Middendorf, Alexander Fedorovich

Born in St. Petersburg in the family of the teacher and inspector of the St. Petersburg Provincial Gymnasium Fyodor Ivanovich Middendorf .

Educated at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Dorpat (1832−1837).

For two years he worked in Austria and Germany , where he specialized in the field of zoology , ethnography , anthropology .

In 1839 he was appointed adjunct at the Department of Zoology at the University of St. Vladimir (Kiev).

In 1840, Middendorf participated in the Lapland expedition of K. M. Baer , collected materials on ornithology , malacology and geology of Lapland .

In 1842, the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, on the recommendation of K. M. Baer, ​​instructed Middendorff to organize an expedition to Northern and Eastern Siberia . During the preparation of the expedition, Middendorf made a map of Taimyr using the works of S.I. Chelyuskin and X. P. Laptev .

During his expedition to Northern Siberia and the Far East from 1842 to 1845, he discovered the Putorana plateau , became the first explorer of the Taimyr Peninsula, the North Siberian Lowland , the Amur-Zeya Plain , the Stanovoi Range , the lower part of the Amur Basin , the southern coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk , the Uds- Tugur Priokhotye , Shantar Islands . The Middendorff report on the expedition was for its time the most complete natural-historical description of Siberia.

Among the scientific achievements of Alexander Middendorff is the first ethnographic description of a number of Siberian peoples and the first scientific description of the climate of Siberia, the determination of the southern distribution border of perennial (“eternal”) permafrost , the determination of the zoning of vegetation, the formulation of the so-called “ Middendorff law ” explaining the tortuosity of the northern border of forests .

The Middendorf report contains many environmental observations on mammals , monographic descriptions of brown bears and lemmings are given ^[4] .

In 1852, Alexander Middendorf was elected ordinary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and in 1855 - the permanent secretary of the academy.

In 1867, he accompanied Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich on a trip across Russia, and in 1869 , Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich .

In 1870 , accompanying Alexei Alexandrovich on a journey along the White Sea and to Novaya Zemlya , he made important observations regarding the Gulf Stream east of the North Cape , discovered the North Cape Current in the Barents Sea ^[5] .

In 1870 he explored the Baraba steppe , in 1878 - the Ferghana Valley .

He took an active part in the " Works of the Imperial Free Economic Society " and was president of the Free Economic Society from 1859 to 1860, when due to illness he was forced to abandon this title.

He was engaged in agriculture, took a large part in the organization of agricultural exhibitions; mainly, he was interested in replacing the local dairy cattle in the Baltic region with a more profitable breed. Of the many breeds of European cattle that he studied, Middendorf settled on the Holstein breed and on crossing it with local cattle.

The Ministry of State Property placed Middendorff at the head of a special expedition (1883), whose task was to investigate the current state of cattle breeding in Russia. Middendorf in the second year of the expedition became seriously ill and could no longer continue his useful activities.

From the practical activities of Middendorff in agriculture, one can also indicate that he, in addition to the improvement of his two vast estates near Yuryev (modern Tartu ) and Pernov (modern Pärnu ), for many years was the head of the vast economy in the famous Karlovka of the Poltava province , belonging to the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna .

Middendorf is no less famous as a hippologist , why, back in the 1850s, he was instructed to introduce horse-breeding to both cavalrymen and artillerymen more closely. He took part in the construction of Russian state stud farms. In the Journal of Horse Breeding, Middendorff owns articles on horse breeding: “On the issue of determining the thoroughbred of the Oryol horse” (1865), “On the selection of producers” (1866), and many others. In 1869, he tried to draw the attention of the Russian government to the possible benefits of domestication and breeding moose.

Upset during the Siberian expedition, health forced Middendorf to spend the last ten years of his life in Estonia in his estate Hellenorm (now the county of Valgamaa ).

• Bericht über die ornithologischen Ergebnisse der naturhist. Reisen in Lappland während d. Sommers 1840 (Baer und Helmersen. Beiträge z. Kenntniss des Russischen Reiches, Bd. VIII);
• Middendorf A.F. Journey to the North and East of Siberia: North and East of Siberia in a Natural-Historical Relation. SPb .: Printing house of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. - Part 1, Dep. 1: Geography and hydrography. - 1860; Part 1, Dep. 2: Orography and geognosy. - 1861; Part 1, Dep. 3: The climate of Siberia. - 1862; Part 1, Dep. 4: Siberian vegetation. - 1867; Part 2, Dep. 5: Siberian fauna. - 1869; Part 2, Dep. 5: Siberian fauna (ending). Pets and harnesses, carts, ships, fishing and hunting. - 1877; Part 2. Dep. 6: Indigenous people of Siberia. (The end of the whole essay). - 1878 ^[6] .
• Beiträge zu einer Malacozoologia Rossica, 1848-1849.
• Die Isepiptesen Russlands. - 1855.
• Middendorf A. F. Analysis of the work of Severtsov under the title: “Periodic phenomena in the life of animals, birds and reptiles of the Voronezh province”, compiled by academician A. Middendorf // 25th Prize instituted by P. N. Demidov. - SPb. , 1856. - S. 191−212.
• Middendorf A.F. On Siberian Mammoths // Bulletin of Natural Sciences. - 1860. - No. 26−27. - S. 1−28.
• Middendorf A.F. Gulf Stream east of the North Cape // Notes of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. 1871. - T. 19, pr. 1. - S. 1−29.
• Die Baraba // "Mémoires de l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St.-Petersbourge", 1870 ^[7] .
• Einblicke in das Ferghana Thal // "Mémoires de l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St.-Petersbourge", VII série, vol. XXIX, no. 1, 1881. ^[8] .

Middendorf's scientific and service activities were highly praised. On August 26, 1856, he received the rank of full state councilor , and on December 3, 1873, the rank of privy councilor . He was granted a number of orders of the Russian Empire:

• Order of St. Vladimir , 4th degree (1845)
• Order of St. Anne of the 2nd degree (1854)
• Order of St. Vladimir 3rd degree (1859)
• Order of St. Stanislav 1st degree (1862)
• Order of St. Anne 1st degree (1872)
• Order of St. Vladimir, 2nd degree (1887)

• In 1861 and 1872, the highest favor was declared to him; in 1868, Alexander II granted him a diamond ring with his monogram.

• 1888 - the highest award of zoologists in Russia - the gold medal of K. M. Baer.

• Middendorf Cape on Novaya Zemlya
• Middendorf Bay in Taimyr
• Middendorf Glacier. Region: East Sayan
• In the Museum of Geography of Moscow State University (on the 24th floor of the Main Building ) a bust of A. F. Middendorff is installed ^[9] .
• Locustella ochotensis - Middendorff Crickets
• Middendorf Hermit Crab ^[10]
• Ursus arctos middendorffi

In memory of the scientific merits of A. F. Middendorff, 31 botanical taxa were named ^[11] , including

• Aconogonon middendorfii ( Kongar ) Holub - Highlander Middendorf
• Betula middendorffii Trautv. & CAMey. - Birch Middendorff
• Carex middendorfii F.Schmidt - Sedge Middendorf
• Delphinium middendorffii Trautv. - Larkiness Middendorff
• Hemerocallis middendorffii Trautv. & CAMey. - Daylily Middendorf , or Krasodnev Middendorf
• Oxytropis middendorffii Trautv. - Middendorf Wrecker
• Sedum middendorfianum Maxim. - Stonecrop of Middendorff
• Weigela middendorffiana ( Carrière ) K.Koch - Weigela Middendorff

• Middendorff

• Yachevsky L. Middendorf A. (obituary) // Zap. Imp. St. Petersburg. mineralogich. about-va. - 1894. - T. 31. - S. 356−358.
• Volokitin N.I. On the vegetation of Siberia (according to Middendorff and Gmelin). - M .: Type. V. Gauthier, 1857.
• Leonov N.I. Alexander Fedorovich Middendorf: (1815−1894) / USSR Academy of Sciences. - M .: Nauka , 1967 .-- 152 p. - ( Scientific and biographical series ). - 7000 copies.
• Kublitsky G. I. On continents and oceans: Stories about travels and discoveries. - M .: Detgiz , 1957. - 326 p.
• Barbara and Richard Mearns . Audubon to Xantus, The Lives of Those Commemorated in North American Bird Names. - ISBN 0-12-487423-1 .
• Biographical Dictionary of professors and teachers of the Imperial University of St. Vladimir: (1834−1884) / comp. and published under the editorship of ordin. prof. V.S.Ikonnikova. - Kiev: per type. Imp. University of St. Vladimir, 1884. - S. 423−427.
• Editorial Board A.F. von Middendorf (obituary) // World Illustration : Journal. - 1894. - T. 51 , No. 1305 . - S. 78 .
• List of civilian ranks of the first three classes. Corrected on June 1, 1878 - St. Petersburg, 1878. - S. 443-444.
• List of civil ranks IV class. Corrected until December 31, 1858. - SPb., 1859. - S. 556.
• Von Middendorf Alexander Fedorovich // List of civilian ranks of the first three classes. Corrected on October 1, 1893. - SPb. : Printing House of the Governing Senate , 1893. - S. 159.

• Middendorf, Alexander Fedorovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Profile of Alexander Fedorovich (Alexander Theodor) Middendorff on the official website of the RAS
• Petrov A.I.A.F. Middendorf — scientist, traveler // Russia and the World , 2005. - No. 4. - P. 143-148.
• Bolkhovitinov L.M. Russky Amur // Geography , May 8−15, 2003. - No. 18 (697). (inaccessible link)
• Middendorf, Aleksandr Fëdorovič ( unopened ) (inaccessible link) . // “Gallica”, bibliothèque numérique (gallica.bnf.fr). Date of treatment June 21, 2013. Archived on May 5, 2007.