MichaeL son of Vasily. Lomonosov is without the least reservation known as Russia’s first and greatest scholar-academician in the natural sciences. literature, history and art.

What so amazes us about the man is that he was also a physicist, chemist and geologist. But even such a list does not sufficiently describe his genius, for he was no less gifted as a poet, orator, philologist and journalist.

Lomonosov was bom to a family of peasants on 8 November 1711 in the Arkhangelsk Province. His mother taught him to read, but the floodgates of learning truly opened when he had the good fortune to procure copies of Milenty Smotritsky’s Grammar, Leonty Magnitsky’s Arithmetica and The Poetic Psalms of Simeon Polotsky.

Although Vasily gave his son permission to go to Moscow. Lomonosov’s biographers believe that young Michael was not expected to dawdle there. When he failed to return, his name was put on a list of missing persons. Lomonosov did not return home. In fact he matriculated at Moscow’s School of Our Saviour for Slavonic.

Greek and Latin Studies, where he remained for five years. Because of his erudition he was sent to Germany to study mathematics, physics, philosophy, chemistry and metallurgy at the German Academy of Sciences. Returning to Moscow five years later, he was named assistant professor of chemistry and in another three years completed his dissertation “On the Causes of Heat and Cold”, one of the world’s first treatises on thermodynamics. Among other scientific firsts was Lomonosov’s Law on the Conservation of Matter, which he demonstrated through laboratory experimentation.

With Count Shuvalov as patron, Lomonosov founded a factory to produce mosaics in 1753. Two years later he established Moscow University, an institution of higher learning not only for the sons of the nobility but for the talented offspring of peasants as well. Though such an exception was highly irregular, Lomonosov, considering his own background, insisted on such a policy. His final publication, entitled Russian Grammar, has essentially remained the leading authority on the subject for the past 250 years.