Aleksandr Nikolayevich Formozov (February 1 [13], 1899, Nizhny Novgorod — December 22, 1973, Moscow) was a zoologist, ecologist, wildlife artist, and nature writer. A native of Nizhny Novgorod, he later became a professor at Moscow University and one of the founders of a new branch of ecology that studies the environment-shaping activity of animals.[2]

Nizhny Novgorod Origins

Aleksandr Formozov was born into the family of Nikolay Elpidiforovich Formozov, a section head at the Treasury Chamber. According to family tradition, the Formozov line came from among the lesser Nizhny Novgorod clergy: the surname derives from the Latin formosus ("beautiful," "elegant") and was apparently assigned to one of his ancestors upon graduation from a church school in the first half of the 19th century.[3] From 1909 to 1917, Aleksandr studied at the Nizhny Novgorod Boys' Gymnasium. From childhood he kept nature observation diaries, illustrating the entries with drawings, and often went hunting with his father.[1]

In 1917–1918, Formozov studied in the chemistry department of the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute, which had been evacuated to Nizhny Novgorod. In 1919–1920 he served in the Red Army on the Southern Front in the army of I. P. Uborevich, was captured by White Cossacks, but survived. After demobilization he continued his education in the biology department of Nizhny Novgorod University.[1][2]

Scientific and Teaching Career

In 1922, Formozov moved to Moscow, transferred to Moscow University, and graduated from its Physics and Mathematics Faculty in 1925. Aleksandr Fyodorovich Kots, director of the Darwin Museum, provided the young zoologist with lodging in the museum building and hired him as an artist and taxidermist; Formozov worked at the museum in 1922–1925, creating about 70 original watercolors on zoological subjects.[2][4]

From 1928 to 1948, Formozov was a staff member of the Institute of Zoology, and from 1930 he taught in the Biology Faculty of Moscow State University. In 1935 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Biological Sciences and the title of professor without defending a dissertation. From 1935 to 1948 he headed the Department of Vertebrate Zoology in the Biology Faculty. In 1945–1962 he headed the Biogeography Department of the Institute of Geography of the USSR Academy of Sciences.[2]

His scientific interests lay in zoogeography and the ecology of mammals. Formozov founded a new field studying the environment-shaping role of animals: he was the first to systematically examine the activity of vertebrates in steppe and semi-desert regions and its influence on soils and vegetation cover. He studied the life forms of birds and mammals in relation to the landscape and conducted many years of observations on the population dynamics of the squirrel and its link to cone harvests. In 1947 he pointed out the role of rodents as a reservoir of tularemia, which was taken into account in the state system of epidemic surveillance. During the Great Patriotic War he studied the ecology of rodents that carry infections, with reference to the sites where military contingents were formed.[2]

Formozov took an active part in nature conservation: he was a member of the presidium of the Main Directorate for Nature Reserves under the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR (1946–1951), in 1958 he took part in drafting the "Long-Term Plan for the Geographic Network of Nature Reserves of the USSR," and he represented the USSR on the Commission on Medical Geography of the International Geographical Union.[1][2]

Literary and artistic legacy

Formozov's first book, "Six Days in the Forests. Adventures of Young Naturalists in Search of a Capercaillie Lek," with 84 drawings by the author, was written back during his time at the Darwin Museum and was published in 1924 by the Blue Bird publishing house with a foreword by A. F. Kots. The museum's director described the young author as "an artist of the word, of the brush, and of natural-science research."[1][2] His later works include the book "From Murman to the Amur. Travels of an Animal Painter."[1]

Links

  • Wikidata (archive) (Q4491900 — entry in the free knowledge base)
  • VIAF (65380396 — Virtual International Authority File)
  • ISNI (0000000109812302)
  • GND (1054019460 — German National Library catalog)

Sources

  1. livelib.ru — Alexander Formozov — biography, books, reviews, quotes
  2. darwin.museum-online.moscow — Formozov Alexander Nikolayevich, 1899—1973 (archive)
  3. letopis.msu.ru — Encyclopedic Dictionary: A. N. Formozov — Chronicle of Moscow University (archive)
  4. kartaslov.ru — Origins. Ancestors. Youth in Nizhny Novgorod (1899—1917) — Alexander Nikolayevich Formozov. The Life of a Russian Naturalist — Alexander Formozov
  5. darwinmuseum.ru — Formozov Alexander Nikolayevich, correspondence