Vitkovsky Vasily Vasilyevich 
(01(13).09.1856–20.03.1924)

Russian surveyor, lieutenant-general, professor of the geodesic department of the Academy of the General Staff. 
Born in the fortress Novogeorgievsk near Warsaw in the family of a military engineer, Major General V.I. Vitkovsky. In 1860, the family moved to St. Petersburg to the place of the new appointment of the father. 
In 1872, after graduating from the gymnasium, Vitkovsky, as a family tradition, entered the Military Engineering School as a cadet, three years later he graduated from it and, with the rank of second lieutenant of engineering troops, was assigned to the sapper battalion in Mount Calvary. This was followed by service in the military field telegraph park in St. Petersburg, a business trip to the Yaroslavl province, the direction to the Danube active army with a marching team during the Russian-Turkish war of 1878–1879. 
After the war, the young talented officer was able to continue their studies. He was identified as a volunteer at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg University, and in 1880 entered the geodesic department of the Academy of the General Staff and began studying with Academician A.N. Savich. Even before graduating from the academy, he published his first scientific works, among which he stood two editions of Military Telegraphy. 
After completing the theoretical course of the geodesic department of the Academy of the General Staff, Vitkovsky was practiced at the Main Astronomical Observatory in Pulkovo and traveled to Sweden. 
In 1885, he completed the full course of the geodesic department of the Academy of the General Staff with a large silver medal and a name on the marble board of the Academy. 
Vitkovsky's subsequent professional life was a combination of practical geodetic work, research and teaching. He worked as a surveyor at the Finnish survey, defended and published his dissertation "The Pulkovo Horizontal Circle", took the first big trip around Russia, particularly to the south, where he visited a number of astronomical observatories, participated in observations of a total solar eclipse near Rzhev with astronomers at Princeton University (USA) , began to lecture on geodesy at the Military Topographical School, read lectures and reports on astronomical and geodesic topics for officers of the Finnish survey. 
In 1885, Vitkovsky transferred to the General Staff with production in the captains; by 1909 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general. 
Vitkovsky’s high scientific prestige was evidenced by his election as a member of a number of Russian and foreign scientific societies. He was a full member of the Fennia Academic Society in Helsingfors, the Russian Astronomical Society, the Russian Geographical and Russian Physical and Chemical Societies, the Physics and Mathematics Society in Kazan, and a member of the Astronomische Gesellschaft in Leipzig. 
The pedagogical activity of Vitkovsky was very active. In addition to teaching at the Military Topographic School, he was a professor at the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute, the Academy of the General Staff, the Women's Pedagogical Institute, a professor, and then the dean of the geodetic department of the Military Engineering Academy. He wrote a number of textbooks on topography, higher and practical geodesy, cartography. 
In 1912, the Academic Council of the Kazan University awarded him the degree of Doctor of Astronomy and Geodesy. The V.V. Vitkovsky prize was established at the Military Topographical School to best junker for success in the sciences of completing additional, third class. 
Already under Soviet power in 1923, Vitkovsky received from the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR a commendation order and an honorary certificate for fruitful scientific and pedagogical activity for over 50 years.

The merits of Vitkovsky were awarded the orders of St. Anna 1st, 2nd and 3rd degrees; St. Stanislav 1st, 2nd and 3rd degrees; St. Vladimir of the 3rd degree and the  Great Gold Medal F.P. Litke.

On September 4, 2006, a street was named after Vitkovsky in the Vyborgsky district of St. Petersburg, passing between Toreza Avenue and Jacques Duclos Street. 
He died after a serious illness in Leningrad and was buried in the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery. Concrete sink with marble slab. 
Glacier in the south of the island of West Svalbard. Named in 1899–1901 by expedition "degree measurement".