Vladimir Petrovich Baturin

Born Sept. 14 (27), 1902, in Stavropol’; died Nov. 7, 1945, in Moscow. Soviet geologist; doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences (1945). Assistant and then docent at the Azerbaijan Polytechnic Institute (1927–31), scientific worker at the Central Mining Institute for Nonferrous, Rare, and Precious Metals (1931–33), and director of the laboratory for paleogeography at the Institute of Fossil Fuels of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1934).

Baturin studied the geology and lithology of the oil-producing areas of the southeastern Caucasus and the Ural-Embensk region. In order to study sedimentary densities poor in paleontological residues, Baturin developed a method based on the examination of the mineralogical composition of disintegrated rock formations. His book Paleogeography in the Light of Terrigenic Components (1937) was awarded the Spendiarov Prize by the International Geological Congress. Baturin received the State Prize of the USSR in 1948. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.