L. G. Ramensky is the faculty member at the Voronezh University and his students

This paper follows the series of publications in «Vegetation of Russia» devoted to L. G. Ramensky (Golub, 2013, 2014, 2017). It describes a period of 1924–1928 when Ramensky worked at the Voronezh State University (VSU). This period of his life has previously been largely unknown even in the VSU. Furthermore, the author tries to follow the scientific life of Ramensky's students who have chosen the profession of phytocenologist.

It turned out that events of 1924–1928 are difficult to restore, as a significant part of the VSU archive was lost during the World War II. Nevertheless, several new facts were found.

Outstanding Russian botanists B. A. Keller (1874–1945) and B. M. Kozo-Polyansky (1890–1957) were colleagues by Ramensky at the VSU. Kozo-Polyansky, who was a head of the VSU Department of Botany, helped Ramensky's family to establish their life in Voronezh. He provided them with accommodation directly at the Department of Botany.

The author found documents proving a previously unknown fact that Ramensky had worked at the VSU Department of Geobotany. However, after Ramensky left the University, this department was closed, and with time its existence at the VSU in 1920s was forgotten. The current Department of Botany and Myco­logy of the VSU, which will celebrate 100th anniversary in 2018, is not a successor of the Department of Geobotany.

Two of the students who received education under the leadership by Ramensky at the VSU, M. V. Nikolaevskaya and I. A. Tsatsenkin, became professional geobotanists.

M. V. Nikolaevskaya (1900–1950) worked with Ramensky for many years after graduation from the VSU. In 1932–1935 she participated in the inventory of natural forage lands of the USSR headed by Ramensky. Since 1936 until the end of her life Nikolaev­skaya held the position of a scientific researcher at the Voronezh State Nature Reserve. Classification of its vege­tation (Nikolaevskaya, 1971) became a result of her the long-term investigations. She was the first geobotanist in the USSR who applied Ramensky's indicator values for vegetation classification.

I. A. Tsatsenkin (1905–1973) already in his second year at the VSU was involved as a student in geobotanical studies supervised by Ramensky. Since 1930, he permanently worked at the All-Union Williams Fodder Research Institute. Tsatsenkin was Ramensky's closest assistant in the course of the 1932–1935 campaign on the inventory of the natural forage lands of the USSR. In 1940–1943 he headed the Hay-and-pasture expedition to study the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. After Ramensky's death, Tsatsenkin, together with the staff of the institute, completed the work on the ecological indicator values of plants of the European part of the USSR (Ramensky et al., 1956).

Key words: L. G. Ramensky, B. M. Kozo-Polyansky, B. A. Keller, M. V. Nikolaevskaya, I. A. Tsatsenkin, biography, science history, Voronezh university

Section: History of science

How to cite

Golub V. B. 2017. L. G. Ramensky is the faculty member at the voronezh university and his students // Vegetation of Russia. N 31. P. 139–148. https://doi.org/10.31111/vegrus/2017.31.139

Received July 4 2017

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