The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Lomonosov, Mikhail Vasilievich

LOMONOSOV, lō-mō-nō'sŏf, Mikhail Vasilievich, Russian poet and man of science: b. Denisovka (now Lomonosov), near Archangel, 1711; d. 1765. His father was a fisherman in poor circumstances and the youth's schooling was confined to a few books which he almost committed to memory. At the age of 17 he decided to go to Moscow to obtain an education and in that city with the aid of friends secured admission to a school. There he lived in want but made rapid progress in his studies and in 1734 was sent to Saint Petersburg. In the capital he made great progress in physical science and was chosen one of the youths to be sent abroad to finish their education. At Marburg he studied metallurgy and subsequently spent two years at Freiberg. In 1739 he published his ‘Ode on the Taking of Khotin from the Turks,’ which attracted great attention. He also wrote dramas, epigrams, etc., in the style of the period. In Germany Lomonosov married a German girl and soon found himself unable to maintain his domestic establishment on the irregular remittances from his government. He left Germany secretly and in his native country soon rose to distinction. He was at first professor of chemistry in the University of Saint Petersburg of which he was later made rector, and was appointed Secretary of State in 1764. His Russian grammar was long the standard work in its field and did much to stamp the form of the new Russian after its break with Church Slavonic. Perhaps Lomonosov's greatest monument is the great University of Moscow, of which he was the founder and the early policy of which he planned. He was one of the most learned men in Europe. His Russian grammar is said “to have drawn out the plan, and his poetry to have built up the fabric of his native language.” He is called “the father of Russian literature.” Consult the edition of his works issued by the Imperial Academy of Sciences (4 vols., Saint Petersburg 1892-98); Pekarsky, ‘History of the Academy of Sciences’ (Vol. II, ib. 1873); the lives by P. Borzakovsky (Odessa 1911) and B. N. Menshutkin (Saint Petersburg 1911).