Mitrofan Kuzmich
Tursky
In the center of the square at the intersection of Pryanishnikova and Timiryazevskaya Streets stands the only monument in Moscow to a forest scientist – Professor Mitrofan Kuzmich Tursky (1840-1899) of the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy. In 1876, M.K. Tursky was invited to teach forest sciences at the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy, where he soon became head of the Department of Forestry. Contemporaries and students remembered Professor Tursky not only as a wise and strict teacher but also as a responsive, kind, and understanding mentor. «No lectures, no practical classes in the study, and especially in the forest, were attended by students with such diligence and such love as the lectures and work of M.K. Tursky…» (G.G. Daniel-Bekov, 1909). Mitrofan Kuzmich authored numerous works that became timeless classics of forest science and education, and which have not lost their significance to this day. Among other things, Professor Tursky compiled tables for forest taxation, developed a methodological scale showing the light requirements of trees, and conducted experiments on growing trees and shrubs from seeds of different origins, thereby establishing a valuable experiment in geographical cultures at the Forest Experimental Dacha of the Petrovsky Academy. The bronze bust was installed in 1912 on the grounds of the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy (now the Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy). The initiative to commemorate the outstanding scientist came from the academy’s teaching staff, particularly from Professor Tursky’s student, the head of the Department of Forestry, Professor Nikolai Stepanovich Nesterov. Funds for the monument were raised through a collection in which about four thousand people participated. From several projects submitted to a specially held competition, the work of sculptor P. V. Dzyubanov was chosen. The solemn unveiling of the monument took place on July 29, 1912, in the square next to the academy’s Forest Cabinet. Professor Tursky’s bust is mounted on a tall, four-sided granite pedestal. The scientist is depicted in the moment of delivering a lecture, as if addressing an audience; a book lies under his right hand. At the bottom of the pedestal is a bronze bas-relief depicting a scene of an elderly peasant and a boy planting a young pine tree. On the front side of the pedestal is the inscription: «To M.K. Tursky (1840-1899)». On the back side is a dedicatory inscription: «To the glorious sower in the forest field – from forested Russia».
Address: Moscow, Timiryazevskaya St., on the territory of household No. 49.
