Vladimir Fock occupies a distinctive place in the history of twentieth-century science, not only for his profound contributions to theoretical physics but also for his sustained effort to reconcile the most advanced scientific theories of his time with Marxist philosophy. Born in 1898 and active through some of the most turbulent decades of Soviet history, Fock became a central figure in demonstrating that quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity need not be viewed as hostile to dialectical materialism. His life’s work unfolded at the intersection of science, philosophy, and ideology, where intellectual courage often carried personal risk.
The 125th anniversary of Fock’s birth in December 2023 and the 50th anniversary of his death in December 2024 offered an opportunity to reassess his legacy. He was among the architects of Soviet theoretical physics, contributing decisively to both quantum theory and general relativity at a time when these fields were politically and philosophically contested. Early Soviet debates frequently labeled relativity and quantum mechanics as “bourgeois” or “idealist,” with critics claiming that they undermined materialist conceptions of nature. Under Stalin, relativity in particular was attacked as incompatible with the official view of an infinite, eternal, and objectively knowable universe.
Against this backdrop, Fock emerged as a rigorous defender of modern physics. He argued that Einstein’s theory of relativity was not idealist but deeply materialist, grounded in objective, causal relations between matter, energy, and spacetime. For Fock, the equations of relativity described real physical processes rather than subjective perceptions, and they represented a historical advance beyond Newtonian mechanics rather than a retreat into abstraction. In doing so, he helped secure a legitimate place for relativity within Soviet science at a moment when it risked ideological marginalization.
Fock played a similar role in debates around quantum mechanics. While the Copenhagen interpretation dominated much of the international discussion, its positivist emphasis on measurement and the role of the observer raised concerns among Marxist philosophers. Fock sought to strip quantum theory of what he regarded as unnecessary positivist elements, advocating a more restrained, realist interpretation that affirmed the existence of an objective world independent of human consciousness. Although often associated with the Copenhagen school, he openly challenged Niels Bohr, proposing what he described as a “minimal” interpretation that he believed was more compatible with scientific realism and dialectical materialism.
From the 1930s onward, Fock consistently maintained that his scientific work was fully compatible with Marxist philosophy. Concepts such as Fock space and the Hartree–Fock method, which became foundational tools in quantum mechanics and quantum chemistry, were presented not merely as mathematical innovations but as concrete expressions of an objective material reality governed by lawful relations. At the same time, Fock did not simply echo official ideology. He developed his own interpretations, sometimes finding himself at odds with both dogmatic Marxists and fellow physicists. These tensions occasionally drew him into ideological disputes, reflecting the fraught environment in which Soviet scientists worked.
Fock’s personal journey mirrored the upheavals of his era. Born in St Petersburg, he entered the University of Petrograd in 1916 but soon volunteered for military service during World War I, serving as an artillery officer on the front. After his demobilization in 1918, he returned to his studies amid the chaos of post-revolutionary Russia. His exceptional talent quickly became evident. While still a student, he published papers in quantum mechanics and mathematical physics, and after graduating in 1922 he remained at the university to prepare for an academic career.
The opening of the State Optical Institute in 1919 provided a lifeline for scientific education during the civil war years, and Fock was selected for an elite group of outstanding students. His rapid engagement with the emerging ideas of quantum theory culminated in a series of influential papers following the publication of Schrödinger’s wave mechanics in 1926. These achievements earned him a Rockefeller grant in 1927, allowing him to study in Göttingen and Paris, where he deepened his engagement with European theoretical physics and worked on the geometrization of the Dirac equation.
Returning to the Soviet Union, Fock entered a period of intense creativity. In 1930 he developed the Hartree–Fock method, and in 1932 he introduced the concept of Fock space and co-authored, with Dirac and Podolsky, a pioneering paper in quantum electrodynamics that introduced the multiple-time formalism. The same year, he became professor of theoretical physics at Leningrad University and published the first Russian-language textbook on quantum theory. His election as a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences soon followed.
These accomplishments did not shield him from political danger. Like many Soviet intellectuals, Fock was arrested several times during the Great Purge of the 1930s. Despite these ordeals, he continued his scientific work with remarkable resilience. His promotion to full membership in the Academy of Sciences in 1939, the award of the Stalin Prize in 1946, and later the Lenin Prize in 1960 testified to his eventual recognition by the state, even as the memory of repression lingered.
One of Fock’s most influential later works was his 1955 monograph The Theory of Space, Time and Gravitation. The book served a dual purpose: as a comprehensive graduate-level textbook on special and general relativity, and as a critical re-examination of Einstein’s theory. Fock diverged sharply from Einstein on key philosophical points, notably rejecting the principle of equivalence as the central foundation of gravitation theory. He argued that general covariance was a feature of mathematical description rather than an intrinsic property of physical reality, and he objected to the very term “general relativity,” redefining relativity as invariance between different physical frames of observation rather than coordinate systems.
For Fock, the most significant outcome of general invariance lay in the existence of local conservation laws for energy and momentum, which he regarded as fundamental regardless of the chosen formalism. His methodological emphasis on studying concrete solutions of the field equations, rather than focusing solely on their abstract properties, made a lasting contribution to the understanding of gravitation.
Fock’s name remains embedded in the language of physics. Fock space, the Fock vacuum, the Hartree–Fock method, the Klein–Fock–Gordon equation, the Fock–Krylov theorem, and the Dirac–Fock–Podolsky formalism are among the many concepts that bear his imprint. Together, they reflect a career that shaped the development of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory during their formative decades.
Beyond his technical achievements, Fock’s historical significance lies in his insistence that advanced science and materialist philosophy were not antagonists but allies. By defending relativity and quantum mechanics against ideological attack, while simultaneously critiquing their philosophical interpretations, he helped carve out intellectual space for Soviet physicists to engage fully with modern science without abandoning Marxist commitments. His work stands today as a reminder that scientific progress is often inseparable from the cultural and political contexts in which it unfolds.
---
*Freelance journalist
Comments