Otto Schmidt was born in the town of Mogilev in the Russian Empire, in what is Belarus.
11 Facts About Otto Schmidt
2.
Otto Schmidt's father was a descendant of German settlers in Courland, while his mother was a Latvian.
3.
In 1913, Otto Schmidt married Vera Yanitskaia and graduated from the Saint Vladimir Imperial University of Kiev, where he worked as a privat-docent starting from 1916.
4.
Otto Schmidt was one of the chief proponents of developing the higher education system, publishing, and science in Soviet Russia.
5.
Otto Schmidt worked at Narkompros, the State Scientific Board at the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, and the Communist Academy.
6.
Otto Schmidt was Chair of the Foreign Literature Committee from October 1921.
7.
From 1923 he was a professor at the Second Moscow State University and later at the Moscow State University, and from 1930 to 1932, Otto Schmidt was the head of the Arctic Institute.
8.
From 1939 to 1942, Otto Schmidt became a vice-president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, where he organized the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics.
9.
Otto Schmidt was a founder of the Moscow Algebra School, which he directed for many years.
10.
From 1933 to 1934, Otto Schmidt led the voyage of the steamship Cheliuskin, with Captain Vladimir Voronin, along the Northern Sea Route.
11.
Otto Schmidt was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the first convocation.