The first Russian female soil scientist

The year 2021 is marked by the 175-th anniversary of the birth of Anna Egorovna and Vasiliy Vasilievich Dokuchaevs. This is a wonderful occasion to recall an amazing and remarkably modest woman who played an important role in the life and work of the great Russian natural scientist, the founder of genetic soil science. If many works were written about her outstanding world-wide known husband, films were made, pictures were created, his photos are preserved, then the life of his wife is undeservingly poorly described, and the appearance of this very beautiful woman is depicted in the only one famous portrait. This article, dedicated to the memory of Anna Egorovna Dokuchaeva, is based on both the quotations from the already published memoirs of the follower and the friend of V.V. Dokuchaev – Franz Yulievich Levinson-Lessing, and the excerpts from Anna Egorovna’s letters to Varvara Ippolitovna – the wife of F.Yu. Levinson-Lessing. These letters were collected from the archives of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg and copied by the employee of the V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute – Sergey Petrovich Lyalin – in the 1980s, and they are now kindly provided by the Central Soil Museum by V.V. Dokuchaev (the Branch of the Federal Research Centre “V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute” in St. Petersburg).

F. Yu. Levinson-Lessing (1861-1939) -V. V. Dokuchaev apprentice and follower and his role in Soil Science Institute foundation

The world-class geologist and petrographer - Frants Yul’evich Levinson-Lessing (1861-1939) was one of the followers and apprentices of V.V. Dokuchaev, the founder of the Soil Science. In 1882-1892 he took part in Dokuchaev’s expeditions. Thereafter, Levinson -Lessing carried out research in the field of petrography; he assumed various administrative positions and constantly lent support to his teacher’s life-work. He was the chairman of the Soil Commission of the Russian Free Economic Society (1905-1912), one of the founders of Dokuchaev Soil Committee and its council member (1912-1916), headed Soil Science Department and Soil Science Institute of the Commission on Natural Production Forces affiliated with Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1917-1925), V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute (1926-1929). In 1927 in cooperation with V.I. Vernadskiy and K.D. Glinka he gained recognition of the Soil Science as a fundamental science in Academy of Sciences of the USSR, which resulted in establishment of special Soil Science Institute of Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

The Organic Matter of Chernozem

Theories and points of view of soil science classics, such as V. V. Dokuchaev, I. V. Turin and M. M. Kononva on chernozem organic matter are reviewed in this work. The achievements of the leading researches of soil biology and biochemistry of Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute (D. V. Khan, M. Sh. Shaimuhammetov, N. A. Titova etc.) in the investigation of chemical and physical functioning of organic matter and the products of organo-mineral interaction of chernozemic soils. The author variant of level system for organic matter content in chernozem is presented in the work. The level system consists of minimal, median, maximal and critical levels. The convergent scheme of the investigation of the organo-mineral interactions of soils is presented. This scheme combines the Savvinov sieve method in modification of Khan and granulo-densimetric fractionation functioning by Shaimuhammetov-Travnikova, chemical and biokinetic fractionation. The particular examples of the application of this scheme on chernozems in conditions of long-term experiments is presented.