Vladimir Kovalevsky
Encyclopedia
This article is about the Russian statesman. For other people named Vladimir Kovalevsky, see Kovalevsky
.
Vladimir Ivanovich Kovalevsky (10 November 1848, Novo-Serpukhov
, Russian Empire
– 2 November 1935, Leningrad
, USSR) was a Russia
n statesman, scientist and entrepreneur
. He was the author of numerous articles and works on agricultural themes. From 1892 to 1900, he was the director of the Commerce and Manufacturing Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Empire
, and one of the fathers of the concept of Russian protectionism
. From 1900 to 1902, he was the Deputy Minister of Finance. From 1906 to 1916, he was the chairman of the Russian Technical Society. Kovalevsky was one of the creators of the Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University and the Institute of Plant Industry
in Leningrad
.
) in the Zmiyov
uyezd
of the Kharkov Governorate
. He was brought up in the Poltava
Military School. In August 1865, he entered the Konstantinov Military Academy. In July 1867 he was released into the Derbent
154th Infantry Regiment, serving in the Caucasus
. Kovalevsky resigned from military service on 14 May 1868, at the rank of praporschik, equivalent to ensign
. In that same year, he began studying at the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, where he was taught by Dmitry Lachinov
.
Sergey Nechayev
there. For some time, he attended a group of Nechayev followers in St. Petersburg. In November 1869, Nechayev murdered his former follower I. I. Ivanov, and Kovalevsky gave him an opportunity to stay the night at his house. On 5 January 1870, Kovalevsky was arrested on accusations of sheltering Nechayev, and on 10 September he was transferred to the Peter-Paul Fortress. On 1 July 1871, Kovalevsky was brought to the court of the St. Petersburg judicial chamber on the accusation that without necessarily taking part in the plot to overthrow the existing order of control in Russia, he contributed in providing accommodation for Sergey Nechayev. On 22 August 1871, Kovalevsky was acquitted and released from the Peter-Paul Fortress on that same day. However, he was deprived of being able to work in any government service and was placed under police probation
. In 1874, Kovalevsky planned to join the Circle of Tchaikovsky
. As a result, he was also subject to a brief arrest relating to the business of Sergey Stepnyak-Kravchinsky.
. In 1872, however, he once again went to study at the Saint Petersburg Agricultural Institute. Graduating in 1875, Kovalevsky completed his thesis on the theme of "An historical survey on the essence of alcoholic fermentation and the nourishment of yeast" and was honored the degree of Candidate of Agricultural Sciences.
Since 1874, Kovalevsky performed scientific-literary work, printed articles and transcripts in the "Zemledel'cheskaya Gazeta" (Agriculture Gazette) and in the magazine Agriculture and Forestry. In 1879, together with I. O. Levitsky, he published "A statistical description of the milk economy in the northern and central regions of European Russia
."
. He also initiated the publishing of annual harvest statistics. In a short period of time, he managed to perfect the wide communication network for obtaining such information.
Since 1882 Kovalevsky was a member of the Agricultural Scientific Committee of the Ministry of State Property. In 1884, by the proposal of Minister of Finance Nikolay Bunge
, he transferred his employment to the Ministry of Finance. There he served as vice-director of the Department of Tax Assemblies and participated in the abolition of the poll tax
, the conversion of quit-rent
from former state serfs, and the introduction of tax inspectors, as well as passing a law to raise the percentage of fees from commercial and industrial enterprises. However, in January 1886, at the request of the Minister of the Interior D. A. Tolstoy, Kovalevsky had to leave the post of vice-director as politically unreliable. Following Bunge's resignation at the end of 1886, the new Minister of Finance, Ivan Vyshnegradsky
, offered Kovalevsky for him to take over as an official for special assignments and as a representative of the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Railways.
In March of 1889, Kovalevsky was appointed a member of the Tariff Committee and the Council on Tariff Matters for the newly formed Department of Rail Affairs, part of the Ministry of Finance, where he met Sergei Witte
. In this new role, he worked mainly with tariffs on agricultural goods.
Soon, Kovalevsky became one of the most trusted people around Witte. Their work together continued for more than 13 years. In April 1891, under the introduction of Sergei Witte, Kovalevsky was bestowed the civil rank of "Actual State Councilor". In the end of 1892, Witte became Minister of Finance and offered Kovalevsky to take up the post of director of the Department of Trade and Manufactures. This would mean heading the management of trade and industry in Russia. By October 1892, Vladimir Kovalevsky had worked out a wide-scale, long-term program of commercial-industrial development in Russia, which solved the question of future Russian industrial development coexisting with an extended policy of protectionism
. In 1893, Kovalevsky, together with the scientist Dmitri Mendeleev
, organized the Bureau of Weights and Measures, and Mendeleev was named its director.
Kovalevsky also headed the commissions for preparing Russian exhibits at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago
and the 1900 World's Fair in Paris. By Kovalevsky's personal initiatives, 1893 saw the beginning of the publication of the "Trade and Industry Gazette" . In 1896, he developed a project on the position of Russia's commercial schools. He also contributed to the conclusion of trade agreements with Germany
and other countries. With Kovalevsky's active involvement, the 1896 All-Russia industrial and art exhibition
took place in Nizhniy Novgorod. Later, in 1898, he was involved in the development of a new law on state-industrial taxes. From 1899 to 1901, Kovalevsky was chairman of the Special conference on the preparation of legislation on the establishment of industrial enterprises.
In April of 1899, he was bestowed the civil rank of Privy Councillor.
In 1899, along with Sergey Witte, Dmitry Mendeleev and others, Kovalevsky helped organize the Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University.
In 1900, he was appointed Deputy to the Minister of Finance, having power over matters of trade and industry.
Developers' Congresses, and until October 1905, he was the Council's representative in Saint Petersburg
. In that same year, he was also one of the organizers of the Council of Congresses of Representatives of Trade and Industry. It is also known that Kovalevsky disapproved of Pyotr Stolypin
's agrarian politics
, and showed that by turning down an invitation to meet him. In 1909, Kovalevsky was chosen to be the chairman of a convention against alcoholism. In that same year, he became the chair of the administration of the Saint Petersburg Rail Car Factory Union, and in 1913, of the Ural
-Caspian
Petroleum Society. In 1914, he was head of the Society of Mechanical Factories "Brothers of Bromley". From 1903, he was the deputy chairman of the Russian Technical Society, and on 2 December 1906, he was elected Chairman. Kovalevsky carried this duty until 23 January 1916. During World War I
, Kovalevsky was a member of a bureau of the Central Military-Industrial Committee and chairman of the Peat
Committee of the General Directorate of Land Management and Agriculture.
, Kovalevsky stayed in Russia and worked in several central scientific agricultural establishments: from 1919 to 1929 he occupied the post of Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Narkomzem - the country's foremost scientific center in agronomy
and agriculture
, and from 1923, he was the Honorable Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Plant Industry
. There he worked with Nikolay Vavilov. In 1923, Kovalevsky was appointed chairman of the Scientific-Technical Council of the First All-Union Agriculture and Orchard Industry Exhibition in Moscow
. He worked on the project of creating the USSR VDNKh
. During the course of several years, Kovalevsky was the senior editor of the Great Agricultural Encyclopedia, which was one the most complete worldwide publications of that type.
In November of 1928, in the Mariinsky Palace
in Leningrad
, he celebrated his eightieth birthday. Due to this notable date, he was recognized as Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR. Vladimir Kovalevsky died on 2 November 1935 from pulmonary edema
, having not lived to his 86th birthday by a week. He was buried at the Smolensk Cemetery
.
and publicist
, editor of the Russkoye Slovo ("Russian Word") and Delo ("Business") magazines, Gregory Blagosvetlov. His first marriage proved unsuccessful. In 1902, Kovalevsky became involved in a lawsuit against Elizaveta Shabel'skaya, his former lover, after which he divorced Lukhutina. All of this led a to scandal which ended his political career.
Kovalevsky remarried in 1903. With this second marriage, he had a son Georgiy (1905–1942), who became a botanist and worked with Nikolay Vavilov at the Institute of Plant Industry
. He died of starvation
during the Blockade of Leningrad in 1942.
s as a way of advancing agriculture to the north. These laws were called the Kovalevsky Laws and played an important practical role.
Kovalevsky was one of the founders of agricultural ecology
, whose challenges he identified as such: "Explaination of joint interaction on the harvest quality of grain, constitutions of the soil
s, methods of working the land, meteorological conditions, protection of plants, etc.". He claimed that "the harvest, or the productivity in general, is not a constant amount, but the result of interaction of the productivity and survivability of plants with unfavorable conditions of the outside environment".
Also, Kovalevsky studied the effect of meteorological, hydrological, and temperature
factors on harvest
. He supported the use of science, especially physics
, when determining the effects of climate
and weather on plant development. In 1889, at the third All-Russia Congress of Natural Scientists, Kovalevsky spoke on this matter with a report titled "Queries of modern agriculture to natural science". By his initiative, special weather stations were set up in different regions of Russia, and Kovalevsky has been called one of the founders of agricultural meteorology. In 1932, academic Abram Ioffe
and Kovalevsky organized the Leningrad Institute of Agrophysics
.
At the end of the 1920s
, Kovalevsky became a member of the International Meteorological Organization
. He was also a member of the Free Economic Society
and the Russian Geographical Society
.
During his work, Kovalevsky paid considerable attention to peasant
labor. He believed that peasants were, by nature, ecologists, and that their traditions and experience must be taken into consideration.
Many practical tips and recommendations are found in Kovalevsky's works which are still applicable today. For example, suggestions are found about growing rice
and tea
, cultivation of dry land, anti-desertification measures, and beekeeping
. He was also decisively opposed to using excess mineral fertilizer.
Following Kovalevsky's recommendations, pine trees were planted on the slopes of dunes in the Sestroretsk
region near Saint Petersburg, which saved a row of villages and a small factory from the advancing sands.
.
He also contributed many articles about various agricultural topics to the Agriculture and Forestry and Agricultural Gazette magazines. Under his editing, the Ministry of Finance published "Production Powers of Russia" (1896) and "Russia at the End of the XIX Century" (1900).
Kovalevsky
Kovalevsky or Kowalewski may refer to:*Anton Kavalewski, Belarusian footballer*Alexander Kovalevsky, Embryologist*Anton Kovalevski, Figure skater*Jan Kowalewski, Cryptologist*Joe Kowalewski, American football player...
.
Vladimir Ivanovich Kovalevsky (10 November 1848, Novo-Serpukhov
Balakliia
Balakliia is a city in the Kharkiv Oblast of eastern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Balakliyskyi Raion , and is an important railroad junction in the oblast....
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
– 2 November 1935, Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
, USSR) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n statesman, scientist and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
. He was the author of numerous articles and works on agricultural themes. From 1892 to 1900, he was the director of the Commerce and Manufacturing Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Empire
Ministry of Finance of the Russian Empire
Ministry of Finance — one of the Russian Empire's central public institutions, in charge of financial and economic policy.Ministry was established on 8 September 1802, and reorganized in 1810-11.By the end of 19th century, it consisted of a:...
, and one of the fathers of the concept of Russian protectionism
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
. From 1900 to 1902, he was the Deputy Minister of Finance. From 1906 to 1916, he was the chairman of the Russian Technical Society. Kovalevsky was one of the creators of the Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University and the Institute of Plant Industry
Institute of Plant Industry
The Institute of Plant Industry, Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry or All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Industry , as it is officially called, is a research institute of plant genetics, located in Saint Petersburg, Russia.-History:...
in Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
.
Early years
Vladimir Kovalevsky was born to the middle-class family of a retired army major on 9 November 1848, in Novo-Serpukhov (currently BalakliiaBalakliia
Balakliia is a city in the Kharkiv Oblast of eastern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Balakliyskyi Raion , and is an important railroad junction in the oblast....
) in the Zmiyov
Zmiiv
Zmiiv is a city in Kharkiv Oblast of Ukraine. The population as of 2001 was 17,063. Zmiiv is the administrative center of Zmiivskyi Raion...
uyezd
Uyezd
Uyezd or uezd was an administrative subdivision of Rus', Muscovy, Russian Empire, and the early Russian SFSR which was in use from the 13th century. Uyezds for most of the history in Russia were a secondary-level of administrative division...
of the Kharkov Governorate
Kharkov Governorate
Kharkiv Governorate or Kharkov Governorate was a governorate of the Russian Empire originally founded in 1780. It was renamed to Sloboda Ukraine Governorate in 1797 and back to Kharkiv Governorate in 1835....
. He was brought up in the Poltava
Poltava
Poltava is a city in located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Poltava Oblast , as well as the surrounding Poltava Raion of the oblast. Poltava's estimated population is 298,652 ....
Military School. In August 1865, he entered the Konstantinov Military Academy. In July 1867 he was released into the Derbent
Derbent
Derbent |Lak]]: Чурул, Churul; Persian: دربند; Judæo-Tat: דארבּאנד/Дэрбэнд/Dərbənd) is a city in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, close to the Azerbaijani border. It is the southernmost city in Russia, and it is the second most important city of Dagestan...
154th Infantry Regiment, serving in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
. Kovalevsky resigned from military service on 14 May 1868, at the rank of praporschik, equivalent to ensign
Ensign (rank)
Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....
. In that same year, he began studying at the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, where he was taught by Dmitry Lachinov
Dmitry Lachinov
Dmitry Aleksandrovich Lachinov was a Russian physicist, electrical engineer, inventor, meteorologist and climatologist.Dmitry Lachinov studied in the St. Petersburg University, where he was a pupil of Heinrich Lenz, Pafnuty Chebyshev and Feodor Petrushevsky...
.
Revolutionary involvement
While studying at the university, Kovalevsky participated in the 1869 student protests, meeting narodnikNarodnik
Narodniks was the name for Russian socially conscious members of the middle class in the 1860s and 1870s. Their ideas and actions were known as Narodnichestvo which can be translated as "Peopleism", though is more commonly rendered "populism"...
Sergey Nechayev
Sergey Nechayev
Sergey Gennadiyevich Nyechayev was a Russian revolutionary associated with the Nihilist movement and known for his single-minded pursuit of revolution by any means necessary, including political violence.-Early life in Russia:...
there. For some time, he attended a group of Nechayev followers in St. Petersburg. In November 1869, Nechayev murdered his former follower I. I. Ivanov, and Kovalevsky gave him an opportunity to stay the night at his house. On 5 January 1870, Kovalevsky was arrested on accusations of sheltering Nechayev, and on 10 September he was transferred to the Peter-Paul Fortress. On 1 July 1871, Kovalevsky was brought to the court of the St. Petersburg judicial chamber on the accusation that without necessarily taking part in the plot to overthrow the existing order of control in Russia, he contributed in providing accommodation for Sergey Nechayev. On 22 August 1871, Kovalevsky was acquitted and released from the Peter-Paul Fortress on that same day. However, he was deprived of being able to work in any government service and was placed under police probation
Probation
Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...
. In 1874, Kovalevsky planned to join the Circle of Tchaikovsky
Circle of Tchaikovsky
The Circle of Tchaikovsky, also known as Tchaikovtsy, Chaikovtsy, or the Grand Propaganda Society was a Russian literary society for self-education and a revolutionary organization of the Narodniks in the early 1870s.- Background and origin :The intelligentsia of mid-nineteenth century Tsarist...
. As a result, he was also subject to a brief arrest relating to the business of Sergey Stepnyak-Kravchinsky.
After release
Once freed, Kovalevsky began living on his parents' property in the Kharkov GovernorateKharkov Governorate
Kharkiv Governorate or Kharkov Governorate was a governorate of the Russian Empire originally founded in 1780. It was renamed to Sloboda Ukraine Governorate in 1797 and back to Kharkiv Governorate in 1835....
. In 1872, however, he once again went to study at the Saint Petersburg Agricultural Institute. Graduating in 1875, Kovalevsky completed his thesis on the theme of "An historical survey on the essence of alcoholic fermentation and the nourishment of yeast" and was honored the degree of Candidate of Agricultural Sciences.
Since 1874, Kovalevsky performed scientific-literary work, printed articles and transcripts in the "Zemledel'cheskaya Gazeta" (Agriculture Gazette) and in the magazine Agriculture and Forestry. In 1879, together with I. O. Levitsky, he published "A statistical description of the milk economy in the northern and central regions of European Russia
European Russia
European Russia refers to the western areas of Russia that lie within Europe, comprising roughly 3,960,000 square kilometres , larger in area than India, and spanning across 40% of Europe. Its eastern border is defined by the Ural Mountains and in the south it is defined by the border with...
."
Political career
In 1879, Kovalevsky turned to general Sergei Sykov, his familiar, asking for his assistance in entering the civil service. With the general's backing, it was possible for Kovalevsky to occupy a government position, excluding those only having to do with the teaching activity or work in the prosecution. Later that year, he began working in the statistical division of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Industry of the Imperial Ministry of State Property, where he worked with mapping the soils of European RussiaEuropean Russia
European Russia refers to the western areas of Russia that lie within Europe, comprising roughly 3,960,000 square kilometres , larger in area than India, and spanning across 40% of Europe. Its eastern border is defined by the Ural Mountains and in the south it is defined by the border with...
. He also initiated the publishing of annual harvest statistics. In a short period of time, he managed to perfect the wide communication network for obtaining such information.
Since 1882 Kovalevsky was a member of the Agricultural Scientific Committee of the Ministry of State Property. In 1884, by the proposal of Minister of Finance Nikolay Bunge
Nikolay Bunge
Nikolai Khristianovich Bunge was the preeminent architect of Russian capitalism under Alexander III. He was a distinguished economist, statesman, and academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences....
, he transferred his employment to the Ministry of Finance. There he served as vice-director of the Department of Tax Assemblies and participated in the abolition of the poll tax
Poll tax
A poll tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax...
, the conversion of quit-rent
Quit-rent
Quit rent , Quit-rent, or quitrent, in practically all cases, is now effectively but not formally a tax or land tax imposed on freehold or leased land by a higher landowning authority, usually a government or its assigns....
from former state serfs, and the introduction of tax inspectors, as well as passing a law to raise the percentage of fees from commercial and industrial enterprises. However, in January 1886, at the request of the Minister of the Interior D. A. Tolstoy, Kovalevsky had to leave the post of vice-director as politically unreliable. Following Bunge's resignation at the end of 1886, the new Minister of Finance, Ivan Vyshnegradsky
Ivan Vyshnegradsky
Ivan Vyshnegradsky was Russia's Finance minister from 1887-1892.- Past Life :...
, offered Kovalevsky for him to take over as an official for special assignments and as a representative of the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Railways.
In March of 1889, Kovalevsky was appointed a member of the Tariff Committee and the Council on Tariff Matters for the newly formed Department of Rail Affairs, part of the Ministry of Finance, where he met Sergei Witte
Sergei Witte
Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte , also known as Sergius Witte, was a highly influential policy-maker who presided over extensive industrialization within the Russian Empire. He served under the last two emperors of Russia...
. In this new role, he worked mainly with tariffs on agricultural goods.
Soon, Kovalevsky became one of the most trusted people around Witte. Their work together continued for more than 13 years. In April 1891, under the introduction of Sergei Witte, Kovalevsky was bestowed the civil rank of "Actual State Councilor". In the end of 1892, Witte became Minister of Finance and offered Kovalevsky to take up the post of director of the Department of Trade and Manufactures. This would mean heading the management of trade and industry in Russia. By October 1892, Vladimir Kovalevsky had worked out a wide-scale, long-term program of commercial-industrial development in Russia, which solved the question of future Russian industrial development coexisting with an extended policy of protectionism
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
. In 1893, Kovalevsky, together with the scientist Dmitri Mendeleev
Dmitri Mendeleev
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev , was a Russian chemist and inventor. He is credited as being the creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements...
, organized the Bureau of Weights and Measures, and Mendeleev was named its director.
Kovalevsky also headed the commissions for preparing Russian exhibits at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and the 1900 World's Fair in Paris. By Kovalevsky's personal initiatives, 1893 saw the beginning of the publication of the "Trade and Industry Gazette" . In 1896, he developed a project on the position of Russia's commercial schools. He also contributed to the conclusion of trade agreements with Germany
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
and other countries. With Kovalevsky's active involvement, the 1896 All-Russia industrial and art exhibition
All-Russia exhibition 1896
The All-Russia industrial and art exhibition 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod was held from May 28 till October 1 , 1896. The 1896 exhibition was the biggest pre-revolution exhibition in Russian Empire and was organized with the money allotted by Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia...
took place in Nizhniy Novgorod. Later, in 1898, he was involved in the development of a new law on state-industrial taxes. From 1899 to 1901, Kovalevsky was chairman of the Special conference on the preparation of legislation on the establishment of industrial enterprises.
In April of 1899, he was bestowed the civil rank of Privy Councillor.
In 1900, he was appointed Deputy to the Minister of Finance, having power over matters of trade and industry.
Fake promissory notes and resignation
A serious blow to Kovalevsky's career was dealt by a scandalous affair involving fake promissory notes. Back in 1896, he met the actress and entrepreneur Elizaveta Shabel'skaya, and they had an affair. But in 1902, he became interested in Maria Ilovayskaya and accused his former lover of faking promissory notes in his name. The controversy dragged on until 1905. To marry Ilovayskaya, Kovalevsky divorced his wife, Ekaterina Lukhutina, on the premise of her unfaithfulness. With that, he promised to the consistory, under the oath, that he never failed to perform his conjugal responsibilities. His wife, however, accused him of lying and perjury, and in order not to discredit the Ministry of Finance, Kovalevsky was forced to resign as Deputy Finance Minister in 1902. His duties in the Ministry of Finance were filled by Vassily Timiryazev.After resignation
In 1904 Kovalevsky became a member of the Council (Soviet) of Ural MountainsUral Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
Developers' Congresses, and until October 1905, he was the Council's representative in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. In that same year, he was also one of the organizers of the Council of Congresses of Representatives of Trade and Industry. It is also known that Kovalevsky disapproved of Pyotr Stolypin
Pyotr Stolypin
Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin served as the leader of the 3rd DUMA—from 1906 to 1911. His tenure was marked by efforts to repress revolutionary groups, as well as for the institution of noteworthy agrarian reforms. Stolypin hoped, through his reforms, to stem peasant unrest by creating a class of...
's agrarian politics
Agrarianism
Agrarianism has two common meanings. The first meaning refers to a social philosophy or political philosophy which values rural society as superior to urban society, the independent farmer as superior to the paid worker, and sees farming as a way of life that can shape the ideal social values...
, and showed that by turning down an invitation to meet him. In 1909, Kovalevsky was chosen to be the chairman of a convention against alcoholism. In that same year, he became the chair of the administration of the Saint Petersburg Rail Car Factory Union, and in 1913, of the Ural
Ural (region)
Ural is a geographical region located around the Ural Mountains, between the East European and West Siberian plains. It extends approximately from north to south, from the Arctic Ocean to the bend of Ural River near Orsk city. The boundary between Europe and Asia runs along the eastern side of...
-Caspian
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
Petroleum Society. In 1914, he was head of the Society of Mechanical Factories "Brothers of Bromley". From 1903, he was the deputy chairman of the Russian Technical Society, and on 2 December 1906, he was elected Chairman. Kovalevsky carried this duty until 23 January 1916. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Kovalevsky was a member of a bureau of the Central Military-Industrial Committee and chairman of the Peat
Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
Committee of the General Directorate of Land Management and Agriculture.
After the revolution
After the October RevolutionOctober Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, Kovalevsky stayed in Russia and worked in several central scientific agricultural establishments: from 1919 to 1929 he occupied the post of Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Narkomzem - the country's foremost scientific center in agronomy
Agronomy
Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, feed, fiber, and reclamation. Agronomy encompasses work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. Agronomy is the application of a combination of sciences like biology,...
and agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, and from 1923, he was the Honorable Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Plant Industry
Institute of Plant Industry
The Institute of Plant Industry, Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry or All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Industry , as it is officially called, is a research institute of plant genetics, located in Saint Petersburg, Russia.-History:...
. There he worked with Nikolay Vavilov. In 1923, Kovalevsky was appointed chairman of the Scientific-Technical Council of the First All-Union Agriculture and Orchard Industry Exhibition in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. He worked on the project of creating the USSR VDNKh
VDNKh
VDNKh may refer to:* The former name of the exhibition centers in former Soviet Republics** All-Russia Exhibition Centre ** National Complex Expocenter of Ukraine...
. During the course of several years, Kovalevsky was the senior editor of the Great Agricultural Encyclopedia, which was one the most complete worldwide publications of that type.
In November of 1928, in the Mariinsky Palace
Mariinsky Palace
Mariinsky Palace, also known as Marie Palace , was the last Neoclassical imperial palace to be constructed in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was built between 1839 and 1844 to a design by the court architect Andrei Stackensneider....
in Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
, he celebrated his eightieth birthday. Due to this notable date, he was recognized as Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR. Vladimir Kovalevsky died on 2 November 1935 from pulmonary edema
Pulmonary edema
Pulmonary edema , or oedema , is fluid accumulation in the air spaces and parenchyma of the lungs. It leads to impaired gas exchange and may cause respiratory failure...
, having not lived to his 86th birthday by a week. He was buried at the Smolensk Cemetery
Smolensk Cemetery
The Smolenskoye Cemetery is a Lutheran cemetery on Decembrists' Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is one of the largest and oldest non-orthodox cemeteries in the city. Until the early 20th century it was one of the main burial grounds for ethnic Germans.- History :The Lutheran cemetery on...
.
Personal life
Vladimir Kovalevsky was married twice. His first wife was E. N. Lukhutina, whom he married in 1872 (date unknown), and his second was M. G. Ilovayskaya (born Blagosvetlova), married 1903. Ilovayskaya was the wife of a famous criticCritic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
and publicist
Publicist
A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure, especially a celebrity, a business, or for a work such as a book, film or album...
, editor of the Russkoye Slovo ("Russian Word") and Delo ("Business") magazines, Gregory Blagosvetlov. His first marriage proved unsuccessful. In 1902, Kovalevsky became involved in a lawsuit against Elizaveta Shabel'skaya, his former lover, after which he divorced Lukhutina. All of this led a to scandal which ended his political career.
Kovalevsky remarried in 1903. With this second marriage, he had a son Georgiy (1905–1942), who became a botanist and worked with Nikolay Vavilov at the Institute of Plant Industry
Institute of Plant Industry
The Institute of Plant Industry, Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry or All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Industry , as it is officially called, is a research institute of plant genetics, located in Saint Petersburg, Russia.-History:...
. He died of starvation
Starvation
Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy, nutrient and vitamin intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death...
during the Blockade of Leningrad in 1942.
Residences
- 96/38, Kamennoostrovsky Pereulok, Saint PetersburgSaint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
; - 57 Gertsen Street, LeningradLeningradLeningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
.
Scientific work
From 1881 to 1917, Vladimir Kovalevsky annually published statistical summaries about the harvests of breat and other staples in Russia in the "Agricultural Gazette" and in the "Agriculture and Forestry" magazine. Nikolay Vavilov characterized these summaries as the "foundation of agricultural knowledge in Russia". Kovalevsky was a supporter of using geographical principles in agriculture. In 1884, Kovalevsky was able to establish laws governing the shortening of the growing season of bread grainGRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
s as a way of advancing agriculture to the north. These laws were called the Kovalevsky Laws and played an important practical role.
Kovalevsky was one of the founders of agricultural ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
, whose challenges he identified as such: "Explaination of joint interaction on the harvest quality of grain, constitutions of the soil
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
s, methods of working the land, meteorological conditions, protection of plants, etc.". He claimed that "the harvest, or the productivity in general, is not a constant amount, but the result of interaction of the productivity and survivability of plants with unfavorable conditions of the outside environment".
Also, Kovalevsky studied the effect of meteorological, hydrological, and temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
factors on harvest
Harvest
Harvest is the process of gathering mature crops from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper...
. He supported the use of science, especially physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, when determining the effects of climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
and weather on plant development. In 1889, at the third All-Russia Congress of Natural Scientists, Kovalevsky spoke on this matter with a report titled "Queries of modern agriculture to natural science". By his initiative, special weather stations were set up in different regions of Russia, and Kovalevsky has been called one of the founders of agricultural meteorology. In 1932, academic Abram Ioffe
Abram Ioffe
Abram Fedorovich Ioffe was a prominent Russian/Soviet physicist. He received the Stalin Prize , the Lenin Prize , and the Hero of Socialist Labor . Ioffe was an expert in electromagnetism, radiology, crystals, high-impact physics, thermoelectricity and photoelectricity...
and Kovalevsky organized the Leningrad Institute of Agrophysics
Agrophysics
Agrophysics is a branch of science bordering on agronomy and physics,whose objects of study are the agroecosystem - the biological objects, biotope and biocoenosis affected by human activity, studied and described using the methods of physical sciences....
.
At the end of the 1920s
1920s
File:1920s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Sean Hogan during the Irish Civil War; Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in accordance to the 18th amendment, which made alcoholic beverages illegal throughout the entire decade; In...
, Kovalevsky became a member of the International Meteorological Organization
International Meteorological Organization
The International Meteorological Organization was the first organization formed with the purpose of exchanging weather information among the countries of the world. It was born from the realization that weather systems move across country boundaries and knowledge of pressure, temperature,...
. He was also a member of the Free Economic Society
Free Economic Society
Free Economic Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture and Husbandry was Russia's first learned society which formally did not depend on the government and as such came to be regarded as a bulwark of Russian liberalism.-18th century:...
and the Russian Geographical Society
Russian Geographical Society
The Russian Geographical Society is a learned society, founded on 6 August 1845 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.-Imperial Geographical Society:Prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917, it was known as the Imperial Russian Geographical Society....
.
During his work, Kovalevsky paid considerable attention to peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
labor. He believed that peasants were, by nature, ecologists, and that their traditions and experience must be taken into consideration.
Many practical tips and recommendations are found in Kovalevsky's works which are still applicable today. For example, suggestions are found about growing rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
and tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
, cultivation of dry land, anti-desertification measures, and beekeeping
Beekeeping
Beekeeping is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, by humans. A beekeeper keeps bees in order to collect honey and other products of the hive , to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers...
. He was also decisively opposed to using excess mineral fertilizer.
Following Kovalevsky's recommendations, pine trees were planted on the slopes of dunes in the Sestroretsk
Sestroretsk
Sestroretsk is a municipal town in Kurortny District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, the Sestra River and the Sestroretskiy Lake northwest of St. Petersburg...
region near Saint Petersburg, which saved a row of villages and a small factory from the advancing sands.
Evaluation of accomplishments
During the ten years when Kovalevsky was head of Russian industrial development, the size of industrial production in the Russian Empire doubled. One of the authors of legislation on commercial and polytechnic education, Vladimir Kovalevsky actively supported the creation of educational institutions of the new type. In all, in cooperation with Kovalevsky, over 100 new professional schools of various types, 73 commerce schools, several liberal arts schools, and 35 new commercial maritime schools were established. The largest of these establishments were the Saint Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, Kiev Polytechnic Institute, and Warsaw University of TechnologyWarsaw University of Technology
The Warsaw University of Technology is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland, and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professors . The student body numbers 36,156 , mostly full-time. There are 17 faculties covering almost all fields of...
.
Primary works
- "A Statistical description of the dairy industry in central and northern European Russia" (1879, with I. O. Levitsky);
- "The Origins of the culture and technical processing of sugar sorghumSorghumSorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
" (1883); - "Industry and Trade of Russia" , part of the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic DictionaryBrockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic DictionaryThe Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary is, in its scope and style, the Russian counterpart to the Encyclopædia Britannica. It contains 121,240 articles, 7,800 images, and 235 maps...
;
He also contributed many articles about various agricultural topics to the Agriculture and Forestry and Agricultural Gazette magazines. Under his editing, the Ministry of Finance published "Production Powers of Russia" (1896) and "Russia at the End of the XIX Century" (1900).
Translated works
- Emil von Wolff, "Rational feeding of agricultural animals by the newest physiological findings" (1875).
- Wilhelm FleischmannWilhelm FleischmannWilhelm Fleischmann was a German agriculturist and chemist. He is known for his work on the chemistry of milk.-Biography:He received his education at Nuremberg, Würzburg, Erlangen and Munich...
, "Milk and the dairy business" (1879—1880). - Gottlieb HaberlandtGottlieb HaberlandtGottlieb Haberlandt was an Austrian botanist.Haberlandt first pointed out the possibilities of the culture of isolated tissues...
, "General agricultural plant-growing" (1879—1880). - F. Prosch, "Breeding of large livestock and its caretaking" (1881).
- Alexander von MiddendorffAlexander von MiddendorffAlexander Theodor von Middendorff was a Baltic German zoologist and explorer.- Early life :Middendorff's mother Sophia Johanson was an Estonian peasant girl who had been sent to Saint Petersburg for education by her parents. There she met with the future director of the St...
, "Descriptions of the Fergana ValleyFergana ValleyThe Fergana Valley or Farghana Valley is a region in Central Asia spreading across eastern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Divided across three subdivisions of the former Soviet Union, the valley is ethnically diverse, and in the early 21st century was the scene of ethnic conflict...
" (1882). - Girolamo Azzi, "Agricultural ecology" (1928).