The founder of theoretical cosmonautics Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilievich made a contribution to this science equal to the contribution of Tsiolkovsky, Kibalchich, Zander. However, recognition came to him only after death, when the forgotten discoveries of the scientist were again “rediscovered” by researchers of the next generations. The scientist’s work was also unknown because of his mysterious biography.
Childhood
The future scientist Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilievich was born on June 21, 1897 in Poltava. The name under which he entered 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 Shargey. The boy was orphaned early and raised by his grandfather. At the age of 13, he went to study at the Poltava men's gymnasium, where the teacher paid attention to the gifted student. The teacher directed the interest of Alexander in the right direction - physics, mathematics and chemistry.
Already in early childhood, the boy developed a craving for invention. He spent a lot of time on cars, springs, water turbines, pumps, barometers and other curiosities that came to hand. Therefore, it is not surprising that later Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilievich became the author of amazing and advanced scientific theories.
Broken education
Another idea that captured the mind of Alexander Shargei was the dream of interplanetary flights. In 1930, in a letter to Tsiolkovsky, he mentioned that at the age of 16 he had precisely determined that there was a technical possibility of flying from the earth's surface into space. Since then, Shargei has his own fix idea. On the eve of the end of the Poltava gymnasium, the young man completed his first serious manuscript - "To those who will read to build." In the draft book, the future Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilievich 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 Caucasus front of the First World War. The ensign returned home after the October Revolution and the announcement by the Bolsheviks of general demobilization.
New name
Very soon, Poltava was at the epicenter of the 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 as soon as possible. The next two years, the young man lived in a semi-legal position, content with casual earnings. He was under constant threat of arrest. In 1921, relatives were able to get a passport for him in the name of Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk, a student at Kiev University who died from advanced tuberculosis.
However, to remain in his native Ukraine was still unsafe. Red or white could expose the Poltava native. Then the scientist Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilyevich fled to the Kuban and got a job at the Krylovsky elevator. Finding himself in relative safety, he finally set to work on his theory of flights between 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 was left to do to the nugget was to state his theoretical considerations on paper.
Kondratyuk and Tsiolkovsky
Simultaneously with Kondratyuk, similar studies were carried out by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. For the first time, a young scientist stumbled upon his note in 1918 in the old issue of Niva. From the material it became clear that the idea of interplanetary flights was obsessed not only with Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilievich.
The biography of this man is a typical example of an era - because of the revolution and 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.
"The conquest of interplanetary spaces"
Surprisingly, both scientists came to the same conclusions, while using different methods. At the same time, it was Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk who was slightly ahead of his colleague. The achievements of the physicist were associated with his main work - the book "The Conquest of Interplanetary Spaces." The author finished this work in 1926, when he lived in the village of Oktyabrskaya. This time he formulated his project not just as a theory, but supplied it with numerous details and figures.
The scientist tried to publish "The Conquest of Interplanetary Spaces" in Moscow. The book received a positive review by Professor Vladimir Vetchinkin. He studied a lot of the dynamics of rocket flight and therefore appreciated the work of Kondratyuk. Nevertheless, the book could not be published. Over the years that followed, only Vetchinkin supported an unknown self-taught.
In Siberia
In 1927, Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilyevich, whose biography is an example of the biography of a constantly wandering man, moved to Novosibirsk. He went to the other end of the country at the invitation of the local Bread Product. This office was responsible for the storage of grain in several regions. Even in the Kuban Kondratyuk invented several new technologies for elevators. They became interested in his work in Novosibirsk. So a man who dreamed of stars became responsible for storing cereals.
In a 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, leading a Spartan lifestyle, and finally sent his manuscript to a local printing house. The publication was moving very slowly. The typesetters did not understand complex scientific mathematical formulas, made mistakes and redid everything anew.
Book edition
In January 1929, "The Conquest of Interplanetary Spaces" was published in a small edition of 2 thousand copies. The book included 72 pages and several tabs with graphs and drawings. Vladimir Vetchinkin wrote a preface to her, in which he called Kondratyuk’s study the most complete of all that existed then, and published not only in Russian, but also in foreign languages.
What fundamentally new was written by Yury V. Kondratyuk? The interesting facts in the book were that he solved several theoretical questions, thus opening up a theoretical possibility for flying to neighboring planets. Kondratyuk sent one copy to Tsiolkovsky and a month later received a response in which the senior colleague spoke positively about his work. The scientist handed out most of the circulation to his colleagues. Some read the book out of respect, but they could hardly understand what was written. For others, the inventor remained a strange eccentric.
Arrest and imprisonment
Soon after the publication of the book, Kondratyuk, together with five comrades, was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison under article 58 of the “political” article. One of his co-workers wrote a denunciation on him. After some time, the first sentence was replaced by work in Special Bureau No. 14 - “Sharashka”, where other arrested scientists and researchers worked. There Kondratyuk found a new application - he began to design equipment used in the extraction of Kuzbass coal.
Also, the prisoner created a sketch of the Crimean wind power station, analogues of which were not yet around the world. Several engineers joined the Kondratyuk project, including Nikolai Nikitin, who later built the Ostankino TV tower in Moscow.
Meeting with the Royal
In 1933, the People’s Commissariat for Heavy Industry requested that the GPU release the scientist as soon as possible. So was free Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilievich. Photos of the researcher are 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 traveled to Moscow.
In the capital, a 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 a team of like-minded colleagues. However, Kondratyuk refused. His motives are not exactly known, but biographers agree that when applying for jobs related to military projects, the Queen of the scientist could be additionally checked by the NKVD. The audit did not bode well. If the authorities knew about Kondratyuk’s real identity and his connections with whites during the Civil War, the scientist would again be threatened with camps or execution.
The fate of theorist's manuscripts
In 1938, a petition signed by several prominent scientists came to the All-Union Certification Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences. They asked the theorist to confer a doctorate without defending a dissertation, which would be a well-deserved recognition of the research successes achieved by the scientist Yury V. Kondratyuk. Photos of his completed engineering projects and references to the written works were a serious reason to consider the candidacy. However, the application was rejected.
Of course, in the higher instances they are not used to such figures as Yury V. Kondratyuk. A brief biography of the scientist went beyond any familiar framework. In the same year, the researcher, fearing for his unpublished works, handed over the archive of the manuscripts to Boris Vorobyov, who already kept the work of Tsiolkovsky. This precaution allowed the preservation of valuable documents for posterity. Vorobyov literally saved from oblivion and loss the first, still youthful, manuscripts of the scientist.
Death
As soon as the Great Patriotic War began, among many other volunteers Yury Vasilievich Kondratyuk arrived at the military enlistment office. The physicist and theorist was in the 62nd Infantry Regiment. As a specialist, he became responsible for ensuring 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, at first the Soviet and then the entire international community gradually realized the significance of the works of Kondratyuk. In 1957, at a meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Tsiolkovsky, Sergei Korolev read out a report in which he appreciated the merits of Yuri Vasilievich. Just a few days after this event, the first artificial earth satellite set off into space.
Kondratyuk’s immediate ideas were first implemented by the Americans in the Apollo lunar program in the 60s. NASA used the trajectory fifty years before proposed by a Russian scientist. The wide Soviet public learned about Kondratyuk in 1969. Then, an article was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda, in which it was first announced to the whole country that the scientist had created a technology by which 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.