Pokrovsky Konstantin Dorimedontovich

Born May 11, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod in the family of a priest. Graduated from the Mathematics Department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University in 1891, worked as a supernumerary assistant at the Astronomical Observatory of Moscow University. In 1890-1895 - head of the public private observatory of O. Shvabe in Moscow. In 1896 - astronomer-observer at Yuryev University. In 1902 he defended his dissertation for the degree of Master of Astronomy. In 1906 he was elected professor of astronomy at the free higher school in St. Petersburg, while simultaneously working at Yuryev University. Director of the Astronomical Observatory of Yuryev University (1908-1915). In November 1915, after defending his dissertation, he received the degree of Doctor of Astronomy and Geodesy at Moscow University. In 1916 he was sent to Perm. After the establishment of the Petrograd University in Perm in 1917, he was elected its rector. In 1919-1920, he lectured on astronomy at Tomsk University. In 1920, he was elected to the post of senior astronomer of the Main Russian Observatory (GRAO) in Pulkovo, as well as senior head of the military geodetic department of the Moscow Land Surveying Institute. An honorary member of the Russian Society of Lovers of Universe Studies, he was a member of the editorial board of the ROLM journal "Mirovedenie". In January 1927, he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1930-1932 - deputy director of the Pulkovo Observatory. From 1933 - chairman of the Odessa branch of VAGO. From 1934 - head of the astronomy department of Odessa State University. After the beginning of the war, he continued to work as director of the observatory and at OSU. On September 15, 1943, at the Institute of Anti-Communist Propaganda (opened by the occupation authorities at Odessa University in May 1943, and renamed the Institute of Social Sciences in October), he gave a lecture entitled “Sorrowful Pages in the History of the Pulkovo Observatory.” On the night of May 11, 1944, he was arrested by the Odessa Oblast Department of the UNGB. He was charged under Article 54-1a of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR (treason, the so-called “Pulkovo Case”). On August 7, 1944, he was transferred to the investigative unit of the NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR in Kyiv. He was held in Prison No. 1 of the NKVD of the Kyiv Oblast. He died in the prison hospital on November 5, 1944. He was rehabilitated on July 27, 1993.