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and taught at St. Petersburg University from
1857 until 1890, when he resigned after a dis-
agreement with the minister of education.
Besides his periodic table, Mendeleyev engaged
in important research on gases and liquids, crys-
tallography, meteorology, and organic chemistry.
A man of many talents, Mendeleyev had inter-
ests that extended beyond scientific scholarship.
From 1893 until his death, he directed the
Chamber of Measures and Weights. A successful
industrialist and a recognized spokesman for
Russia's emerging managerial class, he partici-
pated in various enterprises that developed Rus-
sia's rich mineral resources around the turn of
the century, such as coal from the Donets,
Kuznetsk, and Karaganda basins, oil from Baku,
and metals from the Urals. Influenced by the
German economist Friedrich List, he devoted
much time to the study of tariffs as a prerequisite
for economic development, and he served on a
government commission on customs tariffs.
Among his many publications, two that stand
out are
Foundations of Chemistry
(1869-71), a
summation of the achievements of classical
chemistry that was translated into English in
1892, and
Essays in Historical Chemistry,
published
posthumously in 1911. His daughter married the
poet Aleksandr
BLOK
.
1708 his troops destroyed the capital of the Cos-
sack leader, Ivan Mazepa, who had sided with
the Swedish king, Charles XII, during the Great
Northern War. Menshikov's fondness for money
got him in trouble in 1714-15 when he was for-
mally accused of corruption. This did not signif-
icantly alter his standing with Peter, and in 1720
he was named head of the War College. He was
in trouble again, in 1723-24, on the charge of
concealing over 30,000 runaway serfs on his
estates. After Peter's death he threw his support
to Catherine I, the former Marfa Skavronskaia,
whom he had introduced to Peter. As a member
of the Supreme Privy Council, he dominated
court politics during her reign (1725-27).
Scheming to remain in power, he maneuvered
to have his daughter Anna Menshikova engaged
to the young Peter Alekseevich, Peter the Great's
grandson, who stood to inherit the throne. Men-
shikov's plans backfired when his rivals, the Dol-
gorukii family, persuaded, without too much
effort, the future
PETER II
to renege on his
engagement and banish Menshikov to Siberia,
where he died a few years later.
Merjani, Shihabeddin
(1818-1899)
scholar
A Tatar reformist intellectual, Merjani sought to
spark an Islamic cultural revival through the
advancement of scientific knowledge. Although
his main concern was religious reform, Merjani
was a historian and teacher who had studied at
the
medresses
of
BUKHARA
and investigated the
manuscripts and rare materials at the
SAMAR
-
KAND
library. An essay on the history of the
Uighurs, published in 1865, gained him mem-
bership in the St. Petersburg Academy of Sci-
ences, where he subsequently presented papers
on the history of the Volga Tatars. Travels to the
Middle East in 1886-87 rekindled his interest in
Islamic reformist ideals. Shortly after his return
to
KAZAN
in 1887, he was appointed language
teacher at the Russo-Tatar Teachers' School. His
contact with the Russian teachers at this school,
as well as with the professors at Kazan Univer-
Menshikov, Aleksandr Danilovich
(1673-1729)
official
A close, but controversial, collaborator of
PETER I
the Great, Menshikov rose from humble origins
as a stable boy to the dominant figure in the gov-
ernment of Peter's first successor, his second wife
CATHERINE I
. After serving in Peter's “toy regi-
ments,” Menshikov became his adjutant and
accompanied Peter on the original
GRAND
EMBASSY
in 1697-98. From 1702 to 1708, he
served in various administrative capacities as
governor of Schlusselburg and then governor-
general of Ingria, Karelia, and Estonia. Named
prince of Izhora by Peter, he became governor of
St. Petersburg in 1708. An able commander, in
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