By Yana Vinetskaya exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
Abraham Alikhnov was one of the founders of Soviet nuclear physics, an academician of the USSR and Armenian Academies of Science, the founder and the director of the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (called Laboratory N3 in Stalin’s times), a holder of three Stalin awards. In 1949, the Soviet Union created the first heavy-water reactor under his supervision. Stalin considered him a candidate to head the nuclear project, the other candidate being Kurchatov.
Abraham Alikhanov was born in an Armenian family in Yelizavetpol (modern Ganja, Azerbaijan) on March 4, 1904. His father was a train driver on the Trans-Caucasus Railway, his mother was a housewife. According to Abraham Alikhanov’s recollection, his father “was known and liked all over the Caucasus, Azerbaijani, Georgian and Armenian railways.” Abraham’s brother Artem became a notable experimental physicist. In 1912, the family moved to Alexandropol (Gyumri, Armenia), where his father was sent for work. The family moved to Tiflis the next year, Alikhanov started his studies at a commercial school there. In 1918, the family moved to Alexandropol. It left the city a day before it was captured by Turks in 1920 and they returned to their relatives’ place in Tiflis.
A year after, Alikhanov joined the Mining and Chemistry Faculty of the Polytechnic Institute in Tiflis. He was then sent to Petrograd, where he entered the Chemical Faculty of the 2nd Petrograd Polytechnic Institute. In 1924, Alikhanov shifted to the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics headed by A.F. Ioffe, the father of Boris Ioffe. As a student in 1927 Alikhanov became a member of the Leningrad Physics and Mathematics Institute. Two years later, with a degree in physics, he became the head of an X-ray laboratory, where he worked before the start of the Great Patriotic War. For two years Alikhanov was working on construction of a cyclotron of the Radium Institute under the supervision of V.G. Khloponin, together with G.A. Gamov, I.V. Kurchatov and L.V. Mysovsky. He was also part of the research group monitoring the first artificial radiation in 1934.
On August 20, 1945, two weeks after the Hiroshima nuclear bombing, Alikhanov joined the Soviet nuclear project as an academic secretary of the Technical Committee of the SDC Special Committee. The same year, Alikhanov started organizing the so-called Laboratory N3 for development of nuclear reactor and nuclear physics research. In 1949, the Laboratory was renamed to the USSR AS Technical Heat Laboratory, in 1957 to the Institute for Theoretic and Experimental Physics. He headed the research facility for about 25 years.
The Laboratory started designing the first Soviet heavy-water research reactor. It was launched in two years. Heavy-water reactors had very important advantages compared with graphite reactors, and played a significant role in solving problems with fission materials for nuclear weapons. Alikhanov was also studying space rays, a priority subject of modern world science. With the help of Alikhanov, the USSR invented a proton accelerator and a synchrophasotron.
In 1955, after another test of a Soviet hydrogen bomb, nuclear authorities Kurchatov, Alikhanov, Alexandrov and Vinogradov wrote a letter to party leaders, claiming that a world war with deployment of hydrogen bombs could destroy humanity and a new international policy was needed to prevent that. Alikhanov wrote a letter criticizing the biological views of T.D. Lysenko the same year.
Alikhnov was characterised by his individual decency. Physicist Boris Ioffe, one of his colleagues, recalled: “Alikhanov was picking staff only based on their science skills (and decency, of course, scoundrels were not hired). Such personal details as nationality or party alignment were of no importance. My case is an example. I was the only Jew in the course of the Physics Faculty in 1949 to get a good spot. The rest either got no appointments, spent a long time seeking work and finally getting a job differing from their specialization (for example, a guide at a planetarium), or were sent to work at factories outside Moscow.”
Alikhanov’s wife Svetlana Roshal was a winner of the International Violin Contest, the Alikhanov house was always filled with music. Dmitry Shostakovich was a regular guest there. The famous composers Kablevsky and Khachaturyan were close friends of the family. A portrait of the scientist drawn by Saryan could be seen in the house. L.L. Goldin, an executive of Alikhanov, remembered the house of Alikhanov as follows: “Paintings of Saryan and Boris-Musatov, beautiful copies of French impressionists, van Gogh, books about the Italian Renaissance, violin concerts of his wife and daughter, the son’s royal piano, Alikhanov’s science library – it all created an amazing mixture of art and science, the most salutary mixture in the world.”
In the late 1960s, when Alikhnov’s group failed to create a thorium-based reactor, the proton accelerator in the laboratory was moved to a different institute. It was a real disaster for Alikhanov, causing a cerebral haemorrhage. In 1968 he resigned as the director of the Institute for Theoretic and Experimental Physics and died two years later.
A friend of Shostakovich and Saryan, the inventor of the heavy-water reactorAbraham Alikhnov was one of the founders of Soviet nuclear physics, an academician of the USSR and Armenian Academies of Science, the founder and the director of the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (called Laboratory N3 in Stalin’s times), a holder of three Stalin awards. In 1949, the Soviet Union created the first heavy-water reactor under his supervision. Stalin considered him a candidate to head the nuclear project, the other candidate being Kurchatov.Abraham Alikhanov was born in an Armenian family in Yelizavetpol (modern Ganja, Azerbaijan) on March 4, 1904. His father was a train driver on the Trans-Caucasus Railway, his mother was a housewife. According to Abraham Alikhanov’s recollection, his father “was known and liked all over the Caucasus, Azerbaijani, Georgian and Armenian railways.” Abraham’s brother Artem became a notable experimental physicist. In 1912, the family moved to Alexandropol (Gyumri, Armenia), where his father was sent for work. The family moved to Tiflis the next year, Alikhanov started his studies at a commercial school there. In 1918, the family moved to Alexandropol. It left the city a day before it was captured by Turks in 1920 and they returned to their relatives’ place in Tiflis.A year after, Alikhanov joined the Mining and Chemistry Faculty of the Polytechnic Institute in Tiflis. He was then sent to Petrograd, where he entered the Chemical Faculty of the 2nd Petrograd Polytechnic Institute. In 1924, Alikhanov shifted to the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics headed by A.F. Ioffe, the father of Boris Ioffe. As a student in 1927 Alikhanov became a member of the Leningrad Physics and Mathematics Institute. Two years later, with a degree in physics, he became the head of an X-ray laboratory, where he worked before the start of the Great Patriotic War. For two years Alikhanov was working on construction of a cyclotron of the Radium Institute under the supervision of V.G. Khloponin, together with G.A. Gamov, I.V. Kurchatov and L.V. Mysovsky. He was also part of the research group monitoring the first artificial radiation in 1934.On August 20, 1945, two weeks after the Hiroshima nuclear bombing, Alikhanov joined the Soviet nuclear project as an academic secretary of the Technical Committee of the SDC Special Committee. The same year, Alikhanov started organizing the so-called Laboratory N3 for development of nuclear reactor and nuclear physics research. In 1949, the Laboratory was renamed to the USSR AS Technical Heat Laboratory, in 1957 to the Institute for Theoretic and Experimental Physics. He headed the research facility for about 25 years.The Laboratory started designing the first Soviet heavy-water research reactor. It was launched in two years. Heavy-water reactors had very important advantages compared with graphite reactors, and played a significant role in solving problems with fission materials for nuclear weapons. Alikhanov was also studying space rays, a priority subject of modern world science. With the help of Alikhanov, the USSR invented a proton accelerator and a synchrophasotron.In 1955, after another test of a Soviet hydrogen bomb, nuclear authorities Kurchatov, Alikhanov, Alexandrov and Vinogradov wrote a letter to party leaders, claiming that a world war with deployment of hydrogen bombs could destroy humanity and a new international policy was needed to prevent that. Alikhanov wrote a letter criticizing the biological views of T.D. Lysenko the same year.Alikhnov was characterised by his individual decency. Physicist Boris Ioffe, one of his colleagues, recalled: “Alikhanov was picking staff only based on their science skills (and decency, of course, scoundrels were not hired). Such personal details as nationality or party alignment were of no importance. My case is an example. I was the only Jew in the course of the Physics Faculty in 1949 to get a good spot. The rest either got no appointments, spent a long time seeking work and finally getting a job differing from their specialization (for example, a guide at a planetarium), or were sent to work at factories outside Moscow.”Alikhanov’s wife Svetlana Roshal was a winner of the International Violin Contest, the Alikhanov house was always filled with music. Dmitry Shostakovich was a regular guest there. The famous composers Kablevsky and Khachaturyan were close friends of the family. A portrait of the scientist drawn by Saryan could be seen in the house. L.L. Goldin, an executive of Alikhanov, remembered the house of Alikhanov as follows: “Paintings of Saryan and Boris-Musatov, beautiful copies of French impressionists, van Gogh, books about the Italian Renaissance, violin concerts of his wife and daughter, the son’s royal piano, Alikhanov’s science library – it all created an amazing mixture of art and science, the most salutary mixture in the world.”In the late 1960s, when Alikhnov’s group failed to create a thorium-based reactor, the proton accelerator in the laboratory was moved to a different institute. It was a real disaster for Alikhanov, causing a cerebral haemorrhage. In 1968 he resigned as the director of the Institute for Theoretic and Experimental Physics and died two years lat
