From the life of the academic community of Tomsk during the Civil War: a scientific seminar "Interviews on Specific Issues of Physics and Related Branches of Knowledge"

On the material of archival documents, sources of personal origin and periodicals, the article covers the history of Interviews on Specific Issues of Physics and Related Branches of Knowledge (or a scientific seminar) held during 1918-1920 in Tomsk as one of episodes from the life of the Tomsk academic community in the difficult period of its history. They were organized by N.N. Semenov, the future full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a Nobel Laureate, and then a teaching assistant of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Tomsk University. The socio-cultural space of Tomsk on the eve and during the Civil War is considered. At that time, hard financial and living conditions contrasted with the flourishing of cultural life in the scientific and educational complex of the city. This was due to the fact that in connection with the political events in the country, the evacuation of Perm and Kazan universities there was a high concentration of scientific forces at that time in Tomsk. This greatly intensified the educational and scientific life in the city, the most striking manifestation of which was the organization and activities of the Institute for the Study of Siberia (1919-1921). The events of N.N. Semenov's life preceding his appearance in this cultural center are traced. It is emphasized that he combined the duties of a university teaching assistant with the organizational educational and scientific activities. He started a physical circle and opened a student seminar, and in October 1918 organized the Interviews on Physics. They were public in nature; announcements about them were published in advance on the pages of local newspapers (Sibirskaya zhizn', Narodnaya Gazeta, Znamya revolyutsii). The thematic and problematic fields of the reports presented during the 40 Interviews are analyzed (they concerned not only different sections of physics, but also astronomy and mathematics), as well as the set of the lecturers. B.P. Weinberg, a professor of Tomsk Technological Institute and concurrently of Tomsk University, attended the Interviews. However, mostly young scientists, teachers and students of local universities took part in the Interviews. It is noted that among them there were four future academicians (N.N. Semenov, V.D. Kuznetsov, G.A. Shain, G.S. Landsberg) and 10 professors (L.N. Bogoyavlensky, V.M. Khrushchev, M.A. Velikanov, R.O. Kuzmin and others). It is concluded that the Interviews on Physics became a valuable organizational tool for scientific and disciplinary cultural exchange and one of the brightest episodes of the socio-cultural history of the academic community of Tomsk during the Civil War.

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