175 years ago, on September 8, 1843, Dmitry Nikolayevich Anuchin, the founder of the academic study of geography, anthropology and ethnography at Moscow University, a prominent public figure, an honorary member of the Russian Geographical Society, was born in St. Petersburg.
Dmitry Anuchin graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Imperial Moscow University and later he greatly contributed to the science development within the walls of his alma mater. Since 1880, he was the first in the history of the Russian science to begin reading the course of anthropology at the university, and in 1884, he founded the Department of Geography and Ethnography at the Faculty of History and Philology, then it became the geographical faculty.
Thanks to Dmitry Nikolayevich's efforts, a geographical museum was established at Moscow University, being one of the most complete in Russia with a library of 10,000 volumes. In 1892, Anuchin organized a geographical exhibition, the main finds of which later became the core of the new museum. The exhibition was awarded the Grand Gold Medal of the Russian Geographical Society. In addition, the researcher also founded an anthropological museum, the largest museum of anthropology and ethnology, at the university.
Dmitry Anuchin studied the sources of major rivers, glaciers of the Caucasus, participated in expeditions and research in the Moscow region, the Valdai Upland, archaeological excavations in Dagestan and many other expeditions that resulted in publishing numerous scientific works that initiated the systematic study of the relief and lakes of Russia. In addition, the scientist made a great contribution to the development of general and regional geography and geography of the population.
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About 600 scientific works belong to the outstanding researcher. Dmitry Anuchin was awarded the degree of doctor of geography and awarded the Small Gold Medal of the Russian Geographical Society for his work "The geographical distribution of the growth of the male population of Russia (according to the data on general military service in the empire for the years 1874-1883), compared to other countries".
In 1900, the Imperial Russian Geographical Society elected Anuchin as its honorary member for his achievments in geography , and in 1914 awarded the scientist was given a Constantine Medal.
The geographer was a corresponding member of the Paris Anthropological Society, an active member of the Italian Society of Anthropology and Geography and the American Anthropological Society in Washington, the president of the Society of Naturalists, Anthropology and Ethnography, the present and then honorary member of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, an honorary member of the Royal Anthropological Institute in London. He is also considered the founder and editor of the Zemlevedenie (Earth Science) geographic magazine.
There are well-known geographers-researchers and teachers among Dmitry Nikolaevich Anuchin's students: A.A. Borzov, L.S. Berg, A.S. Barkov, A.N. Dzhavakhishvili, S.G. Grigoriev, A.A. Kruber and others.
There are some places that are named in honor of the scientist: a mountain in the Northern Urals, an island in the Lesser Kurile Range, glaciers in the northeast of Siberia in the area of the mountain range Suntar-Hayat and on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.