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| Founded | 18 September 1845 (1845-09-18) |
|---|---|
| Type | NGO |
| Focus | Collect and disseminate reliable geographical information |
| Location | |
Area served | Russian Federation |
Key people |
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| Website | www |
TheRussian Geographical Society (Russian:Ру́сское географи́ческое о́бщество (РГО)), orRGO, is alearned society based inSaint Petersburg,Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection with research programs in fields includingoceanography,[citation needed]ethnography,ecology andstatistics.[1]
The society was founded inSaint Petersburg,Russia on 6 (18) August 1845. Prior to theRussian Revolution of 1917, it was known as theImperial Russian Geographical Society.
The order to establish the society came directly from EmperorNicholas I.[2] The motive for the establishment was to encourage geographical research on domestic topics,[2] which has later been described as aRussian nationalist political goal.[3]
The filial societies were established at the Caucasus (1850), Irkutsk (1851), Vilnius (1867), Orenburg (1868), Kiev (1873), Omsk (1877), and other cities.
The Society organized and funded the expeditions ofRichard Maack,Pyotr Kropotkin, Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky,Nikolai Przhevalsky,Nikolai Miklukho-Maklai,Pyotr Kozlov,Vladimir Obruchev, andLev Berg. It helped set up the firstpolar stations inRussia and was one of the first to publish detailed studies of theRussian folklore and Ukrainian fairs.
The Society pioneered the systematic exploration of the NorthernUrals in 1847–1850, of the farthest reaches of theAmur River in 1854–1863, of the vast areas ofKashgaria,Dzungaria, andMongolia from the 1870s onward.
By 1917 the RGO was composed of eleven subdivisions and 1,000 members.
The founding members of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society included:[4]
The Society's official presidents wereGrand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia in 1845–1892 andGrand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia in 1892–1917, but it was actually run by the Vice-Presidents: Fyodor Litke (1845–1850, 1855–1857),CountMikhail Muravyov (1850–1857),Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky (1873–1914), andYuly Shokalsky (1914–1931).
The Constantine Medal was a gold medal worth 200 silver roubles and was the highest award of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. It was established and named after the Society’s first chairman, Great Duke Constantine and was awarded from 1849 to 1929 to explorers who had made a significant geographical discovery or to authors of outstanding publications in geography, ethnography or Russian statistics. From 1924 to 1929 the Medal was referred to as “The highest award of the Russian Geographical Society”.[5]
Recipients of the medal included:
The Society changed its name to the State Geographical Society in 1926 and to the Geographical Society of the USSR in 1938. After Shokalsky its presidents weregeneticistNikolai Vavilov (1931–1940),zoologistLev Berg (1940–1950),parasitologistEvgeny Pavlovsky (1952–1964),glaciologistStanislav Kalesnik (1964–1977), andpolar explorerAleksei Treshnikov (1977–1991). The Society has convened numerous congresses and has awarded four types of medals, the tri-annual Grand Gold Medal, three bi-annual medals named after Litke, Semyonov, and Przhevalsky,[7] and also the bi-annualSemen Dezhnev prize. By 1970, it had published more than 2,000 volumes of geographical literature, including the annualZapiski (since 1846) andIzvestiya (since 1865).
The society reverted to its original name upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The main offices of the Society are in St. Petersburg.
Since 2002 the society has sponsored an annual seasonal ice base in the Arctic,Camp Barneo.[8]
In 2009, theMinister of Defence of RussiaSergei Shoigu was elected the President of the Society. As of March 2022[update], he is still in office. In 2010, the Board of Trustees of the Society was established. Thepresident of RussiaVladimir Putin was appointed chairman of the Board.[9] Other board members included Russian oligarchs, politicians andAlbert II, Prince of Monaco. The appointments of Shoigu and Putin resulted in the Society getting more subsidies from the Russian state.[10]
The2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine led toBP CEOBernard Looney's resignation as a trustee of the Society,[11] and membership of Russia within theInternational Geographical Union (IGU) was suspended as of 7 March 2022, pending a formal decision on its membership at the next IGU General Assembly in July 2022.[12][needs update] Nevertheless, while suspending Russia’s formal membership, the IGU maintains an open door for continued engagement with colleagues in Russia.[12]
In October 2023, an investigation byCurrent Time TV revealed that two people purporting to be employees of the RGS tried to recruit a Norwegian citizen as a spy.[13]
The Imperial Society comprised four departments: Physical Geography, Mathematical Geography, Ethnography, and Statistics.
Nikolai Nadezhdin was involved in the foundation of the Ethnography department, when the RGO was originally set up. During the 1850s and 1860s theethnographic division gathered and published material such as works of folklore and thebyt or "way of life" which they regarded as reflecting the "essence" of the indigenous people of the Russian Empire. In 1909Dmitry Nikolayevich Anuchin,Vladimir Bogdanov andVsevolod Miller convened the ethnographic sub-section of theTwelfth Congress of Russian Natural Scientists and Physicians held in Moscow. Here they pushed for more professionalism to distinguish ethnographers from missionaries and amateurs. In 1917David Zolotarev andNikolai Mogilyansky of the RGO participated in theCommission for the Study of the Tribal Composition of the Population of the Borderlands of Russia.
