Alexander Ivanovitch Petrunkevitch ( Russian: Александр Иванович Петрункевич, December 22, 1875 in Plysky near

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, now Ukraine – March 9, 1964 in

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

) was an eminent Russian

arachnologist Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and harvestmen. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly, the study of s ...

of his time. From 1910 to 1939 he described over 130

spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species d ...

species. One of his most famous essays was "The Spider and the Wasp." In it he uses effective word choices and some comic touch.

Biography

His aristocratic father, Ivan Illitch Petrunkevitch, was a liberal member of the First Duma and founded the

Constitutional Democratic Party ) , newspaper = '' Rech'' , ideology = Constitutionalism Constitutional monarchismLiberal democracy Parliamentarism Political pluralismSocial liberalism , position = Centre to centre-left , international = , colo ...

. After finishing his studies in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

and in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

under

August Weismann August Friedrich Leopold Weismann FRS (For), HonFRSE, LLD (17 January 18345 November 1914) was a German evolutionary biologist. Fellow German Ernst Mayr ranked him as the second most notable evolutionary theorist of the 19th century, after C ...

, Alexander settled in

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1910, becoming a full professor in 1917. Apart from describing present-day species, he was a major figure in the study of fossil arachnids, including those in

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In M ...

and from the

Coal Measures In lithostratigraphy, the coal measures are the coal-bearing part of the Upper Carboniferous System. In the United Kingdom, the Coal Measures Group consists of the Upper Coal Measures Formation, the Middle Coal Measures Formation and the Lower Co ...

. He also experimented with live specimens and worked on

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

. Professor Petrunkevitch's formulation of the principle of plural effects (= every cause is potentially capable of producing several effects) and the principle of the limits of possible oscillations (= the number and the nature of the effects which actually take place may vary within definite limitations only) is well known, both in biology and psychology. Petrunkevitch was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

in 1954 and was also a member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. Throughout his career he remained politically active, trying to increase awareness of problems in Russia. He was also a skilled machinist and wrote two volumes of poetry (under the pseudonym Alexandr Jan-Ruban), and translated

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...

into the English language, and

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

into Russian. He died in 1964. A 1917

portrait miniature A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, Watercolor painting, watercolor, or Vitreous enamel, enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, an ...

of Petrunkevitch by Margaret Foote Hawley is currently owned by the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

Selected texts authored by Petrunkevitch

* The role of the intellectuals in the liberating movement in Russia ("Russian Revolution," Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1918, pp. 8-21); * The Russian Revolution (The Yale Alumni Weekly, 1917); * Russian Revolution (Yale Review, July, 1917); * The Political Crisis in Russia (Yale Alumni Weekly, Nov. 16, 1917).

References

External links

Short Bio

* * * 1875 births 1964 deaths 20th-century American zoologists Arachnologists 20th-century Ukrainian zoologists Russian nobility Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Yale University faculty American entomologists {{US-entomologist-stub