ABSTRACT
When I attended his lectures on astrophysics or gravitational phenomena, it was clear to me as a specialist in solid-state physics that Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich was as great in physics as Izyk Stern was in playing his violin. I did not understand the details but listened to him with admiration mixed with excitement one feels when hearing a jubilant triumphant belle canto. Self-confidence and creative power are imparted to a listener. I remember Evgeny Fedorovich Gross, my tutor in crystal optics (who discovered Brillouin scattering in quartz in pre-laser era and then a well-known spectrum of exciton quasiparticle in semiconductors) telling me, when listening to Yakov Borisovich:
‘Boris, can you imagine how difficult it is to take the floor after such an ace!’ Gross was to make a report at the same session at the Physical Technical Institute. If I
am not wrong, the session was dedicated to the memory of Abram Borisovich Ioffe, the founder of our Institute. Yakov Borisovich’s scientific youth was at the PTI. He liked to come to us.
