Skobeltsyn and the early years of cosmic particle physics in the Soviet Union

D.V. Skobeltsyn was the first physicist to put a Wilson cloud chamber in a magnetic field and to show that cosmic rays are high energy particles. Also he observed the multiple particle generation by a cosmic particle for the first time. He initiated the cosmic ray research in Leningrad and Moscow and he has brought up a pleiad of distinguished cosmic ray physicists. He is the acknowledged founder of the Soviet, and Russian cosmic ray investigations.