Matvei Petrovich Bronstein and Soviet theoretical physics in the thirties. Transl. from the Russian by Valentina M. Levina (Q5894276)

This book, first published in Russian in 1990, is concerned with a pioneer period of Soviet physics in the thirties. It was written by historians who knew, at least, the later Soviet time from their own experience. Therefore, they had a feeling for the circumstances under which the persons they were writing about were working and so they were far from cheap platitudes. The book describes the short life and tragic death of Matvei Petrovich Bronstein, who was arrested ``for an active involvement in Leningrad counterrevolutionary organization'' in August 1937, sentenced to death and, only 32 years old, executed in February 1938. At the same time, the book is more than a biography, it sheds light on some aspects of the relation between science and society in the Soviet Union during the late twenties and the thirties, and it is a report on Soviet advances in physics which represent an important part of world history. One meets many names known from the physics literature, sees the human beings behind the names, their personal relationships, and the physical institutions where they were working and which partly survived the turbulent times of the Soviet and post-Soviet epochs. This is especially interesting for physicists who had the chance to become acquainted with some of the protagonists of the book. Above all, reading this book one is strongly impressed by Bronstein's scientific activities, who as a young man did not hesitate to turn to fundamental problems of physics ranging from nuclear physics over quantum gravity and astrophysics to cosmology (this is also testified by the bibliography contained in the book). Since the authors describe the contents of the vast field of Bronstein's scientific activities, the reader can learn a lot about problems that partly are a subject of current discussions in theoretical physics, too. To mention only one of Bronstein's important works, in 1936 he published the paper ``Quantentheorie schwacher Gravitationsfelder'' in the journal Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion which appeared in Kharkov between 1932 and 1938 [Phys. Z. Sowjetunion 9, 140--157 (1936; Zbl 0014.08801; JFM 62.1632.01)]. This paper is today still of interest because the quantization of gravity is a yet unsolved problem. In the Appendices of the book one finds an extract from this work and, additionally, Bronstein's 1936 note ``Über den spontanen Zerfall der Photonen'' (On spontaneous decay of photons) and the English translation of the first chapters of his book ``Izobretateli radiotelegrafa'' (Inventors of the radiotelegraph).