Georgi Petrovich Dementiev, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetGeorgi Petrovich Dementiev
Russian ornithologist
Date of Birth: 23-Jun-1898
Place of Birth: Petergof, Russia
Date of Death: 14-Apr-1969
Profession: biologist, ornithologist
Zodiac Sign: Cancer 
About Georgi Petrovich Dementiev
- Georgi Petrovich Dementiev (23 June (baptized 5 July) 1898 - 14 April 1969) was a Russian ornithologist and professor at the University of Moscow.
- His studies based on museum collections and collaboration with others, notably, N.A.Gladkov, resulted in a major six-volume work on the birds of the Soviet Union which was published between 1951 and 1954.
- Dementiev was born in Peterhof, where his father was a physician.
- He studied at the local gymnasium and joined the University of St Petersburg.
- Although interested in birds from a young age, his parents wished that he studied law.
- In 1920 he moved to Moscow to work as a lawyer.
- Although he had no formal qualifications in biology, he was well read and was fluent in French, German, Polish, Italian and Swedish.
- He began his research under M.
- A.
- Menzbier and joined the museum at Moscow in 1927 to join S.A.
- Buturlin to work on a guide to the birds of the USSR which was published in 1934-40.
- He became a curator in 1932 and stayed in the position until 1947 when he joined the biology department.
- He was mostly into museum ornithology and was an expert on identification and taxonomy taking a special interest in the birds of prey, especially the falcons.
- During the invasion by the Germany, the Moscow University collections were moved to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
- Dementiev and other studied the region while posted there and it became one of the best studied parts of the erstwhile Soviet Union.
- Two of his fellow ornithologist, W.M.
- Modestov and J.M.
- Kaftanowski however were drafted into the army and died at the front.
- Dementiev's manuscript on the Gyrfalcons and falconry with colour plates by Vasily Vatagin were lost and Dementiev rewrote it and published it in 1951.
- The six volume Birds of the Soviet Union published with N.A.
- Gladkov between 1951 and 1954 is still a major reference.In 1952 he was appointed by the Soviet Academy of Sciences as Vice Chairman of the Commission on Nature Reserves which later became the Commission on Nature Conservation.
- He was elected Honorary Vice-president at the Fifth IUCN Assembly at Edinburgh in 1956.
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