The founder of theoretical cosmonautics Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk made a contribution to this science equal to the contribution of Tsiolkovsky, Kibalchich, Zander. However, recognition came to him only after his death, when the forgotten discoveries of the scientist were again “rediscovered” by researchers of the next generations. The works of the scientist were also unknown because of his mysterious biography.
Childhood
The future scientist Yuri Kondratyuk was born on June 21, 1897 in Poltava. The name under which he went down in history is actually a pseudonym, or rather, the name of a completely different person, with whose documents the researcher lived for a long time. He was born as Alexander Ivanovich Shargei. The boy was orphaned early and was brought up by his grandfather. At the age of 13, he went to study at the Poltava Men's Gymnasium, where the teacher drew the attention of a gifted student. The teacher directed Alexander's interest in the right direction - physics, mathematics and chemistry.
Already in early 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 Yury Vasilyevich Kondratyuk became the authoramazing and ahead of its time scientific theories.
Teared education
Another idea that captured Alexander Shargei's mind was the dream of interplanetary flights. In 1930, in a letter to Tsiolkovsky, he mentioned that already at the age of 16 he accurately determined that there was a technical possibility of launching from the earth's surface into space. Since then, Shargei has had his own fixed idea. On the eve of graduating from the Poltava gymnasium, the young man completed his first serious manuscript - "To those who will read in order to build." In the draft of the book, the future Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilyevich formulated (albeit vaguely) a project for future interplanetary travel. Later he developed these ideas in his other works.
Then Shargei entered the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute. However, his studies did not last long. Soon Alexander was drafted into the army, and in 1917 he ended up on the Caucasian front of the First World War. The ensign returned home after the October Revolution and the announcement of general demobilization by the Bolsheviks.
New name
Very soon Poltava found itself in the midst of a civil war. Shargei was an officer, and therefore he was drafted into the army of General Denikin. Alexander did not want to participate in the bloodshed and deserted at the first opportunity. For the next two years, the young man lived in a semi-legal position, content with odd jobs. He was under constant threat of arrest. In 1921, relatives were able to gethe had a passport in the name of Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk, a student at Kyiv University who died of advanced tuberculosis.
However, it was still unsafe to stay in native Ukraine. The Reds or the Whites could expose the native of Poltava. Then the scientist Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilievich fled to the Kuban and got a job at the Krylovsky elevator. Once in relative safety, he finally set to work on his theories of flight between the planets. Like any self-taught scientist, he suffered from lack of money. Kondratyuk was going to build his own rocket, but he did not have the funds to fulfill his dream. All that remained for the nugget to do was to put his theoretical thoughts 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 an old issue of Niva. It became clear from the material that not only Yury Kondratyuk is obsessed with the idea of interplanetary flights.
The biography of this man is a typical example of the era - because of the revolution and the war, he had to forget about his usual life for many years. Therefore, he returned to Tsiolkovsky's materials only in 1925, when he read the Bulletin of Aeronautics.
Conquest of interplanetary space
Surprisingly, both scientists came to the same conclusions using different methods. At the same time, Kondratyuk Yury Vasilievich was a little ahead of his colleague. The achievements of the physicist were associated with hismain work - the book "The Conquest of Interplanetary Spaces". The author completed this work in 1926, when he lived in the village of Oktyabrskaya. This time he formulated his project not just in the form of a theory, but provided it with numerous details and figures.
The scientist tried to publish "The Conquest of Interplanetary Spaces" in Moscow. The book received a positive review from Professor Vladimir Vetchinkin. He studied the dynamics of rocket flight a lot and therefore appreciated the work of Kondratyuk. However, the book was not published. Over the following years, only Vetchinkin supported the unknown self-taught.
In Siberia
In 1927 Kondratyuk Yury Vasilievich, whose biography is an example of the biography of a constantly wandering person, moved to Novosibirsk. He went to the other end of the country at the invitation of the local Khleboprodukt. This office was responsible for storing grain in several regions. Back in the Kuban, Kondratyuk invented several new technologies for elevators. Novosibirsk got interested in his work. So the man who dreamed of the stars became responsible for the storage of cereals.
In the new place, the scientist made new comrades 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 up money by leading a Spartan lifestyle, and finally sent his manuscript to the local printer. The publication progressed very slowly. The compositors did not understand complex scientific mathematical formulas, made mistakes and redid everything again.
Book publishing
In January 1929, "The Conquest of Interplanetary Spaces" was published in a small edition of 2,000 copies. The book included 72 pages and several tabs with graphs and drawings. Vladimir Vetchinkin wrote a preface to it, in which he called Kondratyuk's study the most complete of all those that existed at that time, and published not only in Russian, but also in a foreign language.
What fundamentally new did Yury Kondratyuk write? The interesting facts in the book were that he solved several theoretical questions, thus opening up the theoretical possibility of flying to neighboring planets. Kondratyuk sent one copy to Tsiolkovsky and a month later received a response in which a senior colleague spoke positively about his work. The scientist distributed most of the circulation to his colleagues. Some read the book out of respect, but they could hardly understand the essence of what was written. For others, the inventor remained a strange eccentric.
Arrest and imprisonment
Shortly after the publication of the book, Kondratyuk, along with five comrades, was arrested and sentenced to three years' imprisonment under the 58th "political" article. He was denounced by one of his colleagues. After some time, the first sentence was replaced by work in the Special Bureau No. 14 - "sharashka", where other arrested scientists and researchers worked. There Kondratyuk found a newapplication - he began to design equipment used in the extraction of Kuzbass coal.
Also, the prisoner created a sketch of the Crimean wind farm, which had no analogues in the world. Several engineers joined the Kondratyuk project, including Nikolai Nikitin, who later built the Ostankino television tower in Moscow.
Meet the Queen
In 1933, the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry petitioned for the GPU to release the scientist as soon as possible. So Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilyevich was released. Photos of the researcher are still rare today, due to the fact that he had to live first in exile, and then under arrest. The wind farm project was approved, and Kondratyuk even went to Moscow.
In the capital, the Siberian nugget met with Sergei Korolev, who had heard about his amazing theoretical ideas. The future designer of space rockets invited the guest to work together in decent conditions and in a team of like-minded colleagues. However, Kondratyuk refused. His motives are not exactly known, but biographers agree that when applying for a job related to military projects, the Queen of the scientist could be additionally checked by the NKVD. The revision did not bode well. If the authorities had found out about the real identity of Kondratyuk and his connections with the whites during the civil war, the scientist would again be threatened with camps or execution.
The fate of the theorist's manuscripts
In 1938, a petition came to the All-Union Attestation Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences,signed by several eminent scientists. They asked for a theorist to be awarded a doctoral degree without defending a thesis, which would be a well-deserved recognition of the research successes achieved by the scientist Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk. Photos of his completed engineering projects and references to written works were a serious reason to consider the candidacy. However, the application was denied.
Certainly, the higher authorities are not accustomed to such figures as Yury Kondratyuk. The short biography of the scientist went beyond any usual framework. In the same year, the researcher, fearing for his unpublished works, handed over the archive of manuscripts to Boris Vorobyov, who already kept Tsiolkovsky's works. This precaution made it possible to preserve valuable documents for posterity. Vorobyov literally saved the first, still youthful, manuscripts of the scientist from oblivion and loss.
Death
As soon as the Great Patriotic War began, among many other volunteers, Kondratyuk Yury Vasilievich arrived at the military registration and enlistment office. The physicist and theorist ended up in the 62nd Infantry Regiment. As a specialist, he became responsible for providing communications between battalions and headquarters. The last battle of Kondratyuk took place on the night of February 25-26, 1942 on the Oka coast in the Oryol region. The scientist died in a clash with the Germans. His body was buried near the village of Krivtsovo.
Over the following years, first the Soviet and then the entire international community gradually realized the significance of Kondratyuk's works. In 1957, at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR,dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Tsiolkovsky, Sergei Korolev read out a report in which he appreciated the merits of Yuri Vasilyevich. Just a few days after this event, the first artificial earth satellite went into space.
Kondratyuk's direct ideas were first implemented by the Americans in the Apollo lunar program in the 60s. NASA used a trajectory fifty years earlier proposed by a Russian scientist. The general Soviet public learned about Kondratyuk in 1969. Then an article was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda, in which for the first time it was announced throughout the country that the scientist had created the technology by which the Americans landed on the moon. In 1970, a special judicial commission acquitted Kondratyuk in a case in which he spent several years in a "sharashka".
