Friends!

Friends! On this day in 1916 was born Joseph Shklovsky, a prominent Ukrainian astrophysicist of Jewish origin.

Joseph Samuilovich was born in Glukhiv in Chernihiv region. The house on the street Spassky, 12, built by his grandfather, stands to this day. His father was engaged in petty trade, the family lived very poorly. This is how Shklovsky himself remembered his childhood: "I grew up in a traditional Jewish family in a small Ukrainian city, studied the ancient language of my ancestors, and went with my mother in the synagogue. And what were holidays, although around -everything was so poor! For some reason, I remembered the smell of these holidays. And then there was a seven-year school, a split of consciousness between a Jewish home and a Soviet school. In 1930 the family left the native Ukraine. And my Jewish childhood has remained in the past, which cannot be returned ... "

Family moved to Kazakhstan, after graduating from school, Joseph Samuilovich worked for two years as a tenant on the construction of the Magnitogorsk-Karaganda-Balkhash railways and the Baikal-Amur Railways. But the boy wanted to learn. In 1933 he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Far Eastern University. In 1935, he moved to Moscow State University and graduated with honors. Subsequently defended his Ph.D. thesis, which was devoted to the physics of the solar corona. And at the age of 32, Joseph became the youngest doctor of sciences.

Shklovsky was the first in the USSR (1953-1954) who taught radio astronomy. In 1953 he organized and headed the Department of Radio Astronomy at the State Astronomical Institute named after Pavlo Sternberg. There the scientist created the famous astrophysical school. He lived under bad conditions. During the "fight against cosmopolitan" from the State Astronomical Institute them. Sternberg were expelled the best astronomers-Jews along with Shklovsky. Recalling this, he wrote: "My destiny is a small drop in the sea of ​​the suffering of Jewish people ..." But the rector of the Moscow State University Petrovsky then did everything possible to have Shklovsky resumed his office.

For a quarter century, the candidacy of Joseph Samuilovich had been introduced into the bulletin of the USSR Academy of Sciences for the election of an academician for ten times! But in 1966 he was elected only a correspondent member.

In 1962, Shklovsky published his most famous book "The Universe, Life, Mind", which amazed readers in the USSR and abroad. Incidentally, this book had a tremendous impact on Carl Sagan, one of the most famous scientists in the world, the founder of the Planetary Society, which united earthlings who are interested in Space, the future of the planet Earth. He is the author of world-class books and TV series devoted to extraterrestrial civilizations, the winner of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in the USA for the book Dragons of Eden. Reflections on the evolution of the human brain ". Sagan repeatedly repeated that his research was inspired by Ukrainian astrophysicist Yosyp Shklovsky.

Shklovsky participated in launching on the Moon the device "Lunokid-1". He was a star of the Soviet astronomical science. His work on analyzing the problems of life and intelligence in the universe became widely known. In 1969, Shklovsky created a department of astrophysics at the newly created Space Research Institute, which he headed to the last days of his life, simultaneously managing (on a voluntary basis) and the Department of Radio Astronomy DAISH.

The scientist died on the 3d of March, 1985 in Moscow. In Glukhiv, the memory of outstanding astrophysics is still celebrated - one of the streets of the city is named after him.