Vasily Prokhorovich
Goryachkin
1868-1935
Vasily Prokhorovich Goryachkin (1868-1935) began his path in science after graduating from the Second Moscow Gymnasium, the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Imperial Moscow University in 1890, and the Mechanical Faculty of the Imperial Moscow Technical School in 1894. In 1896, on the recommendation of Professor N.E. Zhukovsky, he began teaching a course on «Agricultural Machines, Implements, and Engines» at the Moscow Agricultural Institute. His teaching career began on September 7, 1896, at the Department of Soil Science and Agriculture. From 1901 to 1930, V.P. Goryachkin headed the Department of Agricultural Machines at the Moscow Agricultural Institute and the K.A. Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy. In 1899, he became an adjunct professor, and from 1913, a professor at the institution. In 1913, the scientist founded and became head of the Machine Testing Station. It became an experimental base for studying and testing developments in conditions close to real ones. Today, this building houses the V.P. Goryachkin Museum of Agricultural Mechanics, which displays documents and mechanisms illustrating the successes of the USSR in the mechanization of agricultural labor. From 1919 to 1922, V.P. Goryachkin was rector of the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy. In 1929, he became director of the All-Union Institute of Agricultural Mechanics (VISHOM). In 1935, he was elected an academician of VASKhNIL (the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences). V.P. Goryachkin was the first scientist to publish a large number of scientific works on the mechanization of agriculture. His first work, «The Moldboard», based on an analysis of plow bodies, appeared in 1898. In 1900, his works «Harrow»s, «Winnowing Machines», «Sorters» and «Harvesting Machines were published. Subsequently, the “General Course on Agricultural Machines and Implements» appeared in 1919, and «Agricultural Mechanics» followed. His main work, «Theory of the Plow», was published in 1927. To this day, global scientific works on the mechanization of agriculture include references to his research. After the scientist’s death in 1935, his «Collected Works» in seven volumes were published. Goryachkin’s main works are devoted to the mechanics of soil cultivation, the theory and calculation of agricultural machines and implements. On September 1, 1972, in front of the building of the Moscow Institute of Agricultural Production Engineers, which bears the scientist’s name, a bust of V.P. Goryachkin was solemnly unveiled. The authors of the monument were sculptor N.I. Rudko and architects I.A. Pokrovsky and V.B. Olshanskaya.
Address: Moscow, Listvennichnaya al., 7, p. 2
