Afonin Matvey Ivanovich General data:
1739 - 1810
Place of birth: Moscow City
Studied in: Imperial Moscow University (since 1940 M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University) (1758); Konigsberg Academy "Albertina", Brandenburg-Pcountry Duchy, province of the Russian Empire (1758-1761); Uppsala University, Kingdom of Sweden (1761-1766);
Key interests: astronomy. ScD Thesis: About the benefits of natural history in home life (1766 Uppsala University);
Biography:
He was born in 1739 (according to other data in 1736) in Moscow City. Comes from a noble family maybe of Cossacks of the Don from Vezenskaya Stanitsa.
In 1755 he graduated from the noble department of the University Gymnasium in Moscow with a gold medal.
In 1758 he graduated with distinction from the Imperial Moscow University.
Continuing studies abroad under the order of curator I.I. Shuvalov: 1.5 studied at the Albergina Königsberg Academy (at that time, Prussia became the province of the Russian Empire during the All-European Seven Years' War between the two formed coalitions, the first of which included Austria, France and Russia, to which Sweden and Saxony subsequently joined, and in the arc of Prussia and England), studying German and Latin languages, mathematics, logic, experimental physics, as well as ontology, cosmology and psychology. In 1760 he was sent to Uppsala University, where he studied zoology and botany under the leadership of Carl Linnaeus, as well as mineralogy at A. Tindström and chemistry and metallurgy at J. G. Wallerius and other mining sciences. In May 1766, he defended a dissertation "Usus Historiae Naturalis In Vita Communi" ("On the Benefit of Natural History in Home Life") prepared under the direction of Linnaeus, receiving a degree in medicine. According to some sources, he studied in Sweden during 1761-1769.
In 1769 he returned to Moscow. October 13, 1769 brilliantly passed the exam in the natural sciences at the University Conference, receiving the title of Extraordinary Professor. And 3 1770 began to teach on the philosophical (according to some medical data) faculty of the Moscow State University. At first he lectured on botany and zoology, and after leaving for Germany, Professor I. H. Kerstens, began to teach a course in mineralogy. Since 1770, he also read the course of household economics, which included all branches of animal husbandry and agriculture. He read the natural history in Latin, and agriculture in Russian, according to Swedish sources. In 1774 he received the post of public ordinary professor of natural history and agriculture.
He was one of the first custodians and systematizers of the Mineralogical Cabinet, presented in 1759 to the Moscow University by outstanding patrons - the breeders of the breeders Nikita and Prokofim Demidovy. He owns the idea of creating the first museum of soils.
In 1776 he became a member of the Masonic Lodge "Osiris".
Since 1777 he lived in the Crimea (then the Tavria province of the Russian Empire), where he conducted astronomical observations, probably from 1796, with scientist Pallas P. S., who was sent to Simferopol in 1796, where Empress Catherine II presented him with the estate of Shul. He also put together agronomic experiments, reported by the Free Economic Society, of which he was a member. According to other data with deteriorating health, he moved first to St. Petersburg, where he worked in the Office of the Military Board, and then in the Mountain College, and in 1784, and then to the Crimea, where he received a plot of land on the request of a gymnast Comrade G A. Potemkin
During 1784-1788, the scientist was the "director of economy" in the Yekaterinoslavsky governorate and in the Crimea.
Together with M. G. Livanov studied the natural resources of Nikolaev.
He died in poverty in 1810.
In memory of descendants, he remained as the first Russian professor of agriculture, at the same time engaged in astroism, as an amateur astronomer.
Main publications:
1. Афонин М. И. Труды Вольного экономического общества
2. Афонин М. И. Слова о пользе, знаний, собираний и расположении чернозему, особливо в хлебопашестве: Речь, читанная в торжественном собрании Московского университета 22 апр. 1771 г. // Сводный каталог русской книги XVIII в. 1725—1800. Т. 1. М.: Гос. библиотека СССР им. Ленина, 1962. C. 68.
3. Matheus Aphonin. De usu Historiae Naturalis in vita communi // Caroli Linnaei Amoenitates academicae, seu, Dissertationes variae physicae, medicae, botanicae : antehac seorsim editae : nunc collectae et auctae : cum tabulis aeneis. — Upsaliae: Apud Godofredum Kiesewetter, 1766. — Vol. 7.
Sources:
1 Николаев литературный,2012, №1-С.138
2 Паллас, Петер Симон
3 uk.wikipedia.org
4 ru.wikipedia.org
