Kovalevsky, Yevhraf

Kovalevsky, Yevhraf [Ковалевський, Євграф; Kovalevs'kyj, Jevhraf], b 21 December 1790 (1792 according to some sources) in Kharkiv, d 30 March 1867 in Saint Petersburg. Engineer and government official; honorary member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences from 1856. He graduated from the cadet school in Saint Petersburg in 1810 and began to work in the Department of Mining in 1819. In 1826 he was sent to expand the Luhansk smelting refinery. He then conducted important studies on coal and salt deposits in the Donets Basin, and compiled the first stratographic map of the basin. He occupied a number of positions in the mining department before becoming minister of education in 1858. As minister he carried out several significant reforms and drafted a new liberal law on censorship; eventually, opposition to him in reactionary circles forced him to retire as minister in 1861. In 1862 he was elected president of the Free Economic Society.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]