What does it take to be a great writer? What does it take to be a great scientist? What does it take to be a great reformer? What does it take to be all three? Perhaps it takes being Mikhail Lomonosov, an unsung hero in most of the Western world who was a powerful force of change and invention in Russia in the 18th century. Although born a peasant in a small village, he went on to change Russia in various fields more than most of the noblemen of Russian would dream of, and much more than many of the nobleman of Russia wanted. Influenced greatly by the sweeping changes brought about by Peter the Great, Lomonosov fearlessly went forward and was a proponent of change across Russia and is still remembered fondly in Russia for it today. Mikhail Lomonosov is an influential figure in Russia through his legacy in literature, …show more content…
They were sent to study in Marburg Germany (Langevin). There, Lomonosov became a pupil to one of the greatest forces in the German Enlightment, Christian Wolf. Wolf taught lectures on rhetoric and philosophy that Lomonosov eagerly attended (Roucek 40). It was in his time in Germany that Lomonosov learned the Western ways of thinking. He broadened his interests and learned natural sciences, mathematics, German, French, art, dance, and more (Shiltsev 40). This wide breadth of knowledge is what helped him have such wide research and unique approaches to many of his research problems. But, with his new found freedom and escape from extreme poverty to a larger stipend, Lomonosov and his colleagues also excelled on the party scene in Germany incurring a large debt that later had to be paid off by the university (Huntington 298). After three years, Lomonosov moved down to Freiburg for a year in 1739 to study mining with Johan Henckel (Shiltsev 40). He returned to Marburg where he married his wife, Elizabeth Christine Zilch, the daughter of a tailor and his landlord in 1740 (Holl). It was around this time in Germany when Lomonosov started