Otto Yulievich Schmidt (Отто Юльевич Шмидт in Russian) (September 18 (30), 1891 — September 7, 1956) was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesman, academician (Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1935 and Ukrainian Academy of Sciences , 1934), Hero of the USSR (6.27.1937), member of the Communist Party since 1918.

He was born in Mogilyov, Imperial Russia (now in Belarus). In 1913, Schmidt graduated from the University of Kiev , where he worked as a privat-docent starting from 1916. After the October Revolution of 1917, he was a board member at a few People's Commissariats (narkomats), such as Narkomprod in 1918-1920 (Narodny Commissariat Prodovolstviya, or People's Commissariat for Supplies), Narkomfin in 1921-1922 (Narodny Commissariat Finansov, or People's Commissariat for Finances) etc. Schmidt was one of the chief proponents of developing higher education system, publishing, and science in Soviet Russia. He worked at Narkompros (Narodny Commissariat Prosvescheniya, or People's Commissariat for Education), State Scientific Board at the Soviet of People's Commissars of the USSR, and Communist Academy. Schmidt was also employed as the director of the State Publishing House (Gosizdat ) in 1921—1924, and chief editor of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia in 1924—1941. In 1923—1956, he was a professor at the Moscow State University. In 1930—1932, Schmidt was the head of the Arctic Insitute. In 1932—1939, he was appointed head of Glavsevmorput' (Glavniy Severniy Morskoy Put') - an establishment that oversaw all commercial operations on the Northern Sea Route. In 1939—1942, Schmidt became a vice-president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, where he organized the Insitute of Theoretical Geophysics (he was its director until 1949). Otto Schmidt is a founder of the Moscow Algebra School, which he directed for many years to come.

In mid 1940s, Schmidt suggested a new cosmogonical hypothesis on the formation of the Earth and other planets of the Solar system (see Schmidt hypothesis ), which he continued to develop together with a group of Soviet scientists until his death.

Schmidt was a celebrated explorer of the Soviet Arctic. In 1929 and 1930, he led expeditions on the steam icebreaker Georgy Sedov, establishing the first scientific research station on the Franz Josef Land, exploring the northwestern parts of the Kara Sea and western coasts of Severnaya Zemlya, and discovering a few islands. In 1932, Schmidt's expedition on the steam icebreaker Sibiryakov made a non-stop voyage from Arkhangelsk to the Pacific Ocean for the first time in history. In 1933—1934, Schmidt led the voyage of the steamship Cheliuskin along the Northern Sea Route. In 1937, he supervised an airborne expedition with the purpose of establishing a drift-ice research station "North Pole - 1". In 1938, he was in charge of evacuating its personnel from the ice.

Otto Schmidt was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the first convocation. He was awarded three Orders of Lenin, three other orders and many medals. An island in the Kara Sea, a cape on the coastline of the Chukchi Sea, an area in the then Chukotka Autonomous District of the Magadan Oblast, Insitute of the Earth Physics at the Soviet Academy of Science and others bear Schmidt's name.

References

• Aleksey E. Levin, Stephen G. Brush The Origin of the Solar System: Soviet Research 1925-1991. AIP Press, 1995. ISBN 1563962810
• Brontman, L.K. On top of the world: the Soviet expedition to the North pole, 1937-1938, New York, 1938.