Scientist Kondratyuk Yuri: Biography

The founder of theoretical cosmonautics Yuri Kondratyuk contributed to this science a contribution equal to the contribution of Tsiolkovsky, Kibalchich, and Zander. However, recognition came to him only after death, when the scientist's forgotten discoveries were again "rediscovered" by researchers of the next generation. The work of the scientist was unknown also because of his mysterious biography.

Childhood

The future scientist Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilievich was born on June 21, 1897 in Poltava. The name by which he went down in history is in fact a pseudonym, or rather, the name of a completely different person, whose documents the investigator has lived for a long time. He was born as Alexander Ivanovich Shargey. The boy was orphaned early and brought up by his grandfather. At the age of 13 he went to study at the Poltava Men's Gymnasium, where a gifted student was attracted to the teacher's attention. The teacher sent Alexander's interest in the right direction - physics, mathematics and chemistry.

Already in the earliest childhood the boy had a craving for invention. He spent a lot of time behind cars, springs, water turbines, pumps, barometers and other curiosities that came to hand. Therefore it is not surprising that later Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilievich became the author of amazing and advanced scientific theories.

Aborted education

Another idea that captured the consciousness of Alexander Shargei, was the dream of interplanetary flights. In 1930, in a letter to Tsiolkovsky, he mentioned that at the age of sixteen he had accurately determined that there was a technical possibility of flying out of the earth's surface into space. Since then, Shargeya has had his own idea-fix. On the eve of the end of Poltava Gymnasium, the young man finished his first serious manuscript - "Those who will read to build." In the draft of the book, the future Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilyevich formulated (albeit fuzzy) the project of future interplanetary travel. Later, he developed these ideas in other of his works.

Then Shargay entered the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute. However, his studies did not last long. Soon Alexander was drafted into the army, and in 1917 he was on the Caucasus front of the First World War. The ensign returned home after the October Revolution and the Bolsheviks declared a general demobilization.

New name

Very soon, Poltava was in the epicenter of the civil war. Shargay was an officer, and therefore he was drafted into the army of General Denikin. Alexander did not want to participate in the bloodshed and defected at the first opportunity. The next two years the young man lived on a semi-legal position, content with casual earnings. He was under constant threat of arrest. In 1921, relatives were able to obtain a passport for him in the name of Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk, a student at Kiev University, who died of tuberculosis.

However, it was not safe to remain in your native Ukraine anyway. Reds or whites could expose Poltava native. Then the scientist Yuri Kondratyuk fled to the Kuban and settled on the Krylovsky elevator. Relatively safe, he finally set to work on his theories of flying between planets. Like any self-taught scientist, he suffered from lack of money. Kondratyuk was going to build his own rocket, but he had no means to realize his dream. All that was left to do the nugget was to present his theoretical considerations on paper.

Kondratyuk and Tsiolkovsky

Simultaneously with Kondratyuk, similar studies were conducted by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. For the first time the young scientist came across his note in 1918 in the old issue of Niva. From the material it became clear that the idea of interplanetary flights is obsessed not only by Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilyevich.

The biography of this man is a typical example of an era - because of the revolution and the war he had to forget about his usual life for many years. Therefore, he returned to the materials of Tsiolkovsky only in 1925, when he read the Bulletin of Aeronautics.

"The conquest of interplanetary spaces"

Surprisingly, both scientists came to the same conclusions, while using different methods. At the same time, Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk was slightly ahead of his colleague. The achievements of the physicist were related to his main work - the book "The Conquest of Interplanetary Spaces". This work the author finished in 1926, when he lived in the village of October. This time, he formulated his project not just in the form of a theory, but furnished it with numerous details and figures.

The scientist tried to publish the "Conquest of Interplanetary Spaces" in Moscow. The book received a positive response from Professor Vladimir Vetchinkin. He studied the dynamics of missile flight a lot, and therefore appreciated the work of Kondratyuk. Nevertheless, the book was not published. Throughout the following years, only Vetchinkin supported an unknown self-taught person.

In Siberia

In 1927 Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilievich, whose biography is an example of a life story of a constantly wandering man, moved to Novosibirsk. At the other end of the country, he went at the invitation of the local "Bakery". This office was responsible for storing grain in several regions. Back in the Kuban Kondratyuk invented several new technologies for elevators. His work interested in Novosibirsk. So the man who dreamed of the stars, became responsible for storing grain.

In a new place, the scientist acquired new friends and friends, but none of them appreciated his still youthful enthusiasm for space flights. Meanwhile, Kondratyuk remembered his main written work. For several years he saved money, leading a Spartan lifestyle, and finally sent his manuscript to a local printing house. The publication was moving very slowly. The typesetters did not understand the complex scientific mathematical formulas, made mistakes and remade everything anew.

Publishing a book

In January 1929, "The Conquest of Interplanetary Spaces" was published in a small circulation of 2,000 copies. The book included 72 pages and several tabs with graphs and drawings. Vladimir Vetchinkin wrote to her the preface, in which he called the study Kondratyuk the most complete of all then existing, and published not only in Russian, but also in foreign languages.

What is fundamentally new written Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilyevich? Interesting facts in the book were that he solved several theoretical issues, thus opening up a theoretical opportunity for flying to neighboring planets. Kondratyuk sent one copy to Tsiolkovsky and a month later received a reply in which the senior colleague responded positively to his work. The scientist distributed most of the print run to his colleagues. Some read the book out of respect, but they could hardly understand the essence of what was written. For those around him, the inventor remained a strange oddball.

Arrest and imprisonment

Shortly after the publication of the book, Kondratyuk along with five comrades was arrested and sentenced to a three-year imprisonment on the 58th "political" article. On him wrote a denunciation of one of his colleagues. After some time the first verdict was changed to work at the Special Bureau No. 14 - "sharashka", where other arrested scientists and researchers worked. There Kondratyuk found a new application - he began to design equipment used in the extraction of Kuzbass coal.

Also, the prisoner created a sketch of the Crimean wind power station, whose analogs were not yet available all over the world. Several engineers joined the Kondratyuk project, including Nikolai Nikitin, who later built the Ostankino TV tower in Moscow.

Meeting with Korolev

In 1933, in the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry, they petitioned that GPU release the scientist as soon as possible. So was at large Kondratyuk Yuri. The photo of the researcher is still rare today, due to the fact that he had to live first in exile, and then under arrest. The wind power plant project was approved, and Kondratyuk even went to Moscow.

In the capital, a Siberian nugget met with Sergey Korolev, who heard about his amazing theoretical ideas. The future designer of space rockets invited the guest to work together in worthy conditions and a team of like-minded colleagues. However, Kondratyuk refused. His motives are not known exactly, but biographers agree on the opinion that when entering the work related to military projects, the Queen of the scientist could additionally check in the NKVD. The audit did not bode well. If they knew about the real personality of Kondratyuk and his connections with whites in the civil war, the scientist would be threatened again with camps or shooting.

The fate of the manuscripts of the theorist

In 1938 a petition was signed by several prominent scientists to the All-Union Attestation Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences. They asked the theoretician to confer a doctoral degree without defending the thesis, which would be a well-deserved recognition of the research achievements that the scientist Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilievich achieved. Photos of his implemented engineering projects and references to the written works were a serious reason to consider the candidacy. However, the petition was rejected.

Undoubtedly, in the higher instances, they are not accustomed to such figures as Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilievich. A brief biography of the scientist was for some familiar framework. In the same year, the researcher, fearing for his unpublished works, handed over the archive of manuscripts to Boris Vorobyov, who had already kept the work of Tsiolkovsky. This precaution made it possible to keep valuable documents for descendants. Sparrows literally saved from the oblivion and loss of the first, still youthful, manuscripts of the scientist.

Death

As soon as the Great Patriotic War began, among many other volunteers, Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilyevich arrived in the military registration and enlistment office. The physicist and theoretician was in the 62nd Infantry Regiment. As a specialist, he became responsible for ensuring communication between the battalions and the headquarters. The last battle of Kondratyuk occurred on the night of 25 to 26 February 1942 on the Oka shore in the Orel region. The scientist died in a clash with the Germans. His body was buried near the village of Krivtsovo.

During the following years, the Soviet, and then the entire international community, first gradually realized the significance of the works of Kondratyuk. In 1957, at a meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Tsiolkovsky, Sergei Korolyov read out a report in which he evaluated the merits of Yuri Vasilyevich. Just a few days after this event, the first artificial earth satellite went into space.

Kondratyuk's immediate ideas were first realized by the Americans in the lunar Apollo program in the 1960s. NASA used a trajectory fifty years before that proposed to the Russian scientist. The wide Soviet public learned about Kondratyuk in 1969. Then in Komsomolskaya Pravda was published an article in which for the first time throughout the country it was announced that the scientist had created a technology by which Americans landed on the Moon. In 1970, a special judicial commission acquitted Kondratyuk in the case, on which he spent several years in "sharashka".