Climbers of the Northern Capital. Middendorf Alexander Fedorovich. Middendorf Alexander Fedorovich

Middendorf Alexander Fedorovich (1815-1894), Russian naturalist and traveler, academician (1850), honorary member (1865) of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Investigated (1842-45) and compiled a natural history description of the North. and Vost. Siberia and the Far East. He pointed to the zonation of vegetation and the presence of permafrost in Siberia. Conducted selection work on horse breeding and cattle breeding.

Middendorf Alexander Fedorovich - Russian naturalist and traveler, academician (1850), honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1865). Researched and compiled a description of Northern and Eastern Siberia and the Far East.

Middendorf was born in southern Estonia. In 1832 he entered the medical faculty of the Dorpat (now Tartu) University and in 1837 he graduated from it, receiving the title of doctor. After working for two years in Germany and Austria, Middendorf returned to his homeland as a specialist in zoology, ethnography, and anthropology.

An important event in the life of Middendorf was his acquaintance with the scientist and traveler - K. M. Baer. In 1840, Middendorf participated in Baer's Lapland expedition.

On Baer's recommendation, in 1842 the Academy of Sciences commissioned Middendorf to organize an expedition to northern and eastern Siberia. Preparing for the trip, Middendorf compiled a map of Taimyr based on the work of S.I. Chelyuskin and Kh. Laptev. Subsequently, guided by it, he gave the guides of the detachment such precise instructions that they called him "the great shaman."

On November 14, 1842, Middendorf left Petersburg. Two problems were set before him: the study of the organic life of the Taimyr Peninsula and the study of permafrost. Among others, the military topographer VV Vaganov was among the members of the expedition. At the beginning of 1843, the expedition traveled from Krasnoyarsk to Turukhansk. From Turukhansk in April, Middendorf walked on dogs across the ice of the Yenisei to the mouth of the Dudinka River; from here, moving to the northeast through Lake Pyasino up the Dudypte River on deer, he reached the lower reaches of the Boganida River (Khatanga system). On this way, he constantly saw in the east and southeast the "Siverma Ridge", which abruptly breaks off to the Norilsk Lakes (Putorana Plateau); in the northwest, it "stops at Lake Pyasino, which, with a number of lakes flowing into it, is surrounded by wild-romantic rocky ridges - the Norilsk Stones ... The Norilskaya River has cut its way through them ...". This was the first information about the Norilsk region.

Having passed "along the Great Lower Tundra" to the north, in July they reached the Upper Taimyr River, that is, they crossed the North Siberian Lowland from south to north. Middendorf discovered a chain of heights on it, elongated in a northeasterly direction and bounded from the south by the "river region of Taimyr"; he called them "Shaitan" (on our maps the Stone-Herbei, and separate unnamed hills).

Middendorf spent almost the whole of July traveling around Upper Taimyr to Lake Taimyr to explore the river and transport equipment; at the same time, he established that the left bank of the Taimyr valley from the north is limited by rocky mountains. Middendorf named them Byrranga. Going down the river in a boat to Lake Taimyr, Middendorf crossed it and reached the source of the Lower Taimyr. From here, through a gorge in the Byrranga mountains, he went along the river to the Taimyr Bay of the Kara Sea (at the end of August 1843). In Lower Taimyr, he discovered the skeleton of a mammoth. In the same way, the expedition returned to Lake Taimyr, which had already begun to be covered with ice. Middendorf's companions set off to look for the "deer Tungus", and he himself, due to his inability to walk alone, spent eighteen days on the shores of Lake Taimyr. This event can be considered unparalleled in the annals of travel. Middendorf was saved by Vaganov, who returned with help.

Having barely recovered (in Korennoy-Filippovsky) from the consequences of illness and exhaustion, Middendorf sets off on his way back through Pyasina and Turukhansk to Krasnoyarsk.

On February 18, 1844, the expedition arrived in Yakutsk. Here Middendorf for some time studied permafrost in wells and boreholes, thus laying the foundations of permafrost.

At the same time, he was preparing for a campaign to the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk. The route was agreed with the Academy. It was assumed that he would sail along the Sea of Okhotsk along the coast and to the Shantar Islands on a sea whaleboat, which he was supposed to be provided in Okhotsk, but was not provided. Middendorf decided to change the route and go to Okhotsk not along the northern path, but to the south. In addition to constant companions - Brandt, Vaganov and Furman - he included in the detachment several Cossacks from Yakutsk and two Yakuts. Yakuts, experienced people, were supposed to help build a canoe.

To the settlement of Amginskaya (from Yakutsk to Amga - 180 kilometers), equipment was carried on a sled pulled by bulls. Here Middendorf, by laying pits, observed the "always frozen" layers of the earth. But only riding paths led from Amga to the east. It took 72 horses for the Middendorf caravan.

The caravan left Amga on April 11, 1844. There were few people along the way. They were mostly Yakuts and Tungus (Evenks). In his work, the description of the "ice valley" of Selenda is especially interesting. The sources of the Selenda River come to the surface from under a steep rock, being the underground runoff of Lake Marcuel. Up to fifty streams flow out from under the rock (except for the main stream), and they all merge into one channel, called the Selenda. The waters of Selenda are surrounded by bizarre red sandstone cliffs.

Following the course of the Selenda, the traveler saw that the river no longer flows in colored sandstones, but through an icy valley. The riverbed ran in continuous layered ice. Large coniferous trees grew directly from the ice field. A similar phenomenon, called "boiling" in Siberia, is characteristic of the Siberian taiga wilds.

On June 1, 1844, Middendorf's detachment crossed the Stanovoy Ridge and approached the prison on the Ud River. Here the travelers built a canoe. The wooden frame was covered with leather and fitted with six pairs of oars. On it the travelers descended to the sea. But they did not manage to immediately go to sea - near the mouth of the river, the Sea of \u200b\u200bOkhotsk turned out to be (in July!) Clogged with ice. In anticipation of the "weather" travelers began to collect zoological collections.

On August 4, the travelers reached the island of Bolshoy Shantar. Middendorf reached the limit point of his journey - the coast of Okhotsk and the Shantar Islands. From here he had to start his way back. But Middendorf acted differently. All the collections he collected - geological and zoological, herbaria, travel records - he sent to Yakutsk for further shipment to St. Petersburg. Himself with Vaganov chose an unknown path to return to the West.

They made a small boat out of willow twigs and spare cowhide, and in this "shell" set off across the Sea of Okhotsk.

Travelers sailed along the coast, to the south, collecting scientific material.

On September 1, 1844, Middendorf and Vaganov were near the mouth of the Tugur. From there, riding deer, they set out on a winter trip to the west. The route passed along Tugur, Nemilen, Kerby through the Bureinsky ridge to the Bureya valley. From here, along its tributary, the Nimani, and further along the Kebeli, Middendorf and Vaganov reached the Inkan tract. From the Inkan tract for three weeks they went to Zeya. On January 12, 1845, the caravan descended on "the canvas of Amur himself." From here, already on horseback, Middendorf and Vaganov reached the Strelka, located at the confluence of the Argun and Shilka. All this path was reflected in the maps of the atlas attached to Middendorf's Siberian Journey. This journey lasted 841 days. During this time, he and his companions traveled - on horseback, on dogs, on deer (in harness and on horseback), on boats and on foot - about 30,000 kilometers.

What is the result of this difficult journey? New data about the Amur and the Amur region have revived interest in this region.

Middendorf remained in the capital as an adjunct of the Academy of Sciences and took up the processing of materials and the preparation of a multi-volume "Report" on the Siberian journey.

Middendorf made many more scientific trips and voyages. In 1867 he sailed the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean to the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands. In 1870 - to Iceland and along the Barents Sea to Novaya Zemlya. Observations made by Middendorf in the Barents Sea confirmed Peterman's hypothesis about the presence of a warm current in the north, which Middendorf called the North Cape. It was a major discovery in the field of hydrography of the northern seas.

The last expedition led by Middendorf was the expedition of 1883 to the northern provinces: Perm, Vyatka, Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Yaroslavl, Kostroma and Vladimir. In 1888, Middendorff was awarded the highest award of zoologists in Russia - Baer's gold medal. Middendorf was the founder of a number of scientific disciplines (permafrost, zoogeography).

Middendorf spent the last ten years in Estonia at his Hellenurme estate. Middendorf died at the end of January 1894.

Reprinted from the site

Doctor of Medicine Alexander Fedorovich Middendorf, a naturalist and geographer, in 1840 participated in the Lapland expedition of Academician Karl Maksimovich Baer, and he turned out to be not only a good doctor, but also a passionate hunter, an excellent shooter, a tireless pedestrian, an experienced sailor and a skilled carpenter. On Baer's recommendation, in 1842 the Russian Academy of Sciences commissioned Middendorf to organize an expedition to northern and eastern Siberia. He was faced with two problems: the study

organic life of the Taimyr Peninsula and the study of permafrost. The expedition included, among others, 22-year-old non-commissioned officer, military topographer Vasily Vasilyevich Vaganov. At the beginning of 1843, the expedition traveled from Krasnoyarsk to Turukhansk and stopped here for the final equipment. Middendorf, meanwhile studying wells, established only seasonal permafrost. From Turukhansk in April, Middendorf walked on dogs along the ice of the Yenisei to the mouth of the river. Dudinki; from here, moving to the northeast through Lake Pnsino up the river.
Dudypte on deer, he reached the lower reaches of the river. Boganids (Khatanga system). On this way, he constantly saw in the east and southeast the “Siverma Ridge”, which abruptly breaks off to the Norilsk Lakes (Putorana Plateau); in the north-west, it "stops at Lake Pyasino, which, with a number of lakes flowing into it, is surrounded by wild-romantic rocky ridges ... - Norilsk Stones ... The Norilskaya River has made its way through them ... ". This was the first information about the Norilsk region.
In May 1843, Vaganov joined Middendorf on Boganid. Having passed from here “along the Great lower tundra” to the north, in July they reached the river. Upper Taimyr, that is, they crossed the North Siberian lowland from south to north and laid the foundation for its exploration. Middendorf opened a chain of heights on it, elongated in a northeasterly direction and bounded from the south by the “river region of Taimyr”; he called them "Shaitan" (on our maps Kamen-Herbei, at 72 ° N, and separate nameless hills).
Middendorf spent almost the whole of July traveling around Upper Taimyr to Lake Taimyr to explore the river and transport equipment; at the same time, he established that the left bank of the Taimyr valley from the north is limited by rocky mountains. Middendorf named them Byrranga. Going down the river in a boat to Lake Taimyr, Middendorf crossed it and reached the source of the Lower Taimyr. From here, through a gorge in the Byrranga mountains, he went along the river to the Taimyr Bay of the Kara Sea (at the end of August 1843). In Lower Taimyr (almost at 75° north latitude), he discovered the skeleton of a mammoth. In the same way, the expedition returned to Lake Taimyr, which had already begun to be covered with ice. Deprived of vehicles due to offensive

In winter, Middendorf's companions went on foot to look for the "reindeer Tunguses", and he himself, all alone, sick with typhus, spent 20 hungry days in the snowy tundra until the Evenki rescued him. At the end of January 1844 the expedition returned to Krasnoyarsk. Vaganov compiled a map of the Upper and Lower Taimyr rivers and Lake Taimyr.
Middendorf was the first research scientist of the Taimyr Peninsula. He established the relief of a vast area between the lower Yenisei and Khatanga, discovered and described individual hills in the west of the North Siberian Lowland and the central part of the Byrranga mountains - a system of low (400 - 600 m) ridges of latitudinal strike in the center of the Taimyr Peninsula (he was mistaken , assuming that it continues to Cape Chelyuskin). Middendorf was the first to characterize the geology of this area. This allowed him to change the idea of the geographers of that time that "Siberia is a low-lying swampy plain." He suggested "limiting this view to the river area of the Ob, and in the rest of the space - only to a part of the very last margin of the Ice Sea of Eastern Siberia."
At the beginning of 1844, Middendorf and Vaganov traveled from Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk, crossed to the Lena, and in early March 1844 descended along it to Yakutsk, where they studied permafrost in wells and boreholes for some time, thereby laying the foundations of permafrost studies. Having completed these works, Middendorf, at his own peril, decided to extend the expedition to explore the then almost unexplored Amur Territory. Together with Vaganov, he traveled by pack to the village of Amgi (on the Amga River, a tributary of the Aldan), where at the end of April he equipped a large detachment. From here, the expedition moved to the tributary of the Aldan Uchur, along it and its tributaries went to the watershed heights - the eastern spurs of the Stanovoy Range - and, having crossed them in mid-June, reached the upper reaches of the Uda: "... between the valleys of the Uda and Uchur
there is a series of steep ridges crowned with high bare peaks (bald mountains) or serving as the base for pointed hills. Deep and narrow stripes enter the valleys into these rocky mountains ... pitted with noisy swift streams ... covered with dense primeval forest.
Along the Uda, the travelers descended on a canoe built by them to the Uda Bay of the Sea of Okhotsk, and Vaganov completed a survey of the entire river. The route from Aldan to Uda was the first route through the southeastern part of the Verkhoyansk-Kolyma region, which was previously completely unknown. From here, by canoe, they moved east along the seashore. Middendorf began to study the geology of the coast, Vaganov described and mapped the southern coast of the Uda Bay (with Bear Island), the southern coast of about. Bolshoi Shantar, Tugursky and Ulbansky bays (the southern part of the Academy Bay, so named Middendorf), actually opening the Tugursky Peninsula with a deep harbor - Konstantin Bay. Moving further to the east, Middendorf and Vaganov discovered the Tokhareu peninsula, which “protrudes into the Gulf of the Academy in the form of a tongue and divides it into the bays of Ulbansky and Usalginsky” (now Nicholas). To the east on the mainland, Middendorf discovered the Mevachan Range (length 100 km, height up to 972 m). He described it this way

relief of the studied area: “The edge of the mainland, enclosing the Sea of Okhotsk from the south, consists of steep mountains ... they almost always represent sheer or overhanging rapids ... protruding from the coastline in the form of numerous capes; these capes usually continue along the bottom of the sea with countless pitfalls, sometimes reefs, two miles long ... ".
Back at the mouth of the river Tugur in early October, Middendorf and Vaganov equipped a deer caravan and climbed the river to its steep bend, opening a short Magu ridge (100 km) to the east, and another, later called Tugursky (about 100 km), to the west, crossed to the river. Nimelen (Amguni system), and from there along one of its western tributaries reached about 52 ° N. sh. northern continuation of the almost meridional Bureinsky Range - a name first proposed by Middendorf. It was the Dusse-Alin ridge (length 150 km, height up to 2175 m), which "along its entire length is narrow, high and lined with conical peaks." On the way west of Nimelen, Middendorf saw mountains of considerable height and steep slopes (Yam-Alin, 180 km long, up to 2295 m high). Having crossed into the Buren valley, the travelers descended along it to the mouth of the Niman, but through it and its tributaries they passed into the Selemdzha basin. Moving to the northwest through many mountain rivers, at the end of December 1841 they reached Zoya (at the mouth of the Gilyui), and at about 130 ° E. d, and further to the north-west for more than 50 km, Middendorf saw "in the north, in the distance, a very high ridge with a chain of treeless hills" (Dzhagdy).
Turning from the mouth of the Gilyuy to the southwest, at the end of January 1845 they went to the Amur. On the left bank of the river, Middendorf noted "a flat meadow country, which is the essential opposite of the country of the Ranges. [It is located] between Zeya and Bureya, not only near the Amur, but stretches along them up to several degrees of latitude...”. Thus, Middendorf sharply pushed the boundaries of the Amur-Zeya plain. Then the travelers went up the Amur to the confluence of the Shilka and Argun, and from there through Nerchinsk they returned to Irkutsk.
The result of this journey was a description of the southwestern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Shantar Islands. Middendorf offered to single out the Yablonovaya Ridge, delivered the first hydrographic information about the southern slopes of the Stanovoy Ridge, and was its first explorer. He laid the foundation for the discovery and exploration of the Bureinsky and Dzhagda ridges, gave the first accurate geological materials about Primorye and the Amur basin, correctly characterizing this basin as a mountainous country. He was the first to determine the southern boundary of the distribution of permafrost in Eastern Siberia. In published in 1860-1877. In the work “Journey to the North and East of Siberia” (two parts), Middendorf was the first to develop a classification of the tundra, provided evidence of the zonal distribution of the vegetation of this territory and developed a general description of its climate. According to Soviet ethnographers, data on the Taimyr Evenks, Nganasans, Dolgans, and northern Yakuts were new to science.

(1815 - 1894)

A. F. Middendorf is the largest Russian physical geographer in the broadest sense of the word, a full member of the Academy of Sciences. Middendorf received particular fame in connection with his studies of the north and east of Siberia. Many hard-to-reach regions of Siberia and the Far East, which were white spots, were first studied and described by Middendorf in general geographical terms. His merit is especially great in characterizing the nature of Taimyr, the Shantar Islands, the Uda-Tugur Okhotsk region and Poiamuoye.

Middendorf's main specialty was bio- and, in particular, zoogeography. Biogeography Middendorf devoted most of his creative activity. He gave a truly brilliant description and ecological and geographical analysis of the fauna of Siberia, in which a number of general biological questions are posed and analyzed in detail: the concept of a species, the causes of modifications, the adaptive features of the organization and adaptive forms of animal behavior, the main patterns of their distribution, and a number of others. Middendorf also studied the vegetation cover of Siberia, paying great attention to the geographical distribution and ecology of tree species. He also attached importance to the establishment of stationary observations.

Along with this, Middendorf did a lot for the development of a number of other branches of knowledge. Not being a specialist cartographer, he was the first to provide survey material for the interior of the Taimyr Peninsula and extensive cartographic material for the region located between Yakutsk and the Sea of Okhotsk. He was the first to find Remezov's "Great Drawing of Siberia" in the archives.

Middendorf also did a lot in the field of geology. He was the first to bring information about the Silurian and Permian deposits in the Taimyr region. His Yakut collection gave confidence in the existence of the Triassic and Jurassic on Olenyok. He discovered the Paleozoic in the extreme east of Siberia, brought a collection of Tertiary fossils from Transbaikalia, pointed out coal-bearing deposits in Bureya and the distribution of the latest igneous rocks in Eastern Siberia.

Middendorf also worked on permafrost issues, studying seasonal and permafrost in Turukhansk, Khatanga and Yakutsk by laying pits. He paid much attention to the general geographical study of the Baraba steppe and Fergana. In works devoted to these areas, he, with his characteristic breadth of approach, describes orography, climate, the nature of soils, their fertility, agriculture, and general questions of the future economic structure. In the last period of his activity, Middendorf studied a lot of cattle breeding and, in particular, horse breeding. He can rightly be considered one of the founders of scientific horse breeding. In conclusion, if we point to Middendorf's work in the field of hydrology and oceanography, it becomes obvious how versatile the scientific activity of this remarkable scientist was.

Middendorf was born on August 6, 1815 in St. Petersburg. His father was the director of the Main Pedagogical Institute. Middendorf received his secondary education at the 3rd St. Petersburg Gymnasium and at the Pedagogical Institute. Already in childhood, he showed a passion for nature and travel. “As soon as I was ten years old,” writes Middendorf, “I received a gun from my father, an excellent teacher, and since then I often spent days and nights with one older comrade in the swamps and lakes of Livonia.”

After graduating from secondary education, Middendorf served for some time in the Department of Manufactories and Internal Trade, and in 1832 he entered Dorpat [Yurievsky, Tartu] University, from which he graduated in 1837 with a doctorate in medicine.

In 1839, Middendorf was appointed adjunct professor at Kyiv University in the department of zoology, but the young scientist was not attracted to teaching. Having stayed at the department for only eight months, he gladly accepted the invitation of K. M. Baer to participate in the expedition to Murman. In a simple boat, he, together with K. Baer, traveled around the entire northern coast of the Kola Peninsula and made several excursions into the interior of the country.

Upon his return from the expedition, Middendorf was appointed an extraordinary professor at the university in Kyiv, but the ever more developing desire for travel forced him to leave the department for the second time (and this time for good) and stop his professorship. This decisive step in Middendorf's life was taken by him in connection with the proposal of the Academy of Sciences to take command of the expedition equipped to Northern Siberia.

The expedition was given the task of comprehensively studying the world's northernmost section of continental land - the semi-island of Taimyr. The expedition was also instructed to conduct a study of permafrost, using for this a well laid in Yakutsk by the merchant Shergin. For his part, Middendorf, who sought to explore the largest possible expanses of Siberia, proposed leaving an observer in Yakutsk, and the main part of the expedition to take a second (after the Taimyr) route to the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Shantar Islands. This plan was adopted by the Academy, and Middendorf's Siberian journey became essentially two more or less independent expeditions.

The expedition left St. Petersburg on November 14, 1842. In addition to Middendorf himself, it included: the forester Brant, the preparator Furmanov, and the topographer Vaganov, who joined in Omsk. Having passed the Yenisei to Dudinka, Middendorf turned east and went to the villages. Khatanga at the mouth of the river of the same name. The base of the expedition was organized in the villages. Korennoy-Filippovsky, located in the tundra on the Boganida River (on the Dudinka-Khatanga road). Returning from Khatanga to the base, Middendorf in May 1843, accompanied by the topographer Vaganov, two Cossacks and an interpreter, rode on reindeer to the north, to the Upper Taimyr River.

Along with the expedition, Samoyed hunters (Nenets) also went north. In July, on a makeshift boat, the expedition went down the river to Taimyr Lake and from there along the Lower Taimyr River flowing from the lake to the Kara Sea, which the expedition reached on August 13. The ice did not allow exploring the sea coast, and Middendorf decided to return south to Lake Taimyr. The way back in a bad homemade boat was very difficult. Food supplies have run out.

Frosts have come; the expedition reached the lake only on 23 August. By this time, Middendorf's forces had left, and on August 30 he could no longer move on. The expedition boat sank, and the boat was crushed by ice. Dividing the rest of the food supplies, Middendorf sent his companions to look for the Nenets, who were waiting for the expedition to the south, while he himself was left alone in the dead tundra, at 75 ° N. sh., sick, almost without food and even without a tent.

Middendorf spent twenty days alone, fighting cold, hunger and illness, while his comrades searched the tundra for the Germans. Finally, on October 9, the sick Middendorf was brought to the base of the expedition in the village. Filippovek on Boganid.

The first expedition, the first half of the Siberian journey, was over.

Although Middendorf's health was still poor, he did not put off his trip east to the Sea of Okhotsk.

Returning to Krasnoyarsk, Middendorf, together with his constant companions - Vaganov, Brant and Furmanov - went to Irkutsk and further to Yakutsk, where, according to the instructions of the Academy, he was to monitor the temperature of the earth in the Sherginskaya mine. He failed to determine the thickness of the frozen layer. From Yakutsk, the expedition set off across the Aldan River (April 27) and Stanovoy Ridge (June 1) to the southwestern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk. On June 9, they reached Udsky Ostrog on the Uda River.

Since the government categorically refused to supply Middendorf with a boat on the Sea of Okhotsk, the travelers built a leather canoe and on July 9 went down the Ude to the sea. It turned out to be clogged with floating ice, and an attempt to swim across to the Shantar Islands almost cost the travelers their lives. The strongest counter currents in the straits filled with ice made this enterprise almost hopeless.

Only on May 30 did they manage to go to sea and begin exploring the Shantar Islands. After 13 days of work, the expedition returned to the mainland. Until September 1, Middendorf explored the Tugur Bay, then, together with Vaganov, went up the Tugur, through the Bureinsky mountains to the Amur and further through Nerchinsk to Irkutsk. March 5, 1845 Middendorf safely returned to St. Petersburg. Thus, his remarkable journey, covering the northernmost regions of Eurasia and the vast expanses of Eastern Siberia to the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, lasted 841 days.

The processing of the huge and varied material collected during the expedition took 13 years. In addition to Middendorf himself, many prominent scientists took part in it. So, magnetic observations were processed by E. Lenz, geological - Gelmersen, paleobotanical materials - Geppert, botanical - Trautfetter and Mayer, fossil mollusks - Kaiserling, fossil fish - Müller. The research results are presented in German in four volumes and in Russian - not completely in two volumes.

After the publication of Middendorf's work, Russian geographical literature was enriched with a geographical description of a vast and until that time almost unknown country, remarkable in its order, abundance of material, and truly unprecedented in breadth of coverage. It suffices to give a selective list of sections of Middendorf's work: cartography, orography, geology, hydrology and hydrography, climatology, general geography, geobotany and plant ecology, zoogeography, animal ecology, ethnography, hunting and fishing. This work by Middendorf - truly an encyclopedia of the geography of Siberia - was written at an unusually high scientific level for that time.

In all these areas of knowledge, Middendorf brought together and critically summarized significant literary material. So, for example, he examined in detail the history of cartography in Russia, and Siberia in particular, while paying great attention to the history and significance of the outstanding cartographic document - Remezov's Siberian Drawing. Middendorf paid special attention to the biogeography of Siberia. Unlike many predecessors and contemporaries, Middendorf devoted relatively little space to the systematic description of plant and animal species. General issues of ecology, in particular, the features of adaptations to the harsh conditions of the north, the patterns of settlement and geographical distribution - these are the sections that especially attracted his attention.

Concerning general biological provisions, in particular the concept of a zoological species, Middendorf spoke from a broad geographical position and resolutely rebelled against "species crushers". He pointed out that “the nomenclature of systematic zoology could undergo such a terrible fragmentation only because one of the main goals of each taxonomy, distribution and general overview, was lost sight of; zoological geography was overlooked.

Middendorf - one of the largest Russian scientists who laid the foundations of ecology; he considered the problem of the evolution of species, their emergence and settlement as the result of the relationship between organisms and the environment. Thus, analyzing the significance of the conditions of existence, he wrote that the material for each modification, of course, must be worked out from external influences, otherwise this modification is just as impossible as life in general is impossible without outside assistance.

Using the Siberian fauna as an example, Middendorf gave an ecological and geographical classification of animals that was remarkably thorough, based on not only the features of their distribution, but also the nature of the relationship with the conditions of existence. He paid special attention to the conditions of nutrition. In this regard, Middendorf analyzes in detail the causes and types of movements of animal species.

In the botanical part of his work on the nature of northern and eastern Siberia, Middendorf provided much valuable information and generalizations on plant ecology and phytogeography. It gives original ideas about the causes that determine the ranges of many plant species, in particular, about the importance of climatic and soil conditions for the distribution of plants, about the polar limits of woody vegetation and the upper limits of forests in mountainous countries, about the boundaries of agriculture, etc.

Shortly after returning from a Siberian trip, on August 2, 1845, Middendorf was elected an adjunct of the Academy of Sciences in the department of zoology; On March 2, 1850, he was elected an extra ordinary academician, and on May 1, 1852, an ordinary academician; Finally, in 1855, Middendorf was elected permanent secretary of the Academy. However, administrative activities were not to Middendorf's liking; in addition, it distracted him from his main task - the scientific processing of the huge material collected by him during the Siberian expedition. In 1857, he resigned the title of indispensable secretary of the Academy, and in 1865, due to a noticeable deterioration in his health torn on the expedition, he resigned from the post of academician and was elected (in the same 1865) an honorary member of the Academy. Back in 1860, Middendorf left St. Petersburg and moved to his estate in the Baltic.

Scientific activity Middendorf carried out not only at the Academy. In 1845, the Russian Geographical Society elected him as its full member, and in 1846 he was approved as assistant manager of the ethnography department of this Society. From 1857 he was a full member of the Free Economic Society, and from 1859 to 1860 he was its president. Quiet work on expeditionary material did not last long. In 1867, Middendorf was assigned to accompany Grand Duke Alexei on his journey through the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, and the next, in 1868, to Western Siberia. During the last trip, Middendorf conducted quite diverse observations, the results of which were published by him in an essay under the title "Baraba". In it, Middendorf gave a general geographical description of the Baraba forest-steppe, its soils, features of their fertility, the regime of lakes, etc.

In 1870, Middendorf accompanied Grand Duke Alexei on his voyage across the White Sea, to Novaya Zemlya, and to the western shores of Iceland. On the corvette "Varyag", where Middeddorf was located, systematic meteorological and hydrothermal observations were organized. They made it possible for the first time to establish the spread of the northern branch of the Gulf Stream eastward to Novaya Zemlya. Areas of water with temperatures up to 10° were found. In the article “The Gulf Stream East of the North Cape,” Middendorf cites not only scientific hydrological material, he insistently emphasizes the great importance that the warm waters of the Atlantic current, which he discovered so far, can have for the development of fisheries in northern Russia.

Further scientific activity of Middendorf unfolded in the field of agriculture. In 1877, he received an invitation from the Turkestan Governor-General Kaufman to explore the Ferghana Valley, recently annexed to Russia. This journey took about half of 1878. In the reporting work, Middendorf provides a general geographical description of Fergana, describes its nature, climate, soils and economy (irrigation of fields, cultivation conditions, cultivated plants, cattle breeding, forestry) and along with this - the geography of the population of Fergana , ethnography, history of colonization, general economic and political conditions of the region. As you can see, during this relatively short trip, Middendorf was able to cover the entire complex of geographical phenomena of the region under study. During his two months in Fergana, Middendorf managed to collect a huge amount of factual material, the processing of which also required several years of diligent work.

The last stage of Middendorf's scientific activity is connected with the study of cattle breeding in the central and eastern provinces of European Russia. Middendorf led several special expeditions and personally made trips to some provinces. However, advanced age and illness, which apparently began during his Siberian journey, broke the strength of this tireless researcher. He returned to his estate in Livonia, and here, in the silence of the village, the last years of his life passed.

He was an outstanding geographer of his time. The Russian Geographical Society highly appreciated the works of Middendorf, and in 1861 he was awarded the highest award of the Society - the Konstantinovsky medal. The success of Middendorf's scientific work was due to a surprisingly happy combination of a number of his qualities: good scientific training, exceptional endurance, perseverance along with modesty - these are some of his properties that allowed him to make such a huge contribution to geographical science. He made high demands on the traveler (as well as on himself), and pointed out in this regard: “You need to be able to feed yourself by hunting or fishing, and even better than any nomad, you need to have flexible readiness and dexterity either to control sails, or to handle dogs, deer or horses, then to be a rower, then a tireless pedestrian, in order to somehow do something beyond the ordinary possibility ”(our detente. - S.N.).

Middendorf believed that all these qualities are best combined among the Russian people. On this occasion, he pointed out: “I cannot refuse the Russian person the most decisive confirmation of the testimony that has already been paid to him more than once. There is hardly another in the whole world who could measure himself with him in the most flexible resourcefulness in everything, especially with a Russian who grew up in the deserted deserts of the deep north. So wrote an outstanding Russian scientist, who devoted his whole life to the study of his fatherland.

Source---

Domestic physical geographers and travelers. [Essays]. Ed. N. N. Baransky [and others] M., Uchpedgiz, 1959.

Alexander Fedorovich Middendorf

Russian naturalist and traveler, academician (1850), honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1865). Investigated and compiled a natural history description of Northern and Eastern Siberia and the Far East. He pointed out the zonation of vegetation and the presence of permafrost. Conducted selection work on horse breeding and cattle breeding.

Alexander Middendorf was born in southern Estonia. His father, an excellent teacher and educator, strongly encouraged the boy's love for nature.

In winter, Alexander studied at the St. Petersburg gymnasium, the director of which was his father. Middendorf Jr. dedicated his first printed work to "beloved father, revered mentor and close friend."

Middendorf's parents dreamed of seeing in their son the successor of his father's work - a convinced teacher, teacher, who later became director of the Main Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg. After graduating from the St. Petersburg gymnasium, Alexander Middendorf was enrolled in the preparatory department of the Pedagogical Institute. But young Middendorf dreamed of becoming a naturalist, a traveler. In 1832, he entered the medical faculty of Derpt (now Tartu) University.

Middendorf became interested in zoology and other natural sciences.

In 1837 he graduated from the university and acquired the title of doctor. On June 16 (28), 1837, the dissertation was defended.

After working for two years with the largest naturalists in Germany and Austria, Middendorf returned to his homeland fully prepared for independent work in the field of zoology, ethnography, and anthropology. He learned a lot in the field of geology and botany.

An important event in the life of the young Middendorf was his acquaintance with the remarkable scientist and traveler of Russia - Karl Maksimovich Baer.

In 1840, Middendorf participated in Baer's Lapland expedition, and he turned out to be not only a good doctor, but also a passionate hunter, an excellent shooter, a tireless pedestrian, an experienced sailor and a skilled carpenter.

This is how Baer recalls in his autobiography about the “baptism of fire” of the future explorer of the Siberian expanses: “Middendorf went from Kola through Lapland to the Kandalaksha Bay, moving either on foot or in a boat. He found that the maps of this region that we have are completely wrong and that the course of the Kola River is shown on them completely wrong ... "

On Baer's recommendation, in 1842 the Russian Academy of Sciences commissioned Middendorf to organize an expedition to northern and eastern Siberia. Preparing for the trip, Middendorf compiled a map of Taimyr based on the surveys and inventory of S. I. Chelyuskin and X. Laptev. Subsequently, guided by it, he gave the guides of the detachment such precise instructions that they called him "the great shaman."

On November 14, 1842, after several months of hard work preparing the expedition, Middendorf and his two companions, the Dane Brandt (forester) and the Estonian Furman (servant and preparator), left St. Petersburg on a long journey.

Two problems were set before him: the study of the organic life of the Taimyr Peninsula and the study of permafrost. The expedition, among others, included a 22-year-old non-commissioned officer, military topographer Vasily Vasilyevich Vaganov. At the beginning of 1843, the expedition traveled from Krasnoyarsk to Turukhansk and stopped here for the final equipment. Meanwhile, studying wells, Middendorf found only seasonal permafrost. From Turukhansk in April, Middendorf walked on dogs across the ice of the Yenisei to the mouth of the Dudinka River; from here, moving to the northeast through Lake Pyasino up the Dudypte River on deer, he reached the lower reaches of the Boganida River (Khatanga system). On this way, he constantly saw in the east and southeast the "Siverma Ridge", which abruptly breaks off to the Norilsk Lakes (Putorana Plateau); in the northwest, it "stops at Lake Pyasino, which, with a number of lakes flowing into it, is surrounded by romantic rocky ridges - the Norilsk Stones. The Norilskaya River made its way through them. This was the first information about the Norilsk region.

In May 1843, Vaganov joined Middendorf on Boganid. Having passed from here along the Great Lower Tundra to the north, in July they reached the Upper Taimyr River, that is, they crossed the North Siberian Lowland from south to north and laid the foundation for its exploration. Middendorf discovered on it a chain of heights elongated in a northeasterly direction and bounded from the south by the river region of Taimyr; he called them "Shaitan" (on our maps Kamen-Herbei and separate nameless hills).

Middendorf spent almost the whole of July traveling around Upper Taimyr to Lake Taimyr. To explore the river and transport equipment, he found that the left bank of the Taimyr Valley from the north is limited by rocky mountains. Middendorf named them Byrranga. Going down the river in a boat to Lake Taimyr, Middendorf crossed it and reached the source of the Lower Taimyr. From here, through a gorge in the Byrranga mountains, he went along the river to the Taimyr Bay of the Kara Sea (at the end of August 1843). In Lower Taimyr, he discovered the skeleton of a mammoth. In the same way, the expedition returned to Lake Taimyr, which had already begun to be covered with ice. Deprived of means of transportation due to the onset of winter, Middendorf's companions went on foot to look for the "deer Tungus", and he himself spent eighteen days all alone on the shores of Lake Taimyr. These eighteen days, to which he, ill, doomed himself to save the expedition, were the most serious test of his courage, self-control and endurance. We learn about this feat from the report of the Academy of Sciences: “Middendorf, exhausted by the extreme efforts of the last days (end of August 1843) and overtaken by a cruel illness, no longer felt able to follow his comrades. Sharing with them the remnants of the dry broth, which he kept just in case, he had, to his greatest regret, to kill a faithful hunting dog ... The meat was divided into five shares, and, having provided four of his companions with this provision, Mr. Middendorf ordered them to find the Samoyeds in the desert and bring them, if possible , to help him. He himself was left alone without a shelter, in the midst of the Arctic winter that had already begun at 75 ° north latitude, subject to all the severity of bad weather. "

This event can be considered unparalleled in the annals of travel. Fortunately, Middendorf found some protection for himself behind drifts of wind-driven snow, and in recent days, when a fierce hurricane raged in the plain, remained completely buried in snow - and to this circumstance he probably owes his preservation.

Middendorf was saved by Vaganov and two Nenets.

Having barely recovered (in Korennoy-Filippovsky) from the consequences of illness and exhaustion, Middendorf sets off on his way back through Pyasina and Turukhansk to Krasnoyarsk.

On February 18, 1844, the expedition arrived in Yakutsk. Here Middendorf for some time studied permafrost in wells and boreholes, thus laying the foundations of permafrost.

At the same time, the scientist was seriously preparing for a campaign to the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk up to and including Shantar. This route was agreed with the Academy. But the Academy did not know that the indefatigable traveler planned to visit the region of the Lower Amur.

It was assumed that he would sail along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and to the Shantar Islands on a sea whaleboat, which he was to be provided in Okhotsk. While in Yakutsk, Middendorf asked for a whaleboat Okhotsk, but received a "strong refusal". Then he decided to change the direction of the route and go to Okhotsk not along the northern path, but to the south, to the neglected and half-abandoned Udsky prison. The traveler knew that he would not be provided with anything in the run-down Udsk prison. I had to bring equipment from Yakutsk, and food, and skins for canoes, and ropes, and an anchor, and sails on packs through the taiga and passes, as eager people did. As a true explorer, Middendorf understood that he could not expect help from anywhere and from no one. In addition to constant companions - Brandt, Vaganov and Furman - he included in the detachment several Cossacks from Yakutsk and two Yakuts Yakuts, experienced people, were supposed to help build a canoe.

It was not difficult to deliver the equipment to the settlement of Amginskaya (from Yakutsk to Amga - 180 kilometers). He was carried on a sled pulled by bulls. Here Middendorf, by laying pits, observed the "always frozen" layers of the earth. But only riding paths led from Amga to the east. It took 72 horses for the Middendorf caravan.

In Amga, part of the participants in the campaign prepared packs, others dug the earth, and monitored the weather. Vaganov, with the help of a measuring tape, took an excellent plan of the Amga and its immediate environs.

The caravan left Amga on April 11, 1844. There were few people along the way. They were mostly Yakuts and Tunguses (Evenks). Middendorf asked them about game animals, about hunting, about taiga trails.

The pages of Middendorf's book about the campaign to the Udsk prison abound with excellent descriptions of taiga rivers, valleys, and passes.

Soon the detachment entered the country of "fur-bearing animals". Many pages of the "Journey" are dedicated to the inhabitants of the taiga.

But the description of one of the "quirks" of the harsh nature of Eastern Yakutia - the "ice valley" of Selenda is especially interesting. The sources of the Selenda River come to the surface from under a steep rock, being the underground runoff of Lake Marcuel. Up to fifty streams flow from under the rock (except for the main stream), and they all merge into one channel, called Selenda. The waters of Selenda are surrounded by bizarre red sandstone cliffs.

The icy valley of the Selenda seemed to Middendorf so unusually picturesque that, "yielding to his sensitivity to the beauties of nature", he allowed "to evade strictly scientific research" and sketched out a "fantastic drawing". He gave this drawing to a Yakut he met at Uchur for shipment from Yakutsk to St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, the drawing got lost along the way.

Following the course of the Selenda, the traveler became convinced that the river no longer flows in colored sandstones, but through an icy valley. The riverbed ran in continuous layered ice. Large coniferous trees grew directly from the ice field. A drawing of this place, made, apparently, by Brandt, has been preserved. It clearly shows that the entire valley is filled with ice. A similar phenomenon, called "boiling" in Siberia, is characteristic of the Siberian taiga wilds.

On June 1, 1844, Middendorf's detachment crossed the Stanovoy Ridge and eight days later approached the prison on the Ud River. Here the travelers built a canoe - the wooden frame was covered with leather and fitted with six pairs of oars. The construction took 12 days. Then the travelers went down in a canoe along the river Ud to the sea. But they did not manage to immediately go to sea - near the mouth of the river, the Sea of \u200b\u200bOkhotsk turned out to be (in July!) Clogged with ice. In anticipation of the "weather" travelers began to collect zoological collections.

Particular attention of Middendorf was attracted by the formation of giant fin blockages, layers of sand, stones, clay, in the thickness of which whole carcasses of marine animals - whales and seals - were stuck. On the coast of Okhotsk, Middendorf was able to understand how the carcass of a mammoth, which he managed to find in Taimyr, was “buried”. In his book, he excellently described the grandiose creative and destructive work of the sea surf.

Thanks to his observations, information about the climate of the Okhotsk region has also been significantly replenished. In academic materials related to the organization of the expedition, the importance of collecting information about the climatic features of the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk was especially emphasized, since such information was not available at that time.

The ice on the Sea of Okhotsk in that summer month either moved closer to the coast itself, or retreated to the sea, and then the explorers tried to get to Shantar. Once they almost died - the ice almost crushed their leather boat. "The lesson was menacingly instructive," Middendorf recalled.

Only on August 4, the travelers were able to reach the island of Bolshoy Shantar, where they stayed for a whole week. Middendorf reached the limit point of his journey - the coast of Okhotsk and the Shantar Islands. From here he had to start his way back through Yakutsk to the capital. But Middendorf acted differently. All the collections he collected - geological and zoological, herbaria, travel records - he sent to Yakutsk with Brandt, Furman and two Yakuts for further shipment to the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. He himself, with his "inseparable companion" surveyor Vaganov, chose a different, unexplored path to return to the west.

Middendorf and Vaganov made a small boat ("offspring of a big canoe") from wicker and spare cowhide. The scientist called this tiny boat "nutshell". In this "shell" they moved along the Sea of Okhotsk.

Travelers sailed along the coast, to the south, making scale and eye surveys, collecting collections. Landing on the shore, they went deep into the taiga, hunted, replenishing their zoological collections.

“Zoologically and geographically,” Middendorf later wrote, “we constantly rotated in that extremely curious strip of the Earth where sable and tiger meet face to face, where the southern cat beats off the reindeer from the lynx, where its rival, the wolverine, is on the same and in the same area it exterminates wild boar, deer, elk and roe deer, where the bear is saturated either with European cloudberries or pine nuts, where sable yesterday chased black grouse and partridges reaching the west of Europe, today after the closest relatives of the black grouse of East America, and tomorrow sneaks after purely Siberian musk deer".

On September 1, 1844, Middendorf and Vaganov were near the mouth of the Tugur. Middendorf again felt like an ethnographer, linguist, anthropologist. Travelers communicated with Evenks, Yakuts, Gilyaks (Nivkhs).

Evenk reindeer herders were waiting for explorers on the Tugur. Together with them, they set out on a winter trip to the west. The travelers rode on reindeer. The reindeer caravan route went along Tugur, Nemilen, Kerby through the Bureinsky Range to the Bureya Valley. From here, along its tributary Nimani and further along the Kebeli, Middendorf and Vaganov reached the Inkan tract - the place of the traditional fair of the inhabitants of the surrounding regions. Yakuts and Evenks came here from the north, and Daurs from the south. In Inkan, travelers were waiting for "dummy deer".

From the Inkan tract for three weeks they went to Zeya. On January 12, 1845, the caravan descended on "the canvas of Amur himself." From here, already on horseback, Middendorf and Vaganov reached the Strelka, located at the confluence of the Argun and Shilka. All this path was reflected in the maps of the atlas attached to Middendorf's Siberian Journey.

On the way from the Okhotsk coast to the Amur, Middendorf and Vaganov entered the names of numerous rivers, streams and streams into their travel records with special care, believing that for practical purposes this was of the greatest importance. The valleys of these streams served as the only means of communication. They led to the passes and to the protected fishing grounds for local nomads.

Middendorf wittily noted that for long journeys through the wilds of the taiga and tundra, a person must, as it were, descend "to the lowest level of civilization." Starting on wanderings through the lands where only taiga hunters and reindeer herders roam, the traveler must have "a skill ready for anything", "inventiveness for all the twists and turns." A traveler-explorer, according to Middendorf, must be a craftsman both in "every overland journey" and in "every kind of navigation." He must be a shoemaker and a tailor, a carpenter and a blacksmith, a trapper and a fisherman. Having at his disposal the simplest tools of the "semi-savage of primitive times", the traveler must, without delay, undertake any necessary task.

What is the result of this difficult journey? Middendorf himself writes about it this way: "Carefully putting down our route on paper and checking, as critically as possible, a lot of evidence for my questions, I managed to draw up a picture of the Amur Territory, which threw a new light on this country." The first map of the region was also compiled under the title "The first experience of a hydrographic map of the Stanovoy Range with its spurs".

New, detailed data collected by Middendorf about the Amur and the Amur region revived interest in this region. 15 years after returning from a trip, Middendorf wrote about the Taimyr Territory: “What I took out of there is still just as new, just as fresh as it was then, as I collected; what I say about these countries, now there are so many does it fit..."

Middendorf's Siberian journey lasted 841 days. During this time, he and his companions traveled - on horseback, on dogs, on deer (in harness and on horseback), on boats and on foot - about 30,000 kilometers. And this is in the remote tundra of Taimyr, in the taiga-mountain wilds of Yakutia, the Okhotsk region and the Amur region.

The indispensable secretary of the Academy of Sciences P. N. Fus, assessing the success of the Siberian expedition, said that Middendorf returned from Siberia to the capital "in a halo of glory." The materials of his research brought an unprecedented revival to the scientific life of St. Petersburg.

Meetings, receptions, and dinners were held in honor of Middendorf. He himself took a lively part in the preparation of the first expeditions of the Russian Geographical Society to the Northern Urals (1847) and in the projected expedition to Kamchatka. The instructions drawn up by Middendorf (based on his richest personal experience) were widely used for many further expeditions.

Middendorf remained in the capital as an adjunct of the Academy of Sciences and began processing the materials he had collected and preparing a multi-volume "Report" on the Siberian journey.

In the 60s and 70s, Middendorf made several scientific trips and voyages. In 1867 he sailed the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean to the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands. In 1870 - to Iceland and along the Barents Sea to Novaya Zemlya. Observations made by Middendorf in the Barents Sea confirmed in science Peterman's hypothesis about the presence of a warm current in the north, which Middendorf called the North Cape. It was a major discovery in the field of hydrography of the northern seas.

Honorary Academician Middendorf (this title was awarded to him in 1865) also made distant overland excursions - trips to the Baraba steppe (1869) and Fergana (1878). From Semenov's letter to Middendorf, it can be concluded that on the last trip the scientist was invited to "cast an agricultural look, based on natural science," to the Ferghana Valley, which had just been annexed to Russia (1876). After some hesitation, Middendorf agreed to this proposal.

The last expedition led by Middendorf was an expedition in 1883 to the regions of the northern provinces: Perm, Vyatka, Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Yaroslavl, Kostroma and Vladimir.

For the last ten years of his life, Middendorf was seriously ill and lived in Estonia on his estate Hellenurme. He was carried in a carriage; Letters written from dictation were stamped with a signature.

In 1888, Middendorff was awarded the highest award of zoologists in Russia - Baer's gold medal. The award of a high award associated with the name of a scientist so dear to Middendorf's heart - after all, it was Baer who gave him a ticket to great science - delighted the patient. He remembered the first trip to the Kola Peninsula with Baer and to Taimyr already without Baer, but on his parting words.

Middendorf died at the end of January 1894.

He should be the first in a galaxy of glorious Russian travelers of the 19th century - Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, Severtsov, Fedchenko, Miklukho-Maclay, Przhevalsky. After all, it was Middendorf who “opened” the era of remarkable travels, showing by his example how much a scientist can do if, sparing no effort, risking his life, he follows unknown paths.

Middendorf was not only one of the outstanding travelers. He was also a scientist of great scale, the founder of a number of scientific disciplines (permafrost studies, zoogeography), the largest Siberian scholar and one of the pioneers of Turkestan studies.

Alexander Fedorovich Middendorf (August 6 (18), 1815, St. Petersburg - January 16 (28), 1894, Hellenrum, Livonia) - Russian naturalist and traveler, one of the founders of Russian permafrost.

Biography of A.F. Middeldorf

He studied at the gymnasium of St. Petersburg, the director of which was his father. Middendorf Jr. dedicated his first printed work to "beloved father, revered mentor and close friend." Middendorf's parents dreamed of seeing in their son the successor of his father's work - a convinced teacher, teacher, who later became director of the Main Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg. After graduating from the St. Petersburg gymnasium, Alexander Middendorf was enrolled in the preparatory department of the Pedagogical Institute. But young Middendorf dreamed of becoming a naturalist, a traveler. In 1832 he entered the medical faculty of Dorpat (now Tartu) University, from which he graduated in 1837 as a doctor. On June 16 (28), 1837, the dissertation was defended. For two years he worked at the universities of Berlin, Breslau, Vienna, Heidelberg under the guidance of leading experts in the field of zoology, botany, geology, anthropology, and ethnography. Returning to Russia, he was appointed as an adjunct at Kiev University, taught courses in zoology and a course in ethnography.

As part of the expedition K.M. Baer in 1840-1841 he explored Russian Lapland - the northern, eastern and central parts of the Kola Peninsula. It was concluded that all previous maps of the area were inaccurate, and a new map of the peninsula was drawn up.

In 1842–1845, the Academy of Sciences organized an outstanding scientific work in the history of geographical discoveries and research in the 19th century. Siberian expedition led by A.F. Middendorf. Vast territories of Siberia and the Far East were explored: the Taimyr Peninsula, Yakutia, the Okhotsk and Amur regions. The problem of the existence of animals and plants in the polar countries, the degree and methods of adaptability of living organisms to the climatic conditions of the Far North, the spread of permafrost in the soils of Siberia were studied. The principle of ecological-faunistic zoning of Northern and Eastern Siberia was proposed. An extensive ethnographic description of the population of Taimyr, the Yenisei region, and the Amur region has been compiled.

Middendorf's expeditionary report became for its time the most complete natural-scientific description of Siberia.

In 1848, the first volume of A.F. Middendorf "Journeys to the North and East of Siberia" in German. The Russian edition appeared only in 1860. Subsequent issues were published until 1875. It considered a wide range of natural conditions of the North and East of Siberia and the Amur region, described orography, hydrology, hydrography, climate features, permafrost, ecology of animals and plants, gave characteristics of the external appearance, life, language and folklore of indigenous peoples. The text was supplemented by drawings by expedition member T. Brandt of local population types, landscapes, specimens of fauna and flora, and an atlas of 20 maps and plans. In general, Middendorf's work turned out to be the most important event in the history of Russian science in the second half of the 20th century.

In August 1745, Middendorf was elected a full member of the Russian Geographical Society, and a year later - deputy chairman of the ethnography department. Since 1883 - an honorary member of the Russian Geographical Society.

From 1845 - adjunct, from 1850 - extraordinary, from 1852 - ordinary academician, in 1855-1857 - indispensable secretary of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1860, he resigned from his post, leaving St. Petersburg for his estate in Livonia. Further scientific activity was connected with agriculture: he developed the issues of improving the local breed of cattle in order to create a new highly productive dairy breed, conducted experiments to create an Estonian breed of heavy horses.

In 1865 the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences elected Middendorf as its honorary member.

In the 1870s, he made a number of different scientific expeditions: in 1870 to the Arctic on the Varyag corvette, accompanying Grand Duke Alexei, who, by decision of the International Maritime Conference, carried out hydrological and meteorological observations, in the same summer - to the Baraba steppe, in 1878 - in Fergana valley.

Merits of A.F. Middendoff in the development of domestic natural science are highly appreciated by contemporaries and descendants. In 1888, Alexander Middendorf was awarded the highest award of Russian zoologists - Baer's gold medal. A bay on the Taimyr Peninsula and a cape on the Severny Island of Novaya Zemlya bear his name.

Literature

Biographical dictionary of figures of natural science and technology. T. 2. - M .: State Scientific Publishing House "Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 1959. - P. 34.
Gromov L.V., Danilyants S.A. named after the geologist. - M: Nedra, 1982.
Creators of national science. Geographers. - M: "Agar", 1996. - S. 168-179.
Teterin G.N., Snyanskaya M.L. Biographical and Chronological Directory (Geodesy, until the 20th century) - Novosibirsk, 2009. - P. 322.