized.

Literature:
Biography P. L. Kapitsa on the portal IFP RAS
P. E. Rubinin Kapitsa in my old notebooks
E. L. Kapitsa Our conversations that will serve as a prologue (P. L. Kapitsa and the Family of the Work)
S. E. Shnol Time Symbols (Review of Memories P. L. Kapitsa)

Kapitsa Petr Leonidovich (9.VII.1894 - 8.IV.1984) - Soviet physicist, academician (1939; ChL-Cor. 1929). R. in Kronstadt. He graduated from Petrograd Polytechnic In-T (1918) and stayed at the Department of A.F. Ioffe. In 1921, he was sent to a scientific business trip to England, where he worked in the Cavendish laboratory. In 1924 - 32 was the Deputy Director of the Cavendish Laboratory, in 1930 - 34 - Director of the Monda laboratory at the Royal Oba and Professor (in 1929 he was elected a member of the Royal OB-BA). After returning to the USSR, he organized the Institute of Physical Problems in Moscow, the director of which was in 1935 - 46 and is from 1955. In 1939 - 46 - Professor of the Moscow University, since 1947 - Moscow Physico and Technical Institute.
Father S.P. Kapitsa .

The works are devoted to nuclear physics, physics and techniques of superal magnetic fields, physics and techniques of low temperatures, electronics of high capacity, high-temperature plasma physics. In 1920 together with N.N. Semenov proposed a method for determining the magnetic moment of an atom implemented in 1922 in research O. Stern. and V. Gerlaha. The first in 1923 placed the Wilson Camera into a strong magnetic field and watched the curvature of the tracks of alpha particles.

In 1924 suggested new method obtaining pulsed hyperphic magnetic fields (up to 500,000 earsted). Receiving record values \u200b\u200bof the magnetic field, studied its effect on various physical properties of the substance. Installed in 1928 the law of linear increase in the electrical resistance of a number of metals from the magnetic field strength (the law of Kapitsa).

In 1933 with P. A. M. Dirac described the so-called Effect of Kapitsa Dirac - forced Common Compton scattering due to the grouping of electrons in the field of standing electromagnetic wave. The article for many years was forgotten, but later I became the basis for creating lasers on free electrons.

Created new methods of residence of hydrogen and helium, designed new types of lifelines (piston, detailed and turbo-delicious installations). In 1934, an anmatidiary of the Helium of the Detanel type was built with a capacity of 2 l / h, in 1939 - installation low pressure for industrial receipt Oxygen from the air. Turbowetander Kapitsa forced to revise the principles of creating refrigeration cycles used to resign and separation of gases, which significantly changed the development of global oxygen production techniques.

Developing the technique of obtaining liquid helium, studied its properties. In some of its experiments, it showed that at temperatures below the critical (2.19 K), the viscosity of liquid helium becomes extremely small (opening of superfluidity of helium II), and thoroughly studied the properties of liquid helium in this new state, in particular, it showed that it consists of two Component - superfluid and normal. These studies stimulated the development of the quantum theory of liquid helium developed by LD Landau. Observed in 1941 a leap of temperature on the border "Solid Body - Liquid Helium" (Temperature Racing Kapitsa). In 1978 fundamental research In the field of low-temperatures physics, the Nobel Prize was awarded.

In the postwar period, Capitsa attracts the electronics of large capacities. Developed the general theory of magnetron-type electronic devices and created magnetron continuous generators - planotron and nigotron. Put forward a hypothesis about the nature of ball lightning. Experimentally discovered (1959) the formation of high-temperature plasma in a high-frequency discharge. Works are also devoted to the history of physics and organization of science.

Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1945, 1974), twice laureate of the USSR State Prize (1941, 1943). Member of many foreign academies of sciences and scientific societies. Gold Medal M. V. Lomonosov (1959), Medals M. Faraday (1942), B. Franklin (1944), N. Bora (1964), E. Rostford (1966), Prize F. Simon (1973), etc. Chief Editor "Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics" (from 1955).

Works:

P.L. Bapitsa. EXPERIMENT. THEORY. PRACTICE. Articles. Performances. Publishing house "Science". The main editorial office of physico-mathematical literature. Moscow, 1974.
P.L. Kapitsa. Do you understand physics? M. Knowledge, 1968
P.L. Kapitsa. Letters about science. 1930-1980. "Moscow worker", 1989
P.L. Kapitsa. All simple - truth ... Aphorisms and sayings P. L. Kapitsa, his favorite parables, instructive stories, jokes. Cost. P.E. Rubinin. Moscow, MFTI Publishing, 1994

Literature:

Kedrov F. Kapitsa: Life and discoveries - 2nd ed., M.: Mosk. Worker, 1984.
Academician Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa / Collection of articles. M., "Knowledge", 1979.
Twenty two reports academician P.L. Kapitsa. Publication P.E. Rubinina. Chemistry and Life, № 3-5, 1985
Dobrovolsky E.N. "Handwriting Kapitsa" - Moscow: Soviet Russia, 1968
V.M. Brodiance. "Oxygen epic". Nature, 1994, No. 4
Monologists about the capital. Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Volume 64, №6, p. 510-523 (1994)
Ceparukhin V. V. "Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa: Orbits of Life"

Wikipedia material - free encyclopedia

In collage

Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa, 1964.

Kapitsa (left) and Semyonov (right). In the fall of 1921, Kapitsa appeared in the workshop of Boris Kustodiyev and asked him why he paints portraits of celebrities and why the artist does not draw those who become famous. Young scientists paid off with an artist for a portrait of a bag of millet and a rooster.

Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa (June 26, 1894, Kronstadt - April 8, 1984, Moscow) - Soviet physicist. Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939).

A prominent organizer of science. The founder of the Institute of Physical Problems (IFP), the director of which remained up to the last days of life. One of the founders of the Moscow Physico-Technical Institute. The first head of the Department of Physics of Low Temperatures of the Physical Faculty of Moscow State University.

The laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1978) for the opening of the phenomenon of superfluidity of liquid helium, introduced the term "superfluidity" into the scientific way. Also known works in the field of physics of low temperatures, studying supreme magnetic fields and retaining high-temperature plasma. Developed a high-performance industrial installation for gases (turbowetander). From 1921 to 1934 he worked in Cambridge under the leadership of Rutherford. In 1934, during the guest visit was forcibly left in the USSR. In 1945, he was part of the Special Committee on the Soviet Atomic Project, but its two-year plan for the implementation of the atomic project was not approved, in connection with which he asked for resignation, the request was satisfied. From 1946 to 1955, he was dismissed from state Soviet institutions, but he was left to work as a professor in Moscow State University to work as 1950. Lomonosov.

Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa was born in Kronstadt, in the family of a military engineer Leonid Petrovich Kapitsa and his wife Olga Jeronimovna, the daughter of the Topograph of Jerome St Bniktsky. In 1905 he entered the gymnasium. A year later, due to weak progress in Latin, it goes into the Kronstadt Real School. After graduating from the school, in 1914 he entered the Electromechanical Faculty of St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. The capable student quickly notices A. F. Ioffe, attracts to his seminar and work in the laboratory. The First World War found a young man in Scotland, which he visited on the summer holidays in order to study the language. He returned to Russia in November 1914 and in a year volunteer goes to the front. Kapitsa served as a driver on a sanitary car and drove the wounded on the Polish Front. In 1916, demobilized, returns back to St. Petersburg to continue study.

Even before the protection of the diploma, A. F. Ioffe invites Peter Kapitsa to work in the physico-technical department of the newly created X-ray and radiological institute (transformed in November 1921 in the Physics and Technology). Scientist publishes its first scientific work in the SHIPHHO and begins teaching activities.

Ioffe considered that promising young physics need to continue studying in an authoritative foreign scientific school, but it was not possible to organize the departure abroad for a long time. Thanks to the promotion of Krylov and the intervention of Maxim Gorky in 1921, Kapitsa, as part of the Special Commission, sent to England.
Thanks to the recommendation of Ioffe, he managed to get a job in the Cavendish laboratory under the beginning of Ernest Rutherford and from July 22, Kapitsa begins to work in Cambridge. Young Soviet scientist quickly deserves respect for colleagues and leadership thanks to the talent of the engineer and the experimenter. Works in the field of supreme magnetic fields bring him widely fame in scientific circles. At first the relationship between Rutherford and Kapitsa was not easy, but gradually the Soviet physics managed to conquer and his trust and soon they became very close friends. Kapitsa gave Rutherford the famous nickname "Crocodile". Already in 1921, when the Kavendish laboratory visited the famous experimenter Robert Wood, Rutherford instructed to spend a spectacular impact experience in front of the famous guest by Peter Kapitsa.

We are happy that we have the director of the laboratory, Professor Kapitsa works, so brilliantly combining in his face and physics, and engineer. We are convinced that under his skillful leadership, a new laboratory will contribute to the knowledge of the processes of nature.

Back in 1922, Fedor Shcherbatskaya was expressed about the possibility of electioning Peter Kapitsa to the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1929, a number of leading scientists signed up under the idea of \u200b\u200belection to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. On February 22, 1929, an indispensable secretary of the USSR Academy of Sciences of the USSR Oldenburg informs the capital that "Academy of Sciences, wanting to express his deep respect for scientists with your deserves in the field of physical sciences, elected you at the general meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences on February 13 p. In its correspondent members. "

Return to the USSR

The activities of Kapitsa in Cambridge did not remain unnoticed. The particular concern of the authorities caused the fact that Kapitsa provided consultations to European industrialists. According to the historian Vladimir Esakov, a plan associated with Kapitsa was developed long before 1934, and he knew Stalin about him. From August to October 1934, a number of regulations of the Politburo, signed by Kaganovich, prescribed to detain a scientist in the USSR. The final resolution read:

Based on the considerations that the Capita has significant services to the British, informing them about the situation in the Science of the USSR, as well as what he provides English firms, including the military, the largest services, selling their patents and working on their orders, prohibit L. Kapitsa Departure from the USSR.

Until 1934, Kapitsa and family lived in England and regularly came to the USSR to rest and see his relatives. The Government of the USSR has several times offered him to stay in his homeland, but the scientist invariably refused. At the end of August, Peter Leonidovich, as in previous years, was going to visit Mum 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 Commissar, where he met with Pyatakov. The Deputy Complex of the Grave Industry recommended how to think about the proposal to remain. Kapitsa refused, and he was sent to the reception to the superior instance to the interlassule.
The Chairman of the State Dummy informed the scientist that the departure abroad was impossible and the visa was revoked. Kapitsa was forced to move to the mother, and his spouse, Anna Alekseevna, went to Cambridge to children alone. The English press, commenting on what happened, wrote that Professor Kapitsa was forcibly detained in the USSR.

Peter Leonidovich was deeply disappointed. At first I even wanted to leave physics and switch to biophysics, becoming an assistant Pavlov. Approached help and interference with the field of Lanzhen, Albert Einstein and Ernest Rutherford. In a letter, Rutherford, he wrote that he barely came to his senses after shock from what had happened, and thanked the teacher for his help his family remaining in England. Rutherford letter to the USSR police station in England appealed to clarifications - why a well-known physics refuse to return to Cambridge. In a response letter, he was reported that the return of Kapitsa in the USSR was dictated by the rapid development of Soviet science and industry as planned in a five-year plan.

1934-1941

On December 23, 1934, Vyacheslav Molotov signed a decree on the organization as part of the USSR Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Physical Problems (IFP). On January 3, 1935, the newspaper "Pravda" and Izvestia reported on the appointment of Kapita director of the new institute. In early 1935, Kapitsa moves from Leningrad to Moscow - to the hotel Metropol, receives a personal car. In May 1935, the construction of the Institutional Laboratory Corps on Sparrow Mountains began. After quite difficult negotiations with Rangeford and Cockrift (Kapitsa did not participate in them) managed to come to an agreement on the conditions for transferring the laboratory in the USSR. In the period from 1935 to 1937, equipment from England was gradually obtained. The case was strongly stopped because of the non-historicalness of the delivery officials, and it was necessary to write letters to the highest leadership of the USSR, right up to Stalin. As a result, I managed to get everything that Peter Leonidovich demanded. Two experienced engineers came to Moscow who helped in mounting and setting up - Mechanic Pearson and Laberante Loweerman.

Position depressing. The interest in my work fell, and on the other hand, comrades, scientists were so indignant that they were, at least in words, attempts made to put my work in the conditions that simply had to be considered normal, which is indignant without constant: "If<бы> We did the same, then we will not make you that Kapitsa "... In addition to envy, suspicion and everything else, the atmosphere was created impossible and straightforward ... The scientists are definitely poorly relate to my relocation here.

In January 1936, Anna Alekseevna with children is returned from England, and the Kapitsa family moves to the cottage built on the territory of the Institute. By March 1937, the construction of a new institute was completed, most of the instruments were transported and mounted, and the capital returns to active scientific activities. At the same time, the "Headfit" is beginning to work at the Institute of Physical Problems - the famous Seminar Peter Leonidovich, who soon acquires all-union fame.

In January 1938, Kapitsa publishes in the journal Nature an article about the fundamental opening - the phenomenon of superfluidity of liquid helium and continues research in the new direction of physics. At the same time, the Collective of the Institute, headed by Peter Leonidovich, is actively working on a purely practical task of improving the design of the new installation for the production of liquid air and oxygen - turbo-producer. A fundamentally new approach of academician to the functioning of cryogenic installations causes stormy discussions both in the USSR and abroad. However, the activity of Kapitsa receives approval, and the institute headed by him put as an example of an effective organization of the scientific process. At the general meeting of the Branch of Mathematical and Natural Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences on January 24, 1939, the unanimous vote of Kapitsa was adopted by the USSR Academy of Sciences.)