Aleksandr Adol'fovich Witt ( September 12, 1902 - June 26, 1938 [1] ) - Soviet physicist and mathematician , doctor of physical and mathematical sciences (1935) [2] [3] [4] . He was illegally repressed during the Stalinist repressions , completely rehabilitated.
| Alexander Adolfovich Witt | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Date of Birth | September 12, 1902 |
| Place of Birth | Russian empire |
| Date of death | June 26, 1938 (aged 35) |
| A place of death | Kolyma , USSR |
| A country |  the USSR |
| Scientific field | physics and math |
| Place of work | Moscow State University |
| Alma mater | Moscow State University |
| Academic degree | Doctor of physico-mathematical sciences ( 1935 ) |
| supervisor | L. I. Mandelstam |
Content
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 Repression
- 2 Scientific activities
- 3 References
Biography
Parents A.A. Witt - Adolf Karlovich and Lidia Karlovna were from Russian Germans . In 1920, Witt entered the Physics and Mathematics Department of Moscow State University . At the same time, Witt studied at the Higher Aerophotogrammetric School of the Red Air Fleet and served in the Red Army .
At the end of Moscow State University in 1924 he entered graduate school. He worked under the leadership of L. I. Mandelstam, along with another graduate student - A. A. Andronov .
In February 1931, Alexander Adolfovich became a research associate in the Institute of Physics of Moscow State University and later that same year as an assistant professor. In 1934, for great scientific achievements, Witt was elected a full member of the Institute of Physics of Moscow State University. In 1935, the Higher Attestation Commission of the People's Commissariat of Education (VAK NKP) awarded Witt the degree of Doctor of Physics and Mathematics . Since that time, Witt became a professor at the Department of Oscillation Physics, Moscow State University.
In 1935, Alexander Adolfovich married Olga Alekseevna Neburchilova (1907-1964). [5] [6]
Repression
During the Stalinist repressions, A. A. Witt was arrested and on July 4, 1937, sentenced to five years in prison camps. He died shortly afterwards in a camp in Kolyma , his last letter to his wife dated December 13, 1937. [7] [8] 2.5 months after the arrest of Alexander Witt, his son Alexander was born.
Along with A.A. Witt, his brother, sister, cousin and uncle were arrested. [9] In 1941, Witt's parents as ethnic Germans were deported to Kazakhstan , where they soon died.
In 1957, Alexander Adolfovich Witt was officially rehabilitated. [10]
Scientific activity
Works in the field: [11]
- linear systems and self-oscillations ;
- kinetics of chemical reactions;
- mathematical theory of nonlinear phenomena in a tube generator;
- theory of nonlinear oscillations;
- study of periodic fluctuations in the number of individuals of biological populations ( model "predator - prey" ).
A. A. Witt is the co- author (together with A. A. Andronov and S. E. Khaykin ) of the book “Theory of Oscillations”, the first edition of which was published in 1937 without mentioning the name of Witt.
| By the time of publication, Witt was arrested, and it was impossible to put his name on the title page, although the initial set had already been made. Andronov and Khaykin were required to agree to exclude Witt from the list of authors. After much painful hesitation, they decided on this. But in the first proof it turned out that after Andronov's surname there are two commas, and then Khaikin. This was a trace of that first title, where three authors appeared. [12]L. S. Pontryagin |
In the memoirs of V. A. Efremovich, this story sounds like this:
| Here is an interesting detail: such a book, “Andronov, Witt and Khaikin,” was released. When he was arrested, the name of Witt was removed. And it turned out: "Andronov and Khaikin." And this library comma was scraped up. I took a copy from the library and saw a comma scraped. [13]V.A. Efremovich |
In the preface to the second edition of the book “Theory of Oscillations”, which was published in 1959 after the death of Stalin , S. Khaikin explains the absence of the name Witt in the first edition as “a consequence of a sad mistake”:
| Of the three authors of this book, only those who wrote these lines survived. Alexander Adolfovich Witt, who participated in writing the first edition of the book along with two other authors, but was not listed among the authors due to a sad mistake, died in 1937. [fourteen]S. E. Khaikin |
Links
- ↑ Official death certificate of A. A. Witt with a fake date.
- ↑ Alexander Adolfovich Witt (1902-1937 / 38)
- ↑ Gorelik G. E. Those who did not manage to become academicians // Nature . - 1990. - No. 1 .
- ↑ Repressed science. - L .: Nauka , 1990 .-- S. 333—349.
- ↑ G.A. Bendrikov, G.A. Sidorova. Alexander Adolfovich Witt // History and Methodology of Natural Sciences. - Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1981. - Issue. XXVI . - S. 150-168 .
- ↑ Photos of A.A. Witt and members of his family
- ↑ Letters from A.A. Witt from the Vladivostok Forwarding and Magadan (14 letters, August-December 1937)
- ↑ Gennady Gorelik “ „ Meine antisowjetische TDigkeit “: russische Physiker unter Stalin ” bersetzung: Dr. Helmut Rotter Braunschweig; Wiesbaden: Vieweg, 1995 ISBN 3-528-06584-2
- ↑ From letters from Alexander Adolfovich Witt (August-December 1937) Archival copy of March 28, 2007 on the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Certificate of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the rehabilitation of A. A. Witt
- ↑ Bibliography of A.A. Witt
- ↑ L.S. Pontryagin . Part II Alexander Alexandrovich Andronov // Biography of L. S. Pontryagin, mathematics, compiled by him. Birth 1908, Moscow . - M. , 1998.
- ↑ Vadim Arsenievich Efremovich. Memories
- ↑ A.A. Andronov, A.A. Witt, S.E. Khaikin. Theory of oscillations. Second Edition. Processing and additions of N. A. Zheleztsov. - M .: Fizmatlit, 1959. - p. 8.