Kulik, Leonid Alexyevich

Born Tartu, (Estonia), 19 August 1883

Died Spas‐Demensk near Smolensk, (Russia), 14 April 1942

Leonid Kulik was a leading Soviet meteoriticist who is best known for his investigations of the 1908 Tunguska, Siberia, impact site. His father was a physician. Kulik's secondary education was completed in 1903 at the Gymnasium in the town of Troitsk, Orenburg Province, in the Ural Mountains, where he won a gold medal. He then pursued an education at the Institute of Forestry in Saint Petersburg until he was inducted into military service in 1904 and sent to Kazan on the Volga River. On his own initiative, he attended lectures at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Kazan University. In 1910, Kulik was arrested for revolutionary activities but, after serving a short time in prison, was sent to the Ilmen region of the Urals. During the next 2 years (1911-1912), he was paroled to work in the Forestry Department on the condition of making frequent reports to the