Physicists: epoch and personalities

1. Mandelstam, Leonid Isaakovich (1879-1944). 1.1. Progenitor -- 2. Tamm, Igor Evgen'evich (1895-1971). 2.1. Tamm in life. 2.2. A life of a Russian intelligent. 2.3. I.E. Tamm and the formation of domestic physics -- 3. Sakharov, Andrei Dmitrievich (1921-1989). 3.1. For a future historian. 3.2. The years of 1945-1950. 3.3. A return to "pure" science and the beginning of social activity. 3.4. A return to FIAN. 3.5. A hunt. 3.6. Arrest and exile to Gorky. 3.7. Trips to Gorky. 3.8. Hunger strikes. 3.9. A release. 3.10. Addendum -- 4. Vavilov, Sergei Ivanovich (1891-1951). 4.1. Nine scars on the heart. 4.2. Sergei Ivanovich Vavilov and his time. 4.3. Vavilov and Vavilov's FIAN. 4.4. What gave birth to the Vavilovs? -- 5. Leontovich, Mikhail Aleksandrovich (1903-1981). 5.1. Mosaic. -- 6. Mintz, Aleksandr L'vovich (1895-1974). 6.1. Aleksandr L'vovich tells. 6.2. Addendum. Memoirs of V.D. Konen, 'Personality of a scientist' -- 7. Bohr, Niels Hendrick David (1885-1962). 7.1. Bohr. Moscow. 1961. 7.2. Addendum : Physicists and philosophers -- 8. Heisenberg, Werner Karl (1901-1976). 8.1. Tragedy of Heisenberg. 8.2. Bohr and Heisenberg. 8.3. Heisenberg and science during Nazi times. 8.4. Heisenberg and western physicists. 8.5. Tragedies of the epoch. 8.6. Why Hitler did not get an atomic bomb -- 9. What brought Hitler to power? And who? -- 10. Landau, Lev Davidovich (1908-1968). 10.1. Landau and others : ' ... Verklaerungen und Neubegruendungen ... '. 10.2. Two Landaus. 10.3. Catastrophy

The book is a collection of memoirs on famous Soviet physicists of the 20th century, such as Tamm, Vavilov, Sakharov, Landau and others. The memoirs were originally written in Russian by E.L. Feinberg. The narrative is situated within a remarkably well-described historical, cultural and social context. Of special interest are the chapters devoted to Soviet and German atomic projects