Gerasimov, Mikhail Aleksandrovich

Born Oct. 9 (21), 1884, in the village of Strel’nikovo, in present-day Orel Oblast; died Apr. 18, 1966, in Moscow. Soviet specialist in wine-making, doctor of agricultural sciences (1941), professor (1944). Honored Scientist-Technologist of the RSFSR (1944).

Gerasimov graduated from Moscow University in 1909. He was one of the organizers of the domestic wine industry. In 1919 he worked in the wine-making establishment in Abrau-Diurso, from 1923 to 1931 in the State Nikita Botanical Garden, and from 1931 to 1936 in the Scientific Research Institute of Viticulture and Wine Manufacturing in Georgia. In 1936 he became chief wine-maker of the People’s Commissariat for Food Production of the USSR and in 1938, chief engineer-wine-maker of the Glavvino trust. He was chairman of the Central Wine Tasting Commission, chairman of the permanent technological commission of the International Vine and Wine Office, and a corresponding member of the Italian Academy of Viticulture and Wine-making (1961); he was an honorary doctor of the Hungarian Institute of Horticulture, Viticulture, and Wine-making (1963). He was awarded the Order of Lenin, three other orders, and various medals.