SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE OF A MEMBER OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES V.R. WILLIAMS IN SOIL SCIENCE
W.R. Williams was a well - known Russian soil scientist. He was a persistent, keen, insistent investigator, indefatigable soil scientist-geographer, deeply understanding practical needs and able to analyze and generalize scientific facts. W.R. Williams represented the agrarian direction in soil science, his numerous works revealed the width of his views on the soil. W.R. Williams repeatedly emphasized on his firm position as a soil geneticist, considered himself a student and a follower of the soil science founder prof. V.V. Dokuchayev. He developed such fundamental theories as cespitose, podsolic and marsh soil formation processes. He worked out an original classification of soil mechanical elements and analysis of separate soil fractions. W.R. Williams considered the soil as the result of land biological elements influence on maternal rock. He made a significant contribution into studying soil organic substance. Long-term original researches executed with the use of created by W.R. Williams lisometric equipment allowed him to find out that soil humus acids are exclusively complex substances closely connected with natural vegetation and conditions of its transformation. Terms «absolute» and «relative» soil age in their modern understanding belong to W.R. Williams. He determined time factor role in soils development and made a noticeable contribution to the theory of soils evolution. The most important provision of the soil doctrine was for the first time reflected in W.R. Williams's works. He considered soil formation as a complex combination of opposite processes aerobic oxidation and anaerobic recovery, receipt and evaporation of moisture, absorption of food elements by plant roots and their washing of from the soil formation sphere, etc.