Fersman Alexander Evgenievich - Soviet geochemist and mineralogist, one of the founders of geochemistry, "poet of stone" (Alexei Tolstoy). Full member, vice president (1926-1929) of the Academy of Sciences.
Alexander Evgenievich Fersman was born in St. Petersburg in 1883. He graduated from high school in 1901.
After that, he entered the Novorossiysk University. But when I learned that Moscow University has a good department of geology, I transferred there.
In Moscow, he became a student of Vernadsky and wrote his first works under his leadership.
AE Fersman made his first steps in mineralogy and geochemistry in the laboratory of his uncle AE Kessler near Simferopol. The famous scientist later called Crimea his "first university".
His first steps in science are connected with the Crimean land - then he was 7-10 years old.
On a small rocky hill in the Salgira valley, southeast of Simferopol, inquisitive children spent whole days. There was something to be interested in and even make a small and, most importantly, an independent discovery. Here is the first find - a vein of rock crystal in the gray-green diabase rocks. The first success is followed by more and more new finds. "For many years in a row our little mountain near Simferopol has occupied us," Academician AE Fersman later wrote about his childhood and adolescence.
Over time, small excursions behind the stone gave way to long hikes and trips around the Crimea: to the outcrops of volcanic rocks near Cape Fiolent near Balaklava, to the ancient volcano Kara-Dag near Koktebel, to Mount Kastel near Alushta, to Feodosia, Kerch, Evpatoria, Saki ...
And in 1905, working under the leadership of Academician V.I. Vernadsky, a student of Moscow University A. Fersman published his first scientific work describing the minerals of the Crimea. It is followed by a whole series of articles on barite and palygorskite, leongardite and lomontite from the vicinity of Simferopol, Walesite and zeolites.
Fersman completed his postgraduate studies in Germany, under the leadership of Goldschmit, where he studied natural diamond crystals.
The result of the work was the monograph "Almaz", which contains a huge number of magnificent patterns of diamond crystals of various morphological types.
As a result of experimental and crystallographic studies, he comes to the now generally accepted conclusion about the formation of widespread rounded diamonds as a result of dissolution of flat-faceted crystals.
Subsequently, he studied diamonds a lot, in particular, when, after the October Revolution, Alexander Evgenievich was sent to revise the Diamond Fund, he described famous historical stones: Almaz Orlov, Shah, etc.
In 1912, Alexander Evgenievich Fersman became a professor at Moscow University, where he taught the world's first course in geochemistry.
Having already become a professor, A.E. Fersman continues to study the riches of the Crimea: he explores the salt lakes of the peninsula (he, in particular, was the first to establish the geological chronology of Lake Saki), the Kerch iron ore deposits, mud volcanoes, deposits of the Crimean keel clay.
In 1917-1945. - the permanent director of the Mineralogical Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which now bears his name.
He was the initiator of the creation in 1920 of the first in the USSR, the Ilmen State Scientific Reserve.
Fersman owns the honor of discovering the Monchegorsk copper-nickel deposit, the Khibiny apatite deposit, sulfur deposits in Central Asia, and others. Alexander Evgenievich made a huge contribution to the creation of the mineral resource base of the USSR.
Academician of St. Petersburg. Imperial Academy of Sciences since 1912, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1919). In 1926-1929. Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Organizer of a number of scientific institutions and numerous expeditions (including the Kola Peninsula, Central Asia, the Urals) for the study of mineral resources.
In 1939 he carried out geochemical studies of the Crimean mineral deposits.
During the war years - Chairman of the Commission for Geological and Geographic Services of the Soviet Army.
Awards and prizes
* Order of the Red Banner of Labor (11/8/1943)
* Prize named after V.I. Lenin (1929)
* Stalin Prize (1942).
* Wollaston Medal (1943)
Named in his honor:
* Fersmite and Fersmanite minerals.
* one of the streets of Moscow.
* pass in the Khibiny mountain range.
* one of the settlements of the Crimea near Simferopol is called the village of Fersmanovo.
In the village of Murzinka in the Urals, the Mineralogical Museum is named after him.
Bibliography
Author of fundamental works:
* "Geochemistry" (volumes 1-4, 1933-1939),
* "Pegmatites" (1931).
* Minerals of the Kola Peninsula (1940) - Stalin Prize 1st degree 1942
Also wrote more than 1500 articles and publications on crystallography, mineralogy, geology, chemistry, geochemistry, geography, aerial photography, astronomy, philosophy, art, archeology, soil science, biology a lot of essays and books about their travels for stones .
A connoisseur of precious and ornamental stones. A brilliant popularizer of science. Wrote great popular books:
* "Entertaining mineralogy" (1928). Until 1953, 25 editions were published in the USSR alone.
* Memories of a Stone (1940).
* "Entertaining geochemistry" (posthumous).
* Tales of Gems (posthumous)
* My travels (posthumously) ..

There are people with whose names important events and accomplishments of an entire historical era are associated. In science, such people include an outstanding scientist, a tireless seeker of natural resources, Academician Alexander Evgenievich Fersman (1883-1945). He was a brilliant natural scientist, geochemist and mineralogist, crystallographer and geologist, geographer and ethnographer. All his life A.E. Fersman devoted himself to the search and implementation of the country's mineral resources in the national economy, the development of science, the training of young specialists, the promotion of scientific knowledge.

A.E. Fersman traveled a lot: he called himself "Eater of spaces". Only in his travels in the Crimea, with which he was directly or indirectly connected for 55 years of his life, he covered, according to our calculations, more than 13 thousand kilometers! A true explorer and ethnographer, he explored all the landscapes of the Crimean peninsula: minerals and caves of the Main mountain range, mud hills of the Kerch hillside, therapeutic mud (silts) of the Saki region ... His first scientific articles were written in Crimea (1905). Crimea Academician A.E. Fersman also dedicated his last published work in his lifetime (1944).

A.E. Fersman was born in St. Petersburg, studied at Odessa University, graduated from Moscow, but it was in the Crimea that his love for stone was born and remained for his whole life .. Without exaggeration, we can say that the scientist was created by the Crimea. Alexander Evgenievich called Crimea his "The first university".

“He taught me, - wrote the scientist, - to be interested in nature and to love it. He taught me how to work, uncover the secrets of natural resources, and not in a quick survey, driving a car or on a horse, but stubbornly, crawling on all fours, studying the same rock for many days, following all the convolutions of the barely noticeable veins being explored. building a picture of the past according to individual trifles and details and fantasizing about the future. "

In fact, the future academician made his first steps into science here at the age of 7-10 years. On a small rocky hill southeast of Simferopol, in the Salgira valley, near the dacha where his parents spent the summer, the inquisitive Sasha Fersman disappeared for days. How interesting everything was here! Multicolored pebbles in the river bed, pieces of igneous rocks of laccolith-like massifs - “failed” Crimean volcanoes - every beautiful pebble, every unusual mineral was a discovery for the young naturalist. Here is an absolutely stunning find - a vein of sparkling rock crystal in the gray-green diabase rocks! It was followed by more and more amazing designs, so that the children's collection grew every day ... "For many years in a row our little mountain near Simferopol has occupied us", - wrote later, recalling his childhood and adolescence, academician A.E. Fersman.

The years passed. Love for stone, passion for minerals, like a magnet, carried the future scientist farther and farther from home. The mineralogical collections were especially rich in the Kurtsovskaya quarry of volcanic rocks 6-7 kilometers from Simferopol (the village of Kurtsy, now the village of Ukrainka). Young Fersman many times filled his backpack to the brim with wonderful samples. What was not there - and thin, brittle needles of Lublinite, and small crystals of bright green epidote, and beautiful pinkish welsite intergrowths, and green prehnite crusts. And the first real scientific discovery was the discovery of "mountain skin" - a rare mineral palygorskite.

Small excursions for the stone soon gave way to long hikes and trips across the Crimea - to the outcrops of volcanic rocks near Cape Fiolent near Balaklava, the ancient volcano Karadag near Koktebel, to Mount Kastel near Alushta, to Feodosia, Kerch, Evpatoria, Saki ... In the Fersman collection minerals, samples of amazing Karadag stones appeared - semiprecious chalcedony, carnelian, agate, jasper, and nearby - Kerch iron ores, marble-like limestones of the Main Crimean ridge, white and pink salt crystals. Along with the expansion of excursion routes and the volume of collections, a geographical outlook was formed, and a vocation for the science of minerals was strengthened.

In 1905, as a student at Moscow University, under the leadership of Academician V.I. Vernadsky A.E. Fersman prepares and publishes the first scientific work describing the Crimean minerals. It is followed by a whole series of articles (1906-1910) on barite and palygorskite, leongardite and lomontite, wellsite and zeolites.

With such a rapid scientific rise, the young scientist remained a very modest person. This is evidenced by the content of his letter to V.I. Vernadsky. In 1906, Alexander Evgenievich wrote to his teacher:

“First of all I finished my article on barites; I wrote everything and prepared it for printing. It turned out to be something boring and drawn out. Maybe send it to you? Most of all I sat over palygorskite. For almost two months I fiddled with this mineral and came to some results. Although the article about palygorskite was written by me, nevertheless I hesitate to send it to you, since much in it is too bold and unproven in characterizing palygorskite as an independent mineral species. Having completed a complete analysis of this mineral from Simferopol .., I hope upon your arrival only to read it (article) to you ... "

It remains to add that all these works were soon published in academic journals.

Having already become a professor, A.E. Fersman for his merits in the mineralogical knowledge of the Crimea in 1911 was elected a member of the Crimean Society of Naturalists and Nature Lovers. To him, already a recognized expert on Crimea, Academician V.I. Vernadsky appeals in 1912 with a request “Get the Crimean minerals for the Academy”. A.E. Fersman soon replies: “I'm taking with me a lot of palygorskite from Kurtsov, I attacked a good, clean vein ...”. By the way, later, many geological museums of the country and the world were replenished with minerals from the deposits discovered by the scientists.

Each researcher is always attracted by new ideas, new perspectives, and the preparation of scientific articles requires a lot of intellectual effort and time. In 1913 A.E. Fersman writes: “ My Palygorskites, thank God, have ended with printing, and I can do my geochemistry. " In those years, the scientist had already begun to develop the foundations of this young science, and we rightfully consider Alexander Evgenievich - together with Academician V.I. Vernadsky - its founder. In 1914, "Notes of the Crimean Society of Naturalists" published the first scientific work of A.E. Fersman in this area - "The chemical life of the Crimea in its past and present."

In subsequent years A.E. Fersman was engaged in the study of the salt lakes of the Crimea (he, in particular, was the first to establish the chronology of Lake Saki), the Kerch iron ore deposits, mud volcanoes, deposits of Kila - Crimean clay. Now the scientist had to solve the problems of economic use of the natural resources of the Crimea on the basis of geological and mineralogical analysis. The wonderful crystals of blue vivianite in the iron ores of Kamyshburun (near Kerch) now attracted his attention not by their beauty, but by the fact that they testified to the significant content of phosphorus in the ore. The prospect of using phosphorous ores in metallurgy became real. The bluish green keel turned out to be interesting for its bleaching properties and the possibility of using it for dry refining of oil and fat products. These and other questions are reflected in many scientific works of A.E. Fersman.

The academician usually took direct part in labor-intensive field research on an equal basis with others, without a discount on ranks. His student, a well-known researcher of the Crimean salt riches, Professor A.I. Zens-Litovskiy describes his work on Lake Saki in the following way:

“From early morning the powerful figure of Alexander Evgenievich loomed on the lake, dams and lintels of the lake and salt pools ... , wandered knee-deep in the salt brine of the lake. "

During the years of industrialization of the country, the scientist's ability to link scientific research with the solution of practical problems was especially vividly manifested.

“We do not want to be photographers of nature, land and its riches, - wrote A.E. Fersman. - We want to be researchers, creators of new ideas, conquerors of nature, fighters for its subordination to man, his culture and his economy. "

Ten years of persistent, truly heroic research work in the Arctic, in the Khibiny, leads A.E. Fersman to discover here the richest deposits of apatite, nepheline and other minerals, on the basis of which powerful industrial enterprises grew. In Central Asia, in the central part of the Karakum Desert, a geologist discovers large reserves of sulfur of exceptional quality. He leads numerous expeditions to explore the Urals, Siberia and other regions of the country.

A.E. Fersman was the rector of the country's first Geographical Institute in Leningrad, and later - the dean of the geographical faculty of the university, organizer and head of the Ural branch of the Academy of Sciences.

Very often in his lectures, scientific reports and articles by A.E. Fersman turned to examples from the nature of the Crimea, talked with enthusiasm about its mineral wealth and geochemical life. Professor A.I. Dzens-Litovsky, who listened to Fersman's lectures surprisingly rich in content, cites excerpts from them:

“Among all the pictures of the chemical past of Crimea, those moments are especially interesting when the equilibrium of the earth's crust was disturbed and deep faults opened an entrance for molten masses. They, in fact, begin in the Crimea the most interesting pages of geochemistry, which is already taking place in our days ... ".

“This chemical life of the Crimea has been studied too little. The study of the mineralogy of the Crimea is just beginning, and a systematic study of rocks is waiting for you ... ".

These words betray a real scientist: knowing a lot, but not satisfied with what has been achieved, eager for new discoveries and aiming at them the younger generation.

Being a man of great erudition, A.E. Fersman published 1,500 scientific papers in various fields of knowledge. Of these, 36 are written on Crimean topics.

A.E. Fersman is the author of a number of books that have become reference books for our schoolchildren: "Entertaining mineralogy", "Entertaining geochemistry", "Memories of a stone", "Stories about gems", "Traveling behind a stone" and others. Written in a lively, engaging way, they reflected their author's deep love for minerals and mineralogy. It is no coincidence that the writer A.N. Tolstoy named A.E. Fersman "poet of stone".

Even in the years when the activities of Academician A.E. Fersmana was no longer directly connected with the Crimea, he repeatedly visited here, visiting the deposits of mineral resources. In the early 1930s, as part of the council of the Crimean complex expedition for the study of salt lakes, he undertook a new trip to the Crimea. In addition to targeted expeditionary problems, he was then interested in the question of the presence of fresh groundwater in the sandy-shell coastal spits. In 1939, the scientist conducts geochemical studies of the Crimean mineral deposits. At the same time, in the "Reports of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR" his article "On the geochemistry and mineralogy of the Crimea" was published.

Over the years of work in the Crimea, he was the first to find and describe several dozen minerals. It was a significant contribution to the collection of more than three hundred mineral species known here today.

We must not forget that A.E. Fersman (together with V.I. Vernadsky) made a significant contribution to the training of a new generation of Russian geographers and geologists - researchers of the Crimean Peninsula. Among them are S.V. Albova, P.A. Dvoichenko, A.I. Dzens-Litovsky, A.I. Moiseeva, P.M. Murzaeva, B.A. Fedorovich, D.I. Shcherbakov and others. We can judge how the teacher assessed his students, how he contributed to their scientific growth, for example, by the excerpts from A.E. Fersman about the scientific activity of the Crimean mineralogist P.M. Murzaev (1938).

"NS. M. Murzaev belongs to the young generation of mineralogists and graduated from the Crimean University in 1924 ... He went through the good school of Professor S.P. Popov, who developed in him, on the one hand, an accurate observation of natural phenomena, the ability to describe and study them using existing methods of mineralogy, on the other.

His first works related to the study of the Crimean minerals characterize him as an exact mineralogist, mastering all methods of scientific work. In other works, “Murzaev has shown himself to be an experienced geologist-geochemist, able to cope with mapping and geological surveying ... successfully coped with a very complex topic ...

Based on the foregoing, proceeding from the breadth of P.M. Murzaev, I think he is quite suitable for the occupation of the department of a professor in one of our universities. "

Until the very end of his life A.E. Fersman did not lose his scientific interest in the edge, which inspired him to scientific research. In 1944, rejoicing at the liberation of the Crimea from the fascist invaders and striving to help the quickest restoration of its economy, destroyed by the war, he published an article in the journal "Priroda" about the fossil resources of the peninsula. The publication summarized the latest data on local mineral resources accumulated by that time.

In this work, A.E. Fersman notes that on the Crimean peninsula there are 47 chemical elements of the periodic table (in his later work "Geochemical sketch of the Crimea", published posthumously, in 1959, he has 54 elements). The scientist divides them into 4 groups: elements of predominant significance, secondary geochemical significance, minor significance and elements, the presence of which requires confirmation. Here he also classifies the elements " from a purely industrial point of view ", which determines the nature of prospecting and exploration work. Further A.E. Fersman characterizes the minerals of the Crimea, distinguishing three major groups: iron ores, various salts of lakes, ornamental and building materials. He classifies them according to their economic value into minerals: 1) of all-Union or global importance (iron ores, building materials; salts of magnesium, sodium, potassium, calcium, chlorine, bromine and iodine); 2) of general importance for the south of the USSR (flux limestones, routes, igneous rocks, keels, shell rocks, cement marls, green clays, ornamental chalcedony, agates and jasper); 3) local importance (coal, oil, asphalt, combustible gases, etc.); 4) unknown value (helium, phosphorites, tripoli, etc.). The scientist proudly notes:

"In the Crimea ... about 200 mineral deposits have been discovered and studied, starting with gems for jewelry and ending with the most valuable limestone for the marbles of the Moscow metro and pure limestone for the flux of metallurgical plants."

A.E. Fersman set the task of developing and actively protecting the wonderful Crimean nature, including its mineral resources.

At the end of the article we are citing, the patriotic scholar prophetically wrote:

"And now, when our beautiful Crimea has gone through the difficult years of the invasion of barbarians and the occupation, with its life-giving sun and sea, it will soon be able to heal its wounds, and again Crimea will turn ... into the richest museum of nature."

In memory of the remarkable scientist, the village near Simferopol, where he began his career in science, is now called Fersmanovo, and the nearby quarry in volcanic rocks on the shore of the Simferopol reservoir is called Fersmanovsky. In the Karadag nature reserve, the original dike wall of an ancient volcano bears the name of A.E. Fersman. On the building of the boarding school in Fersmanovo in 1973, a memorial plaque was erected in honor of the academician, the text of which reads: "Academician Alexander Evgenievich Fersman (1883-1945), an outstanding Soviet mineralogist and geochemist, lived here in childhood and adolescence." And the old "Fersmanov House" is an architectural monument on the right bank of the Salgir Valley in the village. Fersmanovo, clearly visible from the Simferopol-Alushta highway and somewhat reminiscent of the "Swallow's Nest", is badly dilapidated and awaits restoration, with the hope that the Fersmanov Mineralogical Museum of Crimea could be located here in the future.

(1883-1945) Outstanding Soviet scientist, full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, geologist, crystallographer, mineralogist, geochemist.

In his mature years A.E. Fersman recalled his hobby, which originated at an early age: "The stone possessed me, my thoughts, desires, even dreams." And this one, which raised him to the heights of scientific fame, preserved for life "some kind of childish love for a stone, a beautiful pure crystal", originated in a boy in the vicinity of Simferopol ...

Alexander Evgenievich was born on October 27 (November 8) 1883 in St. Petersburg in the family of an architect who chose military service. My father was both a military attaché in Greece, and a student at the Academy of the General Staff of Russia, and a teacher at the Academy - a general. Mother, Maria Eduardovna, came from the German Kessler family. When the time came for their son to start his studies, the Fersmans lived in Odessa, where Alexander became a student of the 4th city gymnasium.

After graduating with a gold medal, he entered the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Odessa University, which at that time was called Novorossiysk. Both in the gymnasium and in his first student years, Alexander and his family came to rest in the Crimea. Since 1903, my father was transferred to Moscow, and A.E. Fersman continued his studies at Moscow University. Since 1891, the Department of Mineralogy was headed by Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky.

World science at that time experienced an extraordinary rise. In 1895 W. Roentgen discovered the mysterious "X-rays", and in 1898 the Curies discovered mysterious radium with incomprehensible physical properties in uranium resin ore. Science could not stand still, even as conservative as mineralogy. The fact is that before V.I. Vernadsky collection, study and classification of minerals were purely descriptive. Progress required a scientific explanation: what is the origin of chemical elements in a particular area and why are they found here in a certain amount? Geochemistry should have branched off from mineralogy, and thanks to V.I. It happened to Vernadsky. Alexander Fersman turned out to be his most talented student and follower in these branches of science.

In 1907, Alexander Evgenievich graduated with honors from Moscow University.

The next two years he was on a scientific trip, having visited Germany, France, Italy. At the University of the German city of Heidelberg (or Heidelberg, now twinned with Simferopol), Alexander Evgenievich, based on the structure of diamond, studied crystallography under the Norwegian professor V.M. Gold-schmidt, recognized along with V.I. Vernadsky, the founder of modern geochemistry. In 1909 A.E. Fersman began teaching, and in 1912 he was one of the organizers of the magazine "Nature" and became its editor.

The year 1915 went down in the history of Russia as the initial milestone on the path of the systematic study of domestic natural resources. On the initiative of A. Fersman, the Department of Raw Materials and Chemical Materials was organized under the Military-Technical Assistance Committee. At the same time, Alexander Evgenievich became the secretary of the Commission for the Study of Natural Productive Forces (KEPS) at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

This commission continued its activities after the October Revolution of 1917, therefore A.E. Fersman somehow naturally entered the new Soviet science. In 1919, barely celebrating his 35th birthday, the young scientist was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of Soviet Russia. A. Fersman became the discoverer of inexhaustible reserves of minerals in different regions of the Land of Soviets: the Kola Peninsula - in Karelia, Tien Shan, Karakum and Kyzyl Kum - in Central Asia, the Ural Mountains, Transbaikalia. For the national economy, his trips around the Khibiny tundra from 1920 and around Monchetundra from 1930 were of particular importance, as a result of which A.E. Fersman discovered deposits of apatite and copper-nickel ores.

At this time he was a "pure" geologist. And, as befits people of this profession, he went on expeditions with a beard: either a gypsy, or an old believer, or a nihilist. At the end of the field seasons, he regained his civilized academic appearance and intensively studied geochemistry, becoming one of its founders in the Soviet Union. The science of the chemical composition of the Earth A.E. Fersman took up while still a student with V.I. Vernadsky. One of the main tasks of geochemistry is the study of the chemical evolution of our planet based on the abundance and distribution of chemical elements in it, an explanation of its geological history, the division of the Earth into shells, or the geosphere. As a fundamental science, geochemistry is certainly of practical importance. Summarizing his colossal scientific experience, A.E. During 1933-1939 Fersman created a 4-volume work "Geochemistry".

Alexander Evgenievich introduced the term "clarke" into scientific circulation - numerical estimates of the average content of chemical elements in the lithosphere (crust), hydrosphere, atmosphere and in the Earth as a whole, in various types of rocks, space objects (now it is a subject of cosmochemistry), etc. ... The term he introduced in honor of his contemporary, the American geochemist F.-W. Clark, the scientist who discovered the average chemical composition of the earth's crust.

A.E. Fersman is one of the authors of the idea of ​​using geochemical methods in the search for mineral deposits, which today geophysicists use without limit in the process of ground (field) research. Alexander Evgenievich paid much attention to regional geochemistry, back in 1926 for the first time outlining the prospects of the Mongol-Okhotsk geochemical belt. After 40 years, Siberian oil and gas production began here at full speed.

There was A.E. Fersman and the largest connoisseur of precious and ornamental stones. Alexander Evgenievich was an unsurpassed popularizer of scientific knowledge. Among the immense written heritage of the academician there are more than 1,500 large and small scientific works. Some of them - "Entertaining geochemistry", "Memories of a stone", "Stories about gems", "Entertaining mineralogy" and many others - are written in popular science, fascinating and accessible to the general reader.

He was called "the poet of the stone" or "geopoet". Crimeans are proud of the fact that it was in the vicinity of Simferopol that children's enthusiasm for minerals developed in A. Fersman's mind into a serious scientific search. His maternal uncle, Alexander Eduardovich Kessler, a meteorologist and chemist, a student of the outstanding representative of Russian science A.M. Butlerov, owned a small estate - Totaykoy in the Salgira valley, near Simferopol. The old building, a former residential estate, is now the building of a speech therapy boarding school in the village. Lozovoe that is on the Simferopol-Alushta-Yalta highway. A newer, 2-storey building, clearly visible from the side of the highway, was intended for scientific observations and experiments by A.E. Kessler. It is this, today dilapidated, on the verge of extinction building that is directly related to the early hobby of A.E. Fersman mineralogy.

In the Kessler estate, the Fersman family rested during their summer vacations, and from here the future academician left on his first near-by expeditions. In 1927, in his autobiography, written for the readers of the Ogonyok magazine, Alexander Evgenievich wrote: "I was carried away by mineralogy in the peculiar conditions of the mountainous Crimea, among the scientific interests of a scientific family, as a seven-year-old boy." He went to Kurtsy, to the quarry (the area of ​​the modern brick factory), found elegant minerals (for example, zeolite) in the vicinity of the village of Sably (the modern village of Partizanskoe with the reservoir of the same name), looked for rock crystal in the chalk rocks on the northern slopes of the Crimean mountains. In the popular book Traveling behind a Stone, the scientist gratefully recalled about Crimea: “These hours of observation left an indelible impression. They taught me the very difficult and difficult duty of a natural scientist to observe. "

Places of children's and youthful hobbies A.E. Fersman devoted serious scientific work, written in his student and adult years. These are "Barite from the vicinity of Simferopol", "To the mineralogy of the Simferopol district", "The chemical life of the Crimea in its past and present", "To the geological and mineralogical survey of Lake Saki", "Geochemical sketch of the Crimea" and some others.

After a long illness A.E. Fersman died in Sochi on May 20, 1945 at the age of 62. Buried in Moscow.

Alexander Evgenievich Fersman (1883-1945)

Alexander Evgenievich Fersman, student and friend of VI Vernadsky, is a tireless seeker and explorer of the mineral wealth of our homeland. With his active participation, the domestic industry of rare metals and non-metallic minerals was created. Together with his teacher, he was the founder of a new science - geochemistry; he developed new physicochemical concepts of the essence of mineral formation processes and their energetic basis.

A.E. Fersman was a brilliant propagandist and popularizer of his science, his name is known not only to specialist scientists, but also to a wide range of students, teachers and lovers of natural science. He was a passionate mineralogist. He himself said that his life is a love story for a stone.

Alexander Evgenievich Fersman was born on November 8, 1883 in St. Petersburg. His father, Yevgeny Alexandrovich, was the son of a general of the Russian army, an artilleryman, the author of a special monograph on military affairs. In his youth, my father was an architect and was fond of his specialty. During the Turkish campaign (1878), he volunteered for the active army. By this time, due to the intense drawing work, his eyesight was severely weakened, and he could not continue his studies in architecture in the future. At the end of the war, he studied at the Academy of the General Staff, after which he was assigned first to the Crimea, and then as a military attaché to Greece, where his wife and little son Alexander went with him; the latter was 6 years old at the time.

In Crimea, Alexander Evgenievich first became interested and carried away by a stone; climbed the rocks in the vicinity of Simferopol, where his parents spent the summer at the dacha. On the beach of the Eleusinian Bay, where waves wash beautiful pebbles of multi-colored marbles, serpentines and agates, the boy continued to collect the collection of stones he had begun in Crimea, which gradually grew into a wonderful scientific collection of minerals and rocks.

AE Fersman's parents traveled with him to different regions of Greece, to northern Italy. He saw the island of Corfu, Venice, the beautiful blue Lake Garda and collected stones everywhere. His mother, who is well acquainted with mineralogy and geology, helped him in compiling the collection.

Returning to their homeland from abroad, the parents of Alexander Evgenievich usually stayed for several days in Vienna. He spent these days in the famous Vienna Natural History Museum. AE Fersman was attracted by those halls where the stone was exhibited in large ore and boulders.

After serving a relatively short time in Greece, AE Fersman's father returned to Russia again, where he was appointed director of the Cadet Corps in Odessa. In Odessa and in the vicinity of Simferopol, A.E. Fersman, continuing to collect stones, began to be interested in questions of their origin. AE Fersman said that his childhood excursions for stones taught him "the very difficult and difficult duty of a natural scientist - to observe" and subsequently served a great service when in 1903 he wrote one of his first scientific works - mineralogy of the vicinity of Simferopol.

While still a high school student, A.E. Fersman, at the request of his father, conducted classes in mineralogy and geology with cadets and managed to interest his students in these subjects.

After graduating from the gymnasium in 1901, AE Fersman entered the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Novorossiysk University (in Odessa). He eagerly turned to the study of mineralogy. However, the boring lectures of Professor Prendel, who was a typical representative of the then dominant descriptive trend in mineralogy and required only a solid knowledge of the physical properties, taxonomy, and chemical formulas of minerals, almost caused a crisis in the scientific interests of A.E. Fersman. He began to get carried away with lectures on the history of art, an interest in which his father had instilled in him since childhood, and the brilliant lectures of Professor Ornatsky on political economy. At this critical moment, Professor P.G. Melikov and V.P. Weinberg, who was then an associate professor at Novorossiysk University and who read geophysics and a course in molecular physics, played an important role in his life. AE Fersman said that it was to them that he owed his interest in the structure of matter and the problems of molecular physics. Of decisive importance for all further activities of AE Fersman was his transfer to Moscow University in connection with the transfer of his father to Moscow.

The Department of Mineralogy at Moscow University was then headed by V.I. Vernadsky, who played an exceptional role in the history of mineralogical science. Preserving the healthy traditions of the old school in the field of description of minerals, V.I. the earth's crust. Instead of the dead static concept of a mineral, leading from Linnaeus's "System of Nature" and requiring only an accurate description of mineral bodies, B; I. Vernadsky develops a dynamic concept of a mineral as a product of chemical reactions in the earth's crust. And, while in almost all departments of the world the static Linnean concept continued to dominate, within the walls of Moscow University at the department of Vernadsky the foundations of a new genetic mineralogy, this chemistry of the earth's crust, which considers the formation of minerals, their change and transformation in connection with the movement of matter and others chemical and physicochemical processes occurring in nature. A number of talented young researchers - Ya. V. Samoilov, Yu. V. Wulf, Aleksat and others - were grouped around V. I. Vernadsky.

AE Fersman also got into this friendly family of mineralogists united by the genius of Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky. After Prendel's boring, dead lectures, he heard deep, awakening thoughts and calling forward words; he found himself at the very center of new ideas and new trends in scientific thought. Here he again found himself and with the same enthusiasm returned to his first love - to the stone, the study of which he devoted his entire subsequent life. AE Fersman recalls with great warmth his student years at Moscow University: “We worked for at least 12 hours in the laboratory, often staying overnight, so that the analyzes were going on all day; twice a week we read reports in V. I. Vernadsky, sorted out the collections with him, listened to his fascinating lectures.University life with brilliant performances by Klyuchevsky, the years of young struggle for higher education, the enormous scientific and social authority of Vernadsky - everything cast its own reflection on us, and we were proud of our 12 sq. meters of the laboratory, were proud of the museum, were proud of every printed work of our old and neglected Institute. " During his student days, A.E. Fersman published 5 printed works.

At the end of the final exams, AE Fersman was sent abroad. He worked in Heidelberg, was in Paris, conducted research in Italy on the island of Elba; got acquainted with numerous deposits of minerals in Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy and other places. At the same time, he wrote a remarkable monograph on diamond, which is an exhaustive mineralocal-crystallographic study. In this work, in addition to a detailed description of the crystalline forms of diamond, the question of the origin of these forms is raised and resolved, and the difference between the forms of growth and the forms of dissolution is revealed.

AE Fersman's first trip abroad played a big role in his life, as it determined one of the main themes of his subsequent works. In connection with a visit to the Elbe Island, where there were remarkable deposits of precious stones and minerals associated with pegmatite veins, A.E. vapors of dissociated water and various volatile substances. Pegmatites are characterized by a peculiar structure caused by the intergrowth of quartz and feldspar, which form the basis of this rock. Quartz crystals form a pattern reminiscent of wedge-shaped letters against the background of feldspar. Hence the name of pegmatite - written granite. Deposits of precious stones, various micas, feldspars, tin stone, radioactive and rare minerals, and a number of others of great interest to a mineralogist are associated with pegmatite veins.

A.E. Fersman began to study remarkable pegmatites and deposits of precious stones in the Urals, Central Asia, Ukraine, Transbaikalia. The final results of the tremendous work on the study of pegmatite deposits are presented in his classic, world-famous work "Pegmatites, Their Scientific and Practical Significance", first published in 1931.

AE Fersman's "Pegmatites" are one of the largest phenomena in the mineralogical scientific literature. This work attracted the attention of scientists and engineers to pegmatites, which are associated with a number of important mineral deposits; laid the foundation for a more in-depth study of mineral formation in general; it has become the reference book of every mineralogist and geochemist. The methods proposed by A.E. Fersman and the conclusions he comes to in this work are now widely used in scientific research and practice.

For AE Fersman, as a true representative of the school of V.I. Vernadsky, minerals were interesting not only in themselves, in their physical and chemical properties, but also in terms of their genesis and paragenesis. AE Fersman approached the study of pegmatites precisely from the point of view of the mineral-forming process and the elucidation of the causes and regularities of the paragenesis of minerals in pegmatite rocks. AE Fersman showed how during a long process of magma cooling in a strict sequence determined by the laws of physical chemistry and thermodynamics, minerals are released in different combinations with each other. Studying them makes it possible to establish the order of mineral extraction and to outline the temperature boundaries of the individual stages of this continuous crystallization process. This makes it possible to understand why certain minerals and ores are always found together or, conversely, seem to avoid each other; why around the granite hearth, these or other ores are located in certain belts. With this understanding, we can confidently guide our exploration for minerals associated with pegmatites. The study of the genesis and paragenesis of minerals in pegmatite veins was associated with a wider interest in the problems of paragenesis and migration of chemical elements carried by minerals, that is, in questions of geochemistry. A. E. Fersman became one of the most prominent founders of this science, which became the main area of ​​his research in the last 25 years of his life.

The study of pegmatites naturally led AE Fersman to a more detailed study of precious stones, of which he was one of the best experts. A number of his works are dedicated to precious stones, in particular the monograph "Precious and Colored Stones of Russia" and one of his best popular science books "Gems of Russia".

In parallel with the study of pegmatites and precious stones, AE Fersman conducted a number of other studies. First of all, it should be noted the works devoted to the processes of mineral formation near the earth's surface - in that region of the earth's crust, which before it was almost not affected by the research of mineralogists. AE Fersman studies the interesting mineral polygorskite, known as mountain skin; original minerals zeolites; writes an interesting summary of magnesian silicates. These works cover a large material of field observations and chemical analyzes and broadly cover a number of important general issues, in particular the role of colloidal formations in chemical processes taking place in the earth's crust. These works for the first time aroused interest among mineralogists in colloidal chemistry, which was of great theoretical and practical importance.

When the Shanyavsky Free People's University was opened in Moscow, A.E. Fersman took the most ardent part in its organization and began to give a course in mineralogy there in 1910, and in 1912 gave the first course in geochemistry. He organized a mineralogical circle there, attracting numerous members, and donated his mineral collection there.

In 1912, AE Fersman's parents moved to St. Petersburg due to the fact that his father had to retire due to the fact that he supported the people who fought against the autocracy. Appointed at the suggestion of V.I.Vernadsky as a senior scientist as curator of the Mineralogical Museum of the Academy of Sciences and elected as a professor of the Bestuzhev Higher Courses for Women, A.E. Fersman also moved to St. Petersburg. During these years, his brilliant popularizing talent manifested itself. Since 1912, the popular science journal "Priroda" began to appear. AE Fersman takes the most ardent part in organizing and editing this journal and publishes on its pages a number of fascinating articles on questions of mineralogy and geochemistry, which more and more fascinates him.

At the beginning of the war with Germany in 1914, the issue of using the natural mineralogical resources of Russia became very acute.

The possibility of subscribing mineral raw materials from abroad, as was the practice before, was excluded. Under the Committee for Military-Technical Assistance, a Raw Materials Commission is organized, whose task was to study mineral raw materials, their deposits and applications. AE Fersman, as its chairman, took an ardent part in the activities of this Commission and was the inspirer of its work.

With the end of the war and the liquidation of the Committee on the basis of the Commission of Raw Materials, on the initiative of V. I. Vernadsky, the Commission for the Study of the Natural Productive Forces of Russia (KEPS) was organized at the Academy of Sciences; AE Fersman takes an active part in its work. He makes a number of trips to the Urals, Altai, North. Mongolia, Transbaikalia, Crimea; conducts research in all these areas, writes a number of popular articles and notes on the fossil resources of Russia, makes reports and reports on this topic and clearly raises the question of the importance of strategic raw materials.

After the Great October Socialist Revolution, AE Fersman's brilliant scientific and organizational skills developed in full, and his dreams of a comprehensive study and wide practical use of Russia's mineral resources were able to come true.

In April 1918, at the direction of V. I. Lenin, the Academy of Sciences was given the opportunity to systematically study the natural productive forces of the country. In 1919, 36-year-old A.E. Fersman was elected an academician.

During these difficult years of radical breakdown and restructuring of the entire country, during the years of the civil war and the liquidation of the devastation caused by the war, the activities of AE Fersman played an important role and was of exceptional importance for our science and for the Academy of Sciences in particular.

In the 1920s, with the direct participation of A.E. Fersman, a number of large expeditions were carried out. About this work of AE Fersman, his colleague in the conquest of the treasures of the Khibiny tundra, BM Kupletsky, writes: The Kola Peninsula, and in the sultry sands of Kara-Kum, and in the deep taiga of Transbaikalia, and in the swampy forests of the eastern slope of the Urals. 10 thousand square kilometers per year - this is the scale of Alexander Evgenievich's mobility over the years. "

The practical and scientific results of these expeditions are extremely great. Particularly important are the studies of the Khibiny tundra (1920-1924) and Monche-tundra (1930) on the Kola Peninsula, initiated on the initiative and under the direct supervision of A.E. Fersman and supported by S.M.Kirov. The richest deposits of apatite were discovered in the Khibiny; in Monche-tundra - nickel ores and other important minerals. In 1926, AE Fersman put forward a new problem of great practical importance: the development of new technological processes for the processing of apatite ores into mineral fertilizers. For his work on the chemicalization of the industry, A. E. Fersman was awarded the V. I. Lenin Prize.

In 1929, the industrial use of the Khibiny apatites began, and new construction began at an unprecedented pace: the construction of a railway, the creation of a mine, a scientific station and the city of Khibinogorsk, now Kirovsk. In the 30s, another city, Monchegorsk, grew up to develop the rich nickel ores of Monche-tundra.

A deaf, wild, undiscovered corner of our North, the geological structure of which was almost unknown, turned in 5-6 years into the most important mining region of the Soviet country. The scientific intuition of AE Fersman, who sent teams of researchers here, found a brilliant practical confirmation.

AE Fersman's trip to the Kara-Kumy sulfur deposits in 1925 was of great importance. As a result, the first sulfur plant in the USSR was founded.

Intense organizational and administrative work, participation in numerous expeditions did not seem to affect the intensity of AE Fersman's research work. On the contrary, these years are the era of the greatest upsurge and flowering of his creative thought, the maximum productivity of his theoretical research.

In the early 1920s, he enthusiastically supervised the study of the state diamond fund and prepared an excellent work "The Diamond Fund of the USSR", a monograph on precious and colored stones in Russia, studies of ore deposits in Fergana, a study on the formation of a pegmatite structure in granites, and then the monograph itself on pegmatites; a monograph on the color of minerals, numerous works from the field of geochemistry and a four-volume work "Geochemistry" summarizing these works.

It was his work in the field of geochemistry, one of the creators of which, along with his teacher V.I.Vernadsky, he became, made him world-famous, promoted him to the ranks of the leading scientists of our time. The breadth of AE Fersman's scientific horizons and the versatility of his scientific interests are especially clearly manifested in these works. Defining geochemistry as a science that studies the history of atoms, elements in the earth's crust, he raises the question of expanding the tasks of science that studies the chemical life of nature, the creation of cosmochemistry - the chemistry of the universe; the foundations of cosmochemistry were laid in his "Geochemistry", in his work on the determination of the quantitative and qualitative composition of meteorites, in his ideas about the migration of atoms in world space.

The idea of ​​the unity and close connection of all sciences is clearly expressed in all of his geochemical works. There is not a single branch in geochemistry in which he would not work, would not give bright new ideas, would not introduce valuable new methods. He devoted a number of studies to the problem of the so-called clarkes, that is, to elucidating the relative abundance of certain elements in the earth's crust. The content of some chemical elements, for example, silicon and oxygen, is respectively 28% and 49% by weight of the earth's crust. The content of others, such as radium, uranium or thorium, is expressed in negligible fractions of a percent. Such an uneven content of chemical elements is typical not only for the Earth, but also for other celestial bodies. This phenomenon attracts attention and requires a theoretical explanation. One of the first to deal with this issue was the American researcher Clark, who determined the percentage of various chemical elements in the earth's crust by weight. AE Fersman suggested calling the relative amount of a given element in the investigated body "clarke". He improved the very method of determining clarkes, proposing to calculate not weighty, but atomic clarkes of elements, that is, the number of atoms of a given element contained in a unit volume.

AE Fersman associates the uneven distribution of various elements in the universe with the structure of their atoms. The most common are the elements with the most stable atoms. The most stable and difficult to decompose are light even elements with atomic weight divisible by four. The most stable atoms include the first 28 elements of the Mendeleev table and especially even numbers with an atomic weight that is a multiple of four, from 6 to 23 numbers. They are the least prone to spontaneous decay. These elements are in fact the most common. On the contrary, heavy elements with a large atomic number, with bulky, easily decaying nuclei, such as uranium, thorium, radium, etc., are very rare.

AE Fersman attaches not only great theoretical, but also very important practical importance to the calculation of clarkes, since an increase in the clarkes of certain elements in certain areas of the earth's crust as a result of natural physicochemical processes leads to an industrial concentration of these elements, to the formation of deposits ore and non-metallic minerals.

AE Fersman in his works pays great attention to the problem of concentration and scattering of matter - two sides of a single process of migration of atoms, a particular manifestation of which is the migration of atoms in the globe and the earth's crust. With the migration of atoms, he connects that peculiar distribution of chemical elements that we now see in our planet with its incredibly dense heavy iron-nickel core and light gaseous shell, in the outermost parts of which the lightest elements are concentrated - hydrogen and helium. At different stages of the life of an atom and the life of a celestial body, the migration of atoms is explained by different reasons. In young celestial bodies, in blue and white stars heated to hundreds of millions of degrees, there are only atomic nuclei devoid of electron shells. At this stage, migrations are determined by the properties of the nucleus and, above all, by its specific gravity. As the celestial body cools, as the nuclei dress with a shell of electrons, the structure of these electron shells determines their further migration. AE Fersman pays much attention to the phenomena of isomorphism, to which he gives a new explanation on the basis of the latest achievements in crystal chemistry.

His ideas concerning the energetics of geochemical processes are especially deep, interesting and original. No one before him had developed so deeply the question of the influence of the laws of thermodynamics on the course of natural processes, in this case, on the processes of "differentiation" or separation of individual elements and their combinations as natural solutions or melts cool. This differentiation is expressed in the successive crystallization of various minerals from the cooling magmas.

The geoenergetic theory of AE Fersman summarizes the huge factual material accumulated by geochemistry, mineralogy, petrology, and the theory of ore deposits. It gives a coherent explanation of the sequence of the separation of crystals from cooling solutions and melts, explains the paragenesis of minerals and chemical elements, the distribution of elements in various shells or geospheres of the Earth, the formation of various types of ore deposits.

In the geochemical chapters of his monograph on pegmatites, A.E. Fersman gave a brilliant example of the application of his general geochemical ideas to the analysis of specific natural processes, which he studied on the basis of a huge amount of material collected for 25 years, and on the use of colossal literature. AE Fersman closely links the issues of regional geochemical research and the practical study of ore deposits with theoretical questions of geochemistry. The first regional geochemical work of AE Fersman was his widely known "Geochemistry of Russia" (1922). Of exceptional interest is his work "Mineral Resources of the Kola Peninsula", published in 1941 and awarded the 1st degree Stalin Prize.

In this work, the ideas of a close connection between theory and practice are especially vividly expressed. It provides a deep geochemical analysis of mineral complexes, explains the paragenesis of elements and minerals, and widely uses geoenergetic analysis of the processes of their formation. A harmonious picture of these processes is drawn, starting from the stages of high temperatures and ending with low-temperature phases. The processes of accumulation of individual chemical elements in some parts of the Kola Peninsula and their absence in others are explained. Forecasts of new searches are given.

The practical significance of geochemical constructions is clearly revealed in the book "Geochemical and mineralogical methods of prospecting and prospecting for minerals" (1940).

The geochemical works of AE Fersman outlined new ways of development of geochemistry, gave new research methods. They have received worldwide fame and widespread recognition. Its expression is, in particular, the awarding of A.E. Fersman to the day of his sixtieth birthday by the London Geological Society of the Volloston Palladium Medal - the highest geological award, which at one time was awarded to such scientists as William Smith, Leopold von Buch, Charles Darwin, Edward Suess. AE Fersman received a large gold medal from the Belgian University for his geochemical work.

AE Fersman widely and tirelessly promoted scientific knowledge among wide circles of the population and youth.

He owns the popular science books "Gems of Russia", "Entertaining Mineralogy", which has gone through 12 editions in 5 languages, "Memories of a Stone" and a whole series of elegant brochures and magazine articles.

During the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people, A. Ye. Fersman fully focused on the issues of strategic raw materials.

On his initiative, defense commissions were organized at the Academy of Sciences, which were engaged in the development of important issues of a strategic nature.

The incredibly strenuous work that A.E. Fersman conducted, starting from 1919, could not but affect his health, especially since during one of the expeditions to Central Asia, where he almost died, he received a serious liver disease and weakening of the heart. But he continued his scientific, organizational and administrative work with extraordinary scope and energy. He was a member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences, its vice-president, secretary of the Department of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, chairman of the Council for the Study of the Productive Forces of the Soviet Union, chairman of expeditionary research, director of the Radium Institute and the Ural branch of the Academy of Sciences, director of the Kola Base, Lomonosov Institute and Ilmen Mineralogical reserve.

With his close participation, the Geographical Institute was organized in Leningrad, the director of which he was, the Institute of Aerial Photography, Geodesy and Cartography, the Institute of Archaeological Technology at the Academy of Material Culture, the Northern Scientific and Fishing Expedition (later the Institute for the Study of the North) and other institutions in whose work he participated. He was a professor at the Bestuzhev Higher Courses for Women. Together with A.M. Gorky, he organized the House of Scientists in Leningrad, directed the work of the Bureau of the Scientific Research Council of the People's Commissariat for Tyazhprom, was the vice-president of the Moscow Society of Nature Experts, a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Turkmen ASSR, a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kara-Kalpak ASSR, a member of the Chelyabinsk Regional Executive Committee, the Miass District Council , Khibiny City Council, delegate to a number of All-Union, All-Russian, regional and district congresses, organizer of local history societies, etc.

It is difficult to imagine how A. Ye. Fersman managed to participate in the life of all these organizations, in the activities of which he always brought revitalization, infused a fresh stream. To this must be added that, at first glance, imperceptible, but enormous in scope and significance, the activity that A.E. who constantly turned to him in letters or personally with a wide variety of questions, seeking advice, help, guidance in personal work, assistance in the work of the headed institutions or support in public endeavors. Alexander Evgenievich received thousands of letters from schoolchildren alone who were fascinated by his "Entertaining Mineralogy", who dreamed of becoming geologists or mineralogists. None of these letters remained unanswered.

AE Fersman was exceptionally responsive to any manifestation of interest in his beloved science. He generously lavished his knowledge, his experience to all who needed them. In his conversations, he gave a lot of new and interesting things; he as if poured into the interlocutor a particle of his inexhaustible enthusiasm, energy and inexhaustible knowledge. Sparing no effort, A. E. Fersman devoted himself to his beloved science, homeland, people.

In 1943, AE Fersman became very seriously ill, and the doctors demanded a long rest, rest and, in the future, careful handling of their health. But he could not tear himself away from scientific work, could not tear himself away from life and, as soon as he recovered a little, he returned to scientific creativity. In the fall of 1944, he took an active part in meetings of the conference on the natural productive forces of the Leningrad region. He was full of new plans and ideas and was completing a number of major previously begun work. He was preparing a two-volume monograph on the Khibiny, which he wanted to complete for the 25th anniversary of the Khibiny works in 1946; the V volume of geochemistry and the II volume of "Pegmatites" were prepared; the monumental work "The History of Stone in the History of Culture" was prepared for publication in the volume of 120 printed sheets, which is like an "encyclopedia of stone", giving a broad picture of the use of stone in art and industry, history and culture, everyday life and economy, starting from the Stone Age. AE Fersman has prepared for publication a new popular science book "Entertaining Geochemistry".

In the very last months of his life, after the death of V.I.Vernadsky, which he deeply experienced, A.E. to whom he treated with exceptional love and respect. He failed to complete this work. May 20, 1945 Alexander Evgenievich Fersman died.

He left a rich legacy to science. The number of scientific and popular science works written by him exceeds 1,000 titles.

The main works of A.E. Fersman: Materials for the study of the polygorskite group, Izvestiya AN SSSR, 6th series, 1908, vol. II, No. 8; Research in the field of magnesian silicates, "Notes of the USSR Academy of Sciences", dep. fiz.-math., 8th series, 1913, v. XXXII, no. 2; Precious and colored stones of Russia, vol. I, Pg., 1920; The same, t. And; Deposits, 1925; Chemical Elements of the Earth and Space, Pg., 1923; Pegmatites, their scientific and practical significance, vol. I; Granite pegmatites, "Proceedings of SOPS", 1913, no. I (3rd ed., M.-L., ed. Of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1940); Geochemistry, Goskhimizdat, L., 1933-1939, vol. I (1933, 1934), vol. II (1934), vol. III (1937), vol. IV (1939); Energy characteristics of geochemical processes, "Reports of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR", 1935, vol. II, No. 3-4; Colors of metals, ed. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1936; Geochemical and mineralogical methods of prospecting for minerals, M. -L., Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1940; Mineral resources of the Kola Peninsula (current state, analysis, forecast), 1941; Gems of Russia, Pg., 1921, vol. I; Entertaining mineralogy, M., 1928 (5th ed., 1937); Memories of the Stone, M., 1940 (2nd ed., Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1945).

About A. E. Fersman: Autobiography, Ogonyok, 1927, No. 8; Shubnikova O. M., Fersman Alexander Evgenievich, B.S.E., 1936, t. LVII; Bibliographic collection "Alexander Evgenievich Fersman", ed. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1940; In memory of AE Fersman, "Bulletin of the Moscow Society of Naturalists", 1946, No. 1 (articles: Saukov, Varsanofyeva, Kryzhanovsky, Chernov, Vorobyova, Lebedev); In memory of AE Fersman, "Notes of the Mineralogical Society", 1946, No. 1.

Auxiliary equipment for boiler plants in Khabarovsk on

Fersman Alexander Evgenievich - famous Soviet academician, geologist, geochemist, mineralogist. Alexander Evgenievich Fersman was born on November 8, 1883 in St. Petersburg. In 1901 Fersman graduated from the IV Odessa classical gymnasium and entered the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Novorossiysk University. In 1903 he entered Moscow University. In 1907, Fersman graduated from the university, he was left at the university to prepare for a professorship and was sent on a scientific trip abroad to improve his qualifications. Abroad, he met Viktor Goldschmidt, later one of the greatest geochemists. In his laboratory, he comprehends optical and crystallographic methods for the study of minerals. She pays special attention to the diamond. In 1909, Fersman took the position of supernumerary assistant at the Mineralogical Office of Moscow University. In 1912, Alexander Evgenievich Fersman became a professor at Moscow University, where he taught a course in geochemistry. In 1915, a Commission for the Study of the Natural Forces of Russia was formed at the Academy of Sciences. Alexander Evgenievich became its member. Fersman was director of the Mineralogical Museum at the Institute of Crystallography, Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Vice President and member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

AE Fersman's first trip abroad played a big role in his life, as it determined one of the main themes of his subsequent works. In connection with a visit to the Elbe Island, where there were remarkable deposits of precious stones and minerals associated with pegmatite veins, A.E. vapors of dissociated water and various volatile substances. Deposits of precious stones, various micas, feldspars, tin stone, radioactive and rare minerals, and a number of others of great interest to a mineralogist are associated with pegmatite veins. A.E. Fersman began to study remarkable pegmatites and deposits of precious stones in the Urals, Central Asia, Ukraine, Transbaikalia.

In parallel with the study of pegmatites and precious stones, AE Fersman conducted a number of other studies. First of all, it should be noted his works devoted to the processes of mineral formation near the earth's surface - in that region of the earth's crust, which before him was almost not affected by the research of mineralogists. AE Fersman studies the interesting mineral polygorskite, known as mountain skin; original minerals zeolites; writes an interesting summary of magnesian silicates. These works cover a large material of field observations and chemical analyzes and broadly cover a number of important general issues, in particular the role of colloidal formations in chemical processes taking place in the earth's crust. These works for the first time aroused interest among mineralogists in colloidal chemistry, which was of great theoretical and practical importance.

Fersman leads expeditions to various regions of the country. In the Khibiny tundra, an expedition under his leadership discovered the richest deposits of apatite, which at that time were unparalleled in the whole world. The processing of apatite for mineral fertilizers solved the most important agricultural problem. In 1929, with the direct participation of Fersman, the industrial development of the most valuable raw materials began. Mines were laid, new settlements and cities appeared. In Monche-tundra, neighboring with the Khibiny, Fersman discovered a large deposit of nickel ores, which made it possible to refuse to import them. In the Karakum Desert, he explored sulfur deposits, on the basis of which the first plant in the USSR for its production was founded. Immediately after the October Revolution, the practical foundations for the production of domestic radium began to be laid, and Fersman played a large role in organizing the work.

In 1940, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences created a special Uranium Commission. Fersman's main tasks are the creation of a base of uranium raw materials, the organization of prospecting for new uranium deposits in the country. During the Great Patriotic War, A. E. Fersman fully focused on the issues of strategic raw materials.

The main works of AE Fersman: Materials for the study of the polygorskite group, Izvestiya AN SSSR, 6th series, 1908, vol. II, No. 8; Research in the field of magnesian silicates, "Notes of the USSR Academy of Sciences", dep. fiz.-math., 8th series, 1913, v. XXXII, no. 2; Precious and colored stones of Russia, vol. I, Pg., 1920; The same, t. And; Deposits, 1925; Chemical Elements of the Earth and Space, Pg., 1923; Pegmatites, their scientific and practical significance, vol. I; Granite pegmatites, "Proceedings of SOPS", 1913, no. I (3rd ed., M. -L., Ed. Of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1940); Geochemistry, Goskhimizdat, L., 1933-1939, vol. I (1933, 1934), vol. II (1934), vol. III (1937), vol. IV (1939); Energy characteristics of geochemical processes, "Reports of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR", 1935, vol. II, No. 3-4; Colors of metals, ed. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1936; Geochemical and mineralogical methods of prospecting for minerals, M. -L., Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1940; Mineral resources of the Kola Peninsula (current state, analysis, forecast), 1941; Gems of Russia, Pg., 1921, vol. I; Entertaining mineralogy, M., 1928 (5th ed., 1937); Memories of the Stone, M., 1940 (2nd ed., Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1945).