Kyiv Society of Naturalists

Kyiv Society of Naturalists [Київське товариство природознавців or Київське товариство дослідників природи; Kyivske tovarystvo pryrodoznavtsiv or Kyivske tovarystvo doslidnykiv pryrody]. An organization in Kyiv that promoted the study of natural sciences and the natural resources of Ukraine. It was established in 1869 at Kyiv University on the initiative of P. Alekseev, K. Kessler, and Aleksandr Kovalevsky. Its first president was the botanist I. Borshchov. The society organized scientific research trips to various parts of Ukraine, the Caucasus Mountains, and abroad, and maintained a large library. Two sections of the society were separated from it to form the Kyiv Physics and Mathematics Society (1890) and the Kyiv Physics and Chemistry Society (1910). The society published Zapiski Kievskogo obshchestva estestvoispytatelei (Proceedings of the Kyiv Society of Naturalists, 1870–1917 in Russian and 1926–8 in Ukrainian as Zapysky Kyïvs'koho tovarystva pryrodoznavtsiv), Sbornik nauchnykh rabot Kievskogo obshchestva estestvoispytatelei (Collection of Scientific Works of the Kyiv Society of Naturalists, 1921–8), bibliographies, and geological maps. Its presidents included Konstantin Feofilaktov (1877–98), S. Navashin, and Mykola Andrusiv. In 1897 it had 177 members; among the more active ones were the zoologists V. Sovynsky, Aleksei Severtsov, and Ivan Shmalhauzen; the botanists Opanas Rohovych and Mykola Kholodny; the geologists Pavlo Tutkovsky and Vasyl Tarasenko; and the chemists N. Bunge and Sergei Reformatsky. The society was closed by the authorities in 1932.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]