Borzov, Aleksandr

Born July 29 (Aug. 10), 1874, in Voronezh; died Mar. 6, 1939, in Moscow. Soviet physical geographer, geomorphologist, doctor of geographic science (1935), and Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1935).

Borzov graduated from Moscow University in 1899. He was a professor at Moscow State University (1918) and Moscow Institute of Engineers of Geodesy, Aerial Photography, and Cartography. In 1928 he became director of the Scientific Research Institute of Geography at Moscow State University. He conducted geomorphological research in the central regions of the European part of the USSR, the middle Urals and Southern Urals, and elsewhere. On the basis of his study of the relief of the Eastern European Plain, he established the general law on the development of eroded and sea landscapes of plains and published a short summary of the relief of the European part of the USSR (1934). He established a series of graphic aids in geography for secondary schools. Between 1927 and 1938 he was editor of the journal Zemlevedenie (Geography). A volcano in the Kuril Islands, glaciers in the Suntar-Khaiata Range (Eastern Siberia) and in the Urals, and a bay off the Novaia Zemlia Islands have been named after Borzov. His principal works have been collected in one volume entitled Geograficheskie raboty (2nd ed., 1954).