Rode is called "the creator of modern soil science". He made a huge contribution to the development of this area and became the founder of the direction of soil hydrology. For all the fundamentality of his work, they are always distinguished by the breadth and depth of thought, a systematic approach and analysis of each factor.
Recently (in 2016) the scientific community celebrated the 120th anniversary of the birth of one of the founders of soil science - Alexei Andreevich Rode. It was he who developed the works of V. G. Vysotsky and A. A. Izmail and created a new direction - soil hydrology.
Biography
Alexey Andreevich Rode was born into a noble family in 1896. The title was received by the family during the reign of Alexander II - his great-grandfather, Lieutenant General Andrei Karlovich Rode, distinguished himself.
Alexey's education began at a home school in the suburbs of St. Petersburg. Then he studied the program at the Commercial School, which he graduated with honors. In 1913 Rode entered the Petrograd Polytechnic. But he managed to master only the first year program - the First World War prevented him. During wartime, Alexei worked in hospitals, sanitary detachments and other organizations that provided assistance to the wounded.
In 1918 the Rode family moved to Rzhev. Alexey Andreevich continues to work, but is interrupted by odd jobs. He was listed in the Insurance Society, worked in a book warehouse, as a freight forwarder in a publishing house. A year later, he returned to Petrograd and got a job as an electrician.
Soon Rode entered the Petrograd Agricultural Institute, which determined his future fate. It is here that the famous Vavilov, Yachevsky, Glinka and others teach.
During his studies, Alexey Andreevich took part in a scientific and commercial expedition and trained at the soil laboratory of the Petrograd Forestry Institute.
Aleksey Andreevich received his Ph. D. in geological sciences in 1935, and without defending a thesis. And already in 1937 he defended his doctoral thesis on the topic "Podzol formation process".
Scientific activity
Rohde never studied soil properties separately. For him, soil is an integral biosystem in which he separated out solid, liquid, gaseous and living phases.
Rohde's two-volume monograph "Fundamentals of the Study of Soil Moisture" (1965) became a harmonious exposition of the laws of moisture distribution in soil and types of water regime. This work has been translated into six languages.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Rode and other scientists were attacked and attacked by the "people's" academician Lysenko. Some scientists paid with their lives for their scientific convictions, which differed from Lysenko's doctrine. For Rohde, this resulted in excommunication from the laboratory at the institute and the deprivation of the right to teach. But Alexey Andreevich did not back down from his convictions.
Under the leadership of Rhode, the Dzhanybek station was created in the Northern Caspian region - a unique man-made natural object that allows large-scale scientific research. In 1997, this station was given the status of a Nature Monument of federal significance.
A. A. Rode's scientific articles and books arouse interest not only among soil scientists. They are often read by climatologists and ecologists, hydrologists and geographers.
In 1952, the scientist founded and headed the only laboratory of soil hydrology at that time. In 1955, his textbook "Soil Science" was finally published, which was ready for publication in 1948.
In 1957, Rode was one of the first to receive the Dokuchaev Gold Medal, which noted his merits as a soil scientist. He also bore the title of Honored Scientist of the RSFSR and Honorary Doctor of the Humboldt University of Berlin.
The significance and relevance of Rohde's works is so great that in 2008-2009 his works were republished in the form of a four-volume edition. It included a complete list of his scientific and editorial works, and there are 280 of them.
Organizational and pedagogical work
Rode was actively involved in these areas along with his scientific research. He was the scientific secretary, head of the laboratory. During the Great Patriotic War, he headed the Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute. He took an active part in the study of soils in Moscow and Kursk, Voronezh and Volgograd and other regions of the country.
He was often invited to give lectures and consultations. He always agreed and spoke at conferences and lectures. He was a "scientific Mecca" for many pilgrims who flocked to him from different parts of the country.
A family
In his youth, the scientist's father supported the student movement at Kiev University. For this he was deprived of the right to receive higher education in any Russian institution. However, he was able to study at the Berlin and Munich universities. He died in 1903 after an illness.
Before the revolution, my mother worked in the field of children's literature and pedagogy.
Rode himself married Anna Ivanovna Skalkina in 1926. Rode and his wife had a daughter, Tatyana, who later became a professor at the Faculty of Soil Science at Moscow State University. In 2011, Tatyana Alekseevna published the book "A. A. Rode - a man, scientist, fighter".
In 1940, Rohde developed polyarthritis, which he struggled with for the rest of his life. He died in 1979 without having a heart attack. Buried at the Vvedenskoye Moscow cemetery.
Rode claimed that his ancestors lived in Sweden. That is why the stress in his surname is on the first syllable. Contemporaries characterized him as an encyclopedic educated person. Rode was especially fond of literature and poetry, he knew many works by heart. In addition, he was interested in music, painting, nature and photography.
