Kuzmichev, Anatoly Ivanovich

Childhood

Anatoly Ivanovich Kuzmichyov was born on February 14, 1936 in the village of Vysokoe (now the Bryansk Region ). Father Ivan Mikhalovich (b. 1897) worked as a saddler, then as a blacksmith at the Bryansk Locomotive Plant, and after the war, worked as a blacksmith at a shipyard in Rybinsk. Mother - Anna Ivanovna (b. 1898) after the war was a housewife. The family had six children: three sisters - Maria (1919), Evdokia (1922) Alexandra (1925) and three brothers - Vladimir (1929), Dmitry (1931) and Anatoly (1936) ^[1] .

The family was not rich, however, according to the denunciation of one of the villagers in the house, a search was first conducted, during which even a wall clock was taken, and then the family was sent to the Perm region. Soon, Ivan Mikhailovich was transferred to Rybinsk, where he worked as a blacksmith in the construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric station ^[1] . The family joined him before the start of World War II. For several years crowded in a hut, later taking a loan they were able to build their own house ^[2] .

In 1944, Anatoly entered the school. Schools in the closed city were poorly equipped, there were not enough textbooks, manuals, notebooks ^[2] . According to Anatoly Ivanovich’s recollections, “botany was studied only by pictures and tables” ^[3] . He became interested in botany when his sister presented him with a colorful, several-edition textbook on botany by M. I. Neishtadt . With its help, Anatoly identified all the plants in the city and its environs, remembered their Latin names ^[4] .

In 1947, together with his father, he attended the opening of a biostation in the village of Borok, subsequently transformed into the Institute of Volga Reservoirs ^[5] .

University

After leaving school, in 1954 he entered the biological and soil faculty of Moscow State University , then the largest Soviet scientists taught at Moscow State University . Thus, A. I. Oparin gave the first lecture to Kuzmichev on the origin of life, the second lecture by L. A. Zenkevich , and A. A. Uranov gave general geobotany. Kuzmichev specialized in the department of geobotany, headed by S. S. Stankov . Special courses covered majors - meadow science, forest science, tundra science, bog science. Some systematic groups of plants — cereals, sedges, were studied in depth. There was a small special course on herbarium. In 1959, Kuzmichyov successfully defended his thesis on ferns, ferns of Central Russia, the Ukrainian Carpathians, Transcaucasia, where he conducted expeditionary research ^[4] .

Kuibyshev Biostation

After graduation, Anatoly Ivanovich returned to Rybinsk, for some time taught botany at the school of the village of Kopan near the village of Borok, Nekouz district of the Yaroslavl region. Remembering his biology training at school, he tried to teach in a completely different way, explaining to students the structure of plants on living plants, and not on boring tables ^[4] . Soon he got a job at the Institute of Volga Reservoirs of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, where he was offered the position of a senior laboratory assistant at the Kuibyshev Biostation in Stavropol (now Togliatti ) ^[5] .

He was supposed to deal with the ecology and productivity of algae - a promising area associated with the "flowering" of the Kuybyshev reservoir after the construction of the Zhigulevskaya hydroelectric station - the massive development of blue-green algae. Anatoly Ivanovich participated in all expeditions of the biostation, published several works ^[4] . In 1962, for participation in the III scientific conference of young scientists of Moldova, where Kuzmichyov sent his research results, he was awarded an honorary diploma of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Moldova ^[6] .

However, feeling the lack of prospects, Anatoly Ivanovich decided to go to graduate school and, on the advice of a colleague at the biostation M. Ya. Kirpichenko, chose the Institute of Botany of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev ^[4] . Then the first independent scientific work of Kuzmichev appeared - an essay "Materials on the flora and vegetation of the rocky steppe in Zhiguli", attached to the documents for admission to graduate school. Subsequently, it was revised, supplemented and served as the topic of the article “Vegetation of the rocky steppe in Zhiguli” ^[7] .

Ukrainian period

Having successfully entered graduate school in November 18963, Anatoly Ivanovich moved to Kiev. Elizaveta Modestovna Bradis , a botanist and swamp scholar, became her scientific adviser to Kuzmichyov, and she was offered the topic for a dissertation: “The vegetation of the Volyn loess plateau” ^[4] .

Successfully defended his thesis, worked as a researcher at the Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR . This period in the life of Kuzmichyov became the most significant for him as a scientist, having an impact on subsequent years. At this time, his scientific interests related to the genesis and evolution of flora and vegetation were formed and took a finished look ^[8] .

While working at the Institute of Botany, I met my future wife, Alla Krasnova, who was finishing graduate school. They got married, in 1978, the couple had a son, Florian ^[9] . However, in the late 1970s, the situation at the Institute of Botany became aggravated, separatist sentiments prevailed, and everyone was invited to speak only Ukrainian. Once again, Anatoly Ivanovich was not given the headquarters of a senior researcher, also informally informing that no one would allow him to defend his doctoral dissertation ^[10] .

In 1980, Anatoly Ivanovich and his wife went to work at the Research Institute of Animal Husbandry in the steppe regions named after I.F. Ivanova “Askania-Nova”, where he worked in the department of the botanical park, and Alla Nikolaevna in the department of the virgin steppe “Askania-Nova” ^[11] . However, the spouses did not succeed in working at this place for a long time, the director of the institute, who invited them to work, was removed from his post, constant checks of his employees began, many of the developments begun during his management were curtailed. In such a situation, Anatoly Ivanovich Kuzmichev decided to leave this work ^[12] .

Institute of Inland Water Biology

In 1982, Kuzmichyov and his family moved to the village of Borok, located near Rybinsk, the childhood city of Anatoly Ivanovich. Here he was hired as a senior researcher at the Laboratory of Higher Aquatic Vegetation at the Institute of Biology of Inland Waters named after I. D. Papanin ^[13] .

Work at the institute was room for the work of a scientist. In his own words, he was not bothered with plans and reports, allowing himself to choose a topic and direction for further work: “In Kiev, we practically did not have such opportunities. That is, there was no such relatively free choice of topic. For me, this was important because I have a big backlog, which I want to finish, however, on a slightly different material. In Kiev, they looked at it askance and jealously ” ^[14] .

Anatoly Ivanovich continued his work on the genesis and evolution of the hydrophilic flora, taking as a research territory the classic in the historiography of botany South-West of the Russian Plain. The result of this work was the defense of a doctoral dissertation in 1992 ^[4] .

He was engaged in pedagogical work: he was the supervisor of six graduate students ^[15] . Specially for working with applicants, Anatoly Ivanovich prepared and published a bibliographic index “Hydrophilic Plants of Russia and Neighboring States”, which turned out to be in demand for a wide range of botanists as well ^[16] .

For many years of creative work, Anatoly Ivanovich Kuzmichev was awarded the Certificate of Honor of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Veteran of Labor medal ^[17] .

Anatoly Ivanovich Kuzmichyov was engaged in three areas of research: geobotany, bog science, hydrophytology.

While working on his dissertation, Anatoly Ivanovich was engaged in a region that was little studied in geobotanical terms - the Volyn loess plateau. He studied all types of vegetation represented there: swamp, forest, meadow and steppe, developed geobotanical zoning, and conducted an economic assessment of the swamps. He managed to resolve some debatable questions about the zonal affiliation of this territory, by his studies indicating the forest-steppe nature of the Volyn loess plateau with the remains of steppe vegetation ^[18] .

During the preparation of his doctoral dissertation “The Genesis and Evolution of the Wetland Flora of the South-West of the Russian Plain,” Kuzmichev substantiated the general approaches and principles of the evolution of flora and vegetation, introducing and revealing the contents of the basic concept of the florocenotic complex as the main evolving unit of the supraspecific level ^[19] . For hygrophilous flora South-west of the Russian Plain Kuzmichyov first identified the following complexes: freshwater, marine and salted waters eutrophic hydrophilic tall, hydrophilic seaside, eutrophic hygrophilous tall, grass-moss eutrophic, psammoefemeretum, hearth efemeretum, sandy coastal, small-leaved tree (hygrophilous option ), taiga (hygrophilic-psychrophilic variant), nemoral (hygrophilic variant), pine forest (hygrophilic variant), allnal, mesogygrophilous meadow-meadow ^[20] . He carried out a detailed florocenogenetic analysis of the hygrophilic flora in this territory, examining the position of each species in the system of the corresponding florocenogenetic complex, and also examining the relationship of each of the complexes with paleocomplexes ^[19] . The tendencies of accelerated transformation under the influence of the anthropogenic factor were also considered, which were considered in more detail in the subsequent works of Kuzmichev, carried out in the framework of projects and grants of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.

Continuing consideration of the evolutionary theme of florocenogenetic complexes, Kuzmichyov analyzed domestic hydrophyte literature by issuing “bibliographic summaries of vascular aquatic, coastal-aquatic and wetland plants” (1992, 2002), which served as the basis for theoretical constructions and revision of the traditional hydrophyte paradigm ^[21] .

In the course of work on a new paradigm in hydrophytology, Kuzmichyov showed the similarity of the problems of science with closely related ones - bog science, forestry and others - structural features of flora and vegetation, dynamics, productivity. At the same time, hydrophytology used much more outdated methods in comparison with those adopted in closely related sciences. Kuzmichyov also drew attention to the fact that phytocenology and private disciplines, unlike hydrophytology, have long recognized the need to analyze the development history of the studied object and subject of research. Together with students and close colleagues, Kuzmichyov developed a class of approaches and methods for processing and analyzing the hydrophilic component of the flora, based on the methodology of bog science, general phytocenology, comparative floristry and others, thereby offering modern methods for studying hydrophilic flora, methods for analyzing typological structures, and the volume of hydrophilic flora ^{[ 4]} .

The new paradigm proposed by Kuzmichyov and his students is based on the “moving body of water” model with its daily, seasonal, secular, random, and other fluctuations in water level, it is opposed to the traditional approach based on the “ideal body of water” model with a constant water level.

The methodological nature of the new paradigm - hydrophytology, is reflected in the works of followers of Kuzmichev: the hydrophilic component of the flora, partial flora, typological differentiation are considered in the work of A. N. Krasnova “The structure of the hydrophilic flora of technologically transformed reservoirs of the North Dvina water system” (1999); succession series in the work of EG Krylova “Structure and successions of the vegetation cover of technogenic transformed floodplain reservoirs of the Upper Volga” (2001); ecocenophytones by D. A. Durnikin (2006); models of a “moving body of water” with various (daily, seasonal, centuries-old, etc.) water level fluctuations in the work of M. I. Suleymanova (Dzhalalova) “Structure and dynamics of vegetation cover of coastal landscapes of the Tersko-Kum lowland under conditions of unstable level of the Caspian Sea” ( 2001); analysis of hydrophytes in phytobiota structure in the works of I. Yu. Ershov “Differentiation of aquatic phytocenosystems of the Valdai Upland and scientific issues of their protection” (1997). The most noteworthy example of the use of the methodological aspect of the new paradigm is the work of A. V. Slavgorodsky, “The Structure of the Hydrophilic Flora and Vegetation of the Oksko-Don Plain” (2001).

In 2005, the Voronezh State University organized the All-Russian Theoretical Seminar on the basis of the Galichia Gora Nature Reserve, where a joint report entitled “Paradigms in the Science of Hydrophytes” was heard.

Since graduate school, Anatoly Ivanovich devoted time to popularizing scientific knowledge. In the area of ​​knowledge, he spoke on television, radio, in the press. Since 1976, he collaborated with the newspaper "Radyanska Ukraina", where he published his "Studies on Nature" ^[15] .

He was a member of the commission for the creation of the Mologa National Park, took part in the commission for the conservation of Lake Pleshcheyevo ^[15] .

A constant participant in the Morozov Readings, held annually in Bork on the birthday of N. A. Morozov ^[15] .

Anatoly Kuzmichyov participated in the development of scientific and methodological substantiation of the requirements for the conservation and rational use of peat bogs in Russia, was a member of the expert group on the preparation of a resolution at the 8th Ramsar Conference of the Parties. From 1998 to 2003, Kuzmichyov was a member of the expert group on the implementation of the main areas of conservation and rational use of peat bogs in the Russian Wetlands International program ^[22] .

• Krasnova A.N., Ershov I. Yu., Durnikin D.I., Mazur T.P., Slavgorodsky A.V. Anatoly Ivanovich Kuzmichev. To the 70th birthday // Hydrophilic component in comparative floristry of phytobiotics of Russia / Scientific. ed. A.I. Kuzmichev. - Rybinsk : Rybinsk Printing House OJSC, 2005. - P. 5-12. - 197 p. - 150 copies. Archived March 24, 2017 on Wayback Machine
• Krasnova A.N. Three elements of Anatoly Ivanovich Kuzmichev (geobotany, bog science, hydrophytology) . - Yaroslavl, 2012 .-- S. 266. - 100 copies. - ISBN 978-5-904234-27-0 . (inaccessible link)
• Tkachenko V.S., Didukh J.P., Dubina D.V., Kucheryava L.F., Shevera M.V. Anatoly Ivanovich Kuzmichev (on the occasion of his 70th birthday) (Ukrainian) = Anatoly Ivanovich Kuzmichov ( until the 70th day of the day of birth) // Ukrainian Botanical Journal. - 2006. - T. 63 , No. 1 . - S. 131-134 . - ISSN 0372-4123 .