Fedor Petrovich Savarenskii

Born Jan. 30 (Feb. 11), 1881, in Gorokhovets, in what is now Vladimir Oblast; died Oct. 8, 1946, in Moscow. Soviet hydrogeologist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1943; corresponding member, 1939). Professor (from 1930) at the S. Ordzhonikidze Moscow Geological Prospecting Institute; founder and head (from 1934) of the subdepartment of engineering geology.

After graduating from Moscow University in 1909, Savarenskii worked on a study of soils in Tula and Chernigov provinces. During the years 1915–22 he carried on hydrogeological research in the Volga Region. From 1922 to 1924 he worked as a hydrogeologist for the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture of the RSFSR, and from 1924 to 1929 he was associated with the Moscow division of the Geological Committee. From 1929 to 1933 he was a senior geologist with the Institute of Underground Waters, and from 1933 to 1935 he headed the laboratory of engineering geology at the All-Union Institute of Mineral Raw Material. During the years 1935–40, Savarenskii was director of the division of hydrogeology and engineering geology at the Institute of Geology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1940 he became chairman of the Commission on Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and from 1944 to 1946 he served as director of the Laboratory for Hydrogeological Problems. The first table of underground waters in the USSR was compiled under his direction in 1933. Savarenskii’s research in soil mechanics promoted the development of soil science as an independent discipline.

Savarenskii was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and various medals.