Nikolai Alekseyevich Severtsov (; 5 November 1827 – 7 February 1885) was a Russian

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

and

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

. He was among the early promoters of Darwinian ideas in Russia.

Life and work

Severtsov was born in Khvoshchevatovo, Zemlyansky district, Voronezh, where his father Aleksey Petrovich was a retired guard officer who had served in the Patriotic War of 1812, losing an arm in the Battle of Borodino. He had become interested in natural history after reading Buffon's work as a child and going out on hunts. and studied at the Moscow University where he was influenced by Karl Rouillier who considered what Haeckel called as ecology as "general zoology". His master's dissertation was on the seasonal life of animals in Voronezh province. At the age of eighteen he came into contact with

Grigory Karelin Grigory Silych Karelin (January 1801 – 17 December 1872) was a Russian explorer and naturalist who travelled around Siberia and central Asia. Many species of plants have been described from specimens that he collected and some named in his honou ...

and took an interest in central Asia. In 1855 he applied for an associate professor position but failed to be appointed. In 1857, he joined a mission to Syr-Darya. On the expedition to the

Syr Darya The Syr Darya ( ),; ; ; ; ; /. historically known as the Jaxartes ( , ), is a river in Central Asia. The name, which is Persian language, Persian, literally means ''Syr Sea'' or ''Syr River''. It originates in the Tian Shan, Tian Shan Mountain ...

, he was captured by Kokand people near Fort Perovsky and freed only after a month. He was posted under the Ural Cossack Army from 1860 to 1862. In 1864 he served in the Kokand campaign under

Mikhail Chernyayev Mikhail Grigoryevich Chernyaev ( Russian: Михаил Григорьевич Черняев) (3 November / 22 October 1828 in Bender, Bessarabia Governorate – 16 August 1898) was a Russian major general, who, together with Konstantin Kaufm ...

and was involved in topographic surveys. He made scientific studies, collecting nearly 12 thousand specimens during this period and received an honorary doctoral degree. In 1865–68, he explored the

Tian Shan The Tian Shan, also known as the Tengri Tagh or Tengir-Too, meaning the "Mountains of God/Heaven", is a large system of mountain ranges in Central Asia. The highest peak is Jengish Chokusu at high and located in Kyrgyzstan. Its lowest point is ...

mountains and

Issyk-Kul Issyk-Kul () or Ysyk-Köl (, ; ) is an endorheic saline lake in the western Tianshan Mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan, just south of a dividing range separating Kyrgyzstan from Kazakhstan. It is the eighth-deepest lake in the world, the eleve ...

lake. In 1877–78, he explored the

Pamir Mountains The Pamir Mountains are a Mountain range, range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya ...

, following a route close to the current

Pamir Highway The M41, known informally and more commonly as the Pamir Highway (), is a road traversing the Pamir Mountains through Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan with a length of over 1,200 km. It is the only continuous route through the d ...

as far as Lake Yashil Kul on the Ghunt River. Severtsov wrote with great reluctance according to his student Menzbier. One of his works was the ''Vertical and Horizontal Distribution of

Turkestan Turkestan,; ; ; ; also spelled Turkistan, is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and East Turkestan (Xinjiang). The region is located in the northwest of modern day China and to the northwest of its ...

Wildlife'' (1873), which included the first description of a number of animals. Among them is a subspecies of

argali The argali (''Ovis ammon''), also known as the mountain sheep, is a wild ovis, sheep native to the highlands of western East Asia, the Himalayas, Tibet, and the Altai Mountains. Description The name 'argali' is the Mongolian language, Mongolian ...

(wild sheep) later named after him: ''Ovis ammon severtzovi''. He also described many new species and subspecies of birds. The spotted great rosefinch, ''Carpodacus rubicilla severtzovi'', is among those named after him. Severtsov wrote on the geographical variations of birds, which was termed by him as "zoological ethnography". This work attracted Darwin's interest. In 1875 Severtsov visited Darwin in England. Severtsov began to assemble a collection of birds in the estate of Petrovskoe. On 7 February 1885, he was returning home in a carriage along the frozen Ikorts river that feeds into the Don. The carriage broke the ice and plunged. While everyone extricated themselves and attempted to find a warm place nearby, he delayed by searching for his portfolio and collapsed. His driver froze to death. The Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

in Moscow is named after his son Alexei Severtsov (1866-1936).

References

External links

ПО ДОРОГАМ НЕВЕДОМОГО ТУРКЕСТАНА
(1978)
ПО ТУРКЕСТАНСКОМУ КРАЮ и ИЗСЛВД0ВАН1Е ГОРНОЙ СТРАНЫ ТЯНЪ-ШАНЯ
(1873, reprint 1947) 1827 births 1885 deaths 19th-century explorers from the Russian Empire Ornithologists from the Russian Empire Explorers of Central Asia {{Explorer-stub