Lev Davidovich Landau (1908 - 1968) - theoretical physicist, founder of a scientific school, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (elected in 1946). Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics 1962.
| A person can know even what he cannot imagine. |
| A physicist today does not need to know physics; it is enough for him to know mathematics. |
| A true theoretical physicist can be recognized by whether a person experienced admiration at his first acquaintance with general relativity. |
| The main thing in physics is the ability to neglect. |
| You cannot make a scientific career based on integrity alone - this will inevitably lead to the fact that there will be neither science nor integrity. |
| People, having heard about some extraordinary phenomenon, begin to propose implausible hypotheses to explain it. First of all, consider the simplest explanation - that it is all a lie. |
| How can you solve a problem for which you don’t know the answer in advance?.. |
| I was a little late to be born. I wish I had done this 6-7 years earlier. — Landau meant that he was late to be born at the beginning of the “golden age of physics” (comment from I. Shklovsky) |
| It seems that I lived my life well... - (words before death) |
272_Lev Davidovich Landau in statements, memories and anecdotes
Landau's view of the events in Hungary in 1956. On November 11, 1956, a certain journalist asked Landau's opinion about the atrocities of the rebels in Hungary. Landau answered her this way: “There has never been a case in the revolution when revolutionaries committed atrocities. Those who were killed were the KGB officers; they even surrendered into captivity in order to save their lives. They wrote that they pulled a wounded officer out of his house and killed him. It turns out that it happened like this: four KGB officers settled in one house and began shooting from machine guns at the speakers. Sixty people were killed. So we got to them. Then, in some square, our tanks fired at the crowd, killing six hundred people... The revolution is a noble cause, a lot of children are fighting on the barricades, from thirteen to sixteen years old. Students perform. Hungarian heroism deserves admiration. True descendants of the great revolutionaries of all times. What they have now shown is worth borrowing. I’m ready to kneel before Hungary.”
Now we know a little more than Landau about the events of 1956, and his opinion seems a little naive to us ().
More about Hungary and about himself Another time, Landau spoke about the USSR’s policy in the Hungarian question:
“Our people decided to splash themselves with blood. In our country, these are criminals running the country. Kadar is a kind of social traitor. He's basically like a puppet now. Ours ordered it, and he’s sitting.”
On December 1, 1956, Landau compared himself with the behavior of other scientists in the Hungarian question and said:
“I am a free-thinking person, and they are pathetic lackeys.
First of all, I feel superior.” Dau's forecast All Landau's conversations were wiretapped, and on December 4, 1956, the following recording was made:
“The success of democracy will be achieved only when the bureaucratic class is overthrown. If our system cannot collapse peacefully, then the third world war is inevitable, with all the horrors that lie ahead. So the question of the peaceful liquidation of our system is essentially a question of the fate of humanity. The current situation cannot last long. I think this: if our system is eliminated without war - it doesn’t matter, by evolution or revolution, it doesn’t matter - then there will be no war at all. Without fascism there is no war."
You yourself, dear readers, can easily determine what Landau guessed right and what his views turned out to be naive.
Power and Science Landau was always concerned about the situation of scientists in the country and the attitude of the authorities towards Science.
He said: “We don’t understand science and don’t like it, which, however, is not surprising, since it is led by mechanics, carpenters, joiners.
There is no room for individuality. Directions in work are dictated from above... In our country, science is completely prostituted and to a much greater extent than abroad. Scientists still have some kind of freedom there.” Attitude to “atomic affairs” The listening devices also recorded the following statement by Landau:
“A reasonable person should try to stay as far as possible from practical activities of this kind.
Every effort must be made to avoid getting into the thick of nuclear affairs. At the same time, any refusal and self-dismissal from such matters should be done carefully. The goal of an intelligent person who wants to live his life as happily as possible is to isolate himself as much as possible from the tasks that the state, which is built on oppression, sets for itself.” “Pathologists” Landau often said that 90% of the works published in the “Physical Review” belonged to the category of “silent pathology” and he classified their authors as “pathologists”. He meant that such an author does not appropriate other people’s results, does not have his own, does not engage in pseudoscience, but quietly (and unnecessary) tinkers in his own field. Landau classified some of his scientific works as “nonsense” or “nonsense.” Paradox Once Boris Lazarevich Joffe heard from his teacher:
“How can you solve a problem if you don’t know the answer in advance?”
Landau's testament
“We must build and create our life every day. No one will do this for you. And we must constantly strive for happiness, this is a person’s responsibility, his duty. Moreover, everyone should learn to enjoy life. And our education system is such that the norm is not a cheerful mood, but a concentrated, sad mood. It comes to an anecdote: a guarantee of the trustworthiness of a Soviet person is a gloomy facial expression, like a bear, and clothes of the darkest tones. This is called pretending to be smart. A model of a leader, precisely in the sense that he only knows how to lead with his hands.”
January 22 is the birthday of one of the most famous physicists of the 20th century, a genius whose amorous adventures have become a legend. We publish his statements about women, family and marriage
Lev Landau was born on January 22, 1908.
His work on theoretical physics delighted his colleagues, and his ability to briefly and accurately explain any complex problem delighted his students, whom he, in turn, dearly loved. Among his most famous works are the creation of the theory of superfluidity of liquid helium in 1941, the construction of the theory of superconductivity (together with V.L. Ginzburg) in 1950. Quantum mechanics, physics of the atomic nucleus, there are more than a dozen areas in which Landau succeeded.
Lev Landau grew up rather reserved and shy, but along with world fame came the admiration of his fans. According to contemporaries, Landau staffed laboratory assistants with girls he found attractive, believing that for them this was more important than competence. And the academician’s own knowledge of physics is enough for everyone.
His wife Cora had a very difficult time - she had to put up with the girls who constantly appeared in the academician’s life. Landau believed that marriage is a cooperative that kills love, and despite his love for his wife, he defended his right to freedom in amorous affairs. Only on such conditions did he agree to live with Cora.
Writer Maya Bessarab, niece of Cora Landau, wrote several books about the life of Lev Landau. She lived next to the Landau family for many years, recording conversations with the academician, his speeches and statements, as well as his students’ memories of him.
“Moskvichka” publishes several of the most striking quotes from Ilyich Davidovich Landau, from the book “Pages of Landau’s Life” by Maya Bessarab
1. Love is a sacred feeling, there is no need to be afraid of it. We must be afraid of the lack of love and bad poems about love.
2. In most cases, what is called the complexity of human relationships is far-fetched. We must learn to distinguish between the concepts of “difficult” and “difficult”. It will immediately become easier, that's for sure.
3. I have created several good physical theories, but what a pity that I cannot publish my best theory - how to live.
4. “After all, we live only once, and then so little, there will be no more life. After all, you need to seize every moment, every opportunity to make your life brighter and more interesting. Every day I think with sadness about how many unused opportunities of a vibrant life are wasted. 1
5. “The only thing I want is for you to be happy. You must be happy, no matter whether you want it or not. And the fact that you sabotage happiness in every possible way, trying to be unhappy under all sorts of fraudulent pretexts, completely outrages me,” Academician Landau wrote to his wife Kora in the summer of 1939.
6. If there is no love, you cannot force yourself to cohabit with an unloved person. We must not forget the words of Jesus Christ: “Let her sins be forgiven, for she loved much.” Love is above all.
7. It’s strange: it’s always beneficial for a man to get married, but it’s not always beneficial for a woman to get married
8. You can’t get married without checking your feelings. It's like buying a pig in a poke. Very often, a man, having fallen in love, does not want to take into account the fact that a woman is indifferent to him, and goes to great lengths to ensure that she belongs to him. The result is usually disastrous. He buys a woman by marriage. Outwardly, everything looks quite acceptable, but such marriages do not give happiness to anyone. The same thing happens when a woman, for some, most often mercantile, reasons decides to marry a man at any cost. One can only be surprised at the myopia of people. So she got it into her head that she needed this man as a husband: although she didn’t like him, he had a position and all that. He has doubts, does not want to get married, but all means are used. Eventually she becomes his wife. But without love, what happiness is there! Just suffering.
9. I realized a long time ago that handsome men are bad lovers. They believe that a woman will be satisfied by contemplating their beauty.
10. Just as all good girls are already taken care of and married, so all good problems have already been solved.
11. I am not one of the men who put the stronger sex above the weaker. However, if I had as many worries as women, I would never have become a physicist.
12. I think that if men had to give birth, humanity would die out
13. Marriage is a cooperative, it kills love. And a woman who wants to marry a man is engaged in cooperative blackmail
