V.I. Vernadsky in Kazakhstan (from the history of scientific connections of Russia and Kazakhstan)

Academician Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863-1945) is a well-known scientist and naturalist, the founder of biogeochemis-try science as well as a thinker and a public figure. During the evacuation to Kazakhstan of 1941-1943 his active work impacted the creation of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan. His scientific research of noosphere in whole was materialized in the idea of Kazakhstan transformation to the space research center. Nowadays, Kazakhstan Baikonur is deservedly considered the main space harbor of the planet Earth. In the first half of the 20th century V.I. Vernadsky worked closely with Central Asia and Kazakhstan. Thus, while looking for radium, V.I. Vernadsky moved across Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. In 1916, while journeying through Altai, he visited the Ridder mine and the Semipalatinsk town. Here Vernadsky met the well-known people of the city and got acquainted with the work of Semipalatinsk Geographical Society, also he admired a rich mineral collection and was interested in the works of the Kazakh poet and educator Abay Kunanbayev. V.I. Vernadsky made friends with Kanysh Imantayevich Satpayev, a famous geologist and the first President of Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR. V.I. Vernadsky called on Kazakhstan scientists to make active search of uranium as the energy of the future. On July 16, 1941, the government decided to evacuate the group of academicians including V.I. Vernadsky to the Borovoe resort, Kazakhstan. He was accompanied by his wife Natalya Egorovna as well as his personal secretary Anna Dmitriyevna Shakhovskaya and others. In the evacuation period Vernadsky actively worked in the Academic Center and also gave special attention to the science history questions. The article "Gete kak naturalist" ("Goethe as a Naturalist") is one of such works written at that time. In 1943, still in Borovoe, he wrote the work "O sostoyanii prostranstva v geologicheskikh yavleniyakh Zemli kak planety. Na fone rosta nauki XX stoletiya" ("On the condition of space in the geological phenomena of the Earth as a planet. Against the 20th-century science progress"). Working on fundamental research and organizational issues, V.I. Vernadsky kept a close watch on the works of his numerous pupils and collaborators, keeping up regular correspondence. He was awarded with the Stalin Award of the First Degree for his outstanding works in the field of science and technology, as well as with the Labour Red Banner Order for great service in the development of geochemistry and genetic mineralogy. At the end of August, 1943, Vladimir Ivanovich returned to Moscow. At the age of nearly 82, the scientist still kept working. He died on January 6, 1945.

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