Yakov Ilich Frenkel

330 Pages·1996·8.197 MB·German

by  Professor Dr. Victor Ya. Frenkel (auth.)

Victor Ya. Frenkel
His work, life and letters
Translated from the Russian
by Alexander S. Silbergleit
Springer Basel AG
Author' address:
Professor Dr. Victor Ya. Frenkel
A.E. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute
UI. Politechnicheskaya 26
194021 St. Petersburg K-21
(Russia)
Oiginally published as: Yakov Il'ich Frenkel'
© 1966 Izdatel'stvo «NAUKA», Moskva -Leningrad
cover iIIustration:
© Yu. L. Katua, Moscow, 1949
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress, Washington D.C.,
USA
Deutsche Bibliothek Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yakov Ilich Frenkel: his work, life and letters / Viktor FrenkeJ. TransJ. from
the Russ. by Alexander S. Silbergleit. -Basel ; Boston; Berlin: Birkhiiuser, 1996
Einheitssacht.: Jakov Ilich Frenkel <engi.>
ISBN 978-3-0348-9645-0 ISBN 978-3-0348-8490-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-0348-8490-7
NE: Frenkel', Viktor Ja.; Frenkel', Jakov 1.; EST
This work is subject to copyright. AII rights are reservcd, whether the whole or part of the materi
al is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of iIIustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data banks. For any
kind of use, permission of the copyright owner must bc obtained.
© 1996 Springer Basel AG
Urspriinglich erschienen bei Birkhiiuser Verlag, Base!, Switzerland in 1996
Printed on acid-free paper produced from chlorine-free pulp. TCF
00
Cover design: Markus Etterich, Basel
ISBN 978-3-0348-9645-0
Contents
Preface .............................................................. vii
Chapter 1 The Beginning: Family, Gymnasium, Universities ............ 1
Chapter 2 Back to Petrograd ......................................... 39
Chapter 3 In Germany............................................... 75
Chapter 4 The Years 1926-1930 ...................................... 117
Chapter 5 In America ................................................ 149
Chapter 6 Prewar years.............................................. 197
Chapter 7 Years of War .............................................. 247
Chapter 8 Years 1945-1952 .......................................... 259
Chapter 9 A Mosaic of Reminiscences ................................ 287
Frenke1's Books.. . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 315
Index............................................................... 317
Preface
I regard the possibility, provided by Birkhauser Verlag, to publish in English
the book about my father, Yakov Il'ich Frenkel (1894-1952),* as an honour and
recognition of his contribution to the development of physics in the 20th century.
Publication of this book shortly after Frenkel's centennial is of special value. I
would like to express here my deep gratitude to the publishers.
More than 30 years ago, by the initiative of I.E. Tamm, a special issue of
the Russian physical journal «Uspekhi fizicheskikh nauk» (UFN) /1962, v. 76,
# 3-4, dedicated to Frenkel, was published. Professor Tamm, who had undertaken
the composition of the introductory (biographical) paper for this issue, asked me
to provide him with some materials for my father's biography. It was easy for
me to accomplish this because, fortunately, a vast family correspondence was in
existence, despite all the vicissitudes of life, like several wars and the siege of
Leningrad. I assembled some fragments of my father's letters of 1906--1950 for
Tamm. Having looked through them, Tamm told me: «But a whole book may come
out of it! You must write it!» Stimulated by I.E. Tamm and by B.G. Kuznetsov,
who strongly supported the idea, I began to work on the book which, in the spirit
of one of M. Faraday's biographies, could be titled «The Life and Letters of Jacov
Frenkel». The book was being written at the close of the Khruschev «thaw»,
that is, freely enough but still with the over-the-shoulder glance at the censor.
Nevertheless, at the beginning of 1966, about 30 pages were thrown out of its
already typeset text.
The book was addressed naturally to the readers in the former Soviet Union,
and this determined the choice of material. Aiming now at the Western reader, I
have made changes, withdrawn from the Russian version numerous pages which
required extended comments to be understood by people unaware of many details
of Russian history and the history of physics in Russia. Besides, I have been rather
strictly controlled by the publishers with regard to the book's volume. A large
amount of essentially new material could be included in the book because it was
prepared while democracy was beginning to take hold in Russia and censorship
relaxed. Moreover, in the quarter of a century since the publication of the Russian
edition, I, continuing to study my father's biography (and to publish his books),
* ) It is necessary, from my point of view, to give here a small explanation about various ways
of spelling of my father's first name, - in connection with specific features of the Russian
language.
His official name - as it appears in Russian - must be written as «Yakov». If one likes to add
to this name his patronomic - «IIich» (or I1'ich), it becomes «Yakov I1ich Frenkel». I decided
to use this form in the title of the book. In the text one will find the other variants: Jacov, Jacob,
or - most frequently - «1.1.» (in the 1920s Frenkel himself used even one more version:
«James»).
When Frenkel was a little boy and teenager, he was «Yasha»; this was also how his relatives or
close friends called him. This affectionate version of my father's name can be found in the book
as well (remembering how my mother, grandparents, closest friends and relatives had addressed
him, I counted more than 10 versions, but they are not used in the text).
viii PREFACE
learned many new things both about him and the destiny of his works. The process
resulted in the reworking of about half of the text. What has remained invariant for
both editions is the principle of exposition. I tried, wherever possible, to give the
floor to Frenkel himself, so the evaluation of his statements, his image, would be
formed by the reader without my mediation, so to say, on the grounds of personal
impressions. In this respect I gained much from work in state and privately owned
archives, in Russia and abroad. I also strived to avoid, when possible, making
judgement on the importance and value of Frenkel's papers, quoting instead his
outstanding colleagues.
In the process of my work I had dozens of interviews with the students, co
workers and friends of my father. I greatly appreciate their collaboration. I do not
give the list of their names here because almost all of them are mentioned in the
following pages. However, I would like to make three exceptions for I.E. Tamm,
B.G. Kuznetsov and Ya.A. Smorodinsky (the editor of the Russian edition). Alas,
none of them is among the living now, and I state here the debt of gratitude to
their memory.
My cordial thanks to Dr. E. lurkowitz for his kind help in checking the
galley-proofs of the book.
V.Ya. Frenkel
St. Petersburg, 31 December 1992
Chapter 1
The Beginning: Family, Gymnasium,
Universities
Jacov Il'ich Frenkel was born on 10 February 1894, in the city of Rostov-on-Don.
His father 11 'ya Abramovich Frenkel played a major role in the formation of his
character, so it is worthwhile to tell more about him.
LA. Frenkel started working as early as age 12, rewriting documents in a
notary's office. He had had only 2 years of the Azov grammar school and tried
to educate himself while working. A student who lived in Azov took part in
his destiny; from him Il'ya Abramovich learned the ideas of the participants of
a revolutionary organization «Narodnaya Volya» (<<Peoples' Volition»). In 1879,
the 16-year-old youth was arrested for the possession of illegal literature and
was released only after several months spent in a solitary confinement cell. His
case was closed on the grounds of «the criminal's youth». He was unemployed
after leaving prison and participated actively in the revolutionary circles of Azov
and Taganrog, travelling to St. Petersburg for revolutionary literature which was
delivered through V.G. Bogoraz-Tan1.
In 1882, LA. Frenkel came to Moscow. In his unpublished memoirs «The Pass
to the Jail and Siberia» (in Russian) he wrote that he had shared, rather carelessly,
his views on the necessity of mass terror in the struggle against the autocracy with
several young people from, in particular, the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya Agricul
tural Academy. This resulted in his second arrest in January 1884. He was kept in
a solitary confinement cell at the notorious Butyrskaya Prison in Moscow for about
a year and then, with a group of other convicts, deported to Siberia, to the town of
Beryozov, where he spent about 6 years. In Beryozov, a typical rat's comer then,
there were several intelligent people, convicted and condemned to live there, and
it was in their company that Il'ya Abramovich spent all of his time. These people,
who later did a lot for the cause of the revolution, had a great influence on LA.
Frenke1.2
The living conditions of a deportee with practically no help from home were
extremely hard. Il'ya Abramovich learned how to make shoes and made his living
as a shoemaker. Also in Beryozov he was recruited to the army where he served
the required term under the local military command.
The year 1890 brought the desired freedom to Il'ya Abramovich. He returned
to Azov and soon married Rosaliya (Rachel) Abramovna Batkina. 1.1. was their
eldest son.
1) Vladimir Grigor'evich Bogoraz-Tan (1865-1936) was a member of «Narodnaya Volya», later a
specialist in ethnography, a linguist, a writer and a professor at Leningrad State University.
2) The name of I.A. Frenkel figures in the dictionary of the «Narodnaya Volya» members; see:
Activists of the Revolutionary Movement in Russia. Bibliographical Dictionary, v. 2, # 4, p. 1853.
2 CHAPTER I
Ya. Frenkel's parents: Ilya and Rosaliya (Rachel) Frenkel
II 'ya Abramovich continued his communications with the friends he had ac
quired in exile. He became acquainted with some other revolutionaries, in particu
lar with A.M. Lezhava3. Later, while living in St. Petersburg, by the revolutionar
ies' request he many times hid people connected with the revolutionary movement.
However, LA. Frenkel removed himself from direct revolutionary activity.
Some important information about LA. Frenkel and his family was revealed
not so long ago in the State Archives of the October Revolution in Moscow. It
turned out that, after being released from prison, he remained under the surveillance
of the secret police. Let me cite a sample of the corresponding documentation kept
in the Special Department of the Archives.
«On the reserve rank-and-file Il'ya Abramovich Frenkel.
To the temporary in charge of the June 29, 1901
Yekaterinoslav Gendarme Division, # 2909 Secret
I have the honour to inform the Department of Police that the reserve rank
and-file Il'ya Abramovich Frenkel, staying under secret police supervision, in the
3) The friendship between I.A. Frenkel and Andrey Matveevich Lezhava (l87G-1937) lasted many
years. In the Soviet years A.M. Lezhava was the Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Trade
and Crop-Growing.
THE BEGINNING: FAMILY, GYMNASIUM, UNIVERSITIES 3
middle of June of this year went abroad with the passport issued to him by the
Yekaterinoslav Governor on the 13th of this June under # 865 for a half-year term.
Undercolonel (signature illegible).»4
While not wishing to list the many investigation files wherein LA. Frenkel
figures, we would like to make one exception. The file was opened in 1914 on the
grounds that in the beginning of that year D.P. Ryss, a relative of the journalist
P.Ya. Ryss5 who was being kept under secret police surveillance should have
come to him to St. Petersburg from Germany. In her letter to P.Ya. Ryss of 10
February, 1914, opened and examined by the police, the name of LA. Frenkel
is mentioned, because D.P. Ryss had asked him to send LA. Frenkel's correct
address to her. The address was immediately relayed not to D.P. Ryss, of course,
but to a gendarme officer who asked for it. We quote: «The 2nd guild merchant LA.
Frenkel, age 50, lives in St. Petersburg on Kolomenskaya Str., # 32, apartment 23.»
No special efforts were needed to obtain this information, since all the information
on LA.Frenkel, including his apartment telephone number, could be found in the
directory «Ves' St. Petersburg», 1913.
It remains unclear of what importance D.P. Ryss was to LA. Frenkel. But she
approached him because back in Azov, 1.1. 's father had been in the position of the
manager of the 1st guild merchant B.L Ryss, to whom D.P. Ryss was related.
Materials on the D.P. Ryss visit to St. Petersburg - about 100 pages! - read
like a detective novel. Dne detail there is most curious for the Frenkel biography.
When D.P. Ryss arrived in St. Petersburg, surveillance of her was immediately
established «at the living places of P.Ya. Ryss and LA. Frenkel», as stated in one
of the reports to the Gendarme Department. After her first visit to the LA. Frenkel
flat (17 February 1914), one of two detectives spying on D.P. Ryss reported that
«she left the apartment accompanied by LA. Frenkel and a young man.» The latter
probably was 1.1. Frenkel. Anyway, on the very next day information on all the
family members of I.A. Frenkel, namely, on the elder sons Jacov and Vladimir
and on their mother, Rachel Frenkel, was directed to the Gendarme Department.
Strangely, she had been marked by the police, and a file had been opened back in
1912 because her name had been found in the notebook of some person involved
in the investigation of the socialists-revolutionaries party.
Let us return, however, to the events at the onset of the 20th century. By this
time I.A. Frenkel had worked first in Azov (for B.L Ryss) and then in Lougansk.
In the beginning of the 1900s, Il'ya Abramovich and his family, including
by then four children, 1.1., two of his brothers and his sister Vera, went to live in
Kazan.
4) The Central State Archives of the October Revolution. Special Department. Year 1901. File
#460.
5) The interest of the police in P.Ya. Ryss, judging by the materials from his file, was due to the
fact that his two brothers were active members of the «Narodnaya Volya». One of them was
executed in the 1900s, the other sent to penal servitude.