Zvorykin Vladimir Kozmich, inventor of television. Zvorykin Vladimir Kozmich

Climbing to the Olympus of Glory! Born in Murom in the family of a merchant of the first guild, Kozma Zvorykin, who traded bread, owned steamships and was the chairman of the Murom Public Bank. After graduating from the Murom Real School, in 1906 he entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. He graduated with honors in 1912 with a diploma in industrial engineering.

He fled from the civil war through Yekaterinburg to Omsk, the capital of the white movement in Siberia, where he was engaged in the equipment of radio stations, worked with foreign suppliers, and went on business trips. In 1919, during his second business trip to New York, the Kolchak government fell, that is, there was nowhere to return, and Zvorykin became an employee of the Westinghouse company, where he took up his favorite topic of transmitting images over a distance, but did not find understanding from his superiors (partly from -due to the language barrier), and continued development independently. In 1923, Zvorykin filed a patent application (US Patent of) for television, carried out entirely on an electronic principle.

In 1928, he met with Russian emigrant David Sarnov, vice president of the Radio Corporation of America. D. Sarnov, who became the president of RCA in 1930, appointed Zvorykin as head of the RCA electronics laboratory. In 1929, Zvorykin developed a high-vacuum television receiving tube kinescope, and by 1931 he completed the design of the transmitting tube of the iconoscope. In June 1933, Zvorykin spoke at the annual conference American Society radio engineers, where he introduced those present to the newly created electronic television system.

In 1933 and after next years Zvorykin visited Europe several times, including visiting the USSR. His consultations played a major role in the creation of television broadcasting systems in Europe. As a result of the implementation of the agreement concluded with RCA, the USSR put into operation the first electronic TV transmitting station in Moscow in 1938, and the production of TK-1 televisions with a Zvorykin kinescope was mastered. In the 1940s, Vladimir Kozmich, together with J. Hillier, developed a scanning electron microscope. During the Second World War he was involved in the development of night vision devices and television-guided bombs.

For years he was subjected to surveillance and wiretapping by the FBI. In the 1950s and 1960s, Zworykin focused his attention on the field of medical electronics, where he successfully applied his experience in the development of television equipment and other devices. V. K. Zvorykin owns more than 120 patents for various inventions. He received a large number of different awards. In particular, in 1967, US President Lyndon Johnson awarded him the US National Medal of Science for scientific achievements for 1966. In 1977 he was elected to National Gallery National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Main works Television the electronics of image transmissions (2nd edition in 1954, translated into Russian in 1956 and published in the USSR), Electron Optics and Electron Microscope and the Electron Microscope) (1945). Photoelectricity and Its Applications (1949). Television in Science and Industry (1958)

People's TV The KVN-49 TV was very popular among the population and it could rightfully be called a people's TV. About half of the TVs produced were subject to repairs during the warranty period, and therefore the abbreviation “KVN” in relation to this TV was popularly deciphered as “Bought, Turned on, Doesn’t work” or “Twisted, Turned, Doesn’t work.” One of the main disadvantages of the TV was the low sound quality, accompanied by noise and wheezing. This was a consequence of an unsuccessful audio path design chosen during the design.

Technical parameters The TV could receive three existing TV channels, with video signal carrier frequencies of 49.75 MHz, 59.25 MHz and 77.25 MHz. The receiver type is single-channel (there is no separate HF audio path) direct amplification receiver, the intermediate frequency of the audio channel is obtained as a result of the beats of the carrier frequencies of image and sound. This solution made it possible to simplify the design of the TV, which uses only 16 radio tubes. The high-frequency amplification stages use pentodes of 6 lamps 6AC7 (6Zh4) and 6AG7 (6P9) in the output stage of the video amplifier. The audio channel uses a 6SJ7 (6Zh8) pentode detector, a 6N7 (6N7S) double triode and a 6V6 (6P6S) beam tetrode preliminary and final amplifiers. Rated output power 1 W. The scanning uses 3 lamps, double triodes 6N8M (6N8S) for synchronization, a vertical scanning output stage and a horizontal scanning master oscillator. A G-807 beam tetrode is used as a horizontal scanning output lamp. The high-voltage kenotron 1Ts1 (1Ts1S) is used to rectify the high voltage supply to the kinescope anode. The power rectifier uses a 5U4G (5Ts3S) kenotron. The TV uses the LK-715A kinescope (in the new designation 18LK1B) with a round screen with a diameter of 180 mm without an ion trap. Focusing and deflection of the electron beam is carried out by magnetic fields.

In later modifications, 18LK5B picture tubes were used. The focusing-deflection system (FOS) consists of three coils: horizontal, vertical and focusing. The image size on the kinescope screen is 140×105 mm, with horizontal clarity of 400 TV lines in the center of the screen. To increase the size of the image, the plant produced a separate attached magnifying glass or plastic lens, filled with distilled water or glycerin. The power consumed by the TV from the network (110, 127, 220 V 50 Hz) is 216 W for “KVN-49-A” and “KVN-49-B”, 200 W for “KVN-49-4”. TV dimensions 380×490×400 mm, weight 29 k

GREAT INVENTOR VLADIMIR KOZMICH ZVORYKIN

In 2008 government Russian Federation The Zworykin Project program was established with the annual presentation of a national award in the field of innovation - the Zworykin Prize. However, most Russian readers only know about V.K. Zvorykin that he was the creator of television. Meanwhile, the famous American scientist and inventor Vladimir Zworykin lived a very long, interesting life filled with a variety of events. He was the author of more than 120 inventions, many of which laid the foundation modern science and technology. Let's name just a few of them - fax, scanner, color television, night vision devices, electron microscope. But Zvorykin’s main inventions, of course, are the iconoscope and kinescope, which became the basis of electronic television, which invaded literally every home, into all areas of professional activity, and radically changed the idea of ​​the dissemination and impact of information on humanity.

In the USA, hundreds of scientific and technical articles are devoted to V.K. Zvorykin and great study biographical in nature, written by A. Abramson. The life and work of Zworykin are most fully presented in the memoirs he himself wrote in the 1940s, subsequently presented and expanded by his friend and biographer F. Olessi, but they were published only in electronic form. In Russian, Zvorykin’s biography is covered in a small book by Doctor of Technical Sciences V.P. Borisov, published several years ago by the Nauka publishing house with a circulation of 400 copies.

All research about Zworykin is essentially based on his own memories. Therefore, information about him found in Russian archives is of particular interest. They make it possible to supplement the biography of this outstanding scientist and eliminate some inaccuracies and discrepancies in it. The first and main discrepancy concerns the date of his birth. Here is a copy of V.K.’s metric certificate. Zvorykin, preserved in the Central State historical archive St. Petersburg: “In the metric book stored in the archives of the city of Murom, the Presentation Church for 1888, male Vladimir is shown born on July 17, and baptized on July 19. His parents: Murom merchant, hereditary honorary citizen Kozma Alekseev Zvorykin and legal his wife Elena Nikolaevna, both Orthodox.”

So, Vladimir Zvorykin was born in 1888, and not 1889, as is commonly believed in the USA. This means that the 100th anniversary of this world-famous scientist should have been celebrated in 1988, and not in 1989, and the 120th anniversary, respectively, in 2008. This error has also passed into some domestic reference publications. It can be assumed that Zvorykin took a year off for himself in order to enroll to defend his doctoral dissertation at the University of Pittsburgh, which accepted applicants no older than 35 years of age. By the way, the discrepancy in the dating of Zvorykin’s year of birth was noted by A. Abramson, who wrote: “The FBI secret agent, in his report dated October 3, 1945, reported that in the document on the naturalization of V.K. Zvorykin’s date of birth is July 17, 1888.”

However, no one has yet noticed that Zworykin’s birth date, which he himself and all his biographers give, is July 17 (30), according to the new style should not be July 30, but the 29th, since he was born in the 19th century. , when the difference between the old and new styles, as is known, was 12 days, and not 13, as in the 20th century. Zvorykin himself, living in the USA since 1919, might not have known about such a “nuance,” but those who wrote about it should have paid attention to it. Materials from Russian archives also helped us to restore and present to the reader a very important period in Zvorykin’s life - from the spring of 1918 to the autumn of 1919. In his memoirs, he writes almost nothing about that time, about the events as a result of which the Russian industrial engineer Zvorykin found himself in America and a few years later, on September 16, 1924, he became a US citizen.

* * * Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin was born on July 17 (29), 1888 in the ancient Russian city of Murom, in the family of a merchant of the 1st guild, hereditary honorary citizen Kozma Alekseevich Zvorykin and Elena Nikolaevna Zvorykina. Two brothers of Kozma Alekseevich became famous Russian scientists, and information about one of them - Konstantin Alekseevich - can even be found in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Kozma Alekseevich’s eldest son, Nikolai, followed in their footsteps. All the father’s hopes of transferring his business into the hands of his son were connected with Vladimir. Capable, energetic, Vladimir studied well and from childhood was what is called very “handy.” As a boy, he enthusiastically disassembled and assembled all the mechanical devices that came to hand, and when the craze for electric doorbells began in Murom, he began to make them and equipped the front doors of the houses of relatives and friends with these perfectly working homemade products. He considered his greatest achievement to be the repair of the signal system on a passenger ship that belonged to his father.

Having graduated with honors from the Murom Real School in 1906, Vladimir went to St. Petersburg to continue his studies at the Imperial Institute of Technology. The number of people wishing to enter the Institute of Technology was 10 times greater than the number of places. Zvorykin did not get the points and, according to the assessments of the certificate issued by the Murom school, he entered the physics department of St. Petersburg University without exams. However, the father, wanting to see his son as an engineer, insisted on Vladimir receiving an engineering specialty, and on the second try he nevertheless became a student at the Technological Institute. In 1912, he graduated with the first category, with the title of industrial engineer. While studying as part of a group of professors and students, Zworykin in 1908 visited Germany, Belgium, France, and England, where Russian students became acquainted with the work of enterprises and industrial laboratories. In 1910 something very happened an important event in the life of student Zvorykin: he began research work in the physics laboratory of Professor B.L. Rosing, who already at the very beginning of the 20th century. dealt with the issues of transmitting images over a distance - electronic television. In 1912, Zvorykin, on the recommendation of Professor Rosing and at the expense of his father, went on an internship at the College de France, with the great Paul Langevin. There he attended lectures on theoretical physics and, under the guidance of Langevin, studied the properties of x-ray radiation.

The First World War found Zvorykin in Berlin, where he came to further improve his knowledge of theoretical physics. Without any hesitation, he rushes through Denmark and Finland to his homeland. In Petrograd, he was immediately drafted into the army, sent to the Officer Electrical Engineering School, and from there to the Eastern Front. For almost a year, Private Zvorykin commanded the radio station he himself installed in Grodno. Nights without sleep, the stress of war days, and fatigue led to the fact that, at the insistence of the doctor, he was sent for treatment to Petrograd. The recovery was quick. Soon Zvorykin began teaching at the Officer Electrical Engineering School. He was awarded the rank of officer. In 1915, he married Tatyana Vasilyeva, a student at the dental school, but they did not live together for long: in 1918, Tatyana emigrated to Berlin. He refused to emigrate with her. In 1916, Zvorykin was appointed military representative to the plant of the Russian Society of Wireless Telegraphs and Telephones (ROBTiT), which produced radio stations for the army, navy and aviation. There he met the famous radio engineer and major entrepreneur S.M. Eisenstein. Acquaintance with Eisenstein, one of the pioneers of the Russian radio industry, who received the Order of the Legion of Honor and French citizenship in 1916 for the construction of the largest Tsarskoye Selo and Khodynka radio stations in Europe and the organization of radio communications with the capitals of the Entente countries, played an important role in expanding the horizons of the young engineer Zvorykin, his ideas on the implementation of scientific ideas and inventions. He first received practical lessons from a prominent scientist who skillfully combined the talents of an entrepreneur and an engineer. These lessons undoubtedly came in handy later in America.

In 1917, on instructions from the Provisional Government, Zvorykin established a radio station for communication between the Tauride Palace and Kronstadt, then returned to work at ROBTiT. At the end of the year, the plant was evacuated to Moscow: the Germans were breaking through to the capital, and this important defense enterprise had to be transferred from Petrograd to a safer place.

* * * In April 1918, Zvorykin came to Moscow from Murom, where his father had recently died. Here he is organizing production at the evacuated plant, continues to work under the leadership of Eisenstein, but every day he understands more and more clearly that his dreams are about a scientific career, about bringing many engineering ideas to life, about creating a laboratory for implementing ideas in the field of electronic television, about What they agreed with Eisenstein back in Petrograd, in Moscow, in the conditions of revolutionary chaos, will no longer be realized. On the recommendation of his old acquaintance, who worked in the Moscow branch of the Siberian Association of Cooperative Peasant Unions (Sibcreditsoyuz), Zvorykin held negotiations with the management of the branch and received an official invitation to work in Siberia. He associated the implementation of his plans with the richest Siberian entrepreneurs who were interested in the development of production, in establishing international trade relations and who showed serious interest in creating their own network of radio stations.

Even before the outbreak of the First World War, Siberian cooperative unions were considered the largest in Russia and even in Europe in terms of sales volumes and production capabilities. The powerful Sibcreditsoyuz, the Union of Siberian Butter-Making Artels, as well as numerous local branches of Tsentrosoyuz and Zakupsbyt not only organized the production of a wide range of agricultural products, but also successfully ensured their sales in the domestic and foreign markets. Sibcreditsoyuz, formed in 1917, was the largest association of 1,230 cooperative unions in Siberia and Altai with a central office in Novonikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk) and an extensive network of representative offices and branches in Moscow, Petrograd, Omsk and abroad. Later, in August 1918, it merged with the cooperatives of the Urals and an even more powerful cooperative association, Syncredsoyuz, was created. It is characteristic that in 1919 his office in the USA was located in New York, on the prestigious Broadway. Siberia at that time became a haven for everyone who was opposed to the new, Soviet order. “It is very difficult to describe the different and sometimes contradictory feelings that led me to make this decision,” Zvorykin noted, referring to his departure from Moscow, “but I think that my views were not very different from the general mood of the majority of people in my circle. Attitudes in the country towards the new regime varied. The most ardent supporters of the communist government were the factory workers, probably due to the active socialist agitation carried out by several generations of the intelligentsia. In direct opposition to the Bolsheviks were officials, military leaders and most wealthy entrepreneurs. The intelligentsia, which was in the minority, as always, was divided into many different political parties and movements of a very different spectrum - from support to complete rejection of the new regime. The peasants were an uncontrollable mass. On the one hand, they welcomed the confiscation of landowners' property, but were uncertain about who would get the land - them or the government. The richer peasants, the so-called “kulaks,” who already had some landholdings and even managed to increase them after the revolution, were largely neutral. The bulk Russian population... as subsequent events showed, supported the side that was stronger at one time or another. Oddly enough, one of the decisive factors that brought the majority to the side of the Bolsheviks, in my opinion, was foreign intervention. The Allied efforts to keep Russia at war with Germany caused a negative reaction in the country and thereby contributed to the strengthening of the position of the communist government.” Having secured an official summons and received the relevant documents, Zvorykin was going to leave Moscow completely legally. However, the events of those days developed so rapidly that he had to urgently flee the capital. The order of the People's Commissar for Military Affairs L.D. Trotsky dated May 7, 1918 prescribed the mandatory registration of all former tsarist officers and their mobilization in the Red Army. Zvorykin was threatened with arrest. He accidentally learned about the warrant for his arrest from his former driver, who served in the Moscow police. There was no time left to think. Having urgently bought a train ticket, he went to Nizhny Novgorod, where the office of the Zvorykin Oka Shipping Company, which had been nationalized by that time, was located. His father’s former employees also worked there, who were sympathetic to Kozma Zvorykin’s family, who helped his son exchange jewelry for money and board a ship sailing along the Kama to Perm. Zvorykin’s “odyssey”, full of dangerous adventures, began from Nizhny. “In 18 months,” he recalled, “on the way from Moscow to New York, I had to circle the globe twice.”

In Perm it turned out that it was impossible to follow the railway from here to Siberia: the Bolsheviks were fighting everywhere with the rebel Czechoslovak units. The only way remained was through the Northern Urals, to Nadezhdinsk (now Serov), and from there to Yekaterinburg. At the station in Yekaterinburg, Zvorykin was immediately detained by a patrol, he was arrested and put in a prison set up in a local hotel. Soon the prisoners learned about the execution of the royal family in Ipatiev’s house, and everyone was seized with panic: it seemed that their fate was already predetermined. But on July 10 (23), Yekaterinburg was captured by the Czechs. On their train, Zvorykin finally manages to get to Siberia. The successes of the anti-Bolshevik uprising in Siberia and the creation of the Provisional Siberian Government in Omsk brought there many supporters of the old regime, confident that the Bolshevik power was about to fall. “Omsk was swarming with politicians, industrialists, traders, military men and other people who had gathered here to create a base for the overthrow of Bolshevism in Russia...” wrote a participant and eyewitness to the events, E.P. Polyudov. - The demobilization of the old tsarist army had just ended... The cities and villages of Siberia were overflowing with soldiers of the tsarist army - front-line soldiers, evacuated disabled people, separated from the machine and the plow for several years. 60-70% of these people had neither a stake nor a yard... Omsk, in addition, was overcrowded with officers who had fled from Russia (about 7,000 people). In all the hotels, cafes, and restaurants lived Petrograd residents and Muscovites, who had come running here because of the food crisis, with their wallets tightly stuffed with gold." By July 1919, the population of Omsk - then the "second capital of Russia" - numbered more than 600 thousand people. .

Zvorykin arrived in Siberia in July 1918. Immediately upon arrival, he met with the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Provisional Siberian Government P.V. Vologodsky and the Minister of Trade and Industry P.P. Gudkov. “I proposed to make an attempt to move abroad from Siberia via the Northern Route,” wrote Zvorykin, “with which there was no connection at that time, and to carry out the instructions of the government. I proposed to do this trip at my own expense and risk, for which I received the consent of the Government and documents... The tasks given to me by P.P. Gudkov, were purely of a trade and information nature. At the same time, I received a similar assignment from the Union of Siberian Credit Unions to explore foreign markets in terms of the possibility of purchasing agricultural machinery there.” On the personal instructions of Vologodsky, Zvorykin was issued the following certificate: “No. 2-K. Tomsk dated August 12, 1918: The bearer of this, process engineer Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin, on behalf of the Provisional Siberian Government, was sent to England, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Military and civilians should not interfere with process engineer Zvorykin, who is heading on a business trip through the mouth of the Ob River and the Arctic Ocean, providing full assistance in boarding him on the ship, which I certify with a signature and the application of an official seal to the Deputy. Minister of Foreign Affairs Del. Golovachev Ext. office of K. Tsvetkov.” Earlier, on August 6, probably in the city of Novonikolaevsk, Tomsk province, Zvorykin also received an order and certificate from the board of the Union of Siberian Credit Unions. “The bearer of this, process engineer Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin,” it said, “is traveling to Denmark to establish relationships with Danish and Scandinavian companies on the issue of purchasing agricultural machinery and implements and transporting them to Siberia. Counting supplies Siberian peasant machines and implements and other agricultural implements in this moment“, in view of the temporary interruption in communication with European Russia, as well as with foreign companies producing them, an issue of first importance, we ask all government agencies and public organizations to provide Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin with all possible assistance.”

In order to leave Siberia for Europe, you first had to get to Arkhangelsk, which was occupied by Entente troops and where the embassies of the majority moved from Petrograd Western countries involved in visa processing. The Allied Military Control Department was created here to resolve practical issues of leaving Russia. It was possible to get from Omsk to Arkhangelsk only along the Northern Sea Route, since the European part of Russia was under Bolshevik rule.

“At the end of July 1918,” Zvorykin wrote about the beginning of his journey, “our ship left Omsk and headed towards the Arctic Ocean.” Here there is an inaccuracy in his recollections. He left, of course, not at the end of July, but in the second half of August. This is evidenced by the above documents, dated August, and later. For example, a memo dated September 26, 1918, sent by the commissar of the Arkhangelsk province to the Union Military Control Department: “At the same time forwarding the questionnaires of process engineer Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin and foreign passport No. 1750, issued on August 12 of this year by the Tomsk provincial commissar Provisional Siberian Government, I ask the Union Military Control Department […] to inform you if there are any obstacles to Zvorykin’s exit using passport No. 1750.” Apparently, Vladimir Kozmich’s memory simply failed him. In a memo dated 1919 and addressed to the sales agent of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in New York, K.Yu. Medzykhovsky, he himself wrote: “I left Omsk on August 20, 1918, along the Ob, and then through Arkhangelsk arrived in Christiania in September.” Zvorykin also never mentions his stay in Tomsk in 1918 in his memoirs, although it is known that at the beginning of August 1918, the Provisional Siberian government headed by Vologda was in Tomsk for several weeks. The decision to finally move the government to Omsk was made later. Vologodsky noted in his diary: “Monday July 30 (August 12). At 11 o’clock in the morning we arrived in Tomsk... Monday, August 13 (26)... there was a large reception of those introducing themselves and petitioners (after a significant break in these receptions on the occasion of the trip to Tomsk).” It was on this day, most likely, that he had a detailed conversation with Zvorykin, during which he offered his help in solving the most pressing problem for Siberia - restoring its ties with Europe and America, and was even willing to spend own funds. Zvorykin also proposed to begin the active development of the sea route from the mouth of the Ob to Arkhangelsk, which would make it possible to unite the northern and eastern white fronts, provide the food-poor north with goods from rich Siberian cooperatives, and establish direct trade with England and the Scandinavian countries through the North Sea. Zvorykin was given another task. “I was also told,” he wrote, “that Omsk is in great need of organizing reliable radio communications, and although the French government promised to send necessary equipment and specialists to set it up, nothing arrived. Thus, as a radio expert, I was instructed to contact the Russian embassy in Copenhagen and London, and, if necessary, in America, in order to purchase the appropriate radio equipment and deliver it to Omsk.” But the main thing among the issues that Zvorykin had to solve during his foreign business trip was, of course, the organization of mutually beneficial supplies between Siberia and Europe with new trade route across the Arctic Ocean. In December 1918, the head of the Naval Ministry, Rear Admiral M.I. Smirnov, informed the Council of Ministers that the difficulties of transporting goods along the Trans-Siberian Railway acutely raised the question of using the Northern Sea Route for this purpose. By the end of April 1919, thanks to Zvorykin’s active business negotiations and his appearances in the press of the Scandinavian countries, the government had many proposals from various foreign companies about their readiness to use this route.

* * * August 20, 1918 Zvorykin goes to Arkhangelsk as part of a scientific expedition led by Professor I.P. Tolmachev. A famous geologist, paleontologist, researcher of Siberia and Asia, one of the founders and scientific secretary of the Polar Commission of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Tolmachev then worked at the Omsk Agricultural Institute, where he continued to be actively involved in the practical implementation of his ideas.

On a small ship, Tolmachev's expedition sailed along the Irtysh and Ob to Obdorsk (Salekhard), and then around Yamal to Vaygach Island. In September, on the island of Vaygach, they met the icebreaker Solombala, which sailed from Arkhangelsk with French engineers and equipment for the Omsk radio station. Thus, the issue of Zvorykin’s purchase of radio equipment lost its relevance. On the icebreaker Solombala, Zvorykin sailed to Arkhangelsk, from where he planned to go to Europe. According to the instructions of the government, the first thing he had to do was visit England. However, Zworykin was unable to obtain a British visa: at that time, Great Britain had not yet officially recognized the Provisional Siberian Government.

In Arkhangelsk, Zvorykin met the American Ambassador D. Francis and with his help received not only an American visa, but also transit visas to England, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. “The US Ambassador to Russia at that time was D.R. Francis,” Zvorykin recalled. “He greeted me kindly and bombarded me with questions about Siberia. I came to him several more times and told him everything I knew about this region. He eventually gave me a US visa after requesting transit permission from the British Embassy. I decided to go to Copenhagen, since my American visa gave me the right to travel through this city.” So, the necessary permits and visas were obtained and the check was successfully passed by the Allied Military Control Commission, as stated in the letter of the government commissar of the Arkhangelsk province to the head of the Naval Control dated September 27, 1918: “At the same time forwarding questionnaires for those departing abroad Russian citizen Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin, I inform you that permission for Zvorykin to travel abroad was given by the Union Military Control Department on September 26 No. 342 and that Zvorykin was issued a passport No. 1750 on this date.”

Finally, the ship with Zvorykin sails to the Norwegian port of Tromso, and then, through numerous fjords, to Bergen. “Our voyage was very unusual,” wrote Zvorykin, “because the ship sailed partly on the open ocean, and partly through fjords. The water in the fjords was calm, and the sailing there reminded me of my sailing on the lakes, but the ocean was wild, and our small ship was tossed in all directions. This posed a particular problem in the dining room. If lunch began while we were in the fjord, the dining room was immediately filled with passengers, but if the ship went out into the open ocean, then most, including me, scattered to their cabins... During the long northern night we were amazed by the fantastic Northern Lights, playing almost continuously across the entire sky and seemed like a giant luminescent curtain.”

During his short stay in Norway, Zworykin organized a number of publications in the local press on the situation in Siberia and the business purposes of his visit. Arriving in Denmark in October 1918, he was actively engaged in establishing business contacts for several weeks, but very soon realized that in order to conduct effective negotiations, not only appropriate powers were needed, but also financial guarantees confirming the seriousness of the intentions of the organizations sending him. A telegram has been preserved sent from the embassy in Copenhagen to Omsk to Vologda: “Zvorykin asks to transfer to the Syncreds Union the order of cars and transportation through the North on the basis of a possible exchange. For further negotiations regarding the financing of the exchange, data on the capital of Syncreds Union is needed. Telegraph further instructions." There was no response to either this or subsequent telegrams, and Zvorykin had to negotiate on his own, in the absence of serious financial guarantees. Nevertheless, he managed to formulate a package of serious business proposals. Now the question arose of how to deliver these important documents to Omsk - there was no reliable connection with Siberia. At the beginning of November 1918, the agent of the Russian Trade Mission in Copenhagen, Andreevsky, convened a meeting at his place, which was attended by: “Mr. Zvorykin, the Agent himself, his non-staff assistant Andreevsky-Stern, etc. about. Secretary of the Kazandzhiev Agency, and from the Mission Charge d'Affaires Baron Meyerdorf, acting. about. Secretary of the Mission Loevsky and included in the Mission, head of the financial department, Baron Schilling. At this meeting, Mr. Andreevsky made a message about the need for Mr. Zworykin to be sent to Siberia as soon as possible, and for this purpose, about the need to allocate him 8,000 crowns, which Zworykin, upon arrival in Omsk, will reimburse the Mission through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” Thus, at a meeting at the Russian mission in Copenhagen, which was attended not only by representatives of the trade mission, but also by a representative of the Siberian cooperative association "Zakupsbyt", it was decided to immediately send Zvorykin to Omsk to establish relations with the government, deliver important documents mission and a Russian trade agent to present a report on the state of Russian-Scandinavian relations and the possibilities of trade exchange. To support this business trip, the Russian mission, under partial guarantees from Zakupsbyt, allocated 8 thousand Danish kroner to Zvorykin.

On October 30, he received a document signed by the charge d'affaires of Russia in Copenhagen, M. von Meyendorff, with the following content: “By the authority of the Provisional Russian Government. Through this it is announced to everyone and everyone who should know about it that the indicator... of this, process engineer Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin is sent by courier with dispatches to Omsk and returns back to Copenhagen. The route followed by V.K. Zvorykina through Stockholm and Christiania. As evidence of this and for free travel, this passport was given from Ross. Charge d'Affaires in Copenhagen." Later, Zworykin would write: “Due to the fact that I was the first person to arrive from Siberia, which rebelled against the Bolsheviks, and the lack of a clear understanding of the events that took place abroad, I had to give a number of reports on this issue in Scandinavia... exclusively through our missions, i.e. .e. through B. Pilyar in Christiania, M. Meyendorff in Copenhagen and Mr. Gulkevich in Stockholm.”

It was no longer possible to return to Omsk via the Northern Sea Route - navigation was over. On November 7, 1918, having received a courier passport issued by the Russian Mission in Copenhagen, Zworykin left Copenhagen through England and America to Russia. But first he goes to Stockholm to fulfill a personal order from the Minister of Trade and Industry P.P. Gudkov. Later, in 1919, the then retired professor Gudkov wrote to the head of the Council of Ministers, G. Telberg, about this: “In August, I instructed Zworykin to find out the possibility of exporting goods from Sweden and the prices.” From Stockholm, Zvorykin sailed to England, and spent almost a month here waiting for an American visa to be issued. He recalled: “I was often invited different groups Russian emigrants and asked to tell them about the real state of affairs in their homeland. I noticed at the same time that my true stories They were especially upset by those who expected the Bolsheviks to collapse and return home as soon as possible. Anything that did not live up to their hopes irritated them greatly. Many did not believe at all in the plausibility of the journey I had made. And I decided not to tell anyone about it again.” Finally, Zvorykin stepped onto the deck of the excellent British liner Mauritania, the fastest ocean-going vessel at that time. He was amazed by its size (240 meters in length) and the number of passengers - more than two thousand. During his journey across the ocean, Zworykin met and became friends with Augusto Legia, the future president of Peru. Legia was the only one with whom Zworykin could communicate freely in French. He didn't know English. (Surprisingly, even after living most life in the USA, this versatile, unusual capable person failed to master English as well as he mastered French.)

On the evening of December 31, 1918, the Mauritania passengers saw famous statue Freedom. In New York, at 170 Broadway, in the office of Syncreds Union, Zvorykin met with its president V.F. Bersenev and told him in detail about the situation in Siberia and the possibilities of using the Northern Sea Route from Arkhangelsk to Obdorsk and further up the Ob for trade with the United States. The representative of Siberian cooperatives at the Russian embassy, ​​Bashilov, involved Zvorykin in negotiations on the supply of radio equipment for cooperatives. An interesting document was discovered in the archive - a secret telegram from Charge d'Affaires in Washington S.A. Uget to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Omsk government dated January 16, 1919: “Bashilov, on behalf of the Siberian cooperatives, asks to petition the American government for permission to purchase a radio station for Obdorsk for communications of the Central Siberia with radio stations of the Northern Sea Route, which is the responsibility of the cooperatives big hopes... Before taking the appropriate steps, I ask you to give your opinion on this issue.”

Life in New York was not easy for Zvorykin. Officials of the American branch of SyncredsUnion did not have the funds to pay his salary, and lack of knowledge of English did not allow them to find a job in their specialty. In the spring of 1919, the Omsk government recalled Zvorykin to Russia. Having received many orders from various organizations and individuals and seized spare parts for the Omsk radio station, he crossed the entire country on a high-speed express from New York to Seattle, six weeks later sailed to Yokohama, and then to Vladivostok, where the Allied troops were located at that time . At the end of March, Zworykin traveled along the Trans-Siberian Railway through Harbin to Omsk, which was then a very dangerous journey. On the way, he was repeatedly searched and lost some of his expensive things. To imagine this trip, let us turn to the memoirs of T. Jameson, captain of the English Royal Marine Corps, who took part in the fighting on the Kama River as part of an expedition of English volunteers who fought on the side of Admiral A.V. Kolchak. “Our detachment,” he wrote, “left Vladivostok by express at 10 o’clock in the evening on April 6, 1919. We traveled in comfort in sleeping cars and ate in the dining car. The road was single track, trains went in two directions, often stopping at sidings. Almost every day we learned about new actions of the Bolsheviks. While we were on the road, the Reds' mounted detachments derailed the trains twice; not far from Harbin, we ourselves saw a broken train under an embankment. After that, about a mile ahead of our train there was always a steam locomotive with a platform loaded with spare rails. We quickly realized that there were many Jews traveling in first class, carrying contraband goods to Omsk, where they could be sold for fabulous profits. It was funny to see how their fellow travelers were getting fat in front of the stations, where passengers' belongings were searched. Each wore several silk dresses under her fur coat and remained in them until the end of the search. At one station we saw the corpses of several Reds hanging from telegraph poles. With them, the local headman was hanged, having been convicted of helping the Reds derail trains. Everything we saw frightened our fellow passengers, and since our detachment was the only armed force available, we were asked to provide security for the train. I agreed and took on the role of commandant. A system of posts was established, in addition to which all healthy male passengers were required to take turns going out on patrol on both sides of the train at night... On April 16, we arrived in Omsk, where Kolchak and the government of Siberia were located.” Jason further characterizes the situation in Omsk: “The capital of Siberia is a large city with three cathedrals. It was overpopulated and suffered from the hardships of the civil war. The sewers froze, typhus and other diseases were rampant in the city.”

Zvorykin arrived in Omsk about two weeks earlier, on April 1, 1919. In his later report, he stated: “Due to the great difficulties that I had to experience on the way with obtaining visas and mainly steamship tickets, I arrived in Omsk only 1 April 1919. All the instructions and packages given to me, both from Copenhagen and from all Russian Missions and Embassies in the countries that I passed through, were delivered by me to their destination, against the appropriate receipts.” His information about the state of affairs and situation in Scandinavia and the USA caused big interest from members of the Omsk, already Kolchak, government. Zvorykin had to report on the results of his business trip not only to P.V. Vologodsky, but also to Minister of Finance I.A. Mikhailov, Minister of Foreign Affairs I.I. Sukin and Minister of Trade and Industry N.N. Shchukin.

At this time, the Kolchak government began a general mobilization of officers. “I, as a former officer of the Russian Army,” wrote Zvorykin, “according to the order of the Supreme Ruler (Kolchak - Author), immediately came to the disposal of the Omsk Military Commander.” But the government decided to use it in a different capacity. “As a specialist and practitioner in transport,” he noted, “the ministry seconded me to the Northern Route Committee that was organized at that time, especially since I was already practically familiar with this route.” However, this committee was just beginning to be created, and Zvorykin was temporarily offered another position. Due to his appointment to ministerial service, he was released from mobilization. Meanwhile, active work began on the creation of the Northern Route Committee within the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The difficult economic situation and the need to enter foreign markets through the north required operational decisions: the possibility of navigation from Arkhangelsk through the Kara Sea and further up the Ob was limited to the summer months. The government was in a hurry, and on May 2, at the proposal of the committee chairman V.L. Popov, it was decided to urgently send Zvorykin as an agent of the committee to the United States to organize work on the use of the Northern Sea Route already in the current navigation season. Zvorykin noted: “The Committee’s tasks also included preparing the organization of expeditions along the Northern Route for the following years, for which it was necessary to promote this route abroad in order to dispel the prejudice that existed against it.”

On May 3, the Ministry of Trade and Industry issued Order No. 116: “We are sending: Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin, an official of the V class of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, engineer-technologist, to America and other countries to carry out the assignments assigned to him for organizing the exchange of goods along the Northern Sea Route from May 4, 1919. Vr. Ex. Ministry Tomashevsky". Regarding his business trip to America in 1919, Zvorykin writes in his autobiography: “Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transport began to organize the export from abroad, including from the USA, of goods purchased for Omsk. I received an offer to participate in this activity in relation to America.” However, no documents confirming his words were found in the materials of the Ministry of Transport of the Kolchak government. But they found “Personal file of the legal adviser of the mining department of the Ministry of Trade and Industry V.K. Zvorykina". It totals 98 pages and begins with Zvorykin’s application for employment in this ministry dated April 7, 1919. On the same day, the Ministry of Trade and Industry issued an order: “Designation for service: Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin as legal adviser of the mining department of the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the V class with basic salary 1100 rub. In the month of April 7 days 1919. Vr. Ex. Ministry N. Shchukin." It was necessary to urgently prepare for departure, but due to Shchukin’s illness, the preparation of financial documents was delayed. In addition, the Easter holidays began, the ministry did not work, and the staff of the Committee was never approved. Realizing that there is very little time left to organize the supply of goods by sea this year, Zvorykin decides to go to the USA at his own expense, hoping that “upon approval of the estimate and receipt of allocations, the amounts will be transferred... to New York.” Before leaving, he received detailed written instructions from the temporary director of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, F.A. Tomashevsky about his activities as a foreign agent of the Northern Route Committee. “Dear Sovereign Vladimir Kozmich,” Tomashevsky wrote in this detailed two-page note. - You must be a living link between the Northern Route Committee... enter into relations with foreign financial circles, export companies... take all measures to detailed information... to dispel prejudices against this path and interest private initiative ... to immediately inform the Committee about the prices existing on the foreign market for our raw materials ... to find out the issue of chartering ships for the Northern Route ... To notify the Committee about the prices on foreign markets of the goods we need and the conditions for their purchase.” This time, Zworykin went to New York as a government representative, with letters of recommendation to various Russian organizations in the United States. “In Omsk,” he wrote, “I have already gained fame as a person who successfully traveled to the United States across the Arctic Ocean. Knowing this, cooperatives and other organizations loaded me with assignments, various people– private letters and requests for missing relatives, and, finally, Russian Orthodox Church asked to hand over a jar of sacred oil to the head of the Russian Church in the USA.”

On May 4, 1919, without receiving the required allowance, Zvorykin left for Vladivostok to reach the United States through Japan. He sailed to the port of Tsurugu on a small ship and waited in Japan for about a month to receive an American visa. He used this time to get acquainted with the nature and architecture of Japan, with the morals and customs of its inhabitants. He would later write: “When I visited Japan again after almost 40 years, it was already a completely different country. On my first trip, I saw the real Japan as it was, perhaps, many hundreds of years ago.” On the way to America, the ship with Zvorykin sailed to Honolulu. “I took a taxi to explore the beautiful island,” he recalled. - On the way, I saw a pineapple seller and decided to buy a few pieces. Not knowing the language, I gave him one dollar and walked away to take a few photos. When I returned, I had difficulty getting into the car because the entire seat was covered with pineapples.”

On the San Francisco-New York high-speed train, Zworykin crossed the United States for the second time. Only now he was traveling from west to east. He arrived in New York on June 19, having been on the road for exactly six weeks, which at that time was a very short period of time. Here he quickly established business contacts with employees of the Russian Trade Mission. To effectively implement the tasks assigned to him, Zvorykin proposed creating a special trade and information bureau in the United States, which he wrote about on July 10 in memo Russian Charge d'Affaires S.A. Ugetu: “Looking for ways to obtain foreign currency, the Government was forced to take control of part of the export of Russian raw materials abroad and establish control over the rest. In this regard, there was an urgent need for widespread coverage of foreign markets on prices and demands for these raw materials... I, for my part, would consider organizing a special trade information bureau under an agent of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. I am enclosing the estimate." He explained his plans in more detail as follows: “The tasks of the bureau include sampling prices for various import and export goods in American markets, compiling them and sending prices and information about the state of commodity markets in America, as well as the reasons for market fluctuations and expected changes in upcoming transactions. seasons to the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Omsk, the Committee on Foreign Trade, the Northern Route Committee and Agents of the Ministry of Trade and Industry abroad.” This proposal was actively supported by sales agent Medzychowski. In his letter dated July 10, 1919 to the Russian charge d'affaires, he wrote: “I would consider the organization of such a body extremely desirable.” Soon Zvorykin began practical implementation your plan. He collected and analyzed economic information, prepared and sent information bulletins to Omsk with data on goods and prices in the markets. And all this time he tried to establish contact with the Omsk government in order to clarify the issue of his official position. “Please convey to the Minister of Trade and Industry,” said a secret telegram dated July 4 from Uguet, charge d’affaires in Washington, to the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Omsk. “Zvorykin asks to inform us of the amount of maintenance due to him, as well as the source of its receipt.” But no instructions were received from Omsk to the United States, and the “representative of the Northern Sea Route Committee” was left without a livelihood. He could only count on the support of the Foreign Trade Committee agent Znamensky, who twice gave him advances: 500 dollars on July 3 and another 300 on August 1. “I took this money in advance for the maintenance due to me,” wrote Zvorykin, “... it was promised before my departure from Omsk both by resolutions on reports and personally by I.A. Mikhailov, to settle the financial side of my business trip.” Only on August 1, Russian representatives in the United States and Zworykin himself unexpectedly learned that, as of July 1, he had been fired from his position as legal adviser to the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Here is an excerpt from a telegram sent by Comrade Foreign Minister Zhukovsky Russian Ambassador in Washington to B.A. Bakhmetev: “The Ministry of Trade and Industry asks to convey: engineer Zvorykin was sent in May of this year to America and other countries to organize trade exchanges along the Northern Sea Route and charter ships. Zvorykin was not authorized to receive any amounts from Russian institutions abroad. From this first July, Zvorykin, due to failure to receive any information from him on the instructions given to him, was dismissed from service, and he is due to receive a salary and allowance from the Ministry of Trade and Industry from April 7 to June 30, 7001 rubles and 78 kopecks.” Why was the decision to dismiss Zvorykin made so hastily, and why was the notice of this, on the contrary, received with such a long delay? After all, the Omsk government was notified about his place of work in a timely manner - already on the 20th of June Medzykhovsky reported to Omsk: “Zworykin arrived on June 19 and immediately began work. The North was extremely active in organizing the exchange of goods. By. It was on the eve of the conclusion of Standard Oil’s deal to ship petroleum products.” Zvorykin writes: “With the greatest energy on my part, I could arrive in New York only on the evening of June 19th and send the first telegram with information to Omsk on June 27th.” Zvorykin’s dismissal was most likely explained by the fact that by this time the temporary manager of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, F.A. Tomashevsky, who had sent him to the United States, had already been dismissed; the ministry was undergoing an endless change of personnel and clarification of relations between various departments, between the ministry and Northern Route Committee, which led to the abolition of the position of a sales agent in the United States planned by the Committee.

The work of the Omsk ministries is described in his memoirs by Lieutenant General of the Tsarist Army, ally of A.V. Kolchak K.V. Sakharov: “Everywhere they followed the same easiest path of building and copying old pre-revolutionary bureaucratic apparatuses; but before they at least had their good sides - decades of established business, continuity and experienced workers. Here, in the copies, the main attention was paid to appearance. Even the time of service was in relation to peacetime St. Petersburg: at 10 o’clock in the morning it began, at 12 there was a break for breakfast, at 4-5 o’clock it ended, and everyone went home. The ministries were so full of serving people that a new army could be formed from them.” And Admiral Kolchak himself, in a conversation with Major General, General for Assignments and Quartermaster General under the Supreme Commander-in-Chief M.A. Inostrantsev, once said: “You will soon see for yourself how poor we are in people, why we have to endure even in high positions, not excluding the posts of ministers, people who are far from corresponding to the places they occupy, but this is because there is no one to replace them.” Having learned from Medzykhovsky about his dismissal, Zworykin on the same day drew up an explanatory note addressed to him, in which he outlined all the events in detail last months and demanded that the government conduct a thorough investigation into its official activities. “Dismissal from the Civil Service clearly discredits my name,” he pointed out, “I allow myself to briefly outline below the history of my business trip and my work and ask for an investigation to be ordered against me and, in the absence of any crimes of an official or other nature on my part , about the rehabilitation of my name." At the end of the note, he noted: “First of all, dismissal from the Civil Service under the pretext of clearly disrespectful, without trial, as is known, has a certain imprint that leaves a stain on a person and which can only be washed away either by a judicial investigation or by annulment.”

In a telegram dated August 12, Medzykhovsky indignantly informed the Russian Ambassador Bakhmetev: “I certify that engineer Zvorykin, since June 19, carried out the instructions assigned to him quite conscientiously, energetically and with full knowledge business For me, Zhukovsky’s telegram is a complete surprise and an obvious misunderstanding, because V.K. Zvorykin performed the work listed in this telegram. This fact prompted me to send a telegram stating the actual state of affairs. The dismissal of engineer Zvorykin on the basis of the data given in Zhukovsky’s telegram seems to me to be unfounded. Such an act against an official of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, who has not committed anything criminal, is unacceptable.” Probably, the issue of Zvorykin’s dismissal was somehow connected with the spending of travel money he received in Copenhagen. After a thorough investigation, this issue was resolved in his favor, as evidenced by a telegram from the Russian embassy in Omsk: “A secret telegram from the ambassador in Washington dated September 10, 1919, No. 230, addressed to the Manager of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Medzykhovsky asks to be transferred to the ministry trade: engineer Zvorykin presented a report on the expenditure of 8,000 crowns. The report was approved by the State Audit Office. Bakhmetev." In October 1919, the chairman of the Northern Sea Route Committee, S. Vostrykin, wrote to Bakhmetev: “It would be desirable to recruit Zvorykin to serve in the supply department, because he provided all the necessary information and informed America on the affairs of the Northern Sea Route.” Thus, all of Zvorykin’s problems were successfully resolved. However, at the end of October, Kolchak’s army suffered a crushing defeat. His government's days are numbered. N.V. Ustryalov, a legal adviser in the management of the affairs of the Supreme Ruler of Russia, wrote in his “Diary of a Kolchakite”: “October 29. “Unloading” - i.e. evacuation - of Omsk was announced. Things are bad at the front, “catastrophic.” The fall of Omsk is obviously inevitable. The army is surrounded from the north and south and is quickly retreating. The Council of Ministers is moving to Irkutsk." With the fall of the Kolchak government, Zvorykin lost his official status. He could not return to Russia, and, apparently, did not want to. “In Washington,” he wrote in his memoirs, “there was still the old Russian embassy, ​​which did not recognize the communist government. I introduced myself to the ambassador, Professor Bakhmetev, who offered me a job at the Russian Purchasing Commission, which had an office in New York.” Thus ends the story of the Kolchak government’s sales agent and begins the story of the outstanding scientist and inventor Zvorykin, who in the USA was called “Russia’s gift to America.”

* * * The life of an emigrant is not easy, and it’s bad too knowledgeable of the language the country where he settled gradually improved. A wife came to Zvorykin from Berlin, whom he managed to find; first one daughter was born, and a few years later - a second. In 1920, Zvorykin received an offer to work for a large electrical company, Westinghouse Electric, and he and his wife moved to Pittsburgh. In 1923, Zworykin filed a patent for an iconoscope (a transmitting cathode-ray television tube), and a year later - for a kinescope (a receiving, i.e., image-reproducing tube). The iconoscope and kinescope subsequently became the basis of all television systems in the world. In 1924, Zvorykin naturalized and entered the University of Pittsburgh as an applicant. After two years of evening study, he defended his dissertation and received the title of Doctor of Philosophy in Physics. Westinghouse officials were not interested in Zvorykin’s project to create television, considering it an unpromising direction that required very large investments. Zvorykin began developing photovoltaic devices, created a high-speed fax, but did not stop developing in the field of television. In the end, he was lucky: he met a major entrepreneur, whom he managed to “infect” with television. This entrepreneur, well-versed in electrical engineering issues, was a native of Russia, D. Sarnov, later chairman of the board of directors of RCA (Radio Corporation of America) and a brigadier general in the US Army. Sarnov supported Zvorykin’s ideas in the field of research and creation of television systems and invested huge amounts of money in this.

“27 or 28 years ago,” Sarnov recalled at a gala evening in connection with Zvorykin’s retirement, which took place on August 1, 1954, “I first met this young man, who spoke with the same terrible accent as Today. He enthusiastically told me about the cathode ray tube he had invented, about the great prospects and possibilities of using it in practice - about the creation of electronic television... I admit, I understood almost nothing from that first story about his invention, but I was very impressed by this man... just fascinated by his persuasiveness. I asked: “Taking into account everything you say, how much money will need to be allocated to put your ideas into practice? How much money will need to be spent to have a really working television system?” He looked at me slyly, took a deep breath and answered very confidently: “I think 100 thousand dollars would be enough.” I already understood then that a working television system, of course, costs 100 thousand. Just how right he was became clear only now. We spent nearly $50 million before we made even one penny back from selling the first televisions. But who today can say that we spent this money in vain? I can confidently say that Zvorykin is the best seller of ideas I have ever known.” Of course, Sarnov had no idea that Zvorykin had extensive experience as a “salesman”, gained while he was a sales agent for the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Kolchak government. And his father’s commercial spirit was certainly present in him. Indicative in this sense is Zworykin’s statement regarding the introduction of inventions: “Until technical development has reached the stage when investors grab it, work on a fruitful scientific idea must be camouflaged.”

In the late 1920s, Zworykin's television system was adopted throughout the world. After the establishment of diplomatic relations between the USA and the USSR in 1933, the Soviet government invited him to return to his homeland. Zvorykin rejected this offer, but accepted the invitation to come to the USSR to give a course of lectures and get acquainted with the work of scientific laboratories. Sarnov supported the plan for this trip, believing that, while in the USSR and meeting with the scientific elite, Zworykin would be able to negotiate on the supply of RCA television equipment to the Soviet Union and thus there would be an opportunity to expand the company's business. Two years later, such deliveries actually began. As Zvorykin later admitted, during his first stay in the USSR in 1933, he was not left with a feeling of anxiety and even fear. And there were reasons for this. “When visiting the performance Days of the Turbins” by the Moscow Art Theater“,” Zvorykin recalled, “an amazing thing happened to me.” I was in the theater with the head of the Communications Trust and several engineers whom I had already met in the laboratories... I sat between the head of the trust and a man whose face seemed to be familiar to me, but who he was and where I saw him, I could not remember. During the break, I asked him where he was from and what he did. When he replied that he came from Yekaterinburg, I unexpectedly recognized him as an investigator from the prison I visited there.” Zvorykin’s mood was also influenced by a meeting with his longtime friend P.L. Kapitsa, who reported that the USSR authorities would no longer allow him to go to Cambridge. On that visit to the USSR, Zvorykin met Beria. This happened in Tbilisi, where Zvorykin’s brother Nikolai lived. “I spent several days in Tbilisi,” wrote Zvorykin. – At one of the rich feasts, I was introduced to L.P. Beria, the chairman of the Communist Party of Georgia and Stalin’s personal friend. His name was not yet widely known; he came forward later. Beria was kind to me and asked what I would like to see in the Caucasus. I replied that I would love to visit the Black Sea, but I have limited time... Beria said that it would not be difficult to do if I was ready to fly by plane. On his orders, a military single-engine plane took me and my entourage to Sukhumi, where we were met by local authorities.”

Upon returning to the United States, Zworykin continued his developments in the field of television. The first television broadcast took place in 1939 - from the World Trade Fair in New York. In the 1930s, Zvorykin traveled a lot around the world giving lectures and performances, but refused the offer of the fascist German government to come to Berlin. Before the Second World War, still working at RCA, Zvorykin began to actively apply his developments in military field– television targeting of bombs and measuring distances using microwave radiation. At that time, great importance was attached to night vision devices. Zvorykin developed a cathode ray tube operating in the infrared range, night sights, devices for bomb guidance, and on-board TV systems. He was appointed to the Air Force Advisory Committee. In 1941, the RCA Zvorykin laboratory moved to Princeton. There Zworykin lived next door to the greatest scientists of the 20th century - A. Einstein and R. Oppenheimer - and was closely acquainted with them. During these years, he often communicated with the “father of the computer” J. von Neumann: they worked together on the problem of using computational methods for weather forecasting. These two remarkable scientists hoped that in the future they would be able to combine the capabilities of television and computer equipment. Later, their ideas were embodied in the personal computer and mobile television.

Zvorykin was a man of science, a true workaholic, he never participated in political life Russian emigration and was not involved in social activities at all. Only in 1943 did he join the leadership of the New York branch of the Fund for Relief to Victims of the War in the USSR, for which subsequently, after the war, the US authorities deprived him of his foreign passport. True, not for long. Zvorykin, who visited the Soviet Union several times, was often suspected of secretly collaborating with the Soviets, and the KGB considered him an American spy. But all this is absolutely unproven.

At the age of more than 60 years, Zvorykin divorced his first wife and married Ekaterina Andreevna Polevitskaya, a woman whom he loved for many years, but could not marry her, since her husband would not give her a divorce. Perhaps largely thanks to Polevitskaya, a professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania, Zvorykin’s scientific interests focused on medicine. After his retirement in 1954, he became director of the Medical Electronics Center at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. Here he creates a unique microscope for studying chemical reactions inside living cells, which reproduces a color image of an object on a television screen. The development of integrated microelectronics allowed him, together with doctors, to realize the idea of ​​endoradiosounding. The probe in this method is a miniature tablet - a radio transmitter, with its help you can obtain data on acidity and other indicators of the internal environment. While working at this medical center, Zvorykin became the founder of a new direction in science - bioengineering.

In 1977, his name was included in the US National House of Fame for Inventors. The press release about this event stated that V. Zvorykin, who laid down the basic principles modern television, just as much changed the life of all humanity as T. Edison, A. Bell and G. Marconi.

In his declining years, Zworykin spoke about his brainchild - television - with bitterness: “I created a monster capable of brainwashing all of humanity. This monster will lead our planet to unified thinking... You evaluate reality by those you see on the screen, who you listen to. Sometimes you argue with them, object and even seem to win the argument. But this is only an appearance. The main one is the invisible one who presses the buttons. It is he who determines who to show and what to say to achieve his goals. From hundreds of speakers, he, invisible, chooses those who need him, and not you, me or the truth. He chooses those who drag you into talking about nonsense instead of discussing the essence of the matter.” His words, spoken a quarter of a century ago in the United States: “I would never let my children even go near the TV. It’s terrible what they show there,” they sound very relevant and in modern Russia. Best part on TV, Zworykin added, this is a switch. Nevertheless, he was certainly proud of his invention. It “gave people the opportunity to sit together and be a family,” brought them culture, knowledge, information and had a positive impact on the formation of public opinion, as happened in the late 1960s, when Americans saw on television all the horrors of the Vietnam War and in the United States A broad anti-war movement developed, which greatly influenced the decision by the R. Nixon administration to end this war.

* * * Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin died in Princeton Hospital on July 29, 1982. It was believed that this happened on the eve of his 94th birthday. But now we know that July 29 was Zvorykin’s birthday. A few hours before his death amazing person gave mine over the phone last interview American journalists. In it, he recalled many events of his long life and concluded by saying that he was dying of old age.

V.K. Zvorykin was a member of more than 20 academies of sciences and scientific societies different countries of the world. He received 29 of the most prestigious international awards. In the well-known American ranking “1000 years - 1000 people” his name is included in the top hundred, where along with him from the Russians are the names of Peter I, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Lenin, Stalin and Gorbachev. All these people, according to the compilers of the rating, had a huge influence on the development of mankind and on the course of history.

The authors thank F. Olesya, secretary and biographer of V.K. Zvorykin, for assistance in preparing this article; A. Maguna - director of the David Sarnov Library (USA); O.V. Shcherbinin - director of the Museum of History of the St. Petersburg State Technological Institute (Technical University); V.I. Sazhina, Ph.D. V.Ya.Chernyshev and V.P.Vorobiev.

Outstanding American engineer of Russian origin, “father of television” Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin(1888-1982) was born in an ancient and rich merchant family. His father, Kozma Alekseevich, was a merchant of the first guild, was engaged in the grain trade, owned a shipping company, and headed the Murom Public Bank. The Zworykin family had seven children (two sons and five daughters); Vladimir was the youngest. Because Kozma Alekseevich was busy, the children saw their father infrequently; Household affairs were managed by my mother, Elena Nikolaevna, who also came from the extensive Zvorykin family.

Vladimir Zvorykin visited primary school, then – real school. He studied easily and with enthusiasm. Already in his youth, Vladimir Zvorykin had a penchant for technology. In high school, he especially liked physics. Since his older brother Nikolai did not have much interest in entrepreneurship, his father involved Vladimir in the family business from the age of 10 and gave him instructions. After graduating with honors from a real school in 1906, Vladimir Zvorykin studied for some time at the physics department of St. Petersburg University, but was soon transferred to the St. Petersburg Technological Institute. Here he made a fateful acquaintance with the inventor of television, Professor Boris Lvovich Rosing, whose assistant in experiments with “electrical foresight” he was for about two years. Television became Zvorykin’s dream and his life’s work.

In 1912, V.K. Zvorykin graduated with honors from the Technological Institute and received the right to an internship in Europe. The father, of course, wanted his son to continue the family business, and it was decided that this would be the case - only later. The internship began in Paris at the Collège de France with the outstanding physicist Paul Langevin and continued in Berlin at the Charlottenburg Institute, but the First World War came. Through Denmark, Zvorykin came to Russia, where he was drafted into the army. For a year and a half, Private Zvorykin served at a military radio station in Grodno, then received an officer rank and became a teacher at the Officer Electrical Engineering School in, and was a military representative at the Petrograd plant. Russian society wireless telegraphs and telephones" (ROBTiT). Since the fall of 1917, Zvorykin served in an artillery unit, which was stationed near Kyiv before being sent to the front.

The Civil War began, and in April 1918 Zvorykin arrived in Murom, where sad news awaited him - the family house was requisitioned, his father died (a few months later his mother would also die). His reluctance to participate in the Civil War and the need to put his ideas into practice led him to the decision to leave Russia. Zvorykin with great difficulty reached, which was the center of the White movement. In Siberia, he was tasked with restoring trade ties with a number of foreign countries and purchase machinery and equipment, including for the radio station in Omsk. Zvorykin went on a business trip - he got to the North, then on an icebreaker to Arkhangelsk, and from there to New York. In the spring of 1919, Zvorykin, having completed his assignment, returned to Omsk through the Pacific Ocean, Japan and Vladivostok, where he received a new assignment and again left for the United States.

During the second business trip, the Kolchak government dismissed Zvorykin from service. From now on, his fate was connected with America. One of the problems was that Vladimir Kozmich practically did not speak English. His strong Russian accent remained with him throughout his life. V.K. Zvorykin first worked as an accountant in New York, then, from 1920, in Pittsburgh at the Westinghouse research laboratory, where he began working on the creation of an electronic television system. He called the electronic transmitting television tube “iconoscope” (from the Greek words “ikon” - picture and “skop” - to see), and the receiving tube - “kinescope” (from the Greek “kineo” - to move).

In 1924 Zvorykin became a US citizen, and in 1926 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Meanwhile, the management of the Westinghouse company did not see any prospects for Zvorykin’s work in the field of electronic television. At the beginning of 1929, V.K. Zvorykin met with an emigrant from Russia, David Sarnov, vice president of RCA (Radio Broadcasting Corporation of America), who believed in the success of television. Vladimir Kozmich went to work at RCA as the head of the television laboratory in Camden (from 1934 he became the head of the electronics laboratory, from 1947 - vice president of RCA). In 1933, together with his group of specialists, he completed the development of an electronic television system and spoke in Chicago at the annual conference of the American Society of Radio Engineers with a report on the iconoscope. After this, the name Zvorykin became widely known throughout the world.

In 1936, the first electronic television suitable for practical use was developed in Zvorykin’s laboratory, and in 1939 D. Sarnov organized regular television broadcasting in the USA. In 1941-1942, V.K. Zvorykin, together with the RCA laboratory, moved to Princeton (New Jersey). In 1954, he became honorary vice president of RCA and director of the Medical Electronics Center at the Rockefeller Institute in New York.

For his fruitful work, Zvorykin was awarded many awards and prizes. A significant part of his ideas were implemented. He played an important role in the development of color television, electron microscopy, fax communications, night vision devices, remote control, medical electronics, etc. As a scientist, Vladimir Kozmich was distinguished by a great spirit of creativity, broad imagination and intuition. He always worked with great enthusiasm and perseverance.

V.K. Zvorykin visited the USSR several times (the first time in 1933). Thanks to agreements with RCA, in 1938 the Soviet Union put into operation the first electronic television transmitting station and began production of TK-1 televisions. In 1967, Zvorykin managed to visit his native Murom, which was closed to foreigners.

V.K. Zvorykin was married twice: the first wife was Tatyana Vasilyeva, the second wife was Ekaterina Andreevna Polevitskaya; daughters: Nina and Elena. In his home life, he largely remained a Russian person. He loved receiving guests, skating, and hunting. One of his hobbies was flying an airplane. To his brainchild - television - in last years Zvorykin began to have a somewhat negative attitude towards life, believing that it leads to unified thinking. V.K. Zvorykin died in Princeton. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered over his beloved Taunton Lake, not far from his country home.

Boris Lvovich Rosing was at one time one of the first researchers of electronic transmission of images over long distances. The scientist demonstrated his invention to his colleagues for the first time on May 9, 1911. And soon he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Russian Technical Society for this. According to historians of technology, Rosing's achievements played a fundamental role in the creation of modern television. And all these years, his assistant was Vladimir Zvorykin, who, after graduating with honors from the institute, went to Paris to continue his studies with the famous physicist Paul Langevin.
And then the First World War began. Zvorykin served in Grodno as an officer in the signal troops. He was then sent to scientific research to Petrograd, where he almost became a victim February Revolution. One of the soldiers complained that “this Zworykin” was making fun of him: he made him speak numbers into a “hole” (microphone) for a long time, while he himself rummaged through some drawer in another room. Fortunately, the tribunal sorted everything out and Zvorykin was released.
October 1917 found him in Moscow. The Bolsheviks obliged all former officers to join the Red Army, which Zvorykin did not want to do. He decided to make his way to Omsk, the then capital of independent Siberia. Vladimir Kozmich knew that they needed specialists in modern radio communications. However, in Yekaterinburg he was arrested by the Bolsheviks. They probably would have been shot, but at that moment the White Czechs entered the city, and Zvorykin managed to get to Omsk.
From here the scientist was sent to the USA to conclude contracts for the purchase of the latest equipment. He coped with the task of the Siberian government. In 1919 he was sent to America again. This time, Zvorykin decided not to return to his homeland, because he realized that the Siberian government was about to cease to exist.
In Edison's homeland
At first, things did not go very smoothly in America. True, Zvorykin managed to get a job in the laboratory of a company, where he created an electronic device with an original transmitting tube. But this device did not satisfy the management of the enterprise. “Do something more useful,” the scientist was instructed. However, Vladimir Kozmich continued to engage in “far-sighting” in his free time and in 1929 he patented a kinescope, the operating principle of which has been preserved to this day!
In 1929, in the USA, Zworykin met a man who immediately appreciated the promise of the Russian inventor’s research. It was David Sarnov, who invited Zvorykin to move to his company, and when the transition took place, he created Vladimir Kozmich excellent conditions for work. Thanks to this, already in 1931, Zvorykin created a tube with charge accumulation. The inventor called it “iconoscope” (“icon” from Greek - image; “scope” to see). Two units - the iconoscope and the kinescope - became the main units in the electronic television system.

Inventor at the electron microscope

In 1936, regular television broadcasts began in Germany and Great Britain. By the way, the 1936 Summer Olympics were broadcast on television from Berlin. And in 1938, David Sarnoff announced that television had become technically feasible in every home. Sarnov stood in front of a television camera at one of the pavilions of the New York World's Fair and announced: “Now we are adding image to sound.”
Other inventions of Zvorykin
Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin is not only the inventor of television. For example, he invented the instruments that allowed American pilots to successfully bomb Berlin in thick fog in 1944. After the war, the scientist developed color television. In addition, he was involved in work on the creation of photocells, photomultipliers and electron-optical converters for night vision devices. Zworykin is also known as the inventor of the world's first electron microscope. He worked fruitfully in the field of medical electronics. In particular, he created a diagnostic device internal organs. In total, Vladimir Kozmich has 120 inventions.
Did Zvorykin want to return to his homeland? He had such a thought. In 1933 and 1934 he even visited the Soviet Union. He gave presentations, got acquainted with the developments of Moscow and Leningrad laboratories, after which he seriously considered leaving the United States. His relatives dissuaded him: as soon as he became a citizen of the USSR and not an American subject, he would immediately be reminded of his White Guard past, emigration, and so on. One could not hope for the humanity of the Stalinist regime even in relation to the brilliant scientist.
Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin and died in America in 1982.

Vladimir Kozmich Zvorykin was the first of our compatriots to receive the honor of entering the Russian-American Chamber of Fame. He owns the invention that had the most important impact on the society of the twentieth century - electronic television. Zworykin's developments gave birth to such devices as an electron microscope, a night vision device and an electron-optical converter. Without it, neither a personal computer nor many other devices that are used in the military, medical and engineering fields would exist.

Premature opening

The future great inventor was born on July 17, 1889 in the family of a merchant of the first guild, Kozma Alekseevich Zvorykin, who owned several steamships, traded bread and financial transactions- He served as chairman of the Murom Public Bank. Volodya was the youngest of seven children of a merchant. The father, an exemplary capitalist, had progressive views and tried to instill work discipline in his children. He encouraged his sons' interest in science in every possible way - especially since several of Kozma Alekseevich's brothers became famous scientists: Nikolai Zvorykin was a master of mathematics and physicist, professor of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Konstantin Zvorykin was an engineer, author of works on metal processing and mechanical engineering technologies. And Ivan Alekseevich, a professor of physics at Moscow University, probably could have become a great meteorologist - he was creating a device that would register electrical discharges, predicting the approach of a thunderstorm. But, alas, his life was tragically cut short - he had connections with the People's Will organization and shot himself when the police came to his apartment with an arrest warrant.

Like Konstantin Alekseevich, Vladimir showed an interest in technology from childhood and in his youth chose the right path - he entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. It was in 1906, at the very height of the First Russian Revolution, and the newly minted student did not remain aloof from political events - together with his comrades he ended up in prison for two weeks for distributing leaflets calling for reforms and elections to the Second Duma. The most important role in Zvorykin’s fate was played by a meeting with Professor Boris Lvovich Rosing, who conducted experiments on electronic transmission of images over a distance. One day, having caught Vladimir doing someone else’s laboratory work (he was helping a friend), Boris Lvovich did not reprimand him, but, on the contrary, invited him to be an assistant in his laboratory. “Since you spend so much time here anyway,” he added slyly. Zvorykin happily agreed.

Now it’s somehow strange to think about it, but at the time when Rosing and Zworykin created their electron-vacuum tube, the most likely path for the development of television was considered mechanical. In the 1920s, Scottish inventor John Bird created mechanical television based on the so-called Nipkow disk - a simple device that allows you to turn a scanned image into a set of “lines”, from which you can then reassemble the image on the screen of the receiving device. In 1925, Byrd demonstrated the transmission of images over a distance - the image of a humanoid doll on a mechanical “screen” assembled from flickering squares seemed to be a ghost caused by an experienced medium. Despite the obvious imperfection of the technology, contemporaries immediately fell in love with the “box”. Two years later, Byrd managed to transmit a signal over a distance of 705 km using a telephone cable, and a year later - to carry out the first transmission of a “television signal” between continents. In 1936, the BBC even broadcast “television broadcasts” using the improved Byrd system, which by that time gave a frame resolution of 240 lines. Unlike real television, it did not make it possible to directly transmit the captured image on the air: first it was necessary to record the film on film, which was then scanned.

The first Soviet serial TV B-27. Photo: Kunov Valentin / TASS

Rosing proposed a fundamentally different approach to solving the problem: optical-mechanical devices are a dead-end direction; to construct images, one must use an electron beam in a vacuum, directing it using electromagnetic fields. The idea was so innovative that it was decades ahead of its time: Rosing's system required parts that had not yet been created - for example, photovoltaic cells that could convert light into a stream of electrons. Even vacuum had to be obtained using antediluvian methods - using hand vacuum pumps. If technology had matured, perhaps Rosing would have been awarded the laurels of the pioneer of television. But many more years passed before the dream became feasible.

In the service of Kolchak

Having received a diploma in electrical engineering in 1912, Zworykin went to study abroad - at the Parisian Collège de France, where his professor was the outstanding physicist Paul Langevin. Here Zvorykin worked with X-ray installations, exploring their capabilities for studying crystal structures. The inventor himself writes in his memoirs that he survived by some miracle: the X-ray equipment of that time was powerful and did not have a protective screen - many of those who worked with them died within several years. But research work at the Collège de France provided an opportunity to study areas that Zvorykin would later find useful. In 1912, when the transmission of radio time signals from the Eiffel Tower began, he independently assembled a radio receiver in the laboratory - this was his first experience with radio. And the young engineer’s first acquaintance with medical electronics happened in a completely curious way: one day a student from Russia came into his laboratory and had a needle get under her skin in the area of ​​her wrist. The doctor was unable to determine its location and remove the needle. At that time, X-ray machines were only available in large hospitals. Zvorykin managed to set up his setup in such a way as to take a clear picture, which allowed the doctor to remove the foreign object. Vladimir’s experience with transmitting and receiving radio signals helped him during the First World War: he was called up to military service, he was engaged in the construction of field radio stations.

The revolution put an end to Zvorykin’s dreams of engaging in scientific activities in his homeland. Scientific work was poorly financed, old educational institutions were destroyed, many of the inventor’s colleagues went abroad. At the invitation of friends who worked in an international cooperative organization, he went to Omsk, where the provisional Siberian government operated. The local Ministry of Supply sent him to the United States to negotiate the purchase of radio equipment. To leave the country, Zvorykin had to get out of the ring of fronts - having joined the ranks of the Arctic expedition, he reached Vaygach Island and from there went on an icebreaker to Arkhangelsk, which was occupied by the British and French. Having received the necessary visas, Zworykin finally went to the United States. However, in 1919, this country had not yet become his second home - soon he was again requested to Omsk, and he had to return in a roundabout way - through Canada, Japan and Vladivostok. And only during his next visit on behalf of the provisional government of Siberia did he realize that he would remain in America forever: soon after his arrival in New York, the Kolchak government fell, and there was nowhere to return.

The first RCA 630-TS TV to go into mass production. Photo: Fletcher6 / Wikipedia

The United States had not yet recognized the Bolshevik government, and Zvorykin decided to ask the ambassador of the Provisional Government in the United States, Boris Bakhmetyev, to get him a job at the embassy. It turned out that the only place he could offer him was that of a specialist working on an adding machine in the accounting department of the Russian Purchasing Commission in New York. Zvorykin agreed, but did not accept the miserable position - he began sending letters to companies looking for vacancies for radio electronics specialists. Finally, he received an invitation from Westinghouse Electric in Pittsburgh: in the corporate laboratory he began preparing cathodes for radio tubes. While working at this electric company, Zworykin made several inventions, which, however, he never patented - he did not know English well and could not explain to the patent attorney what exactly their novelty was.

Zvorykin’s “career” in the United States was not at all smooth: after leaving Westinghouse Electric, at the invitation of a petrochemical company, he moved to Kansas City. He didn’t understand petrochemistry, but the salary here was twice as high, and they also gave him the opportunity to open his own laboratory. Experiments to improve the process of cracking oil using high-frequency current did not bring success - it turned out that the current even slows down the process of splitting hydrocarbons. The management was furious, the laboratory was closed, and Zvorykin ended up on the street.

Dream come true

However, this failure was only one of the troubles that preceded success. When, many years later, the inventor asked his daughter Nina what she remembered most about life in Kansas City, she replied: “The phrase “electron beam.” You repeated it a hundred times a day.” Soon after being expelled from the petrochemical industry, he was invited back to Westinghouse Electric: the head of the laboratory had changed there, and its new head expressed interest in Zvorykin’s projects, which were not appreciated by the previous bosses. The scientist was given the opportunity to do what he liked, and in less than two months, working almost alone, he assembled the first operating electronic television system. Contrary to popular misconception, the transmitting electron tube was called an “iconoscope”, and the receiving tube from the very beginning received the same name as it does now - kinescope. And although the quality of the transmitted signal was far from perfect, the head of the laboratory immediately believed that the future lay in electronic rather than mechanical television. But the general director, to whom he demonstrated the invention of the talented Russian, just chuckled and brought out his resume: “The guy is talented, but he does nonsense. Isn’t it possible to use it more usefully?” Lovely illustration corporate shortsightedness!

In the first half of the 20s, Zvorykin patented several inventions at once - an iconoscope, a kinescope, a model of color television. In 1926 he received doctorate for his work in the field of photovoltaic cells. However, his ideas did not have commercial success - no one undertook to turn them into a product in demand by consumers. It is difficult to say how much more time the inventor could have spent proving their usefulness to others if not for another successful acquaintance: he managed to tell David Sarnov, president of Radio Corporation of America (RCA), about his developments. Perhaps the compatriot effect played a role: like Zvorykin, Sarnov was a native of the Russian Empire and spoke excellent Russian. He was a successful businessman and from the very beginning believed in the promise of electronic television. In 1929, Zvorykin went to work at RCA, where he improved the iconoscope for two years. Finally, television appears as a service available to ordinary citizens - so far, however, only in New York: a transmitting station installed on the 85th floor of the Empire State Building allows residents of the city and surrounding area to receive broadcasts on television receivers manufactured by RCA factories.

Empire State Building. Photo: AP

Zvorykin’s invention, which was immediately dubbed the “miracle of the twentieth century,” quickly became interested all over the world - corporations understood the commercial benefits of television, governments understood the propaganda benefits: for example, Nazi Germany used the television cameras of the Zvorykin system to conduct the world's first live broadcast - from the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. The idea of ​​​​creating our own television caused delight among the leaders of the USSR. Unlike, for example, Igor Sikorsky, Zvorykin was never an implacable enemy of Bolshevism - at the invitation of the Soviet government, he visited Moscow in 1935 and took part in signing an agreement with RCA on the supply of television equipment. The first television transmitting station in Moscow began operating in 1938 using equipment supplied by the studio. The first Soviet TV, TK-1, which was produced in 1934 at the Kozitsky plant in Leningrad, was made under an American license.

During the television broadcast of the landing of American astronauts on the Moon, Zworykin cried with happiness - from now on he will be involved in everything that is happening in the world: after all, it is his brainchild that allows us to see even what is separated from us by hundreds of thousands of kilometers. However, the ability to see far (remember that television literally means “far vision”) was possessed not only by Zvorykin’s brainchild, but also by himself. One of the inventor’s colleagues called it “A Gift to the American Continent.” Zworykin's merits in the United States were appreciated - in 1978, the Congress of Russian Americans awarded him the title of Honored Russian American for his outstanding contribution to world science and technology, and his native company awarded him the position of honorary vice president.

Television is not the only invention of this great Russian scientist: during the Second World War, while working as part of the US Air Force Advisory Committee, he used a kinescope to construct a night vision device capable of converting infrared rays into an image accessible to the human eye. In addition, he became a pioneer in the field of television-controlled bombs and missiles. Back in the twenties, Zworykin created an electronic fax machine (the mechanical “fax” was invented back in mid-19th century). In the fifties, Zworykin returned to experiments in medical electronics, begun by x-ray, which allowed the needle to be removed from the hand of a Russian student. In collaboration with Canadian engineer James Hiller, he invented the first high-resolution electron microscope that could be used for medical and biological research.

Zvorykin visited the USSR two more times - in 1967, Vladimir Kozmich and his wife even went to their native Murom, buying a tourist ticket. It is noteworthy that the emigrant’s merits did not allow his name to be silenced even in his homeland, which diligently disowned the talented people who left it.