Vladimir Obruchev
Encyclopedia
Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev ' onMouseout='HidePop("16327")' href="/topics/Rzhev">Rzhev
, Tver Oblast
, Russian Empire
– June 19, 1956, Moscow
, USSR) was a Russia
n and Soviet geologist
who specialized in the study of Siberia
and Central Asia
. He was also one of the first Russian science fiction
authors.
. He also gave advice on construction of the Central Asian and Trans-Siberian Railway
s and consulted Sven Hedin
on his projected journey to Siberia. While working for the railway, Obruchev explored the Kara Kum Desert, the shores of the Amu Darya
River, and the old riverbeds of the Uzbois. He also worked as a geologist on Lake Baikal
, on the Lena River
, and in gold fields near the Vitim.
Between 1892 and 1894, Obruchev "was a member of the Grigory Potanin
's expedition into ... Mongolia, [and] to the mountains of Nan Shan and Northern China." He also explored the Transbaikal
area, Dzhungaria, and Altai.
In 1929, Obruchev was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Having spent half a century in exploring Siberia and Inner Asia, Obruchev summarized his findings with a three-volume monograph
, The Geology of Siberia (1935–1938), followed by The History of Geological Exploration of Siberia. Many of his works deal with the origins of loess
in Central Asia and Siberia, ice
formation and permafrost
in Siberia, problems of Siberian tectonics
, and Siberian goldfield
s. He also authored many popular scientific works, such as Formation of Mountains and Ore Deposits (1932), Fundamentals of Geology (1944), Field Geology (1927), Ore Deposits (1928–1929), and others. All together, Obruchev authored
During 1954, he completed an extensive geographical study of Nan Shan Mountains in China
based on his own and previous expeditions to the region and spent his last years working up a geological study of the mountains.
novels, Plutonia
(1915) and Sannikov Land
(1924). Both of these stories, imitating the pattern of Arthur Conan Doyle
's The Lost World
, depict in vivid detail the discovery of an isolated world of prehistoric animals in hitherto unexplored large islands north of Alaska or Siberia.
In Plutonia, dinosaurs and other Jurassic species are found in a fictional underground area north of Alaska. The descriptive passages are made more credible by Obruchev's extensive knowledge of paleontology
.
"Sannikov Land" is named for a phantom island of the Arctic Ocean, reported historically by Yakov Sannikov during 1811. Paul J. McAuley praised the novel in a 1999 column, saying "It's true that the characters are indistinguishably wooden mouthpieces for the author's opinions, and the plot is pure pulp, but all this is redeemed by the novel's rigorous scientific sensibility."
During the Soviet period, Obruchev attempted to emulate Edwardian models of boys' adventure stories
in his novels Golddiggers in the Desert (1928) and In the Wilds of Central Asia (1951).
Rzhev
Rzhev is a town in Tver Oblast, Russia, southwest of Staritsa and from Tver, on the highway and railway connecting Moscow and Riga. It is the uppermost town situated on the Volga River. Population:...
, Tver Oblast
Tver Oblast
Tver Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tver. From 1935 to 1990, it was named Kalinin Oblast after Mikhail Kalinin. Population: Tver Oblast is an area of lakes, such as Seliger and Brosno...
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
– June 19, 1956, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, USSR) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n and Soviet geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
who specialized in the study of Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
and Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
. He was also one of the first Russian science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
authors.
Scientific research
Vladimir Obruchev graduated from the Petersburg Mining Institute during 1886. His early work involved the study of gold-mining, which led him to come up with a theory explaining the origin of gold deposits in SiberiaSiberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. He also gave advice on construction of the Central Asian and Trans-Siberian Railway
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...
s and consulted Sven Hedin
Sven Hedin
Sven Anders Hedin KNO1kl RVO was a Swedish geographer, topographer, explorer, photographer, and travel writer, as well as an illustrator of his own works...
on his projected journey to Siberia. While working for the railway, Obruchev explored the Kara Kum Desert, the shores of the Amu Darya
Amu Darya
The Amu Darya , also called Oxus and Amu River, is a major river in Central Asia. It is formed by the junction of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers...
River, and the old riverbeds of the Uzbois. He also worked as a geologist on Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is the world's oldest at 30 million years old and deepest lake with an average depth of 744.4 metres.Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the...
, on the Lena River
Lena River
The Lena is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean . It is the 11th longest river in the world and has the 9th largest watershed...
, and in gold fields near the Vitim.
Between 1892 and 1894, Obruchev "was a member of the Grigory Potanin
Grigory Potanin
Grigory Nikolayaevich Potanin was a Russian explorer of Inner Asia who aligned himself with the Siberian separatist movement...
's expedition into ... Mongolia, [and] to the mountains of Nan Shan and Northern China." He also explored the Transbaikal
Transbaikal
Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia , or Dauria is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" Lake Baikal in Russia. The alternative name, Dauria, is derived from the ethnonym of the Daur people. It stretches for almost 1000 km from north to south from the Patomskoye Plateau and North...
area, Dzhungaria, and Altai.
In 1929, Obruchev was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Having spent half a century in exploring Siberia and Inner Asia, Obruchev summarized his findings with a three-volume monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
, The Geology of Siberia (1935–1938), followed by The History of Geological Exploration of Siberia. Many of his works deal with the origins of loess
Loess
Loess is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometre size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate...
in Central Asia and Siberia, ice
Ice
Ice is water frozen into the solid state. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions...
formation and permafrost
Permafrost
In geology, permafrost, cryotic soil or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of...
in Siberia, problems of Siberian tectonics
Tectonics
Tectonics is a field of study within geology concerned generally with the structures within the lithosphere of the Earth and particularly with the forces and movements that have operated in a region to create these structures.Tectonics is concerned with the orogenies and tectonic development of...
, and Siberian goldfield
Gold mining
Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.-History:...
s. He also authored many popular scientific works, such as Formation of Mountains and Ore Deposits (1932), Fundamentals of Geology (1944), Field Geology (1927), Ore Deposits (1928–1929), and others. All together, Obruchev authored
over a thousand scientific works, among which are a most extensive geological study of Siberia and a five-volume history of the geological exploration of Siberia, which have been awarded the Lenin PrizeLenin PrizeThe Lenin Prize was one of the most prestigious awards of the USSR, presented to individuals for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was created on June 23, 1925 and was awarded until 1934. During the period from 1935 to 1956, the Lenin Prize was...
as well as the prizes and medals of several scientific societies.
During 1954, he completed an extensive geographical study of Nan Shan Mountains in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
based on his own and previous expeditions to the region and spent his last years working up a geological study of the mountains.
Popular fiction
In his native country Obruchev is best known as the author of two perennially popular science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novels, Plutonia
Plutonia (novel)
Plutonia is a novel released in 1915 by Vladimir Obruchev. Is a hollow-earth-type of science fiction novel set in an underground world of rivers, lakes, volcanoes, and strange vegetation, a world which has its own sun –Pluto– and inhabited by monstrous animals and primitive people...
(1915) and Sannikov Land
Sannikov Land
Sannikov Land was a phantom island in the Arctic Ocean. Its supposed existence became something of a myth in 19th-century Russia.Yakov Sannikov and Matvei Gedenschtrom claimed to have seen it during their 1809-1810 cartographic expedition to the New Siberian Islands...
(1924). Both of these stories, imitating the pattern of Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
's The Lost World
The Lost World (Arthur Conan Doyle)
The Lost World is a novel released in 1912 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle concerning an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin of South America where prehistoric animals still survive. It was originally published serially in the popular Strand Magazine during the months of April 1912-November 1912...
, depict in vivid detail the discovery of an isolated world of prehistoric animals in hitherto unexplored large islands north of Alaska or Siberia.
In Plutonia, dinosaurs and other Jurassic species are found in a fictional underground area north of Alaska. The descriptive passages are made more credible by Obruchev's extensive knowledge of paleontology
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
.
"Sannikov Land" is named for a phantom island of the Arctic Ocean, reported historically by Yakov Sannikov during 1811. Paul J. McAuley praised the novel in a 1999 column, saying "It's true that the characters are indistinguishably wooden mouthpieces for the author's opinions, and the plot is pure pulp, but all this is redeemed by the novel's rigorous scientific sensibility."
During the Soviet period, Obruchev attempted to emulate Edwardian models of boys' adventure stories
Adventure novel
The adventure novel is a genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme.-History:...
in his novels Golddiggers in the Desert (1928) and In the Wilds of Central Asia (1951).
Official positions
- ProfessorProfessorA professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of the Tomsk Engineering InstituteTomsk Polytechnic UniversityTomsk Polytechnic University in Tomsk, Russia, is the oldest technical university in Russia east of the Urals. The university was founded in 1896 and opened in 1900 as the Tomsk Technological Institute. In 1923, the school was renamed the Siberian Technological Institute and in 1930, the institute...
(1919–1921), - Professor of the Taurida University in SimferopolSimferopol-Russian Empire and Civil War:The city was renamed Simferopol in 1784 after the annexation of the Crimean Khanate to the Russian Empire by Catherine II of Russia. The name Simferopol is derived from the Greek, Συμφερόπολις , translated as "the city of usefulness." In 1802, Simferopol became the...
(1918–1919), - Professor of the Moscow Mining AcademyMoscow State Mining UniversityMoscow State Mining University is a Russian institute of higher education that prepares mining engineers.-History:...
(1921–1929); - Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (1929);
- Chairman of the Committee on PermafrostPermafrostIn geology, permafrost, cryotic soil or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of...
Studies (since 1930); - Director of the Institute of Permafrost Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (since 1939);
- Secretary of the Department of Geological and Geographical Sciences of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (1942–1946);
- Honorary president of the Soviet Geographical Society (since 1947).
Awards and honors
- Hero of Socialist LaborHero of Socialist LaborHero of Socialist Labour was an honorary title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. It was the highest degree of distinction for exceptional achievements in national economy and culture...
(1945) - The PrzhevalskyNikolai PrzhevalskyNikolai Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky and Prjevalsky, ; —), was a Russian geographer of Polish background and explorer of Central and Eastern Asia. Although he never reached his final goal, Lhasa in Tibet, he travelled through regions unknown to the west, such as northern Tibet, modern Qinghai and...
Prize - The Great Gold Medal of the Russian Geographical SocietyRussian Geographical SocietyThe Russian Geographical Society is a learned society, founded on 6 August 1845 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.-Imperial Geographical Society:Prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917, it was known as the Imperial Russian Geographical Society....
- Two ChikhachovPyotr Alexandrovich ChikhachovPyotr Alexandrovich Chikhachyov, last name also spelled Chikhachev or Tchihatchev was a Russian naturalist and geologist who was admitted into the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1876 as an honorary member. He authored geographical and geological descriptions of the Altai, Xinjiang , and Asia Minor...
Prizes from the French Academy of SciencesFrench Academy of SciencesThe French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research...
(1898 and 1925) - The first ever Karpinsky Gold Medal (1947)
- The Lenin PrizeLenin PrizeThe Lenin Prize was one of the most prestigious awards of the USSR, presented to individuals for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was created on June 23, 1925 and was awarded until 1934. During the period from 1935 to 1956, the Lenin Prize was...
(1926) - The Stalin PrizeUSSR State PrizeThe USSR State Prize was the Soviet Union's state honour. It was established on September 9, 1966. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the prize was followed up by the State Prize of the Russian Federation....
s (1941, 1950) - Five Orders of LeninOrder of LeninThe Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
- Order of the Red Banner of LabourOrder of the Red Banner of LabourThe Order of the Red Banner of Labour was an order of the Soviet Union for accomplishments in labour and civil service. It is the labour counterpart of the military Order of the Red Banner. A few institutions and factories, being the pride of Soviet Union, also received the order.-History:The Red...
, and numerous medals.
Things named after Obruchev
- Obruchevite, a mineral.
- Akademik Obruchev Range in TuvaTuvaThe Tyva Republic , or Tuva , is a federal subject of Russia . It lies in the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders with the Altai Republic, the Republic of Khakassia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Irkutsk Oblast, and the Republic of Buryatia in Russia and with Mongolia to the...
- A mountainMountainImage:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
in the upper reaches of the Vitim RiverVitim RiverVitim River is a major tributary of the Lena River. With its source east of Lake Baikal, the Vitim flows 1,978 km north through the Transbaykalian Mountains and the town of Bodaybo. The river peaks in June and freezes from November to May. It is navigable from the Lena to Bodaybo. Upstream,... - An oasisOasisIn geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source...
in Antarctica - Obruchev (crater)Obruchev (crater)Obruchev is a disintegrating lunar crater that lies along the southern shore of Mare Ingenii, on the far side of the Moon. Less than three crater diameters to the south of Obruchev is the crater Chrétien, and about the same distance to the southeast lies Oresme.The outer rim of this crater has been...
on the MoonMoonThe Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more... - The Obruchev Prize was established by the Soviet Academy of Sciences during 1938 to honor best works in the field of Siberian geology.
- Vladimir Obruchev - oil and gas research vessel: built at Kirov yard, KhabarovskKhabarovskKhabarovsk is the largest city and the administrative center of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. It is located some from the Chinese border. It is the second largest city in the Russian Far East, after Vladivostok. The city became the administrative center of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia...
; will operate in Caspian SeaCaspian SeaThe Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
.
Family
Two of his sons also became notable scientists:- Sergei Obruchev, a geologist, discovered the Chersky RangeChersky RangeThe Chersky Range is a chain of mountains in northeastern Siberia between the Yana River and the Indigirka River. It generally runs from northwest to southeast through the Sakha Republic and Magadan Oblast. The tallest mountain in the range is Peak Pobeda, which is 3,003 meters tall. The range...
in Siberia. - Dmitry Obruchev, a paleontologist, was a leading authority on early vertebrates.