Activities of the Geographical Department of the Research Institute of Siberia and its contribution to the development of geodesy, geophysics and hydrology in the Siberian region (July 1919 - June 1920)

In the article, based on a wide range of sources, documentary publications and scientific literature, the activities of the Geographical Department of the Research Institute of Siberia are investigated. The aim of the article is to analyze the activities of the Geographical Department of the Research Institute of Siberia during the summers of 1920-1921. It is noted that the activities of the Geographical Department were of a varied nature. The theoretical work of the Department was presented in articles and reports of its participants, some of which were printed in a special periodical, Izvestiya Instituta issledovaniya Sibiri [The Bulletin of the Research Institute of Siberia]. This allowed scientists from the Geographical and other departments to publish extensive scientific works in the conditions of an acute shortage of paper and congestion of Tomsk printing houses. At the end of October 1919, the manuscripts by B.P. Weinberg, V.D. Dudetskiy, S.I. Shubin and M.A. Velikanov were prepared for publication in Izvestiya Instituta issledovaniya Sibiri. The practical activities of the Department are analyzed. Here it is worth highlighting the organization of the time service at the Geodesic Laboratory of the Tomsk Technological Institute (TTI), the maintenance of the work of the geodynamic station in Tomsk, the organization of the seismic station at the TTI, the promotion of climatology, the collection of accumulated materials in this field and the provision of their publication, e.g., works by G.K. Tyumentsev and reports of the Yekaterinburg and Irkutsk meteorological observatories, etc. Great importance in the study of Siberia was given to the organization of scientific expeditions and missions in which the Geographical Department owned an indisputable leadership among all other departments. The most important expeditions were the comprehensive Ob-Tazovskaya expedition of the summer of 1919 and the complex Tazovskaya expedition of the summer of 1920, in which the Geographical Department took an active part. The scientific and pedagogical activities of the scientists of the Geographical Department, such as reading public and special lectures and reports, participation in the work of courses on the preparation of nature researchers, are also covered in this article. It is concluded that the activities of the Geographical Department marked a new stage in the study of geophysics, geodesy and hydrology in Siberia. This was manifested, on the one hand, in the broad cooperation of the Geographical Department with other scientific and public organizations. On the other hand, the Department readily participated in the work of complex expeditions (the Ob-Tazovskaya in summer of 1919 and the Tazovskaya in summer of 1920), at the same time sending its employees to expeditions of other departments.

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