Peter Pallas is a Russian academician. Yu.N. Sharikov. Travel to Taman Island along the route of S. Pallas Wanderlust

P. S. Pallas (1741 - 1811) - naturalist and traveler-encyclopedist, who glorified his name with major contributions to geography, zoology, botany, paleontology, mineralogy, geology, ethnography, history and linguistics. Pallas explored the vast spaces of the Volga region, the Caspian region, Bashkiria, the Urals, Siberia, Ciscaucasia and Crimea. In many respects, this was a real discovery of the vast territories of Russia for science.

Pallas's geographical merits are enormous, not only in terms of inventorying a colossal amount of facts, but also in his ability to systematize and explain them. Pallas was a pioneer in deciphering the orohydrography of large parts of the Urals, Altai, Sayan and Crimea, and in judging their geological structure, and in the scientific description of mineral wealth, as well as the flora and fauna of Russia. He collected a lot of information about its mining industry, agriculture and forestry, ethnography, languages and history.

N.A. Severtsov emphasized that Pallas, studying “the connections of all three kingdoms of nature,” established “strong views” on the importance of meteorological, soil and climatic influences... There is no branch of the natural sciences in which Pallas would not pave a new path, would not leave a brilliant model for the researchers who followed him... He set an example of unprecedented accuracy in the scientific processing of the materials he collected. In his versatility, Pallas is reminiscent of the encyclopedic scientists of antiquity and the Middle Ages; in terms of accuracy and positivity, this is a modern scientist, not an 18th century one.”

The theory about the origin of mountains expressed by Pallas in 1777 marked a whole stage in the development of Earth science. Like Saussure, who outlined the first patterns in the structure of the subsoil of the Alps, Pallas, who was called the Russian Saussure, was able to grasp the first signs of a regular (zonal) structure in such complex mountain systems as the Urals and the mountains of southern Siberia, and made general theoretical conclusions from these observations. It is important that, not yet being able to overcome the worldview of the catastrophists, Pallas sought to reflect and decipher all the complexity and diversity of the causes of geological processes. He wrote: “To find reasonable causes of changes on our Earth, it is necessary to combine many new hypotheses, and not take just one, as other authors of the Earth theory do.” Pallas spoke about “floods” and volcanic eruptions, and about “catastrophic failures of the bottom”, as one of the reasons for the decrease in sea level, and concluded: “Obviously, nature uses very diverse methods for the formation and movement of mountains and for the creation of other phenomena that have changed the surface of the Earth." Pallas's ideas had, as Cuvier admitted, a great influence on the development of general geological concepts even of such recognized founders of geology as Werner and Saussure.

However, in attributing to Pallas the foundation of “the beginning of all modern geology,” Cuvier committed an obvious exaggeration and demonstrated his unfamiliarity with Lomonosov’s ideas. A. V. Khabakov emphasizes that Pallas’s reasoning about worldwide upheavals and catastrophes was “an outwardly spectacular, but poorly thought-out and false concept, a step back, in comparison, for example, with Lomonosov’s views “about changes insensitive to the passage of time” of the boundaries of land and sea.” . By the way, in his later writings Pallas does not rely on his catastrophist hypothesis and, describing the nature of the Crimea in 1794, speaks of mountain uplifts as “phenomena that cannot be explained.”

According to V.V. Belousov, “the name of Pallas stands first in the history of our regional geological research... For almost a century, Pallas’s books lay on the tables of geologists as reference books, and, leafing through these thick volumes, one could always find something new in them, a previously unnoticed indication of the presence of a valuable mineral here or there, and such dry and brief messages later more than once became the cause of major geological discoveries... Geologists joke that the historical outline of research in any geological report should begin with the words: “More Pallas...”

Pallas, as if foreseeing this, kept detailed notes, not neglecting any little things, and explained it this way: “Many things that may now seem insignificant, in time, may become of great importance to our descendants.” Pallas's comparison of the Earth's layers with a book of ancient chronicles, from which one can read its history, has now become a part of any textbook on geology and physical geography. Pallas far-sightedly predicted that these archives of nature, “preceding the alphabet and the most distant legends, we have only just begun to read, but the material contained in them will not be exhausted for several centuries after us.” The attention that Pallas paid to the study of connections between phenomena led him to many important physical and geographical conclusions. N.A. Severtsov wrote about this: “...Climatology and physical geography did not exist before Pallas. He dealt with them more than all his contemporaries and was in this respect a worthy predecessor of Humboldt... Pallas was the first to observe periodic phenomena in the life of animals. In 1769, he drew up a plan for these observations for the members of the expedition...” According to this plan, it was necessary to record the course of temperature, the opening of rivers, the timing of the arrival of birds, the flowering of plants, the awakening of animals from hibernation, etc. This also depicts Pallas as one of the first organizers of phenological studies in Russia observations.

Pallas described hundreds of species of animals, expressed many interesting thoughts about their connections with the environment and outlined their habitats, which allows us to speak of him as one of the founders of zoogeography. Pallas's fundamental contribution to paleontology was his studies of the fossil remains of the mammoth, buffalo and hairy rhinoceros, first from museum collections and then from his own collections. Pallas tried to explain the finding of elephant bones mixed “with sea shells and bones of sea fish,” as well as the discovery of the corpse of a hairy rhinoceros with surviving hair in the permafrost on the Vilyue River. The scientist could not yet admit that rhinoceroses and elephants lived so far in the north, and invoked a sudden catastrophic invasion of the ocean to explain their introduction from the south. And yet, the very attempt at paleogeographical interpretation of the finds of fossil remains was valuable.

In 1793, Pallas described leaf imprints from the tertiary deposits of Kamchatka - this was the first information about fossil plants from the territory of Russia. Pallas's fame as a botanist is associated with the major "Flora of Russia" he began.

Pallas proved that the level of the Caspian Sea lies below the level of the World Ocean, but that before the Caspian Sea reached General Syrt and Ergeni. Having established the relationship of fish and shellfish of the Caspian and the Black Sea, Pallas created a hypothesis about the existence in the past of a single Ponto-Aral-Caspian basin and its separation when waters broke through the Bosphorus Strait.

In his early works, Pallas acted as a forerunner of evolutionists, defending the variability of organisms, and even drew a family tree of animal development, but later moved to a metaphysical position of denying the variability of species. In understanding nature as a whole, an evolutionary and spontaneously materialistic worldview was characteristic of Pallas until the end of his life.

Contemporaries were amazed by Pallas' ability to work. He published 170 papers, including dozens of major studies. His mind seemed designed to collect and organize the chaos of countless facts and to reduce them into clear systems of classifications. Pallas combined acute observation, phenomenal memory, great discipline of thought, which ensured timely recording of everything observed, and the highest scientific honesty. One can vouch for the reliability of the facts recorded by Pallas, the measurement data he provides, descriptions of forms, etc. “How zealously I observe justice in my science (and perhaps, to my misfortune, too much), so in all this description of my journey I did not step out of it,” and in the least: for according to my concept, to take a thing for another and respect it more than what it is It really is, where to add, and where to hide, I defended for punishment a worthy offense against a scientist in the world, especially among naturalists...”

Descriptions made by scientists of many localities, tracts, settlements, features of the economy and way of life will never lose value precisely because of their detail and reliability: these are standards for measuring the changes that have occurred in nature and people over subsequent eras.

Pallas was born on September 22, 1741 in Berlin in the family of a German professor-surgeon. The boy's mother was French. Studying with home teachers until the age of 13, Pallas became proficient in languages (Latin and modern European), which later greatly facilitated his scientific work, especially when compiling dictionaries and developing scientific terminology.

In 1761 - 1762 Pallas studied the collections of naturalists in England, and also toured its shores, collecting sea animals.

The 22-year-old young man was such a recognized authority that he was already elected as a member of the Academy of London and Rome. In 1766, Pallas published the zoological work “Study of Zoophytes,” which marked a revolution in taxonomy: corals and sponges, which had just been transferred by zoologists from the plant world to the animal world, were classified in detail by Pallas. At the same time, he began to develop a family tree of animals, thus acting as a forerunner of evolutionists.

Returning to Berlin in 1767, Pallas published a number of monographs and collections on zoology. But it was at this time that a sharp turn awaited him, as a result of which the scientist ended up in Russia for 42 years, in a country that literally became his second homeland.

Kruger, Franz – Portrait of Peter Simon Pallas

In 1767, Pallas was recommended to Catherine II as a brilliant scientist capable of carrying out the comprehensive studies of its nature and economy planned in Russia. The 26-year-old scientist came to St. Petersburg both as a professor of “natural history” and then as an ordinary academician with a salary of 800 rubles. a year began to study a new country for him. Among his official duties, he was assigned to “invent something new in his science,” teach students and “multiply with worthy things” the academic “natural cabinet.”

Pallas was entrusted with leading the first detachment of the so-called Orenburg physical expeditions. Young geographers who later grew into major scientists took part in the expedition. Among them were Lepekhin, Zuev, Rychkov, Georgi and others. Some of them (for example, Lepekhin) made independent routes under the leadership of Pallas; others (Georgi) accompanied him at certain stages of the journey. But there were companions who went with Pallas the whole way (students Zuev and chemist Nikita Sokolov, scarecrow Shuisky, draftsman Dmitriev, etc.). Russian satellites provided enormous assistance to Pallas, who was just beginning to study the Russian language, participating in the collection of collections, making additional excursions to the side, conducting questioning work, organizing transportation and household arrangements. The inseparable companion who carried this difficult expedition was Pallas’s young wife (he married in 1767).

The instructions given to Pallas by the Academy might seem overwhelming for a modern large complex expedition. Pallas was instructed to “investigate the properties of waters, soils, methods of cultivating the land, the state of agriculture, common diseases of people and animals and find means for their treatment and prevention, research beekeeping, sericulture, cattle breeding, especially sheep breeding.” Further, among the objects of study, mineral wealth and waters, arts, crafts, trades, plants, animals, “the shape and interior of mountains”, geographical, meteorological and astronomical observations and definitions, morals, customs, legends, monuments and “various antiquities” were listed. . And yet this enormous amount of work was indeed largely accomplished by Pallas during six years of travel.

The expedition, in which the scientist considered his participation a great happiness, began in June 1768 and lasted six years. All this time, Pallas worked tirelessly, keeping detailed diaries, collecting abundant collections on geology, biology and ethnography. This required continuous exertion of strength, eternal haste, and grueling long-distance travel off-road. Constant deprivation, colds, and frequent malnutrition undermined the scientist’s health.

Pallas spent the winter periods editing diaries, which he immediately sent to St. Petersburg for printing, which ensured that his reports began to be published (from 1771) even before returning from the expedition.

In 1768 he reached Simbirsk, in 1769 he visited Zhiguli, the Southern Urals (Orsk region), the Caspian lowland and lake. Inder reached Guryev, after which he returned to Ufa. Pallas spent 1770 in the Urals, studying its numerous mines, and visited Bogoslovsk [Karpinsk], Mount Grace, Nizhny Tagil, Yekaterinburg [Sverdlovsk], Troitsk, Tyumen, Tobolsk and wintered in Chelyabinsk. Having completed the given program, Pallas himself turned to the Academy for permission to extend the expedition to the regions of Siberia. Having received this permission, Pallas in 1771 traveled through Kurgan, Ishim and Tara to Omsk and Semipalatinsk. Based on questioning data, Pallas highlighted the issue of fluctuations in the level of lakes in the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia and associated changes in the productivity of meadows, in fisheries and salt industries. Pallas examined the Kolyvan silver “mines” in Rudny Altai, visited Tomsk, Barnaul, the Minusinsk Basin and spent the winter in Krasnoyarsk.

In 1772, he passed Irkutsk and Baikal (he entrusted the study of Lake Pallas to Georgi, who joined him), traveled to Transbaikalia, and reached Chita and Kyakhta. At this time, Nikita Sokolov traveled on his instructions to the Argun prison. On the way back, Pallas continued Georgi's work on the inventory of Lake Baikal, as a result of which almost the entire lake was described. Returning to Krasnoyarsk, in the same 1772, Pallas made a trip to the Western Sayan Mountains and the Minusinsk Basin.

The return from the expedition took a year and a half. On the way back through Tomsk, Tara, Yalutorovsk, Chelyabinsk, Sarapul (with a stop in Kazan), Yaitsky Gorodok [Uralsk], Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn, lake. Elton and Saratov, having spent the winter in Tsaritsyn, the scientist made excursions down the Volga to Akhtuba, to Mount B. Bogdo and to the salt lake Baskunchak. Having passed Tambov and Moscow, in July 1774, thirty-three-year-old Pallas ended his unprecedented journey, returning to St. Petersburg as a gray-haired and sick man. Stomach diseases and eye inflammation plagued him throughout his life.

However, he considered even the loss of health to be rewarded by the impressions received and said:

“...The very bliss of seeing nature in its very being in a noble part of the world, where a person has deviated very little from it, and learning from it, served me as a hefty reward for the lost youth and health, which no envy can take away from me.”

Pallas's five-volume work "Travel through Various Provinces", first published in German in 1771 - 1776, represented the first comprehensive and thorough description of a huge country, almost unknown at that time scientifically. It is no wonder that this work was quickly translated not only into Russian (1773 - 1788), but also into English and French with notes by prominent scientists, for example Lamarck.

Pallas did a great job of editing and publishing the works of a number of researchers. In 1776 - 1781 he published “Historical News of the Mongolian People”, reporting in them, along with historical information, a lot of ethnographic information about the Kalmyks, Buryats and, according to questioning data, about Tibet. In his materials about the Kalmyks, Pallas included, in addition to his observations, data from the geographer Gmelin, who died in the Caucasus.

Upon returning from the expedition, Pallas was surrounded with honor, made a historiographer of the Admiralty and a teacher of his august grandchildren - the future Emperor Alexander I and his brother Constantine.

The “Cabinet of Natural Monuments” collected by Pallas was acquired for the Hermitage in 1786.

Twice (in 1776 and 1779) in response to requests from the Academy of Sciences, Pallas came up with bold projects for new expeditions to the north and east of Siberia (he was attracted by the Yenisei and Lena, Kolyma and Kamchatka, the Kuril and Aleutian Islands). Pallas promoted the myriad natural resources of Siberia and argued against the prejudice that “the northern climate is not favorable for the formation of precious stones.” However, none of these expeditions came to fruition.

Pallas's life in the capital was connected with his participation in solving a number of government issues and with receiving many foreign guests. Catherine II invited Pallas to compile a dictionary of “all languages and dialects.”

On June 23, 1777, the scientist gave a speech at the Academy of Sciences and spoke warmly about the plains of Russia as the fatherland of a powerful people, as a “nursery of heroes” and “the best refuge of sciences and arts,” about “the arena of the wonderful activity of the enormous creative spirit of Peter the Great.” .

Developing the already mentioned theory of mountain formation, he noticed the confinement of granites and the ancient “primary” shales surrounding them, devoid of fossils, to the axial zones of the mountains. Pallas found that towards the periphery (“on the sides of the masses of previous mountains”) they are covered by rocks of “secondary” formation - limestones and clays, and also that these rocks from bottom to top along the section lie more and more shallowly and contain more and more fossils. Pallas also noted that steep ravines and caves with stalactites are confined to limestone.

Finally, on the periphery of mountainous countries, he noted the presence of sedimentary rocks of “Tertiary” formation (later in the Cis-Ural region their age turned out to be Permian).

Pallas explained this structure by a certain sequence of ancient volcanic processes and sedimentation and made the bold conclusion that the entire territory of Russia was once the seabed, and only islands of “primary granites” rose above the sea. Although Pallas himself believed that volcanism was the reason for the tilting of strata and the uplifting of mountains, he reproached the one-sidedness of the Italian naturalists, who, “seeing fire-breathing volcanoes constantly before their eyes, attributed everything to internal fire.” Noting that often “the highest mountains are composed of granite,” Pallas made the astonishingly profound conclusion that granite “forms the foundation of the continents” and that “it contains no fossils, therefore it predates organic life.”

In 1777, on behalf of the Academy of Sciences, Pallas completed and in 1781 published an important historical and geographical study “On Russian discoveries on the seas between Asia and America.” In the same 1777, Pallas published a large monograph on rodents, then a number of works on various mammals and insects. Pallas described animals not only as a taxonomist, but also illuminated their connections with the environment, thus acting as one of the founders of ecology.

In his Memoir of the Varieties of Animals (1780), Pallas moved to an anti-evolutionary point of view on the question of the variability of species, declaring their diversity and relatedness to be the influence of a “creative force.” But in the same “Memoir” the scientist anticipates a number of modern views on artificial hybridization, speaking “about the inconstancy of some breeds of domestic animals.”

Since 1781, Pallas, having received the herbariums of his predecessors at his disposal, worked on the “Flora of Russia”. The first two volumes of “Flora” (1784 - 1788) were officially distributed to the provinces of Russia. Also distributed throughout the country was the “Resolution on Afforestation”, written by Pallas on behalf of the government, consisting of 66 points. During 1781 - 1806 Pallas created a monumental summary of insects (mainly beetles). In 1781, Pallas founded the magazine “New Northern Notes”, publishing in it a lot of materials about the nature of Russia and voyages to Russian America.

With all the honor of the position, metropolitan life could not help but weigh heavily on the born researcher and traveler. He obtained permission to go on a new expedition at his own expense, this time in the south of Russia. On February 1, 1793, Pallas and his family left St. Petersburg through Moscow and Saratov to Astrakhan. An unfortunate incident - a fall into icy water while crossing the Klyazma - led to a further deterioration in his health. In the Caspian region, Pallas visited a number of lakes and hills, then climbed up the Kuma to Stavropol, examined the sources of the Mineralovodsk group and traveled through Novocherkassk to Simferopol.

In the early spring of 1794, the scientist began studying Crimea. In the fall, Pallas returned to St. Petersburg through Kherson, Poltava and Moscow and presented Catherine II with a description of Crimea, along with a request to allow him to move there to live. Along with permission, Pallas received from the empress a house in Simferopol, two villages with plots of land in the Aytodor and Sudak valleys, and 10 thousand rubles for the establishment of gardening and winemaking schools in Crimea. At the same time, his academic salary was retained.

Pallas enthusiastically devoted himself to exploring the nature of Crimea and promoting its agricultural development. He went to the most inaccessible places of the Crimean mountains, planted orchards and vineyards in the Sudak and Koz valleys, and wrote a number of articles on agricultural technology of southern crops in the conditions of the Crimea.

Pallas's house in Simferopol was a place of pilgrimage for all honored guests of the city, although Pallas lived modestly and was burdened by the external splendor of his fame. Eyewitnesses describe him as already close to old age, but still fresh and vigorous. Memories of his travels brought him, in his words, more pleasure than his glory itself.

Pallas continued to process the observations he had made earlier in the Crimea. In 1799 - 1801 he published a description of his second journey, which included, in particular, a thorough description of the Crimea. Pallas's works on the Crimea are the pinnacle of his achievements as a geographer-naturalist. And pages with characteristics of the geological structure of Crimea, as A. V. Khabakov writes (p. 187), “would do honor to the field notes of a geologist even in our time.”

Pallas's considerations regarding the border between Europe and Asia are interesting. Trying to find a more suitable natural boundary for this essentially conventional cultural-historical border, Pallas disputed the drawing of this border along the Don and proposed moving it to General Syrt and Ergeni.

Pallas considered the main goal of his life to be the creation of “Russian-Asian Zoography”. He worked hardest on it in the Crimea, and with the publication of this particular book he was most unlucky: its publication was completed only in 1841, that is, 30 years after his death.

In the preface to this work, Pallas wrote, not without bitterness: “Zoography, which had been in papers for so long, collected over the course of 30 years, is finally being published. It contains one-eighth of the animals of the entire inhabited world.”

In contrast to the “thin” systematic summaries of faunas, containing “dry skeletons of names and synonyms,” Pallas aimed to create a faunal summary, “complete, rich and so compiled that it could be suitable for covering the whole of zoology.” In the same preface, Pallas emphasized that zoology remained his main passion throughout his life: “... And although the love of plants and works of underground nature, as well as the position and customs of peoples and agriculture constantly entertained me, from a young age I was especially interested in zoology preferably before the rest of the physiography.” In fact, “Zoography” contains such abundant materials on the ecology, distribution and economic significance of animals that it could be called “Zoogeography”.

Shortly before his death, Pallas’ life took another, unexpected turn for many. Dissatisfied with the increasing frequency of land disputes with neighbors, complaining of malaria, and also eager to see his older brother and hoping to speed up the publication of his Zoography, Pallas sold his Crimean estates for next to nothing and “with the highest permission” moved to Berlin, where he had not been for more than 42 years. The official reason for leaving was: “To put our affairs in order...” Naturalists in Germany greeted the seventy-year-old man with honor as the recognized patriarch of natural science. Pallas plunged into scientific news and dreamed of a trip to the natural history museums of France and Italy. But her poor health made itself felt. Realizing the approach of death, Pallas did a lot of work to put the manuscripts in order and distribute the remaining collections to friends. On September 8, 1811 he died.

Pallas's merits already during his lifetime received worldwide recognition. He was elected, in addition to those already mentioned, a member of the scientific societies: Berlin, Vienna, Bohemian, Montpelier, Patriotic Swedish, Hesse-Hamburg, Utrecht, Lund, St. Petersburg Free Economic, as well as the Paris National Institute and the academies of Stockholm, Naples, Göttingen and Copenhagen. In Russia he held the rank of full state councilor.

Many plants and animals are named in honor of Pallas, including the plant genus Pallasia (the name was given by Linnaeus himself, who deeply appreciated the merits of Pallas), the Crimean pine Pinus Pallasiana, etc.

Crimean pine Pinus Pallasiana

Pallas' saffron – Crocus pallasii

A special type of iron-stone meteorites is called pallasites after the “Pallas Iron” meteorite, which the scientist brought to St. Petersburg from Siberia in 1772.

Monument to Peter Simon Pallas

Off the coast of New Guinea there is Pallas Reef. In 1947, an active volcano on the island of Ketoi in the Kuril ridge was named in honor of Pallas. In Berlin, one of the streets bears the name of Pallas. Moreover, the station village of Pallasovka (a city since 1967), founded in 1907, received its interesting name also thanks to the merits of the German traveler and naturalist Peter Simon Pallas, who conducted an expedition in this region in the 18th century. It is curious that Pallas himself at one time noted that “this is a land on which it is impossible to live,” focusing on the hot climate in summer (temperatures in summer can reach +45).

Based on materials from the Internet.

help, maybe someone will find it... a report on the topic: the contribution of Academician Pallas to the study of the Taman Peninsula... can’t find it on the Internet

Answers:

In 1794, academician Peter Simon Pallas, traveling around the Taman Peninsula, discovered structures made of large flat slabs that looked like tombs. It was not far from the town of Chokrak-Koy (the area of present-day Fontalovskaya), to which he was then heading for the night. From his own experience, the academician knew that if you don’t describe what you saw right away, then you can simply forget about it. Despite the strong wind (as they say in the books), he stopped the carriage, carried out research and made the necessary notes. Continuing his path, the scientist did not stop thinking about rectangular structures made of stone slabs placed on edge, which may have been built by the Circassians. So P.S. Pallas discovered megalithic structures - dolmens. It is believed that it was from then that the study of the dolmens of the Western Caucasus began, although not a trace remains of the Taman megaliths at present.

Passion for travel

It was this feeling that led the son of Berlin College surgery professor Simon Pallas and Frenchwoman Susanna Leonard, MD, to research work in Russia. Arriving at the invitation of Catherine II to carry out a comprehensive study of the nature and prospects of the Russian economy, as a professor of natural history at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, he led an expedition to the central regions, areas of the Lower Volga region, the Caspian lowland, the Middle and Southern Urals, and Southern Siberia. The result of his work was the enormous work “Travel to Various Provinces of the Russian State,” which was a comprehensive thorough study, later translated into several European languages. The collections collected by Pallas replenished the academic Kunstkamera and the University of Berlin. Among the most significant works of those years are the “Comparative Dictionaries of All Languages and Adverbs,” compiled on behalf of the empress.

In 1793, Pallas undertook a trip at his own expense to study the climate of southern Russia and Crimea. Returning to St. Petersburg in 1794, he presented Catherine II with a “Brief Physical and Topographic Description of the Tauride Region” and asked permission to settle in Crimea, wanting to complete his scientific works. The Empress granted him two villages with plots of land in the Aytodor and Sudak valleys, a house in Simferopol and 10 thousand rubles for the establishment of horticulture and winemaking schools in Crimea, retaining his academic salary. In August 1795, Pallas moved to Crimea.

Columbus of the natural resources of Tauris

This is rightfully called the great Russian naturalist, about whom the poet Osip Mandelstam said:

No one, like Pallas, managed to remove the gray veil of coachman boredom from the Russian landscape.

And the famous Russian natural scientist Nikolai Severtsev wrote:

No matter how great Pallas's fame is, it still cannot compare with his achievements in science.

Pallas called our peninsula “wonderful”, falling in love with it from the first visit. As the authors of the book “Discoverers of the Crimean Land” Vasily, Alexander and Andrey Eny note, Crimea became the last discovery of the great Pallas. “The presence of a glorious man,” one of the scientist’s contemporaries wrote prophetically about his stay in Simferopol, “who settled within the walls of this city, seems to herald the dawn of his future enlightenment.”

In his house on the banks of the Salgir River, Pallas collected a rich collection of minerals, hundreds of samples of flora and fauna of the peninsula. Not a single eminent guest of the city, famous scientists of that time, including the author of the first monograph on the nature of Taurida, academician Karl Gablitz, and the founder and first director of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden Christian Steven, passed by his abode.

Having settled in his Simferopol estate, named “Karolinovka” after his wife, the scientist often went on foot not only to nearby but also to remote corners of the foothills, the Southern Coast, the Main Crimean Ridge, the Kerch hills and the plain Crimea.

“An analysis of Pallas’s Crimean works allowed us to establish that over the years of his Crimean travels, the scientist traveled and walked a total of more than nine thousand kilometers,” notes Vasily Yena. — He described about a hundred in his writings, and mentioned 908 geographical objects in total: mountain peaks, valleys, capes, bays, rivers, settlements. He characterized, including for the first time in science, many hundreds of species of plants and animals living on the peninsula. Even today, one is struck by the author’s special insight, multi-layeredness and accuracy of the panorama of the life of nature and the peoples of the Russian south drawn by him. He not only explored the natural resources of the peninsula, but also enthusiastically promoted its rational economic development. Pallas wrote:

The Crimean Peninsula, by its geographical position, climate and the nature of its soil, is the only region of the Russian Empire into which all the products of Greece and Italy can be introduced and domesticated... It would be possible to profitably introduce the cultivation of silkworms, the culture of grapes, sesame, olives, cotton , crappa, saffron... These crops will eventually enrich the state with their products...

Not only a theorist, but also a practitioner

The scientist not only gave recommendations, but also actively participated in the economic development of Crimea: in 1798 he founded the oldest arboretum in Crimea “Salgirka” in Simferopol - on the territory of the current botanical garden of the Taurida National University. V. Vernadsky. He also planted extensive vineyards in the Sudak Valley, on the South Coast and in the foothills. To justify the use of local resources, Pallas described twenty-four native grape varieties and many varieties of southern fruit crops.

“The main thing that this tireless researcher did was a fairly clear scientific description of natural components and many territorial complexes, primarily the mountainous Crimea,” says Vasily Yena. — Pallas revealed the origin and current state of the objects he studied, thanks to which those reading his works looked at nature through the eyes of discoverers. The scientist first put forward the idea of a hypothetical landmass, later called Pontida, which could extend south of the Main Ridge into the Black Sea depression. Disputes among scientists about this continue to this day.

— This is not the only Pallasian hypothesis, is it?

— The second concerns the island past of ancient Taurida:

Since the entire Crimean peninsula is connected to the mainland only through the narrow, unchanged Perekop Isthmus, it is more than likely that Crimea was once separated from the mainland and, with its southern, more elevated part, formed a real island, precisely at the time when the level of the Black Sea The sea stood even higher, as some passages from ancient writers testify to this.

In his works, Pallas often refers to such ancient scientists as Strabo, Pliny, and to the works and maps of medieval Arab geographers - Masudi, Ibn Battuta and others.

In his research, Pallas provides original information about rocks and minerals, karst formations, landslides, rock chaos and sea terraces, for the first time in science he mentions the mountain-valley amphitheaters of the South Coast and carries out the first zoning of the salt lakes of the peninsula, identifying five groups: Perekop, Arabat, Evpatoria, Feodosia and Kerch. The scientist’s conclusions were preceded by long journeys, during which he did not avoid the most risky routes. It is no coincidence that the academician’s courage was admired by his contemporary traveler Vladimir Izmailov:

I traveled around... the chain of the Crimean mountains, where there is no other road except one narrow path hanging along the ridges of rocks over terrible abysses, over the abyss of the Black Sea, and where one must make his way over the stones on foot or riding on a Tatar horse, which alone is familiar with these fears... The foothills of the mountains, covered with fragments of stones and boulders, are so steep that in many places a horse can barely climb up with its convolutions.

“The fearlessness of the pioneer allowed him to be the first to convey to science the message about the famous catastrophe associated with the occurrence of the Kuchuk-Koy landslide,” testifies Vasily Yena. — A reliable, detailed description of the natural disaster that occurred more than two centuries ago on the peninsula remains unsurpassed to this day. From the monstrous catastrophe that he depicted, a trace has been preserved to this day - a huge stone chaos in the west of the Crimean South Coast.

Experts note a characteristic feature of Pallas's texts: the researcher always provides the results of geographical measurements. He was the first to give some of the most important spatial parameters of the natural regions of Crimea, spoke in detail about the various mountain formations, and described the Yaylin landscapes. On Yaila Demerdzhi, Pallas, in addition to limestones, discovered conglomerates, among which “many quartz pebbles, very little transferred granite,” that is, “new” to the Crimea. On Karadag, the scientist finds something that even now delights vacationers in Koktebel and Kurortny - semi-precious sea pebbles:

On the seashore there are a lot of pebbles... made of jasper and chalcedony. This is the only rock in all of Taurida that can serve as evidence of volcanic activity in the most distant antiquity.

And in the foothills, Pallas discovered that “in the chalk they find a lot of blackish gun flint with white bark.” It was this discovery that served as the impetus for the search for finds of flint tools in the Ak-Kai area for sites of primitive man. In the 70-80s of the last century, more than twenty Paleolithic sites were discovered here.

Naturalist of an encyclopedic warehouse

And in this incarnation Pallas established himself and remained in world science. His botanical research is no less impressive than his geographical one. He was the second after Gablitz to compile an extensive list of plants of the peninsula. He significantly expanded the research of his predecessor, listing 969 rather than 542 known species of flora. A prominent botanist of the twentieth century, Sergei Stankov, believes that it is from Pallas that the history of the study of Crimean vegetation should be counted. In addition, the academician was the first to describe a number of Crimean animal species and laid the foundation for climatic and phenological observations.

“His works contain answers to many questions about the development of the flora of the peninsula, aimed at solving current economic problems, in particular afforestation and conservation of the nature of the village,” recalls Vasily Yena. — The scientist’s priority is that he was the first to point out the altitudinal differentiation of the vegetation of the mountainous Crimea. The researcher’s works about Crimea became the pinnacle of his scientific creativity; they are widely known throughout the world. And thanks to these works, Tavrida itself found a worthy place in the ideas of naturalists in many countries.

No less important are descriptions of the historical places of Taurida. His books “On the Residents of the Peninsula” are still read with interest, which gives the population size, national composition, types of occupations, “On the current state of Crimea and possible economic improvements in it” with an overview of economic sectors and ways to improve them. His studies “On Crimean viticulture” and “On the fruit orchards of Crimea” are also of practical importance in our time. Pallas established himself not only as a versatile scientist, but also as a zealous, knowledgeable business executive, expressing scientifically based plans for the development of Taurida.

A year before his death, Pallas returned to his homeland, Germany. The role it played in the development of European natural science and the nature of the ideas of the then European luminaries about Crimea can be judged from the words of the scientist Georges Cuvier:

...For a man who lived 15 years in Little Tataria, this meant almost returning from the other world...

Pallas's travel notes and diaries still read like a fascinating novel. Even the master of elegant style Osip Mandelstam admitted:

I read Pallas breathlessly, slowly. I slowly leaf through the watercolor versts. I am sitting in a mail carriage with a reasonable and affectionate traveler... Reading this naturalist has a wonderful effect on the alignment of the senses, straightens the eye and imparts mineral quartz calm to the soul...

By the way

The name of Pallas is immortalized in nine names of plants growing on the peninsula. A memorial plaque was installed on the preserved building of the Pallas estate in the Simferopol protected landscape park "Salgirka". The name of the scientist appears among the names of prominent citizens on a memorial tablet installed in the center of Simferopol in honor of the 200th anniversary of the city.

An active volcano in the Kuril Islands ridge, a mountain in the southern part of the Northern Urals, a peninsula on the Khariton Laptev coast in the Kara Sea, a reef off the coast of New Guinea, a street in Berlin, a city and a railway station in the Volgograd region, streets in Novosibirsk, Volgograd are named after Pallas. Pallas was the first scientist to have a Russian ship named after him.

Pallas was a member of the London, Rome, Neapolitan, Göttingen, Stockholm, Copenhagen Academies of Sciences, the Patriotic Swedish Society, the Royal Societies of London and Montpellier, the St. Petersburg Free Economic Society, and the Paris National Institute. Knight of the Order of St. Vladimir IV degree and St. Anna II degree.

On the initiative of Pallas, the Sudak School of Viticulture and Winemaking was opened in 1804.

Cambridge University Professor Edward Daniel Clarke wrote: