Ivan Vasilyevich Novopokrovskiy (; 7 December 1880, Mikhaylov — 30 May 1951,

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don ( rus, Ростов-на-Дону, r=Rostov-na-Donu, p=rɐˈstof nə dɐˈnu) is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East ...

) was a botanist and a specialist in the field of

botanical geography 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 ...

and systematics of higher plants.

Biography

Ivan Vasilyevich Novopokrovskiy was born on 7 December 1880 in Mikhaylov (present-day

Ryazan Oblast Ryazan Oblast ( rus, Рязанская область, r=Ryazanskaya oblast, p=rʲɪˈzanskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Ryazan, which is the oblast's largest city. Geo ...

). In 1904 he graduated from the Natural Department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. In 1920—1931 he was a Professor in Novocherkassk Institute of Agriculture and Melioration. Until 1934 he was a professor at Krasnodar Agricultural Institute. From 1934 to 1944 he worked in

Rostov-on-Don State University Southern Federal University (), abbreviated as SFedU () and formerly known as Rostov State University (1957–2006), is a public university in Rostov Oblast, Russia with campuses in Rostov-on-Don and Taganrog. History Southern Federal Univer ...

(RSU), where he was the head of the Department of Botanics and Dean of the Faculty of Biology. In 1936 he founded (with the participation of Professors A. Flerov and V. N. Vershkovsky)

Herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (calle ...

of the Rostov University. He also worked at Donskoy Polytechnic Institute (

Novocherkassk Novocherkassk (russian: Новочерка́сск, lit. ''New Cherkassk'') is a city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located near the confluence of the Tuzlov and Aksay Rivers, the latter a distributary of the Don River. Novocherkassk is best known ...

) and in the North Caucasus Department of the State Institute for the Study of Arid Regions. Since 1945 he worked at the Botanical Institute of the

USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

(

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

), where he was in charge of the

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former ...

n herbarium.С. Г. Жилин — Биографические материалы // Репрессированные геологи / Гл. ред. В. П. Орлов. Отв. Редакторы Л. П. Беляков, Е. М. Заблоцкий. М.-СПб. 1999. С. 13-357 In the years 1935—1942 he was persecuted by the

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

regime. He spoke several foreign languages.

Scientific work

Novopokrovskiy studied flora and vegetation of the southeastern European part of the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

. He is today known for his work on the systematics of some genera of plants from the family of Compositae and the family of Broomrape, among which he described many new species. He is the author of more than 120 scientific works, including "''Zonal types of steppes of the European part of the USSR''", "''Vegetation of the Rostov region''", "''Quarantine weeds of the Rostov region''".

Memory

In 1985, in connection with the 70th anniversary of Rostov State University and in recognition of Ivan Novopokrovsky's merits for the organization of the University's herbarium, the Herbarium of Rostov University was named after him. This is one of the largest herbariums in whole of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

.Южный федеральный университет: Кафедра ботаники
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Novopokrovskiy, Ivan 1880 births 1951 deaths Academic staff of Southern Federal University Moscow State University alumni Soviet botanists 20th-century Russian botanists People from Mikhaylovsky Uyezd