What do a crater on Mars and Puławy have in common?

Vasily Dokuchaev is one of those figures who look very serious in textbooks – moustache, frock coat, stern gaze – but if you were to transport him to the present day, he'd probably be a YouTube star, explaining to kids and farmers why the earth beneath their feet is more important than it seems. It was he who established the science of soils as a distinct discipline – pedology – and argued that soil is not merely 'dirt', but a living organism with its own history, structure and character.

In the second half of the 19th century, most naturalists viewed the earth as nothing more than ordinary sand mixed with humus. To geologists, it was merely the weathered surface of rocks; to farmers, something to be ploughed and fertilised. Soil was the backdrop, not the protagonist. Dokuchaev, however, as a young geologist and naturalist, began to realise that this 'backdrop' was by no means random. During his research in Russia, he observed that soils form bands and zones – in the north, peat and podzol soils dominate; in the centre, black earth; and further south, steppe and semi-arid soils. This could not be explained solely by the underlying rock. Soil is not merely a product of rocks. It is the result of a whole set of factors – climate, water, vegetation, animals, including humans, and also time. In other words, soil is a system, an organism, the "skin of the Earth".

Dokuchaev became interested in soil because it was something between geology and biology – a living record of the interaction between the inanimate and animate worlds. Soil determines whether there will be famine or prosperity, whether the enemy will hide in dense forests or get bogged down in swamps, whether floods will sweep away villages and towns or stop at the floodplains. That is why Dokuchaev's research had very practical significance.

Before he made an international career, however, he settled in Puławy – then known as New Alexandria. These were the times of the Partitions, and the area was under Russian occupation. An unusual scientific institution was established in Puławy – formally Russian, of course, but scientists from across the empire worked there. New Alexandria was famous for the fact that one could study nature, cultivate plants, and conduct field experiments – in other words, do everything that Dokuchayev loved. The Agricultural and Forestry School in Puławy (opened in 1869) was one of the most important centres for agricultural science in this part of Europe.

Young students, often the sons of Polish landowners and townspeople (there was no place for daughters there), learnt about cultivation, livestock breeding and land improvement – in other words, what could keep the country alive despite political subjugation. On the one hand, it was a centre of learning; on the other, a subtle way of sustaining identity and modern thinking at a time when Polish institutions were severely restricted.

Dokuczajew arrived in Puławy as a lecturer and researcher. He came from Russia, but instead of confining himself to 'dry lectures', he sent his students out into the field: he had them dig soil profiles, describe the layers, and compare fields and forests. He operated on the premise that knowledge is not acquired from behind a lectern, but with a spade in hand. One might say that New Alexandria was a testing ground for him, where he put his revolutionary vision of soil as the "living skin of the planet" to the test.

The school in Puławy operated under difficult conditions – censorship, Russification, financial constraints. Officially, it was supposed to train "loyal" specialists for the Russian Empire, but in practice it was a place where young Poles acquired a solid education in agriculture and natural sciences, and also developed a modern outlook on the economy. The teachers – including Dokuchayev – often focused more on science than politics, which gave students the space to think for themselves. Among the students there was the future first president of the Second Polish Republic, Gabriel Narutowicz, as well as Władysław Grabski, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, who in 1924 introduced the złoty, replacing the Polish mark and stabilising the country's economy.

And what else remains of Dokuchaev, apart from the new scientific field of pedology? The town of Dokuchaevsk was named in his honour. The Central Museum of Pedology in St Petersburg also bears his name. Above all, however, his name has reached Mars. For on the Red Planet lies the Dokuchaev Crater – a geological tribute to the man who first understood that soil, that is, the Earth's topsoil, has its own history, just like rocks or planets.

The names of craters and other extraterrestrial features are assigned by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). It is, in a sense, the UN of space. Craters on Mars have been officially named since 1973, when the IAU decided to name craters larger than 60 kilometres in diameter after famous scientists or science fiction authors, and smaller craters after towns with up to 100,000 inhabitants. Thanks to this, Dokuchaev – a researcher of Earth's soils – has symbolically joined the ranks of those who 'touch the stars'. And so that he doesn't feel left out, there is also the Puławy crater on Mars (not New Alexandria).