BERG Lev Semenovich(1876-1950), physicogeographer and biologist, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1946). Developed the theory of landscapes and developed the ideas of V.V.Dokuchaev about natural zones. He was the first to carry out the zonal physical and geographical division into districts of the USSR. Major works on ichthyology (anatomy, taxonomy and distribution of fish), climatology, lake science, as well as the history of geography. In 1922 he put forward the evolutionary concept of nomogenesis. President of the Geographical Society of the USSR (1940-50). USSR State Prize (1951).
BERG Lev Semenovich(Simonovich), Russian scientist-encyclopedist, zoologist, geographer, evolutionist, historian of science.
Born into a Jewish family, his father was a notary. While studying at the Chisinau gymnasium (1885-94), he was fond of natural science - he collected herbariums, dissected fish, read scientific literature. In 1894 he was baptized and entered Moscow University. Already as a student, he became known for his experiments in fish farming. The diploma work in pike embryology was Berg's 6th published work. After graduating from university (1898, gold medal), he worked in the Ministry Agriculture inspector of fisheries in the Aral Sea and the Volga, investigated steppe lakes, rivers, deserts.
In 1902-1903 Berg studied hydrology in Bergen (Norway), in 1904-13 he worked at the Zoological Museum of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, in 1913 he moved to Moscow, where he received a professor position at the Moscow Agricultural Institute. In 1916 Berg was invited to the department physical geography Petersburg University, where he worked until the end of his life.
Berg's first major scientific works were "Fish of Turkestan" (1905) and his master's thesis "The Aral Sea" (1908), for which Berg immediately received a doctorate in geography. In 1909-16, Berg published 5 monographs on fish in Russia, but geography became the main subject of his scientific interests. He developed a theory of the origin of loess, proposed the first classification of natural zones in the Asian part of Russia. By this time there was scientific style and the methods of work of Berg, who amazed with extraordinary productivity (he owns over 800 works). He was distinguished by iron self-discipline, tenacious memory, the ability to work without drafts and in any conditions, clarity and clarity of presentation (the text began with the definition of concepts) and conclusions, excellent literary language.
Berg stood aloof from politics, but was acutely worried about the horrors of war and revolution, interpreting them as a brief triumph of the principle of struggle over the principle of cooperation. Lacking during this period the conditions for field work Berg expanded teaching activities(in 1916-18 - in Moscow and Petrograd in parallel) and wrote ("heating the freezing ink on the fire of a smokehouse") 3 works on the theory of evolution (1922). They analyze the basic concepts (evolution, progress, expediency, chance, the emergence of a new one, simplicity of theory, directionality), the role of the struggle for existence as a factor in evolution (both in nature and in society) is rejected, the role of natural selection is sharply limited (it is only protects the norm) and put forward an original theory of evolution - nomogenesis, i.e. evolution based on laws.
The theory had a number weak points, which colleagues (A. A. Lyubishchev, D. N. Sobolev, Yu. A. Filipchenko) immediately noted, but basically the criticism took on an ideological character, especially after the release of the English edition of Nomogenesis (1926). NI, who defended Berg from persecution, wrote to him (1927): "We will not let you go from your post. The ship must be guided, no matter what monsters get in the way." Berg did not write more about the mechanisms of evolution. In 1928 he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (in 1946 - an academician) as a geographer.
In geography, Berg is known as the creator of Russian lakes science and landscape theory ("geography is the science of landscapes"). In climatology, Berg classified climates in relation to landscapes, explained desertification by human activity, and glaciation by "factors of a cosmic order." Berg denied continental drift; following VI Vernadsky, he pushed the emergence of life back to the very beginning of geological history.
In zoogeography, Berg proposed his own interpretations of the distribution of fish and other aquatic animals, for example, he showed the local origin of the Baikal fauna, and, on the contrary, explained the composition of the Caspian fauna by post-glacial migration along the Volga. In ichthyology, Berg's main works are: "The system of fish-like and fish living today and fossils" (1940) and the classic three-volume "Fish of fresh waters of the USSR and neighboring countries" (1949, State Prize 1951), which preserved their scientific significance and to this day, as well as numerous work on the breeding and fishing of fish.
Berg's interest in history and ethnography, which arose in his youth ("The Urals on the Syr Darya", 1900), has not been lost over the years. In this area, his work is devoted to the discoveries of Russians in Asia, Antarctica, Alaska ("Essays on the history of Russians geographical discoveries", 1949), old maps, the life of small peoples (Gagauz, Laz, etc.), biographies of scientists. Thanks to Berg, many forgotten names and facts of Russian priority were restored. As an ethnographer, Berg used his knowledge of languages and zoology in his scientific work (for example, "The names of fish and ethnic relations of the Slavs", 1948).
Lev Semyonovich (Simonovich) Berg (March 26, 1876 - December 24, 1950) - Soviet zoologist and geographer.
Corresponding member (1928) and full member (1946) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, president of the Geographical Society of the USSR (1940-1950), laureate of the Stalin Prize (1951 - posthumously). Author of fundamental works on ichthyology, geography, theory of evolution.
Born in Bendery, into a Jewish family. His father, Simon G. Berg, was a notary; mother, Klara Lvovna Bernstein-Kogan, was a housewife. They lived in a house on Moskovskaya Street.
A family
The first wife of L. S. Berg (in 1911-1913) - Paulina Adolfovna Katlovker(March 27, 1881-1943), younger sister the famous publisher B. A. Katlovker. Children - geographer Simon L. Berg(born October 23, 1912, St. Petersburg) and geneticist, writer, doctor biological sciences Raisa Lvovna Berg (March 27, 1913 - March 1, 2006). In 1922, L. S. Berg remarried a teacher in Petrograd pedagogical institute Maria Mikhailovna Ivanova.
In 1921-1950. Berg occupied a residential service wing of the former palace of Alexei Alexandrovich (Leningrad, Prospect Maklin, 2).
He died on December 24, 1950 in Leningrad. He was buried at Literatorskie mostki at the Volkovskoye cemetery.
Education and scientific career
1885-1894 - studied at the second Chisinau gymnasium, which he graduated with a gold medal. In 1894 he was baptized into Lutheranism to obtain the right to higher education within the Russian Empire.
1894-1899 - student of the Natural Sciences Department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the Imperial Moscow University. (His graduate work was dedicated to fish embryology and was awarded a gold medal)
1899-1902 - superintendent of fisheries in the Aral Sea and Syrdarya.
1903-1904 - superintendent of fisheries in the middle reaches of the Volga.
1905-1913 - Head of the Fish Department of the Zoological Museum of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
1913-1914 - Acting Professor of Ichthyology and Hydrology at the Moscow Agricultural Institute.
1916-1950 - as a professor of geography, he headed the department of geography at Petrograd and then Leningrad University.
1918-1925 - Professor of Geography at the Geographical Institute in Petrograd (Leningrad).
1932-1934 - Head of the Department of Applied Ichthyology at the Institute of Fisheries.
1934-1950 - head of the department in the laboratory of ichthyology of the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Leningrad.
1948-1950 - Chairman of the Ichthyological Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Since 1934 - Doctor of Zoology.
Since 1928 - Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Since 1946 - a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Contribution to science
The scientific heritage of Lev Semyonovich Berg is very significant.
As a geographer, he, having collected extensive material on nature different regions, made generalizations on climatic zoning the globe, description landscape zones USSR and neighboring countries, created the textbook "The Nature of the USSR". Berg, the creator of modern physical geography, is the founder of landscape science, and the landscape division he proposed, although supplemented, has survived to this day.
Berg is the author of the soil theory of loess formation. His works made a significant contribution to hydrology, lakes, geomorphology, glaciology, desert studies, the study of surface sedimentary rocks, questions of geology, soil science, ethnography, paleoclimatology.
Berg is a classic of world ichthyology. He described the fish fauna of many rivers and lakes, proposed "systems of fish and fish-like living and fossils." He is the author of the major work "Fish of Fresh Waters of the USSR and Neighboring Countries."
Berg's contribution to the history of science is significant. This topic is the subject of his books about the discovery of Kamchatka, V. Bering's expedition, E. Bykhanov's theory of continental drift, the history of Russian discoveries in Antarctica, the activities of the Russian Geographical Society, etc.
Berg is the author of the book "Nomogenesis, or Evolution Based on Regularities" (1922), in which he proclaimed his anti-Darwinian concept of evolution. Such scientists as A. A. Lyubishchev and S. V. Meyen considered themselves to be his followers. Even in our time, that is, a hundred years later, his concept has its adherents. These include, for example, V.V. Ivanov - Russian and Soviet linguist, semioticist, anthropologist, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2000).
Awards, prizes and honorary titles
- 1909 - gold medal P.P.Semenov-Tyan-Shanskiy for work on the Aral Sea from the Russian Geographical Society (RGO).
- 1915 - Konstantinovskaya medal from the Russian Geographical Society, was elected an honorary member of MOIP.
- 1934 - Honored Scientist of the RSFSR.
- 1936 - Gold Medal of the Asian Society of India for Zoological Research in Asia.
- 1945 - Order of the Red Banner of Labor and medal "For the Defense of Leningrad"
- 1946 - Order of the Red Banner of Labor in connection with the 70th birthday Patriotic War 1941-1945 "
- 1951 - Stalin Prize of the 1st degree for the work "Fish of fresh waters of the USSR and neighboring countries" (posthumously).
Major works
Only the most basic works are listed here. For a complete bibliography, see the book by V.M. Raspopova.
- 1918. Bessarabia. Country. People. Household. - Petrograd: Lights, 1918 .-- 244 p. (the book contains 30 photographs and a map)
- 1905. Fish of Turkestan. Izv. Turk. dep. Russian Geographical Society, t. 4.16 + 261 s.
- 1908. Aral Sea: Experience of a physical-geographical monograph. Izv. Turk. dep. Russian Geographical Society, vol. 5th issue. 9.24 + 580 s.
- 1912. T. 3, no. 1. SPb. 336 s.
- 1914. Fish (Marsipobranchii and Pisces). Fauna of Russia and neighboring countries. T. 3, no. 2. Pg. S. 337-704.
- 1916. Freshwater fish of the Russian Empire. M. 28 + 563 p.
- 1922. Climate and life. M. 196 p.
- 1922. Berg L.S. Nomogenesis, or Evolution Based on Regularities. - Petersburg: State Publishing House, 1922 .-- 306 p.
- 1929. Berg L.S. Essays on the history of Russian geographical science (up to 1923). - L .: Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, State. type of. them. Eug. Sokolova, 1929 .-- 152, p. - (Proceedings of the Commission on the History of Knowledge / Academy of Sciences of the USSR; 4). - 1,000 copies
- 1931. Landscape-geographical zones of the USSR. M.-L .: Selkhozgiz. Ch. 1.401 p.
- 1940. "The System of Fish and Fish, Living and Fossilized." In the book. Tr. Zool. Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the SSR, vol. 5, no. 2.S. 85-517.
- 1946. Essays on the history of Russian geographical discoveries. (M. - L., 1946, 2nd ed. 1949).
- 1947. Berg L.S. Lomonosov and the hypothesis of moving continents // News of the All-Union Geographical Society. - M .: Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1947. - T. No. 1. - P. 91-92. - 2000 copies.
- 1977. (posthumously). Works on the theory of evolution, 1922-1930. L. 387 p.
Lev Semenovich Berg died in Leningrad, in December 1950. He left a huge scientific legacy in the geography and history of this science, climatology, geology, zoology.
At Moscow University, among the students of D. N. Anuchin, there were many talented students who later became outstanding scientists. Among them, a prominent place is occupied by the physicist-geographer Academician Lev Semenovich Berg. Lev Semenovich Berg was born in 1876 in the district town of Bendery, the former Bessarabian province. He graduated from high school with a gold medal in Chisinau. At that time in the gymnasium, the main attention was paid to the study of the ancient languages - Latin and Greek, while the natural sciences were almost not taught. But, finishing high school, Lev Semyonovich dreamed of classes natural sciences... And in 1894 he entered the natural sciences department of the physics and mathematics faculty of Moscow University.
Under the influence of university professors A.P. Bogdanov, A.A. In his senior years, he attended lectures on geography by prof. D. N. Anuchin, who since that time became his scientific adviser in the field of geography.
Back in his student years, LS Borg took up the study of fish on the river. Dniester, in Bessarabia, and in the Urals. After graduating from the university, in the summer of 1898, he went to explore the lakes of Western Siberia and the surrounding area. As a result of these works, he came to important finding that the level of the lakes is gradually increasing. Prior to that, scientists believed that in the southern part of Western Siberia, the lakes are gradually drying up.
Already at the time when Berg began his scientific activity, Anuchin was struck by the versatility and depth of his scientific knowledge.
"And when did he manage to find out all this and think so seriously?" - said Anuchin.
Deep passion for geography, amazing efficiency, desire for new knowledge and many scientific papers allowed Berg to take a prominent place in the ranks of the greatest scientists and educators of our time.
Geography establishes natural, natural boundaries separating one landscape from another, and gives a description of landscapes; at the same time, the patterns of development of individual landscapes and their influence on each other are revealed.
Berg distinguished landscapes of lowlands and mountains. He subdivided the entire flat land area of the globe into the following landscape zones: 1) tundra, 2) temperate forests, 3) forest-steppe, 4) steppes, 5) Mediterranean zone, 6) semi-desert, 7) temperate desert, 8) subtropical zone forests, 9) zone of tropical deserts, 10) zone of tropical steppes, 11) zone of tropical forest-steppe (savanna), 12) zone of tropical moist forests. In addition, he highlighted mountainous landscapes.
Describing landscapes, Berg gave a description of the climate, relief, soil and vegetation cover, fauna of each geographic zone.
He wrote many works on climatology. His books "Fundamentals of Climatology" and "Climate and Life" highlight the importance of climate in the life of all nature, as well as man and his economic activity... He gave a new division of the globe into climatic zones and area.
Studying the issue of climate change and fluctuations throughout the history of the Earth, Berg argued that there is currently no increase in the dryness of the climate of the Middle and Central Asia, as some scientists believed.
Many of Berg's works are devoted to the study and writing off of the relief of our country. Traveling through Central Asia, he studied the relief of deserts and made a description of the sandy, clayey, solonetz and stony deserts of this peculiar part of our country.
For many years, Berg studied Issyk-Kul, Balkhash, Lake Ladoga, The aral sea and lakes of Western Siberia. The result of these studies was work that provides a comprehensive geographical description of the lakes.
A particularly outstanding work on lake science is the book by LS Berg "The Aral Sea", in which he presented the results of his four-year work. He carried out all research on a simple fishing boat, boldly setting sail on the waters of the then little-studied large lake-sea. Berg was the first to measure the water temperature at different depths in the Aral Sea, studied geological structure and the relief of its coasts, collected geological, zoological, botanical collections, studied currents, waves, water composition. For this work in 1909, Moscow University awarded L. S. Berg the degree of Doctor of Geographical Sciences.
Lev Semenovich is the author of numerous works on the history of geography.
Having studied the ancient Russian geographical writings - historical documents and maps, Berg wrote about the first explorers of the Bering Strait, about the discovery of Kamchatka and Bering's expeditions, about the history of the study of Yakutia and Turkmenistan, about the travels and work of N.M. Przhevalsky and N.N. Miklukho-Maclay, P.P. Semenov-Tyan -Shansky and D.N. Anuchin. Berg wrote a general essay on the history of Russian geographical science and the book The All-Union Geographical Society in a Hundred Years. In this last work Berg, as he himself says, “sought to illuminate not only the external course of events, but also to present in a popular form scientific results mined by our great geographers ”.
Shortly before his death, Berg published a book for children about wonderful Russian travelers, which is useful to read for all those who are interested in the history and geography of our Motherland. Highly great importance for science and economy have works of LS Berg on fish.
In 1940, Berg was elected president of the All-Union Geographical Society, and at the end of 1946 - an academician.
Lev Semenovich Berg died in Leningrad, in December 1950. He left a huge scientific legacy in the geography and history of this science, climatology, geology, zoology.
Source on the Internet.
Lev Semyonovich (Simonovich) Berg(March 2 (15), 1876 - December 24, 1950) - Russian and Soviet zoologist and geographer.
Corresponding member (1928) and full member (1946) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, president of the Geographical Society of the USSR (1940-1950), laureate of the Stalin Prize (1951 - posthumously). Author of fundamental works on ichthyology, geography, theory of evolution.
A family
Born in Bendery into a Jewish family. His father, Simon G. Berg (originally from Odessa), was a notary; mother, Klara Lvovna Bernstein-Kogan, was a housewife. He had younger sisters Maria (April 18, 1878) and Sophia (December 23, 1879). The family lived in a house on Moskovskaya Street.
The first wife of L. S. Berg (in 1911-1913) - Paulina Adolfovna Katlovker (March 27, 1881-1943), the younger sister of the famous publisher B. A. Katlovker. Children - geographer Simon Lvovich Berg (1912, St. Petersburg - November 17, 1970) and geneticist, writer, doctor of biological sciences Raisa Lvovna Berg (March 27, 1913 - March 1, 2006). In 1922 L. S. Berg remarried the teacher of the Petrograd Pedagogical Institute Maria Mikhailovna Ivanova.
He died on December 24, 1950 in Leningrad. He was buried at Literatorskie mostki of the Volkovskoye cemetery. The tombstone (sculptor V. Ya. Bogolyubov, architect M. A. Shepilevsky) was created in 1954.
Education and scientific career
1885-1894 - studied at the second Chisinau gymnasium, which he graduated with a gold medal. In 1894 he was baptized into Lutheranism to obtain the right to higher education within the Russian Empire.
1894-1898 - student of the Natural Sciences Department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the Imperial Moscow University. (His thesis "Crushing and formation of parablast in a pike" was awarded a gold medal)
1899-1902 - superintendent of fisheries in the Aral Sea and Syrdarya.
1903 - study for 10 months at an oceanographic course in Bergen (Norway).
1903-1904 - superintendent of fisheries in the middle reaches of the Volga. He lived in Kazan.
November 1904 - November 1913 - head of the fish department of the Zoological Museum of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1909 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Geography for the dissertation "The Aral Sea".
1913-1914 - Acting Professor of Ichthyology and Hydrology at the Moscow Agricultural Institute.
January 1917-1950 - Professor of the Department of Physical Geography at Petrograd and then Leningrad University. Since 1928 - Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1918-1925 - Professor of Geography at the Geographical Institute in Petrograd (Leningrad).
1922-1934 - Head of the Department of Applied Ichthyology at the Institute of Experimental Agronomy.
1934-1950 - Head of the Laboratory of Fossil Fish of the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Leningrad. In 1934 he became a doctor of biological sciences. Since 1946 - a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
1940-1950 - President of the Geographical Society of the USSR.
1948-1950 - Chairman of the Ichthyological Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Contribution to science
The scientific heritage of Lev Semyonovich Berg is very significant.
As a geographer, having collected extensive materials on the nature of different regions, he made generalizations on the climatic zoning of the globe, a description of the landscape zones of the USSR and neighboring countries, and created the textbook "The Nature of the USSR". Berg, the creator of modern physical geography, is the founder of landscape science, and the landscape division he proposed, although supplemented, has survived to this day.
Berg is the author of the soil theory of loess formation. His works made a significant contribution to hydrology, lake science, geomorphology, glaciology, desert studies, the study of surface sedimentary rocks, questions of geology, soil science, ethnography, paleoclimatology.
