Published on: 2026-10-14
Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
In the Physics and Mechanics Institute of SPbPU, classroom No. 363 was named after Nikolai Nikolaevich Davidenkov — an outstanding scientist, teacher, and founder of the Department of Physical Metallurgy at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute named after M. I. Kalinin.
At the opening ceremony, the acting director of the Physico-Mechanical Institute, Nikolay Ivanov, said that in the year marking the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the institute decided to immortalize the names of those polytechnic scientists who made a significant contribution to the victory by naming auditoriums after them. The Scientific Council of FizMekh unanimously supported the proposal to create a named auditorium in honor of Nikolay Nikolayevich Davidenkov. One of his notable achievements is the mechanical theory of cold brittleness and brittle fracture of metals, on the basis of which regulatory requirements for tank armored vehicles and military ships were developed. The method devised by Davidenkov made it possible to mathematically precisely determine the threshold of cold brittleness for each grade of steel. Thanks largely to the scientific works of N. N. Davidenkov’s school, a high reliability of equipment operating in the Arctic during the Great Patriotic War was ensured.
Honored guests attended the opening. Vladimir Glukhov, head of the rector’s administrative office and a graduate of the Department of Mechanics and Control Processes at Fizmekh, emphasized N. N. Davidenkov’s contribution to science and spoke about his work with A. F. Ioffe. Davidenkov’s granddaughter, Lyubov Myasnikova, a graduate of the radio physics faculty of LPI named after M. I. Kalinin and a leading researcher at Phystech, shared memories of her grandfather.
Associate Professor Natalia Ermakova from the Higher School of Mechanics and Control Processes also gave a brief report on N. N. Davidenkov’s activities.
N. N. Davidenkov was born on March 14, 1879, in Riga into a family of mathematics teachers. He graduated with a gold medal from a gymnasium in Smolensk, and in 1902 from the Emperor Alexander I Institute of Transport Engineers in Saint Petersburg. From 1909 to 1917, he worked as a lab assistant and lecturer of the “Strength of Materials” course at the Saint Petersburg (Petrograd) Polytechnic Institute named after Emperor Peter the Great. From 1920 to 1921, he taught at the Department of Structural Mechanics at the Don Polytechnic Institute in Novocherkassk.
Upon returning to Petrograd, in 1925 he established the Department of Physical Metallurgy (later — Physics of Metals) at the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, which he led until the end of his life. In 2025, the department celebrated its 100th anniversary. It is now part of the Higher School of Mechanics and Control Processes at FizMekh.
In 1935, Nikolai Davidenkov obtained the academic degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences without defending a dissertation.
Nikolai Nikolaevich spent the first blockade winter in besieged Leningrad and, despite the harsh conditions, wrote the book “Some Problems of the Mechanics of Materials” (which was published in 1943). After being evacuated to Moscow at the end of 1942, he headed the mechanical laboratory of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM) of the People’s Commissariat of the Aviation Industry of the USSR. Under his leadership, research was conducted related to the study of the dynamic and mechanical properties of metals and alloys, which helped improve the strength and combat survivability of Soviet aircraft.
In 1943, N. N. Davidenkov was awarded the Stalin Prize for scientific achievements in the field of metal mechanics.
After the war, he returned to Leningrad and subsequently worked at LFTI and the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute.
Nikolay Davidenkov was a member of the first composition of the USSR National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner of Labour, as well as the medals “For the Defense of Leningrad” and “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.”.
Please note; This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.