Boris Alexandrovich Bakhmeteff (russian: Борис Александрович Бахметев) (also spelled Bakhmetieff or Bakhmetev) (May 14, 1880 – July 21, 1951) was an engineer, businessman, professor of

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and the only

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

of the

Russian Provisional Government The Russian Provisional Government ( rus, Временное правительство России, Vremennoye pravitel'stvo Rossii) was a provisional government of the Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately ...

to the United States. He was unrelated to his predecessor as ambassador,

George Bakhmeteff George Petrovich Bakhmeteff (Russian: Георгий Петрович Бахметев; 1847 – 29 August 1928) was the last tsarist Russian Ambassador to the United States. He served in office between the years 1911 and 1917. Origins He was a ca ...

Biography

He was born on May 14, 1880 in

Tbilisi, Georgia Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million peo ...

. He married Helen on July 22, 1905, in

Kineshma Kineshma (russian: Кинешма), the second-largest town in Ivanovo Oblast in Russia, sprawls for along the Volga River, 335 kilometers north-east of Moscow. Population: History Kineshma was first noticed as a ''posad'' in 1429. In 1504, ...

, Russia. His wife Helen died in 1921. He became a member of the

Menshevik The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. The factions eme ...

faction of the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...

in 1906. His position as ambassador was recognized by the United States government until his resignation in June 1922, when he established the Lion Match Company with other Russian immigrants. At his request the role of representative of Russia was transferred to his assistant Serge Ughet, financial attaché of the embassy, who held this position until United States recognition of the Soviet Union in 1933. He introduced the concept of ''specific energy'' in hydraulics in his thesis and book ''Hydraulics of Open Channels'' in 1932. He married Marie C. Cole in 1938 in Duval County, Florida. In 1947 he received the

Norman Medal The Norman Medal is the highest honor granted by the American Society of Civil Engineers for a technical paper that "makes a definitive contribution to engineering science". The medal was instituted by ASCE in 1872 and originally endowed by George H ...

of the

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

. He died on July 21, 1951, in

Brookfield, Connecticut Brookfield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, situated within the southern foothills of the Berkshire Mountains. The population was 17,528 at the 2020 census. The town is located northeast of New York City, making it part ...

, of a heart attack.

Legacy

The Russian archives and a professorship of Russian at Columbia are named after him, as is a Harvard research fellowship in hydraulics. Russian ambassador's residence

Boris Bakhmeteff was also on the Board of Directors for the

Tolstoy Foundation The Tolstoy Foundation is a non-profit charitable and philanthropic organization. It was established on April 26, 1939, by Alexandra Tolstaya, the youngest daughter of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, and her friend Tatiana Schaufuss. Its headquarter ...

Center in

Valley Cottage, New York Valley Cottage is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Clarkstown, New York, United States. It is located northeast of West Nyack, northwest of Central Nyack east of Bardonia, south of Congers, northwest of Nyack, and west of ...

Works

*Boris Aleksandrovich Bakhmateff, ''Hydraulics of Open Channels'' (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1932) *Boris Aleksandrovich Bakhmateff, ''The Mechanics of Turbulent Flow'' (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1941)

Notes

External links

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Boris Alexandrovich Bakhmeteff
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bakhmeteff, Boris Ambassadors of Russia to the United States 1880 births 1951 deaths Fluid dynamicists Columbia University faculty White Russian emigrants to the United States