CONCERNING A. A. MAKSIMOV’S LETTER TO THE EDITORS OF THE JOURNAL “PHYSICS-USPEKHI”

A. A. Maksimov accuses me of having ascribed to him A. M. Butlerov’s admission that matter is transformed into energy—an admission which, as A. A. Maksimov emphasizes, was called into question by Butlerov himself. A. A. Maksimov maintains that I deceived the reader and, in support of his accusations, cites an extract from p. 266 of his book.

But is A. A. Maksimov sincere; is he telling the truth? Did he set out the circumstances of the matter correctly?—No, not correctly. A. A. Maksimov keeps silent about the fact that, in presenting in his book Butlerov’s three propositions, he referred the reader further (on p. 267) to a categorical statement: “As is known, in the twentieth century, on the basis of the study of intra-atomic (intranuclear) processes, both the third and the first proposition of Butlerov were proved” (emphasis mine.—I. K.). Let us recall that, in A. A. Maksimov’s own formulation, the first proposition reads: “the quantity of matter changes, being transformed into energy.”

What does this mean?—It means that A. A. Maksimov considers that modern science has proved the proposition that “the quantity of matter changes, being transformed into energy,”—the very proposition which, according to A. A. Maksimov’s own words, was called into question by Butlerov.

Thus, Butlerov called into question the proposition that matter is transformed into energy, whereas Maksimov fully agrees with this proposition and declares the proposition of the “transformation of matter into energy” to have been proved by modern science.

It would seem that the matter is perfectly clear!

What, then, do we find on this subject in my article “Against Idealistic Distortions of the Concepts of Mass and Energy”?—On p. 253 of issue 2, vol. 48, of the journal Physics-Uspekhi for 1952, anyone may read the following in that article: “In his work Essays on the History of the Struggle for Materialism in Russian Natural Science, A. A. Maksimov declares, as though in modern physics it had been ‘proved that mass and energy can mutually transform into one another (Einstein’s law)’ (p. 267). Moreover, here A. A. Maksimov takes the next step along the path of energetics, asserting that modern science has confirmed the proposition that ‘the quantity of matter changes, being transformed into energy’ (p. 266).”

As is evident from this, A. A. Maksimov declares the assertion of the “physical” idealists concerning the transformation of mass into energy to be a special law of science—“Einstein’s law.” This he writes on p. 267. Moreover, I stated that in the same place, i.e. on the same page, he asserts that modern science has confirmed the proposition that matter is transformed into energy; the actual formulation of this proposition is found in his book on p. 266, to which I referred the reader.

As the reader can see, I characterized A. A. Maksimov’s position quite correctly and supported this characterization with precise references to the text of his book.

Having kept silent about his categorical assertion that contemporary science has “proved” the proposition that matter can be transformed into energy, A. A. Maksimov tries to hide behind Butlerov, inviting the reader to read only the text of his book on p. 266 and not indicating that he continues immediately afterward on p. 267. But this petty trick of his failed completely and, of course, could not have succeeded.

In declaring his “resolute protest,” A. A. Maksimov deliberately keeps silent about his present position on energy. He deceives the reader: the author of the article “Against Idealistic Distortions of the Concepts of Mass and Energy” is not being discussed, but A. A. Maksimov. He does not wish to acknowledge his serious errors and is trying to shift responsibility for his errors onto others.

A. A. Maksimov’s letter to the editorial board of UFN once again confirms the correctness of the conclusion reached by the Academic Council of the sector of dialectical materialism of the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR: that, in discussing the question of mass and energy, A. A. Maksimov took an unself-critical position.

24 January 1953

I. V. Kuznetsov