Schmidt Otto Yulievich: biography, discoveries, photo

Schmidt Otto Yulievich is an outstanding researcher of the North, a Soviet astronomer and mathematician, statesman and public figure, Hero of the Soviet Union, who has achieved world recognition in the scientific field.

At the beginning of a complex and interesting path

Who is Otto Schmidt and what contribution did this man make to Soviet science? The future conqueror of the northern lands was born on September 30, 1891 in Byelorussia (the city of Mogilev). The desire for knowledge and great curiosity Otto showed since childhood. Constant moving of his family from place to place led to a frequent change of schools (Mogilev, Odessa, Kiev). In 1909 Schmidt Otto Yulievich, whose biography is a vivid example of purposefulness, graduated with a gold medal from the classical gymnasium in Kiev, then the physics and mathematics department of the University of Moscow. In his student years, Otto was awarded a prize for mathematical work. At the end of the school in 1913, a talented young man was left to prepare for the professorship. Significant work in the field of mathematics was the monograph "Abstract Group Theory", published in 1916.

Schmidt's brilliant career

The career of Otto Yul'evich - a promising assistant professor - was moving swiftly upwards. Possessing organizational skills and actively participating in public activities, the young man showed himself in many spheres of life. He was engaged in food support and worked in the Ministry of Food of the Provisional Government, then as head of the Office for Product Exchange, while studying the regularities of the emission process in parallel.

Since the 1920s, Schmidt Otto Yulievich taught mathematics at higher educational institutions, and since 1929 he headed the Department of Algebra of Moscow University. The most effective in the field of education: he organized vocational education for school-age youth, established technical schools, provided training for factory workers and factories, and reformed the university system. It was Otto Yulievich Schmidt (the years of life - 1891-1956) introduced the widely used word "graduate student".

Work on the Great Soviet Encyclopedia

A brief biography of Otto Schmidt is interesting even to the young generation, standing at the beginning of life and the path and, perhaps, great changes. Under his leadership, a huge publishing house was formed, the purpose of which was not commerce, but cultural and political education. The fruit of the great works and efforts of Otto Yulievich is the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, of which he was the creator and editor-in-chief. In the preparation of a multivolume edition, the efforts of many cultural and scientific figures interested in the need for socialist transformation were combined. The carried out researches promoted the strengthening of interest to the problems of the history of science and natural science. With lectures from these areas, as well as reports of a different variety of subjects, Otto Yulievich often spoke to a wide audience.

Otto Schmidt: expeditions

Since his youth, Schmidt has been ill with tuberculosis, which has been exacerbated every ten years. In 1924, the Soviet scientist was given the opportunity to improve his health in Austria. There Otto Yulievich at the same time graduated from the mountaineering school. At the head of the Soviet-German expedition, in 1928 he studied the glaciers of the Pamirs. The next ten years since 1928 was devoted to the study and development of the Arctic.

In 1929 an Arctic expedition was formed on the icebreaker Sedov, successfully reaching the Land of Franz Josef. In the bay, Tikhaya Schmidt created a polar geophysical observatory that surveyed the lands and straits of the archipelago. In 1930, during the second expedition, such islands as Isachenko, Vize, Long, Voronina, Domashniy were discovered. In 1932, the Sibiryakov icebreaker for the first time in one navigation made a passage from Arkhangelsk to the Pacific Ocean. The head of this expedition was Schmidt Otto Yulevich.

The success of the expedition

The success of the expedition confirmed the feasibility of active development of the Arctic for economic purposes. For the practical implementation of this project, the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route was organized , which was headed by Schmidt Otto Yulevich. The mission of the institution was the development of a complex route, its technical equipment, exploration of the polar bowels, organization of comprehensive scientific work. Along the coast, the construction of meteorological stations was revitalized, and a tremendous impetus was given to ice shipbuilding, radio communication, and polar aviation.

Salvation of the Chelyuskinians

To test the possibility of cruising ships in the Arctic Ocean in 1933, the Steamship Chelyuskin, led by Otto Yulievich and VI Voronin, was sent along the Sibiryakov route. The expedition involved people of various specialties, including carpenters, who were directed to build houses for winterers. A group of winterers had to land on Wrangel Island with their families. Expedition ended dramatically: due to strong winds and currents, "Chelyuskin" could not reach the Pacific Ocean. The vessel was crushed by ice, which resulted in a sinking within two hours. 104 people caught on the ice floe, had to spend two months in the conditions of the polar winter, until they were rescued by aviation. The pilots, who took off the Chelyuskin ice floe, became Heroes of the Soviet Union. In the last days of his stay in the ruthless northern conditions, Otto Yulievich contracted pneumonia and was transferred to Alaska. Cured, he returned to Russia as a world famous hero. Otto Schmidt, a researcher of the North, spoke in both Russia and abroad with reports on scientific progress and possible prospects for the development of the Arctic expanses. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to Schmidt in 1937; The scientist at that time organized an expedition to the North Pole, the purpose of which was to create a drifting station there.

Schmidt's cosmogonic hypothesis

In the mid-40s Schmidt put forward a new cosmogonic hypothesis about the appearance of the Earth and the planets of the solar system. The scientist believed that these bodies were never glowing gas bodies, but formed from solid, cold particles of matter. The development of this version of Schmidt Otto Yulevich continued until the end of his life together with a group of Soviet scientists.

Schmidt's disease

In the Great Patriotic War, Schmidt Otto Yulievich, whose biography is an example of a real leader, led evacuation processes and established the activities of academic institutions in a new country for the country. Since the winter of 1943, tuberculosis has progressed, affecting the entire body. Otto Yulievich was periodically forbidden by doctors from talking; He was often treated in sanatoria, and in the last years of his life was practically bedridden. But at any moment of improving his condition, he worked hard and even delivered lectures in Leningrad and Moscow. Otto Yulievich died on September 7, 1956 at his dacha in the Masing, near Zvenigorod.

Schmidt Otto Yulievich: interesting facts

Otto Yulievich Schmidt's life was full of sharp turns: from mathematics he was re-qualified as a statesman. Then I got carried away with the creation of the encyclopedia, and then I became a pioneer. Some events in the life of this great man occurred at his will, others - by coincidence. Otto Yulievich Schmidt, whose brief biography for the modern generation is a vivid example, has always worked in full force, with maximum efficiency, without allowing himself a moment of rest. Contributed to this broad erudition, tireless curiosity, organized work, clear logic of thinking, the ability to highlight important details against the general background of multitasking, democratism in human relations and the ability to cooperate with others.

At some point the disease tore off this cheerful person, a witty interlocutor, an irrepressible person of creative energy, accustomed to practical public activities. Otto Yulievich Schmidt, whose brief biography arouses the sincere interest of the younger generation, did not despair: he still read a lot. Knowing about his close death, he left his life wisely and dignifiedly. Otto Yurievich was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery. The memory of this man with a capital letter is immortalized in the publication of selected works, assigning his name to the cape on the coast of the Chukchi Sea, the peninsula of Novaya Zemlya, the island in the Kara Sea, the pass, one of the peaks in the Pamir Mountains, and the Institute of Physics of the Earth.