Immediately after the death of M. V. Lomonosov, the most thorough search was carried out in his laboratory with indecent haste. Count Grigory Orlov himself, Catherine's favorite, did not disdain to take a personal part in it.
Many papers that day disappeared forever from the archives of the scientist. And where they are now is still unknown. And yet Count Orlov could not find the most important document, because of which, in fact, the entire search was started.
Where does the Pomor come from?
Lomonosov's biography is quite well known, although there are still many blank spots in it. Relatively recently, the exact place of his birth was established - the village of Mishaninskaya (now the village of Lomonosovo), near Kholmogory, Arkhangelsk province. His birthday is dated to "Mikhailov Day" November 20, 1711 (November 8, old style).
It is believed that Lomonosov was the son of a peasant Pomor Vasily Dorofeev. How true are these versions? For example, how was the son of a commoner able to enter the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy at all, where only the sons of noblemen and clergy were admitted? But it is precisely with training in this academy that the stunning career of a member of the Russian and Swedish Academies of Sciences, awarded, among other things, a title of nobility begins? Wasn't someone's “shaggy paw”, as it is now customary to say, contributed to the rapid advancement of the Pomor's son?
Vasily Dorofeev got married at the age of 30 - by the then concepts it was very late, because he was a poor man. In addition, the temper is rather violent - for which, perhaps, he earned the nickname Lomonosov. As Mikhail Vasilyevich himself later noted, his father was "brought up in extreme ignorance." And already 11 years later, in 1722, according to the ancient inventory, this half-impoverished fisherman acquired the largest two-masted ship in Arkhangelsk, a manor house, fishery, and a fish pond. Was it only tireless work that helped him get so rich?
After the death of his wife, who died when Mikhail was 9 years old, his father married a second time to Feodora Mikhailovna Uskova, the daughter of a peasant from the neighboring Ukhtostrovskaya volost. However, in the summer of 1724 she also died. Then, a few months later, the father, who had returned from the crafts, married a third time - to the widow Irina Semyonovna (nee Korelskaya). For the thirteen-year-old Lomonosov, the third wife of his father turned out to be "an evil and envious stepmother."
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He tried to stay with her as little as possible, often asked for fishing with his father and other Pomors. And when he was at home, he diligently studied literacy from the sexton of the local church S. N. Sabelnikov. He more than once assisted fellow villagers in drawing up business papers and petitions, wrote letters. The "Gates of Learning", in Mikhail Lomonosov's own words, are made for him the books obtained by him with the help of the same clerk: "Grammar" by Meletiy Smotritsky, "Arithmetic" by Leonty Magnitsky, as well as the poetic "Psalter" by Simeon Polotsky. As a result, by the age of 14, Mikhailo was already literate, which for some reason aroused even greater hatred from his stepmother.
To finally get him out of the house, his stepmother advised his father to marry Mikhail. He, having found out about such intentions, first said that he was sick, because of which the wedding had to be postponed, and in the meantime he decided to run away from home.
In December 1730, an opportunity arose - a fish train was leaving for Moscow. At night, Mikhailo threw on two shirts, a sheepskin coat, grabbed a knapsack with food and books and set off to catch up with the departed wagon train. And having caught up, he begged the Pomors to give him the opportunity to get with them to Moscow.
In the capital, the 20-year-old Mikhailo went straight to the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, where he entered to study on January 15, 1731.
This is the generally accepted version of the development of events. However, there is another little-known version that explains why the over-aged fellow left home and, having gone to a deliberate forgery (he pretended to be the son of a priest), entered the then higher educational institution, where he endured everything - both the ridicule of fellow practitioners and hunger. Is it really, like further ordeals abroad, and many years of work from dark to dark, just for the sake of being called "the first Russian university"? No, it looks like he had some other secret purpose …
It was he who was soon sent to study abroad with two noble children. But that's not all: for the trip to the “muzhik” Mikhail was given 300 rubles, and for living - another 400. That was a huge amount of money at that time!
Is it the scrolls?
Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov, one of the most prominent historians of the Lomonosov time, once hinted that the sources of Mikhail Vasilyevich's asceticism should be sought in his homeland. The strongest shamans lived in the North at that time. Spinning a snowmobile or making a storm at sea was a piece of cake for them.
However, it seems that they were not all-powerful either. Otherwise, they would not have come to Vasily Lomonosov on the eve of the birth of his son. Moreover, they knew not only the gender of the unborn child, but also offered him a job, not yet born. And for its performance, as an advance, they gave Vasily so much money that he at once became one of the richest people in the region. He had a manor house with a house, a fish pond and even his own ship.
Well, what did the shamans want in return? This became clear a few years later, when a boat from somewhere escaped to Vasily's ship in complete calm and fog. People climbed aboard the fishing schooner and gave Vasily a case with strange scrolls. “Tell your son - let him read it” …
They say that these were scrolls with the texts of the sages of Hyperborea. There was once such a country on the site of northeastern Russia. The state was rich and strong, which even Alexander the Great reckoned with. And then for some reason it disappeared. And only the ruins of buildings, which are 9000 years old, remained after him. Yes, here are the documents that carry a certain secret.
It was Mikhailo Lomonosov who had to solve it.
And he left home. For knowledge. He studied first in Russia. Then he pounded the doorsteps of foreign universities for five years. And everywhere he carried a case with those scrolls.
To read the scrolls is the order of the shamans. The father's debt will have to be paid by the son. Northern shamans are all-powerful. Disobedience will be punished severely and in due time.
The first person to whom Mikhailo showed those scrolls was Professor Feofan Prokopovich at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. It was he who covered Lomonosov, vouched that Mikhailo was the son of a village priest. He also helped the student to master Latin - the language of languages. But even the professor was unable to help the student read the strange texts. He only suggested that the writings on the scrolls are similar to the lists of medieval alchemists.
That is why Lomonosov's further path lay in Europe, primarily in Germany, the center of science at that time. At first, Lomonosov studied in Marburg, attended lectures on physics and chemistry by Professor Wolf. In the formulas of chemistry, he saw something like writing on scrolls. Chemistry is known to be the daughter of alchemy.
However, when Mikhailo dared to show those scrolls to Christian Wolf, he also just threw up his hands. The scriptures reminded him of the recipe for the philosopher's stone. “Leave it, my friend. You cannot afford this work. But Lomonosov could not stop.
And he went to Freiburg, where he continued to improve in sciences, geology and mining. And he did it so zealously that the new professor Johann Handel even complained about the violent student in Moscow. They say that he is not at all sick with him, he does not want to do what he is forced to do, but does what he pleases.
However, the altercation may actually have occurred due to the fact that the professor wanted to surreptitiously look into a mysterious leather case. Or even kidnap him. Yes, Lomonosov did not.
Mikhaila had to move out of the professor, with whom he lived and dined. He found himself a corner in one poor family.
Visionary Dream and Father's Death
Meanwhile, the shamans were pressing on Vasily: "Did the son read the letter?" Lomonosov's father defended himself as best he could. He even offered the shamans three times more money than he once received from them. But they just brushed it off: the information from the scrolls was more important to them.
And in order to hurry up their son, shamans found an effective way. Vasily Lomonosov soon disappeared without a trace, and at that moment Mikhail himself had a prophetic dream. Say, the ship on which his father was sailing crashed, and he himself was thrown onto an uninhabited island in the White Sea.
Returning to St. Petersburg, Mikhailo Lomonosov immediately began to make inquiries about his father. He was informed that Vasily had indeed gone to sea for four months and still had not returned. Then Mikhail wrote where to look for his father. Indeed, the fishermen found his body on the very island that his son pointed out to them.
Mikhailo Vasilyevich understood the hint … And since 1741 he has been working with all his might. The Russian Academy of Sciences, organized by him, helps its leader as much as it can. And he himself replaces the whole university. Among his many scientific discoveries are primarily studies on mercury. These are traces of how he looked for the Philosopher's Stone. And that miraculous stone, as you know, can do a lot - turn lead into gold, guarantee eternal youth to its owner, and something else …
They became interested in strange experiments of the academician. Rumors spread throughout St. Petersburg about the case that Lomonosov constantly carried with him.
On an autumn evening, he was attacked by three men on a dark street. But, as a contemporary testified, “with the greatest courage he defended himself against these three robbers: he hit one of them so that he could not not only get up, but could not even recover for a long time; he hit another in the face so that he ran with all his might into the bushes, covered in blood; and the third was no longer difficult for him to overcome; he knocked him down (while the first, waking up, fled into the forest) and, holding him under his feet, threatened that he would kill him immediately if he did not reveal to him what the names of the other two robbers were and what they wanted to do with him.
This one confessed that they only wanted to rob him and then release him. The robbers, it seems, needed a case with scrolls. Lomonosov pondered: who could have pursued him in the capital? Shamans don't work so rudely …
It turned out that the all-powerful Orlov himself was hunting the scrolls. First, he went straight to the goal - sent robbers. But the case did not burn out, and the count postponed the second operation until a convenient moment.
Meanwhile, Lomonosov had only a few experiments left to do. He had already learned a lot from those scrolls and was close to revealing the secret of the Philosopher's Stone. But something, apparently, struck him as strange in the last recipe. And in the decisive experiment he did not observe the measures indicated in the scroll, but took substances in microscopic doses and kept only the proportions. And this precaution saved him. The resulting substance did not bestow life - it carried death. It was an explosive of unprecedented power. Even a crumb caused a huge explosion.
Since Lomonosov lived at the academy, where explosions and fires were commonplace, no one seemed to pay special attention to that case. But Lomonosov decided not to risk it. Realizing what was the matter, he burned both his notes and the scrolls themselves.
He knew how it threatened him. But there was no turning back. And soon Lomonosov had another prophetic dream: a calendar fell from the table and opened on the date - April 4. Mikhailo Vasilyevich understood that he would not survive this day. In fact, he died suddenly on April 4, 1765, at the age of only 54, although he was famous for excellent health.
Count Orlov immediately ordered to turn over the laboratory and … got a mysterious case. But the scrolls were not there. Then they took up the scientist's archive. Many of Lomonosov's papers disappeared immediately after his death. Miraculously, a list of 14 works that he has been doing in recent months and weeks has only survived. But the manuscripts themselves have not been found to this day …
Was he right when he destroyed the scrolls? Maybe yes. Dynamite from the mines immediately migrated to the battlefields. And the atom first became a bomb, and only then did it start working in a nuclear power plant. Well, what would have happened to us all, if in the time of Lomonosov explosives of monstrous power had been used?.. Yes, probably the same thing that may have happened to the inhabitants of the same Hyperborea and the no less mysterious Atlantis. Our civilization would have vanished, like those that came before it. And so Mikhail Vasilyevich saved us. He was shrewd and foresaw the possible consequences. He did not regret himself, but he protected his descendants from unnecessary misfortune. And for that he bows low and thanks …
Maxim Yablokov, "Technology of Youth" magazine, No. 11, 2011
