Boris Nikolaevich Vyropaev (1898–1937): scientific career of a historian and philosopher of chemistry

, (Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова, химический факультет)

The 1920s and 1930s was a period of the making of the history and philosophy of natural sciences in Russia. For a number of reasons, this period and its actors are poorly studied yet although among those who began to explore this area were the scientists who conducted serious studies, were extensively engaged in teaching and development of methodological issues and problems. One of these scientists was Boris Nikolaevich Vyropaev (1898–1937), a renowned specialist in the history and philosophy of chemistry, Professor of Moscow State University. Over the decades that passed since then, this figure was almost forgotten and the present paper attempts to reconstruct his biography and analyse his scientific work. Vyropaev lived a short but eventful life: a graduate from the Physico-Mathematical Faculty of Moscow State University (1927) and the Institute of Red Professors, he taught, first at Kazan State University and, later, at Moscow State University. He worked for some time at the Culture and Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks and was one of the leaders of the Chemistry Section at the VI Mendeleev Congress. Vyropaev authored a number of works devoted to the history and philosophy of chemistry as well as the training programs and teacher’s manuals. Since the early 1930s, he was actively engaged in the studies of the Russian scientists’ contributions to the development of chemistry and some his works (including the unpublished monograph) were devoted to D. I. Mendeleev’s works.

 
 

Recommended bibliographic description

, , Boris Nikolaevich Vyropaev (1898–1937): scientific career of a historian and philosopher of chemistry, Voprosy Istorii Estestvoznaniia i Tekhniki [Studies in History of Science and Technology], , p.  700-717

     
    © Studies in the History of Science and Technology: Quarterly scientific journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2015)
    ISSN 0205-9606. Индекс 70143