Khitrovo, Vladimir Nikolaevich

Born in St. Petersburg on December 26, 1878 ( January 8, 1879 ). The descendant of an ancient noble family . Father - Colonel, artilleryman of the Russian army. In 1897, Khitrovo graduated from the gymnasium and entered the natural department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Kiev University , which he successfully graduated from in 1902 . In 1901, in his own estate, Muratovo in the Oryol province, he established a stronghold for geobotanical research of meadows.

After graduating from the university, he worked at the department as Professor S.G. Navashin as a laboratory assistant, and from 1904 as an assistant. In 1910 he passed the master's examinations. Until 1917, he taught and was actively engaged in research activities at Kiev University .

Receiving a considerable salary at the university, V.H. Khitrovo did not look at the estate in Muratov inherited from him as a source of income. From 1901 it served as a stronghold for geobotanical research of meadows in the Oryol province.

Among the group of young energetic scientists who worked in Muratov, the idea of ​​organizing a society to study the nature of the Oryol province arose. The company was established in 1905.

In December 1913, the Company's exhibits were displayed at the first conservation exhibition organized by V.I. Taliyev in Kharkov.

V.H. Khitrovo thought about the need for state protection of the unique nature monument Galich Mountain.

Meanwhile, this unique corner of nature on the high bank of the Don was under threat. Local residents and railway organizations have opened a quarry for the extraction of limestone in the northern section. Concerned by this, V.H. Khitrovo appealed to the Oryol municipal executive committee and proposed to take Galichia mountain under special protection. Thanks to the intervention of the executive committee, the mountain was saved, but the lack of the necessary funds did not allow organizing a reserve on its territory. In 1924, A. Nikolayev, head of the Yelets museum of local history, began to help Vladimir Nikolayevich. On January 14, 1925, the Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Nature of the Glavnauka of the Narkompros of the RSFSR decided to recognize Galicia Mountain as a botanical monument of nature and proposed to remove its territory from economic use. The decision on this was sent to Vladimir Nikolayevich in Orel. He nevertheless perfectly understood that this decision alone would not save Galichia Mountain. On Galichya mountain a reserve was needed and special people for its permanent protection. Then he again wrote a letter to the Glavnauka of the People's Commissariat of Education of the People's Commissariat of Education, sent a copy of his “Guide to Galichya Mountain” there. In the letter, he said that in July 1924, he visited Galichia Mountain: “Everything on it was still whole”. He further wrote that the committee “must attend to the real protection and protection” of Galich Mountain. Then, on April 8, 1925, the Scientific Committee for Nature Protection issued a secondary decision on Galichye Mountain and declared it a reserve. Scientific management of the reserve "Galichya gora" carried out by V.H. Khitrovo until 1930.

In September 1929, V.H. Khitrovo took part in the First All-Russian Congress on Nature Protection, where he made a report on the Galichya Gora reserve.

At the request of the Oryol Municipal Executive Committee and its planning commission, V.H. Khitrovo organized a team of scientists and local historians to write the book Nature of the Oryol Region.

As early as 1902, Vladimir Nikolaevich discovered a tiny piece of preserved steppe vegetation on the banks of the Kutma river near Bolkhov . It was one of the last shreds of the steppe in Oryol province, preserved until the 20th century.

Later Khitrovo took into account all areas of the steppe vegetation in the Orlovschina known to him and showed unceasing concern for their preservation.

He wrote in the early 20s: “Looking at these last remnants of the former colorful harmony of the region, an annoying thought is: is our land really the land of someone's age-old slaves, that we are in pursuit of bread production, and only bread for export? We will not leave for ourselves, but we will plow up the last remnants of the steppe vegetation, and our children will read only books about the past, which is available for enjoying every beauty of our region. And instead of stately and deeply instructive combinations of centuries-old natural vegetation, they will admire the pitiful, senselessly natykannymi, expensive flower gardens of urban gardens and boulevards ” (Danilov, 1985).

To preserve the last steppe areas, Vladimir Nikolayevich raised the question of organizing a reserve in the Neprez log in the vicinity of Orel, and began work on organizing a steppe reserve in the Oryol region. In 1928, he proposed to Professor B. A. Keller, Chairman of the Commission for Nature Conservation of the Central Black Earth Region , to include in the draft network of steppe reserves a number of steppe areas in the vicinity of the village of Pankova. On January 8, 1929, the State Committee for Nature Protection supported this idea. V.H. Khitrovo began collecting the necessary documentation for the creation of such a reserve, and only his subsequent arrest on charges of anti-Soviet activities and expulsion to Western Siberia prevented him from completing the matter.

From September 1943 he worked as a senior researcher at the Siberian Research Institute of Agriculture in Omsk . Shortly before his death, in 1946, by virtue of his merit, he was awarded the title of Doctor of Biological Sciences without defending a thesis.

V.H. Khitrovo died on July 7, 1949, and was rehabilitated only in the 1990s.

Major works on floristics , geobotany , biology of weeds and fodder plants, phenology , local history. He studied the vegetation of the central regions of the European part of the USSR, the Urals, Western Siberia, especially the meadows. The seeds of wild-growing winter-hardy red clover collected by him in Siberia were used by P. I. Lisitsyn for breeding purposes. He worked on the problem of seasonal polymorphism in plants. Compiled the first complete scientific description and guide to the tract "Galichya Gora" . He organized the Society for the Study of Nature in the Oryol Province (1905), the Muratov Botanical Base (Department of Botany of the Shatil Agricultural Station - 1919), the reserve “Galichya Gora” (1925). He participated in the organization of the Kiev (1913) and Novozybkovskaya (1916) agricultural experimental stations, the Oryol Pedagogical Institute (from 1921 professor), where his herbarium is located.

In 1949, B. M. Kozo-Polyansky , corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, raised the question of assigning the Khitrovo nature reserve to the “Galichya Gora” reserve , which was not completed.

• Khitrovo V. H., 1904. About Galichye mountain // Proceedings of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, vol. I, t. 35.
• Khitrovo V.H., 1913. A Guide to Galichye Mountain // News of the Society for the Study of the Nature of the Oryol Province, vol. 3

• Andreev V. H., 1952. In memory of Professor V. H. Khitrovo // Botanical Journal, vol. 37, No. 2.
• Danilov, V.I., 1980. Vladimir Nikolaevich Khitrovo // Botanical Journal, vol. 65, No. 10.
• Danilov V.I., 1985. Scientist V.H. Khitrovo, Tula, 100 pp.
• Proceedings of the I-st ​​All-Russian Congress on Nature Conservation, 1930, M.
• Kalinichenko I. M. About the manuscript of V.N. Khitrovo “Outline of the flora of the Oryol province” // Botanical journal. - 2006. - V. 91 , № 11 . - p . 1760-1763 .

• Khitrovo, Vladimir Nikolaevich - an article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia .
• A page on the orel.ru server (inaccessible link) (article from the Orlovskaya Pravda newspaper about the life and work of V. N. Khitrovo) (Retrieved October 29, 2009)