We are used to thinking that brilliant lone scientists making discoveries that can threaten the whole world are characters from science fiction films and novels. Oddly enough, something similar sometimes happens in reality.
STRANGE MURDER
In the early morning of June 12, 1903, the 45-year-old St. Petersburg chemist Mikhail Mikhailovich Filippov was found dead in his laboratory at the apartment, in house number 37 on Zhukovsky Street. The scientist lay prone on the floor without his coat. The abrasions on his face indicated that he fell as if knocked down, not even having time to put his hands in front of him.
For some reason, the police reacted to the incident without much interest, somehow carelessly. The medical examiner hastily examined the deceased and hastily concluded that death was due to nervous tension. "Apoplectic stroke", - said the doctor categorically, and at the moment he signed the examination report, which, among other things, said that the scientist had worked a lot lately, it happened, he sat in his laboratory and all night long.
The investigator took all Filippov's papers, including the manuscript of the book, which was to become his 301st publication, and allowed the deceased to be buried. He was buried at the "Literatorskie Mostki" Volkov cemetery - the burial place of Russian writers, not far from the graves of Dobrolyubov and Belinsky. It is no coincidence that Filippov was no stranger to literary creation, and Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky spoke warmly about his works.
Meanwhile, the press became interested in the death of the scientist. Including because Mikhail Mikhailovich was a fellow-founder, publisher and editor of the journal Scientific Review, which began to appear in 1894. Remarkable people, prominent scientists, eagerly collaborated with the magazine: chemists DI Mendeleev and NN Beketov, psychiatrist and psychologist VM Bekhterev, astronomer SP Glazenap. KE Tsiolkovsky also appeared in the Scientific Review more than once.
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Only a very bold and perspicacious editor could publish the work that the founder of cosmonautics sent in the spring of 1903: the later famous article "Exploration of world spaces by jet devices." She was published in the fifth, May issue of the magazine. This publication forever cemented Tsiolkovsky's fame as a pioneer in the field of theoretical cosmonautics.
And soon there was a mysterious murder. On the eve of his death, on June 11, Filippov sent a letter to the editorial office of the Sankt-Peterburgskie vedomosti newspaper, in which he wrote that from his youthful years he had been thinking about how to stop wars and make them almost impossible.
“Surprising as it may seem,” the scientist reported, “but recently I made a discovery, the practical development of which will actually abolish the war. We are talking about a method I have invented for electrical transmission over a distance of an explosion wave, and, judging by the method used, this transmission is possible over a distance of thousands of kilometers … But with such a war at the distances I have indicated, the war actually becomes madness and must be abolished. I will publish the details in the autumn in the memoirs of the Academy of Sciences."
In fact, Filippov wanted to preserve world peace through the “balance of fear,” which we now know well from nuclear weapons.
Rumors, guesses, facts
Rumors of an unknown invention did not stop for a long time. Filippov's good friend, Professor A. S Trachevsky, said in an interview with St. Petersburg Vedomosti: “As a historian, Mikhail Mikhailovich could only tell me about his plan in general outline. When I reminded him of the difference between theory and practice, he firmly said: "It has been checked, there have been experiments, and I will do it."
Filippov told me the essence of the secret approximately, as in a letter to the editor. He repeated more than once, striking the table with his hand:
“It's so simple and cheap! It's amazing how they haven't figured it out yet. " I remember that Mikhail Mikhailovich added that the problem was approached in America, but in a completely different and unsuccessful way."
Articles appeared that questioned the veracity of the scientist's statement about his extraordinary invention. Then DI Mendeleev himself spoke out in defense of Filippov. "The ideas of M. M. Filippov," said the great chemist, "may well withstand scientific criticism." And in a conversation with Professor Trachevsky, he spoke even more definitely:
"There is nothing fantastic in the main idea of Filippov: the explosion wave is available for transmission, like a wave of light or sound."
In 1913, when ten years had passed since the mysterious murder, talk about Filippov's invention resumed. New details surfaced. Thus, it became known that back in 1900 the inventor traveled to Riga several times, where, according to the newspaper Russkoe Slovo, “in the presence of some specialists, he made experiments on blasting objects at a distance”.
Returning to Petersburg, he said that he was extremely pleased with the results of the experiments. The same newspaper tried to find Filippov's preparations and devices, which were seized by the Petersburg security department during a search. Alas, everything disappeared without a trace. The manuscript also disappeared, containing "mathematical calculations and the results of experiments on blasting at a distance." However, the newspapermen managed to find out that at one time all this disappeared with the assistance of members of the royal family, including Emperor Nicholas II himself.
Other interesting details also became known.
“I can reproduce with a beam of short waves the entire force of an explosion,” Mikhail Mikhailovich wrote in one of the letters he found. - The blast wave is completely transmitted along the carrier electromagnetic wave, and thus the dynamite charge, detonated in Moscow, can transmit its effect to Constantinople. Experiments I have done show that this phenomenon can be caused at a distance of several thousand kilometers. The use of such weapons in the revolution will lead to the fact that the peoples will revolt, and wars will become completely impossible. " We also note that the manuscript confiscated by the Security Department was called "The Revolution Through Science, or the End of Wars."
DANGEROUS BELIEF
Yes, Filippov was a convinced Marxist, and despite the danger he exposed himself, he spoke about it openly. L. N. Tolstoy wrote in his diary dated November 19, 1900: “I argued about Marxism with Filippov; he spoke very convincingly. There was even a legend that VI Lenin was also published in the Scientific Review. Indeed, on its pages there were occasional reviews of books signed by “V. Uhl, which allowed some researchers to believe that this signature clearly indicates Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin.
Thus, as it were, a direct connection was established between the genius scientist and the leader of the world proletariat. However, modern research has shown that these reviews belonged to the pen of a certain V. D. Ulrich. Nevertheless, Vladimir Ilyich was familiar with the works of Mikhail Mikhailovich, and they even had some influence on him.
The famous passage from Lenin's Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, which speaks of the inexhaustible nature of the electron, is taken directly from one of Filippov's works. There is also reason to believe that he also owns the famous formula "Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country", taken up by the first leader of the Soviet state.
But what exactly did the Marxist scientist invented back in 1903? Some researchers suggest that a powerful light beam lay at the heart of Filippov's idea, that is, not only did the idea of a laser weapon originate in his head, but he had already carried out some experiments in this direction. Some modern laser specialists, in principle, do not deny this version.
Other researchers of the problem say that the professor, of course, did not know the laser, but he studied ultrashort waves with a length of about a millimeter, which he received using a spark generator. He has published several papers on this topic. Even today, the properties of such waves are not fully understood, and Filippov could well have found a way to convert the explosion energy into a narrow beam of ultrashort waves - the pioneers always look at the studied paradoxes more broadly than their followers.
But could the invention of Professor Filippov be a blessing for mankind? Being both a scientist and a revolutionary, he would most likely really make his discovery public, naively believing that the peoples, having received this weapon from him, would sweep kings and tyrants off the face of the earth and, thanks to Marxism, establish peace for centuries everywhere.
A dangerous delusion! The famous French popularizer of science, Jacques Bergier, believed that the murder of Filippov was carried out by the tsarist secret police on the direct instructions of the initiator of the Hague Convention on the Laws and Customs of War, Nicholas II, who thereby not only destroyed the dangerous revolutionary, but also saved the world, which was on the brink of destruction:
“If Filippov had time to make his method public, it would undoubtedly have been perfected and used in the First World War. And all the major cities in Europe, and possibly America, would have been destroyed. And what about the wars of 1939-1945? Wouldn't Hitler, armed with the Filippov method, have completely destroyed England, and the Americans - Japan? I'm afraid we might have to give an affirmative answer to all these questions. And it is possible that Emperor Nicholas II, whom everyone condemned amicably, should be ranked among the saviors of mankind."
Victor BUMAGIN