Vadim passed away untimely at the peak of his scientific career, just before finishing his PhD Thesis and in the middle of numerous projects. His studies of beetles started many years ago, when he was still a student. Vadim graduated from the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute in 1987 and taught biology at a high school for three years until 1989. Then he decided to pursue academic science and joined the Laboratory of Arthropods at the Paleontological Institute at 1991, first as a Kuperwood Fellow of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and since 1994 as a full-time researcher. Weevils and dryopoids were always his main passion, although his area of interests extended far beyond that. He produced over 20 scientific papers, including an outstanding comparative study of the hind wing venation of the superfamily Curculionoidea published in co-authorship with his late supervisor Vladimir V. Zherikhin, who he always adored.
     Being a keen field researcher, he participated in numerous expeditions to the Maritime Province and Sakhalin Island, Kuznetskii Alatau, Novosibirsk Region, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tadjikistan, Turkmenia, and Ukraine. He attended the Third Palaeoentomological Congress that was held in Pretoria, South Africa, in 2005, and afterwards he was extremely excited to go collecting around KwaZulu-Natal. The material he collected on this trip together with specimens from other museums, inspired him to commence a new project on Afrotropical Elmidae and Anthribidae, which regrettably has been left largely unfinished.
     Vadim was an optimistic, cheerful multi-talented individual with subtle sense of humour, and his interests were not restricted to extinct and extant beetles. He was an expert in noble orchids, aquarium design and raising geckos, and published several papers on those topics. He was a skilful wood-carver, and his knowledge of Japanese history and literature was not amateur. His opinion on different matters was highly valued by his friends and colleagues. He always created an aura of peace and tolerance around him.
     Vadim was survived by his wife Tatiana and his daughter Ksyusha. Vadim was always a man of "On" and "Giri", and we shall remember him as a man of noble spirit.

Scientific publications by V. Gratshev are available in the Palaeoentomological Library.

To cite this paper: Mostovski, M.B. 2007. OBITUARY. Vadim Gennadievich Gratshev. In: Brothers, D.J. & Mostovski, M.B., eds, Congress Proceedings Fossils X 3, Pretoria, South Africa, 7-11 February 2005. Pietermaritzburg: Natal Museum, pp. 1-2.
     or
Mostovski, M.B. 2007. OBITUARY. Vadim Gennadievich Gratshev. African Invertebrates 48 (1): 1-2.