Pavel Vladimirovich Serebrovsky (30 January 1888 – 5 February 1942) was a Russian ornithologist, biogeographer, and paleontologist. He worked on faunistics, biogeographical theories and worked at the zoological museum of the USSR Academy of Sciences while also collecting in the Altai and

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

regions. A couple of bird subspecies have been named after him. He died of starvation and cold during the

Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad (russian: links=no, translit=Blokada Leningrada, Блокада Ленинграда; german: links=no, Leningrader Blockade; ) was a prolonged military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the Soviet city of L ...

Life and work

Pavel was the son of Vladimir Vasilievich Serebrovsky and Anna Feofanovna and was born in the village of Khudoshino,

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...

province. One of 13 siblings, his father worked in a church and then as a teacher while his mother took an interest in poetry. All the children sang in the church choir and one sibling Gleb became a talented bass singer. In 1905 Pavel apprenticed to a shoemaker and learned to repair shoes. He graduated from the gymnasium in 1907 and joined Moscow University but after the dismissal of M.A. Menzbier in 1911, all the students moved to

Kharkov University The Kharkiv University or Karazin University ( uk, Каразінський університет), or officially V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University ( uk, Харківський національний університет імені ...

and he graduated in 1915. He became involved in ornithological research and collected specimens from 1910 to 1911 in the Nizhny Novgorod region. In 1912 he joined

Petr Sushkin Petr Petrovich Sushkin (russian: Петр Петрович Сушкин; 27 January 1868 – 17 September 1928) was a Russian ornithologist who specialised on comparative anatomy, and evolution of birds, particularly of the birds of prey. Sushkin ...

's expedition into the Altai and in 1916 he went collecting in the Caucasus. He taught at the Kharkov gymnasium from 1916 to 1918 and married another teacher Maria Nikitchna Karetnikova. He became a faculty at the Kharkov University in 1917 under professor Sushkin. He served in Denikin's

Volunteer Army The Volunteer Army (russian: Добровольческая армия, translit=Dobrovolcheskaya armiya, abbreviated to russian: Добрармия, translit=Dobrarmiya) was a White Army active in South Russia during the Russian Civil War from ...

and then returned in 1921. In 1924 he went to work in the museum in the Academy of Sciences at Leningrad on the invitation of Sushkin and after his death Serebrovsky headed the zoological institute for 12 years. A subspecies of the Willow ptarmigan '' Lagopus lagopus sserebrowsky'' was named after him by

Janusz Domaniewski Janusz Domaniewski (1891–1954) was a Polish ornithologist. Notable published works include the following: * 1918: Die Stellung des ''Urocynchramus pylzowi'' Przev. in der Systematik. ''J. Ornithol.'' 66(4): 421–424. (first appraisal of ...

in 1933 a rock bunting '' Emberiza cia serebrowskii'' subspecies by

Hans Johansen Hans Christian Johansen (2 December 1897–18 December 1973) was a Danish-Russian professor of zoology, first at Tomsk State University, later at the University of Copenhagen. Life Hans Johansen was born in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russ ...

in 1944. Serebrovsky received a doctorate in 1939. In 1940 he was relieved from his position at the Zoological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences for reasons unknown but possibly related to the clergy class from which he came. In 1941 he worked on the identification of birds from bone fragments in the Binagadi deposits in Azerbaijan. He died of starvation during the siege of Leningrad on 4 February 1942. The frozen body was picked up a team and buried in a mass grave.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Serebrovsky, Pavel Soviet ornithologists 1888 births 1942 deaths Victims of the Siege of Leningrad Deaths by starvation