Vera Malycheff
Vera Malycheff, or Malychef, was a Russian-born geologist who emigrated to France with her family after the defeat of the Volunteer Army during the Russian Civil War. She continued her geology research in France, where she was a mineralogist and soil scientist who became a professor at the Sorbonne, University of Paris, and helped place young students from Russia into higher educational institutions in France.
Biography
She was born on 14 August 1886 in St. Petersburg, Russia, to the family of an officer of the Russian army, Sergei Ivanovich Malyshev and Ekaterina Ilyinichna. In time, Vera's mother remarried and she became the stepdaughter of Mikhail Fyodorov.She graduated from Vasileostrovskaya Gymnasium and in 1909, she began her studies at the elite Higher Women's Bestuzhev Courses in St. Petersburg, specializing in geology. In 1914, she began working at the school in the department of the geologist Nicolai Ivanovich Andrusov.
During the First World War, she worked as a nurse and was awarded a St. George medal for her bravery. Following that, she served in the Volunteer Army of South Russia, which was formed shortly after the Russian Civil War that followed the Russian October Revolution of 1917.
When the Volunteer Army lost the Civil War, Vera went into exile in Paris in 1920, accompanied by her stepfather, mother and four brothers, who fled Russia, leaving behind their valuables. Starting life again in France, she changed her name from Vera Malysheva to Vera Malycheff and went to work in the mineralogy laboratory of the National Museum of Natural History and in its Institute of Anthropology.
She lectured at various institutes in addition to the Russian Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the Sorbonne University. Together with V.K. Agafonov, she studied loess deposits and soils in France, Belgian Congo, Gabon, Tunisia, Morocco and other French colonies. She edited and is listed as co-author of some of Valerian Konstantinovich Agafonov’s published monographs on the soils of France and Tunisia.
She was known for her concern for the Russian people and was an uncompromising anti-communist. She helped her stepfather who was actively placing young students arriving from Russia into higher educational institutions in France. She also helped to organize the Russian congregation and church built in the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery cemetery close to Paris in Essone.
Vera Malycheff died on 4 November 1964 in Paris and was buried at the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery.
Selected awards
- St. George medal "for courage," given during the First World War.
- French Academy of Sciences prize for scientific works.