On November 9, 1711, in Russia, in the village of Meshaninskaya, Arkhangelsk province, Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was born into a peasant family. On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the great Russian genius, the founder of Russian science, the founder of Moscow University, the man who, in the apt words of Pushkin, “... himself was our first university,” we publish an excerpt from Vitaly Konstantinovich Novik’s monograph “M. V. Lomonosov, personality and images.” This book is complex and contradictory, but the author succeeded in the main thing - to show the greatness of the scientist and the drama of the fate of a person and ascetic, forced not only to engage in pure science, but also to fight the inertia and indifference of others. The author convincingly proves that true fame came to Lomonosov only after his death. But such is the fate of many Russian talents who gave their souls and lives for the glory and prosperity of our beloved Motherland.