Nikolai Schipczinsky
Russian and Soviet botanist and taxonomist (1886-1955)
Nikolai Valerianovich Schipczinsky (Russian: Никола́й Валериа́нович Шипчи́нский; 1886 – 1955) was a Russian and Soviet botanist and taxonomist, who was director of the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden in 1934-1938 and 1942-1948 respectively.
Biography
Schipczinsky was born in 1886 in Helsinki, Finland, the son of an accountant quartermaster and a housewife.
In 1909 he graduated from the Russian school in Helsinki, and started studying biology at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the Saint Petersburg State University. As of 1910, he studied the flora of the Far East in the Herbarium of the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden under Vladimir Leontyevich Komarov.
He participated in field expeditions to the Trans-Baikal Barguzin district (1912), the South-Ussuri region in the Primorskaya Oblast (1913), the Semipalatinsk Oblast (1914), and Iran (1916). In 1915, he joined the staff of the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden, where he continued to work until his death at first as lecturer (1915), then conservator in the Herbarium (1915-1931), senior botanist for living plants (1931-1933) and director of the Museum (1933-1934). From 1934 on, he was director of the Botanical Garden. In 1939-1941 he was sent to assist in the construction of Balkhash town, where he led the landscaping around the Balkhashtsvetmet copper plant and the city of Balkhash. During World War II, Schipczinsky assisted in the defense of Saint Petersburg by designing a camouflage landscape for the city.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Nikolai Schipczinsky” as russian and Soviet botanist and taxonomist (1886-1955). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as russian and Soviet botanist and taxonomist (1886-1955). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16720325. The first chronological checks are 1886, 1955, 1934 and 1938.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Nikolai Schipczinsky”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Nikolai Schipczinsky primary sources, Nikolai Schipczinsky archive and Nikolai research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Nikolai Schipczinsky”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Nikolai Schipczinsky” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.