S. A. Lebedev, a brief biography of scientific achievements and personal perseverance

In the time of the great scientific breakthrough of the young Soviet state, there was no such field of science wherever a true genius worked. Although the rights to advanced computer technologies are rightfully owned by Americans and Japanese, nevertheless, at the dawn of artificial intelligence, there were Soviet scientists who made discoveries often in total secrecy. One of such scientists, who possessed exceptional genius and extraordinary creative potential, was Lebedev Sergey Alekseevich, whose brief biography, it would seem, quite clearly leads us from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering to the creation of the first computer.

The beginning of the way

The pioneer of the domestic computer era, SA Lebedev, a brief biography of the one described in this article, certainly had no idea, at the origins of which discovery he turned out to be. The future academician was born in Nizhny Novgorod on November 2, 1902 in the family of intellectuals, teachers. In addition, his father was a writer, and his mother was from a noble family. It is worth adding that his sister, who took herself the maiden name of his mother, Anastasia Mavrin, was a famous artist.

When the future academician turned 18 years old, the family moved to the Russian capital. A year later he enrolled at the Moscow Higher Technical School named after Bauman at the Department of Electrical Engineering, where he studied for seven years and got a diploma of an electrical engineer. In his final work, S. A. Lebedev, whose brief biography gives rise to associations with biographies of other Soviet scientists of the time, studied the problems of the energy systems created in those years, according to the development of the State Commission for Electrification of Russia.

Further work

After graduation, he continued to work in the field of electrification. For two years he worked at the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute. After the electrical engineering faculty of the technical school, which he graduated from, was assigned to a separate educational institution - the Moscow Power Engineering Institute - he went there to teach. His studies and their results were subsequently used in the work of Soviet power plants and power lines.

After six years of teaching practice, S. A. Lebedev, whose brief biography, unfortunately, can not reflect the whole gamut of the research path by which he walked, received the status of a professor. In 1939 he became an academician, defending his doctoral dissertation. The theme of his research this time was the theory of artificial stability of power systems.

War and the continuation of scientific activity

His invaluable knowledge in the field of electricity and energy, of course, Lebedev, like any Soviet scientist, during the war with Hitlerite Germany turned to the aid of the Soviet military industry. Basically, he was engaged in the development of new types of weapons or the improvement of weapons. So, he owns a project of homing torpedoes. In addition, the system of stabilization of firearms on tanks during the aiming also came out from under his pen. For his works he was presented immediately to two awards - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45."

After the war, serious changes will occur in the life of the professor-a new scientist, SA Lebedev, will appear. A brief biography - a computer, more precisely, its prototype, will henceforth become its main goal - makes a sharp turn, after which the scientist will not only wait for laurels.

Moving to Kiev

It is worth noting that it was the original scope of the professor's work that led him to a future discovery. Energy (and everything related to it) required a huge amount of calculations. At some point, the scientist was puzzled by the automation of computing processes. After the war, in 1946, he moved to Kiev. It is here that a new invention will appear. Sergei Alekseevich will head the Energy Institute under the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. At the same time, he will also join the number of active members of the Academy of Sciences. A year later, the institute was reorganized, and S. A. Lebedev, whose brief biography would have come as a plot for a historical drama, will be headed by the Institute of Electrical Engineering.

According to biographers of the scientist, during two years of work in Kiev he summed up his research in the field of energy, writing in co-authorship with Lev Zekernik a work on the device of generators for power plants. For her, the scientist was awarded the State Prize of the USSR. Then the next three years he dedicated digital computing. His research, development and results have become fundamental for further work in this field.

The first in continental Europe

It should be noted that from the very first days of work on the new site, Academician Lebedev organized a laboratory for modeling and computer technology, where they began to develop a small electronic-calculating machine (MESM) model. The work was carried out for more than two years. And in November 1950 the first launch was made. The SECM was a prototype of the later created computer, and it was the first in continental Europe. And created it SA Lebedev. A brief biography - a computer has become the main and most important invention of an academician - should speak of the glory that has fallen in a moment. However, the reality was completely different.

This is amazing, but the academician began to speak more or less only after his death. During the life of the scientist, no one wrote anything about him. And the reason is two objective factors. Since any progress begins with the military industry, and the creation of a computer presupposed the development of an anti-missile defense, the name of the great scientist was strictly classified, which is logical. But, in addition, academician Lebedev himself possessed a rare modesty and completely disliked communication with journalists.

Merit

In the year of the first tests, MESM Academician Lebedev is recalled to Moscow to work at the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering under the USSR Academy of Sciences. Under his leadership, a high-speed electron-counting machine (BESM) is designed. Later, two years later, he will lead the institute, which later received his name.

Biography of SA Lebedev is filled with the joy of scientific discoveries, absolute genius and painstaking, unrestrained work. Is it a joke to say that during its management of the institute, fifteen types of computers were created, beginning with the first tube and ending with super computers that worked on integrated circuits. Even despite the serious illness that forced him to leave the post of director since 1973, he continued to work at home. The last of its developments formed the basis of the supercomputer Elbrus. The scientist died at the age of 72 years.