Sergey Pavlovich Kravkov was born 21 June 1873 in
Ryazan in the family of a non-commissioned officer Pavel Alexeyevich Kravkov (1826-1910), who served as a senior clerk in the office of the Chief Enlistment Officer of the
Ryazan Governorate. According to the family legend, the scientist's mother Evdokia (Avdotia) Ivanovna (1834-1891), before wedding a "
Kaluga petty bourgeois", was an illegitimate daughter of
Konstantin Kavelin (1818-1885), a famous Russian historian, jurist and sociologist, one of the ideologists of
Russian liberalism at the age of the reforms of
Alexander II. In 1882-1892 Sergey Kravkov attended the First
Ryazan Gymnasium. In 1892-1896 he went on to study at the Natural Science Department of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the
Imperial Saint Petersburg University. The future scientist's graduation thesis "On the crop rotation" was awarded a gold medal. After the graduation Sergey Kravkov remained at the Agronomy Chair of the
Imperial Saint Petersburg University where he worked under the guidance of Professor
Sovetov. In 1898 his first scientific work "" (On the effect of electrostatic charging of soil on the processes going on in it) was published. In 1898 Sergey Kravkov carried on geobotanical researches in the
Derkul steppe in
Kharkov Governorate. Their results were published in the "" (Works of the Free Economic Society) and the "" (Agricultural newspaper). The years from 1898 to 1900 Sergey Kravkov spent in practical trainings abroad (
Germany,
Switzerland,
France,
Great Britain). After that he had headed for two years a research farm of the Agricultural Institute of
Nowa Aleksandria (now
Puławy in
Poland). In these years the scientist gained wide practical and agronomical experience. Since 1901 Kravkov prelected general agronomics at the Professor
Stebut's Agricultural Courses for Women. The years from 1903 to 1904 Sergey Kravkov also spent abroad. He worked in
Munich under the guidance of Professor Ramann, studied the products of decomposition of organic substances. In 1904 Sergey Kravkov returned to the
Imperial Saint Petersburg University, passed master's exams and was elected a privatdocent to deliver lectures on chemical and biological processes in soil. Also in 1906-1909 Kravkov worked at the experimental forest district of
Veliko-Anadol, studying the problem of drying up of forests in the steppe. In 1908 he became one of the founders of the Agricultural Institute at
Kamenny Island in
Saint Petersburg. In 1908 Sergey Kravkov defended the master's thesis "" (Materials on the study of the processes of decomposition of vegetal remains in soil) at the
Imperial Kazan University. In 1909 he was elected associate professor of agronomy at the
Imperial Saint Petersburg University. He was in charge of a compulsory course "Soil science and agrochemistry". In 1912 Sergey Kravkov defended the Doctor's thesis "" (Study on the role of dead plant remains in soil) at the
Imperial University of Yuryev (now the
Tartu University in
Estonia), examining in it the processes of transformation of organic substances. He became the fourth Doctor of Agronomy in
Russia. At the same time Kravkov was elected the Head of the Agronomy Chair of the
Imperial Saint Petersburg University and held this position till his death in 1938. Under Kravkov's guidance intensive experimental works on the problems of humus formation and soil chemistry were carried on. The problem of
humus formation had remained the main theme of the scientist's investigations for his whole life. Kravkov was the first to pay attention to the fact that the soil is an element that is constantly gradually changing and is not in a state of fixed chemical balance. Developing the ideas of
Vasily Dokuchaev, Sergey Kravkov appealed to permanent systematic studies of soil horizons, qualifying the dynamics of soil processes as "the life of soil". He organized observations of dynamics of soil processes. After the
October Revolution of 1917 Sergey Kravkov joined the preparation of agronomy staff for the needs of the economy of a new state. In 1922 the scientist was one of those who took part in the foundation of an independent Chair of Experimental Soil Science at the
Petrograd State University. In 1921-1925 Kravkov headed the Department of Applied Soil Science at the North-West Regional Agricultural Experimental Station. Since 1926 he took an active part in the work of the State Institute of Experimental Agronomy. In 1927 Sergey Kravkov was one of the members of the Soviet delegation that took part in the First International Congress of Soil Science in
Washington, D.C. He also participated in the work of the Second International Congress of Soil Science that took place in
Leningrad and
Moscow in 1930. When in 1932 the
Kirov Higher Communist School of Agriculture was founded in
Leningrad Sergey Kravkov was invited to head its Chair of General Agriculture and to deliver lectures on soil science. In 1934 Sergey Kravkov was awarded a scientific rank of
Doctor of Science in
Geology. On 10 November 1934 the decision of the Presidium of the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee gave him a title of
Honoured Scientist of the RSFSR. Sergey Pavlovich Kravkov died in
Leningrad on 12 August 1938. He was buried at
Smolenskoye Cemetery. Kravkov's research work extended and deepenedthe scientific insight on the
soil formation processes, contributed to the wide spread of the idea of dynamism of all soil phenomena. His work was continued by a number of talented disciples – the Soviet soil scientists. == Family ==