Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction

Part I Nuclear Physicists
Chapter 1 Igor Tamm: Exemplary Consistency
Chapter 2 Yakov Zeldovich: Soviet Prometheus
Chapter 3 Andrei Sakharov: Soviet Conscience

Part II Low-temperature Physicists
Chapter 4 Petr Kapitza: Respected Centaur
Chapter 5 Lev Landau: Genius & Evgenii Lifshits: More than Landau's Pen
Chapter 6 Vitaly Ginzburg: Amateur Astronomer
Chapter 7 Alexei Abrikosov: "Unmanageable"

Part III Chemists and Chemical Physicists
Chapter 8 Nikolai Semenov: Mr. Chain Reaction
Chapter 9 Yulii Khariton: Director of "Los Arzamas"
Chapter 10 Boris Belousov & Anatol Zhabotinsky: "Impossible" Reaction
Chapter 11 Aleksandr Kitaigorodskii: Soviet Maverick
Chapter 12 Aleksandr Nesmeyanov: Brilliant Administrator and Soviet Courtier

Epilogue

Notes
Biographical Names
Some Notable Dates
Select Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Istvan Hargittai is a University Professor at the Institute of General and Analytical Chemistry, Budapest Technical University. He is also a Research Professor and Head of Department at the Structural Chemistry Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at Eötvös University, and is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Academia Europaea (London).

Reviews

"[This] mosaic of a book conveys well the triumphs, tensions, and twists of fortune in this rarified corner of Soviet life."--Foreign Affairs
"These are competent, fact-filled accounts of education, careers, honors, and discoveries, mixed with often-harrowing descriptions of how each scientist either prospered or rebelled in the strange Orwellian world of the U.S.S.R."--Publishers Weekly
"In Buried Glory, Istvan Hargittai brings to life 14 outstanding Soviet scientists, and reveals the deadly bureaucracy and terror of the Soviet regime, with imprisonment, murder of family members, and threats being an innate element in their careers. A must-read for anyone with curiosity about our current world, and the one that might have been."--Richard Garwin, recipient of the National Medal of Science and the Enrico Fermi Award
"This amazing book is a warm, informed, intimate portrait of what it was like to be a scientist in the Soviet Union, written by an insider who knew many of the subjects. Masterfully written, with unforgettable characters and intricate plot, this book delivers all the pleasures of a Russian novel--except that this tale is true, and had a lasting impact on the modern world."--Robert P. Crease, Chairman of the Department of Philosophy, Stony Brook University
"An honest, detailed, and breathtaking account of the deeds, ideas and fates of outstanding scientists of the former Soviet Union. I wholeheartedly recommend it to a broad readership interested in the history of human accomplishment."--Boris Ya. Zeldovich, Member of the USSR (now Russian) Academy of Sciences and Professor of Optics and Physics, University of Central Florida
"This book introduces a unique constellation of brilliant Soviet scientists, and they are described well. The heroes chosen by Istvan Hargittai were exceptional, and their appreciation was high during the cruel and autocratic Soviet period."--Alexey Semenov, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Moscow
"The biographical essays of Buried Glory provide sympathetic but not uncritical portraits of a group of leading Soviet scientists. All of them are interesting figures, as scientists and as human beings. Hargittai, who studied chemistry in the Soviet Union, conveys vividly the science they performed and the conditions under which they worked. Buried Glory throws light on a neglected but extremely important aspect of twentieth-century
history. It offers a fascinating insight into science and scientific life in the Soviet Union."--David Holloway, Department of Political Science, Stanford University
"Istvan Hargittai's book about the stellar hours of Soviet science is absolutely cogent and authoritative. Thanks to this work, the broader world will be properly informed about the greatness of Soviet science behind the Iron Curtain, about its leaders, their motivations and aspirations, and their achievements in a totalitarian state."--Boris S. Gorobets, Professor of Mathematics and Professor of Mineralogy, Moscow
Featured in Physics Today
Featured in The Russian Review
"Hargittai's sample of scientists is a significant one..."--Chemical Heritage