Abstract
The Institute held regular international symposiums, the most well-known of them were Soviet-American ones. The party bosses did not always approve of such close scientific ties. Correspondence with Andropov.
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Notes
- 1.
B.P. Konstantinov (1910–1969) was a Soviet scientist and organizer. See A.P. Aleksandrov et al., “Boris Pavlovich Konstantinov,” Sov. Phys. Usp., v. 13(1): 140 (1970).
- 2.
This is the year of R. Nixon inauguration as the President of the United States, and the beginning of active dialogs between the Nixon Administration and communist states, the Détente concept. See H. Kissinger, “White House Years,” Boston: Little Brown and Co, 1979.
- 3.
S.G. Shcherbakov (1925–1996) was a Soviet official, in 1984–1989 the Minister of Education of the USSR.
- 4.
See footnote on p. 98.
- 5.
Soviet–American Symposium on Electron Theory of Solids, Leningrad, 1971.
- 6.
K.G. Wilson (b. 1935) is an American theoretical physicist, well-known for his theory of the renormalization group. Wilson is the recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physics.
- 7.
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979–1989 to support the Democratic Republic against the Afghan Mujahideen. J. Carter and R. Reagan abandoned the SALT talks and Détente concept.
- 8.
Another location is in Stockholm, Sweden.
- 9.
After Stalin the Soviet leadership came up with the idea of peaceful coexistence with capitalism. For the Khrushchev speech, see, e.g., http://www.marxists.org/archive/khrushchev/1956/02/24.htm.
- 10.
Initially, it amounted to lesser restrictions for the Party officials traveling abroad.
- 11.
KGB officers.
- 12.
See footnote on p. 59.
- 13.
The name is not disclosed.
- 14.
The original author’s quotation marks are preserved. There is a double degree of ridicule here, as being “abroad” had an effect of visiting a dreamland on Soviet citizen, while Poland was only a socialist country at the time, and in some aspects might have been more similar to the USSR than to Western Europe.
- 15.
Latin letter “N” in the original: this time the first letter of the person’s name is not disclosed.
- 16.
A.M. Ivanov (1903–1975) was a career officer of Soviet state security.
- 17.
[Author’s footnote] Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, 8 August 1992.
- 18.
The full article by Yu.I. Krivonosov, entitled “Landau and Sakharov in KGB ‘elaborations’,” contained a disclaimer that the references obtained by means of close informers, working in the competitive atmosphere of IPP, should, at least, be critically analyzed. It also argued: “It is hard to believe that after the tragedy in 1939, when only with P.L. Kapitsa’s help L.D. Landau managed to escape from the hands of NKVD, he could express to a stranger his views on political events and the regime. Therefore, he was betrayed by somebody from this immediate surrounding.” It further argues: “This reference note provides a basis to reconsider the circumstances of the car accident in January of 1962. Even if one cannot find any references of the secret service involvement in the accident, one could nevertheless suppose that its outcome was most desirable for the system in its standoff with the Scientist.” The disciple mentioned in the text was N.S. Meiman.
- 19.
J.P. Vigier (1920–2004) was a French theoretical physicist.
- 20.
Official documents of the Central Committee about the N’s “case” did not reach the Institute, probably, because of their classified nature.
- 21.
Translated by L. Pesis.
- 22.
V.I. Goldanskii (1923–2001) was a Soviet and Russian physical chemist.
- 23.
I.G. Petrovskii (1901–1973) was a Soviet mathematician.
- 24.
[Author’s footnote] Prior to him this post was occupied by Academician I.I. Artobolevskii.
- 25.
[Author’s footnote] Not to be confused with the Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, M.G. Mescheryakov, who founded the Join Nuclear Research Institute in Dubna.
- 26.
This Directorate was liquidated in the 1990s.
- 27.
V.F. Weisskopf (1908–2002) was an American theoretical physicists, one of the participants of the Manhattan project.
- 28.
This allowed them to migrate.
- 29.
T.D. Lysenko (1898–1976) was a Soviet agronomist, who, in Stalin times, heavily influenced the development of biology with his politicized ideas. Lysenko denied genetics, Mendel laws, and so forth.
- 30.
When counting these Conferences, one has to keep in mind that the first one, held in 1955, was assigned the number zero. Reversely, some references list the 1965 Conference as the fifth one.
- 31.
With peasants free to migrate the collective farming did not have enough manpower for nonautomated harvesting. Correspondingly, college students and research workers were drafted each fall to supply (overqualified) workforce.
- 32.
This is a home-distilled vodka.
- 33.
Gorbachev’s Anti-Alcohol Campaign when alcohol production and consumption were severely limited. Alcohol was also banned at all social events, including conferences, weddings, birthday celebrations, etc. I recall how A.Z. Patashinskii, at the ITP summer school in Odessa, while mockingly holding a forked dumpling upside down, had to begin a table toast speech with the words “I raise my dumpling to propose a toast …”, followed by an uproar of laughter and many other people raising dumplings. Once in a while a signal would be given, and to have a drink, people had to disperse and go back to their rooms.
- 34.
See footnote on p. 64.
- 35.
E.K. Zavoiskii (1907–1976) was a Soviet physicist experimentalist. See: A.V. Kessenikh, “On Academician E.K. Zavoisky’s centenary,” Phys.-Usp., v. 50: 977 (2007).
- 36.
The Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy.
- 37.
A.Z. Petrov (1910–1972) was a Soviet mathematical physicist.
- 38.
V.A. Fok.
- 39.
See footnote on p. 56.
- 40.
I.M. Khalatnikov, E.M. Lifshitz, V.V. Sudakov, “Singularities of the cosmological solutions of gravitational equations,” Phys. Rev. Lett., v. 6(6): 311 (1961). See also: E.M. Lifshits, I.M. Khalatnikov, “Problems of relativistic cosmology,” Sov. Phys. Usp., v. 6(4): 495 (1964).
- 41.
D. Shoenberg (1911–2004) was a British physicist, experimentalist. Shoenberg was born in the city of Pinsk of then Russian Empire, and was fluent in Russian.
- 42.
I.A. Faynzilberg (1897–1937), pen-name Ilya Ilf, and E.P. Kataev (1902–1942), pen-name Evgenii Petrov, were Soviet writers. Most of their (satirical) writing was done in collaboration.
- 43.
From a 1932 Crocodile newspaper satire entitled “Birth of an Angel,” where creation of a movie script about industrialization is described. Brainstorming heroes invent a positive protagonist—a woman with a beard. “Then, a twelve years old consultant wonder boy, a graduate of the Academy of spatial arts of Mostrop took the floor: “A woman with a beard could take place”, he proclaimed, “but one has to avoid comic elements, so that it would not come out as if done by Charlie Chaplin”. “You, boy, have no fear, reasonably declared Golenishchev-Kutuzov 2nd, “It won’t come out as if done by Chaplin. One could guarantee that.”
- 44.
K.A.G. Mendelssohn (1906–1980) was a British medical physicist.
- 45.
K. Mendelssohn, “The Riddle of the Pyramids”, Thames & Hudson, 1974.
- 46.
[Author’s footnote] Translations are not provided at the international conferences, as it is assumed that all the participants speak English, as a minimum. For some reason, the natural question—why the people who do not speak the language should be sent to international conferences—had never been posed.
- 47.
A. Salam (1906–1996) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and a corecipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics.
- 48.
P. Budinich (b. 1916) is an Italian physicist.
- 49.
Prince Carlo della Torre e Tasso (b. 1952) is the head of Castle Duino, a branch of the German Princely House of Thurn and Taxis.
- 50.
L.D. Faddeev (b. 1934) is a Soviet and Russian theoretical and mathematical physicist.
- 51.
E.S. Fradkin (1924–1999) was a Soviet and Russian theoretical physicist. V.L. Ginzburg “About Efim Fradkin,” Phys. Usp., v. 44: 831 (2001).
- 52.
There is a connection to the slang of refuseniks.
- 53.
P.A.M. Dirac (1902–1984) was a British theoretical physicist and a winner of the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics.
- 54.
Manege is large building in the Manege Square in the central part of the City of Moscow. It has been used as an art gallery.
- 55.
V.V. Malyarov.
- 56.
V.P. Tsesevich (1907–1983) was a Soviet astronomer.
- 57.
F.I. Shalyapin (1873–1938) was a famous Russian operatic bass.
- 58.
L.V. Sobinov (1872–1934) was a famous Russian operatic tenor.
- 59.
A.Z. Patashinskii (b. 1936) is a Soviet and American theoretical physicist, currently with the Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
- 60.
J.M. Luttinger (1923–1997) was an American theoretical physicist.
- 61.
A. Abragam (b. 1914) is a French physicist.
- 62.
Philippe Nozières (b. 1932) is a French theoretical physicist.
- 63.
I.A. Fomin (b. 1939) is a Soviet and Russian theoretical physicist.
- 64.
P. Wiegmann (b. 1951) is a Soviet and American theoretical physicist, currently at the University of Chicago, IL.
- 65.
N. Andrei is an American theoretical physicist, currently at the Rutgers University, NJ.
- 66.
[Author’s footnote] Any changes in the family status, all the more—divorces, of the individuals traveling abroad, had to be reflected in the forms and reference notes of the regional Party Committees.
- 67.
G.K. Skryabin (1917–1989) was a Soviet biochemist and microbiologist.
- 68.
It was adopted at the Conference on Cooperation and Security in Europe, Helsinki 1975, in an attempt to improve relations between the Communist states and the West.
- 69.
In English literature it is also known as the US–USSR Cooperative Program in Physics, 1968–1989.
- 70.
A detailed history of how they began has been given above.
- 71.
D. Pines (b. 1924) is an American theoretical physicist.
- 72.
C. Herring (1914–2009) was an American physicist.
- 73.
L. Kadanoff (b. 1937) is an American theoretical physicist.
- 74.
P.C. Martin (b. 1931) is an American theoretical physicist.
- 75.
A. Luther (b. ?).
- 76.
P.C. Hohenberg (b. 1934) is an American theoretical physicist.
- 77.
J.A. Wheeler (1911–2008) was an American theoretical physicist.
- 78.
L.F. Vereshchagin (1909–1977) was a Soviet physicist and chemist. See R.G. Arkhipov et al., “Leonid Fedorovich Vereshchagin,” Sov. Phys. Usp., v. 21: 174 (1978).
- 79.
“The Week”. L.F. Vereshchagin and I.M. Khalatnikov, Nedelya, No. 21 (1971).
- 80.
Sir C.V. Raman (1888–1970) was an Indian physicist and the recipient of the 1930 Nobel Prize in physics.
- 81.
G.B. Lubkin (b. ?) is an American professional in the field of scientific publications.
- 82.
Grand Duke Vladimir Aleksandrovich Romanov of Russia (1847–1909).
- 83.
See above.
- 84.
Nationality was to be indicated in box 5 of the application form.
- 85.
The State Commission was constituted by I.E. Tamm (chairman), M.V. Keldysh, A.D. Sakharov, Ya.B. Zeldovich, V.L. Ginzburg, M.A. Leontovich, I.M. Khalatnikov.
- 86.
Looking through what I wrote about this episode, I understand that Ivan Mikhailovich and General G. (KGB Deputy Chairman) were one and the same person.
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Khalatnikov, I.M. (2012). A Window to the World. In: From the Atomic Bomb to the Landau Institute. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27561-6_6
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