Landau (physicist thrown to jail in stalin's ussr)

[black magick hustla]

I read that Landau, I renknowned physicist, was about to get executed and he got thrown into jail for a while. I just wanted to know the details and what was he accused of. I am really curious because I study physics and I have actually some of his textbooks.

[chimx]

That's what happens when you refuse to pay parking tickets.

[vyborg]

Lev Landau was a absolute genius. He even dared to defy politically stalinist regime...
there is a very good byography in italian. I dont know if you can find good books about him in other language- i hope so

[ComradeOm]

IIRC Landau was accused of writing, or at least having some input into, an anti-Stalinist leaflet. This particular case sticks in the memory because, unlike the likes of Vavilov or Tupolev, Landau probably was guilty of his 'crime'. Trying to remember where I read this... possibly Kozhevnikov's Stalin's Great Science

[RED DAVE]

wikipedia take:


During the Great Purge, Landau was investigated within the UPTI Affair [a fabricated criminal case against a number of scientists of the Ukrainian Physics and Technology Institute by the GUGB] in Kharkov, but he managed to leave for Moscow. Still, he was arrested on April 27, 1938 and held in an NKVD prison until his release on April 29, 1939, after his colleague Pyotr Kapitsa, an experimental low-temperature physicist, wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin, personally vouching for Landau's behavior.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Landau

RED DAVE

[vyborg]

Not only Landau was one of the greatest scientist of the XX century almost in isolation, he also had great political ideas...

[pranabjyoti]

I just want to understand that how the great technological achievements during the time of Stalin had been achieved despite "great" scientists like Landau and others (perhaps trots) had been jailed.

[black magick hustla]

Not only Landau was one of the greatest scientist of the XX century almost in isolation, he also had great political ideas...

what where his ideas?

[black magick hustla]

I just want to understand that how the great technological achievements during the time of Stalin had been achieved despite "great" scientists like Landau and others (perhaps trots) had been jailed.

i dont know what is your point? i was not making a particularly political post, I was just curious.

[pranabjyoti]

i dont know what is your point? i was not making a particularly political post, I was just curious.
Whenever you use words like "in the time of Stalin", this kind of thread can not be apolitical.

[vyborg]

what where his ideas?

He gave a lot of marvelous contribution to theoretical phisics. He discovered neutron stars and hyper-conductiveness (it is easy to find all them on the net)

[black magick hustla]

He gave a lot of marvelous contribution to theoretical phisics. He discovered neutron stars and hyper-conductiveness (it is easy to find all them on the net)

I mean his politics.

[vyborg]

I mean his politics.

Well he was not a trot...but he wrote leaflets against stalinism stating that they were as fascists etc etc and he was arrested for it