Petersburg period in the life and activity of P.N. Krylov (1914-1917)

In the article, based on unpublished drafts of letters stored in the Herbarium of Tomsk State University, which P.N. Krylov exchanged with his students and colleagues in Tomsk as well as periodicals, the Petersburg period in the life of the founder of the Siberian Botanical School is reconstructed. It was found that the main purpose of the relocation of P.N. Krylov to Petersburg was his desire to take an active part in the treatment of the Siberian Herbarium at the Botanical Museum of the Academy of Sciences and the preparation of the publication of a collective work "Flora of Siberia" which had long been planned on the initiative of his late friend, Academician S.I. Korzhinsky. Seeing his teacher to St. Petersburg, his disciples, "young botanists", in an address to him wrote that he "would not forget the bitter smell of steppe wormwood, the deaf buzz of pensive crowds, the gloss of silver tops". Letters by P.N. Krylov allow to recreate the material living conditions, recreation and creative atmosphere in which he had to live and do research in St. Petersburg, where he was appointed the Head of the Siberian Herbarium of the Botanical Museum of St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Along with his work on drawing up the "Flora of Siberia", P.N. Krylov actively debated with the famous Russian soil scientist and geographer D.A. Dranitsyn on the theory of the steppe thrusting toward the forest area. His work "On the Oscillation of the Boundary Between Forest and Steppe Regions" was devoted to this problem. In this publication P.N. Krylov inclines to believe that steppe attacks deforested land both within chernozem steppe zone, and slightly to the north of it. During the St. Petersburg period, P.N. Krylov wrote a little work "Progress in Nature", devoted to the 80-th anniversary of G.N. Potanin; it was a popular scientific and philosophical work. He also finished the monograph "Vishersky Region. Historical and Popular Essay of Northern Urals" which was not published until 1926. In the summer of 1915 P.N. Krylov went on an expedition to the Kuznetsk District of Tomsk Province to survey the Kuznetsk steppe, and then to the county Biya to survey the steppes and the alpine area in the system of the Katun River in the Altai and the adjacent rivers, too. Letters by P.N. Krylov show the close links he had with Tomsk colleagues and friends and the care and attention that he continued to show toward his disciples. The period of P.N. Krylov's work in St. Petersburg contributed to the expansion of his scientific outlook and establishing links with leading Russian botanists. However, after the 1917 revolution the working conditions in the capital worsened and he returned to Tomsk.

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