VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
In the mid 19th century, the Russian economy was developing rapidly and needed accurate information about Russian lands and adjacent territories to sustain this growth. Then, scientists said that establishing the Russian Geographical Society, would enable them to bring together academics, members of the public and the government with the shared aim of accumulating data on the country's natural resources, the state of its population, mineral deposits, agriculture and trade.
By then, similar societies had already been established elsewhere in Europe. The Paris Geographical Society, the earliest such society, was established in 1821 and was followed by geographical societies in Berlin and London. Russia became the fourth European country to establish its own geographical society.
The Russian Geographical Society was preceded by an academic club headed by Pyotr Keppen (1833-1980).
The Society was co-founded by navigators Ferdinand Wrangel (1796-1870) and Fyodor Litke (1797-1882), astronomer Vasily Struve (1793-1864), Admiral Ivan Kruzenshtern (1770-1846), lexicographer Vladimir Dal (1801-1872), Minister of Finance Fyodor Vronchenko (1779-1852), statesman Mikhail Muravyov (1796-1866), historian Konstantin Arsenyev (1789-1865) and other academics.
On August 18, 1845, Emperor Nicholas I issued his prescript approving the proposal made by Russian Interior Minister Count Lev Perovsky (1792-1856) to establish the Russian Geographical Society in St Petersburg.
The main purpose of those who founded the Society was to "study our native land and its inhabitants." In effect, the Society aimed to collect and popularise Russian geographical, statistical and ethnographic information.
Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich (1827-1892), the second son of Nicholas I, educated by Litke, became the first Chairman of the Russian Geographical Society.
After the death of Grand Duke Konstantin, the Society was headed by Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich (1859-1919). After 1917 its chairpersons, later called presidents, were elected.
Fyodor Litke was the first de facto head of the Russian Geographical Society from 1845 until 1850 when he was replaced for a seven-year period by Senator Mikhail Muravyov. Litke headed the Society once again in 1857-1873. After the famous admiral died, Pyotr Semyonov Tian-Shansky (1827-1914) headed the Society for the next 41 years until his own death in 1914.
On October 19, 1845, the conference room at the Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts hosted the first general meeting of full-time members of the Russian Geographical Society that elected the Society Council.
In the early 1850s, the Society established its first regional departments, namely, the Caucasian department in Tiflis, now called Tbilisi, and the Siberian department in Irkutsk. The Orenburg, North-Western, South-Western, West Siberian, Amur and Turkestan departments were subsequently opened in Vilno, now called Vilnius, Kiev, Omsk, Khabarovsk and Tashkent, respectively.
These departments began to study their respective regions quite actively.
The Russian Geographical Society organised numerous expeditions, explored Siberia and Russia's Far East on a grand scale and also conducted research outside Russia.
The geographer Yuly Shokalsky (1856-1940) headed the Society from 1914. He also chaired the Committee of the North which was established in 1920, and which united virtually all organisations involved in developing northern regions.
The exploration of Central Asia continued. The monograph "Mongolia. Amdo and the Dead City of Khara-Khoto" by the Russian explorer Pyotr Kozlov (1863-1935) was published in 1923. That same year, the Council of People's Commissars (Soviet Government) approved the organisation of another expedition to explore Mongolia and Tibet.
The Society was headed by geneticist Nikolai Vavilov (1887-1943) and by zoologist and geographer Lev Berg (1876-1950) from 1931 to 1940 and from 1940 to 1950, respectively. According to Berg, efforts to assist the economy and to popularise geographical knowledge were at the core of Society's activities.
A hospital was opened in the Society building during the September 1941 - January 1944 German siege of Leningrad. The Society's cartographers helped lay the famous Road of Life, which saved many lives, across Lake Ladoga.
After the war, scientists with the All Union Geographical Society facilitated nationwide economic development, the country's road-and-transport network and the assertion of the recreation sector.
In 1992, the Society Council decided to reinstate the Russian Geographical Society's original name.
