Vladimir Stepanovich Sobolev (; 30 May 1908 â 1 September 1982) was a Soviet geologist, petrologist and mineralogist, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1966), Hero of Socialist Labour (1978), and laureate of the Lenin Prize and the Stalin Prize. He was one of the founders of modern Soviet petrology and metamorphic geology and a pioneer in applying facies concepts to large-scale geological mapping. Sobolev was the first to predict the presence of diamond-bearing kimberlites in Eastern Siberia, a forecast later confirmed by discoveries in the 1950s.
Sobolev was born on 30 May 1908 in Luhansk, then part of the Russian Empire. He graduated from the Leningrad Mining Institute in 1930. He received the Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences degree in 1938 and became a professor in 1939.
After World War II Sobolev worked at the Institute of Mineral Resources of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and simultaneously served as head of the Chair of Petrology at Lviv State University from 1945 to 1958. His studies during this period expanded the theoretical foundations of metamorphism, mineral equilibria and petrogenesis.
In 1958 Sobolev moved to Novosibirsk and became deputy director of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1960 he headed the Department of Petrology and Mineralogy of Novosibirsk State University, and from 1962 to 1971 he served as Dean of the Geological Faculty.
In 1981 Sobolev moved to Moscow to become Director of the Fersman Mineralogical Museum of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He died on 1 September 1982 and was buried at the Kuntsevo Cemetery in Moscow.
Sister: Olga Stepanovna Soboleva 1912âÂÂ1989; Wife: Olga Vladimirovna Soboleva (Poplavskaya) 1914âÂÂ1969; Sones: Nikolay Sobolev 1935âÂÂ2022, Evgeny Sobolev 1936âÂÂ1994, Stephan Sobolev 1954, Alexander Sobolev 1954.
Sobolev was one of the first scientists to propose that Eastern Siberia should host diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes, based on petrological and geodynamic reasoning. His recommendations guided geological surveys that led in 1954 to the discovery of the first Yakutian kimberlite pipe and subsequently major diamond deposits.
Sobolev was a co-founder of the Soviet school of metamorphic facies. He defined the boundaries of high- and moderate-pressure metamorphic facies, and contributed to the compilation of metamorphic facies maps of the USSR (1966) and Europe (1974).
Sobolev advanced the theoretical and physico-chemical foundations of mineral equilibria and igneous petrology. His textbooks and monographs, particularly on silicate mineralogy and metamorphic facies, became influential references in Soviet geology.