Alexander Begbutovich Shelkovnikov
Alexander Begbutovich Shelkovnikov was a Russian zoologist, botanist, naturalist, and explorer of Transcaucasia.
Biography
Early life and career
Shelkovnikov was son of General Boris Shelkovnikov. When his father died suddenly of typhus, Alexander was 8 years old.In 1881, Alexander was accepted into the Page Corps in St. Petersburg, graduating in 1886. Already in 1892, he retired and settled in Transcaucasia in his estate Gek-tepe in the Aresh uezd of the Elizavetpol Governorate. Until 1918, he was intensively engaged in farming, and at the same time conducted extensive research into the nature of Transcaucasia, collecting a large collection of fauna and flora of his native land.
Research expeditions
For twelve years, Shelkovnikov took part in botanical and zoological expeditions of the Caucasian Museum in Tiflis, sometimes as a research fellow, sometimes as a leader. His scientific trips took place in the Lenkoran uezd, in the Mughan, Mil and Shirvan steppes. He participated in large expeditions that covered the steppes in Turkmensky and Nogaysky in the North Caucasus, the upper Svaneti and western Мingrelia, the river valleys of the Kura and Aras, and Lake Sevan. He undertook a winter trip to Abkhazia.In 1916, with funds from the Caucasian branch of the Russian Geographical Society, he organized a large Urmia expedition to Northern Persia. In addition to him, as the leader, the expedition was attended by geologist V. V. Bogachev, zoologist, and botanist Nikolai Schipczinsky.
Academic endeavors
In 1919, Shelkovnikov moved to Armenia, and in the spring of 1920 he was appointed an agronomist in Stepanavan. In the spring of 1922, Shelkovnikov, on behalf of the People's Commissariat for Education, created the Natural Science Museum at Yerevan University. In the same year, with the sanction of the People's Commissariat for Agriculture, he created the Agricultural Museum and became its director.. In 1927, under the leadership of Shelkovnikov, the Botanical Garden was founded in Yerevan, which in 1930 was separated from the museum. A. B. Shelkovnikov remained the director of the museum.In 1922, Shelkovnikov collected an herbarium representing the flora of Armenia, which later became part of the Institute of Botany of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences. For some time, he worked in the Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia. His collections, mainly zoological and botanical specimens from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, are stored in various cities of the former Soviet Union, in particular in Yerevan, St. Petersburg and Moscow.