Ivan Aleksandrovich Vitver

Born Feb. 13 (25), 1891, in Il’ino, now in Kalinin Oblast; died Aug. 15, 1966, in Moscow. Soviet economic geographer; professor from 1935; doctor of geographical sciences (1938); Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1961).

Vitver graduated from the historical-philological department of Moscow University in 1921. In 1932 he began teaching at Moscow State University, where from 1934 to 1954 he was chairman of the subdepartment of economic geography of foreign countries. From 1944 to 1954 he taught at the Moscow Institute of International Relations. Vitver was the au-thor of a standard textbook, of which there were 16 editions, on the economic geography of foreign countries for the ninth grade in secondary schools, for which he was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1951. He was also awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.