Gregório Gregorievitch Bondar (1881 – 1959) was a Ukrainian-Brazilian agronomist and entomologist that greatly contributed to Brazilian Entomology. In honor of his contributions, an agricultural research station was created in Belmonte,

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...

and named after him.

Biography

Early life

Bondar was born to a family of farmers who owned 5 hectares of land in the village of Malaia Buromca, district of

Zolotonosha Zolotonosha ( uk, Золотоноша , yi, זאלאטאנאשא) is a city located in Cherkasy Oblast (region) in central Ukraine. Located at around , the city serves as the administrative center of Zolotonosha Raion (district). It hosts th ...

. There he attended elementary school, graduating in 1892. In 1894, his family emigrated to the department of

Yeniseysk Yeniseysk ( rus, Енисейск, p=jɪnʲɪˈsʲejsk) is a town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. Population: 20,000 (1970). History Yeniseysk was founded in 1619 as a stockaded town—the first town on the Yenisei ...

, in Siberia. There he has worked for a year as a farmer, being later appointed as a clerk for the municipality. In 1896, he moved to Kansk, where he worked as a clerk at the police department. In 1899, he quit his job and went back to school in

Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk ( ; rus, Красноя́рск, a=Ru-Красноярск2.ogg, p=krəsnɐˈjarsk) (in semantic translation - Red Ravine City) is the largest city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yeni ...

, graduating in 1902. Between 1902 and 1905, he worked as Elementary School teacher in

Imprisonment and first migration to Brazil

In 1905, Bondar was drafted by the military to fight in the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

. In the same year, he was arrested for subversive political activities. He gained amnesty with the

October Manifesto The October Manifesto (russian: Октябрьский манифест, Манифест 17 октября), officially "The Manifesto on the Improvement of the State Order" (), is a document that served as a precursor to the Russian Empire's fi ...

in the same year, joining an armed uprising in Krasnoyarsk a month later. He was again arrested, escaping on May 20, 1906. He migrated to

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

under the identity of Gregório Kogutovsky, where he worked as a teacher in

Hailar District Hailar District, formerly a county-level city, is an urban district that serves as the seat of the prefecture-level city Hulunbuir in northeastern Inner Mongolia, China. Hulunbuir, due to its massive size, is a city in administrative terms only, ...

until 1908. In that year, he moved to France to attend the

University of Nancy A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

, where he graduated as agronomist in 1910. Unable to go back to Russia, he moved to Brazil. He initially worked as a free-lance photographer, being hired in 1911 as research assistant in the plant pathology department of the Campinas Agronomical Institute. In 1913, he received Brazilian citizenship and was appointed professor of agricultural zoology and entomology at the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture.

Return to Russia

In early 1916, Bondar returned to Russia to fight in the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Before graduating from military school, he was arrested for the 1905 charges and sent to jail in Krasnoyarsk. He received amnesty in 1917, following the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

. Being politically moderate, he joined the White movement and was eventually appointed as vice-governor of the department of

. With the defeat of the

Provisional All-Russian Government The Provisional All-Russian Government (PA-RG), informally known as The Directory, The Ufa Directory, or The Omsk Directory, was a short-lived government during the Russian Civil War, formed on 23 September 1918 at the State Conference in Ufa as ...

, he was arrested and sentenced to death on December 24, 1919. His sentence was never executed and, in 1920, he was freed on the condition of organizing agricultural defense against a locust outbreak attacking wheat in the southern part of the department of

. On the way to his destination, he managed to escape, initially to Mongolia.

Settlement in Brazil

From Mongolia, Bondar traveled to

, Korea and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. In September 1920, he boarded the ship Chicago Maru towards Santos, in Brazil. In 1921, Bondar was hired by the state of

as an entomologist and plant pathologist in the Department of Agriculture. After settling 1921, he lived in Bahia until the end of his life. In 1932, he was transferred to the Instituto de Cacau da Bahia. In 1938, he was hired as a technical consultant by the Instituto Central de Fomento Econômico da Bahia.

Research

Bondar has described several new species of palms (

Arecaceae The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees ...

). He also published several articles of economic botany of plants in the families Apocynaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Araceae and

. His book "Palmeiras do Brasil" was published posthumously, in 1964, by the Institute of Botany of São Paulo. He has described 318 species of insects, including many pests of the plants he studied. The Bondar collection was acquired by David Rockefeller and donated to the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

, including his type specimens. Most of his entomological research was published in a series of papers named ''Notas Entomológicas da Baía'', published between 1937 and 1950 the journal ''Revista de Entomologia''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bondar, Gregorio 1881 births 1959 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Brazil Brazilian entomologists Ukrainian entomologists White Russian emigrants to Brazil Brazilian people of Ukrainian descent 20th-century Brazilian zoologists