Andrey Aleksandrovich Fedorov (; 1908 – 5 March 1987) was a Soviet Russian biologist, botanist,

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the science, scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxon, taxa (si ...

and

phytogeographer Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution o ...

, who was from 1970 a corresponding member of the

Academy of Sciences of the USSR The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (u ...

. He was the brother of the botanist Alexander Fedorov (1906–1982).

Career

Andrey Fedorov was born in Tver, the son of a gardener. His higher education was at the Tver Institute of Education, in part at the same time as his brother, and he graduated in 1929. He worked until 1935 at the station in

Sukhumi Sukhumi or Sokhumi is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the Capital city, capital and largest city of Abkhazia, a partially recognised state that most countries consider a part of Georgia (country), Georgia. The ...

, a subsidiary of the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry. From 1935 to 1945 he continued his research at the

Armenian National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) (, ''Hayastani Hanrapetut’yan gitut’yunneri azgayin akademia'') is the Armenian national academy, functioning as the primary body that conducts research and coordinates activ ...

(before 1943, Armenian subsidiary of the

). In 1945 he moved to

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

to work at the

Komarov Botanical Institute The Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences () is a leading botanical institution in Russia, It is located on Aptekarsky Island in St. Petersburg, and is named after the Russian botanist Vladimir Leontyevich Komarov (1869– ...

where he spent the rest of his career. He directed the Laboratory there from 1963. In 1955 and 1956, he took part in joint Sino-Soviet biological expedition to the province of

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

. In 1955 he was a signatory of the "Letter of three hundred", addressed to the

Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, abbreviated as Politburo, was the de facto highest executive authority in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). While elected by and formally a ...

, which criticised the activities of Lysenko and made an overall assessment of the state of biology in the Soviet Union. The letter was drafted by a large group of Soviet scientists and led eventually to the resignation of Lysenko as president of

All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by area ...

. Andrey Fedorov was appointed in 1970 as a corresponding member of the

. His main work was devoted to the

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s, to the

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

of the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

(especially the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

, to the European part of the USSR,

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

and the republics of

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

), flora of other countries and to the history of the flora. Among the

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

studied by Fedorov, we can distinguish those of ''

Campanulaceae The family Campanulaceae (also bellflower family), of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky sap. Among them are several familiar garden plants bel ...

'' and ''

Primulaceae The Primulaceae ( ), commonly known as the primrose family (but not related to the Onagraceae, evening primrose family), are a family (biology), family of Herbaceous plant, herbaceous and woody flowering plants including some favourite garden pla ...

''. He was also interested in

phytogeography Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution ...

. Fedorov was a regional adviser for the Soviet Union on the international ''

Flora Europaea The ''Flora Europaea'' is a 5-volume encyclopedia of plants, published between 1964 and 1993 by Cambridge University Press. The aim was to describe all the national Floras of Europe in a single, authoritative publication to help readers identify ...

'' project, published in five volumes in 1964–1980. He was also co-author of ''The Flora of the USSR'', international edition published in four volumes between 1964 and 1976, and co-editor of ''The Flora of the European part of the USSR'' (1974–1979). He died 5 March 1987 in Leningrad and was buried at Serafimovskoe Cemetery, also in Leningrad.

Honours

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

(twice) * in 1991, botanist Alfred Kolakovski published '' Theodorovia'', which is a

monotypic genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

s from Iran and Turkey, belonging to the family

and named in honour of Andrey A. Fedorov.

Selected publications

* Andrey Fedorov, История высокогорной флоры Кавказа в четвертичное время (''The history of alpine flora of the Caucasus in the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

'') // Материалы по четвертичному периоду СССР (''Materials on the Quaternary period in the USSR''): collection Moscow, 1952, Т. 3. * Andrey Fedorov and Moïsseï Kirpichnikov, Справочное пособие по систематике высших растений (''Handbook on taxonomy of higher plants''): vol. I: Сокращения, условные обозначения, географические названия ('' Abbreviations, symbols, place names'') / edited by B. K. Schischkin; Botanical Institute. Komarov Academy of Sciences. - Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1954. - 110 p. * Andrey Fedorov, O флористических связях Восточной Азии с Кавказом (''On the floristic links between East Asia and the Caucasus'') // Материалы по истории флоры и растительности СССР (''Materials on the history of the flora and vegetation of the USSR''), Moscow-Leningrad, 1958, Т. 3. * Andrey Fedorov, Диптерокарповый экваториальный влажнотропический лес Цейлона (''The tropical rain forest of ''

Dipterocarpaceae Dipterocarpaceae is a family (biology), family of flowering plants with 22 genera and about 695 known species of mainly lowland tropical forest trees. Their distribution is pantropical, from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India ...

'' in

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

)'' // Тр. Моск. общества испытателей природы. Отдел биологический. (''Proceedings of the

Moscow Society of Naturalists Moscow Society of Naturalists () is one of Russia's oldest learned societies. In 1805 it was founded as the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow () under the auspices of two noblemen, Mikhail Muravyov and Alexis Razumovsky, by Johann Fi ...

, Department of Biology''). - 1960. - T. 3. * A. L. Takhtajan and Andrey Fedorov, Флора Еревана (''The flora of

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

''), Leningrad, Nauka, 1972, 396 pages. * Определитель высших растений Крыма (''Key to the higher plants of the

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

'') / edited by Andrey Fedorov, Léningrad, Nauka, 1981, 380 pages. * Andrey Fedorov, Семейство охновые (Ochnaceae). Семейство чайные (Theaceae). Семейство тетрамеристовые (Tetrameristaceae). Семейство боннетовые (Bonnetiaceae). Семейство диптерокарповые (Dipterocarpaceae) (''The families

Ochnaceae Ochnaceae is a Family (biology), family of flowering plants in the Order (biology), order Malpighiales.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant Families of the World''. Firefly Books: Ontario, Can ...

;

Theaceae Theaceae (), the tea family, is a family of flowering plants comprising shrubs and trees, including the economically important tea plant, and the ornamental camellias. It can be described as having from seven to 40 genera, depending on the sour ...

;

Tetrameristaceae Tetrameristaceae is a family of flowering plants. The family consists of three species, of trees or shrubs, in three genera: * '' Pelliciera'' in Central and South America * '' Pentamerista'' in the Guyanas * '' Tetramerista'' in Southeast Asia ...

;

Bonnetiaceae Bonnetiaceae is a family of flowering plants, consisting of 3 genera and 38 species. The family is Neotropical, with the exception of the genus '' Ploiarium'', which is found in Malesia. It is sister to the family Clusiaceae The Clusiaceae or ...

;

'') // Жизнь растений (''The life of plants''), in six volumes. / edited A. L. Takhtajan, Moscow, Prosvechtchenie, 1981. — Т. 5. part. 2. Цветковые растения (''Flowering plants''). / ed. A. L. Takhtajan, pp. 18–19, 21—25, 27, 123—126; 512 pages

Works translated into English

Books: * 2000. Flora of Russia: v. 3: The European Part and Bordering Regions: vol. 3. Ed. Taylor & Francis. 370 pp. * 2001a. Flora of Russia: v. 4: The European Part and Bordering Regions: vol. 4. Ed. Taylor & Francis. 532 pp. * 2001b. Flora of Russia: v. 5: The European Part and Bordering Regions: vol. 5. Ed. CRC Press. 532 pp. * 2002a. Flora of Russia: The European Part and Bordering Regions 6. Ed. Taylor & Francis. 992 pp. * 2002. Flora of Russia: The European Part and Bordering Regions vol. 7. Ed. Taylor & Francis. 320 pp. * 2003. Flora of Russia: Vol. 8: The European Part and Bordering Regions: vol. 8. Ed. Taylor & Francis. 704 pp. Articles: * Fedorov A. A. 1966. The structure of the tropical rain forest and speciation in the humid tropics. Journal of Ecology 54: 1-11 * Fedorov, A. A. d.1969. Chromosome numbers of flowering plants. Komarov Botanical Institute, Academy of Sciences, URSS, Léningrad

References

External links

Фёдоров Андрей Александрович

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

(in Russian)
Andrey Fedorov: IPNI author details
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fedorov, Andrey 1908 births 1987 deaths Soviet botanists Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Tver State University alumni Burials at Serafimovskoe Cemetery