Larissa Anatolyevna Popugayeva

Larissa Anatolevna Popugajewa , Russian Лариса Анатольевна Попугаева , born Grinzewitsch ( Russian Гринцевич ) (* 3. September 1923 in Kaluga ; † 19th September 1977 in Leningrad ) was a Russian geologist who in 1954 after a systematic search, the first diamond mine ( Sarniza ) in the form discovered by kimberlite chimneys in Siberia .

Larissa Popugayeva's father Anatoly Grinzewitsch was a staunch communist (he called his daughter Neli based on the backward sequence of letters from Lenin, which was her nickname) and secretary of the Odessa district committee , but sentenced to 10 years of solitary confinement in the 1937 cleansing waves, as was Larissa Popugayeva grew up as the daughter of an officially labeled enemy of the people. The daughter was often outside the prison to try to get a glimpse of the father, in reality he was shot as early as 1937. The family (next to the mother and a sister) moved to Leningrad, where they began studying geology. She volunteered for the army in World War II , after having started training as a nurse, and was with the anti-aircraft service in Moscow from 1942 to 1945. In 1944 she joined the Communist Party . After the war she continued her geology and geochemistry studies, graduating in 1950. SS Kuznetsov was one of her teachers. In 1950/51 she was a member of a geological expedition to Siberia (area of ​​the Tunguska and Lena rivers ), where diamond mines had been searched in vain for a long time, something that Stalin had pushed for since 1946. In 1951 she was in the arctic part of the Urals . In 1952 she married Viktor Popugayev and had a daughter, Natasha. In 1953 she was again on an expedition of the geologist Natalja Nikolajewna Sarsadskich in the area of ​​the Marcha river , at whose tributary Daldyn they found many red garnets ( pyrope ) and ilmenite as foreign minerals and also late microscopic diamonds tested in the X-ray machine. It was already known from South Africa that garnets were accompanying minerals to diamonds. Both geologists came up with the crucial idea of ​​following the pyrope trail and approaching the source by observing the degree of wear and tear during transport along the river (the diamonds themselves did not wear out unlike their accompanying minerals). The diamond's mother rock, the kimberlite chimney, had to be where the trail ended. In August 1954 Popogajewa returned alone to the study area (Sarsadskich had just had a child) and discovered the occurrence of “Sarnitsa” (weather light), the importance and productivity of which was only recognized in the 1980s. Soviet geologists ( Aminskaya expedition ) have been searching in the area since the first discovery of a diamond on Viljui in 1949 without finding a mine. Popugayeva made the mistake of entrusting her discovery and the method to the geologists of the Aminskaya expedition, who immediately took it over for themselves and even had them sign a contract. After returning to Leningrad, she was severely reprimanded by her colleagues and this also hindered her further career in Leningrad.

The first large mines ( Mirny , Udatschnaja ) were found using their method in 1955, and the laurels for the diamond discoveries were initially reaped by others. When in 1957 six geologists received the Lenin Prize for diamond finds , she was not among them.

Recognition for her achievement did not come until the early 1970s. In 1970 she received her doctorate in Leningrad ( candidate title ). She worked there as an expert on gemstones for customs and the Hermitage, among others . An atlas of the gemstone deposits in the Soviet Union remained unpublished. She died of an aortic aneurysm . In 2004 a memorial was erected to her in Udachny .

Web links

• Russian biography
• Stefania Zini, La pionera de los diamantes, Russia beyond the headlines 2013