Pavel Aleksandrovich Baranov

Born July 16 (28), 1892, in Moscow; died May 17, 1962, in the settlement of Komarovo, Leningrad Oblast. Soviet botanist; corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (AN SSSR) from 1943.

In 1917, Baranov graduated from Moscow University. He was one of the organizers and a professor (from 1928) of the Middle Asian University (Tashkent), where he worked until 1944. From 1933 to 1938 he was the head of the Pamir expedition; he was the organizer and, from 1938 to 1941, the director of the Pamir biological station. From 1944 to 1952, Baranov was the deputy director of the Main Botanic Garden of the AN SSSR; from 1949 to 1954 he was the president of the Presidium of the Moldavian Branch of the AN SSSR; and in 1952 he became director of the Botanical Institute of the AN SSSR.

Baranov’s basic works deal with the problems of plant ontogeny and morphology, the complex botanical study of cotton and grape plants, agricultural appropriation of mountain territory, and the history of botany. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and medals.