Pokrovsky Konstantin Dorimedontovich (Dormidontovich) General data:
23.05.1868 - 05.11.1944
Place of birth: Nizhny Novgorod city, Russian Empire
Studied in: Imperial Moscow University (since 1940 M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University) (1887-1891);
Key interests: physics of comets, minor bodies of the Solar System. ScD Thesis: The Origin of Periodic Comets (Part 1) The Involvement of Comets into the Members of the Solar System (1902 ); ScD Thesis: The structure of the tail of the comet 1910 I (1915 Yurievsk (now Tartu) University);
Biography:
He was born 11 (according to the Julian calendar or 23 Gregorian calendar) May 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod city, the Russian Empire in perpetual priest's family, Archpriest Dorimodont Vasilyevich Pokrovsky (Stuzhin). Graduated from the city's classical gymnasium in 1887, enrolled in the mathematical department of the Physics and Mathematics Department of Imperial Moscow University, who graduated in 1891, after which he was appointed as a freelance assistant at the Astronomical Observatory of the University.
In 1890-1895 he headed a small private observatory F. Schwabe in Moscow. In 1893 he was sent to the Pulkovo Observatory, where he conducted observations under the leadership of G. Y. Romberg.
In 1902 he defended his master's thesis "The Origin of Periodic Comets. (Part 1) Lething Comets in the Solar System." In 1895 he was elected to the position of astronomer-observer of Yurievsky (now the Tartuski) University, where since 1896 he taught: a course in astronomy, the basis of mathematical analysis, analytical mechanics, elementary mathematics, physics. In 1904 he was on a scholarship in Berlin, where he studied the theory of the origin of comets. In 1906 he received the title of professor, and in 1907 (according to other data of 1916) he became an extraordinary professor and head (derector) of the astronomical observatory of Yurievsky University.
In 1914, his wife Julia Nikolaevna (maiden name Malkovskaya) who was a pianist, the first woman conductor, student of the composer I. S. Taneyev, died of cancer. Having survived the bitterness of the loss of an early death of a woman, while remaining one of four children in her arms, he marries a merchant widow from Kerch to the name of Eugene Grigorievna Vorobyova (maiden name of Apostolov), who replaced her mother, warming with love and care.
In 1915 he defended his doctoral thesis at Yurievsk University university: "The structure of the tail of a comet 1910 I", became an ordinary professor of the Department of Astronomy, and from 1917 - the rector of the Yuryevsky University. On October 10, 1917, an ordinary professor was elected unanimously by the rector of the University of Perm for 3 years. But in less than a year he twice appeals to the Board of the Perm University with a request to dismiss him from the position of rector of the university. Behind the actions given by the BWU rector of the PDU of Russia in the course of 1916-1918. During 1919-1920 he taught at Tomsk University, and from September 1920 he became senior astronomer at the Pulkovo Observatory. In 1927 he was elected Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
During 1930-1932 he worked as deputy director of the Pulkovo Observatory. At the same time he taught at the Military Engineering Academy, the Leningrad Mine Institute Pedagogical Institute. Herzen A.I. was repeatedly elected chairman of the board of associations of astronomers of the RSFSR.
Since 1934 he has been elected director of the Astronomical Observatory of the Odessa University.
During 1937-1938 he was dean of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Odessa state University. He lectured at the institutions of the cities of Odessa and Kherson. Since 1939 he was the chairman of the board of the Odessa House of Scientists.
He was the head of the Odesa branch of the All-Union Aerogeological Trust, who organized a workshop in Odesa for the construction of simpler astronomical instruments and the publication of popular astronomical literature.
In 1940 he was elected chairman of the Commission on the construction of planetarians in Ukraine under the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.
During the Great Patriotic War of the USSR against Hitler's Germany, which was part of the Second World War, he stayed in Odessa, continued to head the observatory, thanks to his efforts, the property of the observatory and the library was preserved. He read popular lectures and taught at Transnistria University.
During 1942-1943 he taught at the Institute of Anti-Communist Studies and Propaganda.
10 (according to other data 11) May 1944, the scientist was arrested by the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs bodies. He was accused of having written the article "Comet" in a newspaper during the Romanian occupation of Odessa, and also delivered a lecture on repressions at the Pulkovo Observatory in the 1930s. He died on November 5, 1944 in the prison of Kiev. Rehabilitated on July 27, 1993 (according to other data in 1991).
He is the author of about 200 scientific works in the field of comet and meteor astronomy and satellites of the planets, textbooks on cosmography and practical astronomy. According to his photos in 1913 G.M. Neuymin to be the first in the Russian Empire to open a comet.
He was awarded a number of prizes, awards and decorations: in 1894, the Small Prize of Emperor Peter the Great in 1894. The Emperor Nicholas II Prize, in 1901. The Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd degree, 1917 Order of St. Vladimir of the 4th degree, Medal "In memory of the reign of Emperor Alexander III", Medal "In commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty", Honorary member of the Russian Astronomical Society, Honorary member of the Moscow Society of Amateurs of Astronomy, Honorary member of the Russian Society of amateurs of world science.
Main publications:
1. Покровский К. Д. Путеводитель по небу. Практическое руководство по астрономическим наблюдениям невооруженным глазом и малой трубой, 2-е изд., СПб:Маркс,1897,-XIII.-239с.
2. Покровский К. Д. Путеводитель по небу. Практическое руководство по астрономическим наблюдениям невооруженным глазом и малой трубой,1-е издан., Москва. 1894,-195с.
3. Покровский К. Д. Звездный атлас для всеобщего ознакомления с небом и систематических наблюдений,СПб, 1906
4. Покровский К. Д. Успехи астрономии в XIX столетии. Общедоступные очерки ,Спб, 1902.-273с.
Sources:
1 Смирнов В. А. Астрономия в Одессе в 30—40-е годы ХХ века // Историко-астрономические исследования.—2001.—Вып. 26.—С. 170—189.
2 rulex.ru
3 greatrussianpeople.ru
4 wikivisually.com
