Vorobyov, Konstantin Alexandrovich

K.A. Vorobyov was born in the family of a wealthy Moscow construction contractor Alexander Vasilievich Vorobyov. His wife Maria Kozminichna came from the Timofeev family. These were two successful merchant families who moved to Moscow in the middle of the 19th century from the central regions of Russia. In the family of A.V. Vorobyev, in addition to Konstantin, had two more sons and one daughter.

Konstantin Vorobyov studied at the Commercial School of Tsarevich Alexei (currently it is the G.V. Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics ). From his youth, birds were his main hobby. In 1919 he entered, and in 1925 he graduated from the natural department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University . He studied under such prominent zoologists as M. A. Menzbir , S. A. Buturlin , G. A. Kozhevnikov , A.N. Severtsov , B.M. Zhitkov . However, his immediate teacher was a major zoologist S.I. Ognev .

As a student, in 1920 , at the suggestion of Kozhevnikov, together with V. G. Geptner, he collected birds for the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University on the territory of the Moscow province . In 1921-1922 he participated in research under the leadership of S. I. Ognev in the Voronezh province , and in 1923 in the Caucasus (together with V. G. Geptner , L. B. Boehme , N. V. Shibanov ). Since that time, his entire creative life has passed on travels: in total, he has 37 expeditions.

In 1925 he graduated from Moscow State University and went on an expedition to the Kostroma province . In 1927-1931 he worked as a senior researcher (senior scientist) in the Astrakhan reserve , explored the Volga delta , the Caspian steppes and desert. In 1932-1935 he became a zoologist of the Amur expedition, explored the Ussuri taiga, as well as the largest regional biogeographic site: the area of ​​the relict lake Evoron , through which one of the three main branches of seasonal migratory birds flows , living in the vast expanses of North-East Asia in summer and in winter - in the countries of Southeast Asia. From 1935 to 1940 he was the director of the All-Union Ornithological State Reserve Hasan-Kuli , created in 1932 in the Caspian part of Turkmenistan. This area has a rare combination of favorable conditions for bird wintering.

Since 1940, he worked on the collected material at the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University , in 1943 he wrote and defended his thesis.

In 1944, he conducted another expedition to the Caucasus (together with S. S. Turov ). Since the end of 1944 he became a senior scientist. in the Far Eastern branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences . At this time, explored the Ussuri region from the Korean border in the south to the upper reaches of the Amur , as well as the Sikhote-Alin massif. Since 1950, he worked in the Volga-Dubna Nature Reserve , was the head of the Central Ringing Bureau of the Main Directorate for Nature Reserves of Moscow, and in 1952 he was appointed senior scientist. and the scientific secretary of the Borok Biostation of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in the Yaroslavl Region (today it is the Institute of Inland Water Biology named after I.D.

In 1955 he defended his doctoral dissertation "Ornithological fauna of the Ussuri region and its zoogeographic analysis . "

From 1955 to 1963, being a senior scientist Yakut branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, explored a vast territory from the Aldan Highlands in the south to the Arctic Ocean . In 1965-1966 he spent summer work on the Tien Shan , first on the Gissar Range , then in the Trans-Ili Alatau . Honored Scientist of the YAASSR (1964).

He retired in 1965 and lived in Moscow, worked with the ornithological collections of the Zoological Museum , published scientific and popular articles. His personal rich collection of birds and clutches entered the Zoological Museum in the 1970s, and the scientific library was transferred in 2004 .

The signature of K. A. Vorobyov is under a well-known letter that was sent to the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1955 by leading biologists, mathematicians, physicists and chemists who objected to “ Lysenkoism ” and spoke out in defense of the practically defeated Soviet biological science.

Peru K. A. Vorobyov owns the classic monographs “Birds of the Ussuri Territory” (1954), which was published in Japan in 1966 , as well as “Birds of Yakutia” (1963) - a complete summary of the region’s avifauna. He also wrote the popular book Notes of the Ornithologist (1973, 1978) about expeditions and meetings with famous ornithologists of the older generation; it has survived two editions. Konstantin Aleksandrovich Vorobyov is also the author of more than 100 scientific articles.

• Vorobiev K.A. Birds of the Ussuri Territory / USSR Academy of Sciences . Far East. branch . - M .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1954. - 360, [42] p.
• Vorobiev K.A. Birds of Yakutia / USSR Academy of Sciences. Sib. Separation . Yakut. branch. - M .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1963. - 336, [52] p.
• Vorobyov K. A. Notes of the ornithologist / Afterword. prof. V. G. Heptner . - M .: Nauka , 1973. - 177, [40] p. - ( Popular Science Series of the USSR Academy of Sciences ).
• Vorobyov K. A. Notes of the ornithologist / Afterword. prof. V. G. Heptner . - 2nd ed., Ext. - M .: Nauka , 1978. - 256, [4] p. - ( Popular Science Series of the USSR Academy of Sciences ). - 50,000 copies.

• Vorobyev Konstantin Aleksandrovich (1899-1988) // Lyubarsky G. Yu. History of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University: ideas, people, structures. - M.: Publishing. KMK Partnership of Scientific Publications, 2009, p. 505.
• Geptner V. G. Konstantin Aleksandrovich Vorobyov (on the occasion of his 70th birthday) // Zoological Journal , 1969, v. 48. No. 12, pp. 1898-1899.
• Flint V.E. Konstantin Aleksandrovich Vorobyov (1899-1988) // Moscow Ornithologists / Ed. Advice: V. T. Butyev , V. M. Galushin, M. V. Kalyakin , V. M. Konstantinov, V. S. Shishkin; Repl. Ed .: V. E. Flint , O. L. Rossolimo . - M .: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1999 .-- S. 68-83. - 528 s. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 5-211-04119-4 . (per.)
• To the 50th anniversary of the “Letters of Three Hundred”. 2005. VOGiS Bulletin, vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 12-33 (Novosibirsk)