Leonid Kulik
Kulik, Leonid Alekseevich
Born Aug. 7 (19), 1883, in Dorpat, now Tartu, Estonian SSR; died Apr. 14, 1942, in Spas-Demensk, Kaluga Oblast. Soviet mineralogist; specialist in meteorites.
Beginning in 1921-22, Kulik worked in various institutions of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR; in 1921-22 he headed an expedition to verify reports of meteorite falls. From 1927 to 1930 and in 1938-39 he headed the expeditions organized to study the conditions of the fall of the Tungus meteorite. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (1941-45), Kulik became a candidate for membership in the CPSU. He joined the people’s volunteer corps, was wounded, and died in captivity.