Passion for travel
It was this feeling that led the son of Berlin College surgery professor Simon Pallas and Frenchwoman Susanna Leonard, MD, to research work in Russia. Arriving at the invitation of Catherine II to carry out a comprehensive study of the nature and prospects of the Russian economy, as a professor of natural history at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, he led an expedition to the central regions, areas of the Lower Volga region, the Caspian lowland, the Middle and Southern Urals, and Southern Siberia. The result of his work was the enormous work “Travel to Various Provinces of the Russian State,” which was a comprehensive thorough study, later translated into several European languages. The collections collected by Pallas replenished the academic Kunstkamera and the University of Berlin. Among the most significant works of those years are the “Comparative Dictionaries of All Languages and Adverbs,” compiled on behalf of the Empress.In 1793, Pallas undertook a trip at his own expense to study the climate of southern Russia and Crimea. Returning to St. Petersburg in 1794, he presented Catherine II with a “Brief Physical and Topographic Description of the Tauride Region” and asked permission to settle in Crimea, wanting to complete his scientific works. The Empress granted him two villages with plots of land in the Aytodor and Sudak valleys, a house in Simferopol and 10 thousand rubles for the establishment of horticulture and winemaking schools in Crimea, retaining his academic salary. In August 1795, Pallas moved to Crimea.
Columbus of the natural resources of Tauris
This is rightfully called the great Russian naturalist, about whom the poet Osip Mandelstam said:No one, like Pallas, managed to remove the gray veil of coachman boredom from the Russian landscape.And the famous Russian natural scientist Nikolai Severtsev wrote:
No matter how great Pallas's fame is, it still cannot compare with his achievements in science.Pallas called our peninsula “wonderful”, falling in love with it from the first visit. As the authors of the book “Discoverers of the Crimean Land” Vasily, Alexander and Andrey Eny note, Crimea became the last discovery of the great Pallas. “The presence of a glorious man,” one of the scientist’s contemporaries wrote prophetically about his stay in Simferopol, “who settled within the walls of this city, seems to herald the dawn of his future enlightenment.”
In his house on the banks of the Salgir River, Pallas collected a rich collection of minerals, hundreds of samples of flora and fauna of the peninsula. Not a single eminent guest of the city, famous scientists of that time, including the author of the first monograph on the nature of Taurida, academician Karl Gablitz, and the founder and first director of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden Christian Steven, passed by his abode.
Having settled in his Simferopol estate, named “Karolinovka” after his wife, the scientist often went on foot not only to nearby but also to remote corners of the foothills, the Southern Coast, the Main Crimean Ridge, the Kerch hills and the plain Crimea.
“An analysis of Pallas’s Crimean works allowed us to establish that over the years of his Crimean travels, the scientist traveled and walked a total of more than nine thousand kilometers,” notes Vasily Yena. — He described about a hundred in his writings, and mentioned 908 geographical objects in total: mountain peaks, valleys, capes, bays, rivers, settlements. He characterized, including for the first time in science, many hundreds of species of plants and animals living on the peninsula. Even today, one is struck by the author’s special insight, multi-layeredness and accuracy of the panorama of the life of nature and the peoples of the Russian south drawn by him. He not only explored the natural resources of the peninsula, but also enthusiastically promoted its rational economic development. Pallas wrote:
The Crimean Peninsula, by its geographical position, climate and the nature of its soil, is the only region of the Russian Empire into which all the products of Greece and Italy can be introduced and domesticated... It would be possible to profitably introduce the cultivation of silkworms, the culture of grapes, sesame, olives, cotton , crappa, saffron... These crops will eventually enrich the state with their products...
Not only a theorist, but also a practitioner
The scientist not only gave recommendations, but also actively participated in the economic development of Crimea: in 1798 he founded the oldest arboretum in Crimea “Salgirka” in Simferopol - on the territory of the current botanical garden of the Taurida National University. V. Vernadsky. He also planted extensive vineyards in the Sudak Valley, on the South Coast and in the foothills. To justify the use of local resources, Pallas described twenty-four native grape varieties and many varieties of southern fruit crops.“The main thing that this tireless researcher did was a fairly clear scientific description of natural components and many territorial complexes, primarily the mountainous Crimea,” says Vasily Yena. — Pallas revealed the origin and current state of the objects he studied, thanks to which those reading his works looked at nature through the eyes of discoverers. The scientist first put forward the idea of a hypothetical landmass, later called Pontida, which could extend south of the Main Ridge into the Black Sea depression. Disputes among scientists about this continue to this day.
— This is not the only Pallasian hypothesis, is it?
— The second concerns the island past of ancient Taurida:
Since the entire Crimean peninsula is connected to the mainland only through the narrow, unchanged Perekop Isthmus, it is more than likely that Crimea was once separated from the mainland and, with its southern, more elevated part, formed a real island, precisely at the time when the level of the Black Sea The sea stood even higher, as some passages from ancient writers testify to this.In his works, Pallas often refers to such ancient scientists as Strabo, Pliny, and to the works and maps of medieval Arab geographers - Masudi, Ibn Battuta and others.
In his research, Pallas provides original information about rocks and minerals, karst formations, landslides, rock chaos and sea terraces, for the first time in science he mentions the mountain-valley amphitheaters of the South Coast and carries out the first zoning of the salt lakes of the peninsula, identifying five groups: Perekop, Arabat, Evpatoria, Feodosia and Kerch. The scientist’s conclusions were preceded by long journeys, during which he did not avoid the most risky routes. It is no coincidence that the academician’s courage was admired by his contemporary traveler Vladimir Izmailov:
I traveled around... the chain of the Crimean mountains, where there is no other road except one narrow path hanging along the ridges of rocks over terrible abysses, over the abyss of the Black Sea, and where one must make his way over the stones on foot or riding on a Tatar horse, which alone is familiar with these fears... The foothills of the mountains, covered with fragments of stones and boulders, are so steep that in many places a horse can barely climb up with its convolutions.“The fearlessness of the pioneer allowed him to be the first to convey to science the message about the famous catastrophe associated with the occurrence of the Kuchuk-Koy landslide,” testifies Vasily Yena. — A reliable, detailed description of the natural disaster that occurred more than two centuries ago on the peninsula remains unsurpassed to this day. From the monstrous catastrophe that he depicted, a trace has been preserved to this day - a huge stone chaos in the west of the Crimean South Coast.
Experts note a characteristic feature of Pallas's texts: the researcher always provides the results of geographical measurements. He was the first to give some of the most important spatial parameters of the natural regions of Crimea, spoke in detail about the various mountain formations, and described the Yaylin landscapes. On Yaila Demerdzhi, Pallas, in addition to limestones, discovered conglomerates, among which “many quartz pebbles, very little transferred granite,” that is, “new” to the Crimea. On Karadag, the scientist finds something that even now delights vacationers in Koktebel and Kurortny - semi-precious sea pebbles:
On the seashore there are a lot of pebbles... made of jasper and chalcedony. This is the only rock in all of Taurida that can serve as evidence of volcanic activity in the most distant antiquity.And in the foothills, Pallas discovered that “in the chalk they find a lot of blackish gun flint with white bark.” It was this discovery that served as the impetus for the search for finds of flint tools in the Ak-Kai area for sites of primitive man. In the 70-80s of the last century, more than twenty Paleolithic sites were discovered here.
Naturalist of an encyclopedic warehouse
And in this incarnation Pallas established himself and remained in world science. His botanical research is no less impressive than his geographical one. He was the second after Gablitz to compile an extensive list of plants of the peninsula. He significantly expanded the research of his predecessor, listing 969 rather than 542 known species of flora. A prominent botanist of the twentieth century, Sergei Stankov, believes that it is from Pallas that the history of the study of Crimean vegetation should be counted. In addition, the academician was the first to describe a number of Crimean animal species and laid the foundation for climatic and phenological observations.“His works contain answers to many questions about the development of the flora of the peninsula, aimed at solving current economic problems, in particular afforestation and conservation of the nature of the village,” recalls Vasily Yena. — The scientist’s priority is that he was the first to point out the altitudinal differentiation of the vegetation of the mountainous Crimea. The researcher’s works about Crimea became the pinnacle of his scientific creativity; they are widely known throughout the world. And thanks to these works, Tavrida itself found a worthy place in the ideas of naturalists in many countries.
No less important are descriptions of the historical places of Taurida. His books “On the Residents of the Peninsula” are still read with interest, which gives the population size, national composition, types of occupations, “On the current state of Crimea and possible economic improvements in it” with an overview of economic sectors and ways to improve them. His studies “On Crimean viticulture” and “On the fruit orchards of Crimea” are also of practical importance in our time. Pallas established himself not only as a versatile scientist, but also as a zealous, knowledgeable business executive, expressing scientifically based plans for the development of Taurida.
A year before his death, Pallas returned to his homeland, Germany. The role it played in the development of European natural science and the nature of the ideas of the then European luminaries about Crimea can be judged from the words of the scientist Georges Cuvier:
...For a man who lived 15 years in Little Tataria, this meant almost returning from the other world...Pallas's travel notes and diaries still read like a fascinating novel. Even the master of elegant style Osip Mandelstam admitted:
I read Pallas breathlessly, slowly. I slowly leaf through the watercolor versts. I am sitting in a mail carriage with a reasonable and affectionate traveler... Reading this naturalist has a wonderful effect on the alignment of the senses, straightens the eye and imparts mineral quartz calm to the soul...
By the way
The name of Pallas is immortalized in nine names of plants growing on the peninsula. A memorial plaque was installed on the preserved building of the Pallas estate in the Simferopol protected landscape park "Salgirka". The name of the scientist appears among the names of prominent citizens on a memorial tablet installed in the center of Simferopol in honor of the 200th anniversary of the city.An active volcano in the Kuril Islands ridge, a mountain in the southern part of the Northern Urals, a peninsula on the Khariton Laptev coast in the Kara Sea, a reef off the coast of New Guinea, a street in Berlin, a city and a railway station in the Volgograd region, streets in Novosibirsk, Volgograd are named after Pallas. Pallas was the first scientist to have a Russian ship named after him.
Pallas was a member of the London, Rome, Neapolitan, Göttingen, Stockholm, Copenhagen Academies of Sciences, the Patriotic Swedish Society, the Royal Societies of London and Montpellier, the St. Petersburg Free Economic Society, and the Paris National Institute. Knight of the Order of St. Vladimir IV degree and St. Anna II degree.
On the initiative of Pallas, the Sudak School of Viticulture and Winemaking was opened in 1804.
Cambridge University Professor Edward Daniel Clarke wrote:
Crimea will long remain famous as the seat of Professor Pallas, a researcher famous in the scientific world for his numerous works.
Lyudmila Obukhovskaya, "
September 22, 2016 marks the 275th anniversary of the birth of the remarkable scientist and traveler, member of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811). Already during his lifetime, he gained enormous international fame thanks to his scientific works in various fields of science, as well as two large travels across the vast expanses of the Russian Empire.
Nevertheless, there is one sad paradox associated with Pallas. On the one hand, his name can be easily found in many encyclopedias or reference books, and many articles and even books have been written about the scientist. However, on the other hand, even in scientific circles little is known about him, and often they have not heard anything. Meanwhile, historians of science sometimes compare Pallas with Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, a symbol of our science in the second half of the 18th century, not without reason believing that Peter Pallas was an iconic figure of our Academy of Sciences in the last third of the Enlightenment century.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, many prominent scientists in Russia and abroad spoke enthusiastically about Pallas’s contribution to science. I will only mention the names of the French zoologist and historian of science Georges Cuvier, the German traveler and naturalist Alexander Humboldt, one of the founders of Russian ecology and zoogeography Nikolai Alekseevich Severtsov. However, today many members of the Russian Academy of Sciences have (if they have) a very vague idea of their great predecessor. A whole series of works by Pallas are considered fundamental, and what is written in them is now practically unknown to most, since they have not been translated into Russian.
The path to science
The future “academicus” was born in Berlin into a wealthy family of a military surgeon-professor. The mother came from the French Huguenot diaspora. Germany did not yet exist as a single country. Berlin was the capital of the ambitious and warlike Kingdom of Prussia, dominated by the Brandenburg Hohenzollern dynasty.
Peter was the third and last child. He received a good education at home, which consisted of learning languages. As a result, the boy mastered, in addition to his native German and French (his mother’s language), Latin, as well as ancient Greek and English, which were not in fashion at that time. At the age of 13, the father sent the child to the Berlin Medical-Surgical College, which was distinguished by its advanced views on medicine and natural science. In its likeness, the Medical-Surgical Academy was later created in Russia in St. Petersburg and Moscow (now the Military Medical Academy).
In the 1760s, Pallas lived in England and the Netherlands, where he met many famous collectors and naturalists. He visited famous botanical gardens and studied the richest collections of “naturalia,” as natural objects were then called. At the same time, Peter decided to abandon his medical career and take up the natural sciences, which did not find support from his father.
Thanks to useful contacts with influential people, as well as his own knowledge, Pallas was elected a member of the Royal Society of London in June 1764, and in November of the same year - a member of the Kaiser's Leopoldino-Carolina Academy of Naturalists ("Leopoldina" for short). The selection of such a young naturalist, who was not even 23 years old, was, of course, an unheard of honor, especially considering his lack of published work (not counting his dissertation).
Nevertheless, such a generous advance turned out to be justified. In 1766, in The Hague, Pallas published two monographs at once. In the first of them ( Elenchus Zoophytorum) he gave a description of the then mysterious zoophytes(“animal-plants”), that is, creatures attached to the ground (sponges, coral polyps, bryozoans), confirming their belonging to animals. The young naturalist, having shown that there is no such fundamental boundary between plants and animals as the majority thought then, contrasted the kingdom of living organisms with minerals. This idea was highly appreciated by V.I. Vernadsky in his book on living matter in the 1920s.
Another book ( Miscellanea Zoologica) contained descriptions of a wide variety of animals, from antelopes to lower creatures. In it, by the way, Pallas was the first to identify guinea pigs as a separate genus Cavia. In the Netherlands, a novice but already famous naturalist dreamed of a distant expedition to one of the Dutch colonies: to the very south of Africa or to the east to Asia. However, his dreams were interrupted by his father, who called his son home.
A conflict was brewing in the family. Peter was completely financially dependent on his father, but did not want to become a doctor. An unexpected offer came from Russia. On behalf of Catherine II, Pallas Jr. was invited to work in St. Petersburg, the capital of a huge empire. He was promised a position as a full member and professor of natural sciences at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, as well as leadership of a large expedition to Siberia. After hesitating, Pallas accepted the invitation and already in the summer of 1767 he sat at the Academy of Sciences. Pallas came to St. Petersburg not alone, but with a young woman, whose name remains unknown. She later became his wife and they had a daughter.
Travel around Russia
In the summer of 1768, Pallas, at the head of a detachment of seven people, left St. Petersburg, setting off on a long journey deep into a vast unknown country. He passed through the Volga region, the Urals, the Northern Caspian region, Western Siberia and reached Transbaikalia (Dauria) in the east. His detachment was part of the so-called “physical” expeditions, which became one of the most glorious pages in the history of Russian science. According to the official instructions, in addition to “natural history,” it was necessary to describe the geography of the region being visited, its natural resources, economy, history and customs of local peoples. In fact, these were complex expeditions with an unusually wide range of tasks, from physical and economic geography to traditional medicine and beliefs.
The expedition was not easy. On July 30 (August 10), 1774, having endured many trials, tribulations and hardships of a difficult nomadic life, having suffered losses among his subordinates, the 33-year-old naturalist returned to the banks of the Neva. He looked like a half-old man, emaciated by illness, with graying hair.
During his long travels, Palace kept a detailed diary, which he sent in parts to the Academy of Sciences. This diary was published under the title "Travel through the Various Provinces of the Russian Empire" in St. Petersburg in German (1771–1776) and then in Russian (1773–1788) in three parts and five books. This work, amazing in its breadth, was reprinted in different languages more than 20 times, putting its author among the outstanding European scientists.
In fact, Pallas created a grandiose panorama of a huge, diverse and then little-studied country, outlining its diverse nature and numerous peoples from the Baltic to Transbaikalia and from the polar tundra to the Caspian desert. “Journey” became a real encyclopedia of Russia in the second half of the 18th century. It attracted the attention not only of various scientists (from botanists to orientalists), but also of such wonderful writers and poets as Nikolai Gogol (during his preparation of “Dead Souls”) and Osip Mandelstam. Over the years, the scientific and historical value of this extensive work of Pallas only increases, since the information he obtained about nature and population allows, when compared with modern data, to evaluate the changes that have occurred over the past centuries.
Empress's Grace
After the expedition, Pallas lived in St. Petersburg for almost twenty years, leading the measured life of a scientist and carrying out various assignments for the Imperial Academy of Sciences and other departments of the Russian Empire. He wrote numerous articles and books, edited the works of his colleagues, attended academic and other meetings, conducted extensive correspondence with Russian and foreign scientists, published Neue Nordische Beyträge(1781–1796), etc.
It should be noted his numerous voluminous books on ethnography, zoology, botany, entomology, “Comparative dictionaries of all languages and dialects,” etc. In 1777, the academician put forward his concept of the structure and formation of mountains and changes on the globe. In 1780, he gave a public speech at the Imperial Academy of Sciences on the variability of animals, refuting the concept of Carl Linnaeus about the hybridization of species and the views of the no less famous Georges Buffon on the influence of climate.
Gradually Pallas became an increasingly important figure, whose influence extended beyond the boundaries of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Thanks to the patronage of Catherine II, he was received at court, taught natural sciences to her grandchildren Alexander (the future Emperor Alexander I) and Constantine, and was appointed historiographer of the Admiralty College.
However, the empress’s mercy did not last forever, and Pallas’s court ill-wishers did not sleep. In the fall of 1792, he was released from business by the Admiralty Board and received the highest permission to travel to Crimea, annexed to Russia in 1783. In fact, he was sent into distant exile with honor. Although various reasons for disgrace are given, its real reason is unknown.
Pallas made his second great journey in 1793–1794 at his own expense. The winter route passed through Moscow and the Volga to the south of Russia through the Caspian Sea to the Crimea. He was traveling in a wagon with his third wife, Karolina Ivanovna, and his daughter, Albertina, from his first marriage.
In 1795, in St. Petersburg, a brief description of the Crimean Peninsula appeared in French and Russian, compiled by Pallas on behalf of the young favorite of the Empress, Count Platon Zubov. In one decade (1796–1806), 11 reprints of Taurida followed in German and French. This was probably explained not just by curiosity, but also by geopolitical interests. Soon, a two-volume description of Pallas’s own journey “through the southern governorates of the Russian state” appeared in German in Leipzig (1799–1801), which was also reprinted several times in Europe.
Catherine II generously endowed the academician with lands and a house in Crimea near Simferopol. Here Pallas lived for about 15 years (1795–1810), successfully combining the life of a landowner and a scientist. In addition to gardening and viticulture, he compiled another botanical monograph and completed the main scientific work of his life Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica(“Russian-Asian Zoography”). Its three volumes, printed in Latin in St. Petersburg (1811 and 1814), contained descriptions of 874 species of vertebrate animals.
In April 1810, the aged scientist returned to Berlin with his widowed daughter and grandson. The wife remained in Crimea. On September 8, 1811, the great naturalist died of chronic enteritis, which he suffered all his life (just two weeks short of his 70th birthday). He was buried in the Jerusalem Cemetery in Berlin.
Pallas's legacy
Pallas's scientific heritage is enormous. If we do not take into account reprints, then in 51 years (1760–1811) he wrote 20 books and 131 articles, edited many manuscripts, and also translated 1 book and 7 articles. The scientist was most productive in St. Petersburg from 1776 to 1789.
If we sort his works by area, it turns out that the researcher made contributions to at least 14 sciences. In addition to zoology and botany, these are geography, geology, paleontology, ethnography, oriental studies, religious studies (Buddhology), history and archaeology. The scientist also owns published works on linguistics, numismatics, archeology, meteorology, medicine, agriculture and forestry, mining, various crafts and technologies.
A large block of ironstone (687 kg) brought by Pallas from Siberia, known as Pallas iron, turned out to be the first celestial body identified by science. The beginning of scientific meteoritics is associated with the study of this “aerolith” (then term), and meteorites of this type were called pallasites.
In 1895, naturalist and bibliographer Fyodor Petrovich Koeppen (1833–1908), who compiled a detailed list of Pallas’s works and outlined his biography, proposed staging monument to this wonderful scientist, and also publish it at the Academy of Sciences complete collection of his works. In 1904, a railway station in the steppe Lower Volga region on the line leading to Astrakhan was given the name Pallasovka(city since 1967). In Soviet times, the only monument in the world to a scientist and traveler appeared there.
It would seem that the country should be proud of such a great researcher. However, the 275th anniversary of the birth of Pallas in Russia is unlikely to be celebrated at a high official level; at least, the decisions of the Russian Academy of Sciences on this topic are unknown to me and my colleagues. Despite the obvious lack of interest at the top, enthusiasts will, of course, hold a series of Pallas meetings in the regions. On September 22 in Berlin, German and Russian colleagues living in Germany plan to lay flowers at the grave of the outstanding scientist who unites both our countries.
Of course, the lack of interest and understanding of the importance of Pallas in the leadership of science, as well as in government bodies, is very disappointing. I am glad that his name is remembered and proud of by scientists, local historians and teachers in various cities and villages of our vast homeland, especially in those areas where the expeditions of Pyotr Semyonovich Pallas took place. It is also encouraging that, thanks to the modest provincial intelligentsia, his legacy is being studied in schools and local museums.
The wise Vernadsky spoke of Pallas’s works in the following way: “They still lie at the basis of our knowledge about the nature and people of Russia. Geologist and ethnographer, zoologist and botanist, geologist and mineralogist, statistician, archaeologist and linguist inevitably turn to them as a living source.<...>. Pallas has not yet occupied in our consciousness the historical place that corresponds to his real significance.”
I would like both the leaders of science and the authorities at its various levels to understand this.
Borkin L. Ya., Hannibal B. K., Golubev A. V. The roads of Peter Simon Pallas (in the west of Kazakhstan). St. Petersburg; Uralsk: Eurasian Union of Scientists, 2014; Sytin A.K. Botanist Peter Simon Pallas. M.: T-vo scientific publications KMK, 2014; Wendland F. Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811). Materialien einer Biographie. Teil I. Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1992. XVIII. 1176 S. (Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Komission zu Berlin, Bd. 80/I-II); Borkin L. Ya. Additions to the bibliography of Peter Simon Pallas // Historical and biological studies. SPb., 2011. T. 3, No. 3. P. 130–157.
Sytin A.K. Living geography of Russia: N.V. Gogol studies the natural history works of P.S. Pallas // Nature. 2000. No. 6. P. 93–96; Borkin L. Ya. Osip Mandelstam and P. S. Pallas (afterword) // Spring of knowledge. St. Petersburg 2013. No. 1 (8). pp. 31–33.
Biography of Peter Simon Pallas
Peter Simon Pallas (German: Peter Simon Pallas, 1741-1811) - famous German and Russian scientist - encyclopedist, naturalist, geographer. He became famous for his scientific expeditions across Russia in the second half of the 18th century. He made a significant contribution to world and Russian science: geography, geology, biology, philology and ethnography. Peter Pallas was born in Berlin on September 22, 1741, into the family of a doctor, professor of anatomy and chief surgeon of one of the Berlin clinics. Peter's father wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, but his son became interested in natural science. Studying with private teachers, at the age of 13 he knew five languages perfectly, and began attending lectures at the Berlin Medical-Surgical College, where he studied medical disciplines and, along with them, botany and zoology. He continued his studies at the universities of Halle and Göttingen in pedagogy, philosophy, mining, agriculture, mathematics and physics.
In 1760, Peter Pallas was already at the University of Leiden, where at the age of 19 he defended his doctoral dissertation. In 1766, the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences elected Pallas as a full member and professor. On July 30, 1767, at the age of 26, already having a doctorate, a professorship and recognition in Europe, Pallas arrived in Russia with his wife and daughter. This was a time when Catherine II was actively interested in the topics of reconstruction and economic development of the Russian Empire, so a comprehensive study of the country was the main direction of Russian science. In essence, this was the creation of the Russian Geographic Information System at the highest scientific level of that time. From June 1768 to July 1774, an expeditionary force led by Peter S. Pallas visited the regions of the Volga region, the Urals, Western Siberia, Altai, Baikal and Transbaikalia. The expedition was of enormous practical importance, as it provided information about the unique riches of Eastern Siberia and Altai, which were previously unknown. The results of Peter Pallas's scientific achievements were summarized by him in numerous works in Russian, Latin, and German, the main one of which is “Travel through the Different Provinces of the Russian State.” In subsequent years, Peter Pallas continued to engage in research in various fields of science - topography, helminthology, biology and linguistics. In 1793-1794 he traveled around the south of Russia, visiting and describing the Volga region, the North Caucasus, Crimea and Ukraine. Pallas wrote a large work on the fauna of Russia, after finishing which he went to Berlin in 1810 to prepare it for publication. Here he lived in honor and respect for one year and, without ever seeing this work published, died on September 8, 1811.
The work of the outstanding German, Russian scientist and traveler Peter Simon Pallas is valuable because the conclusions of his works still form the basis of our knowledge about the nature and people of Russia. In his works he acts as a traveler, geologist, geographer, topographer, mineralogist, biologist, zoologist, ethnologist, philologist, even a farmer and technologist. In terms of the versatility of his knowledge, Peter Pallas is reminiscent of the encyclopedic scientists of antiquity, and in terms of accuracy, he is a modern scientist, not an 18th century one.
The outstanding Soviet scientist Academician Vernadsky writes in his works on the history of science in Russia:
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Pallas has still not yet occupied in our consciousness the historical place that corresponds to his real significance. Perhaps, for the history of Russian culture, it seems especially important that Pallas made his major generalizations based on the study of Russian nature, life and the remains of the tribes inhabiting our country. The structure of our mountains provided him with data for the first scientific orogenetic concepts, transferred to the entire globe; the study of Russian fauna led him to zoogeographical generalizations, which laid the foundation for an entire department of zoology, and to those data in the field of invertebrate anatomy, which were a completely unexpected new conquest for his time. In the field of archeology and ethnography, physical geography, we everywhere come across the same feature - independent generalizing work on the nature and peoples of our country. |
…[Pallas’s works] still form the basis of our knowledge about the nature and people of Russia. A geographer and ethnographer, a zoologist and botanist, a geologist and mineralogist, a statistician, an archaeologist and a linguist inevitably turn to them, as a living source, once he is faced with questions related to the nature and peoples of Russia. His travels are, in their presentations, an inexhaustible source of a wide variety of large and small, but always scientifically accurate data. But Pallas was also a creator in the areas of theoretical generalizations - his significance as a theorist, geologist, physical geographer and biologist is even higher and deeper than is usually depicted in such a little studied field of knowledge as the history of science in modern times.Project goals and objectives
The goal of the project is to popularize the scientific heritage, the significance of the work and personality of academician Peter Simon Pallas, and to expand scientific, cultural and sports ties between peoples.
To achieve the goal, the project solves the following tasks:
Project program and timing
The activities of the project “Peter Pallas (1741-1811) - full member of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences” are carried out from 2014 to 2016 and include three periods:
The project program will be refined and detailed.
Project Organizing Committee
Co-chairs:
- Valery Babin, Ph.D., Rector of Gorno-Altai University,
- Baume Otfried, Dr., Professor, President of the Munich Geographical Society, Director of the Institute of Geography of the University of Munich.
Deputies:
- Bondarenko Alexey, Doctor, Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Geography of Gorno-Altai University,
- Brink Ivan, doctor, professor, head. Department of Don Technical University.
Executive Secretary:
Weinberg Rakhmil - head of the tourism club of the GOROD cultural center, master of sports of the USSR in mountain tourism (Munich)
Members of the Organizing Committee:
- Marinin A., professor, Chairman of the Altai Republican Branch of the Russian Geographical Society,
- Mozeson Abram, Ph.D., mountaineering instructor, GOROD hiking club (Munich)
- Fedorchenko Alexander, Ph.D., President of the World Encyclopedia of Travel (Moscow)
- Küfman Carola, Dr., Professor, Institute of Geography, University of Munich.
Contacts
Project participants
Project participants can be educational, scientific, sports, environmental, public organizations, sports teams and groups, as well as individuals who are interested in the life and work of Peter Pallas and who have received a message from the Project Organizing Committee that their application to participate in project events has been accepted. Participants in the program make excursions, climbs and hikes in accordance with the current rules in the territory where these events are held and are responsible for their own safety.
Project management
All events of the project “Peter Pallas (1741-1811) - full member of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences” are carried out in accordance with these Regulations and are coordinated by the Organizing Committee consisting of representatives of organizations that supported this project: Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "Gorno-Altai State University", Altai Department of Russian Geographical Society, Munich Geographical Society (FRG), Munich Russian Cultural Center "GOROD" and its tourist and mountaineering club (FRG), World Encyclopedia of Travel Foundation (Moscow).
Project financing
The costs of participation of teams, groups and individuals in the project are borne by the organizations conducting the events - the initiators of individual events, incl. and exhibiting teams, sponsors or the participants themselves.
Documents sent by the Organizing Committee to interested organizations and individuals
- This Regulation,
- Banks of applications and information (forms No. 1, No. 2) for participation in the project (applications for participation in the project are accepted by the Organizing Committee of the project from 05/01/2014 using the attached Form No. 1. The final Form No. 2 is submitted to the Organizing Committee no later than December 15 of the year Events.),
- List of areas through which the expeditions of Peter Pallas took place,
- Provides advice on holding events, choosing routes, techniques for completing them and ensuring safety,
- Coordinates the timing of events,
- Suggests topics for questions when studying archival or literary materials,
- If necessary and possible, provides visa support, etc.
Application (Form No. 1)
for participation in the project “Peter Pallas (1741-1811) - full member of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences” from:
- Number of participants
- Last name and first name of the manager
- Climbing (hiking) area
- Proposed route
- Planned time
- Planned socially beneficial activities, scientific work
- Is consulting or other assistance from the Organizing Committee required, and what kind?
- The members of the team (group), based on their experience, physical and technical training, correspond to the complexity of the upcoming ascent (hike) in accordance with existing safety requirements.
date
Application (Form No. 2)
INFORMATION
about participation in the project “Peter Pallas (1741-1811) - full member of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences”
- Name of organization, team, group, individuals
- Number assigned by the organizing committee
- Number of participants
- Last name and first name of the manager
- Manager's address, telephone, fax, E-mail
- Climbing (hiking) area
- Executed route
- Climbing (hiking) time
- Work carried out on the project “Peter Pallas (1741-1811) - full member of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences”: conferences, lectures, conversations, reports, articles in the media, etc.
M.P. (signature of the responsible person)
date
The Organizing Committee of the International Project “Peter Pallas (1741-1811) - full member of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences” reads out participation in the project:
- Climbing and hiking trips by type of tourism in the areas of expeditions conducted by Peter Pallas (1768-1774, 1793-1795): St. Petersburg, Moscow, Penza, Ulyanovsk, Samara, Volga region, Volgograd, Astrakhan, Northern coast of the Caspian Sea, Northern . Caucasus, Ufa, Ural, Chelyabinsk, Altai, Tyumen, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Lake Baikal, Sea of Azov, Crimean Peninsula.
- Tourist activities, including excursions, to the places of study, life and work of Peter Pallas in Germany (Halle, Leiden, Göttingen. Berlin is especially noted - the city where Peter Pallas was born, graduated from the University and where his grave is located), Austria, Holland .
- Climbing and sightseeing tourism events in other areas, provided that their participants carry out work to popularize the name and significance of the works of Peter Pallas.
This Regulation is an official invitation to take part in the project “Peter Pallas (1741-1811) - full member of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences.”
P. S. PALLAS
OBSERVATIONS MADE DURING THE TRAVEL
ACCORDING TO THE SOUTHERN GOVERNANCES OF THE RUSSIAN STATE IN 1793-1794
L.85 JOURNEY INTO THE DEPTH OF THE CRIMEA, ALONG THE KERCH PENINSULA AND TO THE ISLAND OF TAMAN 103 (The description of Crimea is given in full, but I am skipping it)
Taman Island
Traveling to Taman Island in large boats in stormy weather is often dangerous. To the Northern Spit, which, in fact, forms the Bosphorus, the crossing is only four miles and the most reliable, but since there are no villages in this area where one could have horses, they usually drive past the end of the Northern Spit, across the Tamansky bay, straight to the city of Taman, and this eighteen-mile journey is quite dangerous not only due to unexpected gusts of wind and frequent shallow waters, but also due to the very noticeable, even in calm weather, boiling current of the strait water, forming short waves 18.
In calm weather, the usual upper course of the Bosphorus moves away from the coast towards the mouth of the strait. Towards the Northern Spit, a strip is clearly visible where the yellowish water of the Azov Sea meets the dark salty water of the Black Sea. The depth of the fairway is from ten to seventeen feet, and the greatest depth is located more than a mile from the European coast, where beyond Yenikale it increases from fourteen to seventeen, nineteen and twenty and twenty-two feet, in the Sea of Azov it again decreases to seventeen and fourteen . The direction of the narrow canal, which has only four miles, goes from southwest to northeast. The Bosphorus expands both by the Kerch Bay and the Taman Bay located opposite and narrows at L.99 of the Southern Spit, which is four miles from the Northern Spit; by it and the islands located in continuation of its end up to three miles; this is the most convenient place for crossing, passing and resting horses and cattle due to the many shallows covered with water where animals can rest. Despite its current, the Bosporus, like most of the Sea of Azov, is covered with ice in winter, the main reason for which is the drift ice from the Don River. In severe winters, it is possible to cross the strait with loaded carts, and ice drift in the spring lasts a long time, often until May. It is very likely that Strabo 122 reports that in the same place on the Bosporus, where in the summer the leaders of Mithridates’ troops fought a naval battle, in the winter there was a battle of cavalry with the Crimean peoples.
Fishing in the Bosphorus and along the entire coast is very plentiful, especially beluga and sturgeon are caught, and to catch them they use either nets or ropes with floats to which hooks are attached. In total, the Greeks are most involved in fishing in Kerch, catching three hundred to four hundred thousand, about 123 [from twenty-four to thirty thousand pounds] of fish per year. Salted with saltpeter and air-dried, the transparent and red backs of beluga sturgeon [balyki] and its sides and bellies [tёshki] constitute a favorite fasting dish in Russia and the Greek islands and, despite their indigestibility, are very much appreciated by lovers. If you wipe these balyks often, lubricate them with fresh olive oil and keep them in shady, ventilated places, they can last for several years and are valued even more. This fish is also caught in winter with hooks in ice holes, but not in the ice floes themselves, like L.99 vol. Strabo points out incorrectly. Here and among the Black Sea Cossacks, pressed caviar is excellent, but fish glue is very poor.
When moving across the Bosphorus to Taman, I noticed strong steam constantly standing over the island of Taman in calm weather. These vapors, resembling a thick fog, together with mud and oil springs, provide indisputable proof that under this island at a considerable depth there is a layer of burning substance, which is why this phenomenon occurs, as well as the extreme heat and dampness of the soil on its surface. The same pairs are seen on the shores of Yenikale, probably originating from the same cause.
During the occupation of Taurida, the old city of Taman received the ancient Greek name Phanagoria, which, in my opinion, is completely inappropriate for it; it should have returned its old name [Tmutarakan], given by the Russian princes who previously ruled here. Old Taman, or Tmutarakan, was a vast city built on ancient ruins, its fortifications extended from coast to coast for two and a half miles in circumference, along a length of one and a half miles along the shore of the Taman Bay. Inside this space, on the high seashore, a small irregular fortress was built during the last Turkish war, consisting of two complete bastions and several defensive corners with narrow ditches; it contained only a guardhouse and the commandant's house. Few houses from the former city remain in the area of the old fortification. On the way to Temryuk, the Black Sea Cossacks began building new houses. The stone mosque with a minaret of not particularly diligent work has now been converted into an Orthodox church. This area has six wells with good water, which is L.100 rarity in Taman. Since the city had to be cleared for the Black Sea Cossacks, and its terrain was not suitable for building a fortress due to its unevenness and the ruins lying everywhere on it, for this purpose in 1794 [the year] they chose a completely flat area two miles east of the current fortification on the shore of the bay. a place lying at an altitude of from forty-seven to fifty-eight feet above the level of the sea, for the construction of a new regular fortress of three full and two half-bastions, abutting the shores of the sea; Now the fortress is completely ready, has barracks and wells [dug in yellow clay]. Ahead of it, an artificial harbor was to be built for a flotilla of Black Sea Cossacks. Between the old and new fortress, called Phanagoria, near the sea there is a retrenchment built by Field Marshal Suvorov.
Under the ruins of old Taman many stones with inscriptions and marble sculptures are found, but there are probably many hidden ones. In addition to the fortification, on the southwestern side there is also a large stone pool, paved with stones, very old workmanship, and on the same side there are the remains of gardens where grape bushes grow beautifully. Since most of the numerous inscriptions seen here are tombstones of modern Greeks and Armenians and do not have any special significance, I presented 124, fig. 2, 3, 4 and 5 are just the most wonderful ones. I also saw, among other remains of ancient sculptural works, half the torso of a warrior figure in armor and robes, rather crudely executed, several brackets and a special triangular capital made of white marble.
The area around Taman has sandy soil, further inland and near the hills it is mixed with clay. This sandy layer is very deep in some places and reaches sea level; on the seashore and in ravines there are layers of a different kind. Now, behind the first old fortification on the side of the Southern Spit, brick clay and blue clay, a layer of iron ore with castings of burnt beautiful L. 100 vol., are noticed in a deep ravine near the sea shore under two and three arshins of black soil. bivalve shells of quite large size. Between two very hard layers of iron ore one can see a brown layer, loose, greenish-brown, in which lie castings of burnt-out bivalve shells with loosely lying strong valves, only bleached by time. Some inside are completely filled with beautiful transparent dark red concretions of crystalline selenite, in others there are only small peas of iron ore. I was given a rather large vertebra, probably of a small species of Cete, found here and half fossilized. The noted shells belong to three species that are no longer found on the shore.
1. A very short convex shell, approximately 1 34 inches long, 1 13 inches wide and one line more - at its greatest thickness, when the fairly thick valves are well connected.
2. Venus 19 grooved, ribbed, rounded at one end, at the other - somewhat angularly rounded and widening towards the closing muscle with very flat, slightly convex valves 2 13 inches in length, slightly more than 1 12 inches in width and 34 inches in thickness.
3. Large Venus in the form of a bull's heart, with small grooves; on both sides - with tubercles, like on the hoof of a deer leg; from the closing muscle, where the groove of the valves is most prominent, to the sharp end in it - 3 inches in length with 2 12 inches in width and 2 inches in thickness.
To the east of Taman, on the seashore, there are many fossilized shells, also filled with iron ocher and covered with a layer of reddish-brown and yellow ocher.
Taman Island represents a country with interspersed broken valleys and hills, their appearance apparently comes from the depression of the soil as a consequence of internal eruptions, from sea floods and from the overflow of the Kuban River; it is possible that these reasons will serve to further change it. Various branches of the Kuban River, large bays and flooded lowlands form from this area a real island, running to the west from Asia, just as the Bosphorus Peninsula - to the east, and, together forming the Bosphorus Strait, they end the Meotic, or Azov L.101 Sea. Large bays, which can be attributed to the invasion of the sea, are
1. Salty Bay of Taman [Taman Bay], formed by the sea, has no connection with Kuban.
2. Temryuk Estuary, in Tatar Ak-Tengiz - closed, like a lake; separated from the Sea of Azov only by a narrow strip of land and somewhat wider from the Taman Bay; Several small channels of the Kuban, which were probably once navigable, flow into it; it flows into the Temryuk Gulf of the Sea of Azov and has fresh water.
3. The Southern Kuban Estuary - the largest of all, into which the main branch of the Kuban River flows, flows into the Black Sea with a small fordable channel called Bugae, located between two narrow spits; there is a separate bay from it on the western side.
4. The Kiziltashsky estuary forms a separate bay in the west, the end of which, covered with reeds, bears a separate name - the Tsokurovsky estuary. Since this Kiziltash estuary is separated from the Kuban Bay by a narrow strip of land and has communication with it through a small channel, I do not see anything incredible in the Tatars’ assurances that the Kiziltash estuary was previously a closed salt lake and that with an increase in population they dug a narrow strip of land separating it from the Kuban Bay; this connection made the water of the estuary less salty.
Regardless of these bays, the swamps formed by the sea near Kurka, with several tributaries of the Kuban and then two more significant tributaries of the same river flowing north at Achuev into the Sea of Azov, bearing the Russian names Black Channel and Cossack Erik, form the real island of Taman, which in ancient times had no name; the present one probably comes from the Tatar and Russian word - fog, which the island deserves due to the thick fumes mentioned above. All coastal waters and bays around Taman are very rich in fish.
The area leading to Bugas, southeast of the city of Taman, between the Black Sea and the Kiziltash Estuary, has many attractions. The first is a small salt lake located near the Southern Spit, in Tatar - Kutuk-Tussala. Then - a larger lake near the spit that forms the Bugae, or the mouth of the Kuban estuary. It runs oblong from north to south, has a circumference of four miles and, like all salt lakes of Crimea, is separated from the Black Sea by a low and narrow sandy embankment. In summer, most of it dries out, but due to rainfall, the settled salt easily dissolves, and it is not of very good quality for salting fish; When sea level rises, its water flows into the lake and prevents salt from settling. This lake has a strong smell of raspberries or violets and its surface is very smooth. The salt settles here, like in the lakes of Kerch, in pyramidal cuboids. Around this lake Salicornia strobilacca and herbacea, Cakile, Astriplex portulacoides and laciniata, Salsola Kabi and Messerschmidia grow abundantly.
The area surrounding this lake from the mainland is cut by several ravines towards Bugas, it rises up to six to seven fathoms vertically and consists of crumbly shale, ringing, having the appearance of being burnt. In a small ravine there is a salt spring; its black mud has a strong sulfuric liver odor. Lepidium crassifolium grows here in abundance. Fragments of stones that have a burnt appearance are mixed under a layer of clay from the ravine. Somewhat further, a little before reaching the Bugas picket, at a deeper ravine cutting through the heights, at its upper beginning, on the slope of the western side, a small active mud spring appeared during my stay, from which flowed gray mud, similar to that coming out in the Yenikale mud holes, forming a small hill on the side of the ravine. Two similar mud holes, dry at that time (June), were on the other side of the ravine. On the other side, on a small hill, the soil of which is everywhere covered with cracks and has several muddy places, there are several holes or shallow wells where a thick oil, similar to tar, collected on the surface of the slightly salty water. The height of this mountain above the level of the estuary is approximately six to seven fathoms. They claim that towards the South Spit there are similar sources of oil, which I have not seen, on a hill distinguished by the red color of its layers, not to mention many others located in various parts of the island of Taman.
The Bugae picket is located approximately eighteen miles from Taman. A narrow and low spit, running to the southeast for less than a mile, is connected at its end with another, even narrower, but six times longer, lying opposite, on the Turkish side, and is accompanied by a third inside the estuary, ending with a small island near Russian coast. The first two spits, at the ends of which there is, on the one hand, a Russian post, on the other, a Turkish post, are barely a hundred fathoms wide between themselves, where the Kuban estuary flows into the sea.
During the capture of Anapa, the cavalry of the Crimean Auxiliary Corps forded from one cape to another. When I was there, the Turks were building a stone fort near the village of Dzhemetri, which lies at a steep height at the beginning of the spit, for which there was a ship right there; on our side, another fort was also erected opposite, and on the road leading to the picket, a few more miles from Taman, a redoubt was established to support communication between them. The Turkish fortress of Anapa is visible very clearly on the seashore.
Six versts from the picket on the road to Kiziltash-Burun, driving along a hilly spit between the Kiziltash and Kuban estuaries, they leave a significant hill to the left, on which traces of the ruins of an ancient city are visible; It is quite possible that this is Strabo’s Phanagoria, which, according to his description, lay near the Kuban estuary, formerly called Korocondamstis. Others attributed these ruins to the city of Corocondama, which, according to Strabo’s clear and precise descriptions, should have been located opposite Panticapaeum, ten stadia, or two miles, from Bugas, where traces of it would undoubtedly still be found. On this mountain, under the black soil, there are now layers of limestone consisting of shells, which the Tatars call by its color Kiziltash-Burun 20.
L.102 vol. The middle part of Taman Island, located between the Kuban and Temryuk estuaries, is the highest and most hilly, very fertile and rich in pastures. This part between the estuary and the Kuban River was occupied by the so-called Nekrasov Cossacks, descended from the Don Cossacks who rebelled and went over to the Turks, who lived in several beautiful villages until the capture of Taman forced them to move south, further to Anapa. Their villages, located at various heights along the Kuban, were surrounded by the most fertile meadows and arable lands and were distinguished by a wonderful view from them, stretching beyond the branches of the Kuban to the Caucasus mountains, covered with villages and forest. Various antiquities and inscriptions should be found in the center of the area. In the hills along the Kuban Estuary, large and small pieces of selenite are found in clay, and in the part formerly inhabited by the Cossacks, oil springs are encountered, from which pure and very liquid oil is extracted. The Tatars placed barrels with holey bottoms in these wells to obtain cleaner oil. Much worth noting could be said about this central part of the island, but want of time and the danger of the journey prevented me from passing through it.
I studied the area along the Taman Bay and between it and the Temryuk Estuary 125 much more diligently, as well as the northern corner of the island, lying opposite the Northern Spit.
The closest attraction of this area, if you drive from the city of Taman, is a house built by order of the highly blessed monarch between the sandy hills south of the city near a fountain for storing wonderful marble with an ancient Russian inscription. The stone, for the discovery and preservation of which we should be grateful to a certain Major von Rosenberg, was found at one of the barracks of the Jaeger battalion stationed in Taman, L.103, where it was used as a step at the front door. Vice Admiral Pustoshkin, whose squadron was then sailing in these places, took the stone with him to Nikolaev, from where, by the highest order, as a historical monument, it was again transported to the place where it was found, and this small house was built to preserve it. This is a slab of white marble, three arshins and three vershoks in length, polished on the bottom side and on the transverse sides, and roughly rounded at the top, with a hole made for an iron bracket; it seems to have been placed above the door. The inscription located on the edge of one end of the slab is all the more remarkable because it leaves no doubt that Taman is the ancient Tmutarakan, in which princes from the appanage Russian clan lived; Mr. I.G. Stritter has long refuted doubts about this historical fact by comparing Byzantine writers with Russian chronicles. The inscription literally says In the summer of 6576, indict 6, Gleb, the prince, measured the sea on ice from Tmutarakan to Kerch 30,054 fathoms. It is difficult to speak about the reason for the inscription on marble, since the freezing of the Bosphorus and the possibility of measuring on ice are not at all uncommon. Mr. Privy Councilor Alexey Musin-Pushkin, in a special description, gave historical explanations about this inscription and about the ancient principality of Tmutarakan 126, accompanied by an explanatory map of the ancient geography of Russia and a drawing of the inscription depicted in the tenth vignette 127. But since there were some inaccuracies in the figures, presented in this work, I emphasized them in this new image of the ninth vignette 128, which seemed important to me for such a historical document. At some distance from the old city of Taman along the Taman Bay, to the right along the road to Temryuk opposite the new fortress, a series of heights or hills are visible one and a half miles from the fortress and the shore of the bay, rising L.103 to one hundred sixty and one hundred seventy feet. The fourth of them, called Kirk-kaya, is the most remarkable and significant because it represents very strange natural phenomena. Its upper part is covered with grayish-yellow clay, infertile, in which various types of stone fragments are mixed. When they reach the highest plane, a strong smell of oil is felt at the first, northernmost hill of the three located on this plane. This flat first hill occupies a wide space, being no more than one and a half fathoms in height and more than a hundred paces in diameter, here and there overgrown with Camphorosma, which, together with the Lepidium crassifolium mentioned above, constitutes the first signs of vegetation on this muddy soil. This hill consists of three amphitheater-shaped terraces, probably formed by three different eruptions. In the middle, two or three places are visible with clear traces of filled and dried mud holes. It is surrounded by a deeper valley to the south, enclosing a crescent-shaped swamp that has no source; its water tastes like salt and urea, its banks are covered with reeds, and its bottom is muddy and never dries out in summer. The second hill is fifty paces from the circular valley of the first hill, a little higher and less widened, has only two terraces, and on one side you can clearly see how the mud flowed out and solidified in a circle, as well as places where there were failures. A deep circular valley also surrounds this hill and has on the north side a wide crescent-shaped lake with marshy banks and very muddy water, less urea, but more salty in taste; in the middle of the lake, clearer water is noticeable from a distance, probably due to greater depth. The third hill, less than a hundred paces from the second and south of the first, is the highest and steepest, in the shape of a mound 129 two and a half fathoms high and consists of silt, in which a mixture of various stones is visible. The depression surrounding it is narrow, and the mixed layers of soil around it do not have much cohesion
P. S. Pallas (1741 - 1811) - naturalist and traveler-encyclopedist, who glorified his name with major contributions to geography, zoology, botany, paleontology, mineralogy, geology, ethnography, history and linguistics. Pallas explored the vast spaces of the Volga region, the Caspian region, Bashkiria, the Urals, Siberia, Ciscaucasia and Crimea. In many respects, this was a real discovery of the vast territories of Russia for science.
Pallas's geographical merits are enormous, not only in terms of inventorying a colossal amount of facts, but also in his ability to systematize and explain them. Pallas was a pioneer in deciphering the orohydrography of large parts of the Urals, Altai, Sayan and Crimea, and in judging their geological structure, and in the scientific description of mineral wealth, as well as the flora and fauna of Russia. He collected a lot of information about its mining industry, agriculture and forestry, ethnography, languages and history.
N.A. Severtsov emphasized that Pallas, studying “the connections of all three kingdoms of nature,” established “strong views” on the importance of meteorological, soil and climatic influences... There is no branch of the natural sciences in which Pallas would not pave a new path, would not leave a brilliant model for the researchers who followed him... He set an example of unprecedented accuracy in the scientific processing of the materials he collected. In his versatility, Pallas is reminiscent of the encyclopedic scientists of antiquity and the Middle Ages; in terms of accuracy and positivity, this is a modern scientist, not an 18th century one.”
The theory about the origin of mountains expressed by Pallas in 1777 marked a whole stage in the development of Earth science. Like Saussure, who outlined the first patterns in the structure of the subsoil of the Alps, Pallas, who was called the Russian Saussure, was able to grasp the first signs of a regular (zonal) structure in such complex mountain systems as the Urals and the mountains of southern Siberia, and made general theoretical conclusions from these observations. It is important that, not yet being able to overcome the worldview of the catastrophists, Pallas sought to reflect and decipher all the complexity and diversity of the causes of geological processes. He wrote: “To find reasonable causes of changes on our Earth, it is necessary to combine many new hypotheses, and not take just one, as other authors of the Earth theory do.” Pallas spoke about “floods” and volcanic eruptions, and about “catastrophic failures of the bottom”, as one of the reasons for the decrease in sea level, and concluded: “Obviously, nature uses very diverse methods for the formation and movement of mountains and for the creation of other phenomena that have changed the surface of the Earth." Pallas's ideas had, as Cuvier admitted, a great influence on the development of general geological concepts even of such recognized founders of geology as Werner and Saussure.
However, in attributing to Pallas the foundation of “the beginning of all modern geology,” Cuvier committed an obvious exaggeration and demonstrated his unfamiliarity with Lomonosov’s ideas. A. V. Khabakov emphasizes that Pallas’s reasoning about worldwide upheavals and catastrophes was “an outwardly spectacular, but poorly thought-out and false concept, a step back, in comparison, for example, with Lomonosov’s views “about changes insensitive to the passage of time” of the boundaries of land and sea.” . By the way, in his later writings Pallas does not rely on his catastrophist hypothesis and, describing the nature of the Crimea in 1794, speaks of mountain uplifts as “phenomena that cannot be explained.”
According to V.V. Belousov, “the name of Pallas stands first in the history of our regional geological research... For almost a century, Pallas’s books lay on the tables of geologists as reference books, and, leafing through these thick volumes, one could always find something new in them, a previously unnoticed indication of the presence here or there of a valuable mineral, and such dry and brief messages later more than once became the cause of major geological discoveries... Geologists joke that the historical outline of research in any geological report should begin with the words: “More Pallas...”
Pallas, as if foreseeing this, kept detailed notes, not neglecting any little things, and explained it this way: “Many things that may now seem insignificant, in time, may become of great importance to our descendants.” Pallas's comparison of the Earth's layers with a book of ancient chronicles, from which one can read its history, has now become a part of any textbook on geology and physical geography. Pallas far-sightedly predicted that these archives of nature, “preceding the alphabet and the most distant legends, we have only just begun to read, but the material contained in them will not be exhausted for several centuries after us.” The attention that Pallas paid to the study of connections between phenomena led him to many important physical and geographical conclusions. N.A. Severtsov wrote about this: “...Climatology and physical geography did not exist before Pallas. He dealt with them more than all his contemporaries and was in this respect a worthy predecessor of Humboldt... Pallas was the first to observe periodic phenomena in the life of animals. In 1769, he drew up a plan for these observations for the members of the expedition...” According to this plan, it was necessary to record the course of temperature, the opening of rivers, the timing of the arrival of birds, the flowering of plants, the awakening of animals from hibernation, etc. This also depicts Pallas as one of the first organizers of phenological studies in Russia observations.
Pallas described hundreds of species of animals, expressed many interesting thoughts about their connections with the environment and outlined their habitats, which allows us to speak of him as one of the founders of zoogeography. Pallas's fundamental contribution to paleontology was his studies of the fossil remains of the mammoth, buffalo and hairy rhinoceros, first from museum collections and then from his own collections. Pallas tried to explain the finding of elephant bones mixed “with sea shells and bones of sea fish,” as well as the discovery of the corpse of a hairy rhinoceros with surviving hair in the permafrost on the Vilyue River. The scientist could not yet admit that rhinoceroses and elephants lived so far in the north, and invoked a sudden catastrophic invasion of the ocean to explain their introduction from the south. And yet, the very attempt at paleogeographical interpretation of the finds of fossil remains was valuable. 
In 1793, Pallas described leaf imprints from the tertiary deposits of Kamchatka - this was the first information about fossil plants from the territory of Russia. Pallas's fame as a botanist is associated with the major "Flora of Russia" he began.
Pallas proved that the level of the Caspian Sea lies below the level of the World Ocean, but that before the Caspian Sea reached General Syrt and Ergeni. Having established the relationship of fish and shellfish of the Caspian and the Black Sea, Pallas created a hypothesis about the existence in the past of a single Ponto-Aral-Caspian basin and its separation when waters broke through the Bosphorus Strait.
In his early works, Pallas acted as a forerunner of evolutionists, defending the variability of organisms, and even drew a family tree of animal development, but later moved to a metaphysical position of denying the variability of species. In understanding nature as a whole, an evolutionary and spontaneously materialistic worldview was characteristic of Pallas until the end of his life.
Contemporaries were amazed by Pallas' ability to work. He published 170 papers, including dozens of major studies. His mind seemed designed to collect and organize the chaos of countless facts and to reduce them into clear systems of classifications. Pallas combined acute observation, phenomenal memory, great discipline of thought, which ensured timely recording of everything observed, and the highest scientific honesty. One can vouch for the reliability of the facts recorded by Pallas, the measurement data he provides, the descriptions of forms, etc. “How zealously I observe justice in my science (and perhaps, to my misfortune, too much), so in all this description of my journey I did not step out of it,” and in the least: for according to my concept, to take a thing for another and respect it more than what it is It really is, where to add, and where to hide, I defended for punishment a worthy offense against a scientist in the world, especially among naturalists...”
Descriptions made by scientists of many localities, tracts, settlements, features of the economy and way of life will never lose value precisely because of their detail and reliability: these are standards for measuring the changes that have occurred in nature and people over subsequent eras.
Pallas was born on September 22, 1741 in Berlin in the family of a German professor-surgeon. The boy's mother was French. Studying with home teachers until the age of 13, Pallas became proficient in languages (Latin and modern European), which later greatly facilitated his scientific work, especially when compiling dictionaries and developing scientific terminology.
In 1761 - 1762 Pallas studied the collections of naturalists in England, and also toured its shores, collecting sea animals.
The 22-year-old young man was such a recognized authority that he was already elected as a member of the Academy of London and Rome. In 1766, Pallas published the zoological work “Study of Zoophytes,” which marked a revolution in taxonomy: corals and sponges, which had just been transferred by zoologists from the plant world to the animal world, were classified in detail by Pallas. At the same time, he began to develop a family tree of animals, thus acting as a forerunner of evolutionists.
Returning to Berlin in 1767, Pallas published a number of monographs and collections on zoology. But it was at this time that a sharp turn awaited him, as a result of which the scientist ended up in Russia for 42 years, in a country that literally became his second homeland.
Kruger, Franz – Portrait of Peter Simon Pallas
In 1767, Pallas was recommended to Catherine II as a brilliant scientist capable of carrying out the comprehensive studies of its nature and economy planned in Russia. The 26-year-old scientist came to St. Petersburg both as a professor of “natural history” and then as an ordinary academician with a salary of 800 rubles. a year began to study a new country for him. Among his official duties, he was assigned to “invent something new in his science,” teach students and “multiply with worthy things” the academic “natural cabinet.”
Pallas was entrusted with leading the first detachment of the so-called Orenburg physical expeditions. Young geographers who later grew into major scientists took part in the expedition. Among them were Lepekhin, Zuev, Rychkov, Georgi and others. Some of them (for example, Lepekhin) made independent routes under the leadership of Pallas; others (Georgi) accompanied him at certain stages of the journey. But there were companions who went with Pallas the whole way (students Zuev and chemist Nikita Sokolov, scarecrow Shuisky, draftsman Dmitriev, etc.). Russian satellites provided enormous assistance to Pallas, who was just beginning to study the Russian language, participating in the collection of collections, making additional excursions to the side, conducting questioning work, organizing transportation and household arrangements. The inseparable companion who carried this difficult expedition was Pallas’s young wife (he married in 1767).
The instructions given to Pallas by the Academy might seem overwhelming for a modern large complex expedition. Pallas was instructed to “investigate the properties of waters, soils, methods of cultivating the land, the state of agriculture, common diseases of people and animals and find means for their treatment and prevention, research beekeeping, sericulture, cattle breeding, especially sheep breeding.” Further, among the objects of study, mineral wealth and waters, arts, crafts, trades, plants, animals, “the shape and interior of mountains”, geographical, meteorological and astronomical observations and definitions, morals, customs, legends, monuments and “various antiquities” were listed. . And yet this enormous amount of work was indeed largely accomplished by Pallas during six years of travel.
The expedition, in which the scientist considered his participation a great happiness, began in June 1768 and lasted six years. All this time, Pallas worked tirelessly, keeping detailed diaries, collecting abundant collections on geology, biology and ethnography. This required continuous exertion of strength, eternal haste, and grueling long-distance travel off-road. Constant deprivation, colds, and frequent malnutrition undermined the scientist’s health.
Pallas spent the winter periods editing diaries, which he immediately sent to St. Petersburg for printing, which ensured that his reports began to be published (from 1771) even before returning from the expedition.
In 1768 he reached Simbirsk, in 1769 he visited Zhiguli, the Southern Urals (Orsk region), the Caspian lowland and lake. Inder reached Guryev, after which he returned to Ufa. Pallas spent 1770 in the Urals, studying its numerous mines, and visited Bogoslovsk [Karpinsk], Mount Grace, Nizhny Tagil, Yekaterinburg [Sverdlovsk], Troitsk, Tyumen, Tobolsk and wintered in Chelyabinsk. Having completed the given program, Pallas himself turned to the Academy for permission to extend the expedition to the regions of Siberia. Having received this permission, Pallas in 1771 traveled through Kurgan, Ishim and Tara to Omsk and Semipalatinsk. Based on questioning data, Pallas highlighted the issue of fluctuations in the level of lakes in the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia and associated changes in the productivity of meadows, in fisheries and salt industries. Pallas examined the Kolyvan silver “mines” in Rudny Altai, visited Tomsk, Barnaul, the Minusinsk Basin and spent the winter in Krasnoyarsk.
In 1772, he passed Irkutsk and Baikal (he entrusted the study of Lake Pallas to Georgi, who joined him), traveled to Transbaikalia, and reached Chita and Kyakhta. At this time, Nikita Sokolov traveled on his instructions to the Argun prison. On the way back, Pallas continued Georgi's work on the inventory of Lake Baikal, as a result of which almost the entire lake was described. Returning to Krasnoyarsk, in the same 1772, Pallas made a trip to the Western Sayan Mountains and the Minusinsk Basin.
The return from the expedition took a year and a half. On the way back through Tomsk, Tara, Yalutorovsk, Chelyabinsk, Sarapul (with a stop in Kazan), Yaitsky Gorodok [Uralsk], Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn, lake. Elton and Saratov, having spent the winter in Tsaritsyn, the scientist made excursions down the Volga to Akhtuba, to Mount B. Bogdo and to the salt lake Baskunchak. Having passed Tambov and Moscow, in July 1774, thirty-three-year-old Pallas ended his unprecedented journey, returning to St. Petersburg as a gray-haired and sick man. Stomach diseases and eye inflammation plagued him throughout his life.
However, he considered even the loss of health to be rewarded by the impressions received and said:
“...The very bliss of seeing nature in its very being in a noble part of the world, where a person has deviated very little from it, and learning from it, served me as a hefty reward for the lost youth and health, which no envy can take away from me.”
Pallas's five-volume work "Travel through Various Provinces", first published in German in 1771 - 1776, represented the first comprehensive and thorough description of a huge country, almost unknown at that time scientifically. It is no wonder that this work was quickly translated not only into Russian (1773 - 1788), but also into English and French with notes by prominent scientists, for example Lamarck.
Pallas did a great job of editing and publishing the works of a number of researchers. In 1776 - 1781 he published “Historical News of the Mongolian People”, reporting in them, along with historical information, a lot of ethnographic information about the Kalmyks, Buryats and, according to questioning data, about Tibet. In his materials about the Kalmyks, Pallas included, in addition to his observations, data from the geographer Gmelin, who died in the Caucasus.
Upon returning from the expedition, Pallas was surrounded with honor, made a historiographer of the Admiralty and a teacher of his august grandchildren - the future Emperor Alexander I and his brother Constantine.
The “Cabinet of Natural Monuments” collected by Pallas was acquired for the Hermitage in 1786.
Twice (in 1776 and 1779) in response to requests from the Academy of Sciences, Pallas came up with bold projects for new expeditions to the north and east of Siberia (he was attracted by the Yenisei and Lena, Kolyma and Kamchatka, the Kuril and Aleutian Islands). Pallas promoted the myriad natural resources of Siberia and argued against the prejudice that “the northern climate is not favorable for the formation of precious stones.” However, none of these expeditions came to fruition.
Pallas's life in the capital was connected with his participation in solving a number of government issues and with receiving many foreign guests. Catherine II invited Pallas to compile a dictionary of “all languages and dialects.”
On June 23, 1777, the scientist gave a speech at the Academy of Sciences and spoke warmly about the plains of Russia as the fatherland of a powerful people, as a “nursery of heroes” and “the best refuge of sciences and arts,” about “the arena of the wonderful activity of the enormous creative spirit of Peter the Great.” .
Developing the already mentioned theory of mountain formation, he noticed the confinement of granites and the ancient “primary” shales surrounding them, devoid of fossils, to the axial zones of the mountains. Pallas found that towards the periphery (“on the sides of the masses of previous mountains”) they are covered by rocks of “secondary” formation - limestones and clays, and also that these rocks from bottom to top along the section lie more and more shallowly and contain more and more fossils. Pallas also noted that steep ravines and caves with stalactites are confined to limestone.
Finally, on the periphery of mountainous countries, he noted the presence of sedimentary rocks of “Tertiary” formation (later in the Cis-Ural region their age turned out to be Permian).
Pallas explained this structure by a certain sequence of ancient volcanic processes and sedimentation and made the bold conclusion that the entire territory of Russia was once the seabed, and only islands of “primary granites” rose above the sea. Although Pallas himself believed that volcanism was the reason for the tilting of strata and the raising of mountains, he reproached the one-sidedness of the Italian naturalists, who, “seeing fire-breathing volcanoes constantly before their eyes, attributed everything to internal fire.” Noting that often “the highest mountains are composed of granite,” Pallas made the astonishingly profound conclusion that granite “forms the foundation of the continents” and that “it contains no fossils, therefore it predates organic life.”
In 1777, on behalf of the Academy of Sciences, Pallas completed and in 1781 published an important historical and geographical study “On Russian discoveries on the seas between Asia and America.” In the same 1777, Pallas published a large monograph on rodents, then a number of works on various mammals and insects. Pallas described animals not only as a taxonomist, but also illuminated their connections with the environment, thus acting as one of the founders of ecology.
In his Memoir of the Varieties of Animals (1780), Pallas moved to an anti-evolutionary point of view on the question of the variability of species, declaring their diversity and relatedness to be the influence of a “creative force.” But in the same “Memoir” the scientist anticipates a number of modern views on artificial hybridization, speaking “about the inconstancy of some breeds of domestic animals.”
Since 1781, Pallas, having received the herbariums of his predecessors at his disposal, worked on the “Flora of Russia”. The first two volumes of “Flora” (1784 - 1788) were officially distributed to the provinces of Russia. Also distributed throughout the country was the “Resolution on Afforestation”, written by Pallas on behalf of the government, consisting of 66 points. During 1781 - 1806 Pallas created a monumental summary of insects (mainly beetles). In 1781, Pallas founded the magazine “New Northern Notes”, publishing in it a lot of materials about the nature of Russia and voyages to Russian America.
With all the honor of the position, metropolitan life could not help but weigh heavily on the born researcher and traveler. He obtained permission to go on a new expedition at his own expense, this time in the south of Russia. On February 1, 1793, Pallas and his family left St. Petersburg through Moscow and Saratov to Astrakhan. An unfortunate incident - a fall into icy water while crossing the Klyazma - led to a further deterioration in his health. In the Caspian region, Pallas visited a number of lakes and hills, then climbed up the Kuma to Stavropol, examined the sources of the Mineralovodsk group and traveled through Novocherkassk to Simferopol.
In the early spring of 1794, the scientist began studying Crimea. In the fall, Pallas returned to St. Petersburg through Kherson, Poltava and Moscow and presented Catherine II with a description of Crimea, along with a request to allow him to move there to live. Along with permission, Pallas received from the empress a house in Simferopol, two villages with plots of land in the Aytodor and Sudak valleys, and 10 thousand rubles for the establishment of gardening and winemaking schools in Crimea. At the same time, his academic salary was retained.
Pallas enthusiastically devoted himself to exploring the nature of Crimea and promoting its agricultural development. He went to the most inaccessible places of the Crimean mountains, planted orchards and vineyards in the Sudak and Koz valleys, and wrote a number of articles on agricultural technology of southern crops in the conditions of the Crimea.
Pallas's house in Simferopol was a place of pilgrimage for all honored guests of the city, although Pallas lived modestly and was burdened by the external splendor of his fame. Eyewitnesses describe him as already close to old age, but still fresh and vigorous. Memories of his travels brought him, in his words, more pleasure than his glory itself.
Pallas continued to process the observations he had made earlier in the Crimea. In 1799 - 1801 he published a description of his second journey, which included, in particular, a thorough description of the Crimea. Pallas's works on the Crimea are the pinnacle of his achievements as a geographer-naturalist. And pages with characteristics of the geological structure of Crimea, as A. V. Khabakov writes (p. 187), “would do honor to the field notes of a geologist even in our time.”
Pallas's considerations regarding the border between Europe and Asia are interesting. Trying to find a more suitable natural boundary for this essentially conventional cultural-historical border, Pallas disputed the drawing of this border along the Don and proposed moving it to General Syrt and Ergeni.
Pallas considered the main goal of his life to be the creation of “Russian-Asian Zoography”. He worked hardest on it in the Crimea, and with the publication of this particular book he was most unlucky: its publication was completed only in 1841, that is, 30 years after his death.
In the preface to this work, Pallas wrote, not without bitterness: “Zoography, which had been in papers for so long, collected over the course of 30 years, is finally being published. It contains one-eighth of the animals of the entire inhabited world.”
In contrast to the “thin” systematic summaries of faunas, containing “dry skeletons of names and synonyms,” Pallas aimed to create a faunal summary, “complete, rich and so compiled that it could be suitable for covering the whole of zoology.” In the same preface, Pallas emphasized that zoology remained his main passion throughout his life: “... And although the love of plants and works of underground nature, as well as the position and customs of peoples and agriculture constantly entertained me, from a young age I was especially interested in zoology preferably before the rest of the physiography.” In fact, “Zoography” contains such abundant materials on the ecology, distribution and economic significance of animals that it could be called “Zoogeography”.
Shortly before his death, Pallas’ life took another, unexpected turn for many. Dissatisfied with the increasing frequency of land disputes with neighbors, complaining of malaria, and also eager to see his older brother and hoping to speed up the publication of his Zoography, Pallas sold his Crimean estates for next to nothing and “with the highest permission” moved to Berlin, where he had not been for more than 42 years. The official reason for leaving was: “To put our affairs in order...” Naturalists in Germany greeted the seventy-year-old man with honor as the recognized patriarch of natural science. Pallas plunged into scientific news and dreamed of a trip to the natural history museums of France and Italy. But her poor health made itself felt. Realizing the approach of death, Pallas did a lot of work to put the manuscripts in order and distribute the remaining collections to friends. On September 8, 1811 he died.
Pallas's merits already during his lifetime received worldwide recognition. He was elected, in addition to those already mentioned, a member of the scientific societies: Berlin, Vienna, Bohemian, Montpelier, Patriotic Swedish, Hesse-Hamburg, Utrecht, Lund, St. Petersburg Free Economic, as well as the Paris National Institute and the academies of Stockholm, Naples, Göttingen and Copenhagen. In Russia he held the rank of full state councilor.
Many plants and animals are named in honor of Pallas, including the plant genus Pallasia (the name was given by Linnaeus himself, who deeply appreciated the merits of Pallas), the Crimean pine Pinus Pallasiana, etc.
Crimean pine Pinus Pallasiana
Pallas' saffron – Crocus pallasii
A special type of iron-stone meteorites is called pallasites after the “Pallas Iron” meteorite, which the scientist brought to St. Petersburg from Siberia in 1772.
Monument to Peter Simon Pallas
Off the coast of New Guinea there is Pallas Reef. In 1947, an active volcano on the island of Ketoi in the Kuril ridge was named in honor of Pallas. In Berlin, one of the streets bears the name of Pallas. Moreover, the station village of Pallasovka (a city since 1967), founded in 1907, received its interesting name also thanks to the merits of the German traveler and naturalist Peter Simon Pallas, who conducted an expedition in this region in the 18th century. It is curious that Pallas himself at one time noted that “this is a land on which it is impossible to live,” focusing on the hot climate in summer (temperatures in summer can reach +45).
Based on materials from the Internet.