EVGRAF STEPANOVICH FEDOROV (1853 - 1919). Symmetry of Crystals (American Crystallographic Association Monograph No. 7), David and Katherine Harker (transl.), [Buffalo, N.Y.: American Crystallographic Association, 1971], pp. 50-131.
Fedorov studied mathematics independently while attending the St. Petersburg Military Engineering School, the Military Medical and Surgical Academy, and the Technological Institute. Upon graduating from the Mining Institute in 1883, Fedorov took an appointment with the Mining Department where he was included in an expedition to explore the northern Urals. He played an important role in the development of mineralogy and crystallography at the end of the nineteenth century.
Early in his career, Fedorov became interested in the relationship between symmetry and crystallography. Extending the previous work of Auguste Bravais and others, Fedorov focused his attention on enumerating all the possible forms of crystal structures, supported by a rigorous algebraic proof. In his 1890 journal article Simmetriia Pravil'nykh Sistem Figur (The Symmetry of Regular Systems of Figures), Fedorov outlined the systematic methods he used to count the kinds of symmetry possible for natural crystals, and to show conclusively that there are only 230 possible configurations, which now serve as the mathematical basis of structural and crystallographic analysis. Similar conclusions were published by Arthur Schoenflies in his 1891 book Krystallsysteme und Krystallstructur (Crystal Systems and Crystal Structure) and later by William Barlow.
Fedorov's classification of symmetry groups of crystallized matter led directly to the working out of a new nomenclature of systems and point group symmetries known as the Fedorov-Groth nomenclature.
Separate preprints of Fedorov's work were published in 1890 and presented by the author to his colleagues and friends in Russia and Europe before being published in the Russian journal Zapiski Vsesoyuz Mineralogicheskogo Obshchestva. This rare journal is not available for exhibition; shown instead is the first English translation.
Curtis P. Schuh, Mineralogy & Crystallography: An Annotated Bibliography of Books Published 1469 through 1919. Tucson: privately published, 2005, p555-556.