Komov, Ivan Mikhailovich

Born 1750; died June 13 (24), 1792, in Moscow. Russian scientist and agronomist.

Komov was the son of a poor clergyman. In 1776 he graduated from the Slavic, Greek, and Latin Academy in Moscow. Between 1768 and 1775 he took part in a geographical expedition of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1776 he was sent to England to study agriculture. He studied the natural sciences at Oxford and the University of London. He returned to his native land in 1784. His book On Farming Tools, the first manual in Russia on farm machinery and tools, was published in 1785. In 1788, Komov published On Farming, which dealt with the chief agronomical questions of Russian agriculture, taking into account the country’s natural and economic conditions and the special features of Russian agricultural practice.