The genius of Mstislav Keldysh served not only world science, but also our modernity. Without his discoveries, neither space progress nor the computer revolution would have been possible for a long time.
Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh" border="0">
“We must see science as a force that transforms the world.” Mstislav Keldysh
On February 10, 1911, in the city of Riga, another child was born into the family of civil engineer Keldysh. Mstislav's family could boast of mathematicians, physicists, and scientists of other specialties. Her only drawback at that time was her noble roots.
In 1927, despite his father’s desire to raise his son to be an engineer, Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University to become a mathematician. Started with this step thorny path an outstanding innovator, world scientist and future Chief Theoretician of Russian cosmonautics.
The name of Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh for Soviet people has long been associated with the name of another genius of the USSR space industry - S.P. Korolev. Engineer, outstanding leader, scientist at the intersection of physics, mathematics and technology. Even the character of M.V. Keldysh is an example of a unique set of qualities that make ordinary people an unbending lever of progress.
While still an assistant, M.V. Keldysh taught a lot: at the Higher School of Civil Engineering, at the Military Engineering Academy, at the State Electrical Machine-Building Institute (GEMI), then at the State Machine Tool Institute (STANKIN). He loved science and easily shared his knowledge with everyone.
After graduating in 1931, M.V. Keldysh was assigned to the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after. N.E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI). He received the degree of Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and Candidate of Technical Sciences with the title of professor in the next four years, even without defending a dissertation. And he defended his doctorate in the same year as his wedding (1938).
About the life of his family in 1941–1945. and the difficulties of the post-war period, his wife, Stanislava Valerianovna, wrote in detail in her memoirs of 1985–1987. Despite the evacuation of his family to Kazan, M.V. Keldysh did not leave his work for a minute, successfully fulfilling one order of the country's leadership after another. Soon, TsAGI scientists returned to Moscow, leaving their families in Kazan.
In 1942, the Keldysh family, tired of separation and uncertainty, secretly made their way onto a freight train with equipment and returned to the city of Zhukovsky, from where they were evacuated. To all her husband’s objections, Stanislava Valerianovna replied that she would not go anywhere else. After some time, Mstislav Vsevolodovich was given nice apartment in a new house on Sadovo-Spasskaya Street, where the family lived for about twenty years.
In the summer of 1944, a new department was created at the Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences - mechanics, and M.V. Keldysh, received the position of its head. During these years, he simultaneously combined teaching at Moscow State University, heading the department of thermodynamics, and working on two scientific seminars: on TFKP at Moscow State University and on aerodynamics at the Steklov Mathematical Institute. A couple of years later, in order to complete the task of creating a domestic thermonuclear bomb, Mstislav Vsevolodovich specially organized a calculation bureau at the Steklov Mathematical Institute.
From 1946 until 1961, M. S. Keldysh was elected to head NII-1 (Rocket Research Institute), which allowed him in 1954, together with S. P. Korolev and M. K. Tikhonravov, to propose and successfully implement the idea of the first artificial Earth satellite. During this period, Mstislav Vsevolodovich devoted almost all his time to the development of astronautics in the Soviet Union. People joked a lot about the “three main Ks” of the space industry: I.V. Kurchatov, S.P. Korolev and M.V. Keldysh.
As head of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1961–1975), Mstislav Vsevolodovich, being a member of many foreign scientific circles, often traveled extensively around the country. He regularly traveled abroad, in every possible way supporting international cooperation, which glorified USSR scientists abroad. The academician received many foreign awards, he was invited to conferences and universities, he was known to scientists in Europe and America, and they heard about him in Asia.
M.V. Keldysh worked on differential equations that degenerate on the boundary, on the problems of Dirichlet and Neumann problems for the Laplace equation, considered in detail the theory of approximation of functions by polynomials, and worked on numerical methods for solving multidimensional problems. It was he who first proved the completeness of the system of eigenfunctions and associated functions for non-self-adjoint partial differential operators and studied the asymptotic behavior of eigenvalues. His research largely continued and generalized the theories of such Russian scientists as N. E. Zhukovsky, S. A. Chaplygin, P. L. Chebyshev.
The works of Mstislav Vsevolodovich gave rise to several fundamentally new branches of science, for example, on the strength of aircraft structures. Through the efforts of M. V. Keldysh and M. A. Lavrentiev, a school of approximation theory in the complex domain was born. And his main merit can be considered computational mathematics, without which it would have been impossible not only to explore space, but even to predict the weather.
According to contemporaries, Mstislav Vsevolodovich did not recognize theory in isolation from practice. All his innovative ideas and solutions served specific scientific and technical tasks, and his discoveries were the result of design activities.
The academician's only weaknesses were his beloved children, theater and long walks. He could wander alone for hours around his dacha in Abramtsevo, memorizing the clearings and paths he liked. Often he and his colleagues went mushroom hunting with their families. As his daughter, Svetlana, recalls, “my father never picked mushrooms himself. He always, carefully pushing away the foliage with a stick, loudly notified everyone about the find in order to admire the sight of the happy children racing to catch their prey.”
To appreciate the contribution of M. V. Keldysh to Soviet science, it is enough to realize that during his lifetime he received the highest degree of distinction three times - the title of "Hero" Socialist Labor: for participation in the creation of thermonuclear weapons (1956), for special services in the development of rocket technology, in the creation and successful launch of the world's first spaceship with a person on board (1961) and for exceptional services to the state (1971)." In history Soviet Union this only happened 16 times. Among his awards are 7 Orders of Lenin, 3 Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, Gold Medal named after. K. E. Tsiolkovsky Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Big Gold Medal named after. M. V. Lomonosov Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Stalin and Lenin Prizes...
Monuments were erected in honor of the scientist, stamps and medals were created, scholarships were established; they named streets, institutions, minerals (keldyshite), even a small planet (asteroid 2186) and a crater on the Moon. And in 1980, his name was given to a Russian research vessel with 17 laboratories and its own library, which since 1982 has been used as a base for the Pisis-VII and Pisis-XI devices, and after - Mir-1 and " Mir-2".
There was a joke about the 122-meter-long ship with a displacement of 6,345 tons in the 90s:
– What is a large apartment in the understanding of the new Russian?
– This is when in the corner there is an aquarium modestly located in which “Academician Keldysh” swims.
In 1973, due to heart problems, he underwent major surgery. blood vessels, but still worked until his death. When the academician’s health began to fail him completely, he, according to legend, begged Brezhnev for his resignation for almost a year and a half. On June 24, 1978, at the age of 67, the scientist died from heart attack in his own car, preparing to return to Moscow from his dacha. In the same year, the USSR Academy of Sciences established the Gold Medal named after. M. V. Keldysh.
The urn with his ashes was installed 12th on the right side in the necropolis of the Kremlin wall on Red Square.
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 studying at high school, having received 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.
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 the Moscow state university, who 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). Scientific life 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.
We worked selflessly, but did not think about the meaning of our work. And only when, barely catching our breath after the launch, we heard how this launch was perceived throughout the world, we realized that the space age of mankind had begun.
Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich
Continuing to work at TsAGI, in the fall of 1934 Keldysh entered graduate school (then supplemented by a two-year doctoral program) 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)).
The results of Keldysh’s work played a big role in the creation of high-speed aviation in our country.
In October 1941, Keldysh with his wife Stanislava Valerianovna and three children, along with other TsAGI employees, were evacuated to Kazan, where he continued to work. In April 1942 he was awarded the Stalin Prize of the 2nd degree for scientific works to prevent aircraft destruction. 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 Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1943) and Lenin (1945). In 1944 Keldysh was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Moscow".
Closely related to his studies of aircraft vibrations 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 constructive measures to eliminate shimming (self-excited rotations and displacements) of an aircraft wheel during takeoff or landing, which led to the destruction of the aircraft's front landing gear. According to available data, there were more than 150 accidents related to “shimmies” in German aviation, and not a single one in domestic aviation. In 1946, for research in this area, he was awarded the Stalin Prize of the 2nd degree for the second time.
The success of 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, Keldysh contributed to the theory of functions, potential theory, differential equations, and functional analysis. Great importance have Keldysh's results in mechanics, covering hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, gas dynamics, and mechanics of aircraft structures. Keldysh learned a lot from communicating with aircraft designers, primarily S.A. Lavochkin and A.N. Tupolev.
In September 1943, Keldysh was elected a 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 remained in this position until 1953. A scientific seminar worked at the department, bringing 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 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, T.M. Eneev.
At the end of 1946, Keldysh was elected a full member 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 rocket science. Since that time, the main direction of 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 Keldysh became a member communist party, was subsequently elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee (since 1961), a delegate to the CPSU congresses (XXII, 1961; XXIII, 1966; XXIV, 1971; XXV, 1977).
In the post-war years. Keldysh was solving problems nuclear energy and computational mathematics. New research methods were required, first of all 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. 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.
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 and others)
In 1956 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, and in 1957 his scientific achievements awarded the Lenin Prize.
He made outstanding contributions 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 directions, like space flight mechanics and space navigation. 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. Keldysh played a decisive role in the creation of a relatively cheap launch vehicle for launching satellites into orbit. scientific programs(satellites of the "Cosmos" family). He led the "Lunar" program, including flights of automatic stations of the "Luna" family, directed by Keldysh. Involved research teams in the program, led meetings and seminars to discuss research results and adopt further plans. The first apparatus was sent to the Moon on January 2, 1959. On October 4, 1959, photographs of the far side of the Moon were received (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 launched 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. Keldysh was able to understand the cause of the disasters - the development of vibrations in the rocket fuel system. No less effective is Keldysh’s participation 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's atmosphere, temperature 400° C. The role of Keldysh in the exploration of Mars is great. In 1960, in preparation for the launch of the first automatic station to Mars, 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. (cosmonauts G.T. Dobrovolsky, V.N. Volkov and V.I. Patsaev (1971).
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 Keldysh’s activities. In 1961, for special services in the development of rocket technology, the creation and successful launch on April 12, 1961 of the world's first spaceship "Vostok" with a man on board, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for the second time.
On March 18, 1965, the first human spacewalk was carried out (cosmonaut Alexei Leonov). Keldysh made a huge contribution to the joint Soviet-American space flight Soyuz-Apollo (1975) and the development of flights under the Intercosmos program.
He was one of the initiators of the creation of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1951 (in the city of Dolgoprudny, Moscow region) and gave lectures for some time; for a long time he was the head of the department.
A large period of 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 Academy of Sciences. In 1960 he was elected vice-president, and in May 1961 - president of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Heading the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1961 to 1975, he provided full 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 1062, the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences decided to build a complex of biological institutes in the city of Pushchino. Under Keldysh, a comprehensive audit of the activities of T.D. Lysenko took place, which made it possible to expose the pseudoscientific concepts of “Lysenkoism” that denied genetics. N.I. Vavilov was posthumously restored to the list of full members of the Academy, and his merits in biology and agricultural sciences were confirmed.
The years when Keldysh held the post of President of the USSR Academy of Sciences were the period of the most rapid growth of the Academy, its transformation into largest center fundamental science. In 1971 for exceptional services to the state in the development of Soviet science and technology, great scientific and social activities and in connection with his 60th anniversary, Keldysh became three times Hero of Socialist Labor (the eleventh three times Hero for the entire time this title was awarded).
Developed international scientific cooperation and coordination in every possible way scientific research. 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). Keldysh spoke German fluently and French, also read in Italian, and already in adulthood (after 50) began to study English. His merits received international recognition, among his titles: academician of the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina" (GDR, 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 Sciences of Romania (1965), honorary foreign member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1966), honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Sciences and Arts in Boston (1966), corresponding member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (1966), honorary member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1968 ), honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1970), honorary member of the Academy of Finland (1974); honorary doctor from the University of Delhi (1967), honorary doctor from the University of Budapest (1967), honorary doctor from the University of Lagos (Nigeria, 1968), honorary doctor from the Charles University in Prague (Czechoslovakia, 1974), honorary doctor from the Indian Statistical Institute (1974).
Keldysh did a lot of work in the Committee on Lenin and State awards USSR in the field of science and technology, leading 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 last years life Keldysh was interested in the problem of creating solar power plants in space orbit.
On January 10, 1973, Keldysh underwent surgery on blood vessels, performed by American professor M. De Becchi (who refused the fee for the operation and expressed gratitude for the honor of operating on Keldysh).
Awarded the Order of Lenin (1945, twice 1954, 1956, 1961, 1967, 1975), the Red Banner of Labor (1943, 1945, 1953), medals "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War" Patriotic War"(1945), "800 years of Moscow" (1947), "20 years of Victory" (1965), "For valiant work in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin" (1970), "30 years of Victory" (1975). Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor (Commander) (1971), the highest orders of a number of other countries.
Gold medal named after M.V. Lomonosov of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1976).
He died on June 24, 1978. The urn with Keldysh’s ashes was buried in the Kremlin wall near Red Square in Moscow.
Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh - photo
Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh - quotes
We worked selflessly, but did not think about the meaning of our work. And only when, barely catching our breath after the launch, we heard how this launch was perceived throughout the world, we realized that the space age of mankind had begun. 
The Academy became the headquarters of Soviet science.
Scientist-engineer in the field of mathematics and mechanics, organizer of Soviet science. Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, from 1953 - member of the Presidium, in 1960-1961 - vice-president, in 1961-1975 - president, in 1975-1978 - member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Three times Hero of Socialist Labor. Member of the CPSU since 1949.
Born into the family of Vsevolod Mikhailovich Keldysh (1878-1965) - professor, major general of the engineering and technical service, founder of calculation methodology building structures. He was called the “father of Russian reinforced concrete.” He never hid his noble origins. The maternal grandfather is full artillery general A.N. Skvortsov, the paternal grandfather is M.F. Keldysh, who graduated from theological seminary, but then chose the medical path and rose to the rank of general.
Mother - Maria Alexandrovna (nee Skvortsova) - was a housewife. Mstislav was the fifth child (and fourth son) in the family; later two more girls were born. In 1915, the family moved from front-line Riga to Moscow. In 1919-1923 he 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. Upon returning to Moscow, he began to study 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 ability for the exact sciences.
In 1927 he graduated from school and wanted to get his father’s profession of a civil engineer, which he liked. However, 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 (now Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov), and studied mathematics under the scientific supervision of N.N. Luzin, he entered the same faculty of Moscow State University. While studying at the university, he established scientific contacts with M. A. Lavrentiev, which later grew into long-term scientific cooperation and strong friendship. N. N. Luzin was very critical of Keldysh’s passion for engineering problems instead of fundamental science during his years of study at Moscow State University and believed that as a mathematician he was going to the bottom.
After graduating from Moscow State University, on the recommendation of A.I. Nekrasov, he was sent to TsAGI. The scientific life of TsAGI at that time was headed by the outstanding domestic mechanic S.A. Chaplygin, under his leadership a scientific seminar was regularly held, in which Keldysh became an active participant. 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 outstanding mechanical scientists. He worked at TsAGI until December 1946, first as an engineer, then as a senior engineer, head of a group, and from 1941 - head of the dynamic strength department.
Continuing to work at TsAGI, in the fall of 1934 he entered graduate school (later supplemented by a two-year doctorate) at the Mathematical Institute. V. A. Steklova of the USSR Academy of Sciences (MIAN) to Lavrentiev, where he deals with issues of the theory of approximations 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.”
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 remained in this position until 1953. A scientific seminar was held at the department, bringing together specialists in aeromechanics. At the same time, he resumes his teaching activity at Moscow State University, which began in 1932. Here he lectures at the Faculty of Mechanics, Mathematics and Physics and Technology, heads the Department of Thermodynamics, and leads a research seminar on the theory of functions of a complex variable. From 1942 to 1953 professor at Moscow State University.
From 1953 to 1978 he was director of the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (IPM RAS).
He studied mechanics and aerogasdynamics of aircraft. Of great importance are the works carried out under the leadership of Yu.B. Rumer, associated with solving the flutter problem, which in the late 1930s. became an obstacle to the development of high-speed aviation. Keldysh's work in the field of high-speed aerodynamics was important for the development of jet aviation. Simple ones have also been found Constructive decisions to eliminate the phenomenon of shimmy - self-excited oscillations of the nose wheel of an aircraft landing gear.
Participated in the creation of the Soviet thermonuclear bomb. For this purpose, in 1946 he organized a special settlement bureau at the Steklov Mathematical Institute. For participation in the creation of thermonuclear weapons in 1956 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
In 1946, he was appointed head of the Research Institute-1 of the Ministry of Aviation Industry, from 1950 he became the scientific director of this institution and held this post until 1961. He was one of the founders of the development of work on space exploration and the creation of rocket and space systems, heading the mid-1950s, development of theoretical prerequisites for launching artificial bodies into near-Earth orbits, and later - flights to the Moon and planets solar system. He headed the scientific and technical council for coordinating activities to create the first artificial Earth satellite, made a great contribution to the implementation of manned flight programs, to the establishment scientific problems and conducting research into near-Earth space, the interplanetary environment, the Moon and planets, to solve many problems in the mechanics of space flight and the theory of control, navigation and heat transfer.
An important place in the activities was occupied by the scientific management of work carried out in cooperation with other countries under the Intercosmos program. His activities in the field of cosmonautics were classified for a long time and in the newspapers Keldysh was called “The Theorist of Cosmonautics,” despite the fact that he was known as the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
For preparing the first manned flight into space (Yu. A. Gagarin, April 12, 1961) he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for the second time.
He was a member of the original composition of the USSR National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. He was chairman of the Committee for Lenin and State Prizes under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. He was elected a member of many foreign academies (including the International Academy of Astronautics), served on the board of the Guggenheim International Public Prize for Astronautics, and was a deputy Supreme Council USSR of the 6th-9th convocations, a delegate to the XXII-XXV Congresses of the CPSU, at which he was elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee.
In 1955 he signed the “Letter of the Three Hundred”. During the propaganda campaign against A.D. Sakharov, he signed an anti-Sakharov statement, but did not allow Sakharov to be expelled from the Academy. As V.I. Duzhenkov (Keldysh’s assistant at the USSR Academy of Sciences) testifies at a meeting with the scientific community during a trip to Far East in 1970 he said that Sakharov is an excellent scientist, but he is mistaken on a number of issues of social development; explanatory work must be persistently carried out with him. Personally met with Andropov, petitioning for Sakharov. The years when Keldysh held the post of President of the USSR Academy of Sciences were a period of significant achievements in Soviet science; During this period, conditions were created for the development of new branches of science - molecular biology, quantum electronics, etc.
Nephew S.P. Novikov also became a famous mathematician.
In the last months of his life, Keldysh was seriously ill. On June 24, 1978, the body was discovered in a Volga car located in the garage at his dacha. The official report stated that death was due to a heart attack. At the same time, there is a widespread version that he committed suicide by poisoning himself with the exhaust fumes of a car engine, while in deep depression. An urn with ashes is installed in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.
Membership in the Russian Academy of Sciences (2)
Membership in other academies
Full member of the Academy of Sciences of Mongolia (1961); Foreign member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (1962); Full member of the Czechoslavak Academy of Sciences (1962); Member of the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina" -GDR (1965; Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy of Sciences (1965), Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1966); Corresponding Member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig (1966); Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston (1966); Honorary Member of the International Academy of Astronautics (1964), etc.
Administrative positions (2)
Primary education (2)
Higher education (1)
Awards and prizes
Hero of Socialist Labor (1956, 1961, 1971)
Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1943, 1945, 1953); and other Soviet and international awards
State Prize (1942, 1946)
Lenin Prize (1957)
International Prize in Astronautics named after. Guggenheim (France)
Archive (place of storage of archival funds, archival materials):
Personal file storage location: ARAN
Cipher: (ARAN. F.411. Op.3. D.387, 388) (SPF ARAN. F.2. Op.11. D.177)
Field of knowledge: Mathematics, Mechanics
Bibliography
List of scientific works by M.V. Keldysh (05/25/1943)
(ARAN. F.411. Op.3. D.388. L.5-8)
Bibliographic list of works by M.V. Keldysh for 1968-1970.
(ARAN. F.411. Op.3. D.388. L.9-16)
Bibliography of the works of academician M. V. Keldysh (1933-1970)
(ARAN. F.411. Op.3. D.387. L.32-75)
See the specified documents in the section Images (Bibliography)
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Curriculum Vitae
Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich (1911, Riga - 1978, Moscow) -
mathematician, specialist in mechanics and aerohydrodynamics;
Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1946);
Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1960-1961), President of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1961-1975).
Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh was 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 Riga to Moscow. In 1919-1923 lived in Ivanovo, where Vsevolod Mikhailovich Keldysh taught at the Polytechnic Institute. In Ivanovo, Mstislav Keldysh 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.
In 1927, Mstislav Keldysh graduated from school and wanted to become a civil engineer, but he was not accepted into the construction institute where his father taught due to his youth (only 16). On the advice of her 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 enters 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 Machine Tool 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, a seminar was regularly held under his leadership. Participants of 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 period - “An external Neumann problem for nonlinear elliptic equations with application to the theory of a wing in a compressible gas” (1934), “A rigorous substantiation of the theory of the Zhukovsky propeller” (1935), carried out in collaboration with F.I. Franklem, “Towards the theory of an oscillating wing” (1935), together with M.A. Lavrentiev, the influence of the compressibility of the medium on the aerodynamic characteristics of streamlined bodies was 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. Keldysh 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, Keldysh entered the graduate school in the fall of 1934 (then supplemented by a two-year doctorate) at the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences under Lavrentiev, where he worked on 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, M. V. Keldysh 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, M.V.’s mother spent several days in prison. Keldysh - Maria Alexandrovna. 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. The charges were dropped in court and he was released.
The cycle of works by Keldysh and his colleagues, pre-war and war years, is 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. The results of Keldysh’s work played a big role in the creation of high-speed aviation in our country.
In October 1941, Keldysh, his wife Stanislava Valerianovna and three children, along with other TsAGI employees, were evacuated to Kazan, where he continued to work. In April 1942, he was awarded the Stalin Prize, II degree, for scientific work on preventing the destruction of aircraft. During the war years, along with scientific and experimental research at TsAGI, Keldysh was involved in the implementation of the developed recommendations in aircraft design bureaus and aircraft factories. This activity was marked by the Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1943) and Lenin (1945). In 1944, Keldysh was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Moscow."
The studies of aircraft oscillations and flutter are closely related to the studies of M.V. Keldysh 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 rotations and displacements) of an aircraft wheel during takeoff or landing, which led to the destruction of the front landing gear of the aircraft. In 1946, for research in this area, he was awarded the Stalin Prize of the 2nd degree for the second time.
As a mathematician, Keldysh contributed to the theory of functions, potential theory, differential equations,functional analysis. Keldysh's results in mechanics, covering hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, gas dynamics, and mechanics of aircraft structures, are of great importance. Keldysh learned a lot from communicating with aircraft designers, primarily S.A. Lavochkin and A.N. Tupolev.
On September 29, 1943, Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh was elected corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
In June 1944, Keldysh became the head of the department of mechanics at the Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences and remained in this position until 1953.
At the same time, Keldysh resumed his teaching career at Moscow State University (which began in 1932), where he lectured at the mechanics-mathematics and physics-technical faculties. He headed the department of thermodynamics, led a research seminar on the theory of functions of a complex variable. From 1942 to 1953 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, T.M. Eneev.
November 30, 1946 M.V. Keldysh was elected a full member (academician) of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Technical Sciences, majoring in mathematics and mechanics.
A new period of his activity began. 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), which dealt with applied problems of rocketry. Since that time, the main direction of Keldysh’s activity has been related to rocket technology.
In the post-war years, Keldysh also worked on solving problems of nuclear energy and computational mathematics. New research methods were required, primarily effective methods and means of mathematical calculation. 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.
Keldysh was one of the initiators of the creation in 1951 of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (in Dolgoprudny, Moscow region). He lectured for some time and was the head of the department for a long time.
In 1953 M.V. Keldysh founded the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and was its permanent director. The development of modern computational mathematics in our country is largely associated with the activities of this institute.
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, which culminated on October 4, 1957 with its successful launch and placement into orbit. 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, and participated in the research programs of Venus and Mars.
In the work on creating a nuclear missile shield M.V. Keldysh took part both as a 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 assessing 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 and etc.
In 1956 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, and in 1957 his scientific achievements were awarded the Lenin Prize.
Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh 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 the widespread expansion of work on the study and exploration of space. His contribution to the formation and successful development of such scientific fields as space flight mechanics and space navigation was great.
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 Keldysh’s activities. In 1961, for special services in the development of rocket technology, the creation and successful launch on April 12, 1961 of the world's first spaceship "Vostok" with a man on board, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for the second time.
A large period of 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 Academy of Sciences. In 1960 he was elected vice-president, and in May 1961 - president of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Heading the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1961 to 1975, 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 Keldysh, a comprehensive audit of T.D.’s activities took place. Lysenko, who made it possible to expose the pseudoscientific concepts of “Lysenkoism”, which denied genetics. N.I. was posthumously restored to the list of active members of the Academy. Vavilov, received confirmation of his merits in biology and agricultural sciences.
The years when 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. In 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 60th anniversary of M.V. Keldysh became three times Hero of Socialist Labor.
Keldysh 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). Keldysh spoke fluent German and French and also read Italian, already in adulthood (after 50) began to study English.
Merits of M.V. Keldysh received international recognition. Among his titles: academician of the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina" (GDR, 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 Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1966), honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Sciences and Arts in Boston (1966), corresponding member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (1966), honorary member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1968), honorary member of the Academy of Sciences Hungary (1970), honorary member of the Academy of Finland (1974); honorary doctor from the University of Delhi (1967), honorary doctor from the University of Budapest (1967), honorary doctor from the University of Lagos (Nigeria, 1968), honorary doctor from the Charles University in Prague (Czechoslovakia, 1974), honorary doctor from the Indian Statistical Institute (1974).
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.
Awarded the Order of Lenin (1945, twice 1954, 1956, 1961, 1967, 1975), the Red Banner of Labor (1943, 1945, 1953), medals "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War" (1945), "800 Years of Moscow" (1947) ), "20 years of Victory" (1965), "For valiant work in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin" (1970), "30 years of Victory" (1975). Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor (Commander) (1971), the highest orders of a number of other countries. Gold medal named after M.V. Lomonosov of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1976).
January 10, 1973 M.V. Keldysh underwent surgery on blood vessels, performed by American professor M. De Beki.
Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh died on June 24, 1978. The urn with Keldysh’s ashes was buried in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.
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Video presentations (1)
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KELDYSH MSTISLAV VSEVOLODOVICH |
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, simultaneously with his studies, he began working 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; 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) of 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 to 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 vibrations 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 rotations 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 related to “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 outstanding talent mathematician, subtle 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 research teams 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. The crater on back side Moons, one of the minor planets, research vessel "Akademik Mstislav Keldysh", square in Moscow. 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.”
