Great and terrible: why a scandal broke out around the personal life of the famous Soviet physicist Lev Landau

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Lev Landau is called one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century. The scientific works of the Soviet physicist were recognized all over the world and were appreciated: in 1962 he became a Nobel Prize laureate. In 1999, 31 years after the death of the scientist, the book of memoirs of his wife Cora “Academician Landau. How We Lived”, on which a feature film was recently filmed. Both the book and its adaptation provoked a scandal in academic circles: according to scientists, they defamed the image of the great scientist and were an insult to his memory. The wife idolized her husband and considered him a genius, but, according to her confession, in everyday life he was a domestic tyrant and a real monster …

Lev Landau and Concordia Drobantseva spent 34 years together: 12 years in a civil marriage and 22 years in an official marriage. Cora began writing her memoirs after her husband's death in 1968 and worked on them for 10 years. At first, they were distributed in the form of samizdat among physicists, but almost all copies were destroyed by Landau's indignant colleagues as defaming his image and replete with overly explicit details of the personal life of the genius and those around him. Cora herself explained her position in the afterword: “”.

At the beginning of his scientific career, Dandau made a commitment "not to smoke, drink or marry." When they met Kora, Lev Landau was 26 years old, and by that time he had already defended his dissertation and became a doctor of sciences. From the very beginning, he announced to his chosen one that he did not intend to marry and invited them to conclude a conditional "pact of non-aggression in married life": none of them should claim the freedom of the other and bind themselves with the obligation to remain faithful. The scientist recognized only an open relationship in which each of the spouses could not only allow themselves connections on the side, but also not hide their adventures.

Lev Landau had his own theory of happiness, and he very much regretted that he did not write a separate work about it: "". He tried to implement his theory by his own example, in a marriage with Cora. In his opinion, lies and jealousy poison the lives of spouses, so they should be completely excluded: "".

The scientist considered boredom to be completely impermissible for family life: "". Landau's formula for happiness consisted of three components: love, work and communication with people, while love should be allotted at least 30% of the time. The scientist considered: "".

He decided on an official marriage with Cora only a few days before the birth of their son Igor, after the chosen one swore to him never to be jealous of him and not to interfere with relations with other women. He demanded the same from his wife and encouraged her connections with other men, although she herself did not want this. Landau created his own classification, according to which he divided attractive women into beautiful, pretty and interesting (1st, 2nd and 3rd grade), and called the ugly women as follows: 4th grade - "reprimand to parents", 5th grade - "for repetition - shooting ". The scientist believed that a woman should be beautiful, and it is not at all necessary to have a mind.

The scientist demanded that his wife not only come to terms with his love affairs, but even leave the apartment for the duration of the visits, having previously prepared dinner and a clean bed. One day he brought a girl home, and Cora hid in the closet. Landau opened the closet door, saw his wife and closed the door with a key. He released his wife only after he saw off his mistress. Instead of making a scandal for him and leaving, Cora once again forgave and blamed herself for everything: "".

After the publication of Cora's memoirs, a scandal erupted in the scientific community, the widow was accused of slander, speculation and deliberate distortion of facts. However, her words were confirmed by her son Igor: "".

Landau was sincerely convinced that every person simply has to be happy, and it is not difficult to achieve this: "".

They say that only extraordinary women can be next to a genius, because they often have to put up with their vices, quirks and weaknesses: Albert Einstein's two strange marriages.