Chronicle

Anniversary of the Death of Academician A. N. Krylov

The scientific and naval community of Leningrad widely marked the first anniversary of the death of A. N. Krylov.

On October 26, 1946, a memorial meeting dedicated to the memory of Aleksei Nikolaevich Krylov was held in the Great Conference Hall of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The president of the Academy, A. F. Ioffe, addressed those present with the following speech: “A year has passed since the death of A. N. Krylov, but the bright memory of Aleksei Nikolaevich—of this remarkable man, exceptional in the history of Soviet science and Soviet shipbuilding—has not only not faded; on the contrary, at this already somewhat distant vantage point, the vivid personality of A. N. Krylov has grown to larger proportions than it seemed during his lifetime. Ships built by A. N. Krylov are still afloat; the approximate calculations created by A. N. Krylov remain one of the basic tools of all our engineering and technical thought and of engineering structures. A. N. Krylov’s works in the theory of the ship, to which Aleksei Nikolaevich’s own name is especially closely linked, created for him the name of the best theorist of shipbuilding in the world; in the field of artillery, to which A. N. Krylov devoted many works, his name is also well known to specialists. I shall not even speak of mechanics and mathematics. A. N. Krylov devoted much time to the history of science as well. In this field he created outstanding works and was head of the Commission on the History of the Physico-Mathematical Sciences. And in the field of literature his Recollections are still alive in the memory of many of us. The figurative, vivid speech of Aleksei Nikolaevich is alive—a speech which, I think, has exerted and will exert no small influence on the spoken and printed word in Russian speech. No one, like Aleksei Nikolaevich, knew so well how to formulate very complex thoughts and propositions in simple, clear, precise expressions. And now it seems to me that not only the ships, works, and thoughts of A. N. Krylov are alive, but also the features of his personality—perhaps legendary in the imagination of students and in our broad naval circles—stand just as vividly in our recollections: the features of the remarkable personality of A. N. Krylov. The purpose of our present meeting is to revive in our memory the most important works of A. N. Krylov and to give them and the personality of Aleksei Nikolaevich himself an appropriate appraisal.”

Reports were delivered by: Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Yu. A. Shimanskii, “The Works of A. N. Krylov in the Field of Shipbuilding”; Academician V. I. Smirnov, “The Works of A. N. Krylov in the Field of Mechanics and Mathematics”; and Prof. N. I. Idelson, “The Works of A. N. Krylov in the Field of the History of Science.”

On October 27, 1946, at the grave of A. N. Krylov on the Literary Bridges of the Volkovo Cemetery, a civil memorial service was held.

Opening the civil memorial service, Prof. I. G. Khanovich delivered a brief introductory address.

“On October 26, 1945, at four o’clock in the morning,” he said, “the outstanding Russian scholar—mathematician, mechanic, and shipbuilder—Hero of Socialist Labor, Academician Aleksei Nikolaevich Krylov, whose activity constituted an epoch in the development of the science of ships, ceased to live and to calculate.”

Academician Krylov was the creator of the modern theory of the rolling of a ship and of the doctrine of its unsinkability, which gained recognition throughout the world.

The works of A. N. Krylov embrace the theory of elasticity, astronomy, the history of science, pedagogy, and artillery. Far beyond the borders of our country, the mathematical works of A. N. Krylov are known.

With unsurpassed mastery he taught engineers to use the achievements of the mathematical sciences for the solution of practical problems.

It is difficult to name scientists possessing so great a scientific erudition and so extensive an experience of practical work.

Leaving behind him more than 300 different works, among which may be found the articles “On the Method of Reinforcing the Figure of Lenin on the Building of the Palace of Soviets,” and the remarkable Course of the Theory of the Ship, and Verification Calculations for the Erection of the Caisson of the Volodarsky Bridge in Leningrad, and The Theory of Compass Deviation, Academician Krylov showed by his own example the depth of a theoretician who possessed an extraordinary capacity for the practical use of the various theoretical investigations that he always conducted in direct connection with the demands of practical life.

On August 27, 1945, as though anticipating his imminent death, A. N. Krylov returned to Leningrad, of which he wrote:

“In 1877 I settled in this splendid city, which since that time has changed its name three times, so that I have lived 37 years in St. Petersburg, 7 years in Petrograd, 13 years in Leningrad.... Thus I may consider myself an old-timer of this city, and it is known that old-timers exist precisely so as not to forget anything. Thus I have not forgotten what subjects I was taught and in what subjects I examined our vice-admirals Gotov and Unkovsky at the Naval School.”

Aleksei Nikolaevich could long have continued the enumeration of the list of his direct pupils, among whom we see the glorious names of fleet admirals Kuznetsov and Isakov, Marshal of the Soviet Union Govorov, Academician Pozdyunin, Professors Bubnov, Papkovich, Shimansky, and many others.

On October 18, 1945, Aleksei Nikolaevich spent the evening among his pupils, who had come to congratulate him on his name day. None of those present that evening imagined that this charming man, whose life can serve as a model of service to his people, would leave us forever eight days later.

Wreaths were laid on A. N.’s grave and speeches were delivered: from the Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Forces, from the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, from the Minister of the Shipbuilding Industry, from the Board of VNITOSS, from the Naval Academy of Shipbuilding and Armaments, from the Central Order of the Red Banner of Labor Scientific-Research Institute of the Ministry of the Shipbuilding Industry named after Academician Krylov, from the Central Scientific-Research Institute of Naval Shipbuilding, from the Higher Naval Engineering Order of Lenin School named after Dzerzhinsky, from the Pulkovo Main Astronomical Observatory, from the Emergency-Rescue Service of the Naval Forces, from TsKB-32, and from Leningrad scholars.

M. Radovsky