Makhiv, Hryhorii

Makhiv, Hryhorii [Махів, Григорій; Maxiv, Hryhorij], b 23 August 1887 in Kyiv, d 22 August 1952 in Birmingham, Michigan, USA. Soil scientist; full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society from 1948 and the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the US. He graduated from Kyiv University (1913), worked as a soil scientist for the Kyiv zemstvo, and then taught at Kyiv University (1920) and the Kharkiv Agricultural Institute (1924). He headed the soil research section of the Agricultural Scientific Committee of Ukraine and of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. After being dismissed from his positions for political reasons in 1927, he worked as a researcher and consultant in Kyiv, Odesa, and Kharkiv. A postwar refugee and displaced person in Germany, he taught at the Ukrainian Technical and Husbandry Institute, and in 1949 he emigrated to the United States of America, where he helped found the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences. Makhiv specialized in solonetz soils and their amelioration, soil depletion and soil erosion, the effectiveness of shelterbelts in the steppe region, and drought control. He wrote numerous works, including the textbook Gruntoznavstvo (Soil Science, 1925), Chetvertynni poklady Ukraïny (The Quaternary Deposits in Ukraine, 1924), and Grunty Ukraïny (Soils of Ukraine, 1930); edited the first seven volumes of Materiialy doslidzhennia gruntiv Ukraïny (Materials for the Study of Soils in Ukraine, 1923–7); and prepared the first synthetic soil map of Ukraine (1927; published also in English).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]