Vernadsky and His Biosphere

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Geochemistry and the Biosphere:Essays by Vladimir I. VernadskyEd. Frank B. SalisburySanta Fe, N.M.: Synergetic Press, 2006Paperback, 427 pages, $49.95

The publication in English of a newvolume of writings, Essays on

Geochemistry and the Biosphere, by thegreat Russian-Ukrainian scientist VladimirVernadsky, should be viewed with greatinterest, and not only by those active in thescientific fields with which these essays

deal. It is also to be hoped that the publi-cation is a harbinger of more to come inEnglish from the Vernadsky writings.

The work of this towering giant of Russian science has been woefully neg-lected here in the West, and particularlyin the United States. Ironically, much of Vernadsky’s work was picked up duringthe 1970s by representatives of the envi-ronmentalist movement, who then triedto draw similarities between Vernadskywith their own particular back-to-natureGaia philosophy, virtually turning him onhis head, and obfuscating both the con-

tent and the intent of Vernadsky’s life-work.

The publication of more of Vernadsky’sown writings in English should help to setthe record straight on this point. A majorstep in correcting this distortion of Vernadsky has been the writings of econ-omist and statesman Lyndon LaRoucheon the work of Vernadsky, and his intro-duction of the work of Vernadsky into theLaRouche Youth Movement, which hascreated recognition of the true signifi-cance and import of Vernadsky’s work bya much broader segment of the American

public than ever before.The present volume, a translation of a

work published in Russian in 1967under the title Biosfera, includes severalessays by Vernadsky on the subject of geochemistry, as well as his final editing,in the last decade of his life, of the thirdedition of his groundbreaking study, The Biosphere. This volume gives the readera good sense of the range of Vernadsky’s

thinking in various fields of science.His chapter on the “History of

Geochemistry,” depicts how this disci-pline, with which his name has beenmost prominently associated, evolvedout of the field of chemistry and soil sci-ence. The period of Vernadsky’s educa-tion at St. Petersburg University, 1881-1890, was undoubtedly one of the mostfertile periods in the history of that insti-tution, with some of the greatest scientif-ic thinkers of the country located there,

including names like Mendeleyev,Butlerov, and Dokuchaev, who served asmentors, and as an inspiration to youngstudents like Vernadsky.

The lecture halls were always filledwhen Mendeleyev lectured, Vernadskyrelates. “We entered a new and wondrousworld during his lectures, as if releasedfrom the grip of a powerful vise.”Vernadsky also relates how the St.Petersburg department of mineralogy pro-moted a more dynamic view of chemistry,concentrating not simply on the chemicalcomposition of the Earth’s mantle, but also

on the dispersion of the chemical ele-

ments, their “migrations,” deep into theEarth’s crust over geological time.

Here already we see some of the firstindications of Vernadsky’s own ground-breaking theory of how living matter

itself, through such chemical and atom-ic “migrations,” actually forms the outercrust of the Earth’s surface. HereMendeleyev also played a key role. “In[Mendeleyev’s] Principles of Chemistry,the problems of geochemistry and spacechemistry were not only fully described,but were also often dominant,”Vernadsky writes in his historical essay.

The other intellectual influence on theyoung Vernadsky was Vasilii VasilievichDokuchaev, who held the chair in min-eralogy at St. Petersburg University, andon behalf of whom he would often

undertake expeditions in various parts of

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Vernadsky and His Biosphereby William Jones

BOOKS

Courtesy of Synergetic Press

Vernadsky (second row, third from right), along with a good part of the faculty at Moscow University, shown here in 1911, when they resigned in protest of repressive measures imposed by the Stolypin government against the Education Ministry.



the Russian Empire. Dokuchaev’s The Russian Black Earth Region, the result of a seven-years-long labor, also broughtVernadsky a greater understanding of hisbeloved Ukraine, where he conductedexpeditions under Dokuchayev’s direc-tion, examining the soil of the region.

Later in the years of the Russian civilwar, Vernadsky, who had fled to the fam-ily estate in Ukraine, was doing his ownstudies in the Ukrainian countryside.Already at this early stage, seeing theeconomic devastation that was causedby the civil war and revolution, he pre-dicted that because of the lack of invest-ment in the agricultural sector, this mostfertile region would again be facing a sit-uation of famine.‘Father of the Soviet Nuclear Program’

In the same historical essay, Vernadskyalso touches upon the important role of

radioactive elements in the Earth’s crust,a phenomenon on which he placed greatsignificance. From a trip in the early partof the century, looking in Central Asia forradioactive elements, and later, from thework he would accomplish with theCuries at the Radium Institute in Paris,Vernadsky placed great interest in this“new physics.” By 1909, he had estab-lished a radiological laboratory inMoscow, and later, in 1922, he set up aRadium Institute, modelled on that of theCuries in Paris. Vernadsky also estab-lished the first cyclotron in the Soviet

Union at the Radium Institute, on whichIgor Kurchatov and other leading figuresin the Soviet atomic bomb programwould get their initial training.

Early on, Vernadsky realized thetremendous benefit mankind wouldreceive if it achieved mastery of thepower of the atom. Like others knowl-edgeable in the field, he was also awareof its tremendous potentially destructivepower. In his opening speech at theRadium Institute, Vernadsky said: “Soonman will have atomic power at hishands. This is a power source which will

give him the possibility to build his life ashe wishes. Will he be able to use thisforce for good purposes and not self-destruction?”

During the twenties and thirties hekept well abreast of the field, meetingwith Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, and ArthurSommerfield in Germany; FrederickSoddy in Montreal; and the Curies inParis. It is something of an irony that

Vernadsky would first learn of anAmerican atomic bomb program throughan interpretation from the New York Times in 1943, sent to him by his son,George, who, after the BolshevikRevolution, emigrated to the UnitedStates, where he became a professor inRussian history at Yale University.George had attached a note to the clip-ping with the message to his father:“Don’t be late!”

After receiving this, Vernadsky formed

a troika with two of his closest collabo-rators, to work out a program for thedevelopment of atomic energy. This ledto the formation of the UraniumCommittee, which would later chart thecourse of the Soviet atomic bomb pro-gram. Illness and old age (Vernadskywas then in his eighties), did not permithim a major role in the development of the bomb, but he was often consulted onaspects of the program. His pioneeringrole in the field really makes him deserv-ing of the title “father of the Sovietnuclear program.”

In the essay “Chemical Elements in theEarth’s Crust,” Vernadsky deals with theactual chemical composition of the plan-et, utilizing the research conducted inthe United States by F.W. Clarke at theCarnegie Institution, which he had visit-ed on a trip to the United States in 1913.Here he is on very familiar ground,studying particular instances of thechemical dispersion of certain elements

from the biosphere into the Earth’s outermantle.

In the essay “Carbon and LivingMatter,” Vernadsky deals with the studyof the hydrocarbons and petroleumdeposits. In the context of the alleged “oilcrisis” so much bandied about today, the

essay of Vernadsky may have more than apassing interest. He holds firmly to thepredominant theory that hydrocarbonswill only be found as the remains of fos-sils, that is, they are a result of the decayof living matter, a theory which has beenquestioned in the work of the late CornellUniversity astrophysicist Thomas Gold.As Vernadsky himself indicates,Mendeleyev, also, thought that there maywell be a non-organic origin of oil.

The third edition of The Biosphere,published in this volume, may be of someinterest to the readers of the earlier edi-

tion, published in English. The years of hisediting this edition were those in whichhe was expanding on his early theories,always reconceptualizing and reformulat-ing many of his central hypotheses onMan and the Universe. Some of this isreflected in the changes he made in thelast edition of that great work. But thosewell-versed in the 1926 edition will feelthemselves on rather familiar ground inreading this last edition.

Vernadsky’s ‘Political’ MissionBut, it was not only purely theoretical

scientific work that Vernadsky was

engaged in, in those years. Rather, hesaw his scientific work as his major con-tribution to the progress of humanity.Although more restricted during theSoviet years in his direct political activi-ty, he felt that his work in science andeducation was his major contribution inthe development of the species, of theNoösphere.

Already in his student years,Vernadsky was involved in politics.Some of his closest friends in those lib-eral circles of his student days, a smallgroup of friends that called themselves

“The Brotherhood,” would later wind upin a variety of political formations, pop-ulist “narodniki,” or communists, or fol-lowers of the philosophy of Leo Tolstoy.Vernadsky chose another path, devotinghimself, as a “cavalier of science” to thenatural sciences as a means of promot-ing the welfare of the people.

During the time of the 1905Revolution, Vernadsky played an impor-

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Vernadsky as a member of the Presidium of the International Geo-

logical Congress, in Moscow in 1937.



tant role in the formation of theConstitutional Democrats, (Kadets). Whensome extremely repressive measures hadbeen imposed on student activity duringvarious phases of that 1905 period,Vernadsky was one of those who went tospeak with the Premier, Sergei Witte, in

order to help mitigate those measures. In1911, he, together with a good part of thefaculty at Moscow University, resigned inprotest of repressive measures imposed bythe Stolypin government.

In 1915, during World War I,Vernadsky was involved in setting up theCommission for the Study of the NaturalProductive Forces of Russia (KEPS), withthe task of investigating the strategicresources and raw materials at Russia’sdisposal, a project that had been close tothe heart of his old teacher Dokuchayev.The significance of this body was recog-

nized by V.I. Lenin, who decided toretain it in the new Soviet Republic.

When the Bolsheviks took power, adisillusioned Vernadsky left Moscow forUkraine, where the civil war was raging.He spent some time doing research inthe countryside, setting up the UkrainianAcademy of Sciences, to which he waselected as head. Later, during WorldWar II, when Vernadsky was evacuatedto what is today Kazakhstan, he similar-ly gathered together the scientific layersthere, and set up another Academy.

Both his son and his daughter chose to

leave the country rather than stay underthe rule of the Bolsheviks. Vernadskyelected to return to the Soviet Union. Notthat he had any sympathies with theBolshevik leadership, but many of hisfriends were still active in the Russian aca-demic world, some of whom had becomecommunists. More than any other con-cern which propelled him to make whatmust have been a difficult decision, washis firm belief in the power of Russian sci-ence to revive a beleaguered nation.

Biogeochemistry Is BornAlthough he stood in undisputed mas-

tery of his own fields of expertise, in min-eralogy and geochemistry, many of hisbolder hypotheses and fundamental writ-ings on the nature of the universe wentlargely unpublished. Vernadsky wasaccepted as a scientific genius of sorts,but one often attacked and viewed gener-ally by the mandarins of dialectical mate-rialism as an “idealist” and a “vitalist.”

In something of a master-stroke,

Vernadsky created an entirely new field,biogeochemistry, and established aninstitute around that study in order tohave a forum in which his own notion of the formative role of the biosphere in thechemistry of the planet, also frownedupon by the authorities, might be stud-ied without repercussions.

His most farsighted writings criticizing

the prevalent notions of Euclidean spaceand time in physics, as defective forunderstanding the phenomena that werebeing investigated in the biological sci-ences, and calling instead for the appli-cation of a Riemannian, rather than aEuclidean, geometry, went totallybeyond the ken of the guardians of “Diamat,” and were either suppressed orprinted in scholarly journals with a verylimited circulation.

In the essays presented here, Vernadskyalso outlines the two principal premises onwhich his life’s work was based. The first is

the principle of Christiaan Huygens, that lifeexists throughout the universe and not sim-ply here on Earth, a thesis which Huygensdeveloped most succinctly in his 1698book, Cosmotheoros. His second funda-mental premise was based on the thesis of a16th Century Florentine doctor, FrancescoRedi, which said “All life comes from life.”

This was an implicit denial of the the-ory of abiogenesis, as well as sponta-

neous generation. Neither the evolution-ists nor the creationists would be happywith Vernadsky. But he simply couldfind no scientific basis for either of thesehypotheses, attributing them both to reli-gious or philosophical principles, ratherthan to scientific study of the phenome-non of life.

Appended to the Essays (as probably

they were to the 1967 Russian edition of Biosfera ), are Vernadsky’s short but pow-erful theses: “Some Words About theNoösphere,” published in 21st Century,Spring 2005, these short notes would befamiliar to readers of this magazine, butlittle has hitherto been said about theirorigin.

Vernadsky was to have elaborated onhis concept of the Noösphere in a thirdpart of his final work, “The ChemicalStructure of the Biosphere and ItsSurroundings.” That chapter was neverwritten. In many respects, the “Some

Words” represents his most elaborateview of the topic, although the concept,if not the term, which he borrowed fromEdouard LeRoy, permeates most of hiswork from his student days. But forVernadsky, “Some Words About theNoösphere” really represented a post-war program for the world.

In 1943, there were celebrations onthe 80th birthday of Vernadsky. He

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Vernadsky in his office in Moscow, in 1940.



received the Stalin Prize and an awardof 200,000 rubles. As was customary, hesent half of the sum back to be used forthe war effort. He also penned a note toStalin: “Dear Joseph Vissarionovich, Irequest that 100,000 rubles of the prizenamed for you, which I have received,

be directed to defense needs, whereveryou see fit. Our cause is just, and at thepresent time it spontaneously coincideswith the onset of the Noösphere—a newstate of the domain of life, theBiosphere—the foundation of a historicprocess, when the human mindbecomes an enormous geological plane-tary force. Academician Vernadsky.”

Later that year, when he had complet-ed “Some Words About the Noösphere,”he sent his article to two addresses: tothe editorial board of Pravda, and, to besure, to Stalin personally.

Here is what he wrote in an accompa-nying note: “Borovoye, 27 July, 1943.Dear Joseph Vissarionovich, I am sendingyou the text of my article, which I havesimultaneously submitted to the editors of Pravda, and which it would be useful topublish in the newspaper, because I iden-tify a spontaneous natural process, whichwill ensure our fundamental victory inthis world war. In the telegram I sent you,donating to the Red Army half of the prizenamed for you, which I received, I indi-cate the significance of the Noösphere.With deep respect and devotion. V.

Vernadsky. I am sending you the article,because I don’t know if it will be pub-lished.” The article was never publishedin Pravda, nor is Joseph Stalin known to

ever have replied—or received—Vernadsky’s note.1

The ‘Book of Life’The volume before us gives a tantaliz-

ing look at the powerful mind of a greatscientist, but it leaves one looking forsomething more substantial, an elabora-

tion of ideas that are only touched uponin these essays. We are encouraged tohear that the same publisher is consider-ing also translating and publishinganother book-length study by Vernadsky,Scientific Thought and Scientific Work as a Geological Force in the Biosphere.

Having read parts of the Russian editionof Vernadsky’s final, and not fully editedwork, The Chemical Structure of the Earth’s Biosphere and Its Surroundings, Ihave great hope that this book, whichVernadsky himself considered the culmi-nation of his life’s work—“the book of

life” as he called it—will also soon findthe light of day in an English version.

In this work, Vernadsky does not sim-ply expand on an earlier text, as he didwith the various versions of The Biosphere, but rather approaches theentire issue from a somewhat higherstandpoint, from the point of view of theCosmos as a whole, incorporating all thenew ideas that he had developed in thelast decades of his most productive life.Vernadsky viewed this final work as hisequivalent to the great “Cosmos” thatfinal work of his beloved scientific fore-

bear, Alexander von Humboldt, whosebooks had impelled the youngVernadsky on a career of science.

While EIR and 21st Century Science &

Technology magazine have publishedtwo parts of a three-part project byVernadsky dealing with the more com-prehensive space-time issues provokedby his work in biogeochemistry, thethird and final part of that series, “Onthe Conditions of Physical Space,” still

remains completely unavailable to non-Russian speakers. It is hoped that thepresent volume will indeed lead to aresurgence of interest in this remarkablescientist, and to more of his writings inthe English language.

While, in this day and age of radar andsatellite imaging, many of Vernadsky’s“facts” may be somewhat dated (indeedhe himself would underline the fact thatwith the progress of science that must bethe case), his unique view of man andthe universe would be of tremendousbenefit to those working in fields about

which Vernadsky could have onlydreamed—from terraforming Mars toastrobiology.

More important, the fundamentalhumanist outlook of Vladimir Vernadsky,who viewed the human species and itsproductive activity as the most impor-tant “geological force in the develop-ment of the universe,” might help revivein society at large, some of the optimismthat has been so seriously underminedby the doomsday scenarios of the envi-ronmentalist lobby.

Footnotes _________________________________

1. The text later reports that Vernadsky’s articlewas published in a small Academy journal calledAchievements of Modern Biology. Vernadskyread the proofs in the Fall of 1944, and lived tosee the issue in which it appeared.

Return to the Moon: Exploration,Enterprise, and Energy in the HumanSettlement of Spaceby Harrison SchmittNew York: Copernicus Books, 2006Hardcover, 335 pp., $25.00

Since President Bush presented his January 2004 initiative for America to

return to the Moon, many comments,criticisms, and offers of advice have

been written by the science, engineer-ing, and space communities. But few areas qualified to offer proposals on howthis program should be carried out asgeologist, Apollo 17 astronaut, formerSenator, and professor of engineering,Harrison Schmitt.

When most former astronauts writebooks, they are usually memoirs of theirlives and experiences in space. Harrison

Schmitt has worked, virtually since hewas the last man to leave his footprintson the Moon in 1972, on the question of how astronauts will return. His newbook lays out his plan.

For nearly 20 years, Dr. Schmitt has

98 Fall-Winter 2006 21st CENTURY BOOKS

Mining the Moon for Helium-3To Power Fusion Reactorsby Marsha Freeman

Vernadsky and His Biosphere

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