The Invention of Mikhail Lomonosov

“Steven A. Usitalo’s The Invention of Mikhail Lomonosov: A Russian National Myth is a pioneering study of Mikhail Lomonosov’s scholarly reputation in the Russian cultural imagination. As every Russian has been learning in school beginning in the mid-nineteenth century until the present, Lomonosov was a polymath, a genius to whom Russian culture is indebted for the creation of not only poetry but also of virtually every other scientific and social discipline, including chemistry, physics, geography, history, and linguistics. The author convincingly demonstrates the mythological nature of this reputation and traces its emergence from the eighteenth-century biographies of Lomonosov to the work of the most enthusiastic twentieth-century historian of Lomonosov’s life and work, Boris Menshutkin, whose many articles and books have solidified and perpetuated the myth of Lomonosov as the greatest national genius. Erudite and skillfully argued, the book is bound to become obligatory reading for every Lomonosov scholar, science and literary historians alike.” ~Irina Reyfman, Columbia University

"[Usitalo's] book masterfully demonstrates the power of national narrative and tradition in constructing history." ~Fillip Velgach, New Books in History

“With his book, Usitalo has proven that it is possible to write in an original way about an old topic and make it exciting and relevant. The author not only deconstructs and obliterates the old myth, but retraces the true story of Lomonosov, the scientist. . . . With this book Usitalo advances not just our understanding of Lomonosov, but opens the window to a larger study of the role of myth-making in the development of national consciousness.” ~Marina Swoboda, Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol. LVI, Nos. 1-2, March-June 2014

“The Invention of Mikhail Lomonosov has potential appeal to a number of audiences. For historians of science, this study provides insight into the particularities of the Russian case and how it differs from, and is similar to, the veneration and self-fashioning of non-Russian scientists such as Galileo in early modern Europe or Benjamin Franklin in the United States. Historians of Russia and the Soviet Union will also profit from this book’s intriguing ideas about the 'mythogenic' qualities of Russian culture, where cults of personality— beginning with political figures and extending to the pantheon of literary, engineering, and cosmonaut heroes—play such a prominent role in politics and in the propagation of ideas about what it means to be a Russian.” ~Andrew Jenks, Isis, Vol. 105, No. 3 (September 2014)

“The substance and merit of Usitalo’s study is his richly documented and copiously footnoted critical reconstruction of the myth of Lomonosov the scientist and its growth and reconfigurations over time, set within the broader context of the pan-European perception of scientific biography.” ~Marcus C. Levitt, University of Southern California, Slavic and East European Journal, 58.2 (Summer 2014)