Pavel Mikhailovich Tatarinov

Born Oct. 25 (Nov. 6), 1895, in Trubchevsk, in what is now Briansk Oblast; died Aug. 15, 1976, in Leningrad. Soviet geologist. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1953).

Tatarinov graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Mines in 1925 and in the years 1926–38 worked with the Geological Committee (now the All-Union Geological Research Institute). In 1930 he began teaching at the Leningrad Institute of Mines, where in 1938 he became head of the subdepartment for the geology of mineral deposits. Tatarinov was chairman of the Commission on Mineral Resources in the years 1942–46, and in 1962 he became president of the All-Union Mineralogical Society.

Tatarinov studied metalliferous, mainly chromite, and nonmetalliferous mineral deposits in the USSR, and he developed a theory for the formation of chrysotile-asbestos deposits. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, two other orders, and various medals.