190 years since the birth of Mendeleev: what the great scientist foresaw

For example, the American state gives one of the best modern directors, Christopher Nolan, a political commission – and he canonizes the American Prometheus Robert Oppenheimer through cinema. This is how it works today. So we should make a decent movie for our contemporaries about Tsiolkovsky, Kurchatov, Lobachevsky, but we can and should start with the biography of Mendeleev. Believe me, there is something to film there. Before us appears someone like a Russian fairy-tale hero and at the same time a genius, a troublemaker, inexorably moving towards his goals. But ask someone, what is Mendeleev remembered for? Most will say: he invented the table. He dreamed about her, someone might add. Surely there will be those who will say that Mendeleev invented vodka, although this is just a story. So, what would you answer?..

Meanwhile, the life and fate of Dmitry Ivanovich is a collection of amazing, almost fantastic stories that have become reality. Let’s start with the fact that he was born in a large family and was the last – the seventeenth! – as a child. True, as often happened, and Mendeleev was born in 1834, many of his brothers and sisters died in infancy, eight children, and his sister Masha left at the age of 15. What follows is the favorite mantra of poor students: the future genius studied poorly at the gymnasium of his native Tobolsk. In the first grade I even stayed for the second year and had a “C” in chemistry. But he graduated from the institute in St. Petersburg – the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics – with a gold medal. He was inspired to study by wonderful teachers. Later, teaching became one of Dmitry Ivanovich’s favorite activities.

Physics and mathematics, but what about chemistry? – you ask, because the name of Mendeleev is primarily associated with this science. Not certainly in that way; chemistry takes up only ten percent of his activity. Here are just some of Mendeleev’s achievements – they are cited by Vladimir Chivilikhin in his book “Memory”: “Mendeleev published one hundred and six works on physical chemistry, ninety-nine on physics, ninety-nine on technology and industry, forty on chemistry, thirty-six on social and economic issues, twenty-two – geography, twenty-nine – problems of population, education, agriculture, forestry and others that completely did not fit into twenty-five thick volumes … “

It seemed that there was no sphere that Dmitry Ivanovich would not illuminate with his presence. At the same time, Mendeleev each time set himself the most difficult tasks – and invariably solved them with brilliance. Was there no exemplary chemistry textbook in Russia? Mendeleev wrote it himself, receiving a prize for it. By the way, the legendary table is not just a vision in a dream, as they try to imagine, but the result of every second of work. Dmitry Ivanovich worked so much, so hard to create this system that his brain continued to work in his sleep – as a result, finding solutions and answers. Moreover, what others considered a weakness, Mendeleev made an advantage – he understood that his table would be incomplete, and then foresaw its expansion. He himself predicted the appearance of at least 10 more elements.

The word “predicted” generally suits Mendeleev very accurately. During his lifetime, he foresaw what others could not even imagine. However, soon or decades later, what Dmitry Ivanovich predicted came true. For example, he foresaw the emergence of a gasoline internal combustion engine and even roughly explained how it would work. In general, Mendeleev had a special relationship with oil. He was treated with it for pleurisy and at the same time was outraged by how stupidly they treated it, ineptly spending and purchasing kerosene in the USA. In fact, it was Dmitry Ivanovich who made oil the main resource of Russia, laying the foundation for future prosperity. By the way, it was Nobels who invested in the oil refinery, not the Russian state. True, then Mendeleev entered into confrontation with them, thinking not about billions of dollars in profits, but about the benefit to the Fatherland.

This is generally a feature of that time and that science, especially Russian science. After all, what is the difference between Russian and Western scientists? The first did everything selflessly, for the sake of an idea. The latter ran to apply for a patent. Now I’m exaggerating somewhat, but only partly. Popov limited himself to a report, Marconi made a patent, although he did not even invent radio. And such gentlemen as Thomas Edison generally patented anything – and not always in an honest way. Now compare with Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky: a man who, during the First World War, invented a gas mask and refused to patent it, since the means of protection was necessary for millions to save their lives.

That’s how it is with Mendeleev. He himself wrote: “…my first service is to the Motherland, the second is to education, the third is to industry.” These words largely coincide with the civic position of Nikolai Pirogov: “You cannot remain indifferent to the fate of your Motherland while a great battle is unfolding…” By the way, he examined Mendeleev when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Fortunately, the great doctor, after examining the patient, ruled that he was completely healthy. In general, of course, you freeze at the proximity of such names: Mendeleev, Pirogov. And you can also remember Arkhip Kuindzhi, with whom Dmitry Ivanovich worked on the creation of chemical paints. Or Vrubel, who painted a portrait of Mendeleev. What a deafening greatness of names!

There is another significant name – Fyodor Tyutchev, whose poems Mendeleev especially loved. Both of them were statesmen, patriots, but not in the official-patriotic sense, but in the correct, genuine sense. Tyutchev is also a versatile person, although he is far from Mendeleev. However, everyone is far away. Indeed, in addition to the above, Dmitry Ivanovich applied his genius to metallurgical and coal mining, aeronautics, metrology, demography, agriculture and forestry – so, stop, otherwise we won’t leave until the morning. An absolute genius who did not seek awards or ranks.

It’s a shame to say, but Mendeleev was not a member of the Imperial Academy, and at the end of his life he resigned from the university because he entered into confrontation with the leadership because of rebellious students. When it was necessary to give a speech at the Faraday readings, which would have become the pinnacle of Mendeleev’s international career, he hastily went home to his sick son Vasya – it was not fame, but family, the Motherland that worried Dmitry Ivanovich.

And at the same time, despite all the greatness and glory, he was a lonely man. Anna Popova, his future wife, recalled how, while playing chess, Dmitry Ivanovich covered his eyes with his hand and cried with the words: “I’m so lonely, I’m so lonely!” I was struck by the story that Mendeleev, tired of the pestering misunderstanding of his first wife, ran away from home and hid in the hollow of a huge tree, where he had a chair and a table – there he worked. Not because he isolated himself from people, but because he could not live like them, with all their petty-bourgeois pettiness and vulgarity. Existential loneliness.

Perhaps, the nature of Dmitry Ivanovich’s genius and loneliness was best understood by his son-in-law, the poet Alexander Blok, who wrote about Mendeleev: “…he has long known everything that happens in the world, he has penetrated into everything. Nothing is hidden from him. His knowledge is the most complete. It comes from genius, this doesn’t happen with ordinary people… It’s not scary at all with him, but it’s always restless, this is because he knows everything for a long time, without stories, without hints, without even seeing or hearing… What others say , he is almost always bored, because he knows everything better than anyone…”

His favorite poet Tyutchev wrote: “You can’t understand Russia with your mind…” – we know this from textbooks. So, as for me, Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, with his mind, still understood Russia and us Russians, as well as the world around him. Perhaps I didn’t understand everything, but I understood a lot, a lot. For us, Mendeleev left empty spaces not only in the table of periodic elements, but also in the system of coordinates given by him. And we still have to fill them out.