Ivan Ivanovich Georgi

Georgi, Ivan Ivanovich 

(Johann Gottlieb Georgi). Born Dec. 31, 1729, in Pomerania; died Oct. 27, 1802, in St. Petersburg. Russian ethnologist and naturalist; academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1783). A German by birth.

From 1768 to 1774, Georgi visited southeastern Russia, the Altai, Lake Baikal, Transbaikalia (Zabaikal’e), the Urals, and the Volga Region. In 1772-73 he explored Lake Baikal, did a survey of the lake, and described the climate, flora, and fauna of the regions surrounding it. He wrote the first general work on the peoples of Russia (Description of All Peoples Inhabiting the Russian State, Including Their Worldly Ceremonies, Beliefs, Habits, Clothing, Dwellings, and Other Memorabilia, parts 1-3, 1776-77). Georgi’s social views were similar to those of French Enlightenment figures.

REFERENCES

Tikhomirov, V. V., and T. A. Sofiano. “Dvesti dvadtsat’ piat’ let so dnia rozhdeniia akademika I. I. Georgi.” Izv. AN SSSR: Seriia geologicheskaia, 1954, no. 5.
Tokarev, S. A. Istoriia russkoi etnografii. Moscow, 1966. Pages 103-10.