摘要： This paper is devoted to the jubilee of I.M. Khalatnikov, the founder and the first director of the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. I.M. Khalatnikov organized a first-class institute the studies at which cover a broad spectrum of research directions. The plasma and lasers department of the Institute conducts research on plasma physics problems, laser–matter interaction, questions pertaining to laser applications, and hydrodynamics problems. Much attention is given to solid-state physics with an emphasis on the behavior of matter in extreme conditions under intense laser irradiation. A number of new results are presented: the behavior of metals in two-temperature states (when the temperature of the electron subsystem of a metal is much greater than the temperature of the ion subsystem due to ultrafast laser heating); determining the boundaries of existence of a single-wave propagation mode of elastoplastic shock waves in ductile metal crystals; the formation of a laser torch from target materials and liquids under metal laser ablation of a metal into the surrounding liquid; the physical–mechanical consequences (melting, capillarity, recrystallization) of nonuniform (along the irradiated surface) energy dissipation caused by the interference of plasmon–polariton and laser electromagnetic fields.