Boris Konstantinovich Schischkin (born 1886 in

Kukarka Sovetsk (russian: Сове́тск), formerly Kukarka (russian: Кука́рка; chm, Кукарка), is a town and the administrative center of Sovetsky District in Kirov Oblast, Russia. Population: Etymology The origins of the name "Kuk ...

; died 21 March 1963 in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

) was a Russian botanist and from 1943 corresponding member of the

Academy of Sciences of the USSR The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

. His name was russian: Борис Константинович Шишкин, with his surname sometimes transliterated as Shishkin.

Life and Works

In 1911 Schischkin graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of

Tomsk State University The National Research Tomsk State University, TSU (russian: Национа́льный иссле́довательский То́мский госуда́рственный университе́т) is a public research university located in Tom ...

and from 1913 to 1915 he taught there. Between 1915 and 1918 he worked as a military medical officer. From 1918 to 1925 he headed the botanical section of the Caucasian Museum in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

. From 1925 to 1930 he was professor at the Tomsk State University, where he held a chair of

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

and

plant systematics The history of plant systematics—the biological classification of plants—stretches from the work of ancient Greek to modern evolutionary biologists. As a field of science, plant systematics came into being only slowly, early plant lo ...

. From 1930 he worked in the

Komarov Botanical Institute The Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (russian: Ботанический институт им. В.Л.Комарова РАН) is a leading botanical institution in Russia, It is located on Aptekarsky Island in St. Pete ...

of the

(from 1938 to 1949 as director) and from 1945 to 1958 also as professor at

Leningrad University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

. From 1946 to 1963 he was vice-president of the Botanical Society of the USSR. Shishkin's herbarium included more than thirty thousand samples, the majority of which are held in Tomsk. His main work was concerned with the classification of flowering plants (especially from the families

Caryophyllaceae Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranthaceae, Cactacea ...

Umbelliferae Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plants ...

and

Compositae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae ...

) and plant geography (Siberia, Transcaucasia). He was the organizer and editor of numerous joint works, including ''The Flora of the USSR'' ( ru , Флора СССР), ''The Flora of the Byelorussian SSR'' ( ru , Флора БССР ), ''the Flora of the Leningrad Oblast ('' ru , Флора Ленинградской области) and ''the Flora of Turkmenistan'' ( ru , Флора Туркмении). He was a regional adviser for the Soviet Union on the

Flora Europaea The ''Flora Europaea'' is a 5-volume encyclopedia of plants, published between 1964 and 1993 by Cambridge University Press. The aim was to describe all the national Floras of Europe in a single, authoritative publication to help readers identify ...

project. Another significant works of the 1900s was 'Flora Rossiae Austro-orientalis' (1927-1936, index in 1938) by

Boris Fedtschenko Boris Alexeevich Fedtschenko (27 December 1872 – 29 September 1947) was a Russian plant pathologist and botanist. He is primarily known for his work on various regions of Russia, especially the Caucasus, Siberia and Asiatic Russia. He was ...

and Schischkin.David G. Frodin

Honours

Shishkin was awarded the

USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, Gosudarstvennaya premiya SSSR) was the Soviet Union's state honor. It was established on 9 September 1966. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, t ...

(1952), the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration ...

and other medals. He was an honorary member of the

Société Botanique de France The Société botanique de France (SBF) is a French learned society founded on 23 April 1854. At its inaugural meeting it stated its purpose as "to contribute to the progress of botany and related sciences and to facilitate, by all means at its di ...

and

Botanical Society of Washington Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

. The plant genera ''

Schischkinia ''Schischkinia'' is a genus of Asian flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. ;Species There is only one known species, ''Schischkinia albispina'', native to Asia: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Xinjiang, Afghanistan, and Iran ...

'' Iljin (Compositae) and ''Schischkinella'' Steenis ( synonym of ''

Gastrocalyx ''Silene'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae. Containing nearly 900 species, it is the largest genus in the family. Common names include campion and catchfly. Many ''Silene'' species are widely distributed, particularl ...

''; Caryophyllaceae) were named in his honour. Additionally, a number of species use ''schischkinii'' as specific epithet.

References

External links

*
Biography in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia
(in Russian)
Great Soviet Encyclopedia article translated into Englishshort biography (in Russian) and photo
on the page of the Томская областная универсальная научная библиотека имени А.С. Пушкина {{DEFAULTSORT:Schischkin, Boris Konstantinovich Academic staff of Saint Petersburg State University Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Order of Lenin Soviet botanists 1886 births 1963 deaths Tomsk State University alumni Academic staff of Tomsk State University Burials at Serafimovskoe Cemetery