Russian Geographical Society
Founded | 18 September 1845 |
---|---|
Type | NGO |
Focus | Collect and disseminate reliable geographical information |
Location | |
Area served | Russian Federation |
Key people |
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Website | www |
The Russian Geographical Society (Russian: Ру́сское географи́ческое о́бщество (РГО)), or RGO, is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection with research programs in fields including oceanography,[citation needed] ethnography, ecology and statistics.[1]
History
Imperial Geographical Society
The society was founded in
The order to establish the society came directly from Emperor Nicholas I.[2] The motive for the establishment was to encourage geographical research on domestic topics,[2] which has later been described as a Russian nationalist political goal.[3]
The filial societies were established in the Caucasus (1850), Irkutsk (1851), Vilnius (1867), Orenburg (1868), Kyiv (1873), Omsk (1877), and other cities.
The Society organized and funded the expeditions of
The Society pioneered the systematic exploration of the Northern
from the 1870s onward.By 1917 the RGO was composed of eleven subdivisions and 1,000 members.
Members and presidents
The founding members of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society included:[4]
- Konstantin Arseniev
- Friedrich (Fyodor) von Berg
- Karl Ernst von Baer
- Ferdinand von Wrangel
- Platon Chikhachov
- Vladimir Dal
- Gregor von Helmersen
- Peter von Köppen
- Adam Johann (Ivan) von Krusenstern
- Alexey Levshin
- Fyodor Litke
- Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky
- Vladimir Odoyevsky
- Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky
- Pyotr Ivanovich Ricord
- Mikhail Vronchenko
- Friedrich Georg Wilhelm (Vasily) von Struve
The Society's official presidents were
Constantine Medal
The Constantine Medal was a gold medal worth 200 silver roubles and was the highest award of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. It was established and named after the Society’s first chairman, Great Duke Constantine and was awarded from 1849 to 1929 to explorers who had made a significant geographical discovery or to authors of outstanding publications in geography, ethnography or Russian statistics. From 1924 to 1929 the Medal was referred to as “The highest award of the Russian Geographical Society”.[5]
Recipients of the medal included:
- 1849 Ernst Reinhold von Hofmann, for his excellent work during the first expedition of the Russian Geographical Society to the Northern Urals (first award)
- 1858 Ivan Aksakov, for his research into trade fairs in Ukraine
- 1859 Ludwig Schwarz
- 1863 Vladimir Dahl, for the Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language
- 1864 Ivashintsov Nikolay Alekseevich, for his long-term efforts to research the Caspian Sea[6]
- 1874 Nikolay Przhevalsky, for his pre-eminent scientific research, geographical discoveries and travels to Mongolia and the Tangut land
- 1878 Adolf Erik Nordensheld, for his voyage and research in the Arctic Ocean along the northern coast of Western and Eastern Siberia
- 1880 Ivan Mushketov, geologist and engineer, explorer of Central Asia
- 1898 Dr Gustav Radde
- 1900 Vladimir Obruchev, for his publications on Asian geology
- 1902 Pyotr Kozlov, for the 1899–1901 expedition to Tibet
- 1905 Alexander Kolchak, for participation in Baron E. Toll’s expedition, and the journey to Bennett Island in particular
- 1905 Friedrich Schmidt
- 1907 Grigory Grum-Grshimailo, for all his works in Asian geography and for his Description of a Journey in Western China Volume III
- 1907 Fridtjof Nansen, for his remarkable feats, which constitute a whole era in the Arctic Ocean exploration
- 1914 Boris Vilkitsky, for hydrographic expeditions in the Arctic Sea.
All-Union Geographical Society
The Society changed its name to the State Geographical Society in 1926 and to the Geographical Society of the USSR in 1938. After Shokalsky its presidents were
Post-Soviet era
The society reverted to its original name upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The main offices of the Society are in St. Petersburg.
Since 2002 the society has sponsored an annual seasonal ice base in the Arctic, Camp Barneo.[8]
In 2009, the Minister of Defence of Russia Sergei Shoigu was elected the President of the Society. As of March 2022[update], he is still in office. In 2010, the Board of Trustees of the Society was established. The president of Russia Vladimir Putin was appointed chairman of the Board.[9] Other board members included Russian oligarchs, politicians and Albert II, Prince of Monaco. The appointments of Shoigu and Putin resulted in the Society getting more subsidies from the Russian state.[10]
The
In October 2023 an investigation revealed that two people purporting to be employees of the RGS tried to recruit a Norwegian as a spy.[13]
Divisions
The Imperial Society comprised four departments:
Department of Physical Geography
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Department of Mathematical Geography
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Department of Ethnography
Nikolai Nadezhdin was involved in the foundation of this department, when the RGO was originally set up. During the 1850s and 1860s the
In 1917 David Zolotarev and Nikolai Mogilyansky of the RGO participated in the Commission for the Study of the Tribal Composition of the Population of the Borderlands of Russia.
Department of Statistics
This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (August 2023) |
Further reading
- Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky. История полувековой деятельности Императорского Русского географического общества. Volumes 1-3. SPb, 1896.
- Lev Berg. Всесоюзное Географическое общество за 100 лет. 1845-1945. Moscow-Leningrad, 1946.
- Географическое общество за 125 лет. Leningrad, 1970.
- Hirsch, Francine. 2005. Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-4273-7
See also
References
- ^ "Charter". Russian Geographical Society. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
- ^ a b "History". Russian Geographical Society. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
- ISSN 0004-5608.
- ^ Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, vol. 1, p. 2-3.
- ^ "Constantine Medal of the IRGS". Russian Geographical Society. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
- ^ Zonn, Igor. The Caspian Sea Encyclopedia. p. 228.
- ^ "Журнал Земля и люди 1967" [Earth and People Magazine 1967]. pegion.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-08-04.
- ^ Ice camp Барнео
- ^ "The Society". Russian Geographical Society. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
- ISSN 0338-487X.
- ^ Carswell, Simon. "Kerryman in charge of BP resigns from Putin's Russian society". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
- ^ a b Mike (2022-03-07). "IGU Executive Committee suspends the IGU National Committee of Russia". IGU Online. Retrieved 2022-03-08.
- ^ "Russian intelligence trying to recruit Europeans through Russian Geographical Society". 21 October 2023.