ФЁДОР ДМИТРИЕВИЧ ПЛЕСКЕ (1858-1932) И ЕГО РОЛЬ В РАЗВИТИИ РОССИЙСКОЙ ОРНИТОЛОГИИ (К 150-ЛЕТИЮ СО ДНЯ РОЖДЕНИЯ)

• Main Author: Потапов, Р.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Русский орнитологический журнал 2008
• Subjects: Kola Peninsula; Russland; kola peninsula; Tundra
• Online Access: http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/fyodor-dmitrievich-pleske-1858-1932-i-ego-rol-v-razvitii-rossiyskoy-ornitologii-k-150-letiyu-so-dnya-rozhdeniya; http://cyberleninka.ru/article_covers/15236148.png

July 23, 2008 is the date when 150 anniversary of Feodor D. Pleske will be celebrated. His name is known to every Russian zoologist. His scientific activity comprised ornithology, entomology (dipterology), and museum's sphere in general, but first of all, he was an ornithologist. The main goal of this publication includes describing Pleske's achievements in ornithology. Pleske was born in Peterhoff in a family of a German nobleman. After a gymnasium (1868-1872), he graduated from the famous "Petrischule", where Latin, mathematics, and basics of philosophy and natural sciences were taught mostly by German tutors (1873-1878), and, later, from St. Petersburg University (1878-1881), as a Ph. D. in Natural Science. He started collecting birds already in 1872, when he was 14 years old. In 1881, he granted a collection of birds (350 scientific skins and 133 stuffed birds) to his beloved Zoological Museum in St. Petersburg. His first scientific publication was dedicated to the avifauna of Orenburg Province (Ost-Russland) and published in 1878. In 1881, he got an appointment as the scientific secretary of the St. Petersburg Natural Society and actively participated in the expedition of this Society to the Kola Peninsula, where he studied bird and mammal fauna. F.D. Pleske published a total of 37 scientific works, including 6 monographs. The most voluminous one was "Ornithographia Rossica" (the first attempt to describe the Russian avifauna) that included 5 issues (725 pages in total) dedicated to the subfamily Silviinae). He appointed the title of the extraordinary member of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences and headed the Zoological Museum of this Academy in 1893-1896. His first monograph was published in 1886 in German, and his last one, in 1928 in English. Pleske was forced to edit this last book ("The Birds of Eurasian Tundra") abroad (in Boston, USA), because he mentioned there the heroic role of A.V. Kolchak in the famous Russian Polar Expedition. The study of the scientific results of this expedition was the main item of this book. Admiral Kolchak, at that time an officer of the Navy, later, in 1918, headed the White Army struggle with the communist regime in Russia. Therefore, in 1920-1930-ies, simple mentioning of his name in positive sense meant arrest, imprisonment, or even death sentence. However, Pleske positively refused to remove the name of Kolchak from his manuscript; therefore, up to the 1970-ies, even mentioning of this brilliant monograph in Russian scientific literature was dangerous to the authors. F.D. Pleske died in 1932 and was buried in the Lutheran cemetery in St. Petersburg. Details of his death are yet unknown. Only two obituaries were published after his death and both of them in ornithological magazines "Ibis" (Great Britain) and "Alauda" (France). No Soviet edition published any information on the death of this great scientist. July 23, 2008 is the date when 150 anniversary of Feodor D. Pleske will be celebrated. His name is known to every Russian zoologist. His scientific activity comprised ornithology, entomology (dipterology), and museum's sphere in general, but first of all, he was an ornithologist. The main goal of this publication includes describing Pleske's achievements in ornithology. Pleske was born in Peterhoff in a family of a German nobleman. After a gymnasium (1868-1872), he graduated from the famous "Petrischule", where Latin, mathematics, and basics of philosophy and natural sciences were taught mostly by German tutors (1873-1878), and, later, from St. Petersburg University (1878-1881), as a Ph. D. in Natural Science. He started collecting birds already in 1872, when he was 14 years old. In 1881, he granted a collection of birds (350 scientific skins and 133 stuffed birds) to his beloved Zoological Museum in St. Petersburg. His first scientific publication was dedicated to the avifauna of Orenburg Province (Ost-Russland) and published in 1878. In 1881, he got an appointment as the scientific secretary of the St. Petersburg Natural Society and actively participated in the expedition of this Society to the Kola Peninsula, where he studied bird and mammal fauna. F.D. Pleske published a total of 37 scientific works, including 6 monographs. The most voluminous one was "Ornithographia Rossica" (the first attempt to describe the Russian avifauna) that included 5 issues (725 pages in total) dedicated to the subfamily Silviinae). He appointed the title of the extraordinary member of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences and headed the Zoological Museum of this Academy in 1893-1896. His first monograph was published in 1886 in German, and his last one, in 1928 in English. Pleske was forced to edit this last book ("The Birds of Eurasian Tundra") abroad (in Boston, USA), because he mentioned there the heroic role of A.V. Kolchak in the famous Russian Polar Expedition. The study of the scientific results of this expedition was the main item of this book. Admiral Kolchak, at that time an officer of the Navy, later, in 1918, headed the White Army struggle with the communist regime in Russia. Therefore, in 1920-1930-ies, simple mentioning of his name in positive sense meant arrest, imprisonment, or even death sentence. However, Pleske positively refused to remove the name of Kolchak from his manuscript; therefore, up to the 1970-ies, even mentioning of this brilliant monograph in Russian scientific literature was dangerous to the authors. F.D. Pleske died in 1932 and was buried in the Lutheran cemetery in St. Petersburg. Details of his death are yet unknown. Only two obituaries were published after his death and both of them in ornithological magazines "Ibis" (Great Britain) and "Alauda" (France). No Soviet edition published any information on the death of this great scientist.