Ostaschenko-Kudryavtsev Boris Pavlovich General data:
10.01.1877 - 01.10.1956
Place of birth: St. Petersburg City, Russian Empire
Studied in: St. Petersburg Imperial University (since 1991 St. Petersburg State University) (1894-1898);
Key interests: celestial mechanics, physics of comets, minor bodies of the Solar System, astronomy, geodesy. PhD Thesis: The approach of the comet to the perturbing planet when the latter becomes her main body. (1898 );
Biography:
He was born on December 28, 1876, according to the Julian calendar or January 10, 1877, according to the Gregorian calendar, in the St. Petersburg city of Russian Empire, in the family of an architect. His father, Pavlo Ivanovich, came from peasant serfs in the Kursk province, was educated at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and worked with the Italian architect Monighetti. Boris's mother, Elizaveta Gustavivna, born von Lenz, came from an ancient German noble family and was educated at the Smolny Institute, gave music lessons. The boy was the first born of four children in the family.
While studying at the Third St. Petersburg Classical Gymnasium, he became interested in astronomy and started regularly attend meetings of the Russian Astronomical Society. The first meeting of the society in his life took place in 1893.
In 1891, at the age of 14, he lost his father. Possessing a remarkable talent for the exact sciences, the boy cheated for his well-off friends, doing tutoring in order to catch up with the family.
In 1898, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Imperial University with a 1st degree diploma, which gave him the right to be retained at the university to prepare for the professorship, where he entered in 1894, graduating from the gymnasium with a gold medal. As a student of St. Petersburg University, under the guidance of M. O. Tachalov, he was engaged in observations and their processing in the astronomical office, in 1896, on the recommendation of Professor A. M. Zhdanov participated in the research of the Kursk magnetic anomaly as a researcher and secretary. By the third year, during which Professor S. P. Glazenap taught a course in practical astronomy, the student was already a trained observing astronomer, so this course was credited to him for his previous work, and in the fourth year he was already replacing the sick M.O. Tachalov, conducting practical astronomy classes for students of higher women's courses.
He began his official career as an astronomer in 1898, working at the Pulkovo Observatory as a freelance astronomer (in fact, it was a full-time position to which calculators were invited with payment from private donations).
In 1898, he defended his candidate's thesis (graduation thesis) "The approach of a comet to a perturbing planet, when the latter becomes the main body for it" with a grade of "very satisfactory" (at that time it had a higher score).
In 1899, he carried out magnetic and astronomical observations on the Yermak icebreaker while sailing in the polar seas, in addition, he helped Admiral S. O. Makarov in studying the processes of formation of "heavy ice". In 1900, he participated in degree measurements on Svalbard. This second Russian-Swedish geodetic expedition to measure the length of the arc of the terrestrial meridian on the islands of Svalbard was carried out at the expense of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
During 1900-1902, he observed on the vertical circle in Odesa (according to other data, during 1901-1902, he worked in the Odesa branch of the Pulkovo Observatory). The processing of these observations showed that the vertical Repsold circle has a hidden defect, which generates very large systematic errors in the results of observations. For the analysis of these observations, he received a prize from the Russian Geographical Society in 1907 (according to other sources, the prize was received for the analysis of magnetic and astronomical observations conducted from 1899 to 1907). And for his conscientious attitude to work and the successes he achieved, he was awarded the Order of Stanislav 1st degree in 1903 and the Order of Anna 2nd degree in 1913.
Since 1909, he worked at the Nikolaev Maritime Observatory (according to other data, he managed the Nikolaev branch of the Pulkovo Observatory). For some time he also taught at the Nikolaev Pedagogical Institute.
On June 13, 1912, Russian King Nicholas II signed a bill on the establishment of astronomical branches of the Pulkovo Observatory in Semeize city and Nikolaev city. And, starting from July 1, 1912, the Nikolaev Maritime Astronomical Observatory turned into the Nikolaev Branch of the Main Astronomical Observatory in Pulkovo village. 4 positions were approved: one senior astronomer, one adjunct astronomer, one computational astronomer and one mechanic. Senior astronomer B.P. Ostashchenko-Kudryavtsev was appointed to the position of head of the Nikolaev branch.
During 1917-1920, together with B.K. Zalesky, he made about 6,000 observations on the vertical Repsold circle.
In 1917, he was appointed dean and deputy rector of Nikolaev People's Labor University. In 1918, he became the rector of Nikolaev Maritime University.
In 1919, he organized schools for adults at Nikolaev Provincial Education. He was the chairman of the Commission for the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquities, the chairman of the Nikolaev Society of People's Universities.
During 1919-1923, he was a professor at the Nikolaev Institute of Public Education, where he taught a complex of astronomical disciplines.
In 1923, after the Civil War, he moved to Kharkiv. He worked at the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory during 1924-1941 and was a lecturer at Kharkiv University from 1924, and from 1936 a professor at O. M. Gorky Kharkiv State University. At the same time, he was dean, deputy director, head of the department at the Kharkiv Geodetic and Land Management Institute. Also, in 1924-1929, he was a scientific consultant to the Ukrainian Geodetic Administration. In 1930-1934, he headed the cartographic sector of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Geodesy and Cartography.
In December 1927, together with P. G. Parkhomenko and N. N. Evdokimov, he participated in the observation of a total lunar eclipse.
From September 1932, he participated in the commission to find a place for a new astronomical observatory in Kharkiv city.
In addition, in the 1930s, together with N. N. Evdokimov, he carried out large-scale computational work on the preparation of the Catalog of declinations of circumpolar stars, i.e. bringing the stars to the visible place (8400 observations), processing observation logs and calculating the first corrections for the Catalog of declinations of fundamental stars and vision of Kopf — Renz.
In 1936, he received the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
During 1941-1944, he was the head of the Geodesy Department of the Mining and Metallurgical Institute in Alma-Ata City (Kazakh SSR). Since 1944, the head of the department of higher geodesy of the Kharkiv Engineering and Construction Institute and the head of the astrometric department of the Kharkiv Observatory.
After the death of N. N. Evdokimov in 1941, he headed the astronomy sector at A. M. Gorky Kharkiv State University.
In 1952, B. P. Ostashchen-Kudryavtsev was awarded the title "Honored Scientist of the Ukrainian SSR".
Since 1955, he was the head of the surveying department of the Kharkiv Mining Institute.
He died on October 1, 1956 in Kharkiv city.
The main directions of the scientist's work are astronomy and geodesy and mathematical cartography. He developed a new methodology for the study of cartographic projections.
Main publications:
1. Ocтaщeнкo-Kyдpявцeв Б. П. Мои учителя // Историко-астрономические исследования. - Т.Ш. - М.: Наука, 1957. - С. 625-640.
2. Ocтaщeнкo-Kyдpявцeв Б. П. Пулково в 1897 г. // Историко-астрономические исследования. - Т.Ш. - М.: Наука, 1957. - С. 375-399.
3. Ocтaщeнкo-Kyдpявцeв Б. П. Лекції сферичної астрономії : читані на 3-му курсі Геодезичного Факультету в осінньому триместрі 1928 року. Ч. 1 / -. К. Остащенко. – Х. : Шклодрук ХГЗІ, 1929. – 48 с.
4. Ocтaщeнкo-Kyдpявцeв Б. П. Впечатления моей жизни. Из воспоминаний директора Николаевской обсерватории Б.П. Остащенко-Кудрявцева (1876-1956) / ред. Ж. А. Пожалова. - Николаев : Издатель Торубара В.В., 2014. - 100 с.
Sources:
1 Балишев М. А. Український астроном-теоретик професор Олексій іванович Раздольський (1877—1942): наукова біографія // Наука та наукознавство. — 2020. — Т. 3, вип. 109. — С. 106.
2 Николаевское отделение Пулково (1912-1991)
3 Енциклопедія українознавства. Словникова частина (ЕУ-II). — Париж, Нью-Йорк, 1955. — Т. 1. — С. 69-78
4 Енциклопедія українознавства. Словникова частина (ЕУ-II). — Париж, Нью-Йорк, 1966. — Т. 5. — С. 1880; 1892-1904
