Vladimir Nikolaevich Kessenikh: Soviet Physicist between Center and Periphery

The name of Vladimir Nikolaevich Kessenikh (1903–1970) is closely related to the history of radio physics research in Tomsk, one of the leading Soviet research and education centers. He was one of the foremost Soviet authorities in radio physics in the 1930s – 1950s. His making as a scientist occurred in the context of formation of Soviet science organization system. One of the last representatives of the prerevolutionary P. N. Lebedev’s scientific school of physics, Kessenikh witnessed in full measure the times of Stalinism. In this connection, we analyze the scientist’s professional strategy in the situation of the ideologized Party – state system and the nature of center – periphery relations within the Soviet physics community in the period under study, as exemplified by a scientific biography of Kessenikh who had been a professor at both Tomsk and Moscow Universities. The article also describes his key role in Tomsk’s radio engineering rising to the level of radio physics as a standalone, autonomous sphere of scientific research, from which a number of promising research fields have stemmed. It is emphasized that Kessenikh’s professional ambitions had a significant impact on the organizational and structural configuration of local research and education space. The trajectory of his moving within the center – periphery coordinate frame in Soviet physics, shown in the article, demonstrates the patterns in the history of science construction in the USSR as well as the traces of ideocratic metanarrative.

Keywords

biography, radio physics, center – periphery relations, Stalinism, physical idealism, Tomsk, Tomsk State University, Siberian Institute of Physics and Technology (Siberian Physical-Technical Institute)

Received

19.08.2022

Publication date

30.06.2023

Number of characters

79221

Cite

GOST	Kosterev A., Kim M., Raskolec V. Vladimir Nikolaevich Kessenikh: Soviet Physicist between Center and Periphery // Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki – 2023. – V. 44. – Issue 2 C. 307-340 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://vietmag.org/S020596060026252-9-1 (circulation date: 26.07.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S020596060026252-9
MLA	Kosterev, Anton, Kim, Maksim, Raskolec, Victor "Vladimir Nikolaevich Kessenikh: Soviet Physicist between Center and Periphery." Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki 44.2 (2023):307-340. DOI: 10.31857/S020596060026252-9
APA	Kosterev A., Kim M., Raskolec V. (2023). Vladimir Nikolaevich Kessenikh: Soviet Physicist between Center and Periphery. Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki 44(2), pp.307-340 DOI: 10.31857/S020596060026252-9

100 rub.

When subscribing to an article or issue, the user can download PDF, evaluate the publication or contact the author. Need to register.

Number of purchasers: 0, views: 158

Readers community rating: votes 0

1. Andreev, A. Iu., and Tsygankov, D. A. (comp.) (2010) Imperatorskii Moskovskii universitet, 1755–1917: entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ [Imperial Moscow University, 1755–1917: An Encyclopedic Dictionary]. Moskva: ROSSPEN.

2. Eponeshnikova, G. V., and Kessenikh, A. V. (2010) Uchenyi na fronte (k 65-letiiu Pobedy v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine) [Scientist at the Front (Towards the 65th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War)], Izvestiia vysshikh uchebnykh zavedenii. Fizika, no. 5, pp. 102–104.

3. Eponeshnikova, G. V., Kessenikh, A. V., Mokhova, R. E., and Fominykh, S. F. (eds.) (2006)

4. Pis’ma fizika iz Tomska [The Letters of a Physicist from Tomsk]. Moskva: Inform-znanie. Fitzpatrick, S. (2011) Sryvaite maski! Identichnost’ i samozvanstvo v Rossii XX veka. [Tear Off the Masks: Identity and Imposture in Twentieth-Century Russia]. Moskva: Fond “Prezidentskii tsentr B. N. El’tsina” and ROSSPEN.

5. Fominykh, S. F. (ed.) (2005) Sibirskii fiziko-tekhnicheskii institut. Istoriia sozdaniia i stanovleniia v dokumentakh i materialakh (1928–1941 gg.) [Siberian Institute of Physics and Technology. The History of Creation and Development in the Documents and Materials (1928–1941)]. Tomsk: Izdatel’stvo NTL.

6. Fominykh, S. F., and Ul’ianov, A. S. (2005) Tomskii universitet: ot pervogo dnia voiny do poslednego [Tomsk University: From the First to the Last Day of the War], in: Fominykh, S. F. et al. (eds.) S veroi v pobedu! Tomskii universitet v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny: sbornik dokumentov i vospominanii [With Faith in Victory! Tomsk University in the Years of the Great Patriotic War: A Collection of Documents and Memoirs]. Tomsk: Izdatel’stvo Tomskogo universiteta, pp. 8–16.

7. Fominykh, S. F., Kushch, V. V., and Potekaev, A. I. (2005) Organizatsiia SFTI i ego deiatel’nost’ v predvoennyi period: istoricheskii ocherk [Organization of the SFTI and Its Activities in the Pre-War Period: A Historical Essay], in: Fominykh, S. F. (ed.) Sibirskii fiziko-tekhnicheskii institut: Istoriia sozdaniia i stanovleniia v dokumentakh i materialakh (1928–1941 gg.) [Siberian Institute of Physics and Technology: The History of Creation and Development in the Documents and Materials (1928–1941)]. Tomsk: Izdatel’stvo NTL, pp. 7–54.

8. Fominykh, S. F., Nekrylov, S. A., Bertsun, L. L., and Litvinov, A. V. (1998) Professora Tomskogo universiteta. Biograficheskii slovar’ [Professors of Tomsk University. A Biographical Dictionary]. Tomsk: Izdatel’stvo Tomskogo universiteta.

9. Ginzburg, V. L. (1953) O nekotorykh voprosakh teorii rasprostraneniia radiovoln v ionosfere v sviazi s ikh oshibochnoi traktovkoi V. N. Kessenikhom [On Some Issues in the Theory of Radio Wave Propagation in the Ionosphere in Connection with Their Erroneous Interpretation by V. N. Kessenich], Zhurnal ehksperimental’noi i teoreticheskoi fiziki, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 498–508.

10. Ginzburg, V. L. (1954) O starykh i novykh oshibkakh V. N. Kessenikha [On the Old and New Mistakes of V. N. Kessenich], Zhurnal ehksperimental’noi i teoreticheskoi fiziki, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 517–520.

11. Gribovskii, M. V. (2020) Tomsk kak tsentr pritiazheniia vuzovskikh prepodavatel’skikh kadrov v XIX–XX vekakh [Tomsk as a Centre of Attraction for Higher Education Teaching Staff in the 19th and 20th Centuries], Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, no. 461, pp. 138–143.

12. Josephson, P., and Sorokin, A. (2017) Physics Moves to the Provinces: The Siberian Physics Community and Soviet Power, 1917–1940, The British Journal for the History of Science, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 297–327.

13. Kessenikh, A. V. (2011) Vzaimodeistvie i protivostoianie akademicheskikh i universitetskikh fizikov v 1940–1950-kh gg. i studencheskii bunt na fizfake v 1953 g. [Interaction and Confrontation between the Physicists from the Academy of Scinces and the Universities in the 1940s – 1950s. and a Student Riot at the Physics Department in 1953], Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki, no. 1, pp. 83–92.

14. Kessenikh, V. (2004) Kessenikh Luiza Ester [Louise Esther Kesseniсh], in: Karev, V. et al. (eds.) Nemtsy Rossii: entsiklopediia [Germans in Russia: An Encyclopedia]. Moskva: ERN, vol. 2, p. 75.

15. Kessenikh, V. (2004) Kessenikhi [The Kessenikhs], in: Karev, V. et al. (eds.) Nemtsy Rossii: entsiklopediia [Germans in Russia: An Encyclopedia]. Moskva: ERN, vol. 2, pp. 75–76.

16. Kessenikh, V. N. (1932) Elektromagnitnye volny v odinochnom provode pri sosredotochennom istochnike energii [Electromagnetic Waves in a Single Wire with a Concentrated Energy Source], Zhurnal eksperimental’noi i teoreticheskoi fiziki, vol. 2, no. 5–6, pp. 398–411.

17. Kessenikh, V. N. (1933) Ob odnom neudavshemsia pokhode [On a Failed Crusade], Krasnoe znamia, no. 152, p. 3.

18. Kessenikh, V. N. (1936) Russian Eclipse Measurements on the Ionosphere, Nature, no. 138, p. 195.

19. Kessenikh, V. N. (1940) Volnovoe soprotivlenie odnoprovodnoi linii pri vozbuzhdenii ee sosredotochennoi EDS [Wave Impedance of a Single-Wire Line Excited by a Concentrated EMF], Doklady Akademii nauk SSSR, vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 558–562.

20. Kessenikh, V. N. (1954) Otvet na stat’iu V. L. Ginzburga po povodu knigi “Rasprostranenie radiovoln” [Response to V. L. Ginzburg’s Article about the book “Propagation of Radio Waves”], Zhurnal ehksperimental’noi i teoreticheskoi fiziki, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 510–516.

21. Khramov, Iu. A. (1987) Nauchnye shkoly v fizike [Scientific Schools in Physics]. Kiev: Naukova dumka.

22. Kosterev, A. G. (2016) “Otets” sibirskoi fiziki akademik Vladimir Dmitrievich Kuznetsov [The “Father” of Siberian Physics, Academician Vladimir Dmitrievich Kuznetsov]. Tomsk: Izdatel’stvo Tomskogo universiteta system upravleniia i radioelektroniki.

23. Kosterev, A. G., and Khaminov, D. V. (2012) Tomskii nauchno-obrazovatel’nyi kompleks (posledniaia chetvert’ XIX – seredina XX vv.) [Tomsk Research and Education Complex (Last Quarter of the 19th – Mid-20th Century)], Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta, no. 9, pp. 13–20.

24. Kosterev, A. G., and Litvinov, A. V. (2012) Tomskoe nauchno-pedagogicheskoe soobshchestvo v 1930-e gg.: sotsial’no-politicheskaia ehvoliutsiia [Tomsk Research and Education Community in the 1930s: Socio-Political Evolution], Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, no. 357, pp. 85–90.

25. Kosterev, A. G., and Litvinov, A. V. (2016) Professorsko-prepodavatel’skii korpus vysshei shkoly v kontekste sovetskoi modernizatsii [The Faculty of Higher Education Institutions in the Context of Soviet Modernization], Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, no. 403, pp. 69–78.

26. Lutsenko, K. (1975) “Nasha trevozhnaia molodost’, Severo-Zapadnyi Front …” [“Our Troublesome Youth, the North-Western Front...”], Za sovetskuiu nauku, no. 17, pp. 2–3.

27. Maier, G. V., and Fominykh, S. F. (2008) D. D. Ivanenko v Tomske (1936–1939 gg.) [D. D. Ivanenko in Tomsk (1936–1939)], Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, no. 307, pp. 71–76.

28. Ostriakov, P. A. (1953) Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bonch-Bruevich [Mikhail Aleksandrovich BonchBruevich]. Moskva: Sviaz’izdat.

29. Raskolets, V. V., Kosterev, A. G., and Kim, M. Iu. (2020) Radiofizicheskoe soobshchestvo g. Tomska v 1910–1960-e gg.: institutsionalizatsiia napravleniia i rol’ liderov v razvitii [Tomsk Radiophysical Community in the 1910s – 1960s: Institutionalization of the Field and the Role of Leaders in Its Development], Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Istoriia, no. 68, pp. 183–196.

30. Ryzhinskaia, M. P. et al. (eds.) (2007) Druzei prekrasnye cherty: vypuskniki RFF-57 o TGU i o sebe [Friends’ Beautiful Features: 1957 Radiophysical Faculty Graduates on TSU and Themselves]. Tomsk: Izdatel’stvo nauchno-tekhnicheskoi literatury.

31. Siniaev, V. S., Kirsanova, E. S., Plotnikova, M. E. et al. (1980) Tomskii universitet. 1880–1980: ocherk istorii i deiatel’nosti [Tomsk University. 1880–1980: An Essay on History and Activities]. Tomsk: Izdatel’stvo Tomskogo universiteta.

32. Sonin, A. S. (1990) Neskol’ko ehpizodov bor’by s “kosmopolitizmom” v fizike [Several Episodes of the Fight against “Cosmopolitanism” in Physics], Vestnik RAN, vol. 60, no. 8, pp. 122–133.

33. Sonin, A. S. (1994) “Fizicheskii idealizm”: Istoriia odnoi ideologicheskoi kampanii [“Physical Idealism”: The Story of an Ideological Campaign]. Moskva: Fizmatlit.

34. Starovoitova, R. (1983) “Otdai vse, chto znaesh’ sam…” [“Give Away Everything You Know...”], Za sovetskuiu nauku, no. 28, p. 3.

35. Tarasenko, F. P. (1989) Pravo na pamiat’ [A Right to Memory], Za sovetskuiu nauku, no. 8, p. 3.

36. Tomilin, K. A. (1997) Fiziki i bor’ba s kosmopolitizmom [Physicists and the Fight Against Cosmopolitanism], in: Idlis, G. M. (ed.) Fizika XIX–XX vv. v obshchenauchnom i sotsiokul’turnom kontekstakh. Fizika XX v. i ee sviaz’ s drugimi razdelami estestvoznaniia [19th – 20th Century Physics in the General Scientific and Sociocultural Contexts. 20th Century Physics the and Its Relation to Other Branches of Natural Science]. Moskva: Ianus, pp. 264–304.

37. Vizgin, V. P. (1990) Martovskaia (1936 g.) sessiia AN SSSR: sovetskaia fizika v fokuse [The March (1936) Session of the USSR Academy of Sciences: Soviet Physics in Focus], Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki, no. 1, pp. 63–84.

38. Zav’ialov, A. S. (2003) Vladimir Nikolaevich Kessenikh. K 100-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia [Vladimir Nikolaevich Kessenikh. In Commemoration of the Centenary of His Birth]. Tomsk: Izdatel’stvo nauchno-tekhnicheskoi literatury.

39. Zav’ialov, A., and Starovoitova, R. (1993) Pervyi dekan RFF [The First Dean of the Radiophysical Faculty], Alma mater, no. 24, p. 3.

40. Zhukov, S. (1942) Gost’ s fronta [A Guest from the Front], Krasnoe znamia, no. 169, pp. 2.