however, he returned to St Petersburg (the present and fifth capital of "Holy Russia"), became Professor of Chemistry in the Technological Institute, and three years later was appointed to the same chair in the University of St Petersburg.
Mendeléeff is the first name of world-wide eminence that Siberia,[1] one of the largest countries of the globe, has produced.
In his early career Mendeléeff was a political economist, and no mean authority on kindred subjects, and his views were listened to by the Russian officials with the greatest respect. He was a firm supporter of autocracy and plutocracy. He had nothing of the Nihilist in his nature. Mendeléeff was tall and slim, and like many Russians had a long beard and a fine intellectual head. In his young days he was extremely reserved, and when seen in the streets of the Russian capital, he seemed buried in thought.
His lectures were fluent, forcible, and animated to such an extent that Mendeléeff was really a great orator. He held his audience spell-bound when discussing on chemistry.
Mendeléeff was a man of decided opinions of his own.
- ↑ Siberia covers 4,833,500 square miles—nearly forty times as great an area as that of the United Kingdom. Exile to Siberia began soon after the discovery of the country; and on an average, 20,000 persons are transported every year!
