Probably, there are cowardly pilots or cheerful moneylenders. But people have a different idea of ​​their characters. And as a rule, it is justified. It is not entirely clear whether the profession molds a person, or whether one likes the job only with a certain mental disposition, or maybe both affect, but between the work and the character of people, as the poet argued, "there are subtle powerful connections."

The favorite and traditional Jules Verne hero, selflessly hunting for butterflies, kind and eccentric, brave and naive, full of all kinds of knowledge, disinterested and enthusiastic, gives an accurate idea of ​​the type of taxonomist. The more you get to know people of this profession, the more often it seems that a taxonomist is not just a profession, but also a personality trait, and that one cannot work as a taxonomist, one can only be one.

The contribution of domestic taxonomists to the classification system is enormous. hallmark The work of our scientists is a collective style. It is difficult to single out someone personally in the remarkable army of taxonomists, but it is easy to name the institution with which the world fame of Russian zoological systematics is connected - this is ZIN. It became a scientific institute only during the years of Soviet power. Before that, it was just a Zoological Museum, and even earlier - part of the famous Peter's Kunstkamera. Now they, ancestor and descendant, are located side by side in the most charming part of Vasilyevsky Island, near the rostral columns, from where the Neva ensembles are so picturesquely visible, the beauty of which is impossible to get used to.

Here, to the first house of the University embankment, two completely different streams of people stretch in the morning. One, numerous and sonorous, spreads over the museum floor. Bypassing the backbone of a giant whale, schoolchildren freeze in front of the color splendor of a collection of tropical butterflies or a stuffed huge anaconda. Another stream, adults and purposeful people, indifferently bypassing the museum splendor, disappears into the endless corridor of the Zoological Institute. These are scientists.

The science of "Systematics" has a very definite smell. The sharp naphthalene-formalin spirit soaked forever the walls of the zoocorridor, densely packed with cabinets. They contain collections that are among the five richest in the world, and books.

The second purely outward feature of taxonomy is the abundance of old books. Luxurious folios, in leather and morocco, with gold embossing and marble trim, make the institutional corridor look like a bibliophile's office or a museum collection of rarities. The fact is that books on systematics do not get old. Infinitely renewing and expanding, this discipline preserves as working material everything useful that was done by its predecessors. Unlike other sciences, classical works are not petrified here, but are themselves the raw material for the next steps. The systematic tree is forever green!

And perhaps the feeling of history and continuity is especially deeply realized in the old building of the St. Petersburg customs, adapted for the Zoological Museum, precisely because the pundits of the past remain rivals in science today. From the portraits hanging in the lobby, they are closely following the battles of modern biologists, as if urging: "You, the current ones, come on!". Among them is Peter Pallas, curator of the collections of the Kunstkamera, which laid the foundation for the Zoological Museum.

The son of a German and a Frenchwoman, Pallas found his true homeland in Russia, where he was invited by Catherine II. Immediately after arrival, a new member of the academy goes on a long journey. Exploring the banks of the Volga and Yaik, the slopes of the Ural Mountains and Altai, the brave explorer reaches the Chinese border. Returning back through the Caucasus, Pallas brought to the capital such a quantity of materials that he did not have enough time to process them all his life. He first described the musk deer, wolverine, sable... New species of birds, reptiles, fish, molluscs, worms, zoophytes became known to European scientists thanks to his work. The rodents alone provided a volume of material. The academician publishes "Russian Flora" in two thick volumes and immediately takes on "Russian Fauna". But zoological work was not the most significant part of his research. Articles on geography, climatology, ethnography come out one after another. Pallas collaborates in the topographic department, is approved by the historiographer of the Admiralty Colleges, is busy studying the Crimean peninsula ...

The highly experienced Cuvier finished the word about Pallas as follows: “He always lived like a real scientist, occupied only with the search for truth, and did not pay much attention to everything else ... The more experience you gain, the more convinced you are that this is the only way to preserve both the purity of conscience and peace!"

It can perhaps be argued that genuine scientific interest and disinterestedness are the professional traits of taxonomists. What makes a person, hunched over a binocular, day after day study the genital organs of countless beetles impaled on a pin? No resounding success or glory is foreseen.

Overwhelmed with work, Pallas did not have time to create a Zoological Museum, and in the basement of the Kunstkamera, destroyed by dampness and moths, the collections collected by the expeditions of Lepekhin and many other explorers perished.

In August 1828, the Academy of Sciences appointed Karl Maksimovich Baer as director of the museum. In his Autobiography, he describes his impressions of this institution as follows:

“The Zoological Museum, located in two large halls in the building of the old Kunstkamera, as it was called, still gave the impression of the former Cabinet of Curiosities. Huge snakes and other creatures attached to the walls and ceiling seemed to be crawling along them, striking the visitors... My first thought when examining the Kunstkamera was this: to remove the zoological collections from here, since the type of ancient institution is too deeply rooted here. I was further strengthened in this thought by seeing that the systematic names of the mammals, which were attached to movable stands, were partly confused. Having arranged them properly, I found them again two days later in their original places. It was the work of the so-called "caretaker" of the museum, a former servant of Pallas, who had some idea of ​​stuffing, but had no idea about zoological systematics.

Two years have passed. Academician Baer, ​​without creating a museum, left St. Petersburg, and now his own collections, collected in the north of Russia, are rotting in the storerooms.

The Zoological Museum was officially opened on July 4, 1832. Its founder and first director was Fyodor Fyodorovich Brandt. For almost a year he was engaged in the organization of the museum, giving him all his strength and knowledge. When the newly appointed director first came to the Kunstkamera, there was a clear progress in the museum business: instead of one caretaker, there were four employees on the staff ...

The exhibits of the Kunstkamera gave a lot of useful information. True, there were rarities, for example, the fossil rhinoceros described by Pallas, and the mammoth described by Brandt himself, but on the other hand, completely non-exotic, but necessary species were absent.

In 1875, when N. M. Przhevalsky was processing ornithological material obtained during his first trip to Central Asia, he needed an ordinary sparrow for comparison. It turned out that there is not a single specimen of a sparrow in the collection of the Zoological Museum. I had to specially prepare several sparrows caught in the vicinity of St. Petersburg.

For a young museum, it was difficult to find a better director than Brandt. He was a scientist of boundless erudition. Fedor Fedorovich began his scientific activity as a physician, and quite successfully: he became a doctor of medical and surgical sciences. But then his attention was attracted alternately by botany, anatomy, and zoology. Moreover, he did not change his profession, but expanded the range of his activities. He combined his managerial efforts with lecturing on zoology at the Main Pedagogical Institute, a course in anatomy at the Medico-Surgical Academy, inspector work at the Mariinsky Institute and presidential duties in the Russian Entomological Society.

It is rather difficult to outline the range of his interests, since Brandt was a member of over 70 scientific institutions, both Russian and foreign. Three years before his death, when the 50th anniversary of his doctorate was celebrated, he was presented with a printed list of his scientific works. It took 52 pages. There was a description of the collections collected by F. P. Litke, works on beavers, a monograph on sturgeons, works on botany, paleontology, comparative anatomy, philology and, of course, taxonomy.

For almost half a century, until his death, he headed the Brand Zoological Museum, replenishing and systematizing its collections.

In the rays of this glory, the modest name of the preparator of the Zoological Museum, Ilya Gavrilovich Voznesensky, undeservedly faded. Sent by Brandt to collect collections in Russian America, he traveled all over Alaska for almost ten years. Kuril Islands, Kamchatka. Voznesensky was not a pioneer, but the material he collected, as it became clear later, was a genuine discovery of those places where a meticulous and industrious researcher came. Academician Brandt argued that "there is no zoological work on Eastern Siberia and our former North American colonies in which the name of Voznesensky would not be gratefully mentioned."

The collections he collected are becoming more valuable year by year. Today, not only zoologists refer to it, but also historians, ethnographers, botanists, anthropologists, geologists, and demographers. One hundred and fifty boxes of ethnographic materials sent to the Academy, about four thousand animals dissected by Voznesensky, and four hundred new species discovered by him - this is a wealth that "exceeds all probability," as Academician A. A. Shtraukh, who replaced Brandt in his post, wrote.

In summer, the ZIN laboratories are semi-desert: biologists go to the field. Among them are taxonomists who collect materials for their group. Even today the field means sometimes a difficult journey, and in the past it was a rather dangerous undertaking, and the taxonomist often walked with a net in one hand and a rifle in the other. Gathering a collection for the museum, P.P. Semenov-Tian-Shansky successfully penetrated the heart of Asia, but his predecessor Schlagintwein was executed in Kashgar, and Severtsov was captured by the Yuokands. The work of a taxonomist often turned out to be akin to the work of a geologist, topographer, hunter.

When the sharp, raspy voice of Grigory Efimovich Grum-Grzhimailo, a well-known expert on butterflies, was heard in the endless corridor of the ZIN, zoologists broke away from their binoculars and determinants and went to listen to stories about Bukhara, the Pamirs or Western China, through which he wandered from 1885 to 1890. Famous the traveler bore the joking nickname of the European's Leg, as he got into such a wilderness where no explorer had ever fallen before him.

No less commotion was caused by the appearance of the quiet and modest Grigory Nikolaevich Potanin, who always came with his small and thin wife Alexandra Viktorovna, a faithful companion in his difficult campaigns. She died in her husband's arms during his fourth expedition to China in 1892.

Ivan Dementsvich Chersky was also a long-term employee of the Zoological Museum. Exiled to Siberia for participation in the Polish uprising, he fell in love with this harsh land and devoted his whole life to it. Tall, slender, wearing the same old jacket and worn-out patched boots, this man aroused involuntary respect from everyone both for his courage and for his vast knowledge in geology, paleontology and geography, obtained on his own.

Perhaps there is a Muse of Systematics, close to her more famous friends. How else to explain that among the people who have devoted themselves to this cause, there are so many artistically gifted individuals? The first work of Karl Baer printed in Russia was a cantata in honor of the end of Patriotic War 1812. N. Polezhaev translated Heine, played the piano superbly and wrote romances that were popular in his time. Professor of Zoology, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR N. Kholodkovsky is probably better known as a translator of Milton, Byron, Goethe. His translation of Faust remains unsurpassed. The son of a famous traveler, a long-term employee of the ZIN, who described 800 species and 100 genera, A.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky wrote poetry, translated Horace, published several articles about Pushkin. He used his special knowledge to analyze poetic texts, because many masters make botanical mistakes. For example, in Lermontov's work, the "yellowing field is agitated" and the lily of the valley blooms at the same time. The elder brother of the leading entomologist ZIN, himself a major entomologist, Alexei. Nikolaevich Kirichenko was a passionate photographer, fond of archeology and architecture. He made measurements and photographs of the ruins of the Termez monuments of the 11th century BC. e. The number of such examples can easily be multiplied. One of the directors of the ZIN, Academician E. N. Pavlovsky, even wrote a special book on this topic, Poetry, Science and Scientists.

Every week, a colored scattering of biological journals falls out on the long table of the ZIN "ovsky library, and researchers rummage through them, looking for fresh publications of "rivals".

The profession of systematist is one of those with which it is difficult to leave. Therefore, there have always been many patriarchs in ZIN. Among them, one should name a person who gave his whole life to the institute and died within its walls, ichthyologist Pyotr Yulievich Schmidt. He was called "medium" in contrast to the "big" - academician-paleontologist F. B. Schmidt, very large and deep-pitched, and "small" - the librarian of the Zoological Museum.

Schmidt's predecessor in the ichthyological department, S. M. Gertsenshtein, also belongs to the veterans of the institute. His erudition was inexhaustible. Extremely modest, unusually kind, always ready to help anyone who turned to him with a question, he was a common favorite. But his appearance was unsightly: stooped, with a huge hooked nose. Professor Nikolsky recalls that once, when Gertsenstein was turning over stones on the shore of the White Sea in excitement in search of coastal animals, passing fishermen mistook him for a devil and shouted: “Fuck you, evil spirit!”

But perhaps Alexander Shtakelberg, who had been collecting and systematizing flies for more than sixty years, and the head of the malaria commission, worked for ZIN the longest. Long years he was the editor of the volumes "Fauna of the USSR" and "Determinants" published by the institute. Before his eyes, not only the Zoological Museum, but the whole biological science has changed. At the beginning of the century, all the scientific staff of the museum gathered to “drink tea” during a break. There were about ten of them. And all the zoologists in the country, according to statistics, there were 406.

Now /1990/ there are more of them only in one ZIN. And there are about five thousand zoologists in the Union. And here's what's interesting. Despite this rapid growth, zoologists in the total number of scientific workers in the biological direction account for ten times less than before the revolution. This means that other biological disciplines are developing even more rapidly.

From 1907 to 1971 Alexander Nikolaevich Kirichenko worked at ZIN. Nothing prevented him from fulfilling the norm every day: to identify 80-200 insects. In besieged Leningrad, he remained at the head of the ZIN. Kirichenko described 34 new genera and 223 species, one genus and about 30 species were named after him. About one hundred and thirty scientific works belong to his pen, among which are fundamental - two volumes "Fauna of Russia" and a reference book for all hemipterologists "Key to Hemiptera", continuing the work of Oshanin. Thanks to the efforts of Alexander Nikolaevich, the stock collection of bedbugs in ZIN is the best in the world. What did Kirichenko not do to replenish it! He traded insects for stamps, begged diplomatic couriers to collect them in exotic countries, wrote off letters to Russian people who, by the will of fate, were abandoned in different corners peace. F. G. Dobzhansky collected bedbugs for Kirichenko in North America, A. Ogloblin in Argentina, G. Olsufiev in Madagascar. There are still legends about his memory in ZIN...

Chekhovskaya T.P., Shcherbakov R.L. 1990 The Stunning Variety of Life, 64-77

The Zoological Museum of Moscow University is the oldest and largest Moscow museum, where visitors can get acquainted with the diversity of modern animals of our planet, and zoologists will find the richest scientific collections. Originating initially (1791) as a cabinet of natural university history, in which animals and plants, minerals and coins were collected, the museum has become a zoological one since the beginning of the 19th century. In 1902, the construction of the museum building on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street was completed, which housed the collections of the museum, all its employees, and from 1911 to this day the exposition for the public has been operating.

The building of the Zoological Museum, built in 1902.

The Zoological Museum of Moscow University is one of the two largest and oldest natural history museums in Russia, and in terms of scientific collections it is among the 10 largest similar collections in the world. The history of the museum is filled with scientific discoveries, collections, activities of outstanding scientists and publications of fundamental scientific works. Gradually, three main directions of its activity were formed:
collection and storage of zoological collections - a unique scientific material that is part of the national wealth of the country;
scientific research in various areas of zoology - taxonomy and faunistics, evolution and taxonomy, morphology and nature conservation;
education, namely - contribution to preschool, school and university education, popularization of zoological and environmental knowledge, publication of relevant popular scientific publications and teaching aids.

The museum's exposition includes almost 10 thousand exhibits - from unicellular animals, which, of course, have to be shown using artificial models, to crocodiles, tigers and bison. The main exposition introduces the diversity of the world fauna and is built according to the classical systematic principle - from protozoa to vertebrates, class by class, squad by squad. The exception is a small but colorful new exposition dedicated to the unique deep-sea ecosystems that exist due to chemosynthesis (the “Lower Hall” on the first floor of the museum). The theme of the exposition of the hall of comparative anatomy ("Bone Hall", the second floor of the museum) is the laws of the evolutionary transformation of morphological structures.

In the foyer and halls of the museum, works by outstanding domestic animal artists are presented, and exhibitions are held regularly.

Museum lobby

The scientific library of the Zoological Museum, formed, among other things, from the memorial libraries of many outstanding Russian zoologists, has approximately 200,000 items. These are books, periodicals and separate prints in Russian and foreign languages, necessary for professional zoologists in scientific research and available to schoolchildren, students and other readers who need scientific, popular science and illustrated zoological publications.

It is convenient for groups of schoolchildren and students to use the services of experienced guides when getting acquainted with the exposition of the museum. Every year the museum is visited by about 100 thousand people, almost 1500 excursions are held on various topics.

The museum has a biological circle for schoolchildren. Lecturers - scientists, specialists in the field of biology.

Museums) is located in the very center of Moscow. His address is st. Bolshaya Nikitskaya, 6, at the intersection with Nikitsky lane. Taking into account the eternal Moscow traffic jams, it is best to get here by metro, from the stations Okhotny Ryad or the V.I. Lenin Library to go for about five minutes, no more.

The museum is located in a historic building, which was built specifically for it in 1902. In the 70-80s of the last century, the building was reconstructed (this did not affect the appearance), the halls became more spacious, and the area of ​​the museum increased.

Initially, the Zoological Museum was formed as a Natural Science Cabinet at Moscow State University. Then the zoological part stood out from it, which at that time made up the main collection of the museum, which was constantly replenished and is still being replenished. To date, it has 4.5 million exhibits.

The whole museum is conditionally divided into three large components, which correspond to the separate halls of the museum. Most of the animals are concentrated in the so-called Lower Hall - from unicellular ciliates to reptiles. Birds and mammals can be seen in the Upper Hall. Also on the second floor is the Bone Hall, whose name speaks for itself.

Before visiting, it is better to choose a specific goal for yourself - for example, today you will examine marine life, next time mammals, the third time insects. In addition, the ticket price is quite affordable and conducive to multiple visits. Better yet, book a tour. The Zoological Museum offers over 30 different thematic tours; the choice depends only on who you like best - animals and birds, for example, or reptiles. True, the guides here come across different: it happens that you listen, but there are also rather dull ones, from whose story you want to yawn. A thematic tour for a group of schoolchildren costs 1500 rubles, the same amount will cost an individual tour. For a group of adults, the cost of the tour will be 2500 rubles.

Of course, if you are already out of childhood and are not a fan of Discovery and Animal Planet, then think before you go here, the museum may disappoint - there is nothing here except for the actual stuffed animals and their skeletons, dried insects, and the remains of mollusks. Children, as a rule, are delighted with the museum. No wonder, because here you can show them a panda with a cub, and a family of polar bears, and the Przewalski horse, and bright butterflies, and huge beetles. Children usually pester with the question: “Are they real?” Yes, it's all real. It is impossible not to note the high skill of taxidermists (these are people who make stuffed animals). It doesn’t fit in my head how the carcass of a dead animal can be turned into quite a lively animal with shiny eyes. You look at the wolf - as if he is about to pounce on you.

The peculiarity of the museum associated with the abundance of stuffed animals is the persistent smell of naphthalene, like from a grandmother's chest. Boxes with naphthalene (or maybe it's some other chemical, but it smells exactly like naphthalene) are next to each scarecrow. All stuffed, by the way, under glass, so photographing them is not very convenient because of the glare.

Generally in general Zoological Museum of Moscow State University leaves a strange impression. Such an academic atmosphere has remained in few places in Moscow, except perhaps in the Lenin Library, and even then everything is electronic there now, but here it seems that you are in the 80s of the last century. The only thing that reminds of the present is everywhere trade stalls with all sorts of souvenir stuff on a zoological theme.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the Zoological Museum on Bolshaya Nikitskaya is undeservedly few visitors. But museums of a purely educational, rather than entertaining nature are becoming less and less. The Zoological Museum is one of them, and it is one of the ten largest museums in the world in its subject matter and is the second largest zoological museum in Russia after St. Petersburg.

The ancestors of mammals were reptiles, which retained certain structural features of amphibians: skin glands, a double occipital condyle, a peculiar arrangement of joints in the limbs. At the same time, they possessed such advanced features as a secondary bone palate, a complex differentiation of the dental system; possibly coat and the ability to thermoregulate. The most probable ancestral group for mammals is one of the orders of animal-like reptiles, Therapsida; the Cynodontia group, which existed until the Upper Triassic, was especially close to them. From this period (160 million years ago) until the beginning of the Tertiary time (about 35 million years), the most common group of mammals were the so-called multi-tuberous. These medium-sized animals got their name due to the presence of numerous tubercles on the molars. Their fangs were absent, but, like modern rodents, incisors were strongly developed. Polytuberculates were specialized herbivores, and they cannot be considered direct ancestors of other groups of mammals, however, it is possible that early forms could give rise to monotremes. In deposits from the middle Jurassic to the Cretaceous, fossil remains of representatives of another group of mammals, trituberculates, discovered true story this class. Their dental system was less specialized than that of the multituberous ones, the dentition was continuous. These were small animals close to insectivores; They ate both animal and vegetable food. Trituberculates, in particular pantotherians, are the most likely ancestors of modern marsupial and placental mammals. The first marsupials apparently appeared at the beginning of the Cretaceous, but their fossil remains are known only from the Upper Cretaceous deposits in North America; in deposits of the Lower Tertiary time, they are also found in Eurasia. Thus, the homeland of marsupials is the northern hemisphere, however, even before the end of the Tertiary period, they were forced south by more highly organized placental mammals, and are currently preserved only in Australia, New Guinea, Tasmania and South America. Higher, or placental mammals, like marsupials, descended from trituberculates at the beginning of the Cretaceous period (125 million years ago). To date, 35 placental orders are known, of which 21 currently exist, and 14 are completely extinct. The formation of modern orders of higher mammals occurred 90 - 85 million years ago, and the currently existing families arose in the late Eocene and early Miocene.

The most important features of the general organization of mammals are: a high level of development of the nervous system, which provides complex and perfect forms of reaction to environmental influences; a perfect system of thermoregulation, which determines the constancy of the conditions of the internal environment of the body; and live birth, combined (unlike other viviparous vertebrates, such as fish and reptiles) with feeding the young with milk. Of the features of the structure, several points should be noted. The body of mammals is covered with hair, or wool (although there are exceptions of a secondary nature). The skin is rich in glands that have a diverse and very important functional significance; mammary glands, which are absent in other vertebrates, are especially characteristic. The lower jaw consists of only one (dentary) bone. The teeth in the alveoli are differentiated into incisors, canines, and molars. In the cavity of the middle ear there are three (and not one, as in amphibians, reptiles and birds) auditory ossicles. The heart is four-chambered, with one (left) aortic arch. Red blood cells - erythrocytes - are devoid of nuclei, which increases their oxygen capacity. It is easy to imagine how important these adaptations are for the distribution of mammals in a variety of living conditions.

The positive or negative assessment of individual animal species is not always unambiguous, because in different natural and economic conditions they can play different roles. Thus, many species of small rodents harm field crops or young forest plantations; in a certain situation, they pose a danger to human health, as custodians of infections and feeders of ticks - transmitters of diseases. On the other hand, in their natural habitats, these animals are an important and necessary component of ecosystems.

Since prehistoric times, our ancestors hunted for the meat, skins or fat of mammals. In the future, in order to protect himself from the accidents of hunting, people began to tame wild animals. Scientists judge the time and place of domestication of individual breeds by the excavations of ancient settlements and preserved objects of fine art, and the alleged centers of origin are determined by the areas of their wild ancestors. For thousands of years, domestic animals have been a source of food for humans or have performed various forms of household chores. Others, without bringing any immediate benefit, simply occupy leisure and give pleasure.

Museum exposition

In total, the collection of the Zoological Museum exhibits 704 species of mammals, represented by 1493 stuffed animals, skeletons and alcohol preparations. Of these, 44 exhibits (related to 34 species of cetaceans and pinnipeds) are exhibited in the I room, and 1449, representing 670 species of the remaining 19 orders of mammals, are located in the III room of the museum. On the walls of Hall III there is also a collection of 144 horns belonging to 28 species of ungulates. In addition, sculptural images, dummies and anatomical preparations are exhibited at the information stands. The total number of exhibits of the Department of Mammals in Halls I and III is 2110 items.

The main part of the first hall of the museum is occupied by an exposition dedicated to two orders of mammals - cetaceans and pinnipeds. Modern representatives of these groups are closely related to the aquatic environment, but are descended from terrestrial ancestors. The central exhibit of the collection is one of the largest blue whale skeletons in the world, having a length of 27 m. Its history is well known: the whale died at low tide on a sandbank near the Belgian city of Ostend in November 1827. Among the townspeople who gathered to look at the rare animal, there were scientists who described the animal in detail and artists who captured this event on several engravings. Within a few days, the whale carcass was butchered, and the bones carefully cleaned, and then mounted. Soon the skeleton was taken for display, first to Paris, then to London and America. 30 years later, in 1856, this exhibit was purchased by our compatriot, E.P. Balabin, and donated to the Imperial Zoological Museum. The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived on earth. This giant feeds on the smallest marine crustaceans - plankton, therefore its jaws are devoid of teeth, and the oral cavity is filled with a whalebone - horny plates up to 1.5 m in height with a rough dense fringe along the lower edge. These plates make up a huge sieve on which crustaceans captured with sea water settle. Such a peculiar structure of the mouth apparatus is characteristic of the so-called baleen whales, in contrast to the toothed whales, most of which have a well-developed dentition and are real predators. The five-meter skull of the sperm whale, the largest of the toothed whales, can be seen in the center of the hall. Sperm whales feed on fish and cephalopods, even attacking giant squid, which can weigh more than 200 kg. In search of prey, these whales can dive to a depth of more than 1800 m and stay under water for more than an hour. They navigate underwater using echolocation, making sounds of a special frequency and then perceiving them reflected from the bottom, prey or enemy. Next to the skull of a sperm whale is the skeleton of a killer whale, or killer whale, as it is called. The gloomy fame of killer whales is apparently associated with their attacks on large marine mammals - seals, dolphins and baleen whales, although they more often feed on fish and cephalopods. At the same time, like other species of dolphins, killer whales tolerate captivity well, are well trained and quickly get used to humans. The skeleton of a narwhal, or unicorn, deserves special attention. This large (up to 6 m in length) toothed whale, living in polar waters, is famous for the fact that in the mouth of the male there is a single helical tooth, reaching 3 m in length. Its purpose is still unclear, and causes controversy among scientists. Until recently, items made of narwhal bone - "fish tooth" - were highly valued, and sometimes they were given magical significance.

In addition to various types of whales, in Hall I you can see stuffed animals of another order of marine animals - pinnipeds. Unlike cetaceans, these animals have not completely lost touch with the land - perhaps because they mastered the aquatic environment 30 million years later. Modern pinnipeds, or seals, are divided into two main systematic groups, differing not only in appearance, but also in biological features - eared and real seals; somewhat apart from those and others is the family of walruses. Walruses are the largest of the seals in the northern hemisphere, and are second in size only to elephant seals living off the coast of Antarctica, reaching a weight of 3.5 tons. In the same place, in the Antarctic waters, the sea leopard lives - the only one of the seals that produces exclusively warm-blooded animals; a beautifully executed effigy of this animal can also be seen in the exhibition.

At present, most marine mammals, especially whales, have become extremely rare in nature due to excessive fishing. Such animal species that are endangered or endangered are included in the Red Book, first compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1948. Their extraction, including for scientific purposes, is prohibited by the laws of most countries. And although you can see many exhibits in the halls of the museum, on the label of which there is a “Red Book” badge, it should be borne in mind that at the time when the main collections were collected, many of the rare or now extinct animals were quite common and even numerous.

The systematic exposition, located on the left side of the third hall of the museum, demonstrates the main diversity of the class of mammals. An evolutionary tree is displayed on the wall at the entrance to the hall, reflecting modern ideas about the origin and systematics of this group of animals, and next to it is a stand describing the distinctive features of their structure and biology.

The exposition begins with monotremes - an ancient group of mammals, which includes two modern families, platypuses and echidnas, combining the features of primitive mammals and reptiles. A distinctive feature of these creatures is that, unlike all other mammals, they lay eggs covered with a dense shell, but not hard, like birds, but elastic, like turtles or crocodiles. In order to hatch an egg, the echidna places it in a special fold of skin on the abdomen - a bag, where after 7 - 10 days a small cub hatches. Unlike her, the female platypus arranges a real nest in a specially dug hole, where she lays from 1 to 3 eggs. The cubs born in such an unusual way are fed by these animals with milk secreted in certain areas of the abdominal part of the body of females, called glandular fields. At the same time, the biology of these animals is different: the echidna leads an exclusively terrestrial, nocturnal lifestyle, feeding on termites and other insects, the platypus is looking for prey in the water - these are, first of all, various small aquatic animals, which he chooses with his "beak" from the silt.

Echidnas and platypuses are inhabitants of Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea. Representatives of another systematic group of animals, marsupials, numbering seven separate orders, are also common there. The modern distribution of marsupials is limited mainly to the southern hemisphere, but their fossils are known not only from Australia, South America and the Antarctic coast, but also from Mongolia and China. Unlike monotremes, marsupials give birth to live cubs, but so tiny and underdeveloped that they have to be in the mother's pouch for a long time. The museum contains representatives of almost all orders of this group, among which there are rare and recently extinct animals, such as the marsupial wolf or hare kangaroo. Perhaps the most popular of the Australian animals - marsupial bear, or koala - can be seen on the branches of eucalyptus in a separate display case. Koalas feed exclusively on eucalyptus leaves, which no other animal is able to eat, since they contain a strong poison - hydrocyanic acid. This animal has no enemies in nature, and the main reason for the catastrophic decline in its numbers in nature is hunting and the reduction of indigenous eucalyptus forests. Currently, several special reserves have been created to preserve the marsupial bear. Equally rare is one of the few marsupial predators - the Tasmanian devil. At present, it has survived only on the island of Tasmania, although it used to inhabit most of Australia. This predator hunts for rather large prey, attacking, among other things, domestic sheep. Obviously, it was this last circumstance that led to a sharp decrease in the number of the marsupial devil. An even sadder fate befell the largest marsupial predator - thylacine, or Tasmanian wolf. The tracks of the marsupial wolf were last seen over 50 years ago, and since then there has been no evidence that this species has survived. Even in major museums world, skeletons or stuffed thylacine are a rarity, so the presented exhibits are the pride of our collection. In addition to the well-known giant kangaroos and wallabies, you should pay attention to the small animals displayed on the side of the display case. These opossums are the only marsupials found outside the Australian continent. Most opossums live in Central and South America, but some species can penetrate quite far north. Opossums perfectly adapt to any conditions of existence, and in the southern states of the United States, for example, they feel great on the outskirts of villages and small towns. The exhibits presented in the collection have another value - many of them, such as the southern and ashen opossums, were collected by the great Russian traveler and collector G.I. Langsdorf almost 200 years ago.

The entire subsequent part of the exposition is devoted to the so-called higher mammals, which make up the absolute majority of this class of animals. It is opened by exotic inhabitants of Central and South America - armadillos, anteaters and sloths, belonging to the order of edentulous. Armadillos are the only animals whose body is covered with a strong shell, consisting of integumentary ossifications and horny plates. These nocturnal, almost omnivorous animals live mainly in open areas, where they dig numerous holes. In case of danger, they roll up into a ball or, almost instantly, burrow into the ground. Usually, a female armadillo gives birth to several twins developing from one egg, so the cubs are always same-sex. The exposition of the museum presents almost all the main types of armadillos, many of which are now rare in nature. Unlike armadillos, sloths living in the rainforests of South America spend almost their entire lives in trees, being an example of extreme specialization in an arboreal lifestyle. They move, clinging to the branches of trees with powerful claws, in the same state they rest and even sleep. Sloths are really inactive and "slow", because they do not have to use almost any effort to get food, and they have practically no enemies in the crowns of trees. Nevertheless, if necessary, these animals can descend to the ground, they are excellent swimmers, and powerful claws, in case of danger, can become a serious weapon. The last of the families of edentulous, anteaters, living in the forests and pampas of South America, are interesting in their specialization in feeding only on termites and ants. Only sometimes tree anteaters - tamadua - diversify their diet by eating wild bees and wasps. Many exhibits from this exposition are not only zoological, but also of historical value, as they were collected during the expeditions of Academician G.I. Langsdorf at the beginning of the 19th century.

Not only anteaters prefer termites and ants, which is explained by the abundance and availability of this type of food. In the same showcase you can see animals that live in Africa and South-East Asia- these are representatives of the pangolin squad, or lizards, as they were called before for their peculiar appearance. The body of pangolins is completely covered with horny scales, and they really resemble some ancient reptile rather than a mammal. Food - ants and termites - these animals are looking for at night and get, like anteaters, with the help of a long sticky tongue. All pangolins are not numerous, some especially rare species are listed in the Red Book.

A separate exposition is devoted to small insectivorous animals - known to all hedgehogs, moles, shrews, and less familiar species - tenrecs living in Madagascar, African jumpers, and sand-toothed. Until recently, all these animals were combined into one large detachment of insectivorous mammals, but recent studies have shown that, despite the external similarity, these animals come from different ancestors. It is among the insectivores that the smallest mammal on the planet is found - the pygmy shrew, whose weight does not exceed 2 grams. The slittooths, ancient and very rare in nature, are interesting in that they are the only mammals that have venom glands. The venom of the sand tooth is not dangerous for humans, but for its victims - insects and small vertebrates - it has a strong paralyzing effect. The scarecrow of the open-toothed fish, presented in the museum's exposition, is one of the first to fall into the hands of European scientists in 1828. There is another interesting animal in the exposition - the Russian muskrat. Despite the fact that the desman is the closest relative of moles, her whole life is connected with water. Beautiful fur almost became the cause of the complete extermination of the desman, but timely measures taken to protect this rare species made it possible not only to preserve it, but also to significantly increase the size of the natural population. In the same window you can see small animals that live in Southeast Asia - these are tupai. Outwardly, they look like slender pointed squirrels. The English name for tupai is tree shrew, and, indeed, scientists used to classify them as insectivorous. However, recent genetic studies have shown that the tupai are located on the same family tree with primates and winged wings, being our very ancient relatives.

The wall showcases of the hall housed an exposition of bats, the only order of mammals that have mastered active flight. Along with rodents and insectivores, the bats and fruit bats - the most numerous group among mammals. Fruit bats - the largest of the representatives of the order, live only in the eastern hemisphere, from Africa to the islands of Oceania. These are exclusively herbivorous animals, the main food of which is fruits, nectar and pollen of flowers. In areas where the fruits ripen only intermittently, fruit bats make seasonal migrations of hundreds and thousands of kilometers - such are the flights of the East Australian flying fox or the epaulette fruit bat in southern Angola. Unlike fruit bats, smaller bats are predators and feed mainly on nocturnal flying insects. Animals are active at dusk and at night. In order to navigate in the dark and catch fast-flying prey, bats use their unique ability to echolocation. With the help of reflected ultrasound, the animals not only distinguish what exactly is in front of them, but also at what distance. Not all bats prey on moths and beetles - large spearfish can prey on small reptiles and mammals; in Mexico there are bat fishermen, snatching small fish out of the water, and, finally, in South America there is a whole family of bats vampires. They feed on the blood of animals, sharp teeth, like a scalpel, incising the skin of large mammals and licking the leaking drops; at the same time, the vampire's saliva makes the bite painless and does not allow the blood to clot.

More than 2250 species include the largest order of mammals - rodents; this is approximately 40% of all mammals living on the planet. This success can be explained by several reasons: the small size of the animals, the short life cycle and the evolutionary youth of the group, which gives rodents almost unlimited opportunities to adapt to any habitat conditions and occupy almost all possible ecological niches. Gophers, mole rats and diggers live underground; dormice, squirrels and flying squirrels - on trees; jerboas and gerbils have mastered waterless sandy deserts; muskrat, coypu and beaver, on the contrary, have perfectly adapted to living in the aquatic environment. In many natural ecosystems and in anthropogenic, especially agricultural landscapes, rodents play a leading role. Gophers, hamsters and gophers dig pastures with their holes; voles and mice eat crops; beavers flood thousands of hectares of forest, drastically changing their habitat; voles, rats and gerbils carry dangerous diseases such as plague and tularemia. At the same time, rodents are often one of the main environmental components in natural ecosystems. The largest rodent in the world - capybara, or capybara, living in South America, weighs more than 60 kg, the smallest - a baby mouse - only 5 - 6 g. Many rodents - chinchillas, beavers, squirrels, marmots - have thick beautiful fur, because of which they are mined in nature or bred on special farms. The exposition of rodents presented in the Zoological Museum is truly unique. Among the exhibits there are specimens, according to which scientists first described this species of animals more than 200 years ago (South American giara and kui, Brazilian porcupine, narrow-skulled vole), as well as exhibits collected by great travelers of the past - G.I. Langsdorf, K.Ya. Temminkom, I.G. Voznesensky, N.M. Przhevalsky and others.

Lagomorphs, located in neighboring showcases, taxonomists used to be combined with rodents, but, despite the external similarity, these animals differ so much from each other that they were subsequently identified as a separate detachment. Lagomorphs differ from rodents in their lifestyle, anatomical features, even in the number of incisors - there are not 2, but 4 in the upper jaw. This order includes hares, rabbits and pikas, or haystacks. All lagomorphs are terrestrial animals. Some species prefer vast open spaces, others live among dense thickets and stone placers, sometimes rising high into the mountains. Hares and rabbits feed on low-calorie foods that usually do not attract rodents - mainly bark, young branches, leaves, and grass. Hares, as a rule, do not make special shelters and keep alone, while rabbits and pikas dig holes and settle in small colonies. Of the rare exhibits of this collection, it is undoubtedly worth mentioning the Ladakh pika and Kozlov's pika, brought by N.M. Przhevalsky from northern Tibet.

Two species of woolly wings, or, as they are sometimes called, flying lemurs, live in the rainforests of Southeast Asia. In appearance, they resemble a rodent - a flying squirrel, but are close in origin to primates. The coleoptera glide by means of a large, fur-covered membrane that connects the neck, all the paws, and the tail. They feed on fruits and leaves. Like bats, females do not leave their cubs for a minute, they carry them all the time with them until they become almost the size of an adult animal.

The oldest primates, similar to modern lemurs, were widespread in North America and Europe more than 60 million years ago, but to date, only five families of these primitive monkeys have survived in the forests of Madagascar and the Comoros. The most unusual representative of this group is undoubtedly the arm, or ay-ay. Arms are the rarest and most ancient of the lemurs. They live in trees, spend the day in a hollow or in a nest, and after sunset they wake up and begin to examine the branches in search of food - insect larvae, nuts or fruits. Having found prey with the help of unusually sharp hearing, the animal extracts larvae from narrow tree passages with a very long, thin third finger of the hand, equipped with a sharp curved claw. The next group, traditionally belonging to the suborder of lower monkeys, are Loria. This includes the lorises themselves, living in Southeast Asia, as well as pottos and galagos, living in tropical Africa. All these animals live on trees, are nocturnal, eating insects and, to a lesser extent, plant foods. But there are also differences between them. If lorises and pottos are prone to a solitary lifestyle, slow and extremely careful in their movements, then galago prefer to live in groups, and when hunting or chasing strangers, they can jump up to 12 meters. There are currently only three species in the family of tarsiers living in the Malay Archipelago, but in the Eocene, about 45 million years ago, similar forms were common in Europe and North America. According to modern taxonomy, these monkeys are classified as higher, although until recently they were combined with lemurs and lorises. Huge eyes, characteristic of all nocturnal animals, help the tarsier during the night hunting for insects.

All other monkeys, including anthropoids, are divided into two large systematic groups - broad-nosed, or monkeys of the New World, and narrow-nosed, living in Eurasia and on the African continent. The nostrils of American monkeys are separated by a wide septum; another distinguishing feature is the long prehensile tail, which performs a wide variety of functions. There are no large species among the broad-nosed ones, such as African baboons or great apes, but marmosets can undoubtedly be considered the smallest of the primates. Many exhibits of the collection of American monkeys - howler monkeys, saki, coats - were collected at the beginning of the 19th century by the famous Russian traveler G.I. Langsdorf, some came here from St. Petersburg menageries or from private owners. Unlike broad-nosed monkeys, lower narrow-nosed monkeys - marmosets, mangabeys, macaques - have never prehensile tails. A distinctive feature of most species of monkeys are voluminous cheek pouches, which help them quickly collect large amounts of food. Thin-bodied monkeys (gverets, langurs), eating low-calorie plant foods, do not have such bags, but their stomachs consist of three sections and have a complex structure. The most prominent among the dog-headed monkeys are obviously the baboons. Inhabitants of foothills and open spaces, they have a very complex social hierarchy that allows the herd to more successfully obtain food and resist numerous predators. Modern anthropoids are represented by two families of anurans: gibbons and hominids. Fossil forms (Propliopithecus), which could give rise to the entire superfamily Hominoidea, are known from northern Africa and date back to the Lower Oligocene (about 25 Ma). The exposition of the museum presents almost all representatives of this group - gibbons, chimpanzees, gorillas; the biogroup showing the family of orangutans in their natural habitat attracts the most attention. The stuffed adult monkeys on display in this display case were obtained from the Stuttgart Museum at the end of the 19th century.

The next section of the exposition is devoted to sirenians - distant relatives of elephants and hyraxes, who, like whales and pinnipeds, have mastered the aquatic habitat. At present, the order includes the families of dugongs and manatees - herbivorous animals that live in the coastal waters of the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Here is stored an exhibit, which is the pride of our museum - the skeleton of Steller's sea cow, transferred to the museum by the Russian-American Company in 1857. This giant animal, reaching a length of 10 meters, was discovered by the expedition of Vitus Bering near the Commander Islands in 1741, and literally 30 years later it was completely exterminated. Now in the museums of the world only a few incomplete skeletons and individual bones of these animals have been preserved.

Proboscis - a small detachment of mammals, currently numbering only 3 species of elephants belonging to two genera - Indian and African. By origin, this group is close to the hyraxes and sirens, and historically comes from Africa. Fossil ancestors of modern elephants, starting from the Eocene (more than 40 million years ago), inhabited almost all continents of the world, with the exception of Australia and Antarctica. The main distinguishing feature of the representatives of the detachment is a long muscular trunk formed by an upper lip fused with the nose - a universal organ that elephants successfully use as a hand. Another unique feature of these animals is the molars that change throughout life, adapted for grinding coarse plant food. The Indian elephant presented in the exposition is one of the oldest exhibits of our museum. Mammoths occupy a special place in the proboscis exposition, and many exhibits in this section of the museum are truly unique (Mammoth fauna section)

Here you can also see damans living in Africa, Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula. For many millions of years, these marmot-like animals were the most numerous herbivores in Africa and the Middle East, until they lost ground to more progressive ungulates. Modern representatives of the group include 4 species belonging to three genera - tree, mountain and Cape hyraxes. Mountain hyraxes are diurnal animals living in large colonies in arid savannahs and on mountain slopes; arboreal - keep alone or in small groups, and prefer to feed at night.

The aardvark, or aardwak, is the only representative of the aardvark order living in our time. For a long time it was assigned to the same family as the South American anteaters, but the similarity with them turned out to be superficial, associated with adaptation to feeding on termites and ants. The origin of the aardvark remains unclear; it is probably close to sirens, hyraxes and proboscis. The current area of ​​​​distribution of the species covers central and southern Africa, with the exception of tropical forests.

Representatives of one of the most ancient and primitive groups of odd-toed mammals, tapirs, live in Southeast Asia and South America. Tapirs are inhabitants of swampy forest and shrub thickets, usually located near water bodies. They swim and dive perfectly, looking for aquatic plants or hiding from enemies. The muzzle of the tapir ends in a small movable proboscis formed by the nose and upper lip, which allows the animal to practically not appear on the surface. A separate exposition is dedicated to rhinos. The white rhinoceros, found in southern and central Africa, is the largest of modern land mammals, after the elephant: old males can weigh more than 3 tons. Like the black one, the white rhinoceros has two horns on its muzzle, from which the animals got their name. All rhinos are very rare in nature, especially the Sumatran and Javanese, living in Southeast Asia. Stuffed rhinoceroses were made more than 100 years ago, when these animals were common in the savannas of Africa: for example, the white rhinoceros is a trophy of the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, obtained on a safari arranged for him by the king of Abyssinia. Horses are better adapted to life in open landscapes than other ungulates. Wild horses, which appeared more than 15 million years ago on the American continent and once inhabited all the plains of Eurasia, are now practically not found in the wild. A little over a hundred years ago, the great Russian traveler and naturalist, explorer of Central Asia N.M. Przhevalsky brought from an expedition to Dzungaria the skin of a wild horse, unknown to zoologists. A stuffed animal of this horse, which later received the name of its discoverer, can be seen in our museum. The African savannas are inhabited by the well-known medium-sized striped horses - zebras. Initially, they were distributed throughout the continent, but in northern Africa they were exterminated already in antiquity. Of the three species of zebra now living, the mountain and desert zebras are rare, while the savannah is fairly common. These animals are kept in small herds, sometimes forming significant concentrations together with wildebeest, giraffes and other African ungulates.

Unlike equids, artiodactyls have an even number of toes. This large detachment includes such well-known animals as pigs, antelopes, deer, sheep, bulls. The most common member of the pig family is the wild boar; two more unusual species, the bush pig and the warthog, are found in Africa, but the most exotic representative of this group is undoubtedly the babirussa living on the island of Sulawesi. The upper jaw of this pig is decorated with long, thin fangs that grow upwards and break through the skin; in old males, they bend so much that they practically form a ring. They look like peccaries that inhabit Central and South America, but given their origin and some anatomical features, they are distinguished into a separate independent family. A hippopotamus, or hippopotamus, living in eastern and southern Africa, can reach a weight of 3 tons with a shoulder height of about 160 centimeters. On all four toes of the hippopotamus there are small hooves, and the fingers themselves are connected by a membrane, because most of the life of this beast takes place in the water. The hippopotamus can easily walk along the bottom of a shallow reservoir, swims and dives perfectly. After sunset, hippos come ashore to feed, while from generation to generation animals use the same paths, trampling deep ruts, steps and ditches in the ground. However, few people know that the hippopotamus has a relative - a pygmy hippopotamus that lives in the remote jungles of Nigeria and Liberia. The weight of this animal does not exceed 250 kilograms, and the height is only 70 centimeters. Along with such giants as hippos, among artiodactyls there are also very tiny animals, for example, deer, barely reaching the size of a hare. They do not have horns, but males have large, protruding, sharp fangs in the upper jaw. In contrast, male real deer grow new antlers every year. The exposition presents many species of these animals, but the most interesting among them are the white-lipped and Alashan deer hunted by N.M. Przhevalsky, as well as the North American white-tailed deer brought from California by I.G. Voznesensky. The most numerous group among artiodactyls are bovids: bulls, antelopes, goats and rams. The horns of these animals grow throughout their lives, but they are empty inside and, as it were, are planted on the bony bases of the skull. The museum collection contains many stuffed animals of these ungulates: Philippine and African buffaloes, bison and bison, yaks brought from Tibet by N. M. Przhevalsky, a large number of species of antelopes and gazelles from Africa and Southeast Asia. Many of the ungulates, such as duikers, bezoar and Nubian goats, European mouflon, goral, are currently rare in nature and are included in the Red Book. A small suborder of calluses includes Old World camels and llamas, or humpless camels, living in South America. The ancestors of calluses appeared more than 40 million years ago in North America, from where they subsequently settled in Asia, North Africa and Europe, as well as in South America. Now only one wild species (bactrian camel) is found in remote areas of Central Asia and two (guanaco and vicuña) in South America. As for the one-humped camel, llama and alpaca, they are already known only in a domesticated state. In the exposition you can see all these animals, but wild camels brought from Mongolia by N.M. Przhevalsky are especially interesting. Only two species include another family of artiodactyls - giraffes. About 20 million years ago, the ancestors of giraffes inhabited the vast territories of Europe, Asia and Africa, but then their range was sharply reduced. In the showcases of the museum, you can see both species living now - the steppe and forest giraffe, or okapi. Okapi is probably one of the rarest species of ungulates; its discovery in 1901 created a real sensation among scientists.

The exposition ends with a collection of predatory mammals. Predatory animals live on all continents except Antarctica, and inhabit all landscapes, from the ice fields of the Arctic to sandy deserts. They are extremely diverse in behavior, hunting methods and size, from a tiny weasel that weighs only 25 grams to a polar bear that reaches almost a ton of weight. The history of carnivores began more than 60 million years ago, when a family of primitive predators similar to martens, miacids, was formed. But only 30 million years later, this group took a dominant position among other terrestrial carnivores, and seven main families of carnivores that are part of the modern detachment were outlined. Probably the most versatile predators are wolves, which include wolves, foxes, jackals, and wild dogs. Most often, wolves live and hunt in packs, which in hyena dogs living in the savannas of Africa can have up to 60 animals. However, there are also loners among them, such as a maned wolf - an inhabitant of South America, foxes or arctic foxes. The most numerous group of carnivores are mustelids. This family includes more than 50 species, including the well-known weasel, ermine, marten, badger and many others. Perhaps the most unusual of them is the sea otter, or sea otter, which lives in the northern waters of the Pacific Ocean. Sea otters keep in small groups near the coast, where there are small bays, rocks and dense thickets of algae. Usually they lie on the surface of the water for a long time, on their backs, resting or feeding; females hold small cubs on their breasts. The fur of the sea otter is very thick and durable, which is why this animal was actively mined. Now, as a result of protection, its numbers have increased markedly, but still the sea otter is a rarity. Unfortunately, the situation with sea otters is no exception: as a result of constant persecution, approximately 40% of mustelids are listed in the Red Book, although on average, for other families, this figure is about 15%. Endangered species include the Colombian weasel, the European and Indonesian mink, the giant otter; such animals as the sea mink and the black-footed ferret disappeared already in historical time. Another rare animal on display at the museum is the bamboo bear, or giant panda. It lives in the mountain forests of southern China. The unusual black and white color of the fur, oddly enough, does a good job of disguising this slow-moving animal both in summer, among thick bamboo stalks, and in winter in the snow. The campaign to save the giant panda was one of the first tasks of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, founded in 1948, and the image of this bear has become a symbol of the organization itself. Other representatives of the bear family, with the exception of the brown one, are also few in number, which is associated both with the destruction of their habitats and with direct persecution by humans. The most specialized predators adapted to active hunting are felines. A distinctive feature of this family are retractable claws and a highly specialized dentition, especially pronounced in the saber-toothed cats, or mahairods, which died out about a million years ago. The largest number of feline species live in South America and Southeast Asia, and only a few, such as lynx or puma, go far enough to the north. The largest of the wild cats is the tiger; once it lived on a vast territory from Transcaucasia to the Far East, but now its range has been catastrophically reduced, and many subspecies, such as the Turanian tiger, have remained only in museum expositions. Attention is drawn to the masterfully executed biogroup representing two Amur tigers. It was made by an unknown craftsman about 200 years ago to decorate the halls of the Winter Palace, and in 1874 it was donated to the museum by Emperor Alexander II. At the end of the exhibition there is a large diorama representing a pride of lions settling down to rest. By the way, lions are the only cats that form such groups; other species prefer to survive and hunt alone. Another exception within the family concerns not social organization, but the method of hunting - we are talking about the cheetah. This unique predator is the only feline that does not lie in wait, but drives its prey. This specialization allowed the cheetah to become the fastest mammal on earth - the speed of its throw can reach 110 km / h. Concluding this far from complete overview of the exposition of predatory mammals, it should be noted that the greatest zoologists and travelers of the 19th century took part in its creation. Thus, the steppe cat was killed by N.A. Severtsev, red lynx, coyote, Laplata otter - by I.G. Voznesensky, manul - by E.A. Eversman, jaguarundi, maned wolf and little fox were brought from South America by G.I. Langsdorf , and pischuhoedy bears and the Tibetan fox were delivered by N.M. Przhevalsky.

Decree of the President of the RSFSR of December 18, 1991 N 294 declared the museum a particularly valuable object of the cultural heritage of the country

Television program (Russia, 2007).
Producer Evgeny Khmelev.
Artistic director Lev Nikolaev.

Olesya Semenova
“The facade of the Polytechnic Museum is beautiful…”
(in abbreviation, in full - by link title)
"Our Heritage" № 99 2011

The museum building is not just an “external case of an institution”, it is its face, which reflects individual characteristics and distinguishes it from many other similar institutions; it begins the visitor's contact with the museum, it is in itself the most important exhibit, especially in such a museum as the Polytechnic.

The central facade of the Polytechnic Museum with the southern and northern wings. Drawing by I.A. Monighetti.
Archive of the Polytechnic Museum

The building of the Polytechnic is one of the notable buildings in the very center of Moscow, it is an architectural monument, it is mentioned in many architectural dictionaries, reference books, monographs, including in connection with the names of the architects who took part in its design or construction.

Even before the opening of the Polytechnic Exhibition, the IOLEAE Committee (Imperial Society of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography) considered some options for locating the future museum: on the site of the former Mining Administration building on Vozdvizhenka, on the university courtyard opposite the Manege, on Theater Square.

The solution of the issue accelerated when it was submitted for discussion to the Moscow Duma. According to the Duma commission, “the area intended for such an institution as a museum must meet two conditions: firstly, it must not be remote from the city center for the convenience of visiting it by the public, and secondly, it must be large enough for the possibility of expanding the museum in the future…”. Lubyanskaya Square was proposed as such an area, "having a significant length and close to the central parts of the city."

On February 8, 1872, a decision was made on the gratuitous assignment of the territory on Lubyanka Square necessary for the construction of the building. It was also decided to allocate from the state treasury from 400 to 500 thousand rubles for the future museum.

Initially, the idea of ​​a monumental, multi-storey building that could constantly grow and increase, and in terms of architecture and style would serve as an adornment of the capital, a monument to the century, seemed attractive. Then, based on the proposal of the President of IOLEAE, Professor A.P. Bogdanov, it was decided to divide the museum fund into two parts, and for its natural-historical part, arrange pavilions in the first Alexander Garden. The Committee for the arrangement of the museum managed to get the territory in the Alexander Gardens at its disposal, projects were drawn up for buildings for the zoological, agricultural and other "natural" departments of the museum, but the lack of funds did not allow these plans to be implemented. In 1897, the museum returned the territory in the Alexander Garden to the Palace Department.

On June 10, 1874, the Moscow City Duma handed over to the Committee 2,504 square sazhens of land along the stone wall of Kitay-gorod, between Lubyanskaya Square and the Ilyinsky Gate. Thus, the issue of a place for the future building of the museum was resolved.

Due to problems, primarily with financing, the construction took place in three phases. The volume-spatial structure of the building was formed over thirty years.

Central building of the museum. Photograph from the end of the 19th century.
Archive of the Polytechnic Museum

In 1877, the central building was built, ten years later the construction of the southern wing began, and thirty-three years after the start of construction, the construction of the right wing was completed.

South facade of the museum. View from Ilyinskaya Square. Lithograph of the early twentieth century.
Archive of the Polytechnic Museum

As a result, while the general compositional solution of the building, adopted in the original project by I.A. Monighetti, was preserved, stylistic changes arose in the execution of its constituent parts during the construction process. The right side of the building, built in the same, it would seem, traditions of the "Russian style", acquires new features - the compositional elements of the facade are "stretched", decorative elements are reduced, the level of floors is shifted. Left side - bright pattern modern style in its national execution. The asymmetric construction of the composition of the side facades emphasizes the dominant importance of the central building, and the three-part northern facade with a protruding attic reveals the dominant position of the Polytechnical in relation to the surrounding buildings and adequately closes the Lubyanka Square from the south.

On September 9 (September 22, according to the new style), 1904, a short message flashed in the newspaper that “... the laying of the left wing of the Polytechnic Museum building, erected by engineer G.I. Makaev, took place ...” with a large audience. In addition to the premises of the Bolshoi, on the third floor there were two more isolated auditoriums for 200 people, the so-called "Small auditoriums", as well as chemical and physical laboratories. The meteorological station was located on the top floor. A physiological greenhouse was placed in a glass lantern on the roof. All this is “for the purpose of arranging lectures of an educational order”. Construction stretched until 1908. According to G.E. Medvedeva, other buildings that would have preserved “a genuine laboratory with a fully assembled furnishing complex<имеется в виду лаборатория при химической аудитории XIX века, где готовились демонстрационные реактивы и приборы>, are not known to us

A double-height auditorium, equipped with a ventilation system, covered with a flat ceiling without a single intermediate support, with a light lantern in the center, was built according to the project and under the supervision of engineer A.A. Semenov, and the creation was immediately praised. Although the main engineering and architectural plan, conceived by the author of the project, has remained the same to this day, since 1948 the interiors of the Great Auditorium have been constantly changing. Previously, instead of the current chairs, there were birch benches, on the stage, behind the lecturer's podium, there was a glass chamber (hood) for chemical experiments, and above it was a table depicting Mendeleev's Periodic Table of Elements. In the center of the ceiling there was a glazed space measuring 8x4 meters through which daylight fell. The total area of ​​the Auditorium was 122.8 square sazhens, it had 842 numbered and 60 unnumbered seats. The cost of the complete equipment was 50,000 rubles. The first lecture was given on October 11, 1907 by the People's University Society.

The listeners immediately appreciated the impeccable acoustics, the calculations of which were carried out by A.A. Semenov. Professor D.N. Anuchin noted in a report for 1910 that "the new Large Auditorium of the Polytechnic Museum is the best auditorium in Moscow." The Committee of the Polytechnic Museum decided in honor of the authors of the project to place a memorial plaque in the auditorium with the inscription: “The auditorium was built in 1907-1908 according to the project and under the supervision of engineer Anatoly Aleksandrovich Semenov, with the closest cooperation of architect I.P. Mashkov, Z.I. Ivanov and railway engineer N.A. Alekseev. For his work on the arrangement of the Large Auditorium of the Polytechnic Museum, he was awarded the rank of a Full State Councilor. Semyonov also headed the specially created Commission of the Polytechnic Museum, which followed the construction of the left wing.

Alas, neither this memorial plaque, nor the memory of the State Councilor Semyonov has survived. Meanwhile, the contribution of this military engineer to the creation of the Polytechnic Museum and, as we shall see later, museum work in Moscow in general, is enormous.

It is customary to mention the names of architects in guidebooks and specialized literature, but the engineers who created architectural monuments along with them are not always remembered. Alexey Semenov(1841-1917) was born in the Vyatka province, first studied at the Konstantinovsky Military School, then graduated from the first category at the Nikolaev Engineering Academy, and later worked in the engineering department of the Moscow Military District. During the first seven years he was awarded three awards: the Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd and 2nd degrees, and the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree. In the summer of 1871, he retired and took part in the organization of the Sevastopol department of the Polytechnic Exhibition. Memories of the Crimean War of 1853-1856 were then fresh, and the idea arose to "present as complete a picture of the glorious defense of Sevastopol as possible, both in combat and in military-sanitary terms, and thereby spread among the people a correct understanding of that memorable era." The pavilion of the Sevastopol department was not inferior to the Marine one and was located in the Kremlin on the square in front of the Nikolaevsky Palace. Back in December 1871, the chief organizer of the department, N.I. Chepelevsky, put forward the idea of ​​creating a permanent repository for the materials collected for the Sevastopol department. National Museum: “This temple, erected to the glory of the age-old life of the Russian people,” he wrote in a report presented to the Tsarevich, “should bring together from all over the earth the Russian cherished shrines of the people, monuments and documents of the entire Russian state, portray in images and pictures the names of great ascetics and figures and remarkable events. And already on February 9, 1872, the emperor ordered the construction of one in Moscow, which became the Historical Museum. The architect V.O. Sherwood believed that “the moment of clear popular consciousness is coming, and our entire future depends on this moment. The people need a clearly embodied image of their own feelings, they need an ideal to strive for. The building of the Historical Museum also had to meet this historical need. “It is necessary to build in Russia the Russian way!”

A.A. Semenov actively participated in this construction. His later works: the temple in the name of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk in Sokolnichya Grove (1875, re-creation; the original unsurvived project of P.P. Zykov); Petrovsky-Alexandrovsky Boarding House of the Nobility (since 1945 - N.N. Burdenko Research Institute of Neurosurgery); a residential building (ibid.) for doctors and educators with an infirmary; the main building (in the same place) with a church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (all these buildings were built in the early 1900s) and many others.

In addition to the block of premises belonging to the Large Auditorium (entrance, lobby, stairs, "cloakrooms"), the rest of the area of ​​the wing was occupied by retail premises. A double-height passage was arranged along the transverse axis connecting Bolshoy Lubyansky and Kitaysky passages, that is, shop windows and windows of the first and mezzanine floors opened onto it. From the passage there was a free exit to both lanes. However, according to the terms of development in the entire complex of the building, the basement, first and mezzanine floors were leased for retail space.

North facade of the Polytechnic Museum

The street facades of the Polytechnic Museum have retained their original decor and have come down to our time only with minor changes due to the liquidation of commercial premises.

Detail of the central facade

Soviet-era lanterns that fit into the northern façade

Initial studies of the color solutions of the facades showed that they were not monochrome as they are today, and the wall surfaces were a combination of white and ocher colors. Experts believe that a more complex coloration is also likely, characteristic of both the modern era and the eclectic era. On the facade of the northern wing, in three archivolts, one can see the damaged by time, but fortified and mothballed monumental painting. Researchers attribute its draft design to the architect Prince G.I.

Fresco triptych in the archivolts of the northern façade

The triptych was made in the fresco technique, which, generally speaking, is characteristic of the Art Nouveau era, but did not take root in Moscow: here, majolica was more often used in facades. So the fresco on the facade of the northern wing of the Polytechnic is the rarest monument.

Watercolor sketches of these frescoes without the signature of the author are stored in the department of written sources of the Polytechnic Museum. They symbolize the poetics of human labor in the images of a peasant plowing a field and two workers in a forge, as well as knowledge, which is personified by a book in the hands of a child in a family group against the backdrop of the rays of the rising sun. With a certain probability, it can be argued that the artist Ilya Pavlovich Mashkov, the brother of the architect Ivan Pavlovich Mashkov, who participated in the design of the Great Auditorium, took part in the creation of the frescoes.

The main staircase occupies an important place in the interior of the museum. Initially, it "was supposed to consist of four marches leading only 1 floor<аж>, and from 2 floor<ажа>there are two special stairs to the upper one, but due to unforeseen circumstances this staircase was replaced by a more luxurious one, but not very comfortable for walking.” Today, only a sketch of the lamps of the main staircase with Shokhin's autograph and a section of the staircase, signed by Shokhin, have survived, but not a single signed drawing has been found. The main staircase is decorated with decorative elements symbolizing ancient Russian forms.

Gypsum balusters of the main staircase

The architectural and decorative design of the central building has been preserved in the lobbies; in the exhibition halls, the walls and ceilings are decorated with profiled rods, geometric stucco ornaments, and stucco ceilings.

Museum interiors

There is a system of various vaults; semicircular at the top of two - and four-leaf doors with original ornaments in panels and brass handles-brackets; stairs with cast iron balusters of complex shape; curly stair railings; cast-iron steps and railings of spiral staircases; flooring (tiles, parquet, metal plates, metlakh tiles); tiled stoves; furniture; mirrors. The interiors of the Polytechnic Museum suffered the most in areas that were not used for museum purposes. “When the walls were cleared under 20-25 layers of paint, the original finish was found - gypsum plaster, which has a specific impregnation that makes it look like artificial marble. Very finely graduated colors were superimposed on top of it. A similar paint system is yet to be explored. As for the stairs themselves, the first clearing of the handrails showed the presence of artificial marble here.

Not only the unique collections that visitors see, but almost all the elements that make up the internal spaces of the museum - walls, floors, stairs, ceiling lamps, lamps - are genuine exhibits. And even if, as a result of the upcoming reconstruction of the museum, they cannot be preserved in their places due to natural decay, their samples can be included in the fund of the now, alas, non-existent, but former at the beginning of the 20th century, the Museum's Architectural Department.

The architectural department of the museum. Photo of the end of the 20th century.
Archive of the Polytechnic Museum

In addition to the well-known ones, the Polytechnic Museum has many internal staircases that are inaccessible to visitors, and all of them are not similar to each other. For example, at the stairs in the basement, even the simplest marches are monumental: painted casting, dolomite steps, columns with cubic capitals - these are stylistic Russian-Byzantine elements that run through many rooms of the museum.

Railings and balusters of painted cast iron museum stairs

Unique plaster floor lamps of the main staircase

Until very recently, the floor lamps of the main staircase were painted with white paint, which is familiar to modern visitors. Today, they appear in the appropriate style of bright vestments, as the restorers believe, they were conceived. Studies have shown that floor lamps were made of gypsum, which is unprecedented for objects of decorative and applied art of the late 19th century.

The original glass shades have been preserved in the interiors; ceramic floors and parquet, made of split oak. There are also rare elements of the Soviet period, quite successfully inscribed in historical interiors.

For a long time, the building of the Polytechnic Museum was not paid due attention. It was only in the late 1990s that it was included in the list of newly discovered objects. cultural heritage. “The Polytechnic is a contemporary of the Historical Museum. But if the building of the latter is generally recognized as a unique architectural monument of federal significance, then, as for the Polytechnic, only its Large Auditorium has the federal status of a monument.

Large auditorium of the Polytechnic Museum

The Polytechnic Museum is one of the first public buildings in Russia, the interior and exterior decoration of which was made in the Russian style. He opened a whole series of buildings of this kind in the center of Moscow. The Architect's Companion to Moscow for 1895 reported: “One can hope that the revival of Russian architecture, begun by Moscow, will continue and gradually progress; first of public buildings, built in the Russian style, are the Polytechnic and Historical Museums, later the theaters of Korsh and Paradise, the City Duma, the Upper and Middle City Trading Rows.

I would like to quote I.P. Mashkov’s absolutely fair words related to the architecture of the capital of the last decades of the 19th century: “During the period under review, Moscow significantly changed its physiognomy, due to the many new buildings that appeared, both public and private. In this relatively short time, some parts of the city became completely unrecognizable; by the way, several grandiose buildings appeared, which, in terms of their significance and size, are among the outstanding buildings of Europe.

One of them - the building of the Polytechnic Museum on Lubyanka Square - even today visibly testifies to the talent and high professionalism of domestic architects who managed to decorate ancient city a wonderful architectural monument that requires care and attention from us, the people of the 21st century.

PS:
In the next six years, the museum building is planned to be substantially rebuilt. It will be taken over by the Japanese architect Junio ​​Ishigami, who won the design competition in October last year.
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"Arguments of the week", 05.04.2012