Middendorf, Aleksandr

Born Aug. 6 (18), 1815, in St. Petersburg; died Jan. 16 (28), 1894, in Hellenurme, present-day Valga Raion, Estonian SSR. Russian naturalist and traveler. Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1850).

Middendorf graduated from the University of Dorpat in 1837. From 1842 to 1845 he traveled through northern and eastern Siberia and the Far East, visiting the Taimir Peninsula, the region around the Uda and Tugur rivers, the Amur region, and the Shantar Islands. Middendorf’s description of the natural history of Siberia was the most complete to that time. His conclusions about the location of permafrost and zonal distribution of vegetation were particularly important. He investigated the Babarinsk Steppe in 1870 and the Fergana Valley in 1878. Between 1883 and 1885 he headed an expedition to study livestock raising in Russia. He did selection work in horse and cattle breeding. A cape on the northern island of Novaia Zemlia and a bay off the Taimir Peninsula have been named in his honor.