To the 140th anniversary of the birth of Professor Vasiliy Stepanovich Smirnov

Abstract

This year marks the 140th anniversary of the birth of Vasiliy Stepanovich Smirnov (1882–1958), PhD in Engineering, professor, honored worker of science and technology of the RSFSR. V.S. Smirnov began his teaching career in 1907 at the Moscow Industrial School, which was then reorganized into the D.I. Mendeleev Institute of Chemical Technology. Since 1908, he taught chemistry and commodity science in trade schools, and since 1913 — at the Moscow Commercial Institute (later the Plekhanov Moscow Institute of National Economy), now the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. For more than 45 years, he taught a course in commodity science of grain and flour products at the Plekhanov Moscow Institute of National Economy, where he organized a grain laboratory and for 10 years, from 1947 to 1957 he was the head of the Department of Commodity Science. For the first time in 1915, he wrote the section “Cereal Bread, Flour and Wheat Bread” in the textbook “Food Products”. In 1938, he wrote “Grain Products”, a four-volume textbook for higher educational institutions, and when it was reprinted in 1950, he was also the editor-in-chief of the entire textbook. In his research work, V.S. Smirnov pursued the goal of organizing technochemical control at processing enterprises to stabilize the quality of flour and cereals. He published more than 75 scientific articles, and 15 PhD theses were defended under his supervision. Vasiliy Stepanovich was a well-rounded specialist; his lectures were characterized by depth of content, practical orientation, and accessibility in acquisition. He was an excellent methodologist, and the textbooks prepared by him have not lost their significance up to date.