The life and fate of Bruno Pontecorvo. Reflection on the books of Boris Bulyubash and Mikhail Sapozhnikov

Abstract

The article presents a description of the content and possible significance for the history of science of the books by Boris Bulyubash and Mikhail Sapozhnikov about the outstanding Italian and Soviet physicist Bruno Pontecorvo. The “spy version” and “political version” of the transition of the scientist to the USSR are presented in detail, as well as the possible reasons for the transition associated with the socio-political situation of the 50s of the 20th century are described. The necessity to take into account the internal vector of beliefs, views and worldview of a scientist when explaining his actions is emphasized. Facts are given demonstrating that the “ideal” dominated in the worldview of Bruno Pontecorvo, which makes it possible toexplain many events in his life. It is noted that both books summarize a significant amount of information about Bruno, as well as the high quality of the description of many physical experiments in which Pontecorvo took part, the accessibility for understanding the essence when presenting complex issues of elementary particle physics and high energy physics.