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Birthday anniversary of Dmitry N. Anuchin, the Russian anthropologist, ethnographist, archaeologist, and geographer
August 27 (September 8), 1843 in St. Petersburg was born Dmitry Anuchin, geographer, ethnographer, archaeologist, anthropologist, explorer of Siberia.
Dmitry Anuchin received his primary education at home. After graduating from the 4th Larinsky high school, in 1860, he entered the History and Philology Faculty of St. Petersburg University. There he attended the lectures of distinguished professors – N. I. Kostomarov, M. M. Stasyulevich, I. I. Sreznevsky, V. A. Sukhomlinov, N. M. Blagoveshchensky. In the spring of 1861, Anuchin fell ill and went abroad for treatment.
In June of 1863, Dmitry returned to Russia and settled in the family of his older brother Mikhail. He began studying at the Moscow University, the department of physics and mathematics, where he graduated from in 1867. Being a student, Dmitry was interested in zoology, anthropology, ethnography, studied literature covering these areas of knowledge.
In 1871, Anuchin was elected scientific secretary of the Society of acclimatization of plants and animals , which was in charge of the now existing zoological gardens in Moscow. His first articles were published in 1873, in the Moscow magazine "Nature," founded by the famous zoologist L. P. Sabaneev. The same year Dmitry had the examinations for the degree of Master of Zoology and obtained it. In 1874, Anuchin published a major study of the anthropological character about anthropomorphic apes.
In 1875, Dmitry was elected secretary of the Anthropological Department of the Society of Devotees of Natural Science. Professor A. P. Bogdanov, one of the founders of Russian anthropology, provided him a lot of material on the Ainu tribe (a series of portraits of the Ainu, skulls , skeletons, ethnographic objects ) for the study. The result of this study was Anuchin’s report (1875) and an article published by the "Works" of the anthropological department (1876). The same year the University of Moscow sent him abroad to study anthropology. Dmitry Anuchin attended lectures in the European institutes, worked in laboratories, visited in well-known museums in London, Vienna, Berlin and Munich. On behalf of the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography, he created the Russian anthropology department at the Paris World Fair. He took an active part in the excavations, gathering collections for exhibitions in Moscow. Detailed records of his travels were published by the editions of the Anthropological Department. Returning to Russia in 1879, he organized and described the Anthropological exhibition in Moscow.
In 1880, after defending his master's thesis, Dmitry was elected assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology of the University of Moscow.
In 1882, Anuchin traveled to Dagestan for archaeological research. After that, in 1884, he published a report in "Izvestia" of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. The same year Dmitry was elected professor at the newly opened department of geography and ethnography of the History and Philology Faculty.
In autumn of 1887, the scientist began to read a course of Russian geography at the Moscow University. In1888, the Department of Geography was transferred to the natural history department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty.
November 21 (December 3), 1889 upon the presentation by the professors A. P. Bogdanov, N. Yu. Zograph and A. A. Tikhomirov, the Moscow University elected Dmitry Anuchin Doctor of Geographical Sciences without defending a thesis. In 1890, he was elected president of the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography at the University of Moscow.
In 1892, Anuchin organized the first geographic exhibition in Moscow. He brought together many interesting exhibits from institutions, individuals and various organizations. Most of the artifacts remained in disposition of the university and laid in the basis of the Geographical Museum at the Department of Dmitry Anuchin.
In 1894, under the Department of Geography Dmitry founded the magazine "Physical Geography", and later became its editor. He also took part in a major expedition to study the upper reaches of rivers in the European part of Russia. After researching a large number of lakes with his students, he initiated the development of the Russian limnology.
In 1915, on the initiative of Anuchin, Moscow hosted the First National Conference for Teachers of Geography, which had a great impact on the further development of the methods of teaching the science in Russia.
In 1916, Dmitry donated to the Imperial Moscow University his personal library containing about 2 thousand books on geography, ethnography, history, natural science, many of them rare editions. Currently, Anuchin’s library is held in the Rare Book and Manuscript Department of the Scientific Library of the Moscow State University.
Dmitry Anuchin died June 4, 1923. He had written more than one thousand works in the field of ethnography, geography and anthropology, the most famous of which - Anthropomorphic apes and inferior races of mankind (1874); Materials for the Anthropology of East Asia. I - the Ainu tribe ( 1874); On some anomalies of the human skull and mostly on their distribution by races ( 1880); On geographical distribution of growth of the male population in Russia (1889); Course of Physical Geography (1907), The Descent of Man and his fossil ancestors (1912); The Descent of Man (1922). He was a real and an honorary member of many domestic and foreign research institutions, and had also been awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor, the Order of St. Anne 2nd class and the Order of St. Vladimir 3rd and 4th classes.
Lit.: Анучин Д. Н. К истории ознакомления с Сибирью до Ермака [Текст] : древнее русское сказание «О человецех незнаемых в восточной стране». СПб., 1890; Богданов В. В. Дмитрий Николаевич Анучин : (ко дню 70-летия его рождения 27-го августа 1913 года). М., 1913; Большая Тюменская энциклопедия. Т. 1. А-З. Тюмень, 2004. С. 93; Брокгауз Ф. А. Энциклопедический словарь. СПб., 1893. Т. 2 : Араго-Аутка. С. 873-874; Есаков В. А. Д. Н. Анучин и создание русской университетской географической школы. М., 1955; Из истории создания географического факультета в Московском университете [Электронный ресурс] // Географический факультет МГУ имени М. В. Ломоносова. 2008. URL: http://www.geogr.msu.ru/about/history/; Элерт А. Х. Анучин Дмитрий Николаевич // Историческая энциклопедия Сибири. Новосибирск, 2010. Т. 1. А-И. С. 121.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Анучин Д. Н. Антропологические заметки: письма из-за границы. М., 1877;
Анучин Д. Н. Армяне в антропологическом и географическом отношении. М., 1898;
Анучин Д. Н. Кто вводит в науку большие недоразумения? М., 1888;
Анучин Д. Н. О задачах русской этнографии : (Несколько справок и общих замечаний). М., 1889;
Анучин Д. Н. Сани, ладья и кони, как принадлежности похоронного обряда. М., 1890;
Анучин Д. Н. Старинная морская карта на пергаменте из собрания А. С. Уварова. М., 1915;
Анучин Д. Н. Столетие «Писем русского путешественника». М., 1891;
Охрана памятников природы. М., 1914.
The material provided by a branch of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library in the Tyumen Region