Darwin and Dokuchaev. Interaction of ideas

Abstract

Soil scientists have long believed that the first printed work of V.V. Dokuchaev was his diploma thesis in 1871 “On alluvial sediments along the Kasna River of the Sychevsky district of the Smolensk province”, which he defended after graduating from St. Petersburg University, under the guidance of Professor P.A. Puzyrevsky. However, there is a little-known article written under the pseudonym of V. D-chaev, “Darwin's theory before the court of Holy Scripture as the oldest historical botanical and zoological monument”, published in 1869 in the spiritual journal “Strannik” (“Wanderer”), which was written by V.V. Dokuchaev shortly after graduating from the theological seminary. The first work of V. Dokuchaev is of interest due to the fact that it appeared in the transition period from Dokuchaev-theologian to Dokuchaev-naturalist. Analyzing the article, written on 52 pages, one can understand how seriously the young man approached this publication. According to the former seminarian, the Holy Scriptures are the main and most reliable source of information about the past. In formulating his attitude to Darwin's theory, he relies on the work of M.A. Sibirtsev and spiritual father Matveevsky, finding in them arguments in support of his point. In addition, Dokuchaev mentions and cites the publications of more than two dozen geologists, mostly foreign ones. However, it should be noted that most of the works he refers to were popular sources. Objections to Darwin on the basic aspects of evolutionary theory show the spiritual maturity of the future scientist. The manuscript is still a student's article, but it contains the analysis of the problem of time, which later became the basis of Dokuchaev's teaching about time as a factor of soil formation. Dokuchaev came to understand the law of love as a universal law of the commonwealth that rules the world, which in fact is the basis of the ecological perception of the world.

Keywords

• soil science
• evolution
• time
• v.v. dokuchaev
• ch. darwin
• v.v. dokuchaev's first work
• the law of commonwealth