Alexander Pavlovich Vinogradov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Па́влович Виногра́дов; August 21, 1895 – November 16, 1975) was a Soviet geochemist, academician (1953), and Hero of Socialist Labour (1949, 1975).
In 1928, he took up a position as assistant professor in the laboratory for biogeochemical problems of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.
[2] Alexander Vinogradov was born in a family of state ("economic") peasants (employees) in Yaroslavl province[3] or, according to other sources, in St.
[4] At the end of agricultural work, the whole Vinogradov family would go to St. Petersburg to earn money, and for the summer they would come home to Petretsovo where parents would engage in farming.
[4] Since 1919 Alexander Vinogradov has been studying at the Military Medical Academy and, at the same time, at the Chemistry department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Leningrad State University.
At the end of the 1940s, as a leading USSR specialist in the field of analytical chemistry who earned the Lenin Prize in 1934, he was involved in the creation of atomic weapons and the nuclear industry in the Soviet Union.
On October 29, 1949 Alexander Vinogradov was awarded the Hero of Socialist Labor title with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal "for exceptional services to the state while performing a special task" by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet "On conferring the title of Hero of Socialist Labor to scientific, engineering, technical and managerial workers of research organizations, construction companies and industrial enterprises" (classified as "Not to be published").
Based on isotope studies he showed that photosynthetic oxygen is formed from water, not carbon dioxide.
Vinogradov proposed a hypothesis of a universal mechanism for the formation of planetary shells based on the silicate phase zone melting and developed the idea of the Earth chemical evolution.
Together with his colleagues, he determined the absolute age of the Earth, the Baltic, Ukrainian, Aldan and other shields, as well as the rocks of India, Africa and other regions.
He used the data obtained with the help of interplanetary space stations and was the first to establish the presence of basaltic rocks on the surface of the Moon (Luna-10, 1966).
The letter accused Sakharov of “having made a number of statements discrediting the political system, foreign and domestic policies of the Soviet Union.” Academicians assessed his human rights activities as the ones “discrediting the honor and dignity of a Soviet scientist.”[7][8] Alexander Vinogradov died on November 16, 1975.
[9] Memorial plaques are installed on the building of the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg[10] and on the facade of GEOKHI (Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry; Kosygina Street, house No.
The memorial office-museum of Academician Vinogradov was opened at the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry (Moscow).
[11][12] The name of the scientist was assigned to the Institute of Geochemistry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Irkutsk.