Alexander Victorovitch Adiassewich died on February 18th, 1922, through the rupture of a blood vessel, at the age of 57. He was suffering from the effects of great nervous strain and over-work due to the strenuous campaign which he was conducting with a view to freeing Russia from the Bolshevik scourge, and to which he had devoted the last years of his life.
On leaving the University in 1883, he spent three years in Siberia, for two years as assistant to the chief engineer, and for the remainder of the period in a more responsible position with a syndicate exploring the Altai Mountains for minerals. In 1886 he made a practical study of railway construction with the Administration of the Transcaucasian Railway, and in the two following years was at Baku engaged in the mining and refining branches of the petroleum industry.
From 1889 to 1892 he was for three years in a responsible position with the firm of V. Ragosine & Co., at Baku, developing oilfields and designing and constructing refineries. In 1892 he became identified with the Gooria Company, exploring on behalf of this company the whole coast-line of the Caucasus on the Black Sea side for petroleum and bitumen. During this period of three years he drilled altogether 83 wells, and in addition designed, erected and managed the local works belonging to Prince Peter Georgievitch Kakashidge & Co., which were occupied in the extraction and treatment of bitumen.
From 1895 to 1897 Mr. Adiassewieh was in practice at Baku as a consulting petroleum engineer, and assisted in the development of several oilfields, besides designing and superintending the erection of two of the leading refineries. In that connection he was elected member of most of the local institutions and sat on most of the committees dealing with questions connected with the petroleum industry.
In 1897 he came to England on the invitation of a London petroleum company, and in the following year he began to practice as a consulting mining and petroleum engineer in Fen Court, EC. In that capacity he surveyed, explored and reported on oilfields and refineries in Russia, Roumania, European Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, India, Burma, Sumatra, and Italy. He contributed a paper entitled ‘A Journey to Central Asia’ to the Transactions, vol. xvii (1907-8), and took part in discussions at meetings.
Mr. Adiassewich was elected a Member of the Institution in 1901.
Vol. 32, Trans IMM 1922-23, p.284
