Vsevolod Fedynskii

Born Apr. 18 (May 1), 1908, in the village of Velikaia Bagachka, in what is now Poltava Oblast; died June 17, 1978. Soviet geophysicist. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1968). Member of the CPSU since 1942.

Fedynskii graduated from Moscow State University in 1930. Between 1929 and 1944 he worked for various geophysical prospecting organizations of the petroleum industry. From 1944 to 1952 he worked at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Geophysical Prospecting Methods. In the period 1952–57 he headed a number of geophysical projects in the petroleum industry. From 1957 he worked in the Ministry of Geology of the USSR, where he directed various geophysical projects. Fedynskii began teaching at Moscow State University in 1947, becoming a professor in 1950 and head of the subdepartment of geophysics in 1967.

Fedynskii’s principal works deal with the application of gravimetry to the study of the structure of the earth’s crust and to the location of mineral deposits and with the fundamentals of marine gravimetry, ways of combining geophysical methods to solve geological problems, and geological interpretations of geophysical findings. They also deal with the investigation of phenomena that occur when meteoric matter passes through the earth’s atmosphere and impacts with the earth’s surface and the geophysical interpretation of these phenomena.

Fedynskii was awarded five orders and various medals. He received the State Prize of the USSR in 1951.