Matvei Petrovich Bronstein And the Soviet Theoretical Physics in the Thirties

1 Childhood and Youth. Road to Science.- 2 In the Leningrad University (1926-1932).- 2.1. Entering the University.- 2.2. The Jazz-Band.- 2.3. The Abbot and his Astronomer Friends.- 2.4. First Works in Astrophysics, Geophysics and Popular Science.- 2.5. At the Shenroks on the Vasiliev Island.- 3 At the Leningrad Physicotechnical Institute.- 3.1. Theoretical Physics in St. Petersburg and Petrograd.- 3.2. The Physicotechnical Institute and Its Seminars.- 3.3. "Quantising Free Electrons in a Magnetic Field".- 3.4. "A New Crisis in the Theory of Quanta".- 3.5. Science and Society.- 3.6. Quantum Mechanics in the Early Thirties.- 3.7. Cosmology in the Early Thirties.- 3.8. The Ether and the Theory of Relativity.- 3.9. Styles and Generations.- 3.10. The Physics of Semiconductors and Nuclear Physics.- 4 Hard Times for the Laws of Conservation and for Theoreticians.- 4.1. Three Attempts to Topple the Law of Conservation of Energy.- 4.2. The Hypothesis of Non-conservation and the Arguments of its Supporters.- 4.2.1. Waiting for a Relativistic Theory of Quanta.- 4.2.2. The Neutrino Alternative.- 4.2.3. Non-conservation of Energy, General Relativity, Cosmology and Astrophysics.- 4.3. Non-Physical Arguments Applied to Physics.- 4.4. A Duel in Sorena.- 4.5. The Death of a Non-conservation Hypothesis.- 5 cG?-Physics in Bronstein's Life.- 5.1. An Unsuitable Thesis.- 5.2. The Roots of Bronstein's Interest in cG?-physics.- 5.2.1. Quantum Gravity before Bronstein.- 5.2.2. "The Relationship Between the Physical Theories and Their Relation to the Cosmological Problem".- 5.2.3. At the Sources of Quantum Relativistic Astrophysics.- 5.3. The Quantum Theory of the Weak Gravitational Field.- 5.4. "The Fundamental Differences Between Quantum Electrodynamics and the Quantum Theory of Gravitational Field". The Quantum Gravitational Limits.- 5.4.1. The Problem of ch Measurability.- 5.4.2. cG? Measurability and GR Quantum Limits.- 5.4.3. The Planck Scales in cGh-physics.- 5.4.4. Reception of the Quantum-Gravitational Limits.- 5.5. Physics and Cosmology.- 5.5.1. Cosmology in the Thirties.- 5.5.2. Bronstein's Attitude to Cosmology.- 5.5.3. Red shift, the Relativity Principle and Polarisation of the Vacuum.- 6 Creative Personality.- 6.1. Perceiving the World.- 6.2. Vocation of a Teacher.- 6.3. Science and Literature.- 6.4. Personality.- Afterword.- Afterword to the English Edition. Half a Century Later.- 1. From the KGB-NKVD Archives.- 2. The Last Days in the Cell.- 3. Subnuclear Physics, Matvei Bronstein and Ettore Majorana.- Chronology.- Notes.- Appendix 1. Extract from M.P.Bronstein's paper "Quantentheorie schwacher Gravitationsfelder", 1936.- Appendix 2. M.P.Bronstein's note "Über den Spontanen Zerfall der Photonen", 1936.- Appendix 3. M.P.Bronstein "Inventors of Radiotelegraph" (First chapters of the book).- Photographs.