Koren, Johan (zoologist)

Even as a child, Johan became interested in zoology and decided to become a zoologist and traveler. From 1897 to 1899, at the age of 17, he (along with Amundsen ) took part in the Belgian Antarctic expedition on board the vessel Belgica. The expedition almost ended in disaster - the ship froze into the ice near the island of Peter I and drifted into the Bellingshausen Sea for 13 months.

After the expedition, Koren worked as a huntsman, and also collected exhibits for zoological museum collections in Finnmark , Norway's northernmost region ( fülke ) bordering Russia . He also visited the Russian side of the border - in Northern Finland , on the Kola Peninsula , in 1902-1903 he wintered on Novaya Zemlya as part of the Birkeland expedition to study the northern lights .

In 1906, he again participated as a zoologist in the Antarctic expedition, which also ended unsuccessfully. The ship crashed near the Crozet Islands , but the crew managed to escape, after some time they were discovered and delivered to Australia . Koren refused to participate in the polar expedition; he was already planning an expedition to Siberia .

In 1908, Johan Koren, together with another Norwegian, was planning to get to Anadyr through Kamchatka , and again trouble happened - a friend drowned, the Chukchi himself saved him at the last moment. However, the collected materials were saved, with them he got to Nome in Alaska . In America, Koren's findings aroused interest, and in subsequent years he continued to explore the northern coast of the Chukchi Peninsula and the coast of the Bering Sea .

In 1911, with the support of the scientific community, Koren organized a large expedition to Kolyma . The schooner of the Kittiwake expedition was the first ship to arrive in Nizhnekolymsk . This village became the main base of Koren until the end of his life.

On the way back to Alaska in 1912, Korena again suffered a misfortune - the schooner sank, and he crossed the frozen Bering Strait on foot, becoming the first European ^[1] to do this. However, most of the materials were saved and a year later delivered to the United States. The finds made a sensation - several new species of animals and birds were described. After that, the Smithsonian institute hired Koren to participate in an even larger expedition that set off in 1914 .

The outbreak of the war , then the revolution , internal divisions led to the cessation of work and the return of the expedition to America. Koren stayed in Nizhnekolymsk, where he settled with a Russian woman ^{[comm. 1]} Ivan Korin, as he was called here, continued to collect materials, he even managed to send them to US museums, and also was engaged in the purchase of leather from the local population and the delivery of food.

In February 1919, Koren went to Vladivostok and arrived there already seriously ill " Spaniard ." Johan Koren died on March 3 in the American Red Cross hospital on Russky Island , and was buried at the Pokrovsky cemetery in Vladivostok ^[2] .

Although Johan Koren was not a professional zoologist and worked on the instructions of museums, he nevertheless made a significant contribution to the study of Northern Europe (Finmark, the Kola Peninsula, Novaya Zemlya) and North-Eastern Siberia, collecting significant biological, paleontological and ethnological collections. The exhibits of Koren, often even without indicating his name, are in the collections of many museums in Europe and America. In addition, he described 12 previously unknown species and subspecies of birds and small mammals ^[3] , discovered nesting sites of some bird species, in particular, the great sandpit ( Calidris tenuirostris ) and the shovel ( Eurynorhynchus pygmeus ) ^[1] .

Koren proposed and facilitated the opening of a trade sea route between Alaska and Kolyma. In difficult years for Russia, he made a significant contribution to the provision of food to North-Eastern Siberia.

In 1919-1920, the Royal Amundsen expedition spent the winter in Chukotka near the island of Aion . Max Singer in the book "112 days on dogs and deer" quotes the words of Innokenty Chetverikov, Kolyma:

... I spent almost a month with Amundsen on Aion Island ... He asks me through Olonkin, their translator, to go to Nizhnekolymsk. There Koren lived, collected various gulls and mice. The heads of different animals. Stuffed did. I traveled with this collection with Olonkin ...

- ^[4]

Amundsen later sent exhibits that survived after Koren’s death to Norway.

In the early years of the 21st century , the Yakut authorities decided to create the Kolyma-Koren resource reserve, the Koren museum in the administrative center of the Nizhnekolymsky ulus - Chersky - and a memorial sign in Nizhnekolymsk ^{[5] [6]} in the Kolyma delta and nearby islands.

1. PDF : Aktuelle utenrikspolitiske spørsmål Rapport: 2001. Norwegian-Russian relations 1814-1917: Materials of a scientific conference at the Norwegian Folk Museum March 10-12, 2001 . S. 162-164. (Nor.) (Rus.) Retrieved May 23, 2009.
2. Gutten Norge glemte. Johan Korens ekspedisjon til Kolyma-elva i nordøstre Sibir, 1914-1918 . (Nor.) Av Anne Finnanger. Retrieved May 23, 2009.
3. In honor of the Norwegian zoologist. (unavailable link) // Yakutia. - June 2, 2001. Retrieved May 23, 2009.
4. Alexey Chikachev. He was attracted by exploits. (unavailable link) // Yakutia. - July 4, 2002. Retrieved May 23, 2009.