Georgii Nikolaevich Frederiks (russian: Георгий Николаевич Фредерикc) (1889–1938) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

who specialized in

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

tectonics Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents k ...

and stratigraphy. He described many

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

before becoming a victim of the

Great Terror The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...

. G. N. Frederiks was born in the

Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchm ...

region, graduated from the Kazan Imperial University in 1911, and obtained his Master's degree in mineralogy and geognosy (geology) from there in 1917. He inherited the title of Baron from his father some time before April 1913. "This title was to cause him angst in subsequent years and, apparently, be a contributing factor to his death at the hands of the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

". He was employed by the Geological Committee from 1913, and between 1920 and 21 he was sent to inaugurate the teaching of geology at the newly autonomous

Perm State University Perm State University (now Perm State National Research University; russian: Пермский университет, Пермский государственный университет, , romanised: , ) or PSU, PSNRU (russian: ПГУ, , ...

, where he served as Professor, Head of the Department of Geology, and Dean of the Technical Faculty, then returned to the Geological Committee. In 1931 he was purged from the Geological Committee and went to work at the Mining Institute both in the palaeontology section of the Mining Museum and teaching in the Department of General Geology. At that time D. I. Mushketov was the Director of the Museum and Head of the General Geology Department. Skilled in languages and maintaining contact with foreign scientists and with White Russian scientists, he is said to have believed that science is independent of politics. He was arrested February 24, 1935 and exiled for three years to corrective labour camps, from which he was released 8 months early, after which he returned to his home in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. He was arrested repeatedly after that and finally on 13 June 1937 was charged with deliberately misinterpreting the geological structure during explorations in the Chusovskie Gorodki Oil Field, and also with conspiracy to kill the leaders of the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. He was executed February 18, 1938, on the same day as his colleague and likely protector D. I. Mushketov and several other colleagues. Full exoneration ( rehabilitation) was granted, posthumously, November 30, 1956. As well as major contributions to stratigraphy and geological mapping, G. N. Frederiks is particularly remembered for his contributions to the paleontology of the late

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

era ( Carboniferous and

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last ...

periods), notably Brachiopoda, Ammonoidea, and

Bryozoa Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about long, they have a special feeding structure called a ...

References

Further references

Web site of Perm State University with reference to G. N. FrederiksGeologist-to-geologist entry for G. N. Fredericks
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frederiks, Georgiy Nikolaevich 1889 births 1938 deaths Russian geologists Soviet paleontologists Soviet geologists Academic staff of Perm State University Great Purge victims from Russia Soviet rehabilitations