Dmitri Mendeleev

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was born in Tobolsk, Siberia, on February 7, 1834 (ns). The blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy was the youngest of 14 children (or 11 or 17, depending on the authority) born to Maria Dmitrievna Korniliev and Ivan Pavlovitch Mendeleev. His father was director of the local gymnasium. Maria Korniliev's family settled in Tobolsk in the early 1700's and introduced paper andglass-making to Siberia.(4) Unfortunately, Ivan died when Dmitri was quite young, leaving his wife to support the large family. The pension for educators at that time (1000 rubles) was drastically insufficient, especially for a large family, which meant that Maria had no other choice but to find work. Maria's family owned a glass factory in Aremziansk, and they allowed her to take over managing thecompany for a modest wage from which she could support the family. Dmitri, being the youngest, appears to have been his mother's favorite child and was provided as many opportunities as she could afford. From his early years, she began to save money for Dmitri to attend the university. However, it was not only his mother who offered him special favors. He spent many hours in the glass factory hismother operated, learning from the chemist about the concepts behind glass making and from the glass blower about the art of making glass. Another influence in Dmitri's life was his sister Olga's husband, Bessargin. After being banished to Siberia for his political beliefs as a Russian Decembrist (Dekabrists, a group of literary
men who headed a revolution in 1825(4),), Bessargin occupied himselfteaching Dmitri the science of the day. Mendeleev's early years were guided by these people, and he was thus raised with three key thoughts:
"Everything in the world is science," from Bessargin
"Everything in the world is art," from Timofei the glass blower.
"Everything in the world is love," from Maria his mother. (16)
As he grew older, it became apparent that he had exceptional comprehension ofcomplex topics. At the age of 14, he was attending the Gymnasium in Tobolsk and his mother was continuing to plan for his future. In that year, however, a second major family tragedy occurred; the glass factory burned to the ground. The family was devastated; there was no money to rebuild and the only money they had was the money saved for Dmitri to go to the university. Maria was not about togive up her dreams for her son. She knew at this point that Dmitri's only hope to go on to school was to win a scholarship. So in his final years at the gymnasium, Maria pushed Dmitri to improve his grades and prepare for entrance exams. This was no easy task, as Dmitri was not a "classical" scholar. He knew at a very young age that he wanted to study science and saw very little need for studyingtopics such as Latin and history. He felt that these were dead topics and a waste of his time. After much coaxing from his mother and Bessargin, Mendeleev passed his gymnasium exams and prepared to enter the university. This disdain of the "classical" education was to color his later writings on education when, in 1901, he stated:
...We could live at the present day without a Plato, but a doublenumber of Newtons is required to discover the secrets of nature, and to bring life into harmony with the laws of nature. (4)
In 1849, with nothing left for the family at Aremziansk, Maria loaded up the family's belongings and headed for Moscow. At this point the family included Maria, Dmitri, and Elizabeth (Dmitri's older sister). In Moscow, they entered a climate of considerable political unrest,which made the university reluctant to admit anyone from outside of Moscow. Mendeleev was rejected. Maria did not give up, however, and the family headed for St. Petersburg. Again, they encountered similar turmoil but this time they found a friend of Ivan's working at the Pedagogical Institute, his father's school. With a little persuasion, Dmitri was allowed to take the entrance exams, which he...