Karelin, Grigory Silych

Born in a poor small-local noble family of the Petersburg province of the court bandmaster of the opera orchestra Catherine II Strength Dementievich Karelin. The exact date of birth is unknown; even his daughter only knew that he was born in January 1801. The family had 2 sons and 2 daughters; Gregory was the youngest child. He early left an orphan and at the age of 8 his older brother was given to study in the First Cadet Corps , from which he was released in 1817 as an ensign of artillery .

In 1819, Count Arakcheev , noting his outstanding abilities, took him to his own office for topographic research. According to a denunciation of a joke about Arakcheev among his comrades, on February 20, 1822 he was suddenly sent to Orenburg and appointed to the service in the local garrison. Here Karelin met the future professor of Kazan University Eversman , who began to direct independent studies of Karelin botany , zoology and mineralogy . The unusual wit and gaiety of morals with versatile learning gave him universal fame and respect, starting with the Governor General and ending with simple Cossacks. Since 1822, Karelin began to be sent on expeditions with diverse purposes (in 1823 he took part in an expedition to the steppe for topographic surveys ; in 1824 and 1825 he went to Siberian state-owned factories to direct the casting of shells ); he used this to collect materials on various branches of knowledge: on natural sciences , geography , ethnography , etc.

The real scientific expeditions of Karelin, however, begin in 1826, when, due to illness, he left military service after being promoted to captain. In 1828, he was elected a member of the Moscow Society of Naturalists . In 1827-1829, he and Eversman traveled through the lands of the former Bukeev horde and compiled its first topographic map, for which in 1829 he received a diamond ring as a gift.

In 1830, Karelin entered the service of the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was appointed to be under the khan of the Bukeev horde Dzhanger "something like an adviser ... to manage his affairs and teach the khan the sciences." At the same time, Karelin continued to ride on an expedition; So, in 1831 he participated in an expedition to the origins of Tobol ; in 1832 he fulfilled the order: to explore the north-eastern coast of the Caspian and was called to St. Petersburg, where he personally gave explanations to the Minister of Foreign Del Nesselrode regarding his proposal to build a fortification in the Kaydak Bay of the Caspian on Kizyl-tash rock. According to the minister’s report, he was accepted by Nicholas I and received at the end of 1833 a new assignment for the construction of the fortification. He brilliantly completed the task, erecting the Novoaleksandrovsky fortification quickly and expediently at the Kizyl-Tash tract . At the same time, he collected rich natural-science collections and made topographic surveys. For the successful implementation of these orders, Karelin received, in addition to the order and rank , a lump sum award of 6,000 rubles and a life-time pension of 800 rubles.

In 1836, he was appointed head of a scientific and trade expedition that had secret political assignments to the southern shores of the Caspian. Karelin and his companions mapped the bays on the east coast, including part of the Kara-Bogaz-Gol coast, gave his first description, finally confirmed the presence of a strong current from the sea to this bay; in the Balkhan Bay , the mouth of the Uzboy , one of the ancient channels of the Amu-Darya, was studied. In the continuation of this expedition, Karelin managed to get close with the Yomud Turkmen . He visited their wanderings on the southeastern coast of the Caspian Sea and brought the matter to the point where these Turkmens asked to be accepted into Russian citizenship. This was not paid attention to, and after 40 years had to subdue them with weapons .

In 1838, Karelin was transferred to the Ministry of Finance .

From 1839 to 1845, on behalf of the Moscow Society of Naturalists, he took scientific trips to Altai , Tarbagatai , Alatau and Dzungaria , together with his pupil and pupil I.P. Kirilov, he explored Semirechye , the upper reaches of the Irtysh and its tributaries . The result of these trips was the collection of rich collections and the supply of museums and scholars to them, both Russian and foreign. In 1841-1842, Karelin and Kirilov discovered 8 new genera and 221 species of plants. In 1842-1845 he lived in Semipalatinsk , making only small trips to Lake Zaysan and to the Bukhtarma River .

In 1845 he retired and settled in his village near Moscow, travel stopped. But in 1849 he again went to the Orenburg Territory , to Guryev , where he spent his last 20 years without a break, collecting zoological collections, and especially observing bird flights .

He died on December 29, 1872 ( January 10, 1873 ) in Guryev.

For the past 20 years, he has been diligently studying the nature of the region, but, unfortunately, most of his valuable manuscripts and collections died shortly before his death in a fire in his house. The materials left after the death of Karelin represent only part of what he collected; nevertheless, there are many observations in them that are extremely valuable and important; the map of the ancient channel of Amu Darya, taken by Karelin in 1836, is especially important. Karelin's collections have partly disappeared, but much remains and is stored in museums of various institutions and among private individuals. So, the herbarium is located partly at St. Petersburg University , partly at the Imperial Botanical Garden . Many manuscripts disappeared in Guryev after his death.

After his death, his papers were transferred to the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists and then published under the editorship of Professor M. N. Bogdanov in the X volume of “Notes of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society” (1868) under the heading “Travels of Grigory Silych Karelin on the Caspian Sea”. There are reports on expeditions and various articles by Karelin himself. From his scientific works, lists of Altai and Dzungarian plants are important. There are many new genera and species.

In honor of the outstanding natural scientist G. S. Karelin, the following are named:

• The genus of plants Karelinia ( Karelinia Less. ) From the family Aster .

• Ursa Karelina ( lat.Axiopoena karelini ) - a butterfly of the genus Axiopoena from the family of dipper .
• Bronze Karelin ( lat.Protaetia karelini ) - a beetle of the genus Protaetia from the family lamellar (Scarabaeidae).
• Triton Karelin (lat.Triturus karelinii).

• Wife of Alexandra Nikolaevna Semenova.
• Daughter Sophia.
• Alexander 's daughter is a children's writer.
• Daughter Nadezhda, married to a doctor of medicine N.E. Eversman, the eldest son of a naturalist E.A. Eversman .
• Daughter Elizabeth is a translator, grandmother of Alexander Blok , wife of A. N. Beketov ^[1] .

• Travels of Gregory Silych Karelin on the Caspian Sea . - SPb. : Type of. Imp. Acad. Sciences, 1883. - 497 p. - (Zap. Imp. Rus. Geogr. About-va according to the general geography, t. 10).
• Notes on general geography // Izv. Imp. islands of lovers of natural sciences, anthropology and ethnography. - 1868. - T. LVII . - S. 37 .

• Karelin, Grigory Silych // Big Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 vol.] / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
• Karelin, Grigory Silich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1895. - T. XIVa. - S. 492.
• Lipsky V.I. Gregory Silych Karelin (1801-1872). His life and travels. - SPb. , 1905.
• Pavlov N.V. Full members of the Moscow Society of Naturalists Grigory Silych Karelin (1801–1872) and his pupil and friend Ivan Petrovich Kirillov (1821–1842) . - M. , 1940. - 40 p. - (Historical Series. No. 7).
• Steinberg E. L. The first explorers of the Caspian Sea (XVIII — XIX centuries). - M. , 1949.
• Lipschitz S. Yu. Botanical and bibliographic notes. I. About one forgotten article by G. S. Karelin // Botanical Journal. - 1955. - No. 6 .
• Gubanov I.A., Bagdasarova T.V., Balandina T.P. The scientific heritage of the outstanding Russian florists G.S. Karelina and I.P. Kirilova / Edited by R.V. Kamelina. - Moscow State University, Biological Faculty, Herbarium named after D.P. Syreyshchikova (MW). - M. , 1998 .-- 95 s. - 300 copies.