Vitaly Khlopin

V.G. Khlopin at the 1st All-Union Meeting on Rare Elements, 1925 Vitaly Grigorievich Khlopin (Russian: Вита́лий Григо́рьевич Хло́пин) (January 1890 - 10 July 1950) was a Russian and Soviet radiochemist, professor, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939), Hero of Socialist Labour (1949), and director of the Radium Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939-1950). He was one of the founders of Soviet radiochemistry and radium industry, received the first domestic radium preparations (1921), one of the founders of the Radium Institute and leading participants in the atomic project and founder of the school of Soviet radiochemists.

Biography He was born on January 14 (26), 1890 in Perm, in the family of a doctor Grigory Vitalievich Khlopin (1863-1929). From 1905 the Khlopins lived in St. Petersburg.

Brief chronology of his life path: 1897 - began studying at a private men's school in Yuriev; 1908 - graduated from the 12th St. Petersburg Gymnasium; 1911 - graduated from the chemistry department of the University of Göttingen. 1911—1913 - at the St. Petersburg Clinical Institute of the Grand Duchess Helena Pavlovna he taught practical sessions on chemical methods of sanitary analyses; 1912 - graduated with a first degree diploma from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University in chemistry; 1912-1917 - remained at the University at the Department of General Chemistry as an assistant, where under the guidance of L. A. Chugaev he was being prepared for teaching (the first work with L. A. Chugaev on the synthesis of complex compounds of platonitrite with dithioethers); Autumn 1916 - the Military Chemical Committee sent as a specialist in chemistry as the head of sanitary and evacuation part in the "Urmiyskaya Expedition for the survey of boron-acid springs of the Kara region and the Urmiysky lake area"; 1916 - member of the Commission for the Study of the Natural Productive Forces of Russia (CNPF); 1917 - until the liquidation of the Committee for Military Labor Assistance - secretary of its Chemical Division and chairman of the Commission on Luminous Compounds; in October participated in the work of the Congress on Technical Defense of the State; assistant at the Department of General Chemistry I of Petrograd University (until 1924); 1918-1919 - in summer he was elected Commissioner of the Board formed under the NPFR for the organization of the first Radium Plant in Russia. V. G. Khlopin was entrusted with the general management of issues related to the chemical and administrative side of the case; in December he was elected as a representative of CNPF to the Council of the Radium Association; from January 1919 he was a member of the Council of the Chemical Division of the Russian Technical Society; from July 1918 to September 1919 he was a member of the Council of the Platinum Institute; 1918-1934 - member of the editorial board of the Chemical-Technical Publishing House, later transformed into the publishing house Chemteoret; 1920 - elected Professor of the Department of General Chemistry at the Ural State University (unable to travel to the Urals, he was forced to give up his position); 1921 - on December 1, V. G. Khlopin obtained the first highly active preparations of domestic radium; 1922-1934 - Head of the gas department of NPFR, - Geochemical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Leningrad); 1922 - began research at the Radium Institute in Petrograd (Leningrad); 1922-1935 - deputy director and head of the chemical department; from 1924 (simultaneously at the Leningrad University) he headed the gas department of the Geochemical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Helium Laboratory of the Soyuzgaz Trust; 1924 - V. G. Khlopin suggested the idea that the process of fractional crystallization is caused by the distribution of matter between two immiscible phases (crystals and saturated solution) - the law of microcomponent distribution between liquid and solid phases (Khlopin's law); since summer he has been holding meetings with students of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow State University; 1924-1930 - associate professor at Leningrad State University; 1924-1933 - member of the Scientific and Technical Council on Helium at the Helium Committee of the Supreme Council of National Economy; took an active part in the search and study of helium deposits and the development of analytical methods for determining helium; 1925 - at the IV Mendeleev Congress made a report on "Achievements in the field of radioactive substances in the USSR"; scientific trip to Germany; 1928-1934 - member of the Committee for the Chemicalization of the National Economy under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (hereinafter - under the Presidium of the USSR State Planning Committee); 1929, 1930 - Head of hydrochemical works of the Alagez Party of the USSR Academy of Sciences; 1930-1936 - permanent consultant on radium industry at the plant "Rare Elements" (existed until 1931, since 1931 Giredmet was established on its basis) of Soyuzredmet (then Glavredmet); 1931, 1932 - Scientific Director of the Geochemical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences; 1933 - Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences; member of the Scientific and Technical Council on Helium at the USSR State Planning Committee; 1933-1938 - consultant of the laboratory of the Soyuzgaz Trust, later Heliogazrazvedka (Leningrad); 1934-1937 - professor at the Leningrad State University; 1935 - approved by the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences with the degree of Chemistry Philosophy Doctor; 1936-1946 - Director of the Radium Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Leningrad); 1937 - pays much attention to the study of the chemical nature of products of artificial decay of uranium and thorium, which became possible due to irradiation of their preparations at the cyclotron launched at the Radium Institute - the first in Europe; 1938 - consultant to the State Institute of Rare and Minor Metals of the People's Commissariat for Rare and Minor Metals (Moscow); 1939 - full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences; 1940 - Chairman of the Committee on Uranium Problem at the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences; 1941, 1942 - in evacuation in Kazan, directed the activities of the Radium Institute; Deputy Chairman of the USSR Academy of Sciences Commission for Mobilization of Volga Region Resources; Deputy Academician-Secretary of the Chemical Department of the USSR Academy of Sciences; 1943 - Stalin Prize of the third degree for the development of a method of industrial production of radium; 1945 - in Leningrad University V. G. Khlopin headed the first in the USSR chair of radiochemistry, where he gave the first in the Soviet Union course of lectures on radioactivity - the training of a new generation of radiochemists for research organizations and nuclear industry began; 1947 - V. G. Khlopin and E. K. Gerling developed a new method for determining geologic age by xenon accumulated during spontaneous uranium fission.

He died on July 10, 1950, and was buried in Leningrad, at the Tikhvin Cemetery in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Family

Father - Grigory Vitalievich Khlopin (1863-1929). Mother - Ekaterina Alexandrovna, née Kavaderova (1865-1945) - a graduate of the Higher Women's Courses in St. Petersburg (verbal-historical and physical-mathematical faculties), was engaged in journalism. (at the time of G. V. Khlopin's exile to the Urals in 1886), from 1905, when the Khlopins lived already in St. Petersburg, Ekaterina Alexandrovna was engaged in charity work. She died on the road during the re-evacuation of the State Radium University from Kazan to Leningrad. Brother - Nikolai Grigorievich Khlopin, a histologist.

Khlopin was first married to Nadezhda Pavlovna Annenkova (daughter of the Narodovtsy P. S. Annenkov[clarification]).

A daughter (born 1913), whom they baptized in a church in Kuokkala. In 1920 he married Maria Alexandrovna Pasvik.

Scientific works V. G. Khlopin began his independent scientific activity as a student in 1911 - in his father's laboratory at the Clinical Institute he carried out work, the results of which were published in the article "On the formation of oxidants in the air under the action of ultraviolet rays".

In these studies V. G. Khlopin first proved the formation in atmospheric air under the action of ultraviolet rays not only hydrogen peroxide and ozone, but also nitrogen oxides, the latter statement began a long discussion that lasted until 1931, when D. Vorländer proved the correctness of the observations of V. G. Khlopin.

In 1909 V. I. Vernadsky headed the research of radioactivity phenomena in Russia, under his chairmanship the Radium Commission was organized - all the works were united under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences, the Radiological Laboratory was founded, since 1914 the publication of the "Proceedings of the Radium Expedition of the Academy of Sciences" was started. In the mentioned speech V. I. Vernadsky notes the specific features of the new direction of scientific research: "This discovery has produced a huge revolution in the scientific outlook, caused the creation of a new science, different from physics and chemistry - the doctrine of radioactivity, put before life and technology practical tasks of a completely new kind...".

In 1915, V. I. Vernadsky attracted V. G. Khlopin to work in the Radiological Laboratory. V. G. Khlopin was destined to become the first, and for many years - the leading specialist in the new discipline. But research in the field of radioactivity, study of new radioactive elements already discovered in Russia at that time was still in the state of initial organizational period - there were no domestic radium preparations for laboratory experiments; however, deposits of minerals and ores - raw materials for consistent development of scientific work in this direction, systematic study of radioactive minerals - were already known. The leading experts of the profile - Professors K. A. Nenadkevich and A. E. Fersman

The Congress for the Technical Defense of the State in October 1917 decided to organize a special radium plant under the direct control of the Academy of Sciences, but the October Socialist Revolution again removed this issue from the queue. In January 1918 V. G. Khlopin published an article "A Few Words on the Application of Radioactive Elements in Military Technology and on the Possible Future of the Radium Industry in Russia", in which he characterized the importance and prospective use of radium for military-strategic purposes. In the spring of the same year, the Presidium of the All-Russian Council of National Economy (RCNE) decided to sequester radioactive raw materials belonging to the "Fergana Society"; in April, the Chemical Department of the RCNE, headed by Prof. L. Ya. Karpov, entrusted the Academy of Sciences with the mission of organizing a plant for radium extraction from domestic uranium-vanadium ores and ensuring scientific control over production; at a meeting of specialists convened on 12 April by the Commission for the Study of the Natural Productive Forces of Russia (NPFR), headed by N. S. Kovalev. С. Kurnakov, V. G. Khlopin and L. I. Bogoyavlensky it was reported on the results of the work undertaken to obtain radium from the available raw materials; in July 1918 a special Commission, the Technical Council or later the Board for the organization of a radium plant at the Academy of Sciences was elected, which decided to organize a research laboratory, a special Radium Department (under the Commission) headed by V. I. Vernadsky was established under the chairmanship of A. E. Fersman, senior mineralogist of the Academy of Sciences, professor of the Higher Women's Courses. The secretary of the department, a specialist of the Radium Laboratory of the Academy, an assistant of the Department of General Chemistry of the Petrograd University, 28-year-old V. G. Khlopin, was appointed its commissioner for the organization of the radium plant. His thorough theoretical training and mastery of the methods of fine chemical analysis, his ability to solve practical problems effectively, and his experience in expeditions fully justified his involvement in such a responsible business. L. N. Bogoyavlensky,

In 1918, all radioactive residues that were in Petrograd were evacuated inland - first to the Berezniki soda plant in Perm province, and in May 1920, already by the new plant manager I. Ya. Bashilov, - to the Bondyuzhsky chemical plant of Khimosnov (now Khimzavod named after L. Y. Karpov in Mendeleevsk), where only in the fall of 1920 it became possible to put into operation a temporary pilot plant for radium extraction.

Further fundamental research in this area showed that in light elements the number of neutrons in the nucleus is equal to the number of protons; and as we move to heavy elements, neutrons begin to dominate over protons, and the nuclei become unstable - they become radioactive.

As part of the atomic project, he was a member of the technical council and was responsible for the activities of the radium institute. Through the efforts of V.G. Khlopin and the First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee and City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Alexey Kuznetsov, the Radium Institute received additional premises. The decision to allocate space was made by the Special Committee in November 1945, carried out by the chairmen of the Operations Bureau of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR A. N. Kosygin and the representative of the State Planning Committee in the Special Committee N. A. Borisov.

Pedagogical, administrative, social and editorial activities After graduating from St. Petersburg University, V. G. Khlopin was left at the department of Professor L. A. Chugaev, but while still a student, in 1911 he conducted a workshop on the chemical methods of sanitary analyzes with doctors at the St. Petersburg Clinical Institute, and continued this course of practical training in 1912 and 1913.

From 1917 to 1924, V. G. Khlopin served as an assistant in the department of general chemistry at the university, and from 1924, as an assistant professor, he began teaching a special course on radioactivity and the chemistry of radioelements - the first in the USSR; since brief and incomplete data and summaries existed only in foreign literature, this course was completely developed by V. G. Khlopin, who taught it until 1930, and resumed in 1934 as a professor, teaching it until 1935. In the spring of 1945, the scientist organized and headed the department of radiochemistry at Leningrad University.

Developed by V. G. Khlopin in collaboration with B. A. Nikitin and A. P. Ratner, a course of lectures on radiochemistry formed the basis of an extensive monograph on the chemistry of radioactive substances.

V. G. Khlopin took an active part in the work of the Russian Physical-Chemical Society, and after the latter was transformed into the All-Union Chemical Society, he was a member of the Council of the Leningrad branch of the organization, and later was its chairman.

At the Academy of Sciences, V. G. Khlopin was a member of the Analytical Commission, the Commission on Isotopes, and the Commission for the Development of the Scientific Heritage of D. I. Mendeleev. From 1941 to 1945, V. G. Khlopin, as Deputy Academician-Secretary, did a lot of work in the Department of Chemical Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences. During the Eastern Front (World War II), V. G. Khlopin served as deputy chairman of the Commission for the Mobilization of Resources of the Volga and Kama Region and chairman of its chemical section.

For many years he was a member of the Editorial Council of the Chemical-Technical Publishing House (Khimteoret). The scientist was the executive editor of the journal Uspekhi Khimii and was on the editorial boards of the journals: “Reports of the USSR Academy of Sciences”, “Izvestia of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Department of Chemical Sciences)”, “Journal of General Chemistry” and “Journal of Physical Chemistry”.

Vitaly Grigorievich Khlopin trained students in all the most important areas of scientific activity, many of whom became not only independent scientific researchers, but also the creators of their own scientific directions and schools.

Awards and scientific recognition Hero of Socialist Labor (10/29/1949); three Orders of Lenin (10.6.1945; 21.3.1947; 29.10.1949); Stalin Prize of the third degree (1943) - for the development of a method for the industrial production of radiothorium Stalin Prize of the first degree (1946) - for scientific research in the field of chemistry of radioactive substances, the results of which are presented in the articles: “Radioactive methods for determining the absolute surface of crystalline suspensions”, “Adsorption of radium on lead sulfate”, “Transformation of elements and the periodic law” (1939 —1944) Stalin Prize, first degree (10/29/1949) - scientific director of the development of the technological process for separating plutonium from uranium metal at plant "B" Small Prize of D. I. Mendeleev for work on radium (1924); Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1940); The first Mendeleev's reader (1941).

Addresses in St. Petersburg 1922-1941, 1945-1950 - Roentgen street, 3; 1922-1941, 1945-1950 - Kamennoostrovsky Avenue, 23; 1908-1941, 1945-1949 - Universitetskaya embankment, 7; 1913-1941 - Bolshaya Zelenina street, 13; 1945-1950 - Lesnoy Avenue, 61 (House of Specialists).

Memory The following were named after V. G. Khlopin: By resolution of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Radium Institute was named after V. G. Khlopin (1950). The V. G. Khlopin Prize was established for the best work in the field of radiochemistry (1950). Since 1970, the Radium Institute has held Khlopin readings on radiochemistry and the chemistry of rare elements. Khlopin Street - in the Kalininsky district since 1972, from Polytechnicheskaya to Gzhatskaya streets. Radium Institute named after. V. G. Khlopin - 2nd Murinsky Avenue, building 28; Radium Institute named after. V. G. Khlopin (historical building) - Roentgen Street, building 1 (for more information about this building, see the article Roentgen Street).

Memorial plaques Memorial plaque on the building of the Radium Institute A memorial plaque was installed on the building at 3 Roentgen Street in 1952 (architect Z. M. Vilensky). A memorial plaque was installed on the building at 23 Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt in 1990 (sculptor E. N. Rotanov, architect S. L. Mikhailov). In 1996, a memorial plaque was installed on the building at 7 Universitetskaya embankment with erroneous dates in the text: “In this building, from 1908 to 1949, the outstanding scientist, organizer of the nuclear industry, founder of the Department of Radiochemistry V. G. Khlopin studied and worked.” (In 1941-1945 he was evacuated to Kazan.) In the 1950s, a memorial plaque was installed on the house at 61 Lesnoy Avenue with the text: “The outstanding Russian chemist Vitaly Grigorievich Khlopin lived in this house from 1945 to 1950.”