Sergei Vasilievich Vonsovskii, Scientist and Reader

Abstract

Sergei Vasilievich Vonsovskii (1910–1998), also spelled Vonsovsky, a brilliant Russian scientist in the field of magnetism and solid state physics, organizer and manager of science, Full Member of the USSR / Russian Academy of Sciences, and founder of the Urals’ scientific school in the physics of magnetic phenomena, attached great importance to books. When working on his numerous articles and monographs, Vonsovskii always used all available sources. For him, familiarizing himself with the latest scientific periodicals was a matter of professional competence while fiction gave him opportunities for reflections and was a source of delight. The article describes the range of Vonsovskii’s interests in reading. The sources for our analysis were the documents from “Academician S. V. Vonsovskii’s Personal Fonds” deposited at the Central Scientific Library of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (CSL UB RAS), and his personal collection of books that comprised two parts. The first of these is a part of the preserved family library assembled by his parents, Sofia Ivanovna and Vasily Semyonovich Vonsovskii. Many books from this collection bear the traces of existence (the autographs and marks made by family members, book shop stamps) and can be regarded as family chronicle of a kind. The second part comprises scientific literature used by Sergei Vasilievich in his work (it was handed over to CSL UB RAS from the scientist’s study). Additional information was drawn from the memories of Vonsovskii himself, his colleagues and his pupils. In addition to his personal library, Vonsovskii also used the literature from CSL UB RAS, as evidenced by several inscriptions in the book circulation cards. Sergei Vasilievich also chaired the Library Board for several decades. As he wrote in his memories, “in my whole life, my scientific and public activities, the book has been playing a huge role, sometimes, probably, a decisive one”.