Vladimir Leontievich
Komarov
1869-1945
Vladimir Leontievich Komarov was a scientist-botanist and geographer, public figure, President of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1936-1945), Honorary President of the USSR Geographical Society (1940-1945). He was born in St Petersburg on October 13, 1869, in a noble family. In his youth V.L. Komarov was interested in botany and independently studied the flora of the Borovichi district, the Novgorod governorate, where he spent the summer months at his grandfather’s estate. In 1890 he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at St Petersburg University and graduated from it in 1894 with the 1st degree diploma. As a student he made two trips to Turkestan, to the Samarkand district, on behalf of the St Petersburg Society of Naturalists, which resulted in three papers on the little-explored flora of the Zeravshan basin, for one of which he received a gold medal from the University. In 1895-1897 a long journey through the Far East, Manchuria and Korea was made and the result of which was a three-volume «Flora of Manchuria» (published in St Petersburg in 1909). This work, translated into many foreign languages, is still considered a classic of botany. For this work, in 1909 the Imperial Academy of Sciences awarded him the Karl Baer Prize, and the International Academy of Botanical Geography in France presented him with a medal with images of Tournefort and Linnaeus. At the beginning of the XX century he led the botanical section of the Kamchatka expedition headed by F.P. Ryabushinsky. In 1906 he explored the Onega, the Peipsi and other lakes from the botanical point of view, in 1908-1909 he explored Kamchatka (two expeditions). The result was the work “Travels in Kamchatka in 1908-1909” (1912). In 1911 V.L. Komarov successfully defended his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Botany at Moscow University. In 1913 V.L. Komarov carried out a detailed study of the South Ussuriysk region on behalf of the Resettlement Administration and published several scientific works. In 1914 the Imperial Academy of Sciences elected V.L. Komarov a corresponding member “in the category of biological sciences”. In 1917 he was awarded the RGO medal named after F.P. Litke for a series of geographical works. In 1932 the General Assembly of the USSR Academy of Sciences elected the Presidium of the Far Eastern Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences headed by V.L. Komarov. In 1935-1945 he was Chairman of the Commission for the Supervision of Branches and Bases of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1932-1933 the Ural (1932) and Transcaucasian Branches (in 1935 transformed into the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian Branches), in 1938-1940 the Kola and Northern bases, Turkmen and Uzbek branches, and during the Great Patriotic War – West Siberian (1944, February) and Kyrgyz (1943, August) branches were organised with the participation of V.L. Komarov. In 1940, on the 70th anniversary of the scientist’s birth, the Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Far Eastern Mountain Station were named after him. In Moscow, a memorial plaque was placed in the building where V.L. Komarov worked in 1934-1945.
Address: Moscow, Leninsky Avenue, 33
