This article remained largely unknown to Russian readers, and so I will just retell it here, with some reductions.

 

1.     The Heretic

 

Today, this city is called as it was at the turn of last century - (Saint) Petersburg. But I, like many of you, know and love it under his soviet name (Leningrad), and it was still called Leningrad at the time the person whom I want to tell you about was living his last days. However, living out - is not a true expression : he actually lived an unusually ebullient life, he was in a hurry because he wasn't young already, and already in poor health. 

 

I met him a few times, our conversations were rather short, and although I learned gradually some facts about his unusual biography, I did not dare to write or record in his presence. So, the following is just something that has been preserved in my memory.

 

I am an engineer. When in the early nineties, the Design Institute, where I was working, began, like so many others, to fall apart before our eyes, several employees including myself created an independent small business (an engineering firm). We rented premises, computers, but the product that we were going to sell required more improvements, and later, it turned out that it could not be sold : no one already had any money to afford it…

It was necessary to survive, we had to survive. And so we began to take on different jobs, which was harder and harder to find. 

 

In one of these days, after a desperate running around the city, I looked into a shop of technical books, on Petrovka street, and there ...

 

I well remember the excitement of that moment. The fact is that during the spring (or later) of 1991, a number of articles had been published,  almost simultaneously, in various newspapers and magazines, about Ilya Lvovich Gerlovin. The first of them caught my eye, called "The New Einstein ?"…. 

Most people do not remember the names of great physicists, but Einstein's name, and his portraits remained popular, so great was his contribution to science. 

 

Here, the authors reported about a person living in Russia, who worked for fifty years, almost alone, and who created nothing less than a theory of "super-unification" !...

 

To put it short: in physics four types of interactions are known. The strong one (inside the nucleus of atom). The weak one (for instance,  during the decay of radioactive substances). The electromagnetic force and the gravity (which we feel in everyday life). And all of them are well understood, but ... separately, so they remain "different". 

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This suggested that there must be some "common theory" that unifies all these different types of interactions. In 1979, physicists managed to create a theory that combines two types of interactions - weak, and electromagnetic - and their authors had been awarded the Nobel Prize. 

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If one adds the strong interaction, then we would have a so-called Grand Unification, and many attempts were made, as you can see from this (non exhaustive) list found on the web:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Unified_Theory

 

But none of these theories has been demonstrated experimentally yet.

 

"Super-unification" is be a (to-be-found) theory that would unite all four types of interactions, including gravity. And here comes a man from Russia,  living in Leningrad, claiming: " I did it, here is my book, read it, use it ! "…

 

Would this be right, people would realize that such an achievement will entail major changes in their life.

 

Reporters tried to glory him, Gerlovin was shown couple of times on national TV channels, and then ... silence. Complete silence. Worrying and unpleasant, of course. Was he a charlatan? Or lonely loser ? ..

 

The scientific world remained silent, as if nothing had happened. And then, a few months later, at this store on Petrovka street, my eyes fall on a small black cover with white lettering : "I.L. Gerlovin - Basics of the unified theory of all interactions in matter".

 

My first impulse was to run to the counter, pay and take the book. Which I did. I started to read it in the subway on my way home, and then read it further almost until the next morning, unable to break away.

 

What could I understand from this theory ? Yes, of course, nothing. As I discovered later, professionally educated physicists with whom I have met, too, did not understand anything. But ...

 

In his book, Gerlovin summarized the essence and history of the problem, as well as the conditions in which it was necessary to work. Then he set out (without formulas) the basic principles of his approach ; then, the impressive results of his investigations, commenting on them in simple, straightforward language, giving philosophical evaluation, suggesting ways of practical application. And it was understandable and exciting.

 

And what results ! Here are two examples. How do people know the speed of light ? With finest experiments. But ask someone: is there any formula to define the speed of light ?... And you will look like a madman. Gerlovin declared that with the help of his theory, he found a formula to determine, not only the speed of light, but also most, if not all, the world's most famous constants (gravitational constant, Planck's constant and others). 

He also obtained a formula for calculating, for instance, the exact melting temperature of various solids. 

 

This has not happened before, and it was not clear how to approach these results : "it seems that the guy really digged to the roots "…!

 

In the afterword, the author pointed out that it was the first time he was allowed to publish his work to such an extent, and without any "scientific censorship." On page 2 he wrote that the book was published at the expense of the author. This could, in principle, be a cause for concern. Since the beginning of the Perestroika, I repeatedly came across of scientific booklets on the shelves, issued "at the expense of authors" : but those tend to contain a lot of criticism, sometimes swearing, ambitions, ans only "milligrams" of positive results. 

 

Here everything looked differently. Gerlovin knew well his predecessors and contemporaries, both theorists and experimentalists. He did not criticize them, and just tried to understand why they failed somewhere... He was not looking for recognition, degrees and titles, because he had a more important task. During our first conversation, he said:  "You know, I was a child - prodigy" ... And I thought that not all "children - prodigy" managed to dispose of their godsend like Gerlovin did.

 

At my request, my friends in Leningrad learned Gerlovin's phone number. So I called him and he answered my with his quiet, somewhat wary voice:

- "Who are you? How did you learn about me ?" 

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I explained that I was a director of a small business, that I read his book, that I was not a physicist, but suggested that I maybe could be useful.

- He: What can you offer ? 

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I said that I have good programmers in my staff. 

- OK, come, let's talk. 

 

Two days later, I walk out of the metro in Leningrad, on Moskovsky Prospekt, crossed the square diagonally and reverently entered the entrance of a post-war house.

 

Ilya Lvovich lived in a small two-room apartment with his wife and son. The room, where I was invited, was his working cabinet and probably, at the same time, a bedroom. The walls were completely covered with bookshelves and cupboards. A sofa, a desk, a small table with a typewriter. Above the sofa, two of Einstein's famous photographs. Gerlovin himself was a short man, seventy y.o., with long hair and a mustache, like Einstein. He was ill, took pills, sometimes opened the window, and sometimes left the room.  His wife, younger, a quite and very nice woman, was taking care of him. His son also made an appearance : it happened that he was working in the other room , on a computer, helping his father. 

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We couldn't manage to have a continuous talk : the phone was ringing endlessly, people came in, brought in or carried out packages, Ilya Lvovich giving orders or instructing people. Sometimes gently and respectfully, somtetimes in a strong commanding manner. 

This was his headquarters, and only. 

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Gerlovin asked me : " So, you read my book. Did you saw errors ?" 

- "Yes", I said, "more than a hundred"…. Indeed, there were continuous errors, including in formulas... !

 

Although, of course, a decent man would immediately understand that there are mostly typos, and not mistakes in the theory.

 

Things were so, and the book, thanks God, had been at least published, though with a low quality of printing, and in Russian. 

 

In order to quickly bring it to the attention of the scientific world, it was necessary to publish it in English and without errors. 

 

He handed me a floppy disk with a electronic version in English. But here again, there were a great number lot of typos, and Gerlon didn't want to continue working with the people who did this translation. Later, I realized that he just couldn't afford it, because of the cost, and he was looking for a more affordable, and probably more accurate, author (translator). 

 

It must be said that this time, he did not pay the costs himself : the company "Ecolen" (an abbreviation of "Ecology of Leningrad"), where he served as a kind of scientific advisor, paid for it. 

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Following the publication and the release of his first book, Gerlovin actually  "emerged from the underground", and gained new friends and admirers, in Leningrad and in Moscow, who were ready to work with him virtually for free. I was among them, with my staff. We found a computer specialist for the book's typing, who carefully checked Gerlovin's work ; we went to Leningrad, hosted translators who made further corrections on the instructions of the author, met them at the railway station, etc.,  all this in an unusually high speed.

 

Finally, during one of my visits, Ilya Lvovich showed me a new book, where I recognized virtually each page: 

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