Mikhail Lomonosov
 |
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov |
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (
Михаи́л 'аси́льевич Ломоно́сов) ( – ) was a
Russian writer and
polymath who made important contributions to
literature,
education, and
science.
Lomonosov was born in the village of Denisovka (the name of which was afterwards changed to Lomonosovo in honor of the poet), situated on an island not far from
Kholmogory, in the Far North of Russia. His father, a fisherman, took the boy when he was ten years of age to assist him in his work, but his eagerness for knowledge was unbounded. The few books accessible to him he almost learned by heart and, seeing that there was no chance of pursuing education at home, he resolved to go by foot to
Moscow.
An opportunity occurred when he was seventeen, and by the intervention of friends he obtained admission into the
Slavic Greek Latin Academy. There his progress was very rapid, especially in
Latin, and in
1734 he was sent from Moscow to
Saint Petersburg. There again his proficiency, especially in physical science, was marked, and he was one of the young Russians chosen to complete their education in foreign countries.
He accordingly went to
the University of
Marburg in
Hesse,
Germany, then one of the most important European universities - at a time when universities in general were in some decay - because of the presence of the most eminent German
Enlightenment philosopher of his time,
Christian Wolff. Lomonosov studied with Wolff and became one of his personal students; both philosophically and as a science administrator (also a
forte of Wolff), this connection would be most influential for the rest of his life.
During his Marburg time, he also began to write
poetry, imitating German authors, among whom he is said to have especially admired
Günther. His
Ode on the Taking of Khotin from the Turks was composed in
1739, and attracted a great deal of attention at St. Petersburg. During his residence in Germany, Lomonosov married a native of that country, and found it difficult to maintain his increasing family on the scanty allowance granted to him by the
St. Petersburg Academy which, moreover, was irregularly sent. His circumstances became desperate, and he resolved to leave the country and to return home to St. Petersburg. In 1743, his wife moved there, as well.
On his arrival in
Russia he rapidly rose to distinction, and was made professor of
chemistry in the
University of St. Petersburg, where he ultimately became
rector. Eager to improve Russian education, Lomonosov joined his patron
Ivan Shuvalov in founding the
Moscow State University (later named after him) in
1755. In
1764 Lomonosov was appointed to the position of a secretary of state.
In 1756, he attempted to replicate
Robert Boyle's celebrated experiment of 1673 and concluded that the
phlogiston theory, commonly accepted at the time, is false. Anticipating the discoveries of
Antoine Lavoisier, he wrote in his diary: "Today I made an experient in hermetic glass vessels in order to determine whether the mass of metals increases from the action of pure heat. The experiments " of which I append the record in 13 pages " demonstrated that the famous Robert Boyle was deluded, for without access of air from outside the mass of the burnt metal remains the same".
He regarded
heat as a form of motion, suggested the
wave theory of
light, contributed to the formulation of the
kinetic theory of gases, and stated the idea of
conservation of matter in the following words: "All changes in nature are such that inasmuch is taken from one object insomuch is added to another. So, if the amount of matter decreases in one place, it increases elsewhere. This universal law of nature embraces laws of motion as well, for an object moving others by its own force in fact imparts to another object the force it loses" (first articulated in a letter to
Leonhard Euler dated
5 July,
1748, rephrased and published in Lomonosov's dissertation "Reflexion on the solidity and fluidity of bodies", 1760).
Lomonosov was the first person to record the
freezing of
mercury, and to hypothesize the existence of an
atmosphere on
Venus based on his observation of the
transit of Venus of
1761 in a small observatory near his house in
Petersburg. Believing that nature is subject to regular and continuous
evolution, he demonstrated the
organic origin of
soil,
peat,
coal,
petroleum, and
amber. In
1745 he published a catalogue of over 3,000
minerals, and in 1760 he explained the formation of
icebergs.
Lomonosov was proud to restore the ancient art of
mosaics. In
1754 in his letter to
Leonard Euler he wrote that his three-years long experimentations on the effects of chemistry of minerals on their color led to him became very involved into the mosaics art. In
1763 he sets up a
glass factory that produced the first stained glass
mosaics outside of
Italy. There were forty mosaics attributed to Lomonosov, only twenty-four survived to the present time. Among the best is the portrait of
Peter the Great and the
Battle of Poltava, measuring 4,8 x 6,4 meters [
1], [
2],[
3].
In
1755 he wrote a
grammar that reformed the
Russian literary language by combining
Old Church Slavonic with the vernacular tongue. To further his literary theories, he wrote more than 20 solemn ceremonial
odes, notably the
Evening Meditation on the God's Grandeur. To his later poems he applied an idiosyncratic theory that words containing the front vowel sounds E, I, YU should be used when depicting tender subjects, and those with back vowel sounds O, U, Y - to describe things that may cause fear ("like anger, envy, pain, and sorrow"). This theory is a version of what is known as
sound symbolism. Lomonosov published his own
history of Russia in
1760. Most of his accomplishments, however, were unknown outside Russia until long after his death.
Upon his demise in St Petersburg in 1765, Lomonosov left no male heirs. Among female heirs, a granddaughter married the famous
General Raevsky. In 1948, the underwater
Lomonosov Ridge in the Arctic Ocean was named in his honour.
A moon crater also bears his name.
*
Lomonosov Gold Medal*
Moscow State University*
Ivan Kulibin*
Illustrated chronology of Lomonosov's life*
Evening Meditation on the Greatness of God on the occasion of the Northern Lights*
Some of Lomonosov's mosaics
