From the editors of “Nature”: An outstanding theoretical physicist, creator of scientific schools in radiophysics and plasma physics, Academician Leontovich (1903-1981) left a special memory of himself. Independence, integrity, innate intelligence - all of the purest quality - were superimposed on an emotional and explosive character. People who knew Mikhail Alexandrovich note his uniqueness and difference from others. Leontovich’s closest student and follower V.D. Shafranov said about him: “A man with unclouded thinking.” Perhaps this is the main component that allowed Leontovich to become who he was, both in science and in everyday life.

Leontovich was called the conscience of the Academy. To this day, there are colorful stories about how during the elections to the USSR Academy of Sciences, with his uncompromising position, he created an insurmountable barrier for Lysenko’s followers and pseudo-scientific careerists. The reader can feel the attractive power of personality and the soil from which this power grew by getting acquainted with the essays offered below.

Their authors are Academician Vitaly Dmitrievich Shafranov; Leontovich's daughter Natalia Mikhailovna; Academician Spartak Timofeevich Belyaev; Academician Lev Borisovich Okun and Mikhail Alexandrovich’s sister Tatyana Alexandrovna. The last four of these essays (we offer journal versions) are published in the book prepared for the anniversary “Academician M.A. Leontovich: Scientist. Teacher. Citizen", M., 2003 (compiled by: V.I. Kogan, L.K. Kuznetsova, V.D. Novikov).