The Nobel Prize is one of the main awards in the scientific community, reflecting the high assessment of the laureate's contribution to the development of world science. At the same time, there are many Russians on the list of Nobel laureates.
The Nobel Prize, named after its founder, Alfred Nobel, was first awarded in 1901. Citizens of the Soviet Union and Russia have received the Nobel Prize 16 times over the entire period of its existence. However, it should be noted that in some cases the prize was awarded simultaneously to several scientists who took part in the work on the same topic. Therefore, the number of citizens of the USSR and Russia who became laureates of the award is 21 people.
Physics Prize
Physics is the scientific field in which the Russians, from the point of view of the Nobel Committee, were the most powerful. Of the 16 prizes received by citizens of Russia and the USSR, 7 were awarded specifically for scientific discoveries in the field of physics.
This happened for the first time in 1958, when a whole team of scientists, consisting of Pavel Cherenkov, Igor Tamm and Ilya Frank, received an award for the discovery and explanation of the physical effect of the Cherenkov effect named after one of the researchers. Since then, citizens of the USSR and Russia have received six more awards in this area:
- in 1962 - Lev Landau for research of condensed matter;
- in 1964 - Alexander Prokhorov and Nikolai Basov for studying the laser-maser principle of the operation of amplifiers and emitters;
- in 1978 - Pyotr Kapitsa for achievements in the field of low temperature physics;
- in 2000 - Zhores Alferov for research in the field of semiconductors;
- in 2003 - Alexey Abrikosov and Vitaly Ginzburg, who created the theory of superconductivity of the second kind;
- in 2010 - Konstantin Novoselov for his work on the study of graphene.
Awards in other areas
The remaining nine prizes have been allocated to other fields of expertise for which the Nobel Prize is awarded. Thus, two prizes in the field of physiology and medicine were received at the very beginning of the 20th century: in 1904, Ivan Pavlov, the author of famous experiments in the field of digestion, was recognized as a laureate, and in 1908 - Ilya Mlechnikov, who studied the functioning of the immune system.
In the field of chemistry, only Nikolai Semenov managed to receive the prize: in 1956 he was awarded for the study of chemical reactions. Three prizes were awarded to citizens of the USSR and Russia for their literary activity: in 1958 - Boris Pasternak, in 1965 - Mikhail Sholokhov, in 1970 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The winner of the prize in economics among citizens of the USSR and Russia was only Leonid Kantorovich, who developed the theory of optimal resource allocation.
Peace Prize
For special achievements that are significant for the entire world community, the Nobel Committee awards the Peace Prize. Citizens of the USSR and Russia became its owners twice: the first time this happened in 1975, when Andrei Sakharov was awarded for fighting the regime, and then in 1990, when Mikhail Gorbachev received the prize, which contributed to the activation of peaceful relations between the countries.
