The Spirit of Russian Science

104 Pages·2002·0.46 MB·English

by  Michael Levinshtein

Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
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THE SPIRIT OF RUSSIAN SCIENCE
Copyright © 2002 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
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ISBN 981-02-4946-2
Printed in Singapore.
To my friends
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vii
CONTENTS
Preface xi
Introduction 1
Incident Report 1
The Grad-student, the Supervisor and the Mounting 1
Historic Roots 4
Seminars 5
Joint Work 5
You are Defaming Your Nation 6
The Triplet-Singlet Transition 6
The Peculiar National Habit 8
Latin and Greek Letters 9
Passionarity 11
Table of Ranks 14
Tea Seminar 15
Seminars Which Did Not Take Place 19
Rosa Kuleshova and the Theoretician 19
Misunderstanding 20
Orders 23
Orders About Discharges 23
Order No 4. On Conservation of the Angular
Momentum 24
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viii The Spirit of Russian Science
Order No 7. About Publications Marked with the
Roman Numeral X 25
Order No 14. About Urgent Problems 26
Order No 16. About the Theft of a Tea-kettle and the
Damage to a Lock 27
Winter Schools 29
Plan of Cultural Program for the 2nd Semiconductor
School of the IOFFE Institute 29
Nemesis 30
The Stress Put in the Right Way 32
About the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul 34
Operator of a Secondary Quantization 36
Electron in a Potential Well 37
The Odessa “PentaBoris” 38
Foreigners at the IOFFE Institute 39
An American 39
Glory, Glory, Alleluia!
Beer 40
The Kuban Cossacks 43
Saying Good-bye in the Slavonic Way 44
Digression: An Article Into a Foreign Journal 47
A Grad-student from Munich 49
Profane Faith 51
Digression: The “Smell” of Science 53
Checks on the Roads 56
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Contents ix
Russians Abroad 63
Mr. Ulyanov in Finland 63
Population of Rumania 64
I Am Not a Boy for Them 66
Analginum and the Attendant Commodities 68
The Gate 69
The Texas Marquees 71
Little Secrets of Theoreticians 75
Admonition to the Experimentalist 75
Admonition to the Theorist 76
The Optimal Conditions for the Work 76
True Pride 77
Short Sketches on Social Life 81
Late 60s 81
Early 70s 81
Vodka in the Context of a Strictly Scientific Approach
The Lenin Komsomol Prize 82
Late 70s 87
The Experience of Social-political Defloration
Academic and Reactor 90
Late 80s 91
A Tank and a Bug
Physical Society at the IOFFE Institute 92
Late 90s 95
The Last Order
Conclusion 97
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xi
PREFACE
Many years ago, in December of 1966, I first crossed the threshold
one of the largest, most famous, and best research institutes of
Russia. The official name of the Institute sounded most solemn
and impressive: “The Leningrad Physical-Technical Institute of the
Academy of Sciences of the USSR, named after A. F. Ioffe, awarded
the Medals of Lenin and the Red Banner”. In short — “PhysTech”.
In the West this Institute is well known as “The Ioffe”.
I was fascinated by the atmosphere, by the way people interacted
and by their attitude towards life, which I called “The Spirit of
PhysTech”. Later, I was assured this surprising spirit is characteristic
not only of the Ioffe but also of Science of Russia in general.
One could not help feeling it, and it was very difficult to define.
A lifetime has passed, and I still cannot find a definition for that
wonderful spirit. Therefore, I decided to do what little I could, to
illustrate the way it manifests itself, showing it by examples still
retained in my memory. This book is a collection of such examples.
That spirit is passing away: new times are coming, and as has
always been the case, new Gods are replacing the old ones. Why
should I conceal that, I like the new ones far less, and I can only
repeat the words of the poet:
People write, and time wipes out,
It wipes out everything they spell.
But tell me, — if the ear dies,
Must the sound die as well?
It gets quieter and lower,
I can decipher just a part,
And still I hear, not by ear,
But by my soul, by my heart.
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1
INTRODUCTION
Incident Report
One of the first stories (perhaps the very first) which I heard at the
Ioffe was the following. A fireman on duty, during graveyard shift,
was inspecting the premises entrusted to him. Opening all the
doors with his own key, he discovered in one of the rooms a Senior
Researcher and a Laboratory Assistant in a situation that might be
called rather delicate. The brave fireman took the trouble to draw
up an INCIDENT REPORT that according to the regulations was
presented to the deputy director of the Institute.
In those days, the SENIOR RESEARCHER was considered to
be “persona grate”, a kind of an “embryo of fame” and the deputy
director did not dare punish the guilty man on his own authority.
So, the INCIDENT REPORT was deferred to the desk of the
ACADEMICIAN, the Director of the Institute.
The latter drew his famous resolution that he wrote in the top
left corner, slantwise:
“Adultery at one’s spare time offers no threat to fire safety.
To the archive”.
The case was buried in oblivion.
The Grad-student, the Supervisor
and the Mounting
The next incident took place within my memory, almost in front of
my eyes.
For a year and a half a grad-student was assembling a set-up. He
was laboring 10–12 hours a day, day by day, 6 days per week. He
had to deal with glass blowers, and mechanics, with plumbers,
electricians, and welders. He procured and elicited, he stole details
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2 THE SPIRIT OF RUSSIAN SCIENCE
of machines, and he cut, screwed, blew, cleaned, adjusted, and
checked up, he remade and refitted over and over…
At long last, the final tests showed that the set-up was ready. It
was operational! Now one could grow samples, measure them, give
them to others… One could make conclusions, write articles, and…
you can never tell, but why not?! One might even present and
defend one’s Thesis on time! It was clear as day, that this historic
moment was to be celebrated. And the grad-student did!
When three days later he came to the laboratory, the Group
Supervisor informed the grad-student: “Your further work at this
set up is INEXPEDIENT. Another grad-student will work at it.
And you start mounting another set up at which you will “make
your thesis”.
The grad-student set up a howl and rushed off to the Head of
the Laboratory. The latter had reached that age and position when
one takes close to heart only one’s own troubles. In such cases the
subordinates must know better than bother the boss. Their know-
how to manage that is considered to be their best virtue, just like
writing good articles, so that their boss might give his name as a
co-author without even taking the trouble to read them.
“My dear”, said the Head of the Lab, “I’ve known your Group
Supervisor for quite a few years. He is a conscientious and responsible
person who always acts sensibly, so it is always possible to come to
an agreement with him in an amicable way. I am sure you will
come to some agreement. By the way, your second year here is
coming to the end, and you have not published anything yet”.
“But I have been assembling the set-up, haven’t I?! Provided I
am given an opportunity to work at it, there are to be publications
and I hope I’ll be able to present my Thesis…”
“Oh, yes, my dear, arrange it with your Group Supervisor. And do
not forget about your publications, the attestation is not far off”.
The grad-student whimpered and trudged to the Group Supervisor.
“How dare you to complain about me?! You, SOB! Consider
yourself fired! We are having the attestation in two months and I’ll
give you all hell!”
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Introduction 3
The Group Supervisor usually came to his office by 11 a.m. On
that day the grad-student was there by 8 a.m. When the Group
Supervisor entered the room where the set-up had been the day
before, he found the grad-student taking a break, sitting on the
frame. There was not a single glass vessel, a single piece of quartz
larger than a dime in the room. The dust of glass and quartz —
the remnants of the setup — evenly covered the floor. Not only
that! There was not a single whole union, or a single pipe that had
not been bent, or a single piece of wire longer than 5 cm, or a
single cutting that had not be disfigured. Everything, that hard
work, good health, fury, and the feeling that one is right could
unleash and destroy in 3 hours was unleashed and destroyed.
The Supervisor howled and rushed to the Head of the
Laboratory. However, from the heights the latter has achieved, the
misfortunes of the Supervisor did not seem to him to be more
important than those of the grad-student.
“My dear”, the Head of the Laboratory said, “You have been
working with the grad-student for a year and a half. More than
once I’ve heard from you that he is a conscientious and responsible
person who always acts sensibly, so it is always possible to come to
an agreement with him in an amicable way. He got heated of
course, that’s certain. But, to prosecute? Oh, no, for pity’s sake!
Just think what a stain it would be on the Laboratory and on the
Group, too… I am sure everything will somehow work out…”
And indeed, it was. The grad-student changed jobs. He went to
work at the neighboring enterprise and a few years later returned
to the Ioffe.
He defended his Thesis and even became the recipient of one of
the most honorary scientific prizes.
I can’t help recalling Alexey K. Tolstoy’s words:
Fellow of the Council he became,
So very soon, so very soon.
A good example for us to take!
But luck comes once in a blue moon.
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4 THE SPIRIT OF RUSSIAN SCIENCE
Historic Roots
…Mikhaylo Lomonosov,* who was enrolled in 1742 as grad-student
at this Academy, and during all this time behaved improperly, had
not justified hopes laid on him by the Professors. He often drank
hard, kicked up rows and fights, and in September of 1742 was
taken to the police station. Besides, while a special commission was
working at the Academy, the above Mikhaylo Lomonosov displayed
absolute disrespect to his Professors, humiliating and insulting them.
Since such awful behavior could never be allowed at any academy,
on February 21, a special decision was made that Lomonosov should
not be allowed to attend any Conferences at the Academy.
On April 26, 1743, before noon, Lomonosov, heavily drunk,
insolently appeared in the chamber where Conferences were usually
held. There was no one there at that time, only Professor Vitzgeim
and some clerks working there. Lomonosov, without greeting anyone
and without taking off his hat, walked past them to the department
of geography, and while passing by the Professor’s table, he stopped
and made a most disgracing gesture with his hand before their
faces. He let forth a stream of threats. He cursed loudly, using very
bad language and threatened Professor Vitzgeim to “set right” his
teeth, and calling Councilor Shumakher a thief. He mocked them,
he repeated those insinuations many times, and demanded that all
those curses should be registered.
(May 11, 1743)
Materials for the History of Russian Academy of Sciences
*Mikhail V. Lomonosov is considered to be “the founder of Russian science”. His
name is but little known in the West, but in Russia every pupil knows him. As usual in
such cases, the school-texts depict Lomonosov as a personification of virtue, a mine of
information, and a knight in shining armour.
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