Vernadsky Calls Lincoln "A Hero Of All Times"

Writing to his wife Natalya on April 19, 1892, Vladimir Vernadsky refers to an article he had read about Abraham Lincoln. "Among the interesting items I have read recently were an article about Abraham Lincoln in the Quarterly Review, and I am now reading the first lecture in the 'Textbook of Physiological and Pathological Chemistry' by Bunge. Bunge is a vitalist! The personality of Lincoln — his humanity — moved me deeply. He is what you might call a 'hero for all times,' and in much, a man of the democracy of the future. Washington and Lincoln — two similar idealists in positions of power."

In his boyhood home, the Vernadskys always had hanging a portrait of George Washington. Not only was he greatly revered by Vernadsky's father, the economist Ivan Vasilievich Vernadsky, but Vernadsky's grandfather, Vasilii Ivanovich, was said to bear a great personal resemblance to America's first president. Vasilii was a medical doctor and an officer in the war against Napoleon, who was given an award by Napoleon for his services in treating both wounded Russian and French soldiers when he was a prisoner of the French. From Vasilii, the Decembrist tradition always remained a living tradition in the family household. The family had no portrait of Vasilii Ivanovich, and the Washington portrait therefore served also as a reminder of him.