Sedelnikov A.

Details

Last Updated on Tuesday, 27 February 2024 17:57

 Alexander Nikitich Sedelnikov (1876 - 1919), geographer explorer

Alexander Nikitich Sedelnikov was born in Bolshenarym village, South Altay. His family moved to Ural - first to Penza province then to Omsk. Alexander finished elementary school, district school and went to the teacher seminary.

After graduation the young teacher went to the Cossack village Volchy full of blessed hopes and noble impulses. But the fate wasn’t gracious to him. Administration found that he was "malicious in his way of thought" and fired him.

After that he started to devote himself to the natural science, collected data about flora and fauna, the history of Stepnoy krai and south-western Altay. He traveled along the Irtysh River, Omsk and Pavlodar outskirts.
In 1896 Sedelnikov managed to become an auditor student of the Yuryev University. He traveled to his homeland, south-western Altay, on the botanic garden’s instructions in June 1897 and August 1898 to explore the flora of the Narym Valley and partly of the Narym Range. He summarized his observations made in Buhtarma Krai in a work named "Geobotanical description of the Narym Valley of Altay" with the attached list of all the plants.

Besides gathering botanical information Sedelnikov made an area study while he was traveling in the south-western Altay. As a result his second work "Red deer breeding in Altay" was published in 1909 in "Natural science and geography" journal.

After graduation Sedelnikov worked in St. Petersburg Botanical Garden systematizing herbarium. In this period he participated in preparation of the eighth volume of the "Kirghiz Krai".

He returned to Omsk in autumn 1900. 3 years later he went to Zayssan Lake and Muztau mountains. He was collecting zoological, botanical, petrographic, geological, and other samples and information in this expedition. This data served a base for new expeditions followed in 1905 and 1906. Then he carried out an additional research in 1908 and 1910. A great work "The Zayssan Lake" became the result of the explorations. In his work he described the origin of the lake’s name, its location, size, shores and floor morphology, climate of the Zayssan Basin, explored the temperature regime, water color and transparency in different points and depths of the lake.

Chapters about the flora and fauna of Zayssan and Zayssan Basin, its people, cattle breeding, farming, and fishing are of a great value. The information about his trip to the lake and the explorations carried out by various travelers during their expeditions in 1717-1910 is also very valuable.

High scientific value of the book "The Zayssan Lake" was acknowledged by the Russian Geographic society Council. A.N. Sedelnikov was decorated with the golden medal in 1912 for this book. After the Zayssan Lake he started to explore the Markakol Lake. His crew carried out water depth, temperature, transparency, color, and motion measurements. They collected herbariums, zoological and mineralogical collections.

Sedelnikov explored a cluster of lakes in Western outlying of Central Altay: Maralye, Chernovoye, Yazovoye, Arassanovskoye, Koksuyskoye, Perevalnoye, Krugloye, Maralyonok, and Sibin lakes in 1914.

He traveled to the East of Kazakhstan in 1917-1918. Observed sand areas near the Bukoni River, carried out monitoring, collected hydrographic, botanical, zoological, geological, and other materials in the Irtysh River valley between Ust-Kamenogorsk and Buhtarma river mouth.

Alexander Nikitich was one of the most active members of the West Siberian Authority of the Russian Geographical society. He prepared, published and introduced to the scientific world dozens of research works about history, geography, botany, zoology, geology, archeology, and ethnography of Kazakhstan and Siberia. He also put in order collections of Omsk museum, lectured a lot in Omsk, Semipalatinsk, and Ust-Kamenogorsk narrating about flora and fauna of South-Western Altay.

School played a great role in his life. First he was a teacher of physics and natural science in a district school, after that he worked in scholastic seminary in Omsk.

Alexander Sedelnikov published the first textbook devoted to motherland for West Siberian school district in 1916. This textbook was followed by a book about Semipalatinsk Region (Semipalatinsk, Zayssan, Kokpekty, Ust-Kamenogorsk, and Pavlodar Districts). The same textbooks for Tomsk and Tobolsk Provinces were being prepared but Alexander Nikitich prematurely died of typhus in 1919.

A memorial plate to our countryman was mounted with a formal ceremony on the building of the vocational school #5 (former scholastic seminary) in Tomsk in 1976. Gold letters glance on the white marble saying: "Well-known geographer, teacher-democrat Alexander Sedelnikov worked in this Omsk scholastic seminary in 1907-1919".