Smirnov, Nestor Aleksandrovich

Born Dec. 11 (23), 1878, in Omsk; died March 1942 in Vologda. Soviet zoologist.

Smirnov graduated from the University of St. Petersburg in 1900. He was a professor at the University of Azerbaijan from 1920 to 1923 and at Leningrad University from 1930 to 1938. In 1900 he studied the animal life in the White, Barents, Caspian, and Black seas, as well as in the seas of the Far East.

Smirnov’s main works dealt with the taxonomy, ecology, geographic distribution, and hunting of marine mammals. He also studied the fishes, birds, and mammals of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Smirnov was the first to suggest the possibility of acclimatizing the muskrat in the USSR.