Biography of Mendeleev. Mendeleev Dmitry Ivanovich brief biography and his discoveries

Who is Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev? March 4th, 2014

About Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907) short article It’s harder to write than a thick book. In so many areas of science (and not only in chemistry) he distinguished himself by making first-class discoveries!

But it would be a mistake to think that the life of D.I. Mendeleev was a kind of triumphal march from victory to victory. Most likely, it's the other way around. Everything was difficult for him.

Dmitry Ivanovich was born in the city of Tobolsk. He was the last, seventeenth, child in the family, and the eighth surviving child. He studied, as they said then, “with copper money.” His mother, Maria Dmitrievna, after the death of his father, Ivan Pavlovich, alone managed and fed a large family. Her family owned a glass factory, and her mother took the place of manager at this factory. This was the source of income.

When Dmitry Ivanovich completed his studies at the Tobolsk gymnasium, his mother left her native Siberia forever and moved to Moscow with her son and youngest daughter.

There are many legends about D.I. Mendeleev, which most often turn out to be fiction. One of these fictions: Dmitry Ivanovich did not shine with knowledge and did not pass the entrance exams to the university. In fact, gymnasium graduates entered the university without exams. But only to the university of your own educational district. Tobolsk belonged to the Kazan educational district. Therefore, D.I. Mendeleev could only enter Kazan University. But it didn’t seem convenient for my mother to settle in Kazan. Relatives lived in Moscow, including the mother’s brother, whose help, as she hoped, would allow her son to enter a university that was not “permitted.” Did not work out. And only after three years of worries and troubles, in 1850, D.I. Mendeleev became a student at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Main Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg. So Dmitry Ivanovich did not graduate from universities.

After graduating from the Pedagogical Institute, D.I. Mendeleev worked for two years in the south of Russia as a teacher, first at the Simferopol Men's Gymnasium, and then at the Richelieu Gymnasium in Odessa. In 1856, he brilliantly defended his master's thesis in chemistry. From 1857 to 1890, D.I. Mendeleev taught chemistry and chemical technology at St. Petersburg University. In memory of this, one of the lines of Vasilyevsky Island, which ran next to the building of St. Petersburg University, is called Mendeleevskaya.

Dmitry Ivanovich’s trip on a two-year scientific trip to Germany, to the University of Heidelberg, was very fruitful. He went on a business trip on the recommendation of the famous chemist A.A. Voskresensky in 1859 and worked in Heidelberg until 1861. In photographs of that time, the twenty-five-year-old scientist already has a beard. But youth is youth. During his stay in Heidelberg, Dmitry Ivanovich had an affair with an actress. From this affair a child was born, for whose maintenance Mendeleev sent money, although he was never completely sure of his paternity.

Another legend about D.I. Mendeleev. Returning to Russia from Germany, in 1865 he defended his doctoral dissertation under the cheerful title “On the combination of alcohol with water.” But in this dissertation it was not revealed at all that the strength of vodka should be forty degrees. What strength vodka should and could be was known almost a hundred years before. D.I. Mendeleev’s doctoral dissertation laid the foundation for one of the branches of physical chemistry that was emerging at that time, the theory of solutions. Why did the scientist become interested in solutions of water and alcohol? Because when water and alcohol are mixed, the volume of the resulting solution is significantly less than the sum of the volumes of the components. This occurs because small water molecules are packed inside larger alcohol molecules, forming a “tight pack.”

Returning to Russia in 1861, D.I. Mendeleev taught at St. Petersburg University and several others educational institutions capital Cities. Also in 1861, his outstanding textbook “Organic Chemistry” was published.

Dmitry Ivanovich’s main discovery, the periodic system of chemical elements, also arose largely as a result pedagogical activity and works on writing the most comprehensive textbook “Fundamentals of Chemistry”.

Inorganic chemistry deals with a wide variety of elements. In fact, each element has its own “chemistry”. Should students really take dozens of specific chemical courses, each on a specific element?

On the other hand, chemists have long noticed the similarity of various elements: lithium, sodium and potassium, iron, nickel and cobalt, inert (or, as they were also called, noble) gases... But before the discovery of D.I. Mendeleev, all these were observations on empirical level. Mendeleev discovered the periodicity of changes in properties in all known elements. And he indicated places for elements not yet discovered. The discovery of new elements had to wait several years. The first of these, gallium, was discovered in 1875, five years after the publication of the famous periodic table, the second, scandium, in 1879. This was partly the reason that D.I. Mendeleev did not become an academician. In 1880, he was promoted to academician, but members of the Academy of Sciences swamped the scientist: there were no discoveries in chemistry. The periodic system was considered by many to be scientific discovery, but by a methodical method. Or they wanted to count...

In 1869, D.I. Mendeleev’s article “Experience of a system of elements based on their atomic weight and chemical similarity” appeared. By the way, it was reported at the first meeting of the newly created Russian Chemical Society. In 1871, a revised article “Periodic Law for Chemical Elements” appeared, which outlined this outstanding discovery.

And again - a legend. They say that D.I. Mendeleev dreamed of the Periodic Law. The scientist himself told several friends about this. This is a little reminiscent of the story of an apple falling on I. Newton’s head, which supposedly prompted him to discover the law universal gravity, which was actually invented by the great mockingbird Voltaire. On the other hand, why not? The solution to a problem, if you think hard about it, sometimes comes at the most unexpected moments and for the most unexpected reasons.

D.I. Mendeleev's interests are surprisingly diverse and he achieved serious results in any field. Among other things, he pioneered scientific metrology. He worked in petrochemistry and oil refining. He revealed the secret of nitroglycerin gunpowder, which the French began to produce. He participated in the creation of the first Tomsk University in Siberia and almost became its rector. Flew on hot-air balloon. I even studied scientific research spiritualism.

All in all, amazing person and an amazing scientist whom Russia has every right be proud.

Mendeleev's biography is complete interesting facts, which are most often little known to the common man.

Dmitry Ivanovich was born into the family of the director of the Tobolsk gymnasium, Iv. P. Mendeleev and M. Dm. Kornilieva, daughter of a poor Siberian landowner, January 27 (02/08), 1834. He was the 17th son (according to another version - 14), but his mother did everything possible to ensure that her “last child” received a good education.

Childhood and education

A brief biography of Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev says that the future scientist spent part of his life in Siberia, where the Decembrists were serving exile at the same time. The Mendeleev family was familiar with I. Pushchin, A. M. Muravyov, P. N. Svistunov, M. A. Fonvizin.

The formation of Dmitry Ivanovich’s life views was also influenced by his uncle, his mother’s brother, Vasily Dmitrievich Korniliev, who was familiar with outstanding representatives of the world of art and science of his time. Perhaps, in his uncle’s house, Dmitry Ivanovich could meet N. Gogol, F. Glinka, M. Pogodin and even Sergei Lvovich and Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.

Information has been preserved that one of Dmitry Ivanovich’s teachers at the gymnasium was the later famous poet P. Ershov (author of the famous “The Little Humpbacked Horse”).

The future scientist received his higher education in St. Petersburg, at the Main Pedagogical Institute. His mother did everything to ensure that her son was enrolled in the first year of this educational institution.

Family and Children

Mendeleev was married twice. The first wife, Fiza Leshcheva, was the stepdaughter of P. Ershov, and the second, Anna Popova, was 26 years younger than the scientist. From two marriages 7 children were born. One of his daughters, Lyubov Mendeleeva, was the wife of the famous Russian Silver Age poet A. Blok.

Scientific activity

In 1855, Mendeleev graduated from the institute (with a gold medal) and began teaching. First he worked at the Simferopol gymnasium (where he met N.I. Pirogov), then at the Richelieu Lyceum in Odessa. In 1856 he defended his dissertation and received a master's degree in chemistry.

From 1857 to 1890 he worked at the Imperial St. Petersburg University in the department of chemistry.

From 1859 to 1860 he taught and worked in Germany, at the University of Heidelberg, where he met such scientists as R. Bunsen and J. Gibbson.

Since 1872, after receiving the title of professor, he taught at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, Nikolaev Engineering School, and also at the Institute of Transport. Since 1876 he has been a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences.

Discovery of the Periodic Law

Scientists discovered and formulated one of the fundamental laws of nature - periodic law chemical elements. It should be noted that Mendeleev worked on his system from 1869 to 1900 and was never completely satisfied with his work.

Last years and death

IN last years Mendeleev did a lot in his life to open the first university in Siberia, founded the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures, contributed to the opening of the Polytechnic Institute in Kyiv, created the first Russian Empire Chemical Society.

The scientist died in 1907, at the age of 72. He was buried in one of the cemeteries in St. Petersburg.

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The average rating this biography received. Show rating Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907) - Russian scientist-encyclopedist. In 1869 he discovered the periodic law of chemical elements - one of the basic laws of natural science. He left over 500 published works, including the classic “Fundamentals of Chemistry” - the first coherent presentation of inorganic chemistry. Also D.I. Mendeleev is the author of fundamental research in physics, metrology, aeronautics, meteorology, agriculture, economics, public education, closely related to the needs economic development

Russia. Organizer and first director of the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures.

Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev was born on February 8, 1834 in Tobolsk in the family of Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev, who at that time held the position of director of the Tobolsk gymnasium and schools of the Tobolsk district. Dmitry was the last, seventeenth child in the family. In 1841-1849. studied at the Tobolsk gymnasium.

In 1862, Mendeleev married the stepdaughter of the famous author of “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov, Feozva Nikitichnaya Leshcheva, a native of Tobolsk. In this marriage he had three children, but one daughter died in infancy. In 1865, the scientist acquired the Boblovo estate in the Moscow province, where he was engaged in agrochemistry and agriculture. F.N. Leshcheva and her children lived there most of the time.

In 1864-1866. DI. Mendeleev was a professor at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. In 1865 he defended his doctoral dissertation “On the combination of alcohol with water” and at the same time was approved as a professor at St. Petersburg University. Mendeleev also taught at other higher educational institutions. Took an active part in public life, speaking in the press with demands for permission to give public lectures, protested against circulars restricting the rights of students, and discussed a new university charter.

Mendeleev's discovery of the periodic law dates back to March 1, 1869, when he compiled a table entitled "An Experience of a System of Elements Based on Their Atomic Weights and Chemical Similarities." It was the result of many years of searching. He compiled several versions of the periodic system and, on its basis, corrected the atomic weights of some known elements, predicted the existence and properties of still unknown elements. At first, the system itself, the corrections made and Mendeleev’s forecasts were met with restraint. But after the discovery of the elements he predicted (gallium, germanium, scandium), the periodic law began to gain recognition. The periodic table has been a kind of guiding map in the study of inorganic chemistry and in research work in this area.

In 1868, Mendeleev became one of the organizers of the Russian Chemical Society.

At the end of the 1870s. Dmitry Mendeleev fell passionately in love with Anna Ivanovna Popova, the daughter of a Don Cossack from Uryupinsk. In his second marriage, D.I. Mendeleev had four children. DI. Mendeleev was the father-in-law of the Russian poet Alexander Blok, who was married to his daughter Lyubov.

Since 1876, Dmitry Mendeleev was a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences; in 1880 he was nominated as an academician, but was voted out, which caused a sharp public protest.

In 1890, Mendeleev, being a professor at St. Petersburg University, resigned in protest against the oppression of students. Almost forcibly separated from science, Dmitry Mendeleev devoted all his energies to practical problems.

With his participation, in 1890 a draft of a new customs tariff was created, in which a protective system was consistently implemented, and in 1891 a wonderful book was published: “The Intelligible Tariff”, which represents a commentary on this project and at the same time a deeply thought-out overview of the industry , indicating its needs and future prospects. In 1891, the Naval and War Ministries entrusted Mendeleev with the development of the issue of smokeless gunpowder, and he (after a trip abroad) in 1892 brilliantly completed this task. The “pyrocollodium” he proposed turned out to be an excellent type of smokeless gunpowder, moreover, universal and easily adaptable to any firearm.

Since 1891, Mendeleev has been actively involved in the Brockhaus-Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, as the editor of the chemical-technical and factory department and the author of many articles that adorn this publication. In 1900-1902 Dmitry Mendeleev edits the “Library of Industry” (ed. Brockhaus-Efron), where he owns the issue “Teaching of Industry”. Since 1904, “Treasured Thoughts” began to be published - Mendeleev’s historical, philosophical and socio-economic treatise, which contains, as it were, his testament to posterity, the results of what he experienced and changed his mind on various issues relating to the economic, state and social life of Russia.

Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev died on January 20, 1907 from pneumonia. His funeral, at the expense of the state, was a real national mourning. The Department of Chemistry of the Russian Physical-Chemical Society established two prizes in honor of Mendeleev for best works in chemistry. Mendeleev's library, along with the furnishings of his office, was acquired by Petrograd University and is stored in a special room that once formed part of his apartment.

Mendeleev Dmitry Ivanovich

(b. 1834 – d. 1907)

A great Russian chemist and teacher, a versatile scientist whose interests extended to the fields of physics, economics, agriculture, metrology, geography, meteorology, and aeronautics. He discovered the periodic law of chemical elements - one of the basic laws of natural science.

In mid-February 1869, it was cloudy and frosty in St. Petersburg. The trees in the university garden, where the windows of the Mendeleevs’ apartment overlooked, creaked in the wind. While still in bed, Dmitry Ivanovich drank a mug of warm milk, then got up and went to have breakfast. He was in a wonderful mood. At that moment, an unexpected thought occurred to him: to compare chemical elements with similar atomic masses and their properties. Without thinking twice, on a piece of paper he wrote down the symbols of chlorine and potassium, the atomic masses of which are quite close, and sketched out the symbols of other elements, looking for similar “paradoxical” pairs among them: fluorine and sodium, bromine and rubidium, iodine and cesium...

After breakfast, the scientist locked himself in his office. He took out a pack of business cards and stood on them back side write the symbols of the elements and their main ones Chemical properties. After some time, the household heard exclamations coming from the office: “Oooh!” Horned. Wow, what a horned one! I will defeat you. I'll kill you!" This meant that Dmitry Ivanovich had come creative inspiration. Throughout the day, Mendeleev worked, only stopping briefly to play with his daughter Olga, have lunch and dinner. On the evening of February 17, 1869, he completely rewrote the table he had compiled and, under the title “Experience of a system of elements based on their atomic weight and chemical similarity,” sent it to the printing house, making notes for typesetters and putting a date.

...This is how the periodic law was discovered, the modern formulation of which is as follows: “The properties of simple substances, as well as the forms and properties of compounds of elements, are periodically dependent on the charge of the nuclei of their atoms.” Mendeleev was only 35 years old at that time.

And the brilliant scientist was born on January 27, 1834 in Tobolsk and was the last, seventeenth child in the family of the director of the local gymnasium, Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev. By that time, two brothers and five sisters were still alive in the Mendeleev family. Nine children died in infancy, and three of them were not even given names by their parents. In the year Mitya was born, his father went blind and left the service, switching to a meager pension. The main burden of caring for a family of 10 people fell on the shoulders of the mother, Maria Dmitrievna, who came from the old Tobolsk merchant family of the Kornilievs.

From her brother, who lived in Moscow, Maria Dmitrievna received a power of attorney to manage a small glass factory that belonged to him, and the Mendeleev family moved to its location - to the village of Aremzyanskoye, 25 km from Tobolsk. This is where Mitya spent his preschool years. He grew up in the lap of nature, without any embarrassment, played with his peers, the children of local peasants, in the evenings he listened to his nanny’s tales about Siberian antiquity and the stories of an old soldier who lived out his life with them about the heroic campaigns of A.V. Suvorov.

At the age of 7, Mitya entered the gymnasium. There were a lot of people in the Mendeleevs' house back then. interesting people. Dmitry's teacher was P. P. Ershov himself, the author of the famous "The Little Humpbacked Horse", his school friend was the Annenkovs' son Vladimir, the Decembrist N. V. Basargin was considered a great friend at home... Mendeleev's brothers and sisters grew up and left their home. By the time he graduated from Mitya gymnasium, his father died, and the glass factory in Aremzyan burned down. Nothing kept Maria Dmitrievna in Tobolsk anymore. At her own peril and risk, she decided to go to Moscow so that her son could continue his education.

So in 1849 Mendeleev ended up in Moscow in the house of his mother’s brother V.D. Korniliev. Efforts to enter Moscow University were not crowned with success, since graduates of the Tobolsk gymnasium could only study at Kazan University. Next year, after unsuccessful attempt to enter the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg, Dmitry, thanks to the petition of one of his father’s friends, who taught at the Main Pedagogical Institute, was enrolled there in the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics on government support. His teachers were the most famous scientists of that time - A. A. Voskresensky (chemistry), M. V. Ostrogradsky (higher mathematics), E. X. Lenz (physics).

Studying was not easy for Dmitry at first. In his first year, he managed to get unsatisfactory grades in all subjects except mathematics. But in senior years, things went differently - Mendeleev’s average annual grade was four and a half (out of a possible five). He graduated from the institute in 1855 with a gold medal and could have remained a teacher there, but his health forced him to leave for the south - doctors suspected Dmitry of tuberculosis, from which his two sisters and father died.

In August 1855, Mendeleev arrived in Simferopol, but classes at the local gymnasium were stopped due to ongoing Crimean War. In the autumn of the same year he moved to Odessa and taught at the gymnasium at the Richelieu Lyceum, and in next year- returned to St. Petersburg, passed his master's exams, defended his dissertation “Specific Volumes” and received the right to lecture on organic chemistry at the university. In January 1857, Dmitry Ivanovich was approved as a private assistant professor at St. Petersburg University.

The next few years were spent on scientific trips abroad (Paris, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe), where Privatdozent Mendeleev met with foreign colleagues and participated in the first International Congress of Chemists. During these years, he was engaged in research in the field of capillary phenomena and the expansion of liquids, and one of the results of his work was the discovery of the absolute boiling point. Returning from abroad in 1861, the 27-year-old scientist wrote the textbook “Organic Chemistry” in three months, which, according to K. A. Timiryazev, was “excellent in clarity and simplicity of presentation, having no parallel in European literature "

However, these were difficult times for Mendeleev, when, as he wrote in his diary, “coats and boots were sewn on credit, I was always hungry.” Apparently, under the pressure of circumstances, he renewed his acquaintance with Feozva Nikitichnaya Leshcheva, with whom he had been friends back in Tobolsk, and in April 1862 he got married. The stepdaughter of the famous P.P. Ershov, Fiza (as she was called in the family), was six years older than her husband. By character, inclinations, and interests, she did not make a harmonious couple for her husband. As if sensing this, the young scientist, before walking down the aisle, made an attempt to abandon his betrothed, but his older sister Olga Ivanovna, the wife of the Decembrist N.V. Basargin, who had great influence on him, decided to shame her brother. She wrote to him: “Remember also what the great Goethe said: “There is no greater sin than deceiving a girl.” You are engaged, declared a groom, what position will she be in if you now refuse?”

Mendeleev yielded to his sister, and this concession entailed a relationship that lasted for many years and was painful for both spouses. Of course, this did not become clear right away, and after the wedding the newlyweds went to the Honeymoon in Europe.

In 1865, Mendeleev defended his doctoral dissertation “On the combination of alcohol with water,” after which he was approved as a professor at St. Petersburg University in the department of technical chemistry. Three years later, he began writing the textbook “Fundamentals of Chemistry” and immediately encountered difficulties in systematizing the factual material. Pondering the structure of the textbook, he gradually came to the conclusion that the properties of simple substances and the atomic masses of elements are connected by a certain pattern. Fortunately, the young scientist did not know about the many attempts of his predecessors to arrange chemical elements in increasing order of their atomic masses and about the incidents that arose in this case.

The decisive stage of his thoughts came on February 17, 1869, it was then that the first version of the periodic table was written. The scientist subsequently spoke about this event as follows: “I’ve been thinking about it [the system] for maybe twenty years, but you think: I was sitting there and suddenly... it’s ready.”

Dmitry Ivanovich sent printed sheets with a table of elements to domestic and foreign colleagues and, with a sense of accomplishment, went to the Tver province to inspect cheese factories. Before leaving, he still managed to hand over to N.A. Menshutkin, an organic chemist and future historian of chemistry, the manuscript of the article “Relationship of properties with the atomic weight of elements” - for publication in the journal of the Russian Chemical Society and for communication at the upcoming meeting of the society.

The report made on March 6, 1869 by Menshutkin did not attract attention at first. special attention specialists, and the president of the society, academician N.N. Zinin, stated that Mendeleev was not doing what a real researcher should do. True, two years later, after reading Dmitry Ivanovich’s article “The Natural System of Elements and Its Application to Indicating the Properties of Some Elements,” Zinin changed his mind and wrote to the author: “Very, very good, very excellent connections, even fun to read, God grant you good luck in experimental confirmation of your conclusions.”

The periodic law became the foundation on which Mendeleev created his most famous textbook, “Fundamentals of Chemistry.” The book went through eight editions during the author’s lifetime, and was last republished in 1947. According to foreign scientists, all chemistry textbooks are second half of the 19th century V. were built on the same model, and “only the only attempt to truly move away from classical traditions deserves to be noted - this is the attempt of Mendeleev, his manual on chemistry was conceived according to a completely special plan.” In terms of the richness and courage of scientific thought, the originality of the coverage of the material, and the influence on the development and teaching of inorganic chemistry, this work of Dmitry Ivanovich had no equal in the world chemical literature.

After the discovery of his law, Mendeleev had much more to do. The reason for the periodic changes in the properties of elements remained unknown; The structure of the periodic system itself, where properties were repeated through seven elements in the eighth, could not be explained. The author did not place all the elements in order of increasing atomic masses; in some cases he was more guided by the similarity of chemical properties.

The most important thing in the discovery of the periodic law was the prediction of the existence of chemical elements not yet known to science. Under aluminum, Mendeleev left a place for its analogue “eka-aluminium”, under boron - for “eka-boron”, and under silicon - for “eca-silicon”. This is how he named the yet undiscovered chemical elements and even assigned them corresponding symbols.

It should be said that not all foreign colleagues immediately appreciated the significance of Mendeleev’s discovery. It changed a lot in the world of established ideas. Thus, the German physical chemist W. Ostwald, a future Nobel Prize laureate, argued that it was not the law that had been discovered, but the principle of classification of “something uncertain.” The German chemist R. Bunsen, who discovered two new alkali elements, rubidium and cesium, in 1861, said that Mendeleev carried chemists “into the far-fetched world of pure abstractions.” Professor of the University of Leipzig G. Kolbe in 1870 called Mendeleev’s discovery “speculative”...

However, the time for triumph soon came. In 1875, the French chemist L. de Boisbaudran discovered the “eka-aluminium” predicted by Mendeleev, named it gallium and declared: “I think there is no need to insist on the enormous importance of confirming the theoretical conclusions of Mr. Mendeleev.” Four years later, the Swedish chemist L. Nilsson discovered scandium: “There remains no doubt that “ekabor” was discovered in “scandium”... This clearly confirms the considerations of the Russian chemist, which not only made it possible to predict the existence of scandium and gallium, but also to foresee in advance their most important properties."

In 1886, a professor at the Mining Academy in Freiburg, the German chemist K. Winkler, while analyzing the rare mineral argyrodite, discovered another element predicted by Mendeleev - “ecosilicite”, and named it germanium. At the same time, Mendeleev was unable to predict the existence of a group of noble gases, and at first there was no place for them in the periodic table. As a result, the discovery of argon by English scientists W. Ramsay and J. Rayleigh in 1894 immediately caused heated discussions and doubts about the periodic law and the periodic system of elements. After several years of deliberation, Mendeleev agreed with the presence in his proposed system of a “zero” group of chemical elements, which was occupied by other noble gases discovered after argon. In 1905, the scientist wrote: “Apparently, the future does not threaten the periodic law with destruction, but only promises superstructures and development, although as a Russian they wanted to erase me, especially the Germans.”

Four years before the opening of the periodic law, Dmitry Ivanovich found relative peace in family affairs. In 1865, he bought the Boblovo estate in the Moscow province not far from Klin. Now he could relax there every summer with his family and study agricultural chemistry, which he was interested in then. On the existing 380 acres of land, Mendeleev conducted technical and economic experiments, organizing on a scientific basis the use of fertilizers, equipment, rational systems land use and doubling grain yields in five years.

In 1867, Mendeleev became the head of the department of general and inorganic chemistry at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, and at the end of the year he was given the long-awaited university apartment. In May of the following year, their beloved daughter Olga was born into the family... But in the late 1870s. the relationship between Dmitry Ivanovich and his wife Feozva Nikitichna completely deteriorated. Mendeleev felt lonely and alienated in his family. “I am a man, not God, and you are not an angel,” he wrote to his wife, admitting his and her weaknesses. Indeed, endowed by nature with a choleric temperament, Dmitry Ivanovich was a quick-tempered and irritable person. Anything that distracted him from his work easily made him angry. And then the slightest - from the point of view of others - trifle could cause a violent outburst in him: Mendeleev shouted, slammed the door and ran to his office. New complications in family life brought about by his wife’s serious illness. Moreover, after 14 years of marriage, Feozva Nikitichna no longer had the strength to endure either her husband’s difficult temper or his love interests. She left with the children for Boblovo, giving her husband complete freedom, provided that the official marriage was not dissolved.

At this time, Mendeleev was passionately in love with Anna Ivanovna Popova, the daughter of a Don Cossack from Uryupinsk, who attended the drawing school at the Academy of Arts and periodically went abroad. Anna was old enough to be the scientist's daughter - she was 26 years younger than him. Since the wife did not agree to a divorce, and divorce by court was a very difficult matter at that time, Mendeleev’s comrades were seriously afraid of a possible tragic outcome: in their immediate circle, two people had already committed suicide because of unhappy love. Then the rector of the university, A. N. Beketov, took upon himself mediation, went to Boblovo and received Feozva Nikitichna’s consent to officially divorce her husband. In 1881, the marriage was finally dissolved, and Dmitry Ivanovich went to Italy to join his beloved. In May of the same year they returned to Russia, and in December their daughter Lyuba was born, who was actually illegitimate.

Having agreed to the divorce, the consistory forbade Mendeleev to get married for the next six years. In addition, under the terms of the divorce, the entire professor’s salary went to support the first family, and the new family lived on the money that the scientist earned by writing scientific articles and textbooks. However, in April 1882, contrary to the decision of the consistory, the priest of the Admiralty Church of St. Petersburg married Mendeleev and Popova for 10 thousand rubles, for which he was deprived of his clergy.

During this period, the scientist continued his research in the fields of meteorology, aeronautics, and fluid resistance. He worked in Italy and England, studied solutions, and flew in a Russian hot air balloon, observing a solar eclipse. And in 1890, Professor of St. Petersburg University D.I. Mendeleev resigned in protest against the oppression of students.

For the next five years, Mendeleev was a consultant to the Scientific and Technical Laboratory of the Maritime Ministry, planned to take part in an expedition to the North, and created an icebreaker project. At this time he invented the new kind smokeless gunpowder (pyrocollodium) and organized its production. In addition, he led a large expedition to study the industry of the Urals, participated in the World Exhibition in Paris, and developed a program for the economic transformation of Russia. In his last major works, “Treasured Thoughts” and “Towards Knowledge

Russia”, the scientist summarized his ideas related to social, scientific and economic activities.

In 1892, Mendeleev was appointed custodian and then manager of the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures, which he created, where he conducted research and experiments until the end of his life. In 1895, the scientist became blind, but continued to work: business papers were read aloud to him, and he dictated orders to the secretary. Professor I.V. Kostenich removed the cataract as a result of two operations, and soon vision returned...

Mendeleev had three children from his first marriage - Masha, Volodya and Olga (all died during Dmitry Ivanovich's lifetime) and four from his second - Lyuba, Vanya, Vasily and Maria (Maria Dmitrievna later became the director of her father's museum), whom he loved madly . One episode especially vividly characterizes the power of the fatherly love of the famous scientist. In May 1889 he was invited by the British Chemical Society to speak at the annual Faraday Readings. The most outstanding chemists received this honor. Mendeleev was going to devote his report to the doctrine of periodicity, which was already gaining universal recognition. This performance was to truly be his “finest hour.” But two days before the appointed date, he received a telegram from St. Petersburg about Vasily’s illness. Without a moment’s hesitation, the scientist decided to immediately return home, and the text of the report “Periodic Law of Chemical Elements” was read for him by J. Dewar.

Mendeleev's eldest son Vladimir became a naval officer. He graduated with honors from the Marine cadet corps, sailed on the frigate “Memory of Azov” along the Far Eastern shores Pacific Ocean. In 1898, Vladimir retired to devote himself to the development of the “Project for Raising the Level of Sea of ​​Azov dammed Kerch Strait“, but died suddenly a few months later. The following year, my father published “The Project...” and wrote with deep bitterness in the preface: “My clever, loving, gentle, good-natured first-born son, on whom I expected to entrust part of my covenants, died, since I knew the high and truthful, modest and at the same time, deep thoughts for the benefit of the homeland with which he was imbued.” Dmitry Ivanovich took the death of Vladimir very hard, which noticeably affected his health.

The daughter of Mendeleev and Popova, Lyubov Dmitrievna, in 1903 married Alexander Blok, the famous Russian poet of the Silver Age, with whom she had been friends since childhood and who dedicated “Poems about To the beautiful lady" Lyuba and Alexander often met at the Moscow estate of Blok’s grandfather, located not far from Boblovo, and together with local youth they staged plays in which Blok was the main actor, and often the director. Lyuba graduated from the Higher Women's Courses and played in drama clubs, and then in the troupe of V. Meyerhold and in the theater of V. Komissarzhevskaya. After the death of her husband, she studied the history and theory of ballet art and gave acting lessons famous ballerinas G. Kirillova and N. Dudinskaya.

Blok’s letter to his bride contains the following lines about her father: “He has long known everything that happens in the world. Penetrated everything. Nothing is hidden from him. His knowledge is the most complete. It comes from genius; this does not happen with ordinary people... He has nothing separate or fragmentary - everything is inseparable.”

“...I’m surprised at what I didn’t do on my scientific life. And I think it was done well,” wrote Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev several years before his death. He died on January 20, 1907 in St. Petersburg from cardiac paralysis and was buried at the Volkov cemetery, not far from the graves of his mother and eldest son. During his lifetime, the world-famous scientist received over 130 diplomas and honorary titles from Russian and foreign academies and scientific societies. In Russia, the Mendeleev Prizes were established for outstanding achievements in the field of chemistry and physics. Now the name of the outstanding encyclopedist scientist is borne by: the All-Union Chemical Society, the All-Union Research Institute of Metrology, the St. Petersburg Institute of Chemical Technology, an underwater ridge in the Arctic Ocean, an active volcano on the Kuril Islands, a crater on the Moon, a research vessel for oceanographic research, 101st chemical element and mineral – mendeleevite.