Yuriy Vasilyevich Kondratyuk (real name Shargey Oleksandr Hnatovych) – scientist-inventor, one of the pioneers of rocket technology and the theory of space flights
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on June 9 (21 according to the Gregorian calendar) in 1897 in Poltava.
He studied at the local 2nd men’s gymnasium.
In 1916, Shargei entered the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute, but after 40 days he was mobilized into the army.
Career
Until the beginning of 1918, after the school of warrant officers, he fought on the Caucasian front against Turkish troops. Later, he left the army and returned to Kyiv, where he was mobilized again. As an officer, he joined the White Army, but deserted.
Later, he settled in Smila in the Cherkasy region and worked at a nationalized oil mill. Because of his past in the White Army and his noble background, he feared arrest.
In 1921, he used the documents of the student Yuriy Kondratyuk, who died of tuberculosis. Since then, he began to live under the name of Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk, born in 1900.
He often changed places of residence and work. He worked as a stoker, a railroad car greaser and a sugar factory worker.
In 1930, without metal and nails, he built the largest elevator at that time. However, after denunciation of “sabotage”, he was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
Later, he worked in the design bureau of the OGPU and won the competition for the design of a wind farm in Crimea with a capacity of 12 thousand kilowatts. However, the project was never implemented due to repressions against its curator Sergo Ordzhonikidze.
The idea of a high wind mast was later used by Nikolai Nikitin during the construction of the Ostankino TV Tower.
In his spare time, Kondratyuk worked on space flight calculations. In 1925, he sent a manuscript “On Interplanetary Travel” to Moscow, and in 1929 he published the book “The Conquest of Interplanetary Spaces” at his own expense.
In particular, he formulated the theory of multi-stage rockets, investigated the possibility of creating interplanetary bases, the use of solar energy and the gravity of celestial bodies.
Kondratyuk also declined the offer of cooperation with scientist Sergei Korolev, probably due to fears that his real name and past could be exposed.
Subsequently, some of his calculations were used in practical astronautics, in particular during the planning of the flight of American astronauts to the moon.
Death
The exact date and place of Kondratyuk’s death are unknown.
According to one version, he died on February 23, 1942 during World War II in the Kaluga region. According to another, he died in a concentration camp.
