Sovetov, Aleksandr Vasilevich

Born Nov. 12 (24), 1826, in the village of Gul’nevo, in present-day Dmitrov Raion, Moscow Oblast; died Nov. 24 (Dec. 7), 1901, in St. Petersburg. Russian agronomist.

In 1850, Sovetov graduated from the Gory-Goretsk Agricultural Institute (now the Byelorussian Agricultural Academy); he taught at the institute from the time of his graduation to 1859. In 1853 he was sent to Germany, Belgium, and other European countries for two years to study their agricultural systems. He was appointed chairman of the agriculture department of the University of St. Petersburg in 1859.

Sovetov’s main works dealt with land cultivation, soil science, animal husbandry, and the processing of farm products. He developed rational agricultural procedures, and he studied the soils of the chernozem provinces of Russia. Sovetov critically generalized the Russian and European experience in feed-grass cultivation and land-cultivation systems. He was the first agronomist in the world to recognize the relationship between the development of land-cultivation systems and social and economic conditions.

In 1860, Sovetov became head of the agricultural department of the Free Economic Society and editor of the society’s Trudy (Transactions). He published Materials for the Study of Russian Soils in 1885–96 (jointly with V. V. Dokuchaev) and in 1898–1900 (jointly with N. P. Adamov).