Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (Russian: Владимир Иванович Вернадский), known in Ukraine as Volodymyr Ivanovych Vernadsky (Ukrainian: Володимир Іванович Вернадський; 12 March [O.S. 28 February] 1863 – 6 January 1945), was a Russian, Ukrainian, and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and radiogeology. He was one of the founders and the first president of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (now National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). Vladimir Vernadsky is most noted for his 1926 book The Biosphere in which he inadvertently worked to popularize Eduard Suess's 1875 term biosphere, by hypothesizing that life is the geological force that shapes the earth. In 1943 he was awarded the Stalin Prize. Vernadsky's portrait is depicted on the Ukrainian ₴1,000 hryvnia banknote.
Early life
Vernadsky was born in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, on 12 March [O.S. 28 February] 1863 in the family of the native Kiev residents Russian Imperial economist Ivan Vernadsky and Anna Konstantinovich, who came from an old Russian noble family, which was of Greek descent. According to family legend, his father's ancestors were Zaporozhian Cossacks. Ivan Vernadsky had been a professor of political economy in Kiev at the St. Vladimir University before moving to Saint Petersburg; then he was an Active State Councillor and worked in the Governing Senate in St. Petersburg. He was also an editor of a liberal journal which opposed censorship and serfdom. Anna Konstantinovich was a Ukrainian Cossack music instructor, of Greek descent. In 1868 his family relocated to Kharkov, where he continued his education, and in 1873 he entered the Kharkov provincial gymnasium. His father gifted scientific books that included On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin and Cosmos by Alexander Humboldt, which was his introduction to early evolutionary theory in relation to nature. Along with the books, his uncle Evgraf Korolenko, a retired civil servant, mentored Vernadsky, taking him on long walks under the stars to discuss the earth and the cosmos. This introduction turned Vernadsky's attention from humanities to science. Vernadsky graduated from Saint Petersburg State University in 1885. As the position of mineralogist in Saint Petersburg State University was vacant, and Vasily Dokuchaev, a soil scientist, and Alexey Pavlov, a geologist, had been teaching Mineralogy for a while, Vernadsky chose to enter Mineralogy. Vernadsky chose it because of the proximity to his childhood home, which allowed him to care for his recently widowed mother. Vernadsky went on to study as faculty at Saint Petersburg State University in the Physics-Mathematics program where he specialized in crystallography and mineralogy. Vernadsky graduated in 1885 with a thesis on isomorphous mixtures in minerals. In 1886, Vernadsky married Natalya E. Staritskaya. In 1888–1890, he traveled through Europe, studying in Germany, France, England, Switzerland, and Italy, the museums of Paris and London, and worked in Munich and Paris. While abroad, he studied under Henry Le Chatelier, Paul Von Groth, and Ferdinand André Fouqué, supporting his decision to focus his studies in crystallography and mineralogy. While trying to find a topic for his doctorate, he first went to Naples to study under crystallographer Arcangelo Scacchi, who was senile by that time. Scacchi's condition led Vernadsky to go to Germany to study under Paul Groth, curator of minerals in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. Vernadsky learned to use Groth's modern equipment, which included a machine to study the optical, thermal, elastic, magnetic and electrical properties of crystals. He also gained access to the physics lab of Leonhard Sohncke (Direktor, Physikalisches Institut der Universität Jena, 1883–1886; Professor der Physik an der Technischen Hochschule München 1886–1897), who was studying crystallisation during that period. In the year 1888, Vernadsky had the opportunity to attend the 4th International Geological Congress held in London before moving on to study under Fouqué and Chatelier in Paris. In 1889, when Dokuchaev declined to attend, Vernadsky took over the World Exhibition in Paris on his behalf. His exhibit featured a display on Russian soils where he earned a gold medal for his organization and presentation. Vernadsky's father had a huge influence on Vladimir. Vladimir later recalled that before moving from Kharkov to St. Petersburg, he and his father were abroad and in Milan, they read about a circular in Pyotr Lavrov's newspaper "Forward" that forbade printing in Ukrainian in Russia. In his memoirs, he wrote:
This made a huge impression on my father, and the conversations related to it had a strong effect on me at the time. My father told the history of Ukraine in a completely different way than it was taught in high school. He often mentioned that St. Petersburg was built on the bones of Ukrainians (St. Petersburg was built by Cossacks from Mazepa's regiments). Returning to St. Petersburg, I tried to get acquainted with Ukrainian literature. In my father's library I found various issues of "Osnova" and other Ukrainian publications. I obtained Ukrainian books from second-hand booksellers, and received some from abroad. I asked my father in detail about Shevchenko, Kulish, Maksimovich, Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, whom he knew personally, as well as about the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, about Kostomarov, etc. In St. Petersburg, a 15-year-old boy noted in his diary on 29 March 1878:
Ukrainians are terribly oppressed. Even in Austria, Drahomanov was not allowed to publish a newspaper in Ukrainian. In Russia, it is absolutely forbidden to print books in my native language. During the holidays, I will take it up with all due diligence. In Kiev, if they see a portrait of Shevchenko in some house, they take it away…
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