On the 75th anniversary of publication of first geophysical manual „a brief course of applied geophysics”: fate of the book and of its author, V.A. Selskiy

2013;
: pp. 385 - 387
Received: July 30, 2013
Authors:
1
Northeast Integrated Research Institute of Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Magadan

In 1938, first geophysical manual „A brief course of applied geophysics” was published in the USSR. V.A. Selskiy was indicated as the author. Despite a high scientific level of its contents the book was never referred to in later geophysical publications. It can’t be found in libraries and is not known to geophysicists. The book was not even mentioned in the V.A. Selskiy’s obituary, which contained a list of his publications. The book’s oblivion and the ambiguity regarding its author induced the current investigation. It has been found out that a later fate of V.A. Selskiy, who was arrested during a full swing of a „terror of NKVD against Glavneft”, turned out more fortunate as that of his book: he became later a Ukrainian Academician whereas all printed copies of the book were destroyed so that it is lost and known to nobody: habent sua fata libelli.

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