In Memory of V. V. Vitkovsky

A. N. Krylov.

A year ago there died one of the remarkable Russian scholars, the geodesist and astronomer Vasily Vasilyevich Vitkovsky.

After completing the course in the geodetic section of the Academy of the General Staff, Vas. Vas. worked as an adjunct astronomer at the Pulkovo Observatory and in 1882 published in the proceedings of the Military-Topographical Department his study, which became a classic, “Investigation of the Pulkovo Horizontal Circle.” With this work he revealed himself as an excellent theorist and an outstanding observer. Soon afterward Vas. Vas. was appointed head of the triangulation work for the Petersburg district and the lower part of Finland. This work was carried out by Vas. Vas. with the thoroughness, precision, and skill characteristic of him. Having become convinced through personal experience that, for practical purposes, the topographical part is no less important than the purely geodetic one, Vas. Vas. undertook the teaching of geodesy and topography at the Military Topographical School, with which he did not part for about forty years, until his very death, at the same time occupying, after I. Ya. Tsinger, the post of professor of geodesy and astronomy in the Academy of the General Staff in its geodetic section.

Every summer Vas. Vas. directed in the field the practical exercises of his students, imparting to them, by demonstration and personal example, his experience and his love for the work; but Vas. Vas. did not limit himself to this in his concern for the corps of military topographers—in winter, for many years, under the administration of the Finnish survey, Vas. Vas., both personally and with the help of his friends, organized systematic courses of lectures on individual questions of geodesy, mathematics, and astronomy, which were willingly attended by officers of topography, and after the lecture there often arose, concerning what had been read, comradely scientific discussions, led by Vas. Vas.

Vas. Vas. regarded the corps of military topographers as one friendly family—on Thursdays in the evening the apartment of Vas. Vas. was open to all his former pupils; he himself, as an excellent pianist, would play some classical work by Beethoven, Chopin,

and so on, and then, over tea and a modest supper, an unconstrained conversation would proceed, which often assumed a scientific character and lasted far past midnight.

An unfailing participant in these Thursdays was the mathematician I. P. Dolbnya throughout the whole of his professorship at the Mining Institute.

Every topographer found in Vas. Vas. a constant response to every difficulty of his own and invariably the most energetic advocacy before the higher authorities.

Twenty-five or thirty years ago, however strange this may seem, access to the geodetic section of the Academy of the General Staff was very difficult for military topographers—they were required, besides special preparation, also to have purely military qualifications in the form of a specified length of service in the ranks and, it seems, even command of a company for some period. Few managed to pass this trial, but all the greater was the joy when, at one of his Thursdays, Vas. Vas. greeted the first topographer who had completed the geodetic section of the Academy of the General Staff.

For his pupils at the Military Topographic School and at the Academy, Vas. Vas. published a complete cycle of manuals. First he translated, with some notes and additions, the well-known work—Clarke’s Geodesy; then he successively published Practical Geodesy, Topography, and Cartography. All these manuals, especially the first two, may be said to have no equals in any language. Clarity of exposition, constantly supplemented by examples drawn from personal practice, excellent drawings or photographic images likewise taken directly from the subject, and indications from personal experience warning against possible errors constitute their unchanging merit, testifying to the pedagogical talent of Vas. Vas. Knowing perfectly the literature in his specialty in all languages, and possessing an extensive library, Vas. Vas. in his manuals succeeded in combining completeness with simplicity of exposition, treating for this purpose many questions in an entirely original way, both analytically and geometrically.

In recent years Vas. Vas. was occupied with the compilation of an extensive manual on astronomy, which was to comprise not only practical astronomy but also its other two branches, i.e. theoretical and spherical astronomy. This manual, it seems, he had brought to completion, representing likewise an extensive and original work. One could judge of the latter quality from individual notes, examples, and problems which Vas. Vas. from time to time placed in the Bulletin of Military Topographers, if I am not mistaken in the exact title of this journal, not having it now at hand. How original Vas. Vas.’s problems were may be judged from the following: “to determine when the earth was and will be in the plane of Saturn’s ring.” Of course, this problem has no purely practical significance, and not for

he included it in his Astronomy, so that the student, having carefully worked through the solution given in the manual, would indeed master the methods for solving questions concerning the motion of planets in their orbits, would gain a clear idea of the mutual disposition of the various principal planes considered in astronomy, and so forth, and would have occasion to apply other mathematical methods as well, and not spherical trigonometry alone. Needless to add, the solution given by Vas. Vas. himself was distinguished by its clarity and elegance.

Besides these specialized works by Vas. Vas., one cannot fail to mention another remarkable book from his pen—Over the Ocean.

At the end of the 1890s Vas. Vas. decided to acquaint himself on the spot with the work of American geodesists, especially General Davidson, who shortly before had intersected the chain of the so-called “Rocky Mountains” with a network of his famous quadrilaterals, whose sides extended to almost 300 versts. In the book Over the Ocean Vas. Vas. described his journey to America, his meetings with famous geodesists, and his tours of “the seven wonders of America” with such vividness, with such powers of observation, that the book is read with absorbing interest, so that it is difficult to tear oneself away from it before reading it to the end.

It was precisely this literary talent that Vas. Vas. also put into his textbooks, thanks to which they are read easily and with interest, and one must think that for many years to come they will benefit the science for which Vas. Vas. labored all his life, and the cause for which he created an entire school of pupils, united by him into a friendly family.

In this family of military topographers and geodesists Vasily Vasilyevich enjoyed boundless trust, respect, and love, and his memory will live long and be passed down from generation to generation.