Kozma Fyodorovich Spassky-Avtonomov (russian: Козьма Фёдорович Спасский-Автономов) was born in 1807, in Zakharovka, now

Lipetsk Oblast Lipetsk Oblast (russian: Липецкая область, Lipetskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Lipetsk. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 1,173,513. Geography Lipet ...

and died in 1890. He was a Russian researcher of the region of

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world ...

, then a city in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...

, but now in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

, on the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asi ...

. Baku is interesting geologically as it is the lowest lying national capital in the world, some 28 metres below sea level. It is located on the southern shore of the

Absheron Peninsula The Absheron Peninsula ( az, Abşeron yarımadası) is a peninsula in Azerbaijan. It is the location of Baku, the biggest and the most populous city of the country, and also the Baku metropolitan area, with its satellite cities Sumqayit and Khyr ...

, alongside the

Bay of Baku Bay of Baku (Baku Bay) is a natural harbor of the Baku port and local yacht club, on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula and on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Description It has an area of 50 km² and a coastline of 20&nbs ...

. Spassky-Avtonomov arrived in Baku with his children on July 27, 1847, shortly after the discovery of oil in the region. He became the head of Baku Quarantine Customs Service. During this time the instrumental studies of the Caspian Sea level, started in 1830, were ongoing. Spassky-Avtonomov began writing about Baku in 1847, leaving numerous accounts of the city and its inhabitants in detail. Along with his brother Mikhail, he was one of the leading scientists in the fields of climatology and

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

in the country. Kozma, a member of the

Russian Geographic Society The Russian Geographical Society (russian: Ру́сское географи́ческое о́бщество «РГО»), or RGO, is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection w ...

, was versed on both subjects, but his main interests were in the study of local folk literature.

Notes

1807 births 1890 deaths History of Baku Russian meteorologists Russian climatologists Geographers from the Russian Empire {{Russia-bio-stub