Vasily Prokhorovich
Goryachkin
1868-1935
Vasily Prokhorovich Goryachkin, born in 1868 in Vyksa, began his scientific career after graduating from Moscow gymnasium and the Physics-Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University in 1890. In 1896, on the recommendation of Academician N.E. Zhukovsky, he began teaching the course “Agricultural Machines, Implements, and Engines” at the Moscow Agricultural Institute. His teaching career started on September 7, 1896, at the Department of Soil Science and Crop Production. From 1896 to 1930, Goryachkin headed the Department of Agricultural Machines. In 1899, he became an adjunct professor, and from 1913-a professor. In 1913, the scientist created and led a machine testing station. It became an experimental base for studying and testing developments under conditions close to real ones. Today, this building houses the V.P. Goryachkin Museum-Memorial, which features documents and mechanisms telling the story of the USSR’s successes in the mechanization of agricultural labor. From 1919 to 1922, Goryachkin served as rector of the Petrovskaya Agricultural Academy. Starting in 1929, he became director of the All-Union Institute of Agricultural Engineering (VISKHOM). In 1935, he was elected an academician of VASKhNIL. Goryachkin was the first scientist to publish a large number of scientific works on agricultural mechanization. His first work, “Moldboard,” based on an analysis of plow bodies, was published in 1898. In 1900, works such as “Harrows,” “Winnowers,” “Sorters,” and “Harvesting Machines” were published. This was followed by “General Course on Agricultural Machines and Implements.” His main work, “Theory of the Plow,” was published in 1927. To this day, global scientific works on agricultural mechanization cite his research. After the scientist’s death in 1935, his “Collected Works” were published in seven volumes. Goryachkin’s main works are devoted to the mechanics of soil cultivation, theory, and calculation of agricultural machines and implements. On September 1, 1972, a monument-bust of V.P. Goryachkin was solemnly unveiled in front of the building of the Moscow Institute of Agricultural Engineering. The monument’s authors were sculptor N.I. Rudko and architects I.A. Pokrovsky and V.B. Olshanskaya.
Address: Moscow, Listvennichnaya al., 7, p. 2
