TO eldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich - Soviet scientist in the field of mathematics, mechanics, space science and technology, organizer of science, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, professor.
Born on January 29 (February 10), 1911 in the city of Riga in the family of an adjunct professor at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, a major civil engineer (later an academician of architecture) Vsevolod Mikhailovich Keldysh and a housewife Maria Alexandrovna Skvortsova. In 1915, the Keldysh family moved from front-line Riga to Moscow. In 1919-1923, M.V. Keldysh lived in the city of Ivanovo, where his father taught at the Polytechnic Institute, organized on the initiative of M.V. Frunze. In Ivanovo, he began his studies in high school, receiving the necessary initial training at home. Upon returning to Moscow (1923), he studied at a school with a construction focus, in the summer he went with his father to construction sites and worked as a laborer.
In 1927, he graduated from school and wanted to get his father’s profession of a civil engineer, but he was not accepted into the construction institute where his father taught due to his youth. On the advice of his older sister, who graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), and studied mathematics under the scientific supervision of N.N. Luzin, he entered the same faculty of MSU. While studying at the university, M.V. Keldysh established scientific contacts with M.A. Lavrentiev, which later grew into long-term scientific cooperation and friendship. In the spring of 1930, he began working simultaneously with his studies as an assistant at the Electrical Mechanical Engineering Institute, then at the Machine Tool Institute.
After graduating from Moscow State University in 1931, on the recommendation of Academician A.I. Nekrasov, M.V. Keldysh was sent to the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after N.E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI). The scientific life of TsAGI at that time was headed by S.A. Chaplygin, and seminars were regularly held under his leadership. Participants in the seminar were also M.A. Lavrentiev, N.E. Kochin, L.S. Leibenzon, A.I. Nekrasov, G.I. Petrov, L.I. Sedov, L.N. Sretensky, F.I. Frankl, S.A. Khristianovich; many of them later became famous mechanical scientists. M.V. Keldysh worked at TsAGI until December 1946, first as an engineer, then as a senior engineer, head of a group, and from 1941 as head of the dynamic strength department.
The initial period of M.V. Keldysh’s work at TsAGI was associated with studies of nonlinear flow problems. In the works of this cycle, “The external Neumann problem for nonlinear elliptic equations with application to the theory of a wing in a compressed gas” (1934) and “A rigorous substantiation of the theory of the Zhukovsky propeller” (1935, co-authored with F.I. Frankl), “Towards the theory of an oscillating wing (1935, together with M.A. Lavrentiev) for the first time, the influence of the compressibility of the medium on the aerodynamic characteristics of streamlined bodies was strictly considered and the well-known Zhukovsky theorem on lift force was generalized; It was established for the first time that thrust occurs under certain modes of wing oscillation. He studied the theory of the impact of a body on a liquid and the movement of bodies under the surface of a liquid.
Continuing to work at TsAGI, M.V. Keldysh entered the graduate school in the fall of 1934 (then supplemented by a two-year doctorate) at the V.A. Steklov Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences under M.A. Lavrentiev, where he studied issues of the theory of approximation of functions, closely related to applied the subject of his work (hydro-, aerodynamics). In 1935, without defending a dissertation, he was awarded the academic degree of Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and in 1937 - the academic degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences and the title of professor in the specialty “aerodynamics”.
On January 26, 1938, he defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences on the topic “On the representation of functions of a complex variable and harmonic functions by series of polynomials.”
A series of works by M.V. Keldysh and his collaborators in the pre-war and war years was devoted to vibrations and self-oscillations of aircraft structures. His research laid the foundations for methods of numerical calculation and modeling in wind tunnels of the flutter phenomenon (strong vibrations of aircraft wings that occurred at certain speeds of the aircraft and led to its destruction). The results of M.V. Keldysh not only led to the development of simple and reliable measures to prevent flutter, but also became the basis of a new branch of science on the strength of aircraft structures. It is known that in German aviation in the period 1935-1943, 146 accidents due to flutter were recorded. The results of the work of M.V. Keldysh played a big role in the creation of high-speed aviation in our country.
In October 1941, M.V. Keldysh with his wife and three children, along with other TsAGI employees, was evacuated to the city of Kazan, where he continued to work. In April 1942, he was awarded the Stalin Prize, 2nd degree, for scientific work on preventing the destruction of aircraft due to flutter of the wings and tail. During the war years, along with scientific and experimental research at TsAGI, he was involved in the implementation of the developed recommendations in aircraft design bureaus and aircraft factories. This activity was marked by the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the Order of Lenin.
Closely related to his studies of aircraft oscillations and flutter are his studies of the stability of the front wheel of a three-wheeled landing gear, which made it possible to propose expedient and simple design measures to eliminate shimming (self-excited turns and displacements) of an aircraft wheel during takeoff or landing, which led to the destruction of the front landing gear of the aircraft. According to available data, there were more than 150 accidents associated with “shimmies” in German aviation, and not a single one in domestic aviation. In 1946, he was again awarded the Stalin Prize, 2nd degree, for the creation of aircraft landing gear, which prevented wheel vibration when sliding along the runway.
The success of M.V. Keldysh’s applied work is due not only to his deep intuition as a mechanical engineer and experimenter, but also to his outstanding talent as a mathematician, a sophisticated theorist and creator of computational algorithms and methods. Conversely, many of his fundamental mathematical studies had their origin in problems arising from his work in mechanics. As a mathematician, M.V. Keldysh contributed to the theory of functions, potential theory, differential equations, and functional analysis. The results of M.V. Keldysh in mechanics, covering hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, gas dynamics, and mechanics of aircraft structures, are of great importance. M.V. Keldysh learned a lot from communicating with aircraft designers, primarily S.A. Lavochkin and A.N. Tupolev.
On September 29, 1943, M.V. Keldysh was elected corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. In June 1944, he became the head of the recently created department of mechanics at the Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences and worked in this position until 1953. The department held a scientific seminar that brought together specialists in aeromechanics. At the same time, he resumed teaching at Moscow State University, which began in 1932, he lectured at the faculties of mechanics, mathematics and physics and technology, headed the department of thermodynamics, and led a research seminar on the theory of functions of a complex variable. From 1942 to 1953 M.V. Keldysh was a professor at Moscow State University. Many of his students of that time became prominent scientists, among them academicians A.A. Gonchar, D.E. Okhotsimsky and T.M. Eneev.
On November 30, 1946, M.V. Keldysh was elected a full member (academician) of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Technical Sciences. A new period of his activity began, associated with the names of the “three Ks” - I.V. Kurchatov, S.P. Korolev and M.V. Keldysh. Immediately after his election as an academician, he was appointed head (since August 1950 - scientific director) of the leading research institute (NII-1 of the Ministry of Aviation Industry; now the M.V. Keldysh Center), which dealt with applied problems of rocketry. Since that time, the main direction of M.V. Keldysh’s activity has been related to rocket technology. The world's first intercontinental missile was launched in the USSR on August 21, 1957.
In 1949, M.V. Keldysh became a member of the CPSU, was subsequently elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee (since 1961), and was a delegate to the CPSU congresses (XXII, 1961; XXIII, 1966; XXIV, 1971; XXV, 1977).
In the post-war years, M.V. Keldysh was engaged in solving problems of nuclear energy and computational mathematics. New research methods were required, primarily effective methods and means of mathematical calculation. The need to create them caused a revolution in the field of computational mathematics, which radically changed its general scientific significance. M.V. Keldysh was one of the first to predict the role of computational mathematics in increasing the efficiency of scientific and technical research. Having met the creators of the first domestic computer, M.A. Lesechko and Yu.Ya. Bazilevsky, he became an expert in this field. In 1953, he became the founder of the Institute (until 1966 - Department) of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and its permanent director. The development of modern computational mathematics in our country is largely connected with the activities of this institute, which now bears his name.
M.V. Keldysh took part in the work on creating a nuclear missile shield both as the leader of large teams and as the author of many scientific and technical ideas and computational methods. At this time, he published works on assessing the consequences of a nuclear explosion “On the assessment of the effect of an explosion at high altitudes” (1950, together with L.I. Sedov) and “Point explosion in the atmosphere (1955, together with D.E. Okhotsimsky).
U Kazakh Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (classified “secret”) dated September 11, 1956 for exceptional services to the state in carrying out a special government assignment (for contribution to the creation of a nuclear missile shield and for work on the creation of the “Storm” cruise missile) Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
He made an outstanding contribution to the development of Soviet space science and technology. Having started working on space topics in 1946 in creative collaboration with S.P. Korolev, he was one of the initiators of a wide expansion of work on the study and exploration of space. From the beginning of 1956, he headed one of the leading areas in their implementation. His contribution to the formation and successful development of such scientific fields as space flight mechanics and space navigation was great. Since 1953, work has been carried out at the Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences to solve the problems of launching an artificial satellite into Earth orbit, culminating in its successful launch and placement into orbit on October 4, 1957.
M.V. Keldysh played a decisive role in the creation of a relatively cheap launch vehicle for launching satellites into orbit for scientific programs (satellites of the Cosmos family). He led the “Lunar” program, including flights of automatic stations of the “Luna” family. Involved scientific teams to participate in the program, led meetings and seminars to discuss research results and adopt further plans. The first spacecraft was sent to the Moon on January 2, 1959. On October 4, 1959, photographs of the far side of the Moon were obtained (from the Luna-3 apparatus). In 1966, a soft landing was made on the surface of the Moon, and an artificial satellite (“Luna-10”) was launched into its orbit. In October 1970, Luna-16 launched, delivering samples of lunar soil to Earth, then the launch of the automatic station Luna-17 with the self-propelled vehicle Lunokhod-1; In total, by 1976, 34 devices of the Luna series were launched. The first three launches of spacecraft to the Moon ended in disasters: the R-7 rockets, which successfully launched artificial satellites into Earth orbit, exploded in flight. M.V. Keldysh was able to understand the cause of the disasters - the development of oscillations in the rocket fuel system.
No less effective was the participation of M.V. Keldysh in the Venus research program associated with the automatic stations of the Venus family (starting with Venera-4, 1967); the Venera-7 apparatus (1970) showed that the pressure on the surface of Venus is 100 earth atmospheres, temperature 400 degrees Celsius. The great role of M.V. Keldysh in the exploration of Mars. In 1960, in preparation for the launch of the first automatic station to Mars, M.V. Keldysh proposed testing instruments intended for the study of Mars under terrestrial conditions. This made it possible to identify ineffective equipment and save tens of kilograms in the weight of the automatic station. He traveled to test sites and cosmodromes during the preparation and launch of spacecraft, was a member of various commissions on space problems, was the chairman of expert commissions, commissions to analyze the causes of accidents, in particular, he was the chairman of the emergency commission to determine the causes of death of the crew of the Soyuz-11 spacecraft. (1971, cosmonauts G.T. Dobrovolsky, V.N. Volkov and V.I. Patsaev). Identification of new scientific and technical problems, development of space technology, formation of comprehensive scientific and technical programs, flight control issues - this is not a complete list of problems that were part of the activities of M.V. Keldysh.
U by the Kazakh Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (classified as “secret”) on June 17, 1961, for special services in the development of rocket technology and for work on the creation and successful launch of the world’s first spacecraft “Vostok” with a person on board, he was awarded the second gold medal “Sickle” and Hammer."
On March 18, 1965, with the direct participation of M.V. Keldysh, the first human spacewalk was carried out (cosmonaut A.A. Leonov). M.V. Keldysh made a huge contribution to the implementation of the joint Soviet-American space flight Soyuz-Apollo (1975) and the development of flights under the Intercosmos program.
A large period of M.V. Keldysh’s life is associated with his activities in the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which began in October 1953 and continued until the end of his life. Since 1953, he has been Academician-Secretary of the Department of Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1960, M.V. Keldysh was elected vice-president, and on May 19, 1961, president of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Heading the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1961 to 1975, M.V. Keldysh provided all possible support for the development in our country not only of mathematics and mechanics, but also of new areas of modern science, such as cybernetics, quantum electronics, molecular biology and genetics. In 1962, the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences decided to build a complex of biological institutes in the city of Pushchino. Under M.V. Keldysh, a comprehensive audit of the activities of T.D. Lysenko took place, which made it possible to expose the pseudoscientific concepts of “Lysenkoism”, which denied genetics. N.I. Vavilov was posthumously restored to the lists of full members of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and his merits in biology and agricultural sciences were confirmed. The years when M.V. Keldysh held the post of President of the USSR Academy of Sciences were a period of the most rapid growth of the Academy, turning it into the largest center of fundamental science.
U by the Kazakh Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on February 9, 1971, for exceptional services to the state in the development of Soviet science and technology, great scientific and social activities, and in connection with the sixtieth anniversary of his birth, he was awarded the third gold medal “Hammer and Sickle.”
M.V. Keldysh did a lot of work in the Committee for Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR in the field of science and technology, heading it from 1961 until his death. His reviews of the presented works have independent scientific interest. He fully supported the transition to mass machine production, which made labor easier. He highly appreciated the introduction of cotton and tea harvesting machines. In the last years of his life, M.V. Keldysh was interested in the problem of creating solar power plants in space orbit.
He developed international scientific cooperation and coordination of scientific research in every possible way. On scientific visits he visited Germany and England (1965), Czechoslovakia (1963, 1970), Japan (1964), Poland (1964, 1973), France (1965,1967), Romania (1966), Bulgaria (1966, 1969), Hungary (1967), Canada (1967), Italy (1969), Sweden (1969), Spain (1970), USA (the first official visit of the Russian Academy of Sciences for its entire existence, 1972). M.V. Keldysh spoke fluent German and French, also read Italian, and already in adulthood began to study English. His merits received international recognition, among his titles: academician of the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina" (1961), academician of the Academy of Sciences of Mongolia (1961), academician of the Academy of Sciences of Poland (1962), academician of the Academy of Sciences of Czechoslovakia (1962), honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Romania (1965), honorary foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of Bulgaria (1966), honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Sciences and Arts in Boston (1966), honorary member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1968), honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Hungary (1970), honorary member of the Academy of Finland (1974), honorary Doctor of the University of Delhi (1967), Honorary Doctor of the University of Budapest (1967), Honorary Doctor of the University of Lagos (1968), Honorary Doctor of the Charles University in Prague (1974), Honorary Doctor of the Indian Statistical Institute (1974).
Lived and worked in the hero city of Moscow. He died on June 24, 1978 under circumstances that do not exclude his suicide. The urn with his ashes is buried in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.
Awarded seven Orders of Lenin (09/16/1945, 1954, 1954, 09/11/1956, 02/9/1961, 1967, 1975), three Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (07/11/1943, 06/10/1945, 1953), medals, foreign awards - orders George Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 1971), Cyril and Methodius 1st degree (Bulgaria, 1969), Bernardo O. Higins 2nd degree (Chile, 1969), Red Banner (Hungary, 1970), Legion of Honor (France, 1971), Sukhbaatar (Mongolia, 1975), medal "50 years of the Mongolian People's Revolution" (Mongolia, 1972).
Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1957), Stalin Prize 2nd degree (1942, 1946). Awarded the Great Gold Medal named after M.V. Lomonosov of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1975), the K.E. Tsiolkovsky Gold Medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1972), the S.I. Vavilov Medal (1971), the S.P. Korolev Medal (1976 ).
In Moscow, memorial plaques are installed on the house where he lived (Kosygina Street, 6), on the building of the main building of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University and on the building of the Institute of Applied Mathematics (Miusskaya Square, 4). Busts in Moscow are installed on the Alley of Cosmonauts (near Mira Avenue) and at the M.V. Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The bust was also installed in the homeland of M.V. Keldysh in Riga, on the house where he was born - a memorial plaque. A crater on the far side of the Moon, one of the minor planets, the research vessel “Akademik Mstislav Keldysh”, and a square in Moscow are named after M.V. Keldysh. In 1978, the USSR Academy of Sciences established the M.V. Keldysh Gold Medal “for outstanding scientific work in the field of applied mathematics and mechanics, as well as theoretical research in space exploration.”
Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich 1911-1978). Soviet scientist in the field of mathematics, mechanics, space science and technology, statesman, organizer of science.
Born on January 29 (February 10), 1911 in Riga in the family of Vsevolod Mikhailovich Keldysh, an adjunct professor at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, a major civil engineer (later an academician of architecture). Mother - Maria Alexandrovna (nee Skvortsova) - a housewife. In 1915, the Keldysh family moved from front-line Riga to Moscow. In 1919-1923 Keldysh lived in Ivanovo, where his father taught at the Polytechnic Institute, organized on the initiative of M.V. Frunze. In Ivanovo, he began his studies in high school, receiving the necessary initial training at home from Maria Alexandrovna. Upon returning to Moscow (1923), he studied at a school with a construction focus, in the summer he went with his father to construction sites and worked as a laborer. Keldysh’s penchant for mathematics manifested itself in the 7th and 8th grades; teachers even then recognized his extraordinary abilities in the exact sciences.
The Academy became the headquarters of Soviet science.
Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich
In 1927 he graduated from school and wanted to get his father’s profession of a civil engineer, which he liked, but he was not accepted into the construction institute where his father taught because of his youth (only 16). On the advice of his older sister Lyudmila, who graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University and studied mathematics under the scientific guidance of N.N. Luzin, he entered the same faculty of Moscow State University. While studying at the university, Keldysh established scientific contacts with M.A. Lavrentiev, which later grew into many years of scientific cooperation and friendship. In the spring of 1930, simultaneously with his studies, he began working as an assistant at the Electrical Mechanical Engineering Institute, then also at the Stanko-Instrumental Institute (STANKIN).
After graduating from Moscow State University in 1931, on the recommendation of Academician A.I. Nekrasov, Keldysh was sent to the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after N.E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI). The scientific life of TsAGI at that time was headed by S.A. Chaplygin, and seminars were regularly held under his leadership. Participants in the seminar were also M.A. Lavrentiev, N.E. Kochin, L.S. Leibenzon, A.I. Nekrasov, G.I. Petrov, L.I. Sedov, L.N. Sretensky, F.I. Frankl, S.A. Khristianovich; many of them subsequently became famous mechanical scientists. Keldysh worked at TsAGI until December 1946, first as an engineer, then as a senior engineer, head of a group, and from 1941 as head of the dynamic strength department.
The initial period of Keldysh’s work at TsAGI was associated with research into nonlinear flow problems. In the works of this cycle, Neumann's external problem for nonlinear elliptic equations with application to the theory of a wing in a compressed gas (1934) and Rigorous justification of the theory of Zhukovsky's propeller (1935) (done in collaboration with F.I. Frankl), To the theory of an oscillating wing (1935, together with M.A. Lavrentiev) for the first time, the influence of the compressibility of the medium on the aerodynamic characteristics of streamlined bodies was strictly considered and the well-known Zhukovsky theorem on lift force was generalized; It was established for the first time that thrust occurs under certain modes of wing oscillation. He studied the theory of the impact of a body on a liquid and the movement of bodies under the surface of the liquid (float of a seaplane, hydrofoil.
Continuing to work at TsAGI, in the fall of 1934 Keldysh entered graduate school (then supplemented by a two-year doctorate) at the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences under Lavrentiev, where he studied issues of the theory of approximation of functions, closely related to the applied topics of his work (hydro-, aerodynamics) . In 1935, without defense, he was awarded the academic degree of Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, in 1937 - the degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences and the title of professor in the specialty "aerodynamics". On January 26, 1938, he defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic On the representation of functions of a complex variable and harmonic functions by series of polynomials.
The repressions of the 1930s did not spare the Keldysh family. In 1935, Maria Alexandrovna spent several days in prison; a company was taking place in the country to confiscate gold from the population. In 1936, brother Mikhail, at that time a graduate student in the history department of the university, studying medieval Germany, was arrested. He received 10 years without the right to correspondence (as was later established, he was shot in the spring of 1937). In 1938, brother Alexander was arrested on charges of espionage, then the charge was changed to anti-Semitism. In court, however, the charges were dropped and he was released.
The cycle of works by Keldysh and his colleagues in the pre-war and war years was devoted to vibrations and self-oscillations of aircraft structures. His research laid the foundations for methods of numerical calculation and modeling in wind tunnels of the flutter phenomenon (strong vibrations of aircraft wings that occurred at certain aircraft speeds and led to its destruction). Keldysh's results not only led to the development of simple and reliable measures to prevent flutter, but also became the basis of a new branch of science on the strength of aircraft structures. It is known that in German aviation in the period 1935-1943, 146 accidents due to flutter were recorded. In the process of work, Keldysh’s group had to endure intense polemics; opponents appealed to high authorities (up to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)).
Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich (1911-1978), mathematician, mechanic.
In 1915, the family was evacuated to Moscow. In 1927, Keldysh graduated from school, but was not accepted into the institute; There were also difficulties with entering the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University due to my social background and the presence of an uncle who left with the White Army. However, thanks to his outstanding abilities, in 1931 Keldysh graduated from the university and became an employee of TsAGI (in the city of Zhukovsky, Moscow region). Then he worked at Moscow State University and the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1938 he became a Doctor of Science, in 1946 - an academician. In 1946, together with S.P. Korolev and I.V. Kurchatov, he led the creation of nuclear missile weapons.
In 1953, Keldysh took the position of director of the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The scientist’s main works relate to the fields of mathematics, mechanics and aerogasdynamics of aircraft. Keldysh made a great contribution to the development of computational and machine mathematics, and led the work on the creation of computers.
He was one of the initiators of the development of space exploration, heading it from the mid-50s. development of theoretical prerequisites for launching artificial bodies into near-Earth orbits; took part in the creation of the first artificial Earth satellite.
Formed a number of basic theoretical principles of modern aerodynamics and rocket and space technology.
In 1961, after the flight of Yu. A. Gagarin, Keldysh became president of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was an honorary member of many foreign academies. He was awarded seven Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, medals and various foreign orders.
Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich (nationality - Russian) was a Soviet scientist in the field of mathematics and mechanics, academician and president of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Played a key role in the Soviet space program.
Son of a talented father
Keldysh's father Vsevolod Mikhailovich was a military civil engineer who graduated from the Riga Polytechnic Institute. There he married Maria Alexandrovna Skvortsova, who devoted herself to raising children. Her father was an artillery general, from the nobility. Vsevolod Mikhailovich's father was a military doctor with the rank of general, also from the nobility. Keldysh was always proud of his noble origins, which caused him problems in a communist country. Due to the nature of Vsevolod Mikhailovich’s work, the family traveled to different cities. He lectured at technical institutes and took part in the design and construction of the Moscow Metro and the Moscow-Volga Canal.
Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich: biography
Keldysh Mstislav was one of seven children. Their mother taught them German and French, and also instilled in them a love of music. His sister Lyudmila became a famous mathematician, and his brother Yuri became a musicologist.
Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich, whose family moved to Riga in 1909, where his father lectured at the Polytechnic Institute, was born on 02/10/1911. In 1915, the German army invaded Latvia and the staff of the Riga Polytechnic Institute was evacuated to Moscow. Here the family experienced hardship, living outside the city for several years, but the parents loved classical music and often attended concerts in the city. The children recalled one day in 1917 when their mother fed the whole family fried onions, since there was no other food. By the end of 1918, the family moved to Ivanovo-Voznesensk, as the father began teaching at the institute, to which the Riga Polytechnic Institute was annexed.
Study in Moscow
In 1923, the family moved to Moscow, and Mstislav, who was 12 years old, attended school No. 7 in Krivoarbatsky Lane. The boy, who in appearance and behavior resembled a gypsy, was mischievous and grumpy.
Keldysh was proud of his noble origins, although it would have been easier for him if he had hidden it. In the official forms he always entered the entry “social origin - noble”, so in 1927 he was denied admission to the Institute of Civil Engineers.
The elder sister Lyudmila, contrary to the wishes of her father, who saw his son as an engineer, convinced him to study mathematics. Mstislav entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Moscow State University and graduated on July 24, 1931. On the strong recommendation of teacher Keldysh Lavrentiev, the talented graduate was assigned to the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute.
Work at TsAGI
Excellent conditions for research were created at TsAGI. Here Keldysh met Leonid Sedov, with whom he began close scientific cooperation and friendship, which influenced the future fate of the scientist.
In 1934-37, a series of articles on aerohydromechanics was published, the author of which was Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh. The growth of a talented scientist began with the solution to one of the aviation problems of that time - sudden strong vibrations that could destroy the plane. His theoretical work helped overcome this problem. In addition, he conducted research for his doctoral dissertation on the use of polynomial series to represent harmonic functions and complex variables, which he defended in 1938.
Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich: family and his children
In 1938, after a long courtship with a married woman, Keldysh married Stanislava Valerianovna. The next year his daughter was born, and in 1941 his son Peter. The son graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, and the daughter subsequently worked at the Keldysh Museum.
Talented mathematician
Keldysh continued his research and often collaborated with his former teacher Mikhail Lavrentyev. One of the topics in which he was interested then was the Dirichlet problem.
Mstislav Keldysh was a talented mathematician and in theory he made a particularly fundamental contribution to the applied branches of aerodynamics. He was the government's chief theoretical adviser and organizer of computational work related to jet propulsion and space in the 1940s-60s.
The problem of aircraft vibration was just one of the first problems he worked on. The second related problem was the shaking that often occurred in the front when landing. This is where his experience gained in solving the vibration problem came in handy, and his solution to the shimmy problem, along with detailed instructions for engineers on how to fix it, was described in a 1945 paper. While working at Zhukovsky TsAGI, he did not leave the Mathematical Institute, heading the Department of Mechanics from its founding in April 1944 until 1953.
Examples of the works of this period that he undertook at the Steklov Institute: “On mean square approximations by polynomials of functions of a complex variable” (1945), “On the interpolation of entire functions” (1947). It is worth noting that, although these works relate to abstract mathematics, Keldysh’s interest in these problems arose thanks to ideas that arose when solving applied mathematical problems.
Space and nuclear weapons
After World War II, Mstislav Keldysh became increasingly involved in the management of major research projects that were implemented in the USSR. In 1946, he left TsAGI to become head of the Jet Research Institute, a position he held for nine years.
He was vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1961-62 and its president in 1962-75. At his 60th birthday celebration in 1971, he spoke of his regrets about stopping scientific research and concentrating on management and administration. However, he played an important role in the development of Soviet nuclear weapons as well as the space research program. For example, he was one of three scientists who proposed the Soviet space satellite program in 1954, and in 1955 he became chairman of the commission created to oversee the program. The first successful launch of Sputnik in 1957 began an intensive program of space exploration, and Keldysh was involved in this through a number of different organizations, such as the department of applied mathematics that he headed.
Work at the Academy of Sciences
In 1959, the Interdepartmental Scientific and Technical Council was created, the head of which Mstislav Keldysh was appointed.
The scientist’s biography is marked by his tenure as president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he managed to carry out serious reforms. In particular, the CPSU rejected genetics because it did not correspond to its ideology, and instead supported the politically correct but anti-scientific theories of Trofim Lysenko. In 1964, when his colleague Nikolai Nuzhdin was proposed as a full member of the Academy, Andrei Sakharov, a colleague of the scientist in the development of nuclear weapons, opposed it. The candidacy was rejected, and Keldysh contributed to the creation of conditions for the development of science without political interference, which was extremely difficult in the political situation that existed in the USSR at that time.
In 1975, due to health reasons, Mstislav Keldysh resigned as president of the Academy. It is believed that this was partly due to overwork, partly due to the stress caused by the difficulties in defending scientific ideals in a situation where science was used as the main tool of political struggle. Keldysh died on June 24, 1978 and was buried with honors in the necropolis near the Kremlin wall.
Government awards
Keldysh received many awards both in his own country and from foreign countries. He was awarded the State Prize (1942) and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1943) for his work on aircraft vibration. In 1946, he was awarded another State Prize for his work on shimmy.
In 1943 he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences and a full academician three years later. In 1956 he received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for solving defense problems and the following year he received the Lenin Prize. In 1961, he again became a Hero of Socialist Labor, this time for his work on rockets and Vostok, the world's first manned spacecraft, which carried Yuri Gagarin. He was awarded the Order of Lenin six times and medals several times.
World recognition
Finally, he was elected to the Central Committee of the CPSU (1961) and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1962). In addition, a lunar crater was named in his honor and discovered in 1973.
40 years ago, a great scientist tragically passed away
Many, and not without reason, call the times of Keldysh the “golden age” of Russian science. The era of Keldysh will remain on the tablets of history as the era of the most outstanding, most daring, planetary-scale achievements. Just look at the space epic alone: Gagarin’s flight, interplanetary and orbital stations, satellites. What about nuclear parity with the USA?! After all, it would have been impossible to implement it if we had not had a powerful breakthrough in computational mathematics, where we not only caught up with the United States, but also surpassed them in many ways.
Keldysh and his associates created a generation of new aircraft, they provided scientific support for the greatest Soviet construction projects. Keldysh was related to these and many other achievements not only as an organizer of the scientific process, but also as a mathematician of the highest level.
He made a significant personal contribution to solving problems in the nuclear and space industries, to the development of computer technology, and to the development of environmental science. Therefore, Mstislav Vsevolodovich became three times Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin and two Stalin Prizes, holder of seven Orders of Lenin and a dozen and a half other state awards. The academies of ten countries around the world elected Keldysh an honorary member, and in his own country he headed the USSR Academy of Sciences for fifteen years. This is his main merit in the creation of the Institute of Applied Mathematics, where the most puzzling calculations were carried out.
Keldysh on a pack of Kazbek could in five minutes solve a problem that an entire laboratory was struggling with. It is not for nothing that he received the high title “Cosmonautics Theorist” and entered the famous “Troika K” - Kurchatov, Korolev, Keldysh.
And yet, the main work of Keldysh’s life remained the USSR Academy of Sciences. To be the president of this unique scientific synclite for so many years is a feat in itself. After all, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR included the entire flower of domestic science, world-famous scientists: A. Alexandrov, P. Fedoseev, P. Kapitsa, S. Korolev, A. Ioffe, I. Kurchatov, A. Sakharov... The list goes on. The so-called totalitarian system generously nurtured scientific minds, providing them with all the benefits, benefits and privileges. That is, the highest scientific world, against the background of the ordinary Soviet people, represented “celestial beings.” What was it like to manage them?
Thus, a year before the death of Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh, the persecution of his colleague, academician Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, by the party leadership reached its climax. The scientist was deprived of the title of Hero of Socialist Labor three times, all other state awards, laureate titles and was evicted outside of Moscow. But he remained an academician even in exile, despite the fact that the powerful Politburo headed by L.I. Brezhnev did everything possible and even impossible in order to take away the highest academic title from the obstinate. The “celestials,” however, did not allow such blatant arbitrariness, and Andrei Dmitrievich received his 400 academic rubles in Gorky. A very decent amount for a then closed city.
According to rumors, in 1973 the leadership of the Soviet Union decided to expel Sakharov from the USSR Academy of Sciences. On behalf of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, Academy President Keldysh gathered a narrow circle of leading scientists and asked how they would feel about raising the issue of Sakharov’s expulsion at the general meeting of the Academy of Sciences. After a long silence, Academician Semenov said: “But there has been no precedent for this in the foreseeable past.” To which Kapitsa objected: “Why? There was such a precedent. Hitler expelled Albert Einstein from the Berlin Academy of Sciences." Keldysh ended the meeting there and went to the Kremlin to report: if we expel Sakharov, we will disgrace ourselves in front of the whole world.
The captain of the “scientific nuclear-powered ship of socialism” could not have a cloudless fate, even theoretically. In fact, it was extremely tragic, because all the years of his reign over the academic, specifically closed world, Mstislav Keldysh was between the hammer of ideological coercion and the anvil of his own ideas about good and evil, which, in addition, he was forced to hide deeply in the recesses of his soul ...
His father, Vsevolod Mikhailovich, lived eighty-seven years and was the father of seven children. He was also a major scientist, a Doctor of Technical Sciences only in the field of building structures. Participated in the design, examination and acceptance of the Stalin Canal, the metro, and several power plants. He passionately wanted Mstislav, his favorite son, to follow in his construction footsteps, but he “turned out to be weak-willed”: succumbing to the persuasion of his older sister Lyudmila, who was a graduate student in the mathematics department at Moscow State University, he entered the same place. He became a Doctor of Science at 27, an academician at 35.
He was remarkable for his ability to work throughout his life. I always got up at a quarter to six. He came to work at nine and resolved all organizational issues before lunch. Then he ate a sandwich and drank a glass of tea. I returned home between ten and eleven in the evening. I could listen to classical music to sleep, look through art albums. He had very extensive and deep knowledge of painting. Once in Italy he was asked what he would like to see from museum collections. He modestly replied that he knew them all, but he had never seen a private collection of Botticelli’s paintings in his life. Art critics and accompanying persons rushed to search and discovered the said private collection! Its owner was not against the Russian scientist joining the masterpieces.
Keldysh's wife, Stanislava Valeryanovna, affectionately considered him a klutz. Only she took care of the house and family (the Keldysh had a daughter, Svetlana, and a son, Peter). Mstislav Vsevolodovich could occasionally tinker with roses at the dacha. He did not allow himself any excesses: neither gastronomic nor everyday.
He adhered to three main life principles. 1. Do not fight evil, but take up and do good, good deeds. 2. Do not listen to complaints in the absence of the person against whom the complaint is made. 3. Do not promise anything to anyone, but if you have promised, then do it, even if the circumstances have worsened.
If you think about it, it’s a whole philosophical planet!
There was no rigidity in Keldysh’s character at all; he was known as a very restrained, correct leader. And this was at a time when scolding and dispersing subordinates was considered almost a state virtue. In addition, because of each of his incontinence, Mstislav Vsevolodovich was very worried that his health was not improving either.
The same Chazov recalls:
“I must say that at this time Keldysh had, for some reason that I could not fully understand, a certain psychological breakdown. Being a reserved person, even to a certain extent withdrawn, he did not share much about the developing relationships. But the fact that on certain issues he did not agree with the country’s leadership and defended his point of view is a fact. Ustinov himself spoke about the “clashes” that he had with Keldysh. I remember how Brezhnev, after my message, asked: “Is he really seriously ill or is it his nerves?” When I described in detail the severity of the disease and, most importantly, the possible outcome of the disease, Brezhnev said: “You know, you doctors are increasingly intimidating. Do what you want, but we need Keldysh, we need his knowledge, even his character. He must live and work . That's your concern." Over the course of 15 years, he addressed me so sharply only three times: in 1972 about Keldysh, on the day of the end of the 25th Congress about his health, and in November 1982, shortly before his death, about Andropov.”
Chazov’s memories, in this context, once again confirm how incredibly heavy the burden pressed on Keldysh’s intellect, brain and nerves.
True, in the case that Evgeny Chazov recalls, everything turned out well. Despite severe atherosclerotic changes in the lower aorta and vessels of the lower extremities (Keldysh was simply unable to move), the doctors were able, as they say, to put the president of the academy on firm feet. Decisive assistance was then provided by B.N., famous for heart surgery. Yeltsin, American professor Michael DeBakey. He not only took part in the operation himself, but also brought with him his assistant and operating nurse.
Chazov recalled:
“There was a small incident at the hotel where we arrived. The head of our international department, as is customary in the West, decided to transfer to de Becky (as in Chazov - M.Z.) fee for the operation. An indignant de Becky came up to me and began to reprimand: “You know, Eugene, I didn’t come here for money.” – I came at your request to operate on Academician Keldysh. He did so much for the development of world science that today he belongs not only to the Soviet people." I was forced to sheepishly apologize.
The operation lasted about 6 hours and was carried out at the Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery, where the greatest experience in treating such patients was accumulated in the USSR. Together with their American colleagues, Soviet specialists, in particular, Professor A. Pokrovsky, also took part in the operation.
It is hardly necessary in this book to describe the technical problems of the operation, during which a Dacron tissue graft created by de Becchi was applied, providing a bypass from the abdominal aorta to both external iliac arteries. I was surprised by the calm, balance and clear rhythm of de Becchi's work. During the operation, when, according to those around me, a strong-willed person, my nerves were strained to the limit, he suddenly turns to me and says, as if about some small thing: “You know, Eugene, Keldysh has calculous cholecystitis, and, Probably, to avoid postoperative complications, it’s better to remove the gallbladder. Don’t you mind?” The logic of the American surgeon was clear and one could not but agree with it. But I imagined some of our surgeons in his place and thought how much noise, conversations, arguments, strong expressions there would be before they decided to actually perform a second operation.”
Yes, Evgeniy Ivanovich is right a thousand times. We, the Slavs, are unsurpassed masters of doubt where representatives of other nations usually prefer action to the politics of reasoning about actions. We are also great virtuosos in providing unbearable conditions for living, working and simply existing for our neighbors. Moreover, the past totalitarian system brought this national feature of ours to the level of monstrous sophistication. Because at the very top of her pyramid there were people with limited intellectual abilities who, for example, understood nuclear issues at the level of whether it would explode or not. However, power was exercised harshly, and sometimes even cruelly, for the sole reason that it was given to them without alternative.
Of course, the life of a scientist within the strict framework of the system was not easy. Take the same Khrushchev, during whose reign Keldysh became president of the Academy. There are countless crazy ideas that the master of the corn business put forward to the scientists of the country...
At the same time, even his best undertakings, such as, say, “leading” space exploration, were eventually brought to the point of complete absurdity and caricatures. What was the cost of Nikita Sergeevich’s cardinal “space” mistake, when only because of his stubbornness all space research in its infancy was tightly tied to the military department. Of course, in those days it had countless resources and did not spare them for space exploration. However, Keldysh already understood then that such a tandem was fraught with unpredictable consequences (which we witnessed in the 2000s: the armed forces eked out a miserable existence, and space affairs were generally in a rut) and therefore proposed, following the example of the Americans, to separately subsidize space.
Keldysh was also against the destruction of warships and aircraft, and against the production of missiles using the “conveyor method,” which Khrushchev was especially proud of.
If you carefully read Keldysh’s speeches, then without much difficulty you will find in them very constructive considerations for improving socialism – he could not imagine any other social structure in our country. But all this was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Keldysh understood this perfectly well, he understood that in Rus' a whip cannot break a butt, and as a result he suffered even more mentally and morally. And all his physical ailments were already derivative.
Brezhnev, who replaced Khrushchev, was not distinguished by the extravagance of his predecessor and, as we see, valued Keldysh. But it was not he who ultimately determined the strategic directions in the development of science and technology and the entire socialist society. The President of the Academy therefore had to covertly and openly fight with the leading orthodoxies of the system.
It was in such unbearable conditions that Mstislav Vsevolodovich was forced to work and lead. And it’s just our happiness that he lived so long that the scientist then embodied competence, responsibility, and power. What a rich personality literally burned himself in the name of Russian science!
I’ll finish the story about Mstislav Keldysh again with an excerpt from Chazov’s book “Health and Power”:
“Unfortunately, he (Mstislav Vsevolodovich - M.Z.) further fate was tragic. From the point of view of the disease for which the operation was performed, he felt excellent. However, the psychological breakdown that began even before the operation developed into severe depression with elements of self-blame. Despite the requests and persuasion of the country's leadership, he categorically raised the question of releasing him from the post of president of the Academy of Sciences. More than once he told us doctors that he had made many mistakes both in life and in work. All these self-accusations were the fruit of his severe psychological breakdown. Negotiations about resignation dragged on for quite a long time, but, in the end, in May 1975, Keldysh left his post. After this, he became calmer, more cheerful, and his depression decreased. This went on for three years.
...June 1978 was unusually hot in Moscow. On Sunday, June 24, taking advantage of the free day, I went to my dacha. The sun was incredibly hot, it was stuffy, which usually only happens on the Black Sea, in Sochi. By this time, I was already accustomed to unexpected phone calls that brought troubles, difficult situations, difficult calls and severe nervous tension. So it was then, on June 24, when the duty officer called and reported that by chance, in the garage, at the dacha, in his car, M.V., burnt out from the exhaust gases of the car with an idling engine, was found. Keldysh. The medically known phenomenon of “California” carbon monoxide poisoning in one’s own garage. Keldysh was accidentally discovered by his great friend and neighbor in the dacha, Academician V.A. Kirillin. At the first meeting, I asked him: “Vladimir Alekseevich, do you remember whether the garage doors were open or closed?” After thinking, he replied: “They were covered.”
In such a non-trivial way, the great Soviet scientist Keldysh passed away into another world, taking with him the secret of his own death.
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