Olga Fominichna Mizgireva (; 1908 – 1994) was a

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

i painter and botanist.

Life

Mizgireva was born in

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

in 1908. Her family stems from the village of Garrygala in southwest Turkmenistan. As a child, she exhibited interest in painting, and attended the experimental UShIVУдарная школа искусств Востока, Eastern Shock-School of Arts school for young talents in

Ashgabat Ashgabat (Turkmen language, Turkmen: ''Aşgabat'') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Turkmenistan. It lies between the Karakum Desert and the Kopet Dag, Kopetdag mountain range in Central Asia, approximately 50 km (30 ...

. Alexander Vladychik, the director of the school, would become her husband. Her art was based on the traditional Turkmen motifs, painted in bright colors. Her paintings ''Heat'', ''Turkmen girls'', ''Creativity Carpet'', and ''Four Wives'' are now on exhibit in the

Turkmen Museum of Fine Arts The Museum of Fine Arts is an art museum in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. It was founded in 1927 by Russian sculptor A.A Karelin and in 1939 it attained the status of the Museum of Fine Arts. The museum has more than 6,000 works in its collection, incl ...

. In 1934, she received a commission for illustration of species collection of tulips by academician

Nikolai Vavilov Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov ( rus, Никола́й Ива́нович Вави́лов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ vɐˈvʲiləf, a=Ru-Nikolay_Ivanovich_Vavilov.ogg; – 26 January 1943) was a Russian and Soviet Union, Soviet agronom ...

, on an order from the Netherlands. The work included several thousands of drawings. She returned to her home area of Garrygala, and started working as a laboratory technician in the Turkmenistan Research Station of the Federal Institute of Agriculture. She would remain there for her entire life. She took the duty of the director of the station in 1944, the position she would keep for her whole career, until the retirement in 1981. She spent many years to help establishment of a ''

Zapovednik A zapovednik is an established term on the Post-Soviet states, territory of the former Soviet Union for a protected area which is kept "forever wild". It is the highest degree of environmental protection for the assigned areas, which are strictly ...

'' (national park) in the

Kopet Dag The Köpet Dag, Kopet Dagh, or Koppeh Dagh (; ), also known as the Turkmen-Khorasan Mountain Range, is a mountain range on the border between Turkmenistan and Iran that extends about along the border southeast of the Caspian Sea, stretching nort ...

mountains, which was opened as the

Sünt-Hasardag Nature Reserve Sünt-Hasardag Nature Reserve () is a nature reserve (''zapovednik'') of Turkmenistan. Established in 1977 for the protection of indigenous flora and fauna, it is located in south-western part of the Kopetdag Range in Balkan Province Balk ...

park in 1973. Mizgireva is credited with the 1938 discovery of Turkmenian mandrake, ''Mandragora turcomanica'', rare species of

mandrake A mandrake is the root of a plant, historically derived either from plants of the genus '' Mandragora'' (in the family Solanaceae) found in the Mediterranean region, or from other species, such as '' Bryonia alba'' (the English mandrake, in the ...

from the Kopet-Dag area.

References

Notes

External links

Реликт. Из подлинных историй Русской Азии
Turkmenistan Chronicle
Paintings of Olga Mizgireva
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mizgireva, Olga 1908 births 1994 deaths 20th-century botanists 20th-century women painters 20th-century Turkmenistan women 20th-century Turkmenistan painters 20th-century women scientists Artists from Tashkent People from Balkan Region People from Syr-Darya Oblast Scientists from Tashkent Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Botanists with author abbreviations Soviet botanists Soviet women painters Turkmenistan women painters Women botanists