Academician Khristianovich: Scientist, Engineer, Personality

S.A. Khristianovich’s achievements were widely recognized during his lifetime: he was awarded with the highest awards of the Soviet Union, including the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor, six Orders of Lenin, three Stalin Prizes, three State Prizes, and Zhukovskii Prize. But the most valuable award for the scientist was the recognition of people whom he met and worked with during his long and fruitful life. His contemporaries called him a genius, a great engineer, and a legendary person. Today, his followers and the disciples of his disciples still call him that. The brief official record of service of Academician Sergey Alekseevich Khristianovich occupies quite a large space in the Large Soviet Encyclopedia. For a person who casts a glance at his biography, the scope of Khristianovich’s scientific views and the range of problems he solved seem to be incredible. The life of Academician Khristianovich, who achieved amazing results in all spheres of his activities, disproves the common opinion that there is no place for a universal genius in the era of science and technology.
The tribute paid to the great scientist is the books published by the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, SB RAS (which was founded by S. A. Khristianovich in Novosibirsk), and by the Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute (TsAGI) in Moscow, where Khristianovich worked in supersonic aviation for more than 15 years. These collective memoirs comprise the reminiscences of many outstanding scientists, his former students and colleagues, and his relatives and friends. Each witness of those times has his own interpretation of events that happened many years ago, but the direct and emotional evidence of his contemporaries allows us to gain some historically correct idea about this person who has already become a legend.
Owing to the tremendous efforts made by the authors and compilers of the anniversary books, we can get our readers acquainted with the life and creative activities of the scientist, using excerpts of the published reminiscences, comments, and autobiography of the “Greatest Mechanician of the 20th Century.”

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