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( Mikhail Lomonosov)
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (?????´? ????´?????? ??????´???) (November 19 [O.S. November 8] 1711&_160;– April 15 [O.S. April 4] 1765) was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries was the atmosphere of Venus. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art, philology, optical devices and others. Lomonosov was also a poet, who created the basis of the modern Russian literary language. Lomonosov was born in the village of Denisovka (later renamed Lomonosovo in his honor) in the Arkhangelsk Governorate, on an island not far from Kholmogory, in the Far North of Russia. When he was ten years old, the young Lomonosov had to help his father, a fisherman, and work. But the boy's thirst for knowledge was unbounded. He almost learned by heart the few books he had access to&_160;– and, seeing there was no chance of education at home, he decided to walk to Moscow. An opportunity occurred when he was nineteen and by the intervention of friends he obtained admission into the Slavic Greek Latin Academy in 1731. He lived on 3 kopecks a day but his progress was very rapid. In only 5 years he completed a 12 year course, finished at the top of his class. He studied for one year in Kiev Mogila Academy, unsatisfied with the education there he returned to Moscow[1], and in 1736 he was sent to Saint Petersburg with a scholarship. There his proficiency, especially in physical science, again stood out. He also plunged into philological science, learned French and German, and ultimately received a 2 year grant to study in German universities. Upon his return to Russia in 1745, he was appointed professor of chemistry at the Academy itself. He accordingly went to Marburg University in Hesse, Germany, then one of Europe's most important universities (at a time when universities in general were in some decay) because of the presence of the most eminent German Enlightenment philosopher of his time, Christian Wolff. Lomonosov studied with Wolff and became one of his personal students; both philosophically and as a science administrator (also a forte of Wolff), this connection would be most influential for the rest of his life.
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