TITLE: Who is Petrov of the Petrov-Galerkin method?
QUESTION [14 upvotes]: I was not able to find the origin of the name Petrov in the Petrov-Galerkin method for the numerical approximation of PDEs. 
Wikipedia refers to a certain Alexander G. Petrov, but it is still not clear who he was: on the Internet I found two persons called Alexander G. Petrov, both born during the 40's, but I think that the Petrov I am looking for should be born before, since Boris Galerkin lived in 1871-1945.
Can you suggest me any bibliographic resource to consult?
[EDIT: The Wikipedia page I was referring to now contains the correct name of Petrov]

REPLY [3 votes]: I've recently found a very interesting SIAM review article [1] regarding the history of the Petrov-Galerkin method. The figure of G.I. Petrov seems to have contributed with a simple, but significant improvement to the Galerkin method:

In Russia, Petrov [2] proposed to use approximation spaces different from the test spaces, which led to the now-called Petrov–Galerkin family of methods.

I highly suggest the reading of [1], since the history of the Petrov-Galerkin method is particularly thrilling!

[1] Gander, M.J., and Wanner, G., "From Euler, Ritz, and Galerkin to Modern Computing", SIAM Review 54.4 (2012), pp. 627-666.
[2] G. I. Petrov, "Application of Galerkin’s method to the problem of stability of flow of a viscous fluid", J. Appl. Math. Mech., 4 (1940), pp. 3–12 (in Russian).