Mikhail Lomonosov

Mikhail Lomonosov was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries were the atmosphere of Venus and the law of conservation of mass in chemical reactions. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, physical chemistry, geology, geophysics, mineralogy, history, art, philology, optics and others. He also founded the Moscow State University, the first university in Russia, and reorganized the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He was a prolific writer of poetry, prose, drama, and satire, and influenced the formation of the modern Russian literary language. He was born in a poor but educated family in Mishaninskaya, a small village in the Russian Empire (present-day Lithuania). He moved to Moscow in 1730, where he enrolled in the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. He later studied in St. Petersburg and Germany, where he learned various languages and sciences. He returned to Russia in 1741 and became a professor at the Academy of Sciences. He conducted many experiments and observations in different fields of science, and published his results in numerous papers and books. He also advocated for the modernization and enlightenment of Russia, and opposed the conservative and reactionary forces that resisted the reforms of Peter the Great. He died of pneumonia in 1765 and was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg. He is regarded as one of the greatest Russian scientists and writers of all time, and a national hero of Russia.