Ivan Lepekhin discovered what. Daily Notes of the Journey of the Doctor and the Academy of Sciences, Adjunct Ivan Lepekhin in Different Provinces of the Russian State

September 21, 1740 - April 18, 1802

Russian traveler, naturalist and lexicographer

Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1771).

Path in Science

He gave a comparative description of the natural zones of the globe, pointed out the dependence of the distribution of plants on different climates, described the plant landscapes characteristic of different geographical zones (vegetation of deserts, tropics, temperate and northern latitudes), noted the originality of plant groups in different topographic conditions.

He studied at the academic gymnasium, then studied medicine at the University of Strasbourg (he graduated in 1767 with a doctorate in medicine). He corresponded from Strasbourg with M. V. Lomonosov, who intended him to occupy the department of botany at the Academy.

Returning to St. Petersburg, he was appointed an adjunct, and from 1771 an academician in natural sciences.

He participated in many scientific expeditions that explored various Russian provinces from a natural and ethnographic point of view: in 1768-1772 he traveled, partly alone, partly with Pallas, through the Urals, the Volga region, Western Siberia, and later also through the Russian North and the western Russian provinces of Russia, moreover, he compiled remarkable botanical collections for his time.

The notes made by Lepekhin during these trips formed the basis of his book “Day Notes of a Travel<…>in different provinces of the Russian state” (1771-1805, in 4 parts; part 4, published posthumously, completed and published by N. Ya. Ozeretskovsky).

For a long time he headed the Imperial Botanical Garden in St. Petersburg. He was the first major Russian researcher of medicinal plants.

Named after Lepekhin

Plant genus Lepechinia (Lep?chinia Willd.) of the Lamiaceae family. Name given by K. L. Vildenov, first published in 1806.
Plant genus Lepechiniella (Lepechiniella Popov) of the Borage family (Boraginaceae). Name given by M. G. Popov, first published in "Flora of the USSR" in November 1953.
Mount Lepekhina in the southern part of the Northern Urals, in the axial strip of the Ural Mountains, west of the Denezhkin Kamen massif, on the territory of the Sverdlovsk Region (60.433333, 59.233333, absolute height 1330 m)
Lepekhinka village in the Krasnokutsky district of the Saratov region and the Lepekhinskaya railway station of the Volga railway (on the Krasny Kut - Astrakhan line).

Printed works

Lepekhin I. I. “Daily Notes of the Journey of the Doctor and the Academy of Sciences Adjunct Ivan Lepekhin to Different Provinces of the Russian State in 1768 and 1769. Part 1." (St. Petersburg, 1771);
Lepekhin I. I. “Continuation of the Daily Notes of the Journey of the Doctor and the Academy of Sciences, Associate Ivan Lepekhin in Different Provinces of the Russian State in 1770. Part 2." (St. Petersburg, 1772);
Lepekhin I. I. “Continuation of the Daily Notes of the Journey of the Doctor and the Academy of Sciences, Adjunct Ivan Lepekhin in Different Provinces of the Russian State in 1771. Part 3." (St. Petersburg, 1780);
Lepekhin I. I. “Continuation of the Daily Notes of the Journey of Doctor and Associate of the Academy of Sciences Ivan Lepekhin through various provinces of the Russian state. Part 4." (St. Petersburg, 1805). Published posthumously, compiled by N. Ya. Ozeretskovsky and includes the end of the “Day Notes”, as well as a number of geographical works by N. Ya. Ozeretskovsky, V. V. Krestinin, A. I. Fomin and others.
Lepekhin I. I. “Reflections on the need to experience the medicinal power of one’s own plants” (M., 1783);
Lepekhin I. I. “A Brief Guide to Silk Breeding in Russia” (St. Petersburg, 1798);
Lepekhin I. I. "Methods of disgust in cattle case" (St. Petersburg, 1800).

Lepekhin Ivan Ivanovich (1740-1802)

Lepekhin Ivan Ivanovich (1740-1802)

265 years since the birth of the naturalist and traveler

“Uma was fast; in judgments he is firm, in research he is accurate, in observations he is correct ... "

N.Ya. Ozeretskovsky, student, closest comrade and friend of I.I. Lepekhina

I.I. Lepekhin is one of the most prominent Russian travelers and scientists of the second half of the 18th century. He devoted his whole life to the study of nature and natural resources of Russia. Lepekhin possessed truly encyclopedic knowledge in the field of natural history, medicine, geography and literature, he was fluent in Latin, Greek, German, and French. According to the apt description of a contemporary, "he had a quick mind; he was firm in his judgments; he was accurate in research; he was correct in observations."

Ivan Ivanovich was born on September 10, 1740 in St. Petersburg in the family of a soldier of the Semenovsky regiment. By decree of the Governing Senate, he was appointed in 1751 to the Academic Gymnasium. In the decree about the new student, in particular, it was said: "He is ten years old, not from the nobility, a soldier's son, he is Russian literate and trained to write ...". For the success shown in the sciences, in 1760 he was promoted to student at the Academy, and in 1762 he was sent to study at the University of Strasbourg, where he received the opportunity to study "with the famous professors of that time - Shpilman, Lobshtein, Schurer and others."

In 1767, having received a doctorate in medicine, Lepekhin went to Holland, where he completed his education at the University of Leiden. Upon his return from Russia in 1768, the young scientist was elected an adjunct in the natural history of the Academy of Sciences, and three years later (1771) became an academician.

In the summer of 1768, several scientific detachments headed by young scientists left St. Petersburg for different regions of Russia. Their paths lay on the Volga, the Caucasus, the Urals. Thus began the work of the expeditions that went down in the history of science under the name of academic expeditions, since they were organized by the Academy of Sciences. The main goal of the expeditions was to identify, describe and study the natural resources of Russia, necessary for its further economic development. Academic expeditions consisted of five detachments: two from Astrakhan and three from Orenburg. The Astrakhan detachments were supposed to conduct field research in the south of European Russia and the Caucasus, the task of the Orenburg detachments included the study of a vast territory from Simbirsk to Guryev-town, the Ural Mountains and the Iset province, the Irtysh and Tobol rivers. The leaders of the Orenburg detachments were appointed young energetic scientists - Academician Peter Simon Pallas, adjunct Ivan Ivanovich Lepekhin and Professor Johann Peter Falk.

Three gymnasium students of the Academic Gymnasium were included in the Lepekhin detachment: N.Ya. Ozeretskovsky, T.S. Malygin and A. Lebedev. And also "draughtsman" M. Shelaurov (Shalaurov) and "stuffer" (stuffed animal) F. Fedotiev. Nikolai Ozeretskovsky, the future academician, became Lepekhin's best student and assistant on the expedition.

The expedition left St. Petersburg on July 8, 1768. Its route ran through Vladimir-Arzamas-Simbirsk-Cheremshanskaya fortress-Saratov-Tsaritsyn-Astrakhan-Guryev. Until the end of the year, Lepekhin and his companions explored the north of the Volga Upland, the upper reaches of the Bolshoy Cheremshan and Sok rivers. An interesting fact: before starting his research in the Orenburg region, he visited P.I. Rychkov in his Spassky estate in order to take advantage of the advice and advice of the famous explorer of the Southern Urals. He arrived in Spasskoye on September 5, 1768 and lived there for three days. He described this meeting in his "Day Notes ...", introducing Rychkov as "a husband, famous for our excellent curious exercises." Rychkov's advice and his "Topography of the Orenburg province" served Lepekhin in good stead in the study of the region.

In the spring of 1769, the expedition explored the south of the Volga Upland and moved through Akhtuba to the mouth of the Yaik. Having passed the Yaitsky town, she arrived in Orenburg and, following to the north, wintered on the Belaya River in the city of Tabynsk south of Ufa. From here, Lepekhin was to begin the study of the cherished Ural Mountains, where the scientist had long dreamed of visiting. In Tabynsk, a plan for the study of the Urals was drawn up and a route for the campaign was developed.

Lepekhin set out on a journey through the Urals on May 11, 1770. As soon as he started his route, he noticed an oil show on the Inzer River, a tributary of the Belaya. He named this viscous liquid "asphalt". The scientist correctly concluded that "asphalt" seeps to the surface from other strata located nearby, and regretfully stated that it was not used in any way. Ivan Ivanovich recommended to explore the area in detail in the hope that, in addition to "asphalt", coal could also be found here. The scientist also visited salt springs near Tobolsk. According to his conclusion, they could be of considerable importance for the boiling out of salt.

Lepekhin moved along the Urals more slowly than P.S. Pallas. Many wonderful natural objects attracted his attention, among them - caves, in particular Kapova. The scientist penetrated all accessible parts of the cave and collected material about it that supplemented the one published by Rychkov in 1760. Lepekhin compiled a rather detailed and colorful essay on the Kapova cave, moreover, having visited it and a number of other caves in the Urals, he came to the conclusion that all of them were formed as a result of the dissolving activity of groundwater. lepekhin traveler ural mine

The further route of the expedition passed along the Belaya River to one of the highest mountains in the Southern Urals, Iryamyal-Tau (Iremel). After compiling a brief description of the mountain and noting that the Belaya River originates from it, Lepekhin expressed the correct thoughts about "where the water gets to the top of the mountains." In other words, why is there a lot of precipitation on Iremel and other peaks of the Urals. The scientist correctly believed that on the tops of high mountains, where the air temperature is lower than at the foot, moisture condensation occurs. This contributes to abundant precipitation and is, in his opinion, the reason for the formation of rivers on the tops of mountain ranges.

Visiting a number of mines on the eastern slope of the Urals, describing and mapping the sources of the Yaika, Miass and Uya rivers, the Trans-Ural lakes (Argazi, Kundravy, Chebarkul, Miassovo, Sunukul, Misyash, etc.), the mountain peaks Avalyak, Iremel, Barsuk-Tau, etc. ., the expedition headed to the "Miyas peaks", noting along the way that "the above places are pleased to prove the foreshadowing of the late Professor Gmelin, who concluded about the Iset province in his passage that this country should abound in high metals."

Unfortunately, the further journey was complicated by unfavorable weather conditions: it rained continuously. This forced Lepekhin "to leave the mountain range for some time and turn to the Iset road, which lies from the Chelyabinsk fortress to the city of Yekaterinburg. To this end, we were most motivated by the hope of a change in rainy time and that we, relieved in the center of our journey, could more easily overcome the Ural cliffs" .

Moving in the direction of Kundravinskaya Sloboda - Chebarkulskaya Fortress, Lepekhin noted that "the Ural slope between the peaks of the Ural, Miass and Uya rivers gave hope to silver ores, and on this slope it seemed to us that we had entered a gold mine. Here, according to the marks of the vast valley, everywhere signs of gold were showing... On the arable land to the midday side, a harrow pulled out a sandy glandular stone, in which one could occasionally notice golden native grains. From the Chebarkul fortress, Lepekhin's detachment headed for the Kasli and Kyshtym factories.

From the description of the Kyshtym “iron-making” plant: “It has 1 blast furnace with 2 blast furnaces; three hammer factories for forging iron with 12 hammers, of which 9 are considered valid and 3 spare. which a water-actuated hammer for making steel with two forges belonging to it ... Both at the upper and lower Kyshtym factories, artisans and workers count 748 souls, of which 701 souls are their own and 47 are given from revision to factory work, from among those who do not remember their relationship and illegitimate ... Cast iron is smelted up to 190,000 pounds."

Unlike the Kyshtym factories, the Kasli factory is "surrounded by a wooden stronghold, and the whole structure on it is wooden. It can be considered both an iron and copper smelter ... Cast iron at the plant is smelted in full plant action up to 133,000 pounds. Craftsmen and other factory people 727 souls " .

Moving north, Lepekhin's detachment visited the Kasli Lakes, the villages of Alabuga, Tyubuk, the Shcherbakovka and Bagaryak rivers, the Sinar iron mine, and finally arrived in Yekaterinburg. Without staying long in Yekaterinburg, the researcher went to the Chusovaya River. The scientist visited only the upper reaches of the river, noticing its sinuosity, speed of flow, picturesque banks. On August 10, 1770, Lepekhin arrived in Kungur and the very next day went to inspect the famous Kungur cave, which made an indelible impression on him.

Having completed his research in the vicinity of Kungur, he went to Krasnoufimsk, visited a number of factories of the Orenburg department: Simsky, Katav-Ivanovsky, Yuryuzansky, to which he had to make his way through "abundant forests" and "hilly roads". From here he went to the region of the highest mountains of the Southern Urals, in particular, to the Zigalga ridge. The ascent took place in rainy weather. The scientist noted the forested nature of the ridge, the huge rocks protruding in some places on the slopes, the swampiness of the flattened areas at the top, which, as you know, are generally characteristic of many Ural ridges. Frequent rains and weak evaporation of moisture at low temperatures contribute to waterlogging of the surface. Lepekhin was the first to pay attention to this phenomenon and correctly explained it.

The next major settlements through which the expedition route passed were Satka, Zlatoust, Nyazepetrovsk and Ufaley. After compiling a description of factories and mines, collecting information about the nature of the surrounding areas, Lepekhin's detachment headed for the Polevskoy plant and the Gumeshevsky mine, where malachite was mined along with copper ore.

On September 4, 1770, the scientist returned to Yekaterinburg, thus completing the large circular route. It was still too early to stop for the winter to process the collected materials, and the scientist decided to continue field research. He went east and after some time arrived in Tyumen. Here he settled for the winter.

In December 1770 Peter Simon Pallas arrived in Tyumen from Chelyabinsk. After analyzing their research in the Urals, both scientists came to the conclusion that the north "with regard to natural history" and economic geography is also of considerable interest. After consulting, the scientists decided to ask the Academy of Sciences to extend the travel time and approve new routes for expeditions in Siberia and northern Russia. At the beginning of 1771, such permission was received, and Lepekhin sent N. Ozeretskovsky to the Arkhangelsk province to study "birds, fish and other products of the White Sea."

On May 21, 1771, Lepekhin's detachment left Tyumen and headed for the region of Verkhoturye and Konzhakovsky Stone, one of the highest mountains in the Northern Urals. Thus begins the northern "odyssey" no longer of an adjunct, but of a full-fledged academician Lepekhin.

Having crossed the Ural Mountains, the traveler along the old Babinovskaya road arrived in Solikamsk, where he stayed for several days. Moving further west, he reached Vyatka, crossing the Northern Ridges. On horseback he reached the mouth of the Sysola and arrived at Arkhangelsk along the Vychegda and the Northern Dvina. In the summer of 1772, moving on a longboat along the coast of the White Sea, he described the Mudyugsky and Solovetsky Islands and along the Karelian coast went to the Kandalaksha Bay. When describing the coastline of the Kola Peninsula, Lepekhin met with Ozeretskovsky, who was moving towards them with his detachment. Thus, the entire coast of the Kola Peninsula was surveyed. Having completed the research, the scientists returned in October 1772 to Arkhangelsk, and then to St. Petersburg.

Painstaking work began on the processing and systematization of the collected material. In addition to geographical information, it included information about mineral deposits, the richest zoological and botanical collections - 600 plant species and over 300 animal species, many of which were described for the first time, extensive ethnographic materials about the peoples of the Volga and Ural regions - Mari, Mordovians, Tatars , Bashkirs, Komi, Mansi.

In 1773, Lepekhin made small trips to the Baltic states and Belarus. He described his wanderings in four volumes of the Day Notes of the Journey of the Doctor and the Academy of Sciences, Associate Ivan Lepekhin in Different Provinces of the Russian State, published in 1771-1780 and 1805. In 1774, he was "entrusted with the supervision of the botanical garden of the Academy", and from 1777 "the main supervision of the Academic Gymnasium" was entrusted to him (he worked in this post until 1790).

Bold for those times, Lepekhin's conclusions about the constant changes in the earth's surface, as well as the properties of plants and animals under the influence of the external environment, largely determined the development of the natural sciences in Russia.

Since 1783 - he is a member of the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences and indispensable secretary of the latter until the end of his life, as well as a member of the Berlin Society of Naturalists (1776), the Hesse-Hamburg Patriotic Society (1778), an honorary member of the State Medical College (1797). Cavalier of the Orders of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir of the 4th degree (1790), St. Anna of the 2nd class (1802), State Councilor (1799). For all that, according to contemporaries, "being himself disinterested, he willingly gave a helping hand to the poor. He had a tender and sensitive heart, and with his honesty and straightforwardness he attracted the power of attorney, love and respect common to all."

The main works of Lepekhin: "Daytime travel notes" (parts 1-3, St. Petersburg, 1771; 2nd edition, 1795; 4th part published in 1805; German translation published in Altenburg, 1774-1783); “Reflections on the need to experience the medicinal power of their own growths” (St. Petersburg, 1783); “A Brief Guide to Silk Breeding in Russia” (St. Petersburg, 1798); “Methods of disgust in case cattle” (St. Petersburg, 1800).

Ivan Ivanovich Lepekhin died at the age of 62 in St. Petersburg.

I. I. Lepekhin is a famous Russian traveler, a member of the Academy of Sciences, the head of the “Second Orenburg Expedition”, equipped in 1768 to study different regions of the Russian Empire.

I. I. Lepekhin was born on September 10 (23), 1740 in the family of a soldier of the Semyonovsky Guards Regiment. He was identified as a student of the Desian Academy, where he showed himself to be an inquisitive and inquisitive student. Having a great craving for the natural sciences, he turned to the academy with a request to send him to study abroad. The choice of academicians fell on the University of Strasbourg, and on September 13 (20)

1762 Lepekhin left St. Petersburg. Along with him went the translator A. Ya. Polenov, sent to complete his education, and an adjunct of the Academy of Sciences Protasov.

In those days, the University of Strasbourg enjoyed great fame in Europe and attracted students from many neighboring countries. Of the professors at the University of Strasbourg, Shepflin, Herman and Shpilman were especially famous.

Shepflin was an excellent connoisseur of the history and "antiquities" of European peoples. I. I. Lepekhin owes his outstanding knowledge in a number of sciences to him.

A connoisseur of the natural sciences, Herman, created a botanical garden and an office of natural history in Strasbourg. Herman's scientific works were highly appreciated in the "History of Natural Sciences" by Academician J. Cuvier.

The well-known chemist Shpilman also lectured on medicine, which had an important impact on expanding the range of scientific interests of I. I. Lepekhin.

During the years of study in Strasbourg, Lepekhin corresponded with M. V. Lomonosov, who, upon returning to his homeland, intended to appoint him head of the Department of Botany of the Academy of Sciences.

Almost simultaneously with Lepekhin at the University of Strasbourg, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, the future great German writer, the founder of modern German literature, a thinker and naturalist, and, by the way, a foreign honorary member of the St.

On May 5, 1767, I. I. Lepekhin brilliantly defended his dissertation and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In the summer of 1767 he left for Russia. His path lay through Holland, where Lepekhin visited the ancient university city of Leiden and met famous scientists.

Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, after the appropriate attestation, on May 23 (June 5), 1768, I. I. Lepekhin was unanimously elected an adjunct of the Academy of Sciences.

At this time, the academy began organizing one of the grandiose expeditions of the 18th century, known as the "physical" or "academic" expedition. General leader of the expedition 1768-1774. consider Academician P.-S. Pallas, but separate detachments, led by prominent scientists, acted quite independently. The reason for organizing the expedition was the preparation of observations of the passage of Venus in front of the solar disk in May 1769. But in fact, the tasks of the expedition were broader, so the expedition, if you count it as one, lasted for six whole years.

In addition to trips with purely astronomical purposes, the academy equipped five special "expeditions". Three of them were considered "Orenburg",

and the other two - "Astrakhan", although in fact their activities were by no means limited to these geographical boundaries. (See in this book a biographical sketch of P.-S. Pallas.)

At the head of the "First Orenburg expedition" was P.-S. Pallas. I. I. Lepekhin led the second "Orenburg" expedition. His companions and assistants were "gymnasium students" Nikolai Ozeretskovsky, Timofey Malygin and Andrei Lebedev. The first two subsequently became academicians themselves. The appointment of Lepekhin as the head of such a large-scale scientific expedition testifies to the high appreciation of his knowledge in the academic circles of St. Petersburg.

The group of I. I. Lepekhin set off on June 8 (21), 1769. Through Moscow, Vladimir, Murom and Arzamas, she went near Simbirsk to the Volga, explored the Middle Volga region, and then moved down to Astrakhan. From there, the expedition went to the Orenburg steppes, then climbed north along the Ural Mountains. Then the detachment moved along the Vychegda basin and reached the Northern Dvina, went down the river to Arkhangelsk, traveled around the coast of the Arctic Ocean, and from there through the Olonets region arrived in St. Petersburg in early 1773. But I. I. Lepekhin did not stay long in Northern Palmyra, in March of the same year he left for the Pskov and Mogilev provinces, from where he returned only at the end of the year. In total, Lepekhin spent five and a half years on the road.

Travel was not continuous in a given direction. At certain points, the expeditions stopped, and the scientists dispersed, often quite far from the place of stopping, and after exploring the area, they moved on. Everything seen during the expedition was described, detailed diaries were kept, and later multi-volume works appeared on the basis of these records.

I. I. Lepekhin, based on the diaries of the Second Orenburg Expedition, published in 1771-1805. “Day notes of the journey of Iv. Lepekhin in different provinces of the Russian state" in four volumes. The last volume was printed after Lepekhin's death by his student N. Ya. Ozeretskovsky. The first three volumes of this unique work were republished in 1795-1814, and then they became part of the "Complete collection of learned travels (1818-1825)", in addition, in 1774-1783. This work was published in German.

The six-year travels of the academy staff covered a vast territory from the White Sea in the north to the Transcaucasus in the south, from St. Petersburg in the west to the Trans-Baikal steppes in the east. As a result, a very large and varied material, including ethnographic material, was accumulated. Especially a lot of ethno-cultural material is contained in the descriptions of P. -S. Pallas, V.F. Zuev, I.I. Lepekhin, K.A. Gildenshtedt.

In his "Day Notes" I. I. Lepekhin described many different minerals, plants, animals, including those not known to science. Describing the mineral and ore wealth of Russia; the author tried not to lose sight of either the interests of science or the interests of economics.

I. I. Lepekhin described the life and way of life of more than ten different peoples and collected extremely valuable ethnographic material, which is the main advantage of his "Day Notes". In the person of Lepekhin, we are confronted not with a simple description of everyday life, but with an outstanding researcher. Lepekhin described household items and furnishings of dwellings, and thus preserved for posterity traces of the irrevocably disappeared phenomena of a past life. He wrote down many legends and traditions, signs and beliefs. Meet in the "Day Notes" and information on public education; he entered into his diary several ancient letters.

I. I. Lepekhin paid great attention to the study of the life of “foreigners,” as all non-Russian peoples were then called. In the "Day Notes" we find a lot of interesting information about the Mordovians, Chuvashs, Tatars, Kalmyks, Kirghiz (i.e. Kazakhs), Bashkirs, Zyryans (i.e. Komi-Zyryans), Vogulichs (i.e. Mansi), etc. He describes in detail the way of life of these peoples, their manners, customs, favorite activities, touches on their beliefs and superstitions, provides information about the peculiarities of their language, etc. Encountering ancient buildings, objects of archaeological and historical interest - weapons, coins and etc., - he carefully describes them too.

In terms of their scientific merits, I. I. Lepekhin’s “Day Notes” are not inferior to the notes of academicians P.-S. Pallas and I. G. Gmelin, and in many ways even stand above them. Lepekhin does not close his eyes to the facts of lawlessness and the disenfranchised position of the peasant masses - especially among the non-Russian population. At the Ural factories, he sees how their owners enslave the Chuvash, who moved to the Urals, but were not formally assigned to the factories. “This people, sometimes suffering oppression or some other misfortune, having come to poverty, borrows money from the rich. Breeders in such cases are generous and sometimes owe the Chuvash 100 rubles per capita so that they earn money at the factories. But since the factories are sometimes hundreds of miles away from the Chuvash villages, moving from home to the factory and back several times a year "often causes poverty to debtors"; and even without that, enslaving working conditions completely ruin the workers. “... I don’t know,” writes I. I. Lepekhin, “whether they can completely earn their debt, especially since the Chuvash, either mining ore or working as a woodcutter, almost wears out the money he earns on mittens, and so year after year earns more debt."

In the very style of presentation of the Day Notes, simplicity and restraint are striking. Such a simple style, no ordinary then high

paired phrases, even somewhat shocked the then academic public.

The merits of I. I. Lepekhin to the people and the fatherland were noticed by the progressive people of Russia. Even during the expedition, on March 3 (26), 1770, he was elected a member of the Free Economic Society, and on April 8 (21), 1771 - an academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Lepekhin's works also received international recognition. In 1776 he was elected a member of the Berlin Society of Naturalists, and in 1778 he became a member of the Hesse-Hamburg Patriotic Society. It is also interesting to note that two new species of insects and one rare plant were named in honor of the outstanding Russian naturalist.

After returning from the expedition to St. Petersburg, in addition to processing the collected materials, I. I. Lepekhin wrote a large number of scientific papers. Twelve of his "memoirs" on botany and nine on zoology were published in the publications of the Academy of Sciences in foreign languages. A number of interesting works were published by I. I. Lepekhin in New Monthly Works. Many of them, along with scientific novelty, are distinguished by practical orientation.

In addition to scientific, I. I. Lepekhin was also engaged in organizational activities. For 15 years he acted as an inspector of the academic gymnasium, delved into the needs and interests of the pupils, he himself worked with them. Upon his return from the expedition, Lepekhin was appointed director of the botanical garden. Until the opening of the Russian Academy of Sciences, he actively collaborated in the commission for the publication of translations, established by Catherine II.

Lepekhin looked through a lot of materials proposed for the publication of books. Under his editorship, New Monthly Works were published. Lepekhin put a lot of effort into preparing an academic edition of the works of M. V. Lomonosov.

In 1787, the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences began to translate the famous work of the French naturalist Georges Buffon "Natural History" in 36 volumes. Prominent academicians were involved in the translation, but I. I. Lepekhin did the most work here. The first volume of "Natural History" was translated by I. I. Lepekhin together with S. Ya. Rumovsky, the last six volumes - from the fifth to the tenth - by I. I. Lepekhin alone. This major edition was begun in 1789 and completed in 1801.

On the opening day of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1783, I. I. Lepekhin was recognized as its full member and appointed permanent secretary. According to the charter, two secretaries were supposed to work in the Academy of Sciences, but Lepekhin alone managed to fulfill their duties, and the second salary was left for the needs of science.

I. I. Lepekhin took an active part in all the undertakings of the Russian Academy of Sciences, participated in the development of plans for its work, compiled all reports on the activities of this high scientific institution.

I. I. Lepekhin made a huge contribution to the compilation of the Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language - he actively collected words, explained their meanings, put in order and systematized dictionary entries, and, finally, took an active part in its publication.

For his outstanding work, I. I. Lepekhin was the first member of the Russian Academy of Sciences to be awarded a gold medal, subsequently awarded annually to the most actively working members.

The outstanding Russian scientist Academician Ivan Ivanovich Lepekhin died in 1802. But his works for a long time were of decisive importance in the further development of Russian science.

The "Day Notes" by I. I. Lepekhin contains a number of unique sketches regarding the social and family customs of the Chuvash people, while the author not only describes these customs, but also tries, as far as possible, to explain them, to get to the bottom of their roots.

In the first volume of his work, the scientist describes in two essays the ethno-cultural features of the Zakamsk group of lower Chuvashs. Lepekhin states the great similarity of many elements of the economy, culture and life of the peoples of the Middle Volga region, both among themselves and with the Russians. He traces it in the types of settlements, in the arrangement of public administration of villages, in outbuildings and household utensils, in food, in clothing, especially men's, etc. Lepekhin characterizes many agricultural activities - animal husbandry, beekeeping, fishing, home crafts.

I. I. Lepekhin paid much attention to the religious beliefs and rituals of the Chuvash and Mordovians. He describes some of the traditional prayers of the pagans, even cites several fragments of prayer texts in the Chuvash language and provides them with a Russian translation, describes the maternity, funeral and memorial rites of the pagan Chuvash, marriage and fragments of the wedding ceremony.

Lepekhin's materials are also valuable because they represent the earliest description of the life and way of life of the Zakama Chuvash. This makes the work of I. I. Lepekhin an invaluable historical and cultural source.

Below are published two essays from the “Day Notes of the Journey of the Doctor and the Academy of Sciences, Adjunct Ivan Lepekhin to Different Provinces of the Russian State in 1768 and 1769” (St. without abbreviations.

Key year: 1768

Ivan Ivanovich LEPEKHIN

Russian scientist-encyclopedist, traveler, naturalist, lexicographer, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1771).

He studied at the Academic Gymnasium, then at the Academic University of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (student of Professor S. P. Krasheninnikova). In 1762 he was sent to the University of Strasbourg, where he studied medicine. Corresponded from Strasbourg with M. V. Lomonosov, who prepared him for the occupation of the Department of Botany at the Academy of Sciences. He graduated from the university in 1767 with a degree in medicine. Returning to St. Petersburg, he was appointed adjunct and secretary of the Academy of Sciences, and from 1771 - academician in natural sciences. Participated in many scientific expeditions that explored various Russian provinces from natural and ethnographic points of view: in 1768-1772. traveled, part alone, part with Pallas, in the Urals, the Volga region, Western Siberia, and later also in the Russian North and western Russian provinces, and made up significant botanical collections for his time. The notes he made during these trips formed the basis of his book “Day Notes of a Journey […] Through Different Provinces of the Russian State” (1771-1805). These "Day Notes" are of considerable interest for mammalian zoology, as they provide valuable data on the distribution, lifestyle and economic importance of a number of their species - such as tarpan, saiga, beaver. In addition, he enriched the collections of the Academy of Sciences with large collections of mammals (later processed by PS Pallas).

From 1768 to 1783 was the editor of publications of a temporary organization for the translation of foreign scientific books - the so-called. "Meetings of a person trying to translate foreign books", where the staff of proofreaders and translators of the Academy, the Academic Printing House moved, and where work continued on the creation of the Russian scientific language. In 1773-1774. traveled in Belarus and the Baltic states. From 1774 he headed the Imperial Botanical Garden in St. Petersburg. In 1777-1794. - Inspector of the Academic Gymnasium at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Since 1783, he was the indispensable secretary of the Russian Academy and participated in the work on the Dictionary of the Russian Academy. Wrote a preface to its second edition (1806), following the linguistic views of M. V. Lomonosov. He was the first major Russian researcher of medicinal plants in Russia. In his scientific works, he gave a comparative description of the natural zones of the globe, pointed out the dependence of the distribution of plants on different climates, described the plant landscapes characteristic of different geographical zones (vegetation of deserts, tropics, temperate and northern latitudes), noted the originality of plant groups in different topographic conditions.

Links (4) Sources (5)

Great Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius, 2006
T. P. Babiy and others. Biologists. - Kyiv, Naukova Dumka, 1984
G. I. Molyavko and other Geologists. Geographers. - Kyiv, Naukova Dumka, 1985

Facts (1)

21.02.2011 Yu.A.Beletsky

Diary of a great nomad Author: Sergei Melnik In 2002, the scientific world celebrated the 200th anniversary of the death of Ivan Lepekhin (September 21, 1740 - April 18, 1802) - one of the first domestic academicians, an outstanding scientist, traveler, naturalist, author of the amazing "Day Notes of Travel ... in different provinces of the Russian state. And in the fall of that year, another magnificent 200th anniversary took place - the death of the democratic writer Alexander Radishchev, the author of the fascinating Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, read, unlike the notes of a scientist, by every schoolchild. It's time to catch up. And apart from ideology, it is still unknown which of these two sources is more valuable both from a literary point of view and from a cultural standpoint. Not to mention the scientific value. Yes, and in terms of courage - personal and civil. Before the courage of Radishchev, who threw a whole pile of well-deserved reproaches in the face of the regime, we must take off our hats. But how then to apprehend the courage of Lepekhin, a 28-year-old adjunct of the Russian Academy, who set off in the year beyond our perception of 1768, accompanied by three school assistants - a draftsman, a taxidermist and one (!) shooter - to explore the Volga region, the Caspian Sea, the Urals and Northern coast of Russia? If even some hundred years ago, representatives of not the most savage peoples and not the poorest classes seriously believed that such visitors were nothing but "antichrists", and they must have tails. If scientists who dared to leave St. Petersburg and plunge into the depths of Russia risked their health, and sometimes their lives. As, for example, the explorer of the Caspian Sea I. Gmelin, who was captured by the Derbent Khan and died in prison. Or I. Falk, who led one of the three “Orenburg” detachments (along with P. Pallas and I. Lepekhin): six years of the expedition ended in depression and suicide for him ... It is no coincidence that even in that romantic era of great geographical discoveries, few people dared for such feats: the luminaries, under any pretext, refused the bitter, sometimes ungrateful bread of the discoverers, preferring armchair laurels. Ivan Lepekhin, the son of a poor soldier of the Semyonovsky regiment, who studied at the state expense at the gymnasium at the Academy, did not find any pretexts or high patrons - however, he did not look for them. There was only a gymnasium experience of deprivation, zeal, and diligence, an excellent academic school and only one sincere desire - to benefit Russia (no matter how strange it may sound today). No, not all - there was a detailed, comprehensive questionnaire compiled by Vasily Tatishchev, supplemented by Mikhail Lomonosov and approved by the enlightened Count Vladimir Orlov, at that time the director of the Academy of Sciences: travelers had to thoroughly study, describe, sketch, collect literally everything that they meet on the way . From local legends, rituals, sights and trades to exhibits for the Kunstkamera. Another oddity for us today - but the envoys of the Academy were meteorologists, astronomers, geodesists, geologists, zoologists, botanists, economists, linguists all rolled into one. In a word, at the head of the detachment, the path of which lay, among other things, through the Stavropol fortress recently built for the baptized Kalmyks, Lepekhin was by right. And the most detailed, masterfully written report on the four-year expedition, which resulted in four thick volumes of "Daily Notes of the Journey of the Doctor and the Academy of Sciences, Adjunct Ivan Lepekhin in Different Provinces of the Russian State", is not only of scientific value - for two hundred years it has been abundantly and willingly quoted by local historians in throughout the Lepekhinsky route. It is clear that to me, a native of the Volga Stavropol (now Tolyatti), this segment of the expedition's route is especially interesting ... I must say that Lepekhin arrived in Stavropol quite prepared. Shortly before that, he managed to meet with Pyotr Rychkov, the first Russian corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, "Orenburg Lomonosov", as his contemporaries called him, the author of the famous "Topography of the Orenburg Province", which has become a desktop for many researchers. Rychkov's book, which Lepekhin took with him on the expedition and to which he refers more than once in his Day Notes, saved him from many of the well-known details about the history of the "Kalmyk" fortress. “Stavropol, from Orenburg 505, from Samara 83 1/2, and from Simbirsk about a hundred miles, was built in 1738 on a channel from the Volga River,” writes P. Rychkov. - This channel was formerly noble, for the former shelter of the Volga robbers, and was called Kunya Volozhka ... The fortification of this city with a palisade was made, it has three gates; the circumference of the entire fortification is 878 sazhens. Settlement not only inside the fortress, but also behind it ... All, both inside and outside the city, there will be about five hundred houses. The cathedral church inside the city is stone with five heads, in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity; another wooden one in the suburb, in the name of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, with a chapel of the Archangel Michael; the third wooden one is in the soldier's settlement, in the name of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. Merchants in this city, signed up from different cities, and more from Simbirsk, three hundred and nine souls. The garrison of the Nizhny Novgorod garrison regiment of soldiers of the 2nd company, 100 Cossacks ... all of which, both for local precautions and for the capture and eradication of robbers that happen on the Volga, are used ... Rychkov had his own vision of the early Stavropol, the Kalmyks were of little interest to him. Lepekhin, on the other hand, was curious about how and how the people live, which three decades earlier had been "christened" and "saddled." How she grazes cattle, gets married, gives birth and raises children, how she makes koumiss. How he lives in poverty and communicates with sovereign people. “The people, accustomed to steppe nomadism, can’t leave their habit to this day,” we read from Lepekhin. the house consists of a wagon, a felt bed, a cauldron and 2 or 3 narrow-necked leather buckets ... From the beginning of the settlement in the Stavropol province, they tried to accustom them to arable farming, for which they were made cultivating tools and distributed seeds for breeding, but in vain : because, due to their unaccustomed to arable land, they were forced to hire either Russians, or Mordovians, and Chuvash, and through them to plow their arable land, sow and reap; and due to the lack of hirelings, they sometimes gave to reap their arable land only from seeds; from which, feeling great they left so much in cattle breeding. They have great herds of horses, cattle and sheep. Everyone knows that their horses are excellent from others; and cattle are much larger than Russian "... According to Lepe Khina, the difference between ordinary, serfs, and noble Kalmyks is very noticeable. “Their foremen and zaisangs live in Stavropol, where houses were built for them on state dependency ... Both men and women are great wine hunters, and they do not feel ashamed to ask for it from those passing by. When I say this about Kalmyks, it should to understand about those who wander in the steppe, and their noble chiefs, who live in Stavropol, do not differ from the Russians in both the order of life and their manners ... In Stavropol, besides the Kalmyk zaisangs, Cossacks, merchants and military people live. settlement, which is called Merchants; the dwellings of the Kalmyks were built in the fortress itself, consisting of a wooden log house with towers. It can be said about the merchants in general that they are not very lively, and their main bargaining consists in fish. They also make a living by driving sheep and bacon. In the city itself there are almost no other goods, except for watermelons, which are deliberately harvested in the Stavropol gardens, and there are no edible things. There are still no factories or any other factories in this city, and many of the merchants eat arable land. The Stavropol Cossacks are also all arable people. In addition to their service, they carry the yam load and keep the mail ... " Lepekhin also concerns the results of what, in fact, the "Kalmyk Commission" headed by Tatishchev was started for - the introduction of nomads to Christianity. From the text it is clear: "in terms of" faith among the Kalmyks (as, indeed, among all other peoples of the Volga region, including Russians) a double morality was firmly established. travels around all their uluses and sees if they have any corrupted books. If anyone has such books, then the father archpriest has the power not only to take away such books, but also to punish the clergy with whips, what should be understood about Kalmyk meanness "... Imagine how many harsh lines would be born on this occasion from the same Radishchev. Lepekhin's "Notes" are valuable precisely because they are completely devoid of Radishchev's accusatory pathos - as, indeed, "reactionary" motives. Otherwise, he would not have been a great scientist, whose disinterestedness, by the way, is hard not to be amazed: the widow of Lepekhina - since 1771 Petersburg Academician, and from 1783 until her death, the permanent secretary of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the first Russian scientist to receive the gold medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences at the suggestion of Ekaterina Dashkova herself, was forced to sell the library in order to somehow make ends meet. .. __________________________ © Sergey G. Melnik http://www.relga.ru/Environ/WebObjects/tgu-www.woa/wa/Main?textid=109&level1=main&level2=articles

LEPEKHIN IVAN IVANOVICH

Lepekhin, Ivan Ivanovich - Russian traveler and botanist (1740 - 1802). He received his higher education in Strasbourg. He was an academician in natural sciences. In 1768 - 1772 he traveled (partly with Pallas) in southeastern and northern Europe, Russia, and made up a rich botanical collection; then he was director of the Imperial Botanical Garden. The main works of Lepekhin: "Daytime travel notes" (1 - 3 parts, St. Petersburg, 1771; 2nd edition, 1795; 4th part published in 1805; German translation published in Altenburg, 1774 - 1783); "Reflections on the need to experience the medicinal power of their own growth" (St. Petersburg, 1783); "A Brief Guide to Silk Breeding in Russia" (St. Petersburg, 1798); "Methods of disgust in case cattle" (St. Petersburg, 1800). - See V. Polenov "Brief biography of I. I. Lepekhin", in "Proceedings of the Russian Academy" (1810, II).

Brief biographical encyclopedia. 2012