The secret life of Academician Landau: why the genius's wife put on display the most intimate
The life of outstanding people has always aroused interest among the masses. But intimate and unsightly secrets of geniuses, which accidentally or, conversely, have become public domain, are in particular demand. The intimate aspects of the life of Soviet academician and Nobel Prize winner in Physics Lev Davidovich Landau were covered in a book written by ... his wife. Why would a woman who completely devoted her life to a genius and loved him madly put on display the "dirty laundry" of her family?
The book "Academician Landau. How we lived" the wife of genius Concordia (Cora) Drobantseva-Landau began writing in 1968, immediately after her husband's death. This work took the woman a long 10 years, and the author did not claim a large circulation and a substantial fee. Cora knew perfectly well that her work would never be published and the book was reprinted on typewriters and distributed through acquaintances, as well as all the samizdat of those years.
The Samizdat book of memoirs, equipped with photographs from the family archive, was in great demand and caused a colossal scandal. Cora Landau's memoirs were replete with unsightly intimate details of the personal life of Lev Landau and many other scientists with whom he communicated. The woman showed the most unsightly sides of the polished scientific society, showing the "celestials" of the world of science as ordinary people with unsightly vices.
This is how Cora Landau justified herself after her book caused a storm of indignation in Soviet society. It is difficult to say whether it is true that the widow of the scientist wrote the book for herself. Despite rumors that the woman accidentally forgot the first printed copy in the trolleybus, most were sure that the memories were spread by the author on purpose.
The readers of the book were shocked — it followed from the book that the Academy of Sciences was full of sexually anxious people, some of whom also suffered from various perversions. Scientists changed mistresses and lovers like socks, and none other than Lev Landau helped them in this. The book mentioned only one decent man and a faithful husband — the rest used Landau's telephone room for secret negotiations with mistresses, and his apartment and dacha as places of rendezvous.
The living space allowed Lev Davidovich to organize meetings — he and his wife lived alone in five rooms until their son was born. The dacha, according to Cora, almost constantly served as a meeting place for Landau's close friend, Professor Livshitz. The woman paid a lot of attention to this man in the book — she sincerely hated her husband's colleague and considered him the main culprits of family troubles.
Cora did not spare her brilliant husband either — Academician Landau, who was crystal clear in the eyes of Soviet society, was shown as a completely immoral type. The scientist covered his unrestrained debauchery with spatial arguments about personal freedom. Once in his youth, he vowed to devote himself to science, not to drink, not to smoke and not to communicate with women. Therefore, Landau lost his virginity only at the age of 27, and then all his life he actively "made up" for lost time.
Entering into marriage with Concordia, Landau clearly set the conditions of family life, which had to be observed unconditionally. The scientist demanded complete sexual freedom in marriage and provided it to his wife. At the same time, he specifically stipulated that he would not hide his adventures from his wife and forbade her to hide infidelities as well.
Kora Drobantseva and Lev Landau have lived together for 34 years — 12 years in a civil and 22 years in an official marriage. All this time, there was a "non-aggression pact" between them, which completely untied the spouses' hands in terms of infidelity. Landau had his own theory of happiness, about which he wrote as follows:
Landau believed that jealousy, lies and suspicion poison married life and make it unbearable. His life credo consisted of three points: doing science, communicating with people and love, and Lev Davidovich devoted up to 30% of all time to the latter in life. There are very few women who would be able to adopt such a lifestyle.
Landau told his wife in detail about his love affairs, from whom he also demanded a free attitude to sex and complete frankness. This approach was alien to Cora, and she, who madly loved and at the same time hated Landau, suffered heavily.
He was her deity and her tormentor. When Concordia could not stand it and broke down, arranging a scene of jealousy for her husband, he became enraged and deprived her of money for expenses. Sometimes he did it just like that, for prevention.In order not to mock herself, Cora tried to leave when her husband brought his mistresses home.
The woman described a situation when Landau came home with a woman without warning and she, the legal spouse, had to hide in her closet in her house. Her husband opened the closet, saw Cora and immediately locked her with a key. The unfortunate woman was forced to sit in a wooden box and listen to her husband indulge in amorous pleasures with a stranger.
After such an incident, any, even the most loving and patient spouse would have packed up and run away, but Cora reasoned otherwise:
The book "Academician Landau. How we Lived" made Cora Landau an outcast. She was hated, cursed and accused of slander and perverted fantasy. Samizdat copies of the book were searched for and ruthlessly destroyed, but they appeared again and again. Another blow for everyone was the recognition of the academician's son, Igor Landau. He fully confirmed all the nightmares that reigned in the family.
But why was a book written that destroyed the reputation of a brilliant physicist with a worldwide reputation and made his wife an outcast? Psychologists believe that years of psychological violence could have ended in severe psychosis and even suicide for Cora Landau.
The book, written by the academician's wife, by the way, in a fascinating and lively language, became an outlet, a way out of a mental impasse, a way not to go crazy. That is why Cora spat on her husband's reputation, her own and many people she knew, and wrote a scandalous but truthful book. It is possible that it was also revenge on a beloved, but despotic husband, for many years of humiliation.
And we can only accept that great people can have oddities. Was not deprived of them and Nikola Tesla, who is not called a "crazy Serb" for nothing.