Krasheninnikov V.V.. I.G. Petrovsky and his time . // Problems of the history of the Soviet state and society: a collection of scientific papers. - Bryansk, 2008. - Issue. II. - S. 44 - 93.

I.G. PETROVSKY AND HIS TIME

Among the natives of the ancient Russian city of Sevsk, the most significant person was Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky (1901-1973), full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR since 1946 (since 1949 - member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences), rector of Moscow State University in 1951-1973 ., Deputy of the Supreme Soviets of the RSFSR and the USSR from 1955 to 1973, member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1966-1973, Hero of Socialist Labor, an outstanding mathematician, a prominent organizer of Soviet science and higher education, a major public figure, true patriot Fatherland, a real Russian intellectual in the highest sense of the word, to put it briefly - a man with a capital letter.

The name Petrovsky has been known in Sevsk since the middle of the 18th century. In the 1760s in Sevsk lived the merchant Pyotr Timofeev, son of Petrovsky, who died in 1779 already in the rank of petty bourgeois, leaving his son Semyon. One of the sons of Semyon, also Se-men, was recruited into the Russian army in 1810 and, most likely, participated in the Patriotic War of 1812. The successor of this family branch of the Petrovskys in the Sevsk bourgeoisie turned out to be Semyon Semenovich's nephew, Fedor Kuzmich, who died in 1873. Of his sons and grandchildren, Sevsk lived at the end of the 1990s. 5 people, but most likely they were not related to Ivan Georgievich. The first known of his ancestors was the grandfather of the future academician, Ivan Sergeevich Petrovsky, assigned in 1869 to the Sevsk petty bourgeoisie, and earlier belonging to the petty bourgeoisies of the neighboring city of Dmitrovsk-Orlovsky.

According to later documents, I.S. Petrovsky at the end of 1843. According to Academician V.L. Yanin, borrowed, probably, from the stories of Academician I.G. Petrovsky, "Ivan Georgievich's grandfather, having lost his parents in childhood and was left without a livelihood, was brought up in a monastery, and then began his labor activity as a boy in the shop of his future father-in-law." The situation is clarified by an entry in the parish registers of the Peter and Paul Church in Sevsk, according to which on October 15, 1869, “the groom, the Sevsk tradesman Ivan Sergeev, the son of Petrovsky, of the Orthodox faith, by his first marriage, 25 years old” and “the bride, the Sevsk merchant Aleksey Ivanovich Chernichin's daughter, maiden Olimpiada Alekseevna, Orthodox, first marriage, 20 years old. The newlyweds were crowned by the priest John Markov, the “guarantors for the groom” were “the Sevsk merchant son Nikolai Mikhailov Bolandin and the Sevsk merchant Andrey Kirillov Drozdov, the guarantors for the bride were the merchant Andrei Alexandrov Polyakov, the Novgorod-Seversky merchant son Logvin Kirillov Fedorenko and Sevsk hodgepodge Ivan Dmitriev Trukhin. Thus, I.S. Petrovsky, who was first a “boy”, and then a clerk in the shop of the famous Sevsk merchant A.I. Chernichin, moved to Sevsk, having secured the consent of his master to marry his daughter Olimpiada, which happened in October 1869. In July 1871, the young spouses of the Petrovskys had their first child, named after Gabriel. However, both Gabriel and Ivan and Sergey, who were born later, died early, and only Georgy (Egor), who was born on April 17, 1874, became the successor of the family.

By the time of the birth of George I.S. Petrovsky, having accumulated a certain capital and started his trading business, became a merchant of the second guild, acquired his own two-story stone house, located “beyond the Kiev outpost”. He quickly won public fame, as evidenced by his election in 1876 to the vowels (deputies) of the Sevsk district zemstvo and the Sevsk City Duma. Later I.S. Petrovsky was repeatedly re-elected to these bodies of local self-government. But he failed to find real family happiness. Three of the four sons died, and his wife Olimpiada Alekseevna also died early (it was not possible to establish the date of her death due to the absence of most of the metric books of the Peter and Paul Church, but by 1890 she was no longer alive). And the only remaining son, George, did not differ in special business acumen.

Later, being considered a "merchant's son", Georgy Ivanovich served in the Sevsky city bank. His wife was Sofia Gerasimovna (nee Dyatlova), who was born in September 1877 and came from a Starodub merchant family. At the beginning of 1901, the first-born was born to the spouses Georgy and Sofia Petrovsky, named after his grandfather Ivan. It happened on January 6, and the next day the baby was baptized in the Peter and Paul Church by Archpriest John Markov. His godparents (father and mother) were paternal grandfather Ivan Sergeevich Petrovsky and maternal grandmother Evfrosinya Akimovna Dyatlova. When the date of January 6, 1901 is translated into a new style that has been established in Russia since 1918, it corresponds to January 19, however, in all documents and autobiographies of I.G. Petrovsky was called the date of birth January 18. What is the reason for such a “one-day” difference is unclear. In addition to Ivan, the Petrovskys later had two more children: daughter Alexandra, born in March 1902, and son Vasily, born in 1908. Ivan Sergeevich, who was undoubtedly a strong and outstanding personality, still remained the head of the increased Petrovsky family . Skillfully strengthening his financial position both through trade and in other ways (for example, at the end of the 19th century, part of the Petrovsky house was rented out for housing to students of the Sevsky Theological School), he acquired a mill, a butter churn, and then began to buy land from some of the former owners of estates, so that by 1917 he became one of the large land owners of the county, as well as the owner of two distilleries. He owned over 700 acres of land near the village of Berezovets (in the south of the modern Komarichsky district), 500 acres near the village. Borisovo (more than 160 acres Ivan Sergeevich gave to his son George) and about 380 acres near the village. Vitich, which were considered joint possession of I.S. and G.I. Petrovsky (initially it was the property of one I.S. Petrovsky). The Vitichsky estate of the Petrovskys (in some documents it is called a farm) was also the most comfortable: there was a house with outbuildings, an orchard, a pond. In February 1905, the farm was seriously damaged at the hands of the rebellious peasants of the surrounding villages, incited by the Socialist-Revolutionary agitators, but then was restored and expanded.

Here to visit my grandfather in the first half of the 1910s. came many times on time summer holidays Vanya Petrovsky, a student of the Sevsk Real School. It was in the eldest grandson, an inquisitive and intelligent teenager, that I.S. Petrovsky continues his work, rejoicing together with Vanya's parents about his academic success. Of all the academic disciplines taught in a real school, young I.G. Petrovsky was evoked by chemistry. As he himself later recalled, “we had an excellent teacher of chemistry at our school, who captivated me with his subject.” His passion for chemistry turned out to be so serious that Ivan set up a small chemical laboratory at home, where he conducted various experiments. He also liked biology. But there was no particular interest in mathematics during these years. The teacher of mathematical disciplines at the school was an engineer by education, who himself was not enough: and did not like mathematics very much. When studying differential calculus, for example, he told his students: “I will teach you to differentiate, but it’s not difficult, but I can’t explain what a derivative is. I dictate to you, and you write it down and memorize it.

The assertion found in the literature that I.G. Petrovsky graduated from a real school with a "four" in mathematics, is inaccurate. From the documents on the end in 1917 of the Sevsky real school it is clear that in graduation 1st class I.G. Petrovsky in five mathematical disciplines (arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, analytic geometry) had excellent marks in all quarters and only in the analysis of infinitesimals had one "four" in the third quarter. Annual grades in all mathematical disciplines, of course, were excellent. The successes were the same in other subjects studied in the senior class: the law of God, the Russian language, German, French, physics, natural history, and only in drawing he had “fours” in all quarters. The latter is especially surprising, given that I.G. Petrovsky loved to draw (his portraits of his grandfather, brother, landscapes with views of Sevsk and other drawings were preserved), that throughout his life he was deeply interested in painting (especially loved the work of V.A. Serov and M.V. Nesterov), that in his huge library, a very significant part was occupied by books on art.

Ivan Georgievich later told his colleagues that when, after graduating from a real school, he decided to devote himself to science and enter Moscow University, his grandfather was stunned by his grandson's decision and, closing himself in his room, cried for a long time. One can understand the state of this strong man, who, in his declining years, saw that his plans were crumbling to transfer his considerable work, to which he devoted his whole life, into young and reliable hands. But to interfere with the further studies of the grandson I.S. Petrovsky did not, perhaps instinctively feeling all the instability of the then state of affairs in Russia (after all, it was already the end of the summer of 1917).

In September 1917 I.G. Petrovsky was enrolled in the first year of the natural department of the Physics and Mathematics Department of the Faculty of Moscow University, intending to specialize in the study of chemistry and biology, but at that time he did not really have to take up his studies. Later, he wrote in one of his autobiographies: “However, life in Moscow turned out to be difficult and I could not study at the university.” There is evidence that he was expelled "for a social origin that does not correspond to a real Soviet person."

For obvious reasons, I.G. Petrovsky did not decipher the meaning of the nikshih "difficulties", but they consisted not only in a general sharp deterioration in the socio-economic situation in the country in the conditions of war and revolution. Under the age of 17, the young man found himself in Moscow practically deprived of help from his relatives, whose property was nationalized after the establishment of Bolshevik power in Sevsk and they themselves found themselves on the verge of poverty. There was a legend in Sevsk that I.S. Petrovsky "went with a bag through the villages ... to beg." It is possible that in this way he was saved not only from hunger, but also from a possible arrest or even execution.

Under such conditions, the Petrovsky family did not make sense to stay in Sevsk, and in early 1918 they moved to Episvetgrad in Ukraine (in 1924-1934 the city was called Zinovievsk, later it became known as Kirovograd). Most likely, one of the relatives or close acquaintances of the Petrovskys lived here, who had the opportunity to shelter the family at least temporarily. There is no reliable information on this. In Elisavetgrad, grandfather I.G. Petrovsky served as a weigher at a state creamery, his father was an accountant in a cooperative for the production and procurement of food products from 1918 to 1922. Ivan Georgievich, who arrived here in 1918, first served with his father in a cooperative, in 1919 he was an employee of the city statistics bureau and as a scribe participated in the census of the population of Elisavetgrad, then "worked at the Sablino-Znamensky sugar factory", and in 1920 he became a student at the Elisavetgrad Mechanical College.

The political situation in the Elisavetgrad region was unstable (in the vicinity of the city there were detachments of various "atamans", in the summer of 1919 the city was occupied by the troops of A.I. Denikin), but the situation with food remained relatively satisfactory. When, due to the drought of 1921, the food situation worsened here, the Petrovskys decided to leave the city. The first to leave for Sevsk was Ivan Sergeevich, who began working at the first state butter churn. In 1922, the rest of the Petrovskys moved to Sevsk: Georgy Ivanovich and Sofya Gerasim ovna, together with their daughter Alexandra and their youngest son Vasily. The eldest son, Ivan Georgievich, continued to study at the Elisavetgrad Mechanical College until February 1922, in the spring of the same year he suffered from typhus and was fired on a two-month vacation.

While studying at the technical school, the circle of interests of I.G. Petrovsky began to change. Working with N.E. Zhukovsky's book on theoretical mechanics, he discovered a lack of mathematical knowledge necessary to understand its individual provisions. In an effort to fill this gap, I.G. Petrovsky turned to Dirichlet's book The Theory of Numbers, which he accidentally came across. This classic work struck the young reader with the beauty of mathematical constructions and directed his scientific interests to mathematics. That is why, having decided to return to study at Moscow University, Ivan Georgievich chose not the natural, but the mathematical department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, where he began to study from September 1922. There was no need to count on the help of relatives, because the financial situation of the Petrovsky family, who returned to Sevsk, it was very difficult. The father of the future scientist could initially get a job only by agreeing to take a trade patent in his name, although the real owner of the business was the former Sevsk merchant V.G. Petrunkin. It backfired for G.I. Petrovsky by deprivation of voting rights.

In the later autobiography of I.G. Petrovsky wrote: “Since 1922 I have been living completely independently.” What was the life of I.G. Petrovsky - a student, and then a graduate student of Moscow State University? For the first time after his appearance in Moscow, he had neither housing nor any means of subsistence. We had to spend the night at the station. Then, a randomly read announcement came to the rescue that the orphanage No. 4 of the Sokolnichesky district needed a janitor, and housing and food were promised. The work turned out to be difficult, because, in addition to cleaning the territory, they had to carry firewood to the upper floors, heat stoves, carry bags of flour and other food for the children living in the orphanage, and Ivan Georgievich's health was weakened by several severe illnesses. However, he successfully coped with his duties. The children, who met the new janitor, became attached to "Vanyusha", who made toys for them, helped in various matters, including arranging a New Year tree.

Here I.G. Petrovsky met his future wife, Olga Afanasyevna Kornilayeva, who was also a student at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Moscow University, but studied at the Department of Biology. Born O.A. Kornilayeva in 1899 in Penza in the family of a locomotive engineer, where she graduated from the gymnasium, and then the 8th additional class, which gave the right to engage in pedagogical work. Since 1920, she directed a kindergarten, then an orphanage in her native city, and the next year she became a student at Moscow State University. Like I.G. Petrovsky and many other students, Olga combined her studies with work and in 1922-1923. she headed the orphanage No. 4 of the Sokolnichesky district, where she met her future husband. The marriage of the newlyweds was registered in September 1923. By this time, I.G. Petrovsky no longer worked as a janitor, since in March 1923 the medical and control commission discovered a heart defect in him and offered to go to work that "did not require much physical exertion."

It was necessary to look for other types of earnings, and already in the summer of 1923 I.G. Petrovsky first joined the pedagogical work as a teacher of mathematics and physics at preparatory courses Moscow Gubernia Council of Trade Unions at Moscow State University, and when the courses ended in September, he began working as a teacher of mathematics at the workers' faculty of arts of the People's Commissar of Millet. At the same time, in combination, he was in 1923-1926. taught mathematics at high school No. 16 of the Baumansky district of Moscow, and in 1926-1929. worked as a teacher of mathematics at the Sokolniki Workers' University. On the quality of the pedagogical work of I.S. Petrovsky during these years can be judged by the conclusion given by the leadership of the Workers' Faculty of Arts, where he worked from September 1923 to February 1930: “Comrade. Petrovsky found himself as a knowledgeable and good methodologist-teacher. Tov. Petrovsky was distinguished by great accuracy and exactingness, both to himself and to his students. Among the listeners and his comrades, he enjoyed great authority. It is no coincidence that later some of his former students, who became sculptors, artists, musicians, continued to communicate with their teacher.

Such a workload did not greatly affect the results of I.G. Petrovsky. Constantly engaged in self-education, he later wrote about his student studies: “Listening to lectures did not give me much.” Much more useful was the independent study of various literature, as well as classes in scientific seminars, although even here it was not without difficulties. Here is how I.G. himself wrote about this. Petrovsky: “I remember that I started my studies in mathematics in a different area, to which I later moved. Attended the corresponding seminar. Good scientific tasks were set there, good reports were made. But I didn't have enough culture to understand it. I I felt bad, I was afraid that I would have to leave the university without completing my studies. I began to attend another seminar - a seminar on differential equations, which was led by Professor D.F. Egorov. There were no scientific problems raised. I was asked to review some scientific papers. When I began to deal with them, it turned out that I did not know what needed to be known to understand them. D.F. Egorov advised me to read a number of materials beforehand. Some of the articles and books he recommended were in English, which I did not know at all then. I had to study English. After two years of work in this seminar, I myself chose a topic for my thesis. This work was reported at a meeting of the Mathematical Society and then published in a well-known journal, the Mathematical Collection" in 1928" in the 35th volume of the "Mathematical Collection" in German and which became the first scientific work of I.G. Petrovsky).

It was Professor Dmitry Fedorovich Egorov (1869-1931) I.G. Petrovsky always considered his main university teacher and read him deeply both as an outstanding mathematician and as bright personality. Professor of Moscow University since 1903, D.F. Even in the pre-revolutionary years, Yegorov was respected as a scientist and teacher (the future academician N.N. Luzin was among his students at that time). His work “On the Sequence of Measured Functions” published in Paris in 1911 became fundamental in the formation of one of the important directions in the development of the Moscow mathematical school. But in the same 1911, when more than 100 professors, associate professors and employees of Moscow University protested against the actions of the Minister of Public Education L.A. Kasso left the university, the only professor of mathematics who continued to work was D.F. Egorov, for which he was condemned by many as a reactionary. But I.G. Petrovsky, assessing this situation later and paying tribute to the civic courage of retired professors, at the same time expressed bewilderment: “How could the interests of students be neglected, trusting their formation to obscurantists? You can sacrifice your career, but you can’t sacrifice youth!”

After the Bolsheviks came to power, when, according to Academician V.I. Vernadsky, “mathematicians have fled or are fleeing”, honorary member of the Academy of Sciences D.F. Yegorov did not leave Moscow University, although he did not hide his disagreement with many of the actions of the Bolshevik government. In the 1920s he is the greatest mathematician not only in Moscow, but throughout the country. He was the first director of the Research Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics (NIIMM) organized at Moscow University; since 1922, after the death of the first leaders of the Moscow Mathematical Society N.E. Zhukovsky and B.K. Mlodzeevsky, was elected its president. The head of the NIIMM and the Moscow Mathematical Society (as well as the chairman of the subject commission on mathematics at Moscow State University) is Professor D.F. Egorov remained until 1930, when he was arrested and, after a year in the Lubyanka prison, exiled to Kazan, where he soon died. Given this circumstance, the fact that in the home office of I.G. Petrovsky, the only portrait of the scientist was a portrait of D.F. Yegorova says a lot.

In addition to teaching and scientific work, an important part of the formation of the personality of the future scientist was the active participation of I.G. Petrovsky in the public life of the university. According to the "Regulations on higher educational institutions of the RSFSR” (1921), so-called “subject commissions” began to be created in all universities of the country, which in fact were to replace the departments. The main goal of the innovation is to attract teachers loyal to the Bolsheviks and the mass of proletarian students to organize educational and scientific life on a new basis, as well as weakening the influence of opposition professors. Such a subject commission on mathematics was also created at Moscow University, but in the 1920s. ideological intervention in natural Sciences not yet become too noticeable, and the position of the students participating in the elections depended not so much on social background and political views of the elected persons, how much of their moral authority. As a result, the “reactionary” D.F. Egorov, and among those elected in 1924 to its membership - I.G. Petrovsky, who was not of proletarian origin at all, was not a member of either the Komsomol or the party. By the way, it was noted in the literature that “merchant origin became a source of considerable complications for Petrovsky, which D.F. helped him overcome. Egorov, who was then the most influential Moscow mathematician. 50

In 1925 I.G. Petrovsky was elected secretary of the subject commission in mathematics, which was important and weighty at that time, especially when considering academic and personnel issues. His predecessor in this position was a fellow student G.I. Khvorostin, who later, in 1935-1937. he was the rector of the Saratov State University, in 1937 he was arrested and shot, and in 1956, largely thanks to the efforts of I.G. Petrovsky was rehabilitated.

Evidence of recognition of the first scientific successes of I.G. Petrovsky and his prestige among the students was the fact that it was he who had the honor of welcoming the participants of the All-Russian Mathematical Congress held in 1927 on behalf of the Moscow students.

As for family matters, I.G. Petrovsky, then with his wife Olga Afanasyevna they lived in love and harmony, but had no children. In 1929, Olga Afanasyevna graduated from the biological department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University in the cycle of descriptive zoology, from 1929 to 1932 she was a graduate student at the Research Institute of Zoology of Moscow State University, from 1932 to June 1941 . worked as an assistant of the department general biology in the 4th Moscow medical institute, in May 1942 she defended her thesis for the degree of candidate of biological sciences.

In the summer of 1924, the young Petrovskys came to Sevsk to visit Ivan Georgievich's grandfather and parents. A photograph has been preserved since that time, depicting the entire Petrovsky family. In the center is the head of the family, Ivan Sergeevich, with a bushy gray beard (he was already over 80 years old), next to him is Ivan Georgievich's father and mother, Georgy Ivanovich and Sofia Gerasimovna; young people are standing in the second row: Ivan with his wife Olga, sister Alexandra and her husband Y. Martynenko, 16-year-old brother Vasily. Together with them is a middle-aged woman, Praskovya Alexandrovna Kruglova, whom the young Petrovskys called "Aunt Panya." Even in the pre-revolutionary years, at the time of her youth, she appeared in the wealthy merchant family of the Petrovskys as a housekeeper, went through a difficult post-revolutionary time with them, and in subsequent years continued to live in the Petrovsky family, being already, as it were, a member of the family.

It is not known whether I.G. also came. Petrovsky in Sevsk in his student years. Most likely, there were no more such trips. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain why even the time of grandfather's death was not deposited in the memory of Ivan Georgievich (in his autobiography, he wrote that his grandfather died in 1925; however, brother Vasily, who lived at that time in Sevsk, called the year of his grandfather's death 1927- j). His father, Georgy Ivanovich, left Sevsk with his family in 1928 and moved to Moscow, where he first worked in cooperative artels, and then as a foreman at a cardboard-box factory and timber processing plant No. 1. Brother, Vasily Georgievich, after graduating from a nine-year school in Sevsk, moved to Moscow with his father; in 1932 he entered the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization (later - the Military Academy of Armored Forces). From 1941 he fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War; in August 1943 with the rank of Major V.G. Petrovsky was the deputy commander of the 103rd tank brigade for the technical part and participated in the liberation of his native city, and his brigade was awarded the title of Sevskaya. Vasily Georgievich and his wife Nina Matveevna (nee Krasina) had two sons: George (born 1934) and Pavel (born 1938).

In May 1927 I.G. Petrovsky defended qualifying work on the topic “On the Dirichlet problem”, carried out under the scientific supervision of Professor D.F. Egorov, and in July of the same year received a certificate of graduation from the Mathematical Department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University with a degree in Applied Mathematics. At that time, there were no marks characterizing progress. Completion of theoretical courses was marked with the word "passed", practical classes - with the word "test". On the vastness of the received I.G. Petrovsky's knowledge can be judged by the list of disciplines he studied: introduction to analysis, integral calculus, differential calculus, differential equations, analytical geometry, differential geometry, descriptive geometry, point mechanics, system mechanics (there were both theoretical courses and practical classes), as well as number theory, higher algebra with the theory of determinants, integral equations, partial differential equations, vector analysis, theory of analytic functions, probability theory, calculus of variations, spherical trigonometry, general astronomy, spherical astronomy, physics, geophysics , introduction to the history and philosophy of natural science, historical materialism, political economy, the constitution of the USSR, German(theoretical courses).

In 1927, almost immediately after graduation student life, I.G. Petrovsky was enrolled in graduate school at the Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics of Moscow State University. Professor D.F. again became his supervisor. Egorov. As in his student years, I.G. Petrovsky was forced to combine postgraduate studies with teaching work. Until 1929, he continued to teach mathematics at the Sokolniki Workers' University, until the beginning of 1930 - at the Workers' Faculty of Arts. From the beginning of 1929 he taught mathematics at the Moscow Higher Technical School of the Supreme Economic Council. From the same 1929, I.G. Petrovsky began teaching at Moscow State University - first as an assistant, then as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. For a number of years he worked at the Moscow Engineering Institute of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Engineering, holding the position of associate professor (1930), head of the department (1931), professor in the department of mathematics (1933).

In the summer of 1930, I.G. Petrovsky in graduate school. Then it was not required to defend a dissertation or report on the scientific work done by a graduate student. Everything was decided by certification by the supervisor. It read: “I.G. Petrovsky has almost completed his preparation (it remains to finish the work in the seminar on mathematical physics). The topic of the final work was chosen by him, and he already has results on it. Thus, in the fall of 1930, I believe, he will finally complete his postgraduate experience. In the current year, despite the excessive burden of public work, I.G. continued his scientific studies, studied the literature of the subject with the usual conscientiousness, and now he is already a very well educated, knowledgeable and successfully working mathematician in his field. Professor D.F. managed to give such parting words shortly before his arrest. Egorov to one of his best students.

After graduating from graduate school, I.G. Petrovsky worked as a research associate of the 1st category at the Research Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics, doing scientific research and training graduate students. In 1933, by decision of the State Academic Council of the People's Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR, he was approved with the academic rank of professor in the department of "Mathematics". In the same year, the Higher Attestation Commission of the People's Commissariat of Education approved I.G. Petrovsky with the academic title of a full member of the Research Institute of Mathematics of Moscow State University, and in 1935 awarded him the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences without defending a dissertation.

By the time I.G. Petrovsky published 11 works in the "Mathematical Collection", "Scientific Notes of Moscow State University" and in "Reports of the Paris Academy of Sciences". In his review of these works, Professor A.Ya. Khinchin, who since 1932 was the director of the Research Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics, wrote in November 1934: “The scientific work of I.G. Petrovsky over the past few months have pushed him into the forefront of Soviet mathematicians: these works, carried out in various areas of mathematical science, are equally marked by the rare power of scientific thought, the wit of methods, and, in particular, the scientific style of I. G. Petrovsky by generality and wide range of problems”. Very highly appreciating the results of the work of I.G. Petrovsky on the theory of differential equations, probability theory and other areas of scientific knowledge, the author of the review concluded: “In the person of I.G. Petrovsky, we have a first-class scientist, each new job which marks a significant success in the relevant scientific field, fertilizing it with new methods and creating for it new, hitherto hidden possibilities.

By the mid 1930s. I.G. Petrovsky firmly established himself among the leading sonnet mathematicians. When on the eve of the International Mathematical Congress in Oslo (1936) the question of the composition of the Soviet delegation was considered, the director of Moscow State University A.S. Butyagin, Dean of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics V.V. Golubev, Director of the Research Institute of Mathematics A.N. Kolmogorov sent a letter to A.S. Bubnov with an urgent wish to include I.G. Petrovsky. The letter said: "Prof. I.G. Petrovsky, despite his young age, has long since moved forward with his original and profound research into the first ranks of mathematicians in the Soviet Union, and recently he has obtained new results of an outstanding nature that have attracted the attention of leading experts in the field of mathematical analysis... Inclusion I.G. Petrovsky to the delegation of the USSR will significantly contribute to raising the scientific authority of the Soviet delegation.” The desire, however, did not bear fruit.

With the increase in the scientific authority of I.G. Petrovsky grew and the number of his scientific and teaching duties. In addition to his native Moscow State University and the already mentioned Moscow Engineering Institute (in both of them he taught classes as a professor since 1933), as well as the Research Institute of Mathematics, I.G. Petrovsky was invited to give lecture courses outside the capital. At the end of 1933, as a professor of mathematics, he lectured at the Dnepropetrovsk State University, in the 1936/1937 academic year - at the Saratov State University, where he was invited by his fellow student and graduate student G.K. Khvorostyan.

By the mid 1930s. the material conditions of the life of the Petrovsky spouses improved somewhat. If in 1920 - early 1930s. Ivan Georgievich and Olga Afanasyevna huddled in a 12-meter room in a communal apartment, surrounded by noisy neighbors, then in 1934, at the request of the leadership of the Moscow Engineering Institute, who appreciated I.G. Petrovsky as an excellent conscientious worker, who in many ways contributed to the transformation of the Department of Mathematics into a shock department, he was given two rooms with a total area of ​​30.5 sq.m. in a communal apartment on 2nd Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street. One of the rooms, which became the scientist's study, was located in a semi-basement room, where electric lighting was required even during the day. And the very atmosphere of the communal apartment was not very conducive to scientific work, and after all, I.G. Petrovsky is used to working at home.

In his free time from teaching duties, he usually read or pondered his conclusions, reclining on the sofa, and sat at the table only to write calculations or finalize the work. I.G. Petrovsky often called himself a "slow-thinker", who slowly and with difficulty understands the logic of other people's mathematical constructions. Considering the work of other authors, it was sometimes easier for him to come up with his own proofs, and at the same time it often turned out that the more general approaches and stronger methods he proposed led to essentially new results.

Somewhat more diverse since the mid-1930s. steel and rest conditions I.G. Petrovsky. Not having the habit of going on vacation to resort places, the scientist preferred to spend it in the Central Russian zone, the nature of which he loved. In 1936, the Petrovsky family acquired part of a house and a plot of land in the village of Ivanovka near Moscow (now it is the city of Zheleznodorozhny, Balashikha District). Long hikes in the summer, skiing in the winter gave pleasure to live communication with the beautiful nature of the surrounding places, strengthened health and working capacity. But even here he did not forget his favorite pastime - reading. Ivanovka "migrated" the main part of his constantly growing library, which he began to collect in his student years (by the end of his life, his personal library exceeded 30 thousand volumes). Library of I.G. Petrovsky included books on all major sections of the natural and human sciences, political, fiction and reference literature in Russian and foreign languages ​​(he read fluently in German, French and English). In his collection there were more than 3 thousand books on history, a lot of books about statesmen, scientists, writers, poets, artists, musicians, artists. Here is what the historian V.L. wrote about Petrovsky, a scribe. Yanin: “Friends, students, acquaintances of Ivan Georgievich, coming to his house in the evening, most often found him in the same position. Reclining on the sofa, he got acquainted with the next batch of books he had acquired and carefully read something. Next to him on the table, 54

high mountains of books lay on chairs and on the sofa. He loved books, spent all his free money on them. Approximately once a week, he traveled to all the largest second-hand bookshops in Moscow. Poorly preserved books he gave in binding. His comments on what he had read were distinguished by their conciseness and high culture.

The period of 1920-1930s, when I.G. Petrovsky, as a scientist, was a time of very many and difficult changes in the life of the Fatherland. The state system and even the name of the country changed (Russia became the Soviet Union), the socio-economic way of life of the population changed, the system of moral, cultural and spiritual values ​​changed, and along with the “great turning point” in the economy, the fate of millions of people broke. But along with this tragic break for many, there was a process of strengthening and developing the economy, science, and culture. The life of Moscow University, where in 1922 a novice provincial student I.G. Petrovsky, was not separated from the life of the entire Soviet society. Contradictory processes of breaking the old and forming the new were also going on here.

In the same autumn of 1922, when the student life of I.G. Petrovsky began, many scientists were expelled from Russia, including a number of professors of Moscow University, including the former in 1919-1920. the last elected rector of MM. Novikov and former in 1920-1922. Dean of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics V.V. Stratonov. This expulsion could not go unnoticed, but one can only guess about the responses to it among students.

In general, the period of student life I.G. Petrovsky was a relatively stable time at Moscow University. The rectors of the university at that time were the historian V.P. Volgin (1921-1925) and lawyer AND I. Vyshinsky (1925-1928). Among the positive changes that occurred during the rectorship V.P. Volgin, it is necessary to single out the creation of several research institutes, including at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. During the years of rectorship AL. Vyshinsky, active work continued to include the university staff in large-scale scientific research, to restore old and create new scientific ties with universities in other states. Since 1927, a university-wide newspaper began to appear, and the publishing house of Moscow University was organized. As a student, I.G. Petrovsky hardly had any contacts with these rectors, but later, from 1949 to 1953, he worked together with V.P. Volgin as a member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In any case, for I.G. Petrovsky, at the time of his work as the rector of Moscow State University, acquaintance with the experience of his predecessors, including those known to him from his student years, was not useful.

Another, already negative experience could and should have been taken by Ivan Georgievich from the activities of the rector I.D. Udaltsov (1928-1930). Separate decisions of the administration at that time can be considered justified (the liquidation in 1929 of subject commissions and the formation of departments), but the course of the administration to liquidate Moscow State University by dividing it into separate independent institutions “was clearly erroneous. It would seem that the 175th anniversary of the university, which took place in 1930, could be used to increase its prestige, to attract the attention of the country's leadership and the scientific community to solving the urgent tasks of strengthening the material base and human resources of the university. However, in January 1930, the university newspaper published an article by rector I.D. Udaltsov under the characteristic name "175-year-old elder". Here are some quotes from this article: “The university, which has grown into a monstrously cumbersome institution, ... cannot resolve the questions put forward by life with the necessary speed. The university is unable to adapt itself to the conditions and pace of socialist construction. The university lags behind life and, in essence, turns out to be not an engine, but a brake on the development of science ... We consider it necessary to dismember the university ... It's time for the old university ... to rest. In February 1930, a commission led by the rector was created, which was supposed to prepare "a project for the financial, administrative and economic division of Moscow State University." Fortunately, the prepared project was not implemented, and in June 1930 I.D. Udaltsov was replaced by the new rector V.N. Kasatkin, who remained in this post until 1934.

It should be added that in the late 1920s - early 1930s. a wave of political processes and “revelations” began in the country, including among the scientific and technical intelligentsia. It also affected Moscow State University, where in 1930 Professor D.F. was arrested and then exiled. Egorov, who managed to give a “ticket” to science to his student I.G. Petrovsky, who was finishing his postgraduate studies. One can only guess how hard it affected the mood of I.G. Petrovsky, which began in the late 1920s. bullying his teacher. In 1929 D.F. Egorov was dismissed from the post of director of the Research Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics, and then removed from the post of president of the Mathematical Society. In the next volume of the "Mathematical Collection", published in early 1930, even before the arrest of D.F. Egorov, the publication “From the Editor” appeared, where, in particular, the following was written: “The Mathematical Society has retained its caste “academic” character until recently. The society was headed by Professor D.F. Egorov, reactionary and churchman who fought against Soviet policy authorities in the field of higher education and science under the banner of protecting "academic traditions" and "pure analytical science" ... An initiative group was created in the Mathematical Society for its reorganization ... The Society excluded Yegorov and other reactionaries from its ranks. .. The new charter, worked out by society, sets its goal, first of all, to turn Soviet mathematics to the service of socialist construction. The tragic fate of Professor D.F. Egorov, the generally negative situation at Moscow University in the late 1920s. give grounds to agree with E.V. Ivchenko, the author of the most significant work on I.G. Petrovsky, who attributed this time “to the most dramatic years in the life of I.G. Petrovsky up to the time of the Great Patriotic War.

1930s were not easier and simpler for the Soviet country and its people than at the end of the 1920s, but for the associate professor, and then professor I.G. Petrovsky, these years, despite all the difficulties, were the time of the most intensive scientific work and the recognition of the effectiveness of this work by both colleagues and university leaders (some assessments on this subject have already been given earlier). Of course, as a university teacher and scientist, he was hardly pleased with such innovations carried out at Moscow University as the transformation of faculties into departments or the introduction of the “laboratory-team method” of teaching (however, in 1932-1933 these innovations, concerning all universities were cancelled). A more serious danger was posed by a company deployed from above in 1936 to disperse the “Luzin school” (of the outstanding Russian mathematician N.N. Luzin, who was a student of D.F. Egorov before the revolution, but later divorced his teacher). However, I.G. Petrovsky was one of the few prominent Moscow mathematicians who did not belong to the “Luzin school”, and therefore the storm passed by. Did not affect I.G. Petrovsky and his relatives and mass repressions of 1937-1938, during which some acquaintances of the scientist died.

But there were also positive changes. From 1933/1934 school year at Moscow State University, the protection of theses by students was introduced graduation courses, which had a positive effect on the level of their scientific training. In April 1934, the first conference of young scientists was held, where several future leading figures of Soviet science made presentations. Accumulated I.G. Petrovsky's university teaching experience allowed him to prepare his first textbook for universities, which was published in 1939 under the title Lectures on the Theory of Ordinary Differential Equations. The extent to which the book turned out to be in demand is evidenced by the fact that the last edition of the book, published during the author's lifetime, in 1970, was already the sixth, and there were also posthumous editions published in other countries. Moreover, these editions did not repeat each other, and each new one came out as "supplemented and refined." The volume of "additions" is easy to establish: in the first edition, there were 144 pages, in the sixth - 280 pages.

The transfer in 1934 from Leningrad to Moscow of the USSR Academy of Sciences had an effect, according to I.G. Petrovsky, "very beneficial for the activities of the Moscow University." Most academicians and corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences have taken teaching positions at Moscow State University. This greatly raised the scientific prestige of the university. In turn, many professors of Moscow State University concurrently become research associates of various subdivisions of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1939, at the Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences, I.G. Petrovsky. The main reason for this part-time job was not the financial side, but the desire to fully realize oneself not only as a teacher, but also as a scientist.

On October 4, 1940, a rather noticeable event took place at Moscow State University - for the first time in Soviet times, elections were held for a dean. It happened at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, where there was no dean for about a year, and the assistant professor acting as dean was only a temporary replacement. Two candidates were presented to the attention of the members of the academic council of the faculty: Professor of the Department of Differential Equations I.G. Petrovsky and Professor of the Department of Higher Algebra A.G. Kourosh. I.G. Petrovsky had a certain advantage: from September 7, 1940, by order of the rector A.S. Butyagin was appointed acting. dean of the faculty. Therefore, it was clear that the rector A.S. Butyagin, a gentle, intelligent person who managed to create a calm business environment at the university and at the same time was quite persistent in making the necessary decisions, saw in I.G. Petrovsky the ability of the future administrator, who is able to cope with many of the problems that existed at the faculty. But he was in the position of I.G. Petrovsky and a significant disadvantage: he did not hide the fact that in his plans for the future he gives priority to scientific work, therefore, he does not intend to bind himself to the duties of a dean for a long time. Nevertheless, I.G. was elected dean of the faculty by an overwhelming majority. Petrovsky. As two of the members of this academic council later wrote, "the faculty found a leader - competent, principled, benevolent and surprisingly modest." The same authors continued: "Many Dean's worries: over a thousand employees; three research institutes - mathematics, mechanics, astronomy; dozens of graduate students; large teaching staff. And the management apparatus is small. But the matter was disputed. And above all, because the new dean somehow knew how to single out the really essential and discard the husks, appreciated everything that was genuine, real and discarded the false, inflated, knew how to take into account the opinion of his comrades at work and, being a non-party Bolshevik, maintained close contact with the party organization ". The last words in this statement are an undoubted tribute to the time when it was believed that all achievements were necessarily connected with the leading and guiding role of the party.

Checking the organizational skills of I.G. Petrovsky in emergency conditions was the Great Patriotic War that began on June 22, 1941. By order of Moscow State University dated July 12, a local air defense of the university was organized, where the dean of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics and many other leading teachers who periodically had to go on duty were included in the rank and file of the 1st company. But the real trials began in October 1941, when Moscow was declared in a state of siege and a decision was made to evacuate many enterprises and institutions. Moscow University was also subject to evacuation. It was originally planned to place it in Tashkent, where I.G. was sent. Petrovsky as a representative of Moscow State University to manage cases related to evacuation and organize educational and research work of the university. But then this decision was revised and the professorial and teaching staff who arrived in Tashkent on November 18 was sent to Ashgabat. Students and attendants soon arrived there. In Tashkent, only some scientific departments of Moscow State University were left, the organization of which was organized by Ivan Georgievich in the new place. Having finished his business here, he, together with his wife Olga Afanasyevna, also arrived in Ashgabat in early February 1942, where classes were already underway for students of Moscow State University since early December.

Ashgabat turned out to be a city poorly adapted to accept and provide the necessary living and working conditions for almost 2 thousand students, teachers and university staff. Sometimes the most necessary equipment was not enough, there were serious difficulties in living conditions, and therefore the work of I.G. Petrovsky as a dean was largely associated with the solution of economic, domestic, financial problems. However, even under these conditions, research activities and the training of new specialists continued. In the summer of 1942, 120 graduates received diplomas of graduation from Moscow State University (the future academician A.D. Sakharov was among the Ashgabat graduates of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics).

Then, in June 1942, it was decided to transfer Moscow State University from Ashkhabad to Sverdlovsk and place it in the buildings of the Ural Industrial Institute. August 1 I.G. Petrovsky is sent from Ashgabat to Sverdlovsk, and again he has to deal with a lot of organizational and domestic affairs related to the reception and accommodation of arriving students, teachers, employees, the start of the educational process at a new place, and the continuation of research work. The specificity of the situation also lay in the fact that during the stay of the main part of the university in Sverdlovsk, some of its teachers and students (including the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics) continued to stay and work in Moscow. Therefore, I.G. Petrovsky, as the dean of the faculty, had to make trips from Sverdlovsk to Moscow and back more than once. He was in Moscow from the end of October to the end of December 1942, then from February 6 to March 15, 1943, and in May of the same year he finally returned to Moscow with the first staff of the re-evacuated university.

In addition to returning to Moscow, another pleasant one for I.G. Petrovsky was elected in September 1943 as a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. In general, since that time in the life of I.G. Petrovsky began a period of high appraisals of his activities. In 1944 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor "for outstanding services in the training of specialists for the national economy and cultural construction", in 1945 - the second Order of the Red Banner of Labor "for outstanding services in the development of Soviet science and technology" . Beli awarding the first order was associated with the activities of I.G. Petrovsky at Moscow State University, the second award had no such connection.

In June 1944, I.G. Petrovsky "according to a personal request" was relieved of his duties as dean of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University. In wartime, when all personnel transfers of responsible employees were strictly regulated, such motivation as a “personal request” could not be convincing. Consequently, information about the true motives for the release was considered undesirable.

The answer should be sought in the direction of the research activities of I.G. Petrovsky. Casually touching on this issue, Academician EM. Sergeev, who worked alongside I.G. Petrovsky as vice-rector of Moscow State University, noted in his memoirs that Ivan Georgievich's research "were connected with defense topics." Hence the secrecy of information about this area of ​​activity of the scientist, which during the war years, especially after returning to Moscow, became the main one. The temporary refusal from administrative and teaching work at Moscow State University was connected with the need to concentrate on work at the Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, whose senior researcher I.G. Petrovsky became as early as 1939 and remained so until 1955, often combining this work with other, more responsible posts.

At the final stage of the Great Patriotic War and in the first post-war years, the Soviet leadership paid special attention to the creation of its own nuclear weapons (“atomic project”). Many talented scientists and designers were involved in it, but mathematicians played a special role. The whole complex and multi-stage process nuclear explosion cannot be studied experimentally, it can only be modeled by difficult and voluminous mathematical calculations. Initially, this was done by the calculation groups of L.D. Landau in Moscow and L.V. Kantorovich in Leningrad, but soon the work was transferred to the Department of Applied Mathematics of the Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, headed by M.V. Keldysh, future president of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The degree of secrecy of the work of this department was so great that even the director of the MIAN, Academician IM. Vinogradov did not have formal access to the work carried out here. As for I.G. Petrovsky, he was not only a senior researcher, but also the head of the computational bureau of the Moscow Institute of Academy of Sciences, which was part of the Department of Applied Mathematics. On the effectiveness of the work of M.V. Keldysh, I.G. Petrovsky and their colleagues can be judged by the fact that in 1946 both scientists were elected full members of the USSR Academy of Sciences and in the same year became laureates of the Stalin Prize of the 1st degree. True, it was formally indicated that the Stalin Prize was awarded to I.G. Petrovsky "for fundamental research in the field of partial differential equations, culminating in the articles "On the dependence of the solution of the Cauchy problem on initial data" and "On the diffusion of waves and lacunae for systems of hyperbolic equations", published in 1943, 1944. . However, it is clear that two small academic articles (with a total volume of less than 10 journal pages), no matter how informative they may be, would not become the basis for awarding their author with the highest prize of that time, but to give other information about his merits would be lo is impossible.

In subsequent years, scientific research work of a secret nature continued, most likely, to occupy, if not the main, then a very significant place in the activities of I.G. Petrovsky. Continuing close cooperation with Academician M.V. Keldysh, who since the late 1940s. switched to the development of rocket programs and became their main theorist, I.G. Petrovsky, as the head of the MIAN settlement bureau, joined this work as well. He considered that he had no right to refuse it even when he received new responsible appointments (since January 1947, instead of M.V. Keldysh, he was appointed deputy director of the MIAN; in June 1949 he was elected instead of Academician A.F. Ioffe Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences and at the same time a member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences). A new recognition of his merits at that time was the awarding of the scientist in 1949 with the third Order of the Red Banner of Labor "for outstanding services in the development of Soviet science and technology" (again - without any explanation of these merits).

From family events in the life of I.G. Petrovsky can be called the death of his father, Georgy Ivanovich, who died in 1948. Now his mother, Sofya Gerasimovna, who was already over 70 years old, and her sister, Alexandra Georgievna Martynenko, who was ill with pulmonary tuberculosis, were dependent on Ivan Georgievich. In an effort to improve their housing conditions (they lived in a small room in a communal apartment on Tulnoy Street, Ivan Georgievich signed up for a two-room apartment in a housing construction cooperative of the USSR Academy of Sciences. 1 in terms of size, he gave the room to his sister, where she settled in 1958 with her mother (Sofya Gerasimovna died in 1959, Alexandra Georgievna - in 1962), and a smaller room - Praskovya Alexandrovna Kruglova, who was mentioned, who, as wrote Ivan Georgievich, “has been living with my “family for a long time and has become a member of our family” (according to the fact that P.A. Kruglova lived in his family, I.G. Petrovsky had to give explanations to high-ranking officials in response to reports from “vigilant” citizens about “ exploitation” by an academician of someone else’s labor). In addition to those listed, Ivan Georgievich was dependent on his wife's sister, Lydia Afanasievna (married - Korobkova), whose only son died during the Great Patriotic War. The brother of the academician, Vasily Georgievich Petrovsky, returned to Moscow after the war, worked at the Military Academy of Armored Forces, then at the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze, had the rank of colonel. He died in 1997, only half a year before he reached 90 years old.

Ivan Georgievich himself, together with his wife Olga Afanasyevna, in 1949 finally managed to leave his inconvenient 2-room communal housing and move to an apartment on Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Street, received from the Administration of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The apartment consisted of 7 rooms, but the area (76 sq.m.) was not large. Here there was a place for a more spacious study of the scientist, and for his constantly replenished library. It was here that colleagues, friends, relatives, students came all subsequent years of I.G. Petrovsky. Even earlier, in 1948, as an academician, he received a country house on a site in the village of Abramtsevo, where living and recreation conditions were more comfortable than in the village of Ivanovka. However, the intense rhythm of work left little time and opportunities for a good rest.

The rise of Soviet science that occurred in the 1940s-1970s. and led to the creation of the country's nuclear missile shield, which became the main obstacle to realizing the threat of a third world war, to the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, to the beginning of space exploration and the first manned space flights, and to many other fundamental achievements , became possible only as a result of the outstanding creative successes of hundreds and thousands of Soviet scientists. The main coordinator of all this activity was the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, headed by such outstanding organizers of science as Sergei Ivanovich Vavilov (1945-1951), Alexander Nikolayevich Nesmeyanov (1951-1961), Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh (1961 -1975), Anatoly Petrovich Alexandrov (1975-1986). All of them were not only presidents of the Academy of Sciences, i.e. like the main administrators of science, but also outstanding scientists in their fields of knowledge, bright creative personalities, ardent patriots of the Fatherland, who devoted all their strength and abilities to the prosperity and development of Soviet science.

Creative communication with such personalities gave a huge intellectual charge to any scientist, and I.G. Petrovsky, this communication was quite systematic. It's SI. Vavilov in 1949 submitted to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks a proposal to elect I.G. Petrovsky, who relatively recently became an academician, to the post of Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences, instead of Academician A.F. Ioffe, who “permanently lives in Leningrad and pays little attention scientific institutions, located in its majority in Moscow. In a note to the Politburo of the Central Committee, sent by I.V. Stalin, head of the propaganda and agitation department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks D.T. Shepilov, this proposal was supported and became the basis for the corresponding decision of the Politburo. At the same time, I.G. Petrovsky was recommended for election to the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences ex officio as Academician-Secretary. So in 1949, as part of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences under the leadership of the SI. Vavilov turned out to be three rectors of Moscow State University: the former - V.P. Volgin, real (from the beginning of 1948) - A.N. Nesmeyanov and the future - I.G. Petrovsky.

In addition to being very busy with scientific and organizational work through the Academy of Sciences and its Mathematical Institute (in particular, in 1950, by a decision of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences, he was approved as the editor-in-chief of the journal Mathematical Collection), I.G. Petrovsky did not completely stop his teaching work at Moscow State University. As a professor, he read a number of lecture courses (on their basis, in 1947-1950, the academician published Lectures on the Theory of Integral Equations and Lectures on Partial Differential Equations, as well as the second and third expanded editions of Lectures on theory of ordinary differential equations”), led a seminar on differential equations, and in early 1951 he was elected head. Department of Differential Equations, Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, Moscow State University.

The student of the Faculty of Physics and Technology in 1947-1952, the future rector of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Academician O.M., later recalled the working conditions of the university at that time. Belotserkovsky: “Differential equations were read to us by Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky... Lectures were held in the assembly hall. As a rule, the assembly hall was not heated. Petrovsky walked around the small stage. He had a characteristic gesture - he rubbed his hands, slightly bent over. He gave a completely unique course in differential equations.” The same author rated the published textbook for this course as “a model, a masterpiece of clarity of presentation of mathematics”, and the conditions in which the lectures were given as “very difficult, if not

say terrible.

Nevertheless, at the time of the rectorship of A.N. Nesmeyanov, the staff of Moscow University had very high expectations. The fact is that, having become rector, Alexander Nikolayevich immediately raised the question of the need to build new buildings for Moscow State University. Soon head. Department of Science of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Yu.A. Zhdanov informed the rector that a decision had been made to build several high-rise buildings in Moscow and that one of these buildings should be requested for the needs of Moscow State University. A note-request was urgently drawn up addressed to I:V. Stalin, and already in March 1948 a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR appeared, providing for “to build during 1948-1952. for Moscow State University a new building on the Lenin Hills with a volume of 1700 thousand cubic meters. meters, with a height in the central part of at least 20 floors. The resolution decided to place the faculties of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mechanics and Mathematics, Geology and Soil and Geography in the new building. The faculties of the humanities (historical, philological, philosophical, economic and legal) were to continue to work in the old building on Mokhovaya Street. The resolution contained a list of educational and scientific madmen located in the new building: 23 general lecture audiences for 150-600 people each, 125 group audiences for 25-50 people each, 350 educational and the same number of scientific laboratories, specialized laboratories with a total area of ​​11 thousand square meters, an assembly hall for 1500 people, scientific and educational libraries for 1200 thousand volumes, as well as museums: geological, paleontological, minerals, mineralogical, soil, geographical, zoology and anthropology. In addition, it was planned to build living quarters for 5250 students and 750 graduate students, so that "each of them was provided with a separate room with amenities", as well as 200 apartments for faculty. A botanical garden for the Faculty of Biology was to be located on the adjacent territory. In total, a territory of 300 hectares was allocated at the disposal of the university on the Lenin Hills. It is curious that when the rector of Moscow State University L.N. Nesmeyanov considered it necessary to thank I.V. Stalin! for the decision, the answer was laconic: "I am doing my duty."

It is worth adding that the general management of the construction of all high-rise buildings in Moscow, including the Moscow State University complex, was entrusted to a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee II.P. Beria, because it was carried out mainly by the forces of prisoners. The head of Glavpromstroy A.N. was appointed the direct supervisor of the work. Komarovsky, who headed one of the most powerful construction organizations in the Gulag system. Another member of the Politburo, A.I. Mikoyan, who oversaw foreign trade, was given an I.V. Stalin ordered to purchase abroad all the new equipment needed for Moscow State University, which cannot be produced in the shortest possible time at domestic enterprises.

Naturally, during the period of construction on the Lenin Hills, the main attention of the rector was riveted there, but at the same time he had to deal with many other issues. In particular, A.N. Nesmeyanov developed new principles of university management, providing for the avoidance of excessive centralization, a significant increase in the rights and duties of deans in all areas of their activity, as well as the distribution of duties among vice-rectors not according to the generally accepted functional principle (for academic work and for scientific work), and in the sectoral, when one vice-rector provides comprehensive management of the natural faculties, and the other - the humanities faculties. This system, the main ideas of which were under A.N. Nesmeyanov were implemented only partially, then it was supported and developed by I.G. Petrovsky and successfully functioned at Moscow State University for a total of more than 40 years.

The negative processes that took place in the country within the framework of several ideological campaigns, which can conditionally be united under the name "struggle against cosmopolitanism", did not bypass Moscow State University at that time. One of the resolutions adopted by the Politburo of the Central Committee (in August 1948) directly concerned the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University. Its leadership was accused of "worshiping ... the idealistic-reactionary doctrine in biology" (we are talking about genetics), of hushing up the "achievements of Soviet agronomic science", first of all, the school of Academician T.D. Lysenko. It was impossible to go “against the current” in these conditions, and therefore A.N. Nesmeyanov had to hold an expanded meeting of the Council of Moscow State University in September 1948, where the “aggressive anti-Michurinists”, among whom were many leading representatives of biological science, were publicly condemned. Their place at the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University was taken by supporters of T.D. Lysenko, headed by I.I. Present. Thus, serious damage was done to the development of biological science at the university, the consequences of which were felt for more than a decade.

At the end of January 1951, the president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, S. L. Vavilov, died after a serious illness. The political leadership of the country, considering the issue of the successor of the deceased, settled on the candidacy of Academician A.N. Nesmeyanov, who at that time was the rector of Moscow State University and enjoyed considerable prestige in scientific circles. Here is what A.N. himself recalled about this. Nesmeyanov: “So, I unexpectedly became president of the Academy of Sciences. I needed to focus on a new job that was so responsible and so honorable. Naturally, there was no other way out than to part with the rectorship and with the construction of the university, which was dear to me. To whom should all this be passed on? I was consulted, and as a result of the discussion, they settled on Academician I.G. Petrovsky, a native university professor, who at that time was also the Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the Academy of Sciences. How successful this choice was is shown by the fact that until his death, for 20 years, Ivan Georgievich honorably served as rector. The burden of accepting the university building after the completion of construction in 1953 and moving the natural faculties from Mokhovaya to them, all the joys and difficulties of the future life of Moscow State University, its expansion and management fell on him.

Additional touches to this situation are brought by the memoirs of Academician E.M. Sergeyev: “In 1951, when A.N. Nesmeyanov as President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, ... the question arose about the rector of Moscow University. There were different candidates, but for A.N. Nesmeyanov had only one person whom he firmly supported as a successor - Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky. As far as I know, Alexander Nikolaevich proceeded from the fact that Ivan Georgievich, a well-known mathematician, academician, was the dean of a very difficult Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, managed to organize its work, was closely connected in his activities with space research and the further development of computerization, with the introduction of computers in the educational process and scientific research (remember that it was 1951).

Let's add one more opinion about I.G. Petrovsky - Academician A.D. Sakharova: “A great mathematician, he agreed in the early 50s. to take on the difficult position of rector, considering this as the fulfillment of some public duty - to youth and teachers. In those dark times, he was undoubtedly a man who showed great courage and perseverance in protecting teachers and students. And there was something to protect. Honest and talented teachers - from accusations of kowtowing before the West. Nvreev - from undisguised anti-Semitism.

Academician A.N. Nesmeyanov on the appointment of I.G. Petrovsky, of course, there were a number of approvals. Candidacy of I.G. Petrovsky was discussed and supported by the party committee of Moscow State University, the secretariat of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Ministry higher education USSR, from where a corresponding proposal was submitted to the Department of Science and Higher Educational Institutions of the Central Committee. On April 28, 1951, a note from the head of this department, Yu.A. Zhdanova entered the name of a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks G.M. Malenkov, was considered by the secretariat of the Central Committee, and, finally, on May 12, a resolution was adopted by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Committee of the Bolsheviks) “On the rector of the Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov". The main point of the resolution read: “Accept the proposal of the Ministry of Higher Education of the USSR on the approval of Comrade Petrovsky I.G. Rector of the Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov". On an extract from the protocol, signed by G.M. Malenkov, there are murals: V.M. Molotov, L.P. Beria, N.A. Bulganin, A.I. Mikoyan, L.M. Kaganovich, K.E. Voroshilov, A.N. Kosygin.

Signatures I.V. Stalin is not on this document, but it is almost certain that he not only knew about it, but also approved it. I.G. Petrovsky at that time was no longer perceived negatively. Since the country was going on, as it was then written in the official press, "the development of people's democracy" and there was an "indestructible bloc of communists and non-party people", it was necessary bright examples that not only members of the Party, but also non-Party patriots of the Soviet land can achieve a very high position in society. Rector of the country's largest Moscow University I.G. Petrovsky could become such an example.

True, according to the recently appeared version of Yu.N. Zhukov, since 1951, “Stalin had to practically step down from power and remain the head of state only symbolically,” and in this case, the decision to approve I.G. Petrovsky as the rector of Moscow State University could have happened without the participation of I.V. Stalin. One of the arguments given by Yu.N. Zhukov, as proof of the decrease in the real power of the leader, is associated with the new building of Moscow State University. According to the original project, the central, tallest building of the new Moscow State University was to be crowned with a huge statue of Stalin. This version of the project was repeatedly reproduced in the press, in particular, it was placed in the third volume of the second edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia as an illustration for the article "Architecture" (the volume was signed for publication in May 1950). But already in the ninth volume of this edition, signed for publication in December 1951, as an illustration for the article “High-Rise Buildings”, a photograph was reproduced, where instead of a grandiose statue of Stalin, a spire was placed, which was later installed.

In any case, among the employees of Moscow State University long time there was a widespread opinion about the favorable attitude of I.V. Stalin to I.G. Petrovsky. Thus, in a book published in 2003 by a former Moscow State University graduate V.A. Dimov “Lomonosov University, Circle of Founders. Oaths of Sparrow Hills. The era of I.G. Petrovsky" contains the statement that "many initiatives of the rector of Moscow State University to transfer famous physicists and mathematicians to the university from the so-called special institutions of the NKVD and camps, to obtain immunity from these bodies and to provide conditions and benefits for creative work were supported by the leader » The only pity is that the author of this interesting book did not provide any more specific examples or references to any sources.

As for the second side of these relations, i.e. the relationship of I.G. Petrovsky to I.V. Stalin, then it can be called respectful. Far from approving everything in the policy of the Soviet party and government leadership in the era of I.V. Stalin, I.G. Petrovsky, first of all, appreciated in Stalin - the leader of his attention to the development of Soviet science, his positive influence on the fate of Moscow University - both in the difficult years of the evacuation of the university from Moscow, and especially in 1948, when it was quickly decided to reorient the planned construction of a hotel complex on the Lenin Hills for the new building of Moscow State University. It is known to I.G. Petrovsky was also that, in addition to the construction of new university buildings, at the government level (under the leadership of the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Chairman of the State Planning Committee of the USSR M.Z. Saburov), all issues of re-equipping the natural faculties of Moscow State University, scheduled for transfer on the Lenin Hills, with the latest scientific equipment. Here is what the then rector of Moscow State University A.N. Nesmeyanov: “There was no refusal for anything. The university got everything he asked for. Many design bureaus and specialized institutes were loaded with assignments for the design of scientific equipment at Moscow State University.” All this made it possible to judge the high efficiency of the management system that developed under I.V. Stalin.

As for the sometimes distributed to I.G. Petrovsky's accusations of Stalinism, they are based mainly on the fact that shortly after the death of I.V. Stalin, the rector of Moscow State University, together with the leaders of the party, trade union, and Komsomol organizations of the university, turned to the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee with a request to name Moscow University after I.V. Stalin. Whether this was a sincere reaction of the university leaders to the news of the death of the leader, or whether such a request was initiated by someone from above is now hardly possible to establish. But this appeal, like a number of other similar ones, had no consequences, since April-July 1953 was the first, brief period of the beginning of de-Stalinization, carried out on the initiative of G.M. Malenkov and L.P. Beria. However, I.G. Petrovsky probably really considered it necessary to perpetuate the name of I.V. Stalin in connection with his role in the construction of new buildings of Moscow State University, and in January 1954 he turned to the chairman of the Moscow Council, M.A. Yasnov with a proposal to officially name the area in front of the entrance to the new main building Stalin Square.

But let's go back to May 1951. The resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which predetermined the issue of the rector of Moscow State University, was issued on May 18 by order of the Minister of Higher Education of the USSRV.N. Stoletov, who approved “Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor, Academician Petrovsky Ivan Georgievich as Rector of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomo-nosov. The next day I.G. Petrovsky entered the office of the rector of Moscow State University in the building at 24 Mokhovaya, already as the owner. A new, most important stage of his life and activity began.

The main concern of I.G. Petrovsky, after he took office as rector of Moscow State University, of course, was the completion of the construction of a complex of new buildings on the Lenin Hills. By this time, in the central part of the main building, the brickwork had been brought up to the 26th floor, the facing of the main building - up to the 16th-17th floors. Internal construction and finishing works were going on at full pace. However, the total amount of work that had to be done or completed was very large, because the main building was supposed to have 36 floors. Since the new buildings were intended for the natural faculties of Moscow State University, it is natural that the operational issues related to construction on behalf of the rector's office were decided by the vice-rector in charge of these faculties, and then appointed by the first vice-rector under A.N. Nesmeyanov. He was Professor G.O. Vovchenko, who continued to work as the first vice-rector until 1964. It was Grigory Danilovich who was the chairman of the commission for the acceptance of a new university complex and in August 1953 reported to the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR about the readiness of the university for launch.

This does not mean that all decisions related to the construction on the Lenin Hills were made "besides" the rector. I.G. Petrovsky regularly came to the construction site himself, delved into all aspects of the work being carried out, and in cases where any problems arose that required urgent action, he did not hesitate to make requests “to the very top”. So, in mid-July 1953, when all the work was nearing completion, a government decision was made signed by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR G.M. Malenkon, obliging the Ministry of Construction to urgently manufacture and supply 142 thousand special plugs according to the drawings of Moscow University. On August 27, 1953, a government commission accepted a complex of new university buildings on the Lenin Hills, consisting of 60 separate buildings. In order to imagine the scale of the work done, it is enough to compare some figures. In the old complex of Moscow State University there were 14 buildings with a total area of ​​35 thousand square meters, the working area of ​​the new buildings was 220 hectares. sq.m. In the old buildings there were 74 lecture halls and 192 laboratories, in the new ones there were 162 lecture rooms and 1693 educational and scientific laboratories. The area of ​​old student dormitories was 140,000 kbjw., the area of ​​dormitories for students and graduate students was 500,000 sq.m. Many prominent masters of the Soviet Union took part in the artistic design of the buildings of Moscow University and its interior. visual arts: sculptors MJK. Anikushin, EV. Vuchetich, L.E Kerbel, ST. Konenkov, S.D. Merkurov, V.I. Mukhina, SM. Orlov, N.V. Tomsky, V.E. Tsigal, painters SV. Gerasimov, P.D. Korin, G.G. Nissky, A.A. Plastov, Ya.D. Romas, I.D., Toidze and others.

Already on August 27, the new dormitory on the Lenin Hills accepted the first students of the natural faculties of Moscow State University, and on September 1, 1953, a nationwide rally took place on the square near the new university complex. At the rally dedicated to the opening of new buildings of Moscow State University, the first secretary of the MK CPSU N.A. Mikhailov, Minister of Culture of the USSR P.I. Ponomarenko, Chairman of the Moscow Council M.A. Yasnov, President of the USSR Academy of Sciences A.N. Ne-smeyanov, Rector of the University I.G. Petrovsky. The opening of the monument to M.V. Lomonosov in front of the main building, busts of P.N. Lebedev and A.G. Stoletov in front of the Faculty of Physics, D.I. Mendeleev and AM. Butlerov in front of the Faculty of Chemistry. At the same time, the Gallery of Scientists was opened in front of the main building, where busts of M.V. Lomonosov, N.I. Lobachevsky, A.I. Herzen, N.G. Chernyshevsky, P.L. Chebysheva, D.I. Mendeleev, A.S. Popova, K.V. Dokuchaeva, K.A. Timiryazev, N.E. Zhukovsky, I.P. Pavlova, I.V. Michurin. The streets and avenues adjacent to the universities were named after prominent Russian scientists: Vernadsky and Michurinsky avenues, Mendeleev and Lebedev streets.

As I.G. wrote later in the New Year's (1954) issue of the Moscow University newspaper. Petrovsky, September 1, 1953 "in essence, the second birth of the university took place." And then he summarized his idea: “In the wonderful classrooms, laboratories, offices of new buildings, the richest educational and scientific equipment is located. The engineering and technical equipment of the new buildings is second to none. There are all conditions for thoughtful and serious acquisition of knowledge, for relevant and diverse work.”

Being an outstanding scientist, I.G. Petrovsky understood that without the advancing development of science, the dynamic development of either production or society as a whole is impossible. It was the “scientific component”, so to speak, that became the priority task of Ivan Georgievich as rector of Moscow State University. This was already determined at the first meeting of the Academic Council of Moscow State University, held under the leadership of I.G. Petrovsky on June 12, 1951. Although the question submitted to this meeting was called “On the structure of Moscow University” and the rector in his report substantiated in detail the expediency of some structural changes in the life of the university, greater independence of deans in resolving the main issues of the faculties, special attention was drawn to the need to strengthen the staff of the university by attracting scientists of the highest qualification.

This course, which I.G. Petrovsky followed until the end of his days, was not welcomed by everyone. Under external academic politeness, completely different passions sometimes smoldered: increased ambition, envy of other people's successes, hostility towards “outsiders”, etc. Sometimes these negative motives of behavior were covered up by slogans of struggle for ideological purity, for the inadmissibility of harmful influences on student youth. With similar sentiments, I.G. Petrovsky had to face already in the first years of his rectorship among a significant part of the professors and teachers of the Faculty of Physics. At the heart of the conflict that arose even before the beginning of the rectorship of I.G. Petrovsky, there was an unwillingness of the main part of the teaching staff of the faculty, associated mainly with the development of problems of "classical" physics, to revise the existing structure of scientific courses and thereby prevent the strengthening of the influence of representatives of "new" trends in physical science, which had more support in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Hence the opposition between "university" science, which has an influx of talented young people, and "academic" science, which supposedly replenishes itself at the expense of those who are not needed by universities. University physicists were especially active in the late 1940s and early 1950s, during the campaign against cosmopolitanism. Letters were sent from them addressed to I.V. Stalin and other members of the Politburo with proposals to support patriot physicists”, recommending which of them should be given the Stalin Prize, who should be elected to the USSR Academy of Sciences, who should be awarded orders or honorary titles. The leading role in this campaign was played by the Dean of the Faculty of Physics A.A. Sokolov and professor V,F. Nozdrev, who for several years was the secretary of the party committee of the university.

When, after the death of I.V. Stalin's campaign of "fight against cosmopolitanism" was curtailed, and in the elections to the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1953, preference was given to representatives of new areas of physical science, this caused new letters to the leaders of the Politburo, in which the authors argued that "at present, the development prospects physicists in our country are in great danger” that “as a result of the last elections in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, persons unworthy in their business and political qualities were elected to a number of vacancies ... while a number of prominent physicists of Moscow State University. .., and especially communist scientists, ... were not elected.” At the same time, the authors of the letters claimed that “the rector of Moscow State University, Academician I.G. Petrovsky, with the support of the Ministry of Higher Education of the USSR, are rapidly taking measures aimed at liquidating a number of major scientific schools and areas of the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University ... Their goal is to expel a number of prominent physicists from Moscow University by changing the structure of the faculty ... Conducted by the rector of the university academician I.G. Petrovsky... the measures are of a political nature and can have a very sad effect on the development of physical science and the training of physics personnel in our country.” Thus, the label of the head of "politically unreliable" was hung on the rector.

To consider the current situation, by the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU in December 1953, a commission was created under the chairmanship of the Minister of Medium Machine Building of the USSR V.A. Malyshev, which, in addition to the staff of the apparatus of the Central Committee, included the First Deputy Minister of Culture of the USSR SV. Kaftanov, President of the USSR Academy of Sciences A.N. Nesmeyanov, academician of ShZ. Kurchatov and Rector of Moscow State University of Arts.G. Petrovsky. In the conclusion prepared by the commission, sent to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU (G.M. Malenkova and N.S. Khrushchev), in particular, it was noted: faculty of leading scientists. Leading Soviet physicists who are successfully developing the most important problems in the field of modern physics, do not take part in the work of the faculty of Moscow State University ... Significant shortcomings in the work of the faculty are largely due to the unsatisfactory management of scientific work on the part of the dean's office of the faculty and the rector's office of Moscow State University. But, criticizing the leadership of the rector, the commission actually fully supported the course of I.G. Petrovsky to update the content of the scientific work of the faculty by attracting the most prominent physicists. In August 1954, the secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU, on the basis of the submitted conclusion, adopted a resolution “On measures to improve the training of physicists at Moscow State University” classified as “top secret”. In accordance with this resolution, Professor A.A. Sokolov was relieved of the post of dean of the faculty. Professor F.S. was appointed in his place. Fursov, one of the leading experts in the field of nuclear physics. Among the professors dismissed from Moscow State University was V.F. Nozdrev. Academician I.V. Kurchatov.

In the conditions when some professors were dismissed from leading work or left the university, who, according to I.G. Petrovsky, “prevented the invitation of major scientists to the faculty”, from the mid-1950s. Academicians L.A. Artsimovich, N.N. Bogomolov, L.D. Landau, M.A. Leontovich, D.V. Skobeltsyn, I.E. Tamm, A.V. Shubnikov, V.V. Shuleikin and some other leading Russian physicists. This allowed the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University not only to overcome a rather long period of difficulties, but also to become one of the most scientifically active departments of the university.

I.G. Petrovsky had the ability to see the main prospects for the development of world science and tried to direct the efforts of the team he led to keep up with the times. Here is how academician A.N. Belozersky: “I.G. Petrovsky is not only a major mathematician, but also an organizer of science. He has an important feature - to anticipate and understand new scientific directions, which are just appearing or will appear in the near future and will be important not only for the development of science, but also for the economy of our country. He in every possible way promotes these new emerging and emerging areas of knowledge, realizing that they should be developed primarily at the university, since the university trains personnel with which these areas should be provided.

But how I.G. Petrovsky saw the tasks facing the university: “What is the main task of university education? I would formulate this task as follows: to study what actually exists in nature, the laws of social development and predict what will be on the basis of these laws ... The task of the university is to train such people who will study nature, society in 5-10 years... It is very difficult to foresee what will happen then, in what direction science will develop in 5-10 years, what will be especially relevant there. In general, it is very difficult to assess what is the most promising in science even at the present time, what are those germs of science that will develop especially rapidly in the future, because these germs are most often at first barely noticeable, difficult to distinguish. Hence the special attention to the latest achievements of science with the simultaneous search for ways and forms of their organizational implantation in the structure of the university.

Being not only the head of the university, but also a patriot of the Fatherland, I.G. Petrovsky did not hide his chagrin when he saw that Soviet science lagged behind the situation in other developed countries. Here are just some of his statements on this subject:

“We cannot put up with the state of our science when most of the major, perhaps the largest, discoveries of recent times were not made by our scientists: we did not invent high-speed electronic computers; we were not the first to master atomic energy; unfortunately, not a single new elementary particle has been found in the Soviet Union; we were not the first to create antibiotics, we were not the first to discover streptocide, streptomycin, etc.; we have not deciphered the chemical formula of any vitamin, not a single hormone. Then we quickly master large ideas, develop them, but for the first time they were not found with us, and we must strive to ensure that we have made the largest scientific discoveries(January 1957);

"On Faculty of Economics the Department of Mathematical Methods was organized in economics. This branch requires close attention. We have too few qualified workers in this area in our country ... Our economists are well aware of the general principles of Marxist economics ... But that's not all: they must know the specific questions of the economy ”;

“The Faculty of Law... must train workers of the Soviet apparatus... But in order to train such workers, our lawyers themselves need to learn a lot... It is necessary, having critically reviewed Western experience, to see what can be applied in us how to improve, change what is being done there. But our lawyers, apparently, have no desire to learn themselves before teaching others ... I still think that legal science is not to determine how many years in prison to give for various kinds of crimes, but its main the task is to ensure that there are no crimes”;

“Our main trouble is not that we lag behind world science in many areas, and not that our humanities are not up to the mark. The main thing is that many do not realize this and prefer to be content with praise" (1967).

Perfectly understanding the importance of the development of electronic computers and computational mathematics for accelerating scientific and technological progress, I.G. Petrovsky constantly sought to build up their potential at Moscow University. However, this was accompanied by considerable difficulties, since the top political leadership of the country, being in captivity of ideological dogmas, clearly underestimated or simply misunderstood the essence of electronic computing technology. It was in the 1950s, when its significance became obvious, that a campaign of "fight against cybernetics" was launched in the country. The special secrecy of all works in this direction did not contribute to the development of computational mathematics and computer technology. Nevertheless, in 1956, on the basis of the research department of computer technology that existed at the Department of Computational Mathematics of Moscow State University, the Computing Center of Moscow University was organized and in December of the same year the first at the university and one from the first in the USSR electronic digital computer (ECVM) "Strela". It was on this machine that they were carried out in 1958-1961. complex calculations for the space program of the Soviet Union. By the beginning of the 1970s. A powerful fleet of electronic computers was created at Moscow State University, which was on a par with the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine Building, which led the atomic and thermonuclear projects, and the USSR Academy of Sciences. The computer center of Moscow State University also had the most high-performance domestic machine of that time - BESM-6 (up to 1 million operations per second).

It would seem that one could talk about serious successes in this area. But, when on one of the last in the life of I.G. Petrovsky meetings of the Academic Council of Moscow State University, held in April 1972, summed up this work, the rector said: “To have perspectives, it is useful to compare the level of our computers and American ones. Now American mass-produced machines are 10-15 times more powerful than BESM-6. Unfortunately the levels are between computer technology in our country and in America they do not converge, but even diverge. Things are not going well."

At the same time, if I.G. Petrovsky saw that some work of scientists and students of Moscow State University led to new discoveries, he sincerely rejoiced at this and tried to provide the necessary assistance in continuing the work. For example, when in 1951 in Novgorod, under the guidance of the head of the Department of Archeology of Moscow State University, Professor A.V. Artsikhovsky, the first birch bark letters were discovered, this discovery interested I.G. Petrovsky, and on the initiative of the rector, the Novgorod Archaeological Expedition became the main base for the archaeological practice of students of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. In the summer of 1967 I.G. Petrovsky found an opportunity to come to Novgorod for a short time in order to get acquainted with the organization of work on the spot. He talked with students and employees, got acquainted with Novgorod and its environs, visited Staraya Russa, a city associated with the name of F.M. Dostoevsky and became the prototype of Skotoprigonyevsk for the great writer in his novel The Brothers Karamazov. Considering it unacceptable that there is no museum of F.M. Dostoevsky, I.G. Petrovsky initiated the creation of such a museum and provided practical assistance in this matter.

Seeing the selfless work of art restorers A.P. and V.B. Grekovs, who worked in the Novgorod Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior on Kovalev, ruined by the Nazis, on the restoration of the famous frescoes of 1380, which were, as it were, an artistic monument to the victory on Kulikovo Field, Ivan Georgievich considered it his duty to be useful here as well. The university provided assistance in the restoration of the Kovalevsky frescoes both with finances and with its employees, for whom the work became a useful experience in the restoration of works of art. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that, on the initiative of I.G. Petrovsky university historians, archaeologists, and art critics began a very voluminous work on the preparation of a multi-volume edition of "Essays on Russian Culture", and the work on the preparation of a volume dedicated to the culture of the XIII-XV centuries, at the request of the rector, was headed and successfully completed in 1969 by A. IN. Artsikhovsky. Scientists of Moscow State University continue this work at the present time.

Ratuya for the development of Soviet science, I.G. Petrovsky at the same time perfectly understood that scientific progress has no boundaries. Speaking in April 1957 in a radio broadcast for England, he said: “Science can fruitfully develop only in conditions of constant, close communication between scientists from different countries. Therefore, Soviet scientists are extremely interested in establishing and maintaining such close communication with their foreign colleagues.

Such wishes, however, by no means corresponded to the position of the top party leadership of the country. Therefore, even for the rector of Moscow State University, the possibilities of traveling abroad were strictly limited (his non-partisanship also played a role). Only twice as part of the delegations of Soviet scientists I.G. Petrovsky traveled to England: in May 1956 and in July 1958. Following the traditions of that time - when comparing, give preference to Soviet, domestic, and in capitalist countries to notice, first of all, negative aspects, I. G. Petrovsky, in his report on the first trip, probably quite sincerely concluded that “our system of education in higher education is much more harmonious,” but this conclusion did not prevent the scientist from seeing a lot of interesting and useful things in the English system of education. Here are just some of such observations by I.G. Petrovsky:

a) in England “education begins at the age of five”, and “in our country they go to schools from the age of seven or eight” (the conclusion is “It’s very late!”);

b) “in England there is a close connection between universities and secondary schools, ... thanks to which universities know who graduate from school, they have the opportunity to actively select students” (conclusion - “the selection system in England is better than ours”;

c) “they have an Academy of Pedagogical Sciences”, which “deals with essential issues - ... about the reasons for dropping out students, ... about how to select talented people, and others ...; the staff of the entire institution is 10 people” (the conclusion is “we need to learn from them about the staff”);

d) “there are no laboratory assistants at all in the experimental laboratories in which students work during the fourth-sixth year of study” and “this greatly increases the level of experimental preparedness of students and independent work in the future" (conclusion - "it would be useful for us to adopt this good experience"); e) “an important place in England is occupied by the education of students”, which is “entirely carried out in colleges, boarding houses at universities, which take care of the progress of students and their education”; “you need to know everything about a student: about his circle of acquaintances, with whom and what he talks about, ... what he thinks”, “students always have lunch there with professors”, “the head of the college invites 6 students every week for a cup of tea ”(the conclusion is “it would be very good if our teachers visited student dormitories more often, talked with students, got acquainted with the range of their interests, their questions as well”).

In the final part of his report on the trip to England, I.G. Petrovsky once again emphasized that “our system is much more harmonious and in many ways much more reasonable,” but then his thought became philosophically alarming: “Only we should think a lot about how, with our system, which allows it’s easy to do a lot of things that are reasonable, not to do stupid things, because if you systematically do stupid things, then it’s terrible.”

In any case, understanding the benefits of international scientific contacts, I.G. Petrovsky, at the time of his rectorship, sought to establish and expand such contacts (if we keep in mind not only the fact that many students from socialist and developing countries were studying at Moscow State University). Since September 1954, when the well-known English scientist Professor John Bernal gave a lecture at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University (later he became an honorary doctor of Moscow State University), the university has repeatedly received prominent figures of foreign science: the president of the Danish Academy of Sciences, laureate Nobel Prize Niels Bohr, physicists P. Dirac (England) and Nobel Prize winner X. Yukawa (Japan), biologists A. Petrucci (Italy) and Nobel Prize winner F. Sanger (England), geochemist X. Hawkes (USA), historian A. Sobul (France), cybernetics specialist W. Ashby (USA) and many others. Among the foreign guests of the university were political leaders of a number of states: I. Broz Tito (Yugoslavia), G.A. Nasser (Egypt), F. Castro (Cuba), G. Macmillan (Great Britain), C. de Gaulle (France), Sukarno (Indonesia), Zhou En-Lai (China) and others, and UN Secretary General D. Hammarskjöld and U Thant, and the prominent writer and public figure L. Aragon (France), and the famous cartoonist H. Bidstrup (Denmark), and other figures from different countries. Some of these guests, as well as a number of others, were awarded the title of honorary doctor of Moscow State University.

In September 1958, a group of teachers and students from the English University of Oxford attended lectures at Moscow State University on world and Soviet economics, literature, and history. In September 1962, the university hosted the participants of the VII General Assembly of the World Federation of Scientists, in August 1965 - participants of the International Congress of Mathematicians (Academician I.G. Petrovsky was elected president of the Congress), on August 6, 1966 - participants of the International Congress psychologists, August 6, 1971 - participants of the International Congress of Historians. In the same year, 1971, an agreement was signed on scientific and cultural cooperation between Moscow and Bucharest Universities, and the following year, a similar agreement was signed with Warsaw University. In turn, a number of MSU professors traveled to other countries to participate in international scientific conferences and congresses, as well as to give lectures.

But as for the exchange of students, I.G. Petrovsky was against this. He doubted that Soviet students could get better scientific training abroad than in their own country, but he did not exclude the possibility that one of them would be carried away by various temptations instead of science.

In general, I.G. Petrovsky as rector great importance gave not only the scientific training of students, but also their patriotic, moral, aesthetic education. At a meeting held in October 1956 general meeting professors of Moscow State University, he said: “The country has the right to demand from us that ... the mass of university graduates have good special training and have a high general culture, so that our graduates love their homeland, their people and are ready to work for its benefit.” While sharply negatively assessing certain facts of offenses and even crimes of "very bad students", the rector nevertheless stated that he was "much more concerned about mass manifestations of uncivilized and bad manners", including rudeness, theft and thievery among the most common negative manifestations among students. -in, drunkenness, hooliganism, lack of respect for nature.

However, the reasons for such phenomena I.G. Petrovsky saw not in the youth itself (“our youth is generally good”), but in the obviously insufficient efforts of the teaching staff to direct the activity of youth “on the right path.” Instead of “carefully studying the needs and interests of students, ... working with students systematically and on a daily basis”, many teachers, according to the rector, carried out educational assignments formally, and some sometimes covered up the immoral behavior of some students with links on their talent. The position of I.G. Petrovsky on this score is clear: talents "need to be developed, but at the same time - it is necessary ... to make serious demands on them."

But I.G. Petrovsky, as a rector, never abused administrative measures, considering it much more effective to give benevolent advice, involve him in socially useful activities, set a positive example, "teach students to see and appreciate ... the good." The formation of a spiritually rich, morally and physically strong personality can be actively promoted by collective creative work, a benevolent attitude towards other people, a healthy lifestyle (including physical education and sports X communication with nature, literature, art. Therefore, during traditional meetings with I. G. Petrovsky, focusing on a responsible attitude to academic work, on the need to systematically engage in science independently, at the same time advised students: “Do not give up the pleasure of listening to good music, visiting the theater, the Tretyakov Gallery.”

The administration of Moscow State University not only acted as an organizer of various events for students on cultural topics, but also supported student social and cultural initiatives. The main center of such activities was the House of Culture on the Lenin Hills, which began its work in September 1953.

Here are just a few (in chronological order) of the events of the cultural life of Moscow State University in the 1950s-1960s:

October 1954 - the beginning of the work of the literary association of students of the faculty of journalism;

October 1955 - the choir of Moscow University took 1st place in the competition of Moscow youth academic choirs;

December 1956 - the Moscow State University Light Music Orchestra was organized (headed by A. Kremer);

December 1956 - one of the first in the country amateur film studio "MGU-FILM" was created in the recreation center on the Lenin Hills;

July 1957 - for the film "We were in virgin lands", the film amateurs of Moscow State University received the 1st prize at the Moscow Film Fans Festival;

May 1958 - the student university theater was opened (directed by R. Bykov), on the stage of which A. Demidova, I. Savvina and other famous actors began their creative life;

December 1960 - meeting of students with M.A. Sholokhov, who read the last chapters of the second volume of Virgin Soil Upturned;

April 1961 - the student international theater was opened (chief director - M.I. Marshak), in which representatives of more than 40 countries participated;

October 1964 - conference at the Faculty of Philology, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of M.Yu. Lermontov;

March 1965 - evening in memory of N.P. Ogarev in connection with the transfer of his ashes from England to his homeland;

October 1968 - the first lesson of the literary association at the House of Culture of the humanities faculties (head - I. Volgin);

May 1969 - a solemn meeting and the opening of an exhibition dedicated to the 225th anniversary of the birth of N.I. Novikov in the village Avdotino, Stupino district, Moscow region.

The last event deserves a special mention. In 1968-1969 students of Moscow State University spent in with. Avdotino, which was the estate of the outstanding Russian educator of the 18th century, publisher and journalist Nikolai Ivanovich Novikov, the first priority work was to repair and put in order the preserved monuments of the estate. With the help of the university, a library was opened in the preserved wing and an exhibition about the life and work of N.I. Novikov. However, officially the complex of monuments in the village. Avdotino was not taken under state protection, and in 1970 I.G. Petrovsky wrote a letter to the First Secretary of the CPSU Moscow Committee V.I. Konotop, where he substantiated the need for such a decision for the cause of "patriotic education" and asked the regional authorities to expedite the preparation of the necessary documentation. On the part of the university, the rector expressed his readiness to send a student construction team to carry out restoration work, publish a brochure-guide to Avdotino, take patronage of the library, and replenish the exposition of the exhibition about the life and work of N.I. with new materials. Novikov. Involving students of Moscow State University in such socially useful affairs, as in Avdotino, as earlier in Novgorod and Staraya Russa, I.G. Petrovsky strove to practically involve student youth in the knowledge of the historical roots of their Fatherland. When, in 1964, among the Moscow students, under the influence of meetings with some prominent cultural figures of the "Russophile" trend (architect-restorer P.D. Baranovsky, artist I.S. Glazunov, poet V.A. Soloukhin and others), an amateur club arose of ancient Russian art, later called "Motherland", the only university leader who actively supported this initiative was the rector of Moscow State University I.G. Petrovsky.

Period 1950-1960s was important historical stage development of Soviet society, when, after the death of I.V. Stalin, the situation in the country began to gradually change - from a rigid total regulation of life and ideology to a slightly greater freedom of thought, creativity, to the so-called "thaw", from international confrontation to a policy of detente. And although the struggle for political leadership in the highest echelons of power led to certain instability and fluctuations in the political course, especially during the years of Khrushchev's "voluntarism", in general this period was not only a time of great expectations, but also great achievements and positive changes.

For employees and students of Moscow State University, this time was also, and even to a greater extent than for ordinary citizens, a period of involvement in many social and political events. In May 1955, Moscow University, in connection with the 200th anniversary of its founding, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (the first award, the Order of Lenin, he received back in 1940). On May 7, a meeting of employees and students dedicated to this event took place, and in the evening a solemn meeting was held at the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, in which all party and state leaders of the country took part. On May 9, a solemn meeting of the Academic Council of Moscow State University dedicated to the anniversary was held, in which representatives of all universities of the Soviet Union and many foreign universities from 26 countries of the world, in total about 2 thousand people, took part. Rector of Moscow State University Academician I.G. Petrovsky.

The 20th Congress of the CPSU, which took place in February 1956, caused a great resonance, especially the report of N.S. Khrushchev about Stalin's personality cult. One example of how the decisions of the XX Congress influenced the socio-political activity of students of Moscow State University is the meeting “On the Place of Journalism in the Social and Political Life of the Country” held at the Faculty of Journalism in the spring of 1956. Such an agenda was proposed not from above, but by the students themselves - the Komsomol bureau of the fourth year of the faculty of journalism. All speeches at the meeting were transcribed by the students themselves, and the transcript of the recording was printed and posted for public viewing. The political meaning of the report made at the meeting (with which the fourth-year Komsomol organizer I. Dedkov spoke) is clearly conveyed by his concluding words: nym. From now on, the vigilance of the people is the guarantee.” The initiators of the meeting were later accused of petty-bourgeoisism, anarchism, political bad manners and other sins, but no sanctions were applied to them.

New moods affected not only future journalists. In the same old building of Moscow State University on Mokhovaya, in connection with the approaching 40th anniversary of the revolutionary events of 1917, public discussions began to be held for the first time with the participation of professors and teachers not only of Moscow State University, but also of other Moscow universities. The author of this article, at that time a Moscow student of history, happened to be present at these discussions, and I remember well how sharply and polemically the disputes were sometimes conducted here, and the obvious sympathies of the majority of the students were not on the side of the "orthodox", but on their side. opponents, among whom the professors of Moscow State University set the tone.

Therefore, it is no coincidence that modern researchers studying the mood in Soviet society in the post-war decades note that the so-called “sixties” are mainly people born in the 1930s. and former students in the 1950s. It is only worth noting that, along with the "sixties", whose ideals were clearly associated with "Westernism", another part of this student generation, not so noisy engaged, was looking for the meaning of life not on a foreign side, but on their own Russian land, in the centuries-old history of its people, among Russian spirituality and culture.

But for the most part, students of Moscow State University, like other Soviet universities, did not consider themselves either "sixties" or "Russophile patriots", but were, even being carried away by foreign films, jazz and fashionable Western dances, sincere Soviet patriots who believed in advantage of socialist ideals. Although they doubted the feasibility of N.S. Khrushchev in 20 years to build communism in the USSR, nevertheless, they were ready to work conscientiously and even enthusiastically for the benefit of the socialist Motherland.

MSU students proved this by participating in harvesting on virgin lands in 1956, working in student construction teams, hosting participants in the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow in 1957, rejoicing at the successes of Soviet science and technology and enthusiastically welcoming at Moscow State University in 1961, the first pilot-cosmonaut Yu.A. Gagarin.

In November 1961, the 250th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian scientist, poet and citizen M.V. was celebrated at a high state level. Lomonosov, whose name was and continues to be the Moscow University. On November 20, at the solemn meeting of the Academic Council of Moscow State University with the report “M.V. Lomonosov and Moscow University” was made by Rector I.G. Petrovsky. An exhibition dedicated to M.V. Lomonosov, and scientific Lomonosov readings began at the faculties. The next day, a solemn meeting dedicated to the anniversary date was held at the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, which was attended by the leaders of the party and government.

There were also celebrations in honor of the 20th and 25th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin and other similar events of a smaller scale. However, the effectiveness of such events, which followed one after another at short intervals, began to be questioned by people who thought not about the front side of life, but about its daily impact on people. The non-partisan rector of Moscow State University allowed himself to express such doubts at a meeting of the university’s party activists in November 1962: “Everyone educational activities we focus on the entire student mass, on some faceless conglomerate of faceless people. We forget that this is a mass of young people, very different, often not at all similar to each other. Focusing on something in between, we do not reach the individual student, we do not see his individual interests, we do not know his thoughts, doubts, and therefore we cannot help him in time, correct him.

Another perspective of this problem I.G. Petrovsky raised, speaking in February 1964 at the academic council of the humanities faculties: “But man will not live by bread alone, material well-being alone does not give happiness to a person and never will. It is important to educate a person in such a way, to create such a mood in him, to educate his feelings in such a way that it would be easy for him to live himself and it would be easy for others to live with him ... It is necessary to educate people's feelings in such a way that they would like to do good and not to do bad. The education of feelings is the most important task of the humanities faculties.

It is easy to see that both of the above thoughts of I.G. Petrovsky were by no means in tune with the party's guidelines for the primary ideological education of the builders of a communist society. But ideological rhetoric was not honored within the walls of Moscow State University, and it came primarily from the behavior of the rector himself, and from him spread to others.

Appearing in the 1960s, especially under L.I. Brezhnev, the course towards the priority promotion of successes in all areas of socialist and communist construction and the curtailment of criticism of earlier mistakes could not meet with the active support of I.G. Petrovsky as a scientist and citizen, since complacency was not inherent in him. Thus, the book Moscow University during the Years of Soviet Power, published in 1967, was edited by I.G. Petrovsky, was hardly favorably received by the party leadership. In a great work, there was no place even for a simple mention of the party and state leaders of the Soviet Union and the city of Moscow, and this leadership itself was presented through references to directive documents (decisions of party congresses, resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR, orders of the Ministry higher education in the USSR, etc.). At the same time, the book did not ignore the negative phenomena that existed at Moscow State University, in particular - in the development historical science: “We studied mainly questions of the history of the October Revolution, the Civil War and the first years of socialist construction. However, until the mid-1950s, the history of Soviet society was developed at the university as a whole less intensively than other areas. national history. This was due to many reasons: the almost complete lack of knowledge of the documentary base, the lack of established scientific traditions in this field of science, the lack of personnel, which intensified in the post-war years, the cult of personality of I.V. Stalin and related phenomena. But at that time they preferred not to mention the cult of personality.

The independent position of the rector of Moscow State University on many issues met with hidden irritation among party functionaries. A peculiar situation of a certain “duality” arose. The ever-increasing authority of Moscow State University in the training of highly qualified personnel, in the development of science, in strengthening ties with universities in foreign countries, had a corresponding effect on strengthening the authority of I.G. Petrovsky as the rector of the university. The authorities were forced to reckon with this fact.

In the first years of the rectorship of I.G. Petrovsky was twice awarded for his old merits: in 1952 he was awarded the Stalin Prize of the 2nd degree for published in 1949-1951. textbooks on several sections of higher mathematics (probably, the scientist's contribution to secret works was also taken into account); in 1953 he was awarded the Order of Lenin "for long service and impeccable work" (nebulous and "streamlined" wording is also clearly visible here). Then he was elected a deputy of the Moscow City Council, and in 1955 he became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. The party and state leaders of the country, as it were, "looked at" I.G. Petrovsky, assessing his business and organizational qualities, social activity, the degree of political loyalty to the existing system and had the opportunity to be convinced of the high responsibility of I.G. Petrovsky for the assigned work, in his competence as a leader, in the absence of any political ambitions or opposition moods in the scientist.

Since 1961, in the life of I.G. Petrovsky began a period when, in the words of one of his correspondents, he was "downright showered with awards." In 1961, he was awarded the second Order of Lenin "for great services in the development of mathematics and the training of highly qualified specialists for the national economy, active social activities and in connection with the 60th anniversary. In 1967, already without any anniversary, I.G. Petrovsky was awarded the Order of Lenin for the third time "for great services in the development of Soviet science and training of personnel, active social activities." In 1969, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin (fourth in a row) and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal "for great success in the development of Soviet science." Finally, in January 1971, I.G. Petrovsky was awarded the fifth Order of Lenin "for great services in the development of Soviet science and training of personnel, active social activities and in connection with the 70th anniversary of his birth." It should be added that during the same period the scientist was awarded the highest orders of Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR, as well as the French Order of the Legion of Honor, Soviet and foreign medals and distinctions, that he was elected an honorary doctor of several foreign universities, that since 1962 he was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and since 1966 he was a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Such increased attention to the merits and personality of I.G. Petrovsky was, on the one hand, due to his very high authority among the scientific and pedagogical community, the authority of not only a leader and scientist, but also a person. This is what many colleagues of I.G. Petrovsky, in particular, Academician K.K. Markov, who called him "a figure whom I highly respect for exceptional human qualities." And here is an excerpt from the letter of Academician Ya.B. Zeldovich: “Dear Ivan Georgievich! On the day of your 70th birthday, I can tell you something that I would not have dared to say at another time. You are not only respected and appreciated, but you are also loved and I warmly share this love. Outstanding scientific results have given you the right to independence, pride, independence. Together with your human qualities: justice, courage, activity, it turned out just the combination that is needed for a great cause. The University is a big team... but you set the tone for this... Take care of yourself, dear Ivan Georgievich! Let your pure tone sound for a very long time, by which we compare our work and our conscience.

But there was probably a second, underlying reason for the attention to I.G. Petrovsky from party and state leaders: to “tame” an independent rector, to hear from him a high assessment of his services to the Fatherland, realizing that such an assessment could cause a wide resonance. However, the rector continued to work for the benefit of the university, not glorifying and pleasing, not demonstrating ostentatious well-being, but rather firmly defending his understanding of the concept of the development of higher education, which did not always coincide with the party line. For example, when in the 1950s on the initiative of the Central Committee, the principle of preferential admission of the so-called “production workers”, I.G. Petrovsky, without directly opposing this line of the Central Committee and agreeing "that it is necessary in every possible way to encourage talented people with industrial experience to enter a higher school", resolutely opposed the fact that the most talented graduates of a secondary school immediately after graduation not be admitted to the university. The rector, however, made a reservation that “for such faculties as the faculty of law and the faculty of journalism, it is worth accepting people only with work experience.” But, in order to prevent dropping out of the best school graduates of future talented mathematicians, physicists, chemists, I.G. Petrovsky considered it necessary to personally get acquainted with the written works of applicants and was indignant if two or three commas were missing or excessively placed as an obstacle to admission to the natural faculties for some talented children. At the same time, indulgences for the children and grandchildren of high-ranking officials or other famous people were not allowed, despite any moves, and this increased the number of ill-wishers in relation to the rector.

I.G. Petrovsky was well aware that the problems of improving the quality of the educational and scientific work of the university are largely related to the school, that “a person remains in many respects for life the way he leaves the secondary school”, because “his character is formed there, his attitude to the Motherland, to his comrades, to people in general, his attitude to work, science, culture. Therefore, Ivan Georgievich said, the quality of training specialists in universities depends on the level of work of a secondary school. And "the quality of the work of the school will always be determined mainly by the teacher, his knowledge, his love for the subject, for science, his personality." Therefore, I.G. Petrovsky did not miss the opportunity to from any high rostrum, whether All-Russian Congress teachers (1960) or a meeting of the ideological commission of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1963), address first of all to the leaders of public education bodies with a proposal to “unload teachers from petty care”, “not ... load ... with meetings, setting plans and reports”, so that the teacher “could read books, magazines, think about what they read”, “improve their culture”, could, if desired, engage in scientific work.

But in any case, teachers working in rural areas or small towns did not have such opportunities as teachers in Moscow, and therefore general level the training of Moscow schoolchildren was noticeably higher, although rural schoolchildren, as I.G. Petrovsky, "have no worse abilities." This situation could be corrected only by opening a specialized boarding school at Moscow University. This idea, first expressed by Academician A.N. Kolmogorov, was actively supported by I.G. Petrovsky, who in a short time managed to achieve the adoption in August 1963 of a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the organization "as an experiment at Moscow State University of a specialized boarding school for physics and mathematics." In September of the same year, an order from Moscow State University determined the procedure for recruiting and operating this school, and a board of trustees was created under the chairmanship of A.N. Kolmogorov. Many hundreds of pupils of the boarding school then joined the number of students of Moscow State University and a considerable part of them actively showed themselves in science.

The very system of selection for training in a specialized boarding school is noteworthy, which probably took into account the opinion of I.G. Petrovsky on this issue. It organically combined the study of the personality of the future applicant by getting acquainted with the recommendation of the pedagogical council of the school where he had previously studied, and with the results of his participation in subject Olympiads; exams only in major subjects (no exams in Russian and foreign languages), an interview between a scientist and an applicant, where in a dialogue between two people (“eye to eye”) the result of the admission was finally determined.

It is direct contacts between the teacher and the student I.G. Petrovsky always considered and the best way studying the student's personality, and the most effective form of training and education of young people, being skeptical about any attempt to automate the educational process and allowing it only as an auxiliary element. And this is quite understandable. If we see in pupils and students only objects that are subject to learning, understood as saturation with the necessary information, then any tests, complete automation and computerization are suitable for working with them, i.e. everything that can be reduced to certain frameworks and schemes that are easy to program and verify (and what else do many education officials need?). If, however, we see in the pupil and student, first of all, a personality with all its characteristics, inclinations and interests, then only another personality can positively influence its formation and development - a more knowledgeable, more experienced, wiser teacher, lecturer, professor . Of course, if the teacher himself will formally relate to his official duties, will not be interested in science and culture, and in communication move away from sensitive issues or simply show indifference, then there will be little benefit from such a person for young people, but so far our pupils and students still have someone to look up to, and in the provinces the number of real teachers is no less than in the capital centers.

Did I.G. Pegrovsky in the last decades of his life had any connection with his native city of Sevsk? Unfortunately, there is very little reliable information about this. There is evidence that in the summer of 1958 Ivan Georgievich came to Sevsk, but a short trip left him sad impressions. The unhealed traces of the war in the city were heavily damaged boxes of stone buildings, not yet dismantled, but not repaired either. The parental house was preserved, but it was the property of the city council and strangers lived in it. For the party leadership of the Sevsky district, the arrival of some non-party academician, even if he was a countryman, did not become an event deserving serious attention. Moreover, some Sevsk party "activists" in these years, and even later, wrote to the relevant authorities about their bewilderment why the son of a merchant and landowner-exploiter occupies the high position of rector of Moscow State University. Only the chairman of the Sevsky district executive committee I.S. Mazhukin assisted the guest in organizing a trip to memorable places in the Sevsky district. But there was nothing left in the former grandfather's estates - no house, no outbuildings, no gardens, no water mill on the pond - only desolation in the place of its former beauty.

Once again, Ivan Georgievich visited the Bryansk land in September 1968 during the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the liberation of the Bryansk region from the Nazi invaders at the invitation of the First Secretary of the Regional Committee of the CPSU M.K. Krakhmaleva. They met in Moscow, both being deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Ivan Georgievich with his wife Olga Afanasievna, together with the leaders of the region, visited, in particular, the village of Seshcha, where a memorial was opened in honor of the heroes of the Seshchinsky international underground. But he refused a possible trip to Sevsk - shortly before that, another message-denunciation was received "at the top" from the "very vigilant" Sevsk residents, and I.G. Petrovsky was introduced to its contents.

Friendly relations developed with I.G. Petrovsky only with some representatives of the Sevsk intelligentsia, in particular, with the teacher Valentina Alekseevna Telichko. This wonderful woman had a burning desire to help fellow Sevchans to touch the glorious past of her native city. Such a desire helped V.A. Telichko to implement two socially significant deeds: to revive the Sevsk Museum of Local Lore, ruined and plundered during the Great Patriotic War, and to write a book about Sevsk, albeit a small one, but highlighting the main milestones of his heroic and difficult historical path.

When and under what circumstances the modest Sevsk teacher and the already well-known scientist met, there is no exact information (perhaps they knew each other from pre-revolutionary times). In 1947 I.G. Petrovsky gave V.A. Telichko recently published book by I.U. Budovnitsa "Russian journalism of the 16th century", apparently already well aware of her interests and plans. There is no doubt that in search of the necessary materials, in solving organizational, financial and other issues, I.G. Petrovsky provided V.A. Telichko very substantial support. About this in 1972, after the death of V.A. Telichko, wrote I.G. Petrovsky, director of the Sevsky Museum of Local Lore V.M. Koto-va: “We, close friends of Valentina Alekseevna, ... know perfectly well that a museum of national importance has been opened in Sevsk thanks to your great help.” It is very likely that, coming to Sevsk in the summer of 1958, I.G. Petrovsky not only visited his native places, but also resolved, together with the leaders of the Sevsky District Executive Committee, all issues related to the opening of the Sevsky Museum of Local Lore, which happened on January 1, 1959. Some books related to the history of Sevsk were transferred to the Museum from the University Library of Moscow State University . Assistance was provided in subsequent years.

As for the book about Sevsk, written by V.A. Telichko, its publication was also not without the participation of I.G. Petrovsky. There is no doubt that the all-Union publication "Enlightenment", which published in 1964 the work of V.A. Telichko, with a circulation of 10,000 copies as a “student manual,” would hardly have met the needs of a provincial teacher in publishing her work, which, in general, is not typical for the profile of a publishing house. Only a direct petition of such a respected person among the pedagogical community as I.G. Petrovsky, could help in such a decision. The work was edited by a young associate professor of Moscow State University A.M. Sakharov, probably also at the request of I.G. Petrovsky. But one circumstance causes bewilderment: in the work of V.A. Telichko about Sevsk there are no words of gratitude to I.G. Petrovsky for his support, nor any mention of his name at all. Either this was done at the request of Ivan Georgievich himself (his modesty and unwillingness to “stick out” are known), or V.A. Telichko considered it best to “not tease” some Sevsk leaders and just ordinary people, for whom I.G. Petrovsky remained a "socially alien" person.

Reflecting on the post-war fate of the great fellow countryman Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky, one involuntarily feels that Petrovsky the rector and public figure, as it were, overshadows Petrovsky the man. This is understandable. Any person, especially a significant one, is judged primarily by his deeds. Since 1951, the main thing for Ivan Georgievich was the rectorship at Moscow State University. He devoted all his knowledge, strength, energy, experience, and organizational skills to this cause. He gave without caring too much about himself. For example, in 1951 he found an opportunity to rest for 30 days (instead of the prescribed 48 working days), in 1952 and 1953. did not rest at all, in 1954 he was on vacation for 20 days, in 1955 for 30 days. And in subsequent years, he rarely used the time of his vacation to the end. But even during periods of short rest, Ivan Georgievich remained in the know about all the main affairs at the university and, if necessary, dealt with the most difficult problems himself.

In the first years of his tenure as rector, he still hoped to continue active studies in science, so he did not immediately break off his connection with the Mathematical Institute 84

Academy of Sciences of the USSR, but to combine the huge and multifaceted work of the rector (later deputy duties were added) with systematic scientific work turned out to be practically impossible. He did not stop doing science, giving it the bulk of his free time (including vacation time), but the intensity of this work was noticeably lower than before. For 20 years (from 1951 to 1970), in addition to reprinted textbooks in a revised and supplemented form and a considerable number of newspaper articles, mainly of a socio-political and propaganda nature, I.G. Petrovsky published 10 articles on problems of higher mathematics (almost all in collaboration with his colleagues and students) and 9 articles on the history of Moscow University and the history of mathematical science. Of course, this is a lot (especially considering the need to prepare numerous reports, speeches, speeches at various conferences, meetings, sessions, as well as editorial and publishing work), but the peak of his own mathematical research was already behind . The reason for this was correctly noted by the student I.G. Petrovsky Academician O.A. Oleinik: "He considered his rectorship the most important work of his life, more important than his mathematical research."

Work "for wear and tear" gradually began to affect. The heart began to malfunction (and I.G. Petrovsky had a heart defect back in the 1920s), and his working capacity began to decline. But the rector continued with great perseverance to solve the issues of the further development of the university, "knocked out" significant funds for the purchase of the latest scientific equipment, without which, in his opinion, the high-quality training of a modern specialist is impossible. In 1965, the construction of a new building for the humanities faculties began on the Lenin Hills, and in September 1970, students of the historical, economic, philological and philosophical faculties began classes in its new classrooms. Thinking about the prospects for the development of the university in the future, I.G. Petrovsky considered it necessary to go beyond the borders of Moscow, open branches of the university, create laboratories and other scientific divisions outside the capital.

The first branch of Moscow State University (in Dubna on the basis of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) was opened in December 1960, and by September 1961 there was already an academic building and dormitories. In 1968, an educational and scientific branch of the Faculty of Biology and Soil was organized in Pushchino-on-Oka. Ivan Georgievich planned to create a branch of the Faculty of Chemistry (“chemical Dub-nu”) near Noginsk, but this dream of the rector came true only more than 20 years after his death.

In general, far from all the plans and ideas of Ivan Georgievich turned out to be realized. The rector's proposal to create a faculty of art history at Moscow State University did not receive support, since the existing universities of the Ministry of Culture studied theoretical and practical issues of developing only one type of art (painting, theater, film art, etc.), but, in my opinion, Niyu I.G. Petrovsky, cadres of art historians of a wide profile. “The study of the theory and history of art ... requires as its basis ... a deep study of general history, the history of culture, literature and language”, which is “possible only on the basis of university education, in terms of attracting the best scientific forces of history departments to teaching , as well as philological, philosophical and other faculties. However, the Central Committee of the CPSU, where the corresponding letter was sent to I.G. Petrovsky (lines from it were quoted earlier), did not heed the rector's arguments. There is no such faculty to date. But if there were a sufficient number of qualified art critics in the country, perhaps so many untalented and simply mediocre works of “mass” culture would not have fallen upon listeners and spectators.

Another still unrealized idea of ​​Ivan Georgievich was ahead of its time - to create a faculty of a “healthy person” at Moscow State University (in the original version, the name of the faculty sounded differently - biomedical). The scientist proceeded from the real fact that at present science studies a person, first of all, from a medical point of view, from the standpoint of maintaining health and combating diseases. “A healthy, normal person almost completely falls out of the field of scientific research,” and I.G. Petrovsky did not consider this position to be correct. In his opinion, a complex “interdisciplinary” study of a person is required based on the latest achievements of anthropology, physiology, psychology, sociology, ecology, gerontology (the science of aging of organisms) and other related sciences in order to provide the best psychophysical training of a person. To labor activity in different conditions, to create an optimal external environment for various types of labor activity, for the active formation of human abilities, long-term maintenance of his physical and spiritual activity, etc. The obvious trouble in many areas of human behavior in the modern world, his relationships with other people and other problems that exist between man, society and nature, clearly confirm the expediency and even the need to return to the idea of ​​I.G. Petrovsky about the study of a “healthy person”.

The project of I.G. was not implemented either. Petrovsky about the opening of a new pedagogical institute as a branch of Moscow State University in one of the regions adjacent to Moscow. Such a proposal by the rector was supposed to increase the role of Moscow State University in the training of secondary school teachers with a high scientific level, who could be engaged in science (including pedagogy) even during the period of school work. If the very idea of ​​a pedagogical institute as a branch of Moscow State University has by now lost its relevance, then many thoughts of I.G. Petrovsky retain their significance: about overcoming the bureaucratization of pedagogical work, about the need to bring the secondary school closer to universities, about the fact that "a secondary school teacher ... can and should engage in science."

The list of what could not be implemented, of course, is many times less than what I.G. managed to do. Petrovsky during his time as rector, but he shows that in this man, who really and soberly saw the world with its complexities, there was still a lot of the idealist-romantic, who sought to transcend time, to do more than it was in human strength. Such vital maximalism in deeds and plans at the same time excluded any arrogance and complacency. In the outline of an article on which the scientist worked in 1963, there is such an interesting judgment: “Those who are really capable of science, who are deeply passionate about it, are usually quite modest, because it is very difficult to do something serious in science. The normal state of a modern scientific worker is this: nothing works out and there are no prospects for success ... Major discoveries do not happen so often, but if the normal state is search and failure, then why raise your nose too much?

In one of his speeches to the student activists of Moscow State University, I.G. Petrovsky also emphasized that in science “it is very difficult to reach the leading edge, beyond which the unknown begins,” and therefore did not support the opinion that every student of the university “should strive to write some kind of scientific work, no matter how bad, no matter how mediocre.” The rector, on the contrary, said that “it is better not to write bad papers, mediocre ones as well”, but you need to become “widely educated people”, and “then good scientific papers will appear themselves.” Thus, Ivan Georgievich, as it were, suggested that there can be no mass character and equality in science, that only a few are capable of achieving high results in it, but even those will have to overcome great difficulties. For this, in addition to talent, one needs faith in one's own strength, high efficiency, and a "passion" for science. But it is also necessary to create conditions for the formation and promotion of talented youth. This is exactly what one of the close assistants to the rector, Professor A.S. Pankratov, and “did Ivan Georgievich during the twenty-two years of his life as a rector; did not follow a pattern, because by nature he was a humanist, a truth seeker and a philosopher, ... a sage in the most human sense of the word.

But it was precisely such a person, independent in his judgments, who seeks and defends his truth, which did not fit into the ideological and bureaucratic canons of the party and government settings, and turned out to be an uncomfortable leader from the point of view of representatives of the party and state authorities of the late 1960s gg. If I.V. Stalin and G.M. Malenkov was certainly respected by I.G. Petrovsky for his scientific works if N.S. Khrushchev knew his role in organizing the entire life of the university in new buildings on the Lenin Hills and in sending student construction and cleaning teams to the virgin lands, then L.I. Brezhnev, the leading "ideologist" M.A. Suslov, leader of the Moscow communists V.V. Grishin of special positive emotions with the name of I.G. Petrovsky was not connected. On the other hand, there were information contained in various certificates and information prepared by party and state officials about the rector's insufficient "controllability", his deviations from party directives on certain particular issues, and other comments of a negative nature. Attempts to “re-educate” the rector through various awards and promotions did not change his nature, and his authority both at Moscow State University and in the scientific and pedagogical circles of the country was so significant that it was not possible to simply remove him and replace him with another person.

Then, under the pretext of caring for the health of I.G. Petrovsky, an attempt was made to push him away from solving the main university affairs, leaving him, in essence, only representative functions (it was in this scenario that they began to prepare a draft of the new Charter of Moscow State University). Professor-Geologist EM was appointed as the new first vice-rector. Sergeev (in the future - an academician), who did not hide his power ambitions. The vigilant party "eye" over the non-party rector was V.N. Yagodkin (later secretary of the CPSU MGK). However, the main part of the governing core of Moscow State University was still made up of people supporting the independent course of the rector. They were impressed by the skill of I.G. Petrovsky, even in the most difficult and controversial situations, "without humiliating people, without resorting to shouting, direct pressure, to achieve a balance of interests." They also knew something else (Academician A.N. Nesmeyanov wrote about this during the life of I.G. Petrovsky): “soft and delicate, Ivan Georgievich became “stubborn” and uncompromising when it came to those who had matured with him. decisions and beliefs regarding the development of the university”.

In an effort to ensure the further movement of the university along the same course that he followed all the years of his rectorship, I.G. A few years before his death, Petrovsky began to prepare a successor for himself, seeing in this role a prominent physicist, his like-minded person on basic issues, close in style of communication with people, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (later Academician) R. IN. Khokhlova. The few closest friends of I.G. knew about this choice of the rector and supported him. Petrovsky; guessed - "party opponents" of the rector, not very happy with this turn of affairs. Taking advantage of the fact that in the late 1960s - early 1970s. I.G. Petrovsky suffered a heart attack twice and was treated for a long time, his ill-wishers from among the "assistants" began to collect various "compromising evidence" on the rector. He was charged with abuse of authority (including in the financial sector) during the reception of foreign delegations (and there were many of them, including guests of the highest level, the university received many), misuse of funds (in particular, in connection with organization of the Museum of F. M. Dostoevsky in Staraya Russa) and other "sins".

A “great sin” was also found in the personal life of I.G. Petrovsky. In the hospital ward of the Central Clinical Hospital, where he ended up after his first heart attack, during his temporary absence, “well-wishers” actually conducted a search and found poems dedicated to the rector’s secret love, a teacher of the Faculty of Geography, a woman 17 years younger than Ivan Georgievich. The poems, as an accusatory document, were handed over to the rector's wife, Olga Afanasyevna. Spouses Petrovsky all previous years continued to live in good harmony, taking care of each other, but in recent years there was no longer the same spiritual closeness between them. This is probably what led to the emergence of a short-lived "hidden love." They hurriedly dismissed the culprit of the incident from the university, even without informing the rector about this, but this story did not add peace or health to Ivan Georgievich himself. After the second infarction suffered later, the rector always carried nitroglycerin with him. Both friends and foes knew about it.

It was on this circumstance that the last intrigue directed against Ivan Georgievich was implicated, which led to his death. In January 1973, in the building of the Central Committee of the CPSU on Staraya Square, a large meeting of the heads of the departments of social sciences of the main universities of the country was held. Earlier, during such events, I.G. Petrovsky, as the head of the leading university, was usually invited to take part, and he considered it his duty to respond to such an invitation. This time he did not receive an invitation, but was only informed that on the third day of the meeting he was scheduled to address the audience. The situation looked ridiculous - to speak to the participants of the meeting, only knowing by hearsay what was discussed during the first two days of the meeting. Nevertheless, Ivan Georgievich, who arrived on the third day to speak, was not allowed into the building by the duty officer, since he had neither an official invitation nor a party card, and the rest of the documents presented to the duty officer seemed unworthy of attention. The absurdity of the situation (he had previously been here more than once without any complications), the harsh tone of the "guardian of order" who did not want to call one of the organizers of the meeting, and finally, the feeling of responsibility for the fact that the planned speech was disrupted - all this, taken together, led to the fact that I.G. Petrovsky felt bad. On the square where he went out, he, pale and already in a very serious condition, was seen by one of the employees of the Central Committee apparatus, who knew Ivan Georgievich by sight. He was taken into the building, put on chairs, an ambulance was called, but the car did not arrive until half an hour later. No one hurried at this time to give the patient at least some medicine, or to even apologize for what had happened. In the meantime, the situation became irreversible, and the efforts of doctors to get the heart to work normally did not lead to anything. So on January 15, 1973, Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky passed away. Now no one will be able to give an answer: was the organizers of the meeting allowed flagrant negligence, or should we talk about a pre-planned situation with a completely predictable outcome. The second, in our opinion, is much more likely.

Later, in the bowels of the Central Committee of the CPSU, a legend was born that I.G. Petrovsky died during a “dressing down” in the office of the Minister of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the USSR V.P. Elyutin. Thus, the blame for the death of the rector of Moscow State University was, as it were, "transferred" from the employees of the Central Committee to a high-ranking government official. The conversation between the minister and the rector, in all likelihood, really took place, but it took place a few days earlier. The fact is that after the meeting with the heads of the higher education departments of social sciences in Moscow, from January 16 to 18, the All-Union Conference of employees of higher educational institutions with the participation of the highest party and state leadership was to be held. The main speaker at the meeting was V.P. Elyutin, and among the speakers it was planned to give the floor to I.G. Petrovsky. So it seems quite natural that the speaker considered it necessary to meet with the leader subordinate to him and give him certain instructions. It is possible that the conversation could go beyond the limits of correctness (of course, not on the initiative of I.G. Petrovsky) and have a rather heavy aftertaste. But still, if this was so, the conversation could only be a "prelude" to subsequent events.

Another oddity comes to mind. The death of Ivan Georgievich occurred in the first half of January 15, but neither on January 16 nor on January 17 was there any official news about this. It was only on January 18 that the central newspapers Pravda and Izvestiya reported on the "sudden" death of "one of the greatest scientists of our time," and so on. What is the reason for such a delay? In the desire not to overshadow the All-Union Conference of University Workers that began on January 16 or the presentation of M.A. Suslov of the Order of Lenin to the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU? Or, perhaps, the top leadership “thought” on behalf of whom to give an official notice, what should be the text of the obituary, whose signatures should be under it? After all, it was about an outstanding figure, but non-partisan.

At the end of the condos, a notice of the death of I.G. Petrovsky was published on behalf of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Council of Ministers of the USSR; among the signatories of the obituary were all the top party and state leaders, including L.I. Brezhnev, N.A. Kosygina, N.V. Podgorny and other members of the Politburo of the Central Committee. Only on the last day of the work of the All-Union Conference of University Workers were they informed on the morning of January 18 about the death of I.G. Petrovsky and they honored his memory with a minute of silence. Only on January 19, the coffin with the body of the deceased was installed in the Assembly Hall of Moscow State University and thousands of Muscovites and guests of the capital had the opportunity to see their leader, colleague, deputy, comrade, just a wonderful person for the last time. But the funeral ceremony was turned off quickly enough. At 12 o'clock in the last guard of honor, those who arrived stood up to testify their attention to the deceased on behalf of the Politburo of the Central Committee A.P. Kirilenko, K.T. Mazurov, M.A. Suslov, B.N. Ponoma-rev. The funeral service was opened by the First Vice-Rector of Moscow State University EM. Sergeev, and then Minister V.P. Yelyutin (who had not forgotten on January 16 by his order “to exclude academician Petrovsky Ivan Georgievich from the list of rectors due to his death”), academicians P.S. Aleksandrov, A.N. Tikhonov, Rector of the Leningrad University L.I. Makarov and others. Then the funeral cortege went to the Novodevichy cemetery, where the great son of Russia, Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky, found the place of his last rest. His widow, Olga Afanasievna, died on October 31, 1984 and was buried next to her husband.

Ivan Georgievich did not have children, but he had thousands of students who listened to his lectures, worked in his seminars, wrote term papers and dissertations under his leadership, and used his scientific advice. For many of these people, it has become a tradition every year on the birthday of their teacher to gather in the auditorium of Moscow State University, where he conducted his wonderful seminars on the theory of differential calculus, and to make presentations and reports. The seminar named after I.G. Petrovsky continues to play a prominent role in the development of mathematical science.

Creative heritage of I.G. Petrovsky as a scientist is not very large in volume (Selected Works of the Academician was published in Moscow in 1987 in one volume). However, the enduring value of his work is determined not by the amount of writing, but by the depth of content. Here is the opinion of his student academician O.A. Oleinik: “Many of the works of I.G. Petrovsky were decades ahead of their time. His work, carried out in the thirties and early forties, is now in the center of attention of the world's leading mathematicians. The powerful development of mathematical analysis and algebraic topology in recent years helps to comprehend the depth of the results and ideas embodied in the works of Ivan Georgievich, to obtain new coverage of discovered or fundamental facts.

But the main brainchild for I.G. Petrovsky was the Moscow University, which experienced its second birth under him. Here are just a few figures that testify to the quantitative and qualitative changes that have taken place at Moscow State University during the years of his rectorship. For more than 20 years, more than 70 new departments and about 200 new laboratories have been organized at the university. If in 1951 the teaching staff of the university was 830 people, then in 1973 - almost 2400 people. During the period from 1953 to 1972, 152 people from among the professors and graduates of Moscow State University were elected academicians or corresponding members of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 25 of the most prominent scientists from among those who worked at Moscow State University were awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, and about 100 have received international recognition by being elected as foreign or honorary members of foreign academies of sciences, or honorary doctors of foreign universities (many have received this honor more than once). All other Soviet universities did not even come close to such indicators. To be able to gather such a "star" faculty, skillfully direct their work with the greatest benefit for students - this is one of the most important merits of I.G. Petrovsky. It is no coincidence that the current rector of Moscow State University, Academician V.A. Sadovnichy in his article dedicated to I.G. Petrovsky, gave the title: "22 years at the head of Moscow State University is a feat."

Ivan Georgievich himself, in his work with people, was guided by the following rule: “If a student or teacher who comes to you with a request has even a thousandth chance to solve his problem positively, give him this chance.” It was such personal qualities as humanity, decency, tactfulness, benevolence that created for the rector that high moral authority, which meant more to the people around him than scientific merits or organizational skills.

When a person passes away, the main thing that continues to connect the living with the deceased remains the memory, either personal, which is preserved by his relatives and friends about the deceased, or symbolic, fixed in any names. In the year of the death of I.G. Petrovsky in Moscow, a street named after him appeared, in his hometown of Sevsk, the name of a wonderful fellow countryman was given to secondary school No. 2. An unnamed pass in the Central Tien Shan, opened by a group of students and graduate students of Moscow State University, was named after him. In 1974, by a decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, the educational and scientific vessel "Moscow University" received a new name "Akademik I.G. Petrovsky".

In 1976, in honor of the 75th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Georgievich, a memorial library of I.G. Petrovsky. Documents and materials about the life and work of the scientist, personal belongings, books are exhibited here (more than 20 thousand books of the academician were transferred here by his widow). On the main building of Moscow State University, a memorial plaque-high relief of I.G. Petrovsky. In the same year, the name of Academician I.G. Petrovsky was assigned to the Bryansk State Pedagogical Institute (now Bryansk State University), a small museum was organized here, in the exposition of which books from the library of Ivan Georgievich, transferred by his widow, took the main place.

And yet, in his small homeland, the great scientist and citizen turned out to be deprived of attention. Both in Bryansk and in Sevsk there is not a street or square named after him, and there are no monuments to a remarkable fellow countryman. Even on the 100th anniversary of his birth, in January 2001, when many events related to the name of the former rector were held at Moscow University, books, articles and other publications dedicated to him appeared in the Bryansk region and the authorities, and the scientific and pedagogical community "forgotten" about Ivan Georgievich. Only one of the many regional newspapers published a small article about him by local historian V.G. Dekhanov, and the rest took water in their mouths. And at the Bryansk University, named after Academician I.G. Petrovsky, the events dedicated to him were held late and rather modestly.

A special "gift" was presented to their countryman by the authorities of the city of Sevsk. The house, which was in municipal ownership, where I.G. was born and spent his childhood and early youth. Petrovsky, was sold to private ownership. Thus, the opportunity to create a memorial museum of the great fellow countryman as a branch of the Sevsk Museum of Local Lore disappeared in this house. Why do modern officials, deprived of historical memory, need additional worries and troubles?

Let the words of Academician V.A. Sadovnichy: “It is impossible to list everything that Petrovsky did for science, for Moscow University, for education, for our state. His name rightfully occupies one of the most glorious places among the figures of national culture of the 20th century.

Sources and literature

1. GABO f. 121, op. 2, dd. 17, 22.
2. f. 132, op. 1, d. 39.
3. f. 249, op. 1, d. 186.
4. f. 342, op. 2, d. 12.
5. f. 507, op. 1, dd. 121, 122, 243, 245.
6. f. 552, op. 3, d. 145. RGADA f. 442, op. 1, d. 388.
7. Address-calendar of the Oryol province. - Eagle. 1877. Petrovsky I.G. Selected works. -M., 1987.
8. Decrees of the XI regular Sevsk uyezd zemstvo assembly. 1905. - Sevsk. 1906.
9. Aleksandrov P.S., Kolmogorov A.N., Oleinik O.A. Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky. // Math at school. 1973. No. 4.
10. Bobrov A.A. Monuments of garden and park culture. // From the history of Sevsk and its environs. -Sevsk. 1995.
11. Dimov V.A. Lomonosov University. Founders circle. Oaths of Sparrow Hills. Epoch-ha I.G. Petrovsky. - M, 2003.
12. Zhukov Yu.N. Stalin: secrets of power. - M., 2007.
13. Ilchenko E.V. Academician I.G. Petrovsky - Rector of Moscow University. M. 2001.
14. Lebedev SV. Russian idea and Russian business. - St. Petersburg, 2007.
15. Sadovnichiy V.A. 22 years at the head of Moscow State University is a feat. // University of Moscow. 2001. No. 8.
16. Materials of the periodical press. 1962 - 1973.

Or January 18(1901-01-18 )

Biography

During the war years, he carried out a deep and meaningful work on lacunae and wave diffusion. In 1943, Petrovsky was elected a corresponding member, and in 1946 a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in 1949-1951 he served as Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, since 1953 he was a member of the Presidium of the Academy.

Scientific activity

Among the main areas scientific research I. G. Petrovsky include: the theory of partial differential equations, the qualitative theory of ordinary differential equations, algebraic geometry, probability theory, mathematical physics. He laid the foundations for the general theory of systems of equations in partial derivatives, singled out and studied among such systems the classes of elliptic, hyperbolic and parabolic systems of equations (while proving the analyticity of solutions to elliptic systems in 1937). In 1935, he solved the first boundary value problem for the heat equation under the most general assumptions about the boundary of the region, and in 1936 he studied problems with initial conditions for hyperbolic and parabolic systems.

In the theory of systems of ordinary differential equations, in 1934 I. G. Petrovsky studied the behavior of the integral curves of such a system in the neighborhood of a singular point. In algebraic geometry, in 1949, he developed a method for solving the problem of the location of ovals of an algebraic curve of arbitrary order, which made it possible to establish the topological properties of algebraic varieties of any dimension. The works of I. G. Petrovsky on the theory of probability significantly influenced the development of the theory of random processes.

Petrovsky - Rector of Moscow State University

Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky

“... began his work as rector, when the construction of Moscow State University on the Lenin Hills was in full swing and about three more years remained before moving to new buildings. One construction, carried out at an unprecedented pace, required enormous and constant attention. Personnel issues ... were demandingly placed on the order of the day. And all this against the background of the current educational and scientific life, which had to go on uninterruptedly and which alone is capable of fully loading the Rector.”

Paying attention to the problems of pre-university education, Petrovsky was one of the initiators of the organization of advanced training courses for secondary school teachers, the establishment of a correspondence mathematical school and a boarding school at Moscow State University.

During Petrovsky's tenure at the head of the country's first university (the second longest term as rector in the history of Moscow University - 21 years, 7 months and 28 days), his activities deeply affected the entire life of the many thousands of staff. More than 70 departments and 200 laboratories were organized in the latest areas. Possessing high scientific authority, the rector was able to attract the largest scientists of the country to work at the university (including more than a hundred members of the USSR Academy of Sciences). Measures were taken to concentrate the main scientific work in the departments. The university came out on top in terms of the number of graduate students. Faculties and institutes received the latest experimental equipment. Much has been done by Petrovsky to expand contacts with the largest scientific and educational centers of the world.

Colleagues of Ivan Georgievich at the university noted “one of the most attractive features of his character is accessibility and interest in everything around him. He did not have specific hours of reception, as he always accepted when he had a free minute, trying to help everyone who turned to him for help, whether it was a public or personal request. Students, scientists, employees knew about it well…” .

Petrovsky's office

Awards and titles

sayings

• Only those who hate it can be appointed to administrative work.
• I am not asking you who is dealing with this issue. I need someone who solves it.
• Administrator can't be helpful! The task of a good administrator is to minimize the harm he causes.
• - You're absolutely right... (pause) But I'm right too! Let's figure it out.
• - Laws are written for smart people... (pause) And the more stupid a person is, the more insistently you need to explain to him the meaning of the law.

  A. A. Kirillov "About Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky"

(18 (6). 01.1901, Sevsk, Oryol province. - 01.15.1973, Moscow). Graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University (1927).

Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (1935, without defending a dissertation). Professor (1933). Academician of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (mathematics) of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1946, corresponding member since 1943).

Professor (1933), Head of the Department of Differential Equations (1950–1973), Dean (1940–1944) of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics. Active member of the Research Institute of Mathematics (1935–1950).

He welcomed the First All-Russian Congress of Mathematicians on behalf of students of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics (1927).

Published: E.V. Ilchenko "Academician I.G. Petrovsky - Rector of Moscow University" (2001).

The university is an institution that is extremely difficult to manage. I always compare the management of a university with movement in a highly viscous fluid: if you go fast, you will break your forehead, if you slowly press in a certain direction, then the results will be ...

(I.G. Petrovsky. From the report. Jan. 1961)

To serve the people, the cause of peace, the cause of creation and progress, the development of culture and civilization - this should be the goal of the life of progressive scientists.

(I.G. Petrovsky. Pravda. 07/20/1950)

University teams should develop predominantly large scientific problems, without being distracted by the execution of current tasks. It is important that scientific schools be developed at universities and that major scientific problems be worked out. Time for scientific work can be easily found if lecture courses are freed from an abundance of facts. The student must learn the main thing - the plan of science, its guiding thread, direction. The professor's task is precisely to be able to point out what this main thing is.

(I.G. Petrovsky. Bulletin of the Higher School. 1952)

Can't wait good students- you have to follow them.

(I.G. Petrovsky. From the transcript of the meeting of the Presidium of the Academic Council. 1951)

I will never forget the participation of mathematician Professor Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky, who showed an example of courage by saving equipment that was already scarce.

(I.S. Galkin about the fire at Moscow State University in Sverdlovsk in 1943)

Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky(January 5, 1901, Sevsk, Oryol province - January 15, 1973, Moscow) - Soviet mathematician and figure in national education. Rector of Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov (1951-1973).

Biography

Born on January 5 (18), 1901 in Sevsk (now the Bryansk region) into a merchant family. He graduated from the city real school in 1917 with excellent grades in all disciplines, except for mathematics and drawing, having received “fours” in them. But he loved to draw; love for art, painting (Rembrandt, Serov, Nesterov) will become an integral part of his nature in the future.

First, Ivan Petrovsky enters the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, but soon after the revolution and the outbreak of the civil war, he leaves him and returns to his family, which had moved to Elisavetgrad by that time. Here Ivan Petrovsky studied at the Elisavetgrad Mechanical Engineering College. Trying to read N. E. Zhukovsky's book on theoretical mechanics, he found that he lacked mathematical knowledge to understand this book; wishing to fill the gap, Ivan gets acquainted with the classic book by P. G. Dirichlet "The Theory of Numbers". This book struck him with the beauty and subtlety of mathematical constructions and results, "shocked and forever turned his interests towards mathematics." Returning to Moscow to the university in 1922, he was appointed to the mathematical department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics.

In 1927, 5th-year student Ivan Petrovsky took part in the first All-Russian Congress of Mathematicians, delivering a welcoming speech on behalf of the youth of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University.

After graduating from the university the same year, Petrovsky entered graduate school, graduating in 1930. Petrovsky's supervisor was Professor D.F. Egorov, who influenced the young mathematician big influence. Since 1929, Petrovsky has been working at Moscow State University - as an assistant, then as an assistant professor.

Since 1933, I. G. Petrovsky was a professor at Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov. In 1935 he was approved - without defending a dissertation - Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. Simultaneously with his work at Moscow State University, from 1930 to 1941 he headed the department at the evening faculty of the Moscow Mechanical Engineering Institute (then called the Bauman Moscow State Technical University).

On September 7, 1940, Petrovsky was appointed acting dean of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, and on October 4 of the same year he was elected to this position (on July 1, 1944, he was relieved of the post of dean at his personal request). During the Great Patriotic War, he led the relocation of Moscow State University in the fall of 1941 to Tashkent (later to Ashgabat, Sverdlovsk) and the return to Moscow in May 1943.

During the war years, he carried out a deep and meaningful work on lacunae and wave diffusion. In 1943, Petrovsky was elected a corresponding member, and in 1946 a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in 1949-1951 he served as Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, since 1953 he was a member of the Presidium of the Academy.

In 1951, he became the head of the Department of Differential Equations of the Mekhmat of Moscow State University (which he headed until his death in 1973). In the same year, I. G. Petrovsky was elected to the post of rector of Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov. He was a talented teacher: according to A. N. Kolmogorov, “his scientific seminars have always been centers of living scientific thought”, and their participants became leaders of mathematical schools and directions, students of many generations study according to his textbooks. Among his students: S. K. Godunov, O. A. Ladyzhenskaya, E. M. Landis, V. P. Mikhailov, A. D. Myshkis, O. A. Oleinik, V. S. Ryabenky, E. P. Zhidkov.

Deputy of the 6th - 8th convocations (1962-1973) and member of the Presidium (1966-1973) of the USSR Armed Forces. Member of the Soviet Peace Committee (since 1955).

He died on January 15, 1973 in the building of the Central Committee from an attack of angina pectoris, immediately after a conversation in the Central Committee of the CPSU. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (site No. 7).

Mathematician, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1946). Rector of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov since 1951.

Major works on the theory of differential equations, algebra, geometry, probability theory, mathematical physics.

Hero of Socialist Labor (1969), State Prize (1946, 1952)

To the 100th anniversary of Academician I.G. Petrovsky
22 years at the head of Moscow State University is a feat

V. Sadovnichy

An outstanding mathematician and figure in Russian education Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky was born in the city of Sevsk, Oryol province (now the regional center in the Bryansk region) on January 18, 1901.

When he was a student at a real school, Petrovsky was fond of chemistry and biology. The teaching of mathematics was not very important there, and at that time he did not feel much interest in it. He graduated from college in 1917 with only two A's - in mathematics and drawing. In the same year, he entered the natural department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University. Petrovsky saw chemistry and biology as his future specialization, but he could not study at the university then. The October Revolution broke out, and in 1918 his family (his father was a merchant) moved to Yelisavetgrad. Here Petrovsky served as a clerk, studied at the engineering college.

Trying to read N.E. Zhukovsky's book on theoretical mechanics, which came to him by accident, Ivan Georgievich discovered a lack of mathematical knowledge necessary for its understanding. Wishing to fill this gap, he again turned to Dirichlet's classical Theory of Numbers, which happened to him in provincial Elizavetgrad. Acquaintance with this book turned out to be a rare success for him. The book impressed Petrovsky with the beauty of mathematical constructions and results and turned his interests towards mathematics. And when in 1922 he returned to Moscow, he began to study not at the natural department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the University, where he had originally entered, but at the mathematical one.

During these years, Moscow University experienced a time of troubles. The new government tried to radically reform higher education, first of all, to change the social composition of the students (class became the main principle for admission to the university), and then the ideological mood in the teaching environment. It was a time of teaching the teaching staff the basics of Marxism, a time of purges of the student ranks and ideological campaigns in which the so-called proletarian students and red professors played a significant role, a time of attack on the "reactionary old-regime professors", whose ranks included the leaders of the famous Moscow School of Function Theory - teachers of I.G. Petrovsky D.F. Egorov and N.N. Luzin. Merchant origin became for Petrovsky a source of considerable complications, which he was helped to overcome by D.F. Egorov, who was then the most influential Moscow mathematician.

Student Petrovsky had to earn his living: he worked as a janitor, taught at a secondary school and at a workers' faculty. After graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics in 1927, he was left in graduate school, which he graduated in 1930 - the same year when his teacher was arrested, who died the following year in exile in Kazan. From 1929 to 1933 Petrovsky worked as an assistant and then as an assistant professor at Moscow University. Since 1933 he has been a professor, since 1935 - Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, since 1951 - Head of the Department of Differential Equations of the University.

During the Great Patriotic War, when the university was evacuated from Moscow, he was appointed dean of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, and from 1951 until his death he was the rector of Moscow State University. Ivan Georgievich combined his work at the university with activities in various scientific and educational institutions in Moscow. So, from 1930 to 1941 he headed the department at the Moscow Evening Mechanical Engineering Institute, from 1943 he worked at the Mathematical Institute. V.A.Steklov of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, whose deputy director he was from 1947 to 1949. Long years he headed the editorial board of the oldest Russian mathematical journal - "Mathematical Collection" and was the executive editor of "Proceedings of the VA Steklov Mathematical Institute".

In 1943, Petrovsky was elected a corresponding member, and in 1946 a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1949 to 1951, he served as Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and from 1953 to last days life - a member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Among the greatest mathematical achievements of the 20th century are his works on the theory of partial differential equations (he laid the foundations for the theory of systems of such equations, which determined the direction of its further development), as well as on the qualitative theory of ordinary differential equations, the topology of algebraic curves and surfaces, probability theory. Petrovsky's scientific merits are marked by conferring various honorary titles of an honorary member of the Moscow Mathematical Society, an honorary doctor of Lund University (Sweden), an honorary doctor of Charles University (Czechoslovakia), an honorary doctor of the University of Bucharest, an honorary member of the Romanian Academy of Sciences. Twice - in 1946 (for fundamental research in the theory of partial differential equations) and in 1952 (for later classic textbooks on the theory of differential and integral equations) - he was awarded the State Prize of the USSR. Petrovsky was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (1969), awarded orders and medals of the USSR, as well as orders from a number of foreign countries (including the French Order of the Legion of Honor and the Bulgarian Order of Cyril and Methodius).

Ivan Georgievich was elected several times as a deputy of the Moscow City Council of Working People's Deputies, for a number of years he was a deputy of the Supreme Soviets of the RSFSR and the USSR, and also a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was a member of the Soviet Committee for the Defense of Peace, as well as vice-president of the Institute of Soviet-American Relations.

In his first studies, Petrovsky studies the Dirichlet problem for the Laplace equation on the plane and solves the generalized derivative problem posed by A. Lebesgue. The first work grew out of his studies in 1926 in the seminar of D.F. Egorov, which was specially devoted to the Dirichlet problem, the second is a tribute to the theory of functions of a real variable that was traditional for Muscovites in those years. Already in these early works, the finality of the results he published, characteristic of his work, manifested itself.

His further studies are thematically combined into several cycles. As noted by A.N. Kolmogorov: "The very nature of the emergence of ... the cycles of Ivan Georgievich's works is peculiar. Suddenly, he is fascinated by a problem from a completely new area. He takes up the study of this area, starting from the first student steps. And after a year or several years ... a solution to the fascinating him from the start of the problem." At the same time, he was never let down by his inherent deep mathematical intuition. It always happened that the specific, precisely formulated and, as a rule, extremely difficult problems chosen by him later turned out to be the central nodal problems for one or another area of ​​mathematics. "Many of the works of I.G. Petrovsky were decades ahead of their time," writes Academician O.A. Oleinik, a student of Petrovsky. of mathematical analysis and algebraic topology of recent years helps to comprehend the depth of the results and ideas embodied in the works of Ivan Georgievich, to obtain new coverage of the fundamental facts discovered by him.

One of Petrovsky's cycles of work that was ahead of its time was research on the topology of algebraic curves and surfaces. He managed to obtain fundamental results and propose fruitful methods. In 1933, he proved the conjecture formulated by D. Hilbert in 1900 in his famous report at the II International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris (see the text of the 16th problem): a sixth-order curve cannot consist of 11 ovals located outside each other. friend. The method created by Petrovsky for this turned out to be suitable for solving the more general problem of the location on the projective plane of the components of algebraic curves of any order. Subsequently (1949), together with OA Oleinik, he generalized some of his results to algebraic surfaces in n-dimensional space. The methods of I.G. Petrovsky, along with the contribution of A. Harnack and D. Hilbert, became fundamental in the theory of real algebraic varieties.

In 1937, Petrovsky proposed, in a certain sense, the most complete solution to Hilbert's 19th problem: he singled out the so-called elliptic (according to Petrovsky) systems for which, provided that the functions forming the equations are analytic in all arguments, all sufficiently smooth solutions will be analytic.

The works of I.G. Petrovsky on systems of equations with partial derivatives, according to A.N. Kolmogorov, transformed this entire important area of ​​mathematics.

Petrovsky always attached particular importance to the tasks that the sciences of nature set before mathematicians. He considered mathematics as an organic part of natural science. Along with the problems of mechanics, he was keenly interested in biology (we note the work published jointly with A.N. Kolmogorov and N.S. Piskunov, related to the problem of gene propagation) and physics. His interest in physics became especially acute in the last years of his life. In 1972, together with I.M. Lifshitz, he organized a seminar for mathematicians on mathematical problems of theoretical physics.

Many well-known specialists in the field of the theory of differential equations are direct students of Petrovsky, who came out of his famous seminar, which still exists today as the I.G. Petrovsky seminar, one of the leading seminars on the theory of partial differential equations. They are widely known training courses Petrovsky - his lectures on the theory of ordinary differential equations, on the theory of integral equations and the theory of partial differential equations. Repeatedly republished in our country and translated into many languages ​​of the world, they entered the golden fund of mathematical literature of the 20th century.

The peak of Petrovsky's creative activity came in the 30s. The administrative duties that he later performed - dean of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, then (since 1951) rector of Moscow University - did not give him the opportunity to work creatively with the same intensity. One can only guess what else he could have done in mathematics if he had had enough time for this. However, as OA Oleinik testifies: "He considered his rectorship the most important business of his life, more important than his mathematical research."

Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky died in Moscow on January 15, 1973. The largest domestic (A.N. Kolmogorov, O.A. Oleinik, V.I. Arnold, etc.) and foreign mathematicians took part in the issue of Mathematical Sciences dedicated to his memory (J. Leray, L. Bers, L. Nirenberg, J.-L. Lions, J. Moser and others). Their work is living evidence that Petrovsky's ideas have entered the flesh and blood of mathematics in the 20th century. Every year on January 18 - on the birthday of Ivan Georgievich - at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow University (to which he devoted so much effort) in the audience. I.G. Petrovsky on the 16th floor open joint sessions of the seminar. IG Petrovsky and the Moscow Mathematical Society, gathering mathematicians from all over Russia and neighboring countries. They report on the latest results obtained in areas related to the research topics of I.G. Petrovsky. The success of these meetings is the best tribute to the memory of the great master.

As already noted, Petrovsky assumed the duties of the rector of Moscow University in 1951. By that time he was already a world-famous scientist, he managed to prove himself in the public and administrative field. Probably, the business sense inherited from the parents affected here.

An important role in the life of Ivan Georgievich was played by his university teacher, D.F. Egorov. Assistant to the rector in difficult revolutionary years, in Soviet times - director of the University Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics, chairman of the subject commission on mathematics of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, president of the Moscow Mathematical Society, D.F. Egorov did everything possible to ensure that in the troubled years of the revolution, civil war and post-war devastation to preserve and strengthen the Moscow mathematical community. I.G. Petrovsky became the representative of students in the mathematical subject commission of the faculty, and in 1927, on behalf of the students of the faculty, he welcomed the All-Russian Congress of Mathematicians organized by D.F. Egorov.

The main thing in Petrovsky's activity was always the interests of science and the university. It was these qualities, despite not being involved in such an important ideological activity in those years (Ivan Georgievich was neither a member of the Komsomol nor a member of the party), that determined the success of his advancement through the administrative ladder. In 1929 he began teaching at the university, in 1933 he became a professor, and from 1940 he served as dean of the university's Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics. He managed the faculty in difficult conditions of evacuation (first to Tashkent, then to Ashgabat and Sverdlovsk) and during his return (in May 1943) to Moscow. A lot of effort was devoted to them so that the staff of the faculty in the difficult years of the war could conduct scientific and educational work at a high level.

1951 - the beginning of the rectorship of Ivan Georgievich - coincided with a period of intensive scientific construction in our country. Suffice it to recall that at that time there were active developments in the field of nuclear physics and rocket science (the time for space launches was not far away). Therefore, it is not at all surprising that it was decided to entrust the post of rector of the university to a scientist who specialized in physical and mathematical sciences. The remarkable Soviet chemist, president of the USSR Academy of Sciences A.N. Nesmeyanov, whom Ivan Georgievich replaced as rector of Moscow State University, spoke very well about the beginning of his work as rector: "I.G. Petrovsky began his work as rector when the construction of Moscow State University on Leninsky mountains were in full swing and about two years remained before moving to new buildings. Already one construction, carried out at an unprecedented pace, required enormous and constant attention. No less difficult task was the design, order and acceptance of scientific equipment of Moscow State University. Personnel issues arose - scientifically - educational and economic personnel capable of ensuring the operation of the new complex of buildings of Moscow State University, which was destined to play the role of an international scientific center - became the order of the day. All this was against the backdrop of the current educational and scientific life, which had to go on uninterruptedly and which alone was able to load the rector Finally, in 1953, the move to new buildings, but even after it and to this day, the construction of a number of additional buildings in the new location continues, in particular, a huge building for the humanities faculties. The immeasurably grown and variegated population of the campus (daytime, evening, correspondence department, Soviet students from all corners of our Motherland and foreign students from socialist and developing countries) - all this required and still requires great attention, time, organizational talent, love for work and for one's university. Ivan Georgievich sees his special and primary task in the selection of professors and teachers worthy of Moscow State University. He attaches no less importance to the timely development of a new and important direction at the university. Gentle and delicate, Ivan Georgievich becomes "stubborn" and uncompromising when it comes to decisions and convictions that have matured in him regarding the development of the university."

His extraordinary talent as an organizer, as well as the remarkable qualities of a scientist, a person, and a citizen, helped him become an outstanding rector.

He was distinguished by the breadth of education and interests, deep knowledge. He was characterized by the perseverance and concentration of a scientist, great capacity for work and endless curiosity. He was extremely fond of fiction, was a passionate bibliophile, art lover, who understood painting well (in his youth he painted himself). The breadth of his interests and ability to quickly solve the problems of organizing scientific research was noted by our famous archaeologist A.V. Artsikhovsky: “The encyclopedic education and breadth of scientific interests of I.G. "I. G. Petrovsky can. I was convinced many times that the rector carefully reads the most specialized studies of historians in all sections of history, ancient, middle and new. He always finds concrete measures to promote this research. I had to travel with him around England and see how thoroughly he knows the history of this country. In the halls of the British Museum, he showed a deep understanding of the work of the greatest masters of Hellenic sculpture, Phidias and Scopas. This is closely related to his interest in the history of ancient Greece. I am in charge of the Novgorod archaeological expedition.When we found the first birch bark letters, these historical sources of a completely new kind, Ivan Georgievich fully appreciated the significance of the discovery. We owe him a significant expansion of the expedition and its new achievements. When he himself visited Novgorod, he became very interested in ancient Russian architecture. At the Novgorod excavations, Ivan Georgievich carefully observed all the scientific processes, participated in dismantling the finds and in reading birch-bark letters, while demonstrating a deep knowledge of the history of Novgorod. I.G. Petrovsky follows the progress of all sciences.

The development of the university for Petrovsky (and in this he resembles another remarkable rector - the rector of Kazan University, the great mathematician N.I. Lobachevsky) means the development of all sciences in it. Therefore, his concern is the organization of research in new areas of science at Moscow State University, the creation of new faculties, institutes, departments and laboratories (during his rectorship, more than 70 departments and 200 laboratories were founded).

Of course, yesterday's dean and current head of the Department of Differential Equations of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics I.G. Petrovsky closely watched the development of his native faculty. With his active support and participation, the University Institute of Mechanics, the first departments of mathematical logic and computational mathematics in the country (from which the current Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics subsequently grew), one of the first computer centers in the USSR, were organized. Petrovsky constantly made sure that the Computing Center of Moscow State University had at its disposal the most advanced computers. Another of his concerns was the introduction of computer technology in various fields of science - in biology, in the humanities.

Remarkable traits of Petrovsky are the ability to see the main directions of development of science and internal connections in science and between sciences, to foresee what will be important for science and the country in the future. Thus, taking into account the prospects for the development of astronomy, he contributes to the transfer of the astronomical department from the Mechanics and Mathematics to the Faculty of Physics. He paid much attention to the construction of the Crimean station of the Astronomical Institute. PC. Sternberg.

At the Faculty of Physics, with the participation of Petrovsky, the Department of Wave Processes and the Department of High Energy were opened, and prominent theoretical physicists were involved in the work. Here is how academician L.A. Artsimovich assessed his role in the development of the faculty: “I.G. Petrovsky constantly assists physicists in all progressive undertakings. He played an important role in restructuring the work of the Faculty of Physics, energetically attracting actively working scientists to work at Moscow State University. Largely due to the cares of I.G. Petrovsky, the Faculty of Physics is currently one of the very large scientific centers of the country, combining laboratories in nuclear physics and cosmic rays, in linear optics, plasma physics, radiophysics, etc. Ivan Georgievich constantly makes sure that the Faculty of Physics maintains a high level of teaching scientific disciplines, worthy of the country's first university."

Academician A.N. Belozersky wrote about the role of Petrovsky in the development of biological research at the university: "I.G. Petrovsky is not only a major mathematician, but also an organizer of science on an exceptionally large scale. areas that are just emerging or will appear in the near future and will be of great importance not only for the development of science, but also for the economy of our country.He promotes these new emerging and emerging areas of knowledge in every possible way, realizing that they must be developed in the first place it is at the university, since the university trains the personnel with whom these new directions should be provided.With the direct participation and assistance of Ivan Georgievich, and sometimes on his initiative, a number of new problem laboratories were created at the Faculty of Biology and Soil, reflecting the aspirations of modern biological science. plays a huge role in the creation of an inter-faculty laboratory of bioorganic chemistry, which represents a new direction in biological science - molecular biology, in the creation of the department of virology, problem laboratories in bionics, space biology and others.

Ivan Georgievich paid much attention to the Faculty of Geology of Moscow State University, established in 1949. He provided constant support in the acquisition of expensive modern equipment by the Faculty, assisted in the organization of research in new promising areas (experimental petrology, tectonophysics, experimental geochemistry, etc.).

Trying to develop interdisciplinary areas at the university, Petrovsky strongly supported the idea of ​​creating interfaculty laboratories. Thus, with his active participation, laboratories of applied probability theory and mathematical statistics, as well as mathematical methods in biology, the Department of Chemical Mechanics was founded. In his desire to expand the experimental base of Moscow State University and organize the work of university scientists and students at the facilities of the largest scientific centers, Petrovsky actively contributed to the creation of a branch of the Faculty of Physics at International Institute nuclear research in Dubna and a branch of the Faculty of Biology and Soil in Pushchino.

Petrovsky made a lot of efforts to develop the humanities at the university. We have already talked about his help in launching the activities of the Novgorod archaeological expedition. With his participation and support, the department was organized scientific information, Institute of Oriental Languages, Faculty of Journalism. Petrovsky was one of the initiators of the creation of the faculty of psychology at the university, whose activities he constantly monitored. A well-known psychologist, dean of the Faculty of Psychology A.N. Leontiev said: “Several years ago, during a business conversation, Ivan Georgievich asked me a completely unexpected question: what do I know about ethology? It turned out that he had read one of the works of Lorentz, which greatly interested him. "Perhaps we, at Moscow State University, would need to have this direction? "- he said in conclusion. It should be noted that at the time when the conversation was taking place, proper ethological research was not being conducted anywhere, it did not exist in Russian language and no literature on ethology. What I said is by no means just an expression of his interest in everything new. First of all, it is the ability to see essential, non-random problems of science, no matter what field of knowledge they belong to."

Here is how the Minister of Education of the USSR, chemist, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences M.A. Prokofiev described the activities of Petrovsky, the rector: “He is characterized by an amazing ability to help develop promising new areas. when macromolecular compounds in scientifically although they were developed by graduates of Moscow State University, but this was done outside the university. There was practically no chemistry of macromolecular compounds at Moscow State University. It was necessary to evaluate the significance of this branch of chemistry in science and national economy. This was brilliantly done by the rector I.G. Petrovsky. At the same time, he put great energy into attracting qualified scientists and creating conditions for work and training. Soon, the Department of Macromolecular Compounds (under the leadership of its first head, Academician V.A. Kardin) became the scientific center of the country in the field of the chemical bases of macromolecular compounds, in which great young scientists were formed. Petrovsky has long been worried about the lag in research in our country in terms of molecular biology. On his initiative, the creative forces of biochemists and chemists are combined to develop these issues. An interfaculty laboratory is being created, the necessary material base is being provided. A number of important world-class research is coming out of this lab. Creative young cadres have grown up. At the beginning of his life, I.G. Petrovsky had to teach mathematics at school. Probably, since then he has retained a loving attitude towards the teacher, the school, the education system. Such interesting undertakings as the University School of Physics and Mathematics, the Correspondence School in Mathematics at Moscow State University, refresher courses for teachers, cycles of lectures systematically organized by the University for teachers in Moscow, and much more - all this is the initiative of the Rector of Moscow State University. The good advice of I.G. Petrovsky on improving the school business is invariably highly valued by all workers in public education.

For all his exceptional employment - with the affairs of the university and science, first of all, as well as duties for the Academy of Sciences, publishing affairs, and finally, state duties (we should not forget about his deputy powers and work in the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR) - Ivan Georgievich remained a man simple and friendly in relations with others. This was especially evident in his attitude towards students, for whom he always remained a kind and attentive teacher.

It is impossible to list all that Petrovsky did for science, for Moscow University, for education, for our state. His name rightfully occupies one of the most glorious places among the figures of national culture of the twentieth century.