Yakov Perelman

Yakov Perelman ( Bialystok , 4 of December of 1882 – Leningrad , 22 of June of 1942 ) was a Russian-Soviet writer, popularizer of physics, mathematics and astronomy, founder of the genre of popular science literature; his books were published in many languages.

Summary

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• 1 Biographical synthesis
  • 1 Journalism
  • 2 Pseudonyms
  • 3 Recognized author
  • 4 Marriage
  • 5 Pedagogy and journalism
  • 6 First Soviet rocket
  • 7 Death
• 2 Legacy
• 3 Works
• 4 Sources

Biographical synthesis

He was born on 4 of December of 1882 (according to the Gregorian calendar in use today but instead was born on November 22, according to the outdated Julian calendar ), in the city of Bialystok -a 60 km from the border with the current the territory of Belarus – in the Polish province of Grodniy , which between 1795 and 1807 belonged to Prussia; and from 1807, it passed to the jurisdiction of Russia.

Second son of a humble family, his mother, (Henrietta Isaakovna Ehrlich), worked as a primary school teacher and foreign language teacher, and his father (Isaac Isidoro Perelman) as a clerk in a textile factory. His brother – Yósif Isídorovich Perelmán (February 16, 1878 – February 3, 1959) – was a novelist and playwright who wrote in Russian and Yiddish with Osip Dimov’s remix.

His other brother Herman Perelmán died during World War II in Germany. He had two sisters, Anna Perelmán (1879-1942), who, like Yakov, died at the site of Leningrad , and Sora Sofía Sonia Perelmán (1884-?). His maternal uncle was the philosopher and music critic Yakov Isaakovich Volf Ehrlich (1874-1902), who was a member of the Circle of Symbolists, and was a close friend of V. Bryusov , V. V. Gippius, and A. M. Dobrolyubova .

In September 1883 his father passed away, leaving all the responsibility of the family in the hands of the mother who did everything possible to give her children a good education.

In 1890, Perelmán entered the first year of primary school and, on August 18, 1895, he entered the trade school in the city of Bielostok, the only secondary school in this city.

On September 23, 1899, he published in the Grodniy newspaper, The Grodniy Provincial News under the pseudonym Y. P., the article “On the occasion of the rain of fire we await.” On this day, on Earth, according to the words of the oracles, a shower of stars should fall that would make all living beings on Earth disappear. Perelman dared to give an explanation for this phenomenon , which was simply the meteor shower of the Leonids – and dispel rumors of oracles. In a casual way and with simple calculations, he explains the details to the readers, according to the writer’s words:

The “rain of fire” is a natural phenomenon and does not bring any danger to humanity.

Yakov Perelman

Upon completing his studies at trade school, he obtained a place at the Saint Petersburg Forestry Institute, where he devoted a great deal of time to the mathematics and higher physics that interested him.

Due to the economic needs of the family, he thought about looking for money in the field of journalism. His first article, “The centenary of the asteroids” was published in number 4 of the magazine La Naturaleza y los Hombres in 1901. He also signed it with the letters Y. P., which in the future accompanied many Perelmán publications.

In May 1903 – when Perelmán was 20 years old – his mother died. Upon returning to Saint Petersburg from the funeral, Perelmán began to study with even more interest. Now, as an excellent student and orphan that he was, he was deserving of a shower of scholarships.

In 1904, Perelmán continued his studies at the Forestry Institute, began working as secretary to the editor of the magazine La Naturaleza y los Hombres , beginning with topics such as astronomy and later on mathematics, physics and technique.

In 1908 Perelmán presented his final degree project with the theme “The Staraya-Rus wood factory, its equipment and production. He passed his exams and on January 22, 1909, he obtained the diploma of honor, they appointed him a forester of the first degree, although he never works as such.

Journalism

When he finished high school, Perelmán became so introduced to journalism that he could not imagine another profession for his life.

He began to collaborate constantly with the magazine La Naturaleza y los Hombres , and not only wrote the articles but also published the articles of others. Thus, thanks to him, the work of Konstantín Tsiolkovski (1857-1935) – with whom he had begun to correspond in 1913 – Without gravity (1914) and Outside the Earth (1917) reached the public . This correspondence united the two space enthusiasts until Tsiolkovski’s death .

Pseudonyms

Due to the large number of articles published in the magazine, Perelmán used many pseudonyms. The journalist and historian Grigori Iosipovich Mishkevich calculated 11 pseudonyms of Yakov Isídorovich Perelmán:

1. L-noy
2. Les-noy (which means ‘I, from the forest’).
3. L-oy
4. AND P
5. Lesnoy
6. Silvestrov (from the Latinword silva , ‘forest’).
7. Tsifirquin (‘the one of the numbers’).
8. Pelman
9. Yb
10. ME
11. Nedimov (no smoke), unlike his older brother, who used Osip Dimov (‘Osip of smoke’).

Recognized Author

In July 1913, the first part of Perelmán’s book, Recreational Physics , was published . This book was a great success with readers. Physicists also showed their interest in this book. The professor of Physics at the University of Saint Petersburg , Orest Danílovich Jvolson (1852-1934), met Perelmán and discovered that the book had not been written by a specialist in physics but by a forester. He told Perelmán: «We have many foresters, but there are none of the men who can write books on physics like you. I advise you to keep writing books like this one.

To this advice, Perelmán dedicated his entire life and wrote many books, telling many things about science in a funny way.

In the magazine La Naturaleza y los Hombres he worked for 17 years and published more than 500 articles and notes. Thanks to him, the collection of stories and novels The World of Adventures was published as a free supplement to the magazine. The first number of the collection was published in 1910 and was published until 1918. The works of H. G. Wells , Arthur Conan-Doyle , Edgar Alan Poe and other foreign writers were published there. Works by national authors were also published. The collection became very popular with readers.

While continuing to work at the magazine, between 1916 and 1917, Perelmán worked at the Special Fuel Conference, where he suggested the idea of ​​adjusting the schedule by one hour to save fuel. The government applied this project since the 1920s .

During this period the second part of the Recreational Physics book was published , which Perelmán conceived independently of the previous one, both books being able to be read in any order.

Marriage

In 1915, while on vacation, he met a 31-year-old doctor named Anna Davidovna Kaminskaia (1884-1942). That same year they married and rented an apartment at 2 Plutalova Street in Saint Petersburg . From this moment on, Perelmán made reference to this address in all his books, and all his readers wrote to him there.

In 1919 their only son, Mikhail Yakovlevich Perelmán, was born, who in 1939 – at the beginning of the Second World War – graduated in Mechanics from the Faculty of Mathematics of the Leningrad State University, and who died in combat against the German invaders in 1941.

Pedagogy and journalism

After the October Revolution (1917) and the closure of the magazine La Naturaleza y los Hombres , Perelmán devoted his time to teaching and science.

In February 1918 he began working as an inspector of the National Commissariat of Education of Soviet Russia. He developed new educational material and programs for courses in physics, mathematics, astronomy, and at the same time taught these subjects in different educational centers.

In unison with his pedagogical work it occurred to him to found the first Soviet popular science magazine, since all the publishing houses had been closed after the revolution. The idea received government support and in the spring of 1919 the magazine En el Taller de la Naturaleza came to light . This journal was written by Perelmán until 1929. Famous scientists such as Konstantín Tsiolkovski , AE Fersman, MY Piotrovski, NA Rimin and many more collaborated with this journal .

Perelmán collaborated with many publishing houses. From 1924 to 1929 he worked in the Science Department of the Red Newspaper in Leningrad (which was the new name of his city, Saint Petersburg), he collaborated with the magazines Science and Technology and The Thought of Pedagogy . Between 1925 and 1932 he was part of the administration of the El Tiempo publishing cooperative. Between 1932 and 1936 he worked in the Leningrad branch of the said publishing cooperative as an author, consultant and scientific editor.

He continued to write and publish his articles. In Perelmán’s bibliography there are more than 100 articles and news published in different publishing houses in addition to the 47 articles, 40 popular science books, 18 school manuals and different textbooks.

After Physical Recreation wrote recreational Arithmetic , recreational Algebra , recreational Astronomy , recreational mechanics , etc. Only in Russian language, of the Recreational Physics book , 30 editions have been published. Not everyone knows that Perelmán not only dedicated himself to the propaganda of ideas about the cosmos, he wrote and published the books Far from the universe , Interplanetary travels , To the stars in a rocket and others, but also about the principles of cosmology .

From 1931 to 1933 he was part of the leadership of LenGIMR, the research group of the Leningrad radioactive movement, and was also the head of the Propaganda Department.

First Soviet rocket

But he mainly devoted himself to the development of the project of the first Soviet rocket. Together with engineer AN Stern, he drew up the project for this rocket, taking care of all the necessary calculations.

In this period he was fortunate to work with many other pioneers of the space race. From 1932 to 1936 the correspondence between Perelmán and Sergey Pavlovich Korolev lasted, who was working at this time in a research group in Moscow .

The inauguration, on October 15, 1935, of the House of Recreational Sciences in Leningrad, became a reality thanks to the enormous work of Yakov Perelmán as a popularizer of science. This temple of recreational sciences was in the 1930s the most beloved place by most of the Leningrad students, where in a popular and easy way, children learned about the advances of technology. Perelmán dedicated all his time to this center. Unfortunately, most of the exposed materials were destroyed by the German invaders in the Second World War .

Death

The 22 of June of 1941 in the framework of World War II (1939-1945) – Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the so – called Operation Barbarossa (concocted by Adolf Hitler ). His son Mijaíl Perelmán (22 years old) was sent to the front against the Nazis, and fell in combat.

Moved by patriotic sentiments, from July 1941 to February 1942, Yakov Perelman gave lectures to the scouting soldiers of the Leningrad Front and the sailors of the Baltic Fleet, as well as to the supporters of the civil resistance on – among other topics – how to orient oneself on the ground without any device or apparatus, a knowledge that would be of fundamental importance during military operations. The mishaps of the war did not prevent him from continuing his work as a writer.

The hunger and cold of the blockade of Leningrad were gradually reducing Perelman’s forces. On January 18, 1942, his wife, Dr. Anna Davidovna Kaminskaya (57), who was on duty in one of the Leningrad hospitals, died of malnutrition. His wife’s sister, Maria Davidovna Kaminskaya, also perished at the Leningrad siege. Perelmán survived this for only two more months. On March 16, 1942, he too died of hunger, within the blockade of Leningrad by German troops.

Legacy

But Yakov Perelmán left many books that we can read now with the same interest as many years ago. Making some approximate calculations, only in Russia, since 1913, Perelmán’s books have had more than 300 editions, with a circulation of almost 15 million copies. In addition to this, his books were translated into German, French, Italian, Czech, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Finnish, English, and many other languages ​​from around the world.

Perelmán did not make any scientific discovery, he did not discover anything in the world of technology. He also did not have scientific degrees, but he was faithful to science and for forty-three years he was giving people the happiness of communicating with science.

The lunar crater Perelmán, with a diameter of 46 km, bears this name in his memory. ^[1]

There is a common misconception that Yakov Isidorovich Perelman is the father of the famous mathematician Grigory Yakovlevich Perelman ( b.1966 ), considered the most intelligent person in the world. The first of them died more than 20 years before the birth of the second.

Plays

1. 1913: Recreational Physics I. St. Petersburg: PP Soykin Publishing, 1913.
2. 1914: Fun tasks. Saint Petersburg: AS Publishing House, Suvorin, 1914.
3. 1914: distant worlds. Astronomical tests.  Petersburg: PP Soykin Publishing House, 1914.
4. 1915: Interplanetary travel. Flight to the space of the world and to the achievement of the celestial bodies.  Petersburg: PP Soykin Publishing House, 1915 (10).
5. 1916: Recreational Physics II.  Petersburg: PP Soykin Publishing House, 1916 (21st edition: 1981). ^[2]
6. 1919: Voyage to planets (physics of planets). Leningrad: AF Marx Publishing House, 1919.
7. 1920: new and old measurements metric measurements in everyday life, their advantages. Leningrad: In the Workshop of Nature, 1920.
8. 1920: The simplest methods of translation into Russian. Leningrad: In the Workshop of Nature, 1920.
9. 1922: A new assignment book for a short course in geometry. Leningrad: GIZ, 1922.
10. 1922: Problem Mechanics. Leningrad: Sower, 1922.
11. 1923: Problem II. Heat. Leningrad: Sower, 1923;
12. 1923: Riddles and curiosities in the world of numbers. Leningrad: Science and School, 1923.
13. 1923: A new geometry tutorial. Leningrad: GIZ, 1923.
14. 1923: Metric system A living guide. Leningrad: Publication of Scientific Books, 1923.
15. 1924: Cheating. Leningrad: Publication of Scientific Books, 1924.
16. 1924: For young physicists. Experiences and entertainment. Leningrad: Knowledge Beginnings, 1924.
17. 1924: Reader-tasker for elementary mathematics (for labor schools and adult self-education). Leningrad: GIZ, 1924.
18. 1925: Enter the case. Experiences and entertainment for older children. Leningrad: Rainbow, 1925.
19. 1925: The alphabet of the metric system. Leningrad: Publication of Scientific Books, 1925.
20. 1925: Propaganda of the metric system. Methodical reference book for teachers and professors. Leningrad: Publication of Scientific Books, 1925.
21. 1925: Guide to the metric system of measurements and a collection of exercises. Leningrad: Gosizdat, 1925.
22. 1925: Problem III. Sound. Leningrad: GIZ, 1925;
23. 1925: Problem IV. Light. Leningrad: GIZ, 1925.
24. 1925: The numbers are gigantic. Leningrad: The Rainbow, 1925.
25. 1925: The miracle of our century. Leningrad: The Rainbow, 1925.
26. 1925: Recreational Geometry. Leningrad: The Time, 1925.
27. 1925: Geometry entertaining outdoors and at home. Leningrad: The Time, 1925.
28. 1925: For young mathematicians. The first hundred riddles. Leningrad: The Beginnings of Knowledge, 1925.
29. 1925: For young mathematicians. The second hundreds of riddles. Leningrad: The Beginnings of Knowledge, 1925.
30. 1925: Don’t believe your eyes! . Leningrad: Surf, 1925.
31. 1925: A flight to the moon. Modern interplanetary flight projects. Leningrad: The Sower, 1925.
32. 1925: Electrical Experiments newspaper sheet. Leningrad: Rainbow, 1925.
33. 1926: Geometry and the beginnings of trigonometry. A short textbook and a collection of homework for self-education. Leningrad: Sevzaprombureau of the Supreme Economic Council, 1926.
34. 1926: recreational arithmetic. Riddles and curiosities in the world of numbers. Leningrad: The Time, 1926.
35. 1926: Fun with the parties. Leningrad: Surf, 1926.
36. 1926: A young surveyor. Leningrad: Surf, 1926.
37. 1927: The figures are 7-piece puzzles. Leningrad: The Rainbow, 1927.
38. 1927: fun math. Leningrad: The Time, 1927. ^[3]
39. 1927: Spotlights and entertainment. The miracle of our century. The numbers are gigantic Among the case. L: The Rainbow, 1927.
40. 1927: technical physics. A manual for self-study and a collection of practical exercises. Leningrad: Sevzaprombureau of the Supreme Economic Council, 1927.
41. 1927: Tasks and scientific entertainments (puzzles, experiments, classes). Leningrad: Young Guard, 1927.
42. 1928: Entertaining tasks. Leningrad: The Time, 1928.
43. 1929: A box of riddles and tricks. Leningrad: GPZ, 1929.
44. 1929: Recreational astronomy. Leningrad: Time, 1929. ^[4]
45. 1929: Interesting mathematics in stories. Leningrad: Time, 1929.
46. 1930: A rocket to the moon. Leningrad: GIZ, 1930.
47. 1930: In the distance of the world (in interplanetary flights). Moscow: Izvestia Osoaviakhima of the USSR, 1930.
48. 1930: A Living Textbook of Geometry. Live geometry. Theory and tasks. Kharkov – Kiev, Unizdat, 1930.
49. 1930: Mechanics for all. Leningrad: The Time, 1930.
50. 1931: Mathematics in the open air. Leningrad: Polytechnic School, 1931.
51. 1931: Mathematics at every step. The book for extracurricular reading of FZS schools. Leningrad: Uchpedgiz, 1931.
52. 1931: How to solve problems in physics. Leningrad: ONTI, 1931.
53. 1932: His life, inventions and scientific works. Around the 75th anniversary of his birth . Moscow :: GTTI, 1932.
54. 1933: Recreational Algebra. Leningrad: The Time, 1933. ^[5]
55. 1934: Physics at every step. Moscow :: DETHYZ, 1934, 263 s, shooting range. 30,000 copies.
56. 1934: Do you know physics? (physical exam for young people). Leningrad: GIZ, 1934.
57. 1934: Mathematics live. Math and puzzle stories. Moscow: PTI, 1934
58. 1934: To the stars in the rocket. Kharkov (Ukraine): Worker, 1934.
59. 1935: Science at leisure (with SV Glazer). Leningrad: Young Guard, 1935.
60. 1935: Tsiolkovsky KEHis life and technical ideas . Leningrad: ONTI, 1935.
61. 1936: Afternoons of scientific entertainment. Questions, tasks, experiments, observations from the field of astronomy, meteorology, physics, mathematics (co-authored with VI Pryanishnikov). Leningrad: Lenoblono, 1936.
62. 1941: A quick account. Leningrad: 1941
63. 1941: Squaring a circle. Leningrad: House of Entertaining Science, 1941
64. 1950: Calculations with approximate numbers. Moscow, APN USSR, 1950.
65. 1959: Tasks and interesting experimentsor Problems and recreational experiments . Moscow: Detgiz, 1959.