Biography of Kapitsa Peter Leonidovich

Kapitsa Peter nicknamed in the West by the “Russian atomic tsar”, which had a tremendous authority in the scientific world, he headed the best physical institution of the Soviet Union for many years, within the walls of which more than one generation of outstanding scientists worked. The childhood and youth of Peter Kapitsa Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was born on June 26 on July 9 in Kronstadt in a noble family.

His father Leonid Petrovich Kapitsa-, having graduated from the Nikolaev Engineering Academy, was responsible for the construction of Kronstadt fortresses and rose to the rank of major general. Mother, graduate of Bestuzhev courses Olga Hieronimovna Stebnitskaya - was a famous teacher, expert on Russian folklore. In the year, parents determined Petya to the Kronstadt gymnasium, but a year later he was excluded from there for the weak knowledge of Latin, and the future Nobel laureate received secondary education at a real school.

Since childhood, he showed ingenuity in technical matters, interest in sophisticated structures - for example, getting carried away with the device of clock mechanisms, learned to disassemble and collect them. The ability to repair Kapitsa’s watch was proud of his whole life. In high school, the young man hesitated in choosing a profession between the experimenter physicist and an electrical engineer, but the subsequent biography of Kapitsa demonstrated that he managed to successfully combine both of his hobbies.

In the year, the summer Peter Kapitsa graduated with honors from a real school. The lack of a gymnasium certificate covered him with access to the university, and he entered the Polytechnic Institute. Skobeltsyn, but the main role in the formation of the physical ideas of Peter Kapitsa was played by Professor A. Joffe, the future “father of Soviet physics”. He attracted a capable student to work in the laboratory, instilled in research skills.

The student years of Kapitsa coincided with turning point in the history of Russia. In August, the First World War broke out, which caught Peter Leonidovich in Scotland. Only at the end of the year did he be able to return to Russia to immediately go to the front. In January-March, Kapitsa served near Warsaw as part of a voluntary sanitary detachment as a driver, but in April of the same year he returned to Petrograd and continued his studies.

In the summer of the year, on family affairs, Kapitsa made a trip to China and Japan. He has preserved the passion for traveling all his life. In the same year, the first publications of a young scientist appeared in the press - “Inertia of Electrons in Amperon Molecular currents” and “Preparation of Vollaston threads”. According to the method of Kapitsa, they were immediately made for the laboratory A.b - gg.

Kapitsa took an active part in the formation of the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics at the Polytechnic Institute and the Physics and Technical Institute at the Academy of Sciences of the FTI. Despite the hardships of the Civil War, in September, the young man graduated from the institute and received the title of electrical engineer. He got a job as a researcher at the FTI and at the same time began to teach at his native institute.

Ioffe worked a whole group of young promising physicists - P. Kapitsa, N. Semenov, J. Frenkel, P. They conducted the main experiments in the area of ​​atomic physics - measured the speeds of molecules, removed the radiographs of metals, observed the phenomenon of the HAAZ, got acquainted with the sensational discoveries of Niels Bora and Ernest Rutherford, and even developed the method of determining the magnetic moment of the atom.

But it became more and more obvious that without close personal acquaintance with the latest achievements and methods of foreign physics there would be no breakthrough. In April, Peter Kapitsa became part of a delegation collected to restore scientific ties with Europe. In the summer he arrived in London, visited the famous Cavendish laboratory. At the request of Ioffe, Kapitsa was accepted there by an interns.

When many years later, Rutherford was asked why he accepted an unknown Soviet specialist who was barely speaking English, the great scientist burst out laughing: “I myself was surprised that I agreed, but I am glad about it.” The following 13 years of Kapitsa’s life, his “blessed days” are associated with the Kawndish laboratory. Soon, with his zeal, wit and inventive vein, he won the location of his colleagues and even became firmly made friends with Rutherford himself.

Work in the front edge of science was extremely inspired by a young scientist, and he grew rapidly as an independent researcher. Since the year of Kapitsa, he has been a doctor of philosophy of the University of Cambridge, from the year-a member of the Trinity College. In the year, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR appropriated the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, in the year, elected him a corresponding member.

At times, starting from a year, Peter Leonidovich came to the USSR, visited friends, mother, gave lectures, rested in resorts, but after the holidays he returned to England. There, his authority grew steadily every year. In the year, the scientist became a professor-research by the London Royal Society, a modern laboratory was specially built for him. The devices of Kapitsa for the liquefaction of hydrogen and helium, designed on the basis of its own methods, influenced the revision of the principles of gases liquefaction in industry, primarily oxygen.The main direction of the scientific activity of Kapitsa in E Gg.

As a result of experiments, within critical temperatures, he managed to detect the loss of viscosity and the appearance of the super -tension of helium. Based on this data, L. Landau subsequently developed a quantum theory of liquid helium. In September, Kapitsa, by tradition, came to his homeland to give a course of lectures and see loved ones. However, by the personal order of I. Stalin, who believed that the scientist must benefit the USSR, he was decided not to let him go from the country.

The shocked physicist wrote outraged letters, turned to party leaders, appealed to Albert Einstein and Paul Lanzhenen. Nothing helped. Only six months later, realizing that it was not in his power to change anything, the scientist accepted the Soviet government’s proposal for cooperation. He agreed to head the IFP Institute of Physical Problems, which was specially established for his research, which will become the place of Kapitsa’s work for many decades.

The equipment of the laboratory, which was headed by Kapitsa in England, with the consent of the University of Cambridge and, at the request of Rutherford, was allowed to sell to the Soviet Union - according to the latter, besides Kapitsa, no one was able to figure it out anyway. Designed by Kapitsa in - gg. During the “big terror”, Kapitsa became known for his fundamentality-he wrote letters to I.

Stalin and V. Molotov with the demands to free the arrested colleagues of L. Landau, V. Fok and others, refused to participate in the public campaigns of the condemnation of the “enemies of the people”, and retained the independence of views and judgments. Like another luminary of world science to academician I. Pavlov, he was allowed to like like liberties. During the Great Patriotic War, he was a member of the Scientific and Technical Council under the State Defense Committee.

In August, Kapitsa was appointed to the special committee on the development of an atomic bomb, but, not working with the chairman of the committee, L. Beria, soon asked him to release him from work. The words of the scientist have been preserved: “The conductor must not only wave a stick, but also understand the score. Beria is weak with this. " This act caused the deaf discontent of I.

Stalin, and up to the death of the leader, the obstinate physicist was in disgrace. Kapitsa waited for the years of Opala at his dacha near Moscow on Nikolina Gora. Not knowing how to sit idle, he organized a small laboratory of two rooms, a kitchen and a garage, nicknamed the owner and his colleagues "hung of physical problems." In the scientific sphere of interests of Kapitsa from the end of the xg.

He developed powerful microwave generators and with their help received a stable plasma cord. Plasma physics and electronics of large capacities remained a priority topic of scientist’s research on the next three decades. In January, Kapitsa was restored as the director of IFP - he held this post until his death. The occurreed “thaw” again gave the scientist the opportunity to go abroad.

In the year, the physicist visited his beloved England, where he gave a lecture on Rutherford. Despite the high official status, the opposition attitude towards the Soviet regime, Kapitsa also showed in the later years - so, in the year he flatly refused to sign a letter with conviction of academician A. at the end of his life, the merits of Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa received the highest recognition in the scientific world: in the year he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics.

The family and personal life of Peter Kapitsa Peter Kapitsa was married twice.

The first time he was married on July 24 on August 6 with Nadezhda Kirillovna Blansvitova -, the daughter of a prominent figure in the Cadet Party K., alas, the first marriage of the scientist ended tragically when literally in a matter of days the fierce St. Petersburg winter - GG. From this blow, Kapitsa recovered with great difficulty. The second wife of Kapitsa in the spring of the year was Anna Alekseevna Krylova-, the daughter of the famous domestic bribery engineer A.

It should be noted that the woman showed the initiative, and the marriage turned out to be extremely successful - in full consent, the spouses lived for 57 years, until the death of Peter Leonidovich. The two sons born to the couple glorified the surname. The eldest son, Sergey Petrovich Kapitsa-became a major demographic scientist and the famous popularizer of science, the younger-Andrei Petrovich Kapitsa--Doctor of Geographical Sciences, a prominent specialist in the field of geomorphology of Antarctica.

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was known as a master of aphorism, a witty instructive story, a joke. The scientist was a lover of a good friendly company, a laid -back intellectual conversation behind a glass of grave Georgian cognac. English habits - woolen costumes from tweed, selected pipe tobacco - he saved for life. The death and funeral of Peter Kapitsa, until old age, P. Kapitsa retained life energy and interest in science, spent considerable time at the institute and laboratories.

In recent years, he worked on the project of a new plasma installation. On the evening of March 21, the scientist said goodbye to his colleagues with the intention to continue working the next day, but the next morning a stroke hit him, from which Peter Leonidovich could not recover. The great physicist died on April 8.He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.