Anatoly Petrovich Alexandrov (, 13 February 1903 – 3 February 1994) was a Russian

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

who played a crucial and centralizing role in the former Soviet program of nuclear weapons. During his lifetime, Alexandrov was the recipient of many honors, civil citations, and state awards for this work and was also the director of the

Kurchatov Institute The Kurchatov Institute (, National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute") is Russia's leading research and development institution in the field of nuclear power, nuclear energy. It is named after Igor Kurchatov and is located at 1 Kurchatov Sq ...

and the President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences from 1975 until 1986.

Early life

Anatoly Alexandrov was born on 13 February 1903 into a Russian family of a prominent judge in the town of Tarashcha,

Kiev Governorate Kiev Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire (1796–1917), Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–18; 1918–1921), Ukrainian State (1918), and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1919–19 ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(now in Ukraine). In 1919, at the height of the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, Alexandrov graduated from high school in

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. The certificate gave the right to enter the university at the physics and mathematics or medical faculty. When the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

captured Kiev on February 5, 1919, Alexandrov and a friend were at a

dacha A dacha (Belarusian, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and rus, дача, p=ˈdatɕə, a=ru-dacha.ogg) is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of former Soviet Union, post-Soviet countries, including Russia. A cottage (, ...

in Mlynka. He and his friend encountered an officer of the White Guard, who urged them to enlist. They went to the front with the officer. At the age of 16, he became a cadet and fought in the Army of Wrangel as a machine gunner, and was awarded three Crosses of St. George. During the evacuation of remnants of the White Guard army from

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, Alexandrov refused to leave and preferred to stay. As a result, he was captured and sentenced to death, but he narrowly escaped.

Scientific career

Later he worked as an assistant at the Kiev Mining Institute as an electrician. He later worked as an electrical engineer at the Kiev Physicochemical Society under the Political Education and a high school teacher in the village of Belki, Kiev region. For several years, he combined his studies at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Kiev University, where he studied from 1924 to 1930, with teaching physics and chemistry at school#79 in Kiev. After graduating from Faculty of Physics in Kiev University in 1930, he worked at the X-ray Physics Department in the Kiev Institute of Health. After his graduation in 1930, he was invited by

Abram Ioffe Abram Fedorovich Ioffe ( rus, Абра́м Фёдорович Ио́ффе, p=ɐˈbram ˈfʲɵdərəvʲɪtɕ ɪˈofɛ; – 14 October 1960) was a prominent Soviet Union, Soviet physicist. He received the USSR State Prize, Stalin Prize (1942), the ...

to join him in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. At Leningrad Physicotechnical Institute, he developed a statistical theory of strength and doctoral dissertation - "Relaxation in Polymers" (1941). From the spring of 1931, he worked at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, where he became a candidate, and then a professor of physical and mathematical sciences.

World War II

Alexandrov became prominent during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, when he devised in collaboration with Igor Kurchatov a method of demagnetizing ships to protect them from German

naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Similar to anti-personnel mine, anti-personnel and other land mines, and unlike purpose launched naval depth charges, they are ...

s, known as the LPTI system. On 9 August 1941, Alexandrov and Kurchatov arrived in

Sevastopol Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base th ...

to organize work on equipping the

Black Sea Fleet The Black Sea Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean Sea. The Black Sea Fleet, along with other Russian ground and air forces on the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula, are subordin ...

ships with the system, and by the end of October it had been installed on more than 50 ships. At the same time, Alexksandrov and Kurchatov continued research to improve it. The method was effective by the end of 1941 and was in active use through the end of the war and afterwards. It was successfully used by the

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

, during the Siege of Sevastopol,

Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

, on the

Volga River The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

during the Battle of Stalingrad and in the Baltic Sea campaigns.

Later career

Perchuk- Vladivostok-Aleksandrov-Lomakin

Both Alexandrov and Kurchatov worked at the Ioffe Institute by that time (their laboratory separated from the Ioffe Institute and moved to Moscow in 1943 for the work on the

Soviet atomic bomb project The Soviet atomic bomb project was authorized by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union to develop nuclear weapons during and after World War II. Russian physicist Georgy Flyorov suspected that the Allied powers were secretly developing a " superwea ...

). From 1946 to 1955, he was director of the Institute for Physical Problems, where he was appointed to replace

Pyotr Kapitsa Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa or Peter Kapitza (, ; – 8 April 1984) was a leading Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate, whose research focused on low-temperature physics. Biography Kapitsa was born in Kronstadt, Russian Empire, to the Bessar ...

. In 1955, he became deputy director of the Institute of Atomic Energy, and after the death of Kurchatov in 1960, he became its director. On the initiative of Alexandrov, power plants for the

nuclear icebreaker A nuclear-powered icebreaker is an icebreaker with an Nuclear marine propulsion, onboard nuclear power plant that produces power for the vessel's propulsion system. Although more expensive to operate, nuclear-powered icebreakers provide a number ...

s ''

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

'', '' Arktika'', and '' Sibir'' were developed. Alexandrov was a member of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

from 1962. It was under the leadership of Alexandrov, that technical, organizational and production problems were solved in an unprecedentedly short time during the construction of the USSR's first nuclear submarine with a nuclear propulsion system. As a result, in 1952-1972, Sevmash mastered the serial production of submarines with a nuclear propulsion system and became the largest nuclear submarine shipbuilding center in the USSR and the world. At Sevmash, 163 combat submarines were built. In the 1970s, the company produced Typhoon-class nuclear submarines, which entered into the

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

as the largest submarines in the world. In the 1960s, on the initiative of Alexandrov, the largest helium liquefaction plant was built in the USSR . This provided a wide front for fundamental research in the physics of low temperatures, as well as on the technical use of

superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where Electrical resistance and conductance, electrical resistance vanishes and Magnetic field, magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ord ...

. He was the scientific supervisor of the project of RBMK reactor plants. Aleksandrov AnP stamp

Described by colleagues as a brilliant scientist and organizer, he was deeply affected by the

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

, the worst nuclear accident in history. According to him:

"To manage such an institute as the IAE, the largest institute and the most difficult work, and at the same time take care of the Academy - I must say, it was extremely difficult. In the end it ended sadly. And when the Chernobyl accident happened, I believe that from that time both my life began to end, and my creative life."

The accident subsequently prompted the

Soviet Government The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the executive and administrative organ of the highest body of state authority, the All-Union Supreme Soviet. It was formed on 30 December 1922 and abolished on 26 December 199 ...

to review and suspend the ambitious nuclear power program. As principal designer of the RBMK reactor that exploded at Chernobyl, Alexandrov refused to concede that a design flaw contributed to the disaster. Alexandrov died of

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest (also known as sudden cardiac arrest CA is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. When the heart stops beating, blood cannot properly Circulatory system, circulate around the body and the blood flow to the ...

on 3 February 1994 in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. He is buried at the city's Mitinskoe Cemetery.

Personal life

Alexandrov was first married to Antonina Mikhailovna Zolotareva, with whom he had a son Yuri, a physicist. Antonina died in 1947. Alexandrov later remarried to Marianna Alexandrovna Balashov. They had a daughter Maria, who became a biologist, and two sons Peter and Alexander. Peter became a physicist and Alexander became a

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

. Marianna died in 1986. His nephew is Eugene Alexandrov, a Russian physicist and member of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

(since 1992).

Honours and awards

;Army of Wrangel ;Soviet Union ;Foreign ;Other awards *

Lenin Prize The Lenin Prize (, ) was one of the most prestigious awards of the Soviet Union for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was originally created on June 23, 1925, and awarded until 1934. During ...

(1959) * Stalin Prize (1942, 1949, 1951, 1953) * Diploma of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation (1993) * Kurchatov Medal (1968) * Lomonosov Gold Medal (1978) * Vavilov Gold Medal (1978) * XXXVIII Mendeleev Reader (4 February 1982)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexandrov, Anatoly 1903 births 1994 deaths People from Tarashcha People from Tarashchansky Uyezd Russians in Ukraine Members of the Central Committee of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Committee of the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Committee of the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Committee of the 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Committee of the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Fifth convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Sixth convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Tenth convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Eleventh convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Commanders with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Cross of St. George Recipients of the Lenin Prize Recipients of the Lomonosov Gold Medal Recipients of the Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR" Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the October Revolution Recipients of the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Stalin Prize Recipients of the USSR State Prize Soviet inventors Soviet physicists Soviet academics Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni Presidents of the USSR Academy of Sciences Foreign members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences White movement people Russian scientists Russian inventors