This biography of the famous Soviet physicist Leonid Isaakovich
Mandelstam (1889-1944), who became a Professor at Moscow State
University in 1925 and an Academician (the highest scientific title in
the USSR) in 1929, describes his contributions to both physics and
technology. It also discusses the scientific community that formed
around him, commonly known as the Mandelstam School. By doing so, it
places Mandelstam's life story in its cultural context: the context of
German University (until 1914), the First World War, the Civil War, and
the development of the Socialist Revolution (until 1925) and the young
socialist country. The book considers various general issues, such as
the impact of German scientific culture on Russian science; the problems
and fates of Russian intellectuals during the revolutionary and
post-revolutionary years; the formation of the Soviet Academy of
Science, the State Academy; and the transformation of the system of
higher education in the USSR during the 1920s and 1930s. Further, it
reconstructs Mandelstam's philosophy of science and his approach to the
social and ethical function of science and science education based on
his fundamental writings and lecture notes. This reconstruction is
enhanced by extensive use of previously unpublished archive material as
well as the transcripts of personal interviews conducted by the author.
The book also discusses the biographies of Mandelstam's friends and
collaborators: German mathematician and philosopher Richard von Mises,
Soviet Communist Party official and philosopher B.M.Hessen, Russian
specialist in radio engineering N.D.Papalexy, the specialists in
non-linear dynamics A.A.Andronov, S.E. Chaikin, A.A.Vitt and the plasma
physicist M.A.Leontovich.
This second, extended edition reconstructs the social and economic
backgrounds of Mandelstam and his colleagues, describing their positions
at the universities and the institutes belonging to the Academy of
Science. Additionally, Mandelstam's philosophy of science is
investigated in connection with the ideological attacks that occurred
after Mandelstam's death, particularly the great mathematician
A.D.Alexandrov's criticism of Mandelstam's operationalism.
