Mikhail Vasil'evich Lomonosov was a figure of great prominence among mid-eighteenth-century Russian writers and holds the reputation as one of the greatest Russian poets of his century. Coming from a geographic and cultural periphery of Russia and from a social station that traditionally was all but banned from education, he emerged as a leading figure of Russian science, scholarship, and literature. A man of encyclopedic knowledge, inexhaustible energy, and passionate temper, he was the first Russian chemist and physicist, a gifted linguist and a competent historian, but most of all an extraordinary poet. Lomonosov did not consider poetry his main occupation, viewing himself primarily as a scientist. However, his scientific accomplishments--often overrated by Russian students of his legacy--were not on a level with the achievements of his European contemporaries. Lomonosov contributed to the development of Russian science first of all as an indefatigable organizer and an enthusiastic educator...