En
Ru
Birthday anniversary of Nikolai Skalozubov, the first agronomist of Tobolsk Province, public figure and statesman
Nikolai Lukich Skalozubov, the first agronomist of Tobolsk Province, a public figure and statesman was born on October 29 (November 10), 1861. He was born in Kostroma, in a family of a poor clerk of an agricultural administration. He received his primary education at the parish school, then at the district school and graduated from the Kostroma real school. In 1881 he entered the Agronomic Faculty of the Petrovsko-Razumovsky Agricultural Academy in Moscow. In 1885 Skalozubov graduated from the Academy as an agronomist. From 1885 he served in Perm Province. From 1885 to 1892, he worked as a Head of the Statistical Department of the Krasnoufimsk District Zemstvo; from 1892 to 1894, he used to be a Head of the Statistical Bureau of the Provincial Zemstvo. Working in Perm, Nikolai Skalozubov became a prominent agronomist and economist, who knew territories east of the Ural Mountains. He wrote several works on the trades and crafts of Krasnoufimsk District and numerous statistical books.
In May 1894, Governor N. M. Bogdanovich invited Nikolai Skalozubov to become a state agronomist in Tobolsk. From the first day in the city, he became the most popular figure in the local society. Skalozubov did a lot for a comprehensive study of the province, its economic and cultural development. From 1894 to 1906, Nikolai Skalozubov used to be a Provincial Agronomist. He began his duties by studying the region. During the first year, he travelled all over the province, collecting agricultural statistics. In 1895 Nikolai Skalozubov arranged an agricultural exhibition in Kurgan, which presented the regional production forces. Besides agriculture, the exposition spotlighted other industries: various handicrafts, nature, culture, and everyday life of local people. The Minister of Agriculture and State Property A. S. Yermolov attended the exhibition. The success was so great that some of the exhibits were sent to Moscow for the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition in 1896, where Tobolsk Province represented the whole of Siberia. Nikolai Skalozubov fostered the creation of peasants' butter-making cooperatives in Kurgan, Yalutorovsk, Ishim and Tyumen districts.
Nikolai Skalozubov successfully cooperated with the provincial museum. He made donations to its expositions, provided part of the exhibits of the Kurgan exhibition, actively participated in the publication of the museum's Yearbook, and had been one of its editors within 11 years. Nikolai Skalozubov initiated a special supplement to the Tobolskie Gubernskie Vedomosti (Tobolsk Provincial News) newspaper - Department of Agriculture and Handicraft Industry. There he published reviews and articles on various agricultural issues, which contributed to their development. His extraordinary personality successfully combined a scientist-theorist and a specialist-practitioner. Nikolai Skalozubov was fond of many scientific topics. He paid much attention to butter-making, peasants' crafts, soils, forests, fishing in Tobolsk Province, botanical, entomological, ethnographic and meteorological research. Nikolai Skalozubov understood the need for agricultural specialists for the development of the province. Thus, in 1900, thanks to his efforts, Tobolsk authorities opened the agricultural school.
Nikolai Skalozubov was engaged in the introduction of grass cultivation (clover, alfalfa, rump, etc.) on peasants' fields, organic and mineral fertilizers and crop rotations. He started to fight against agricultural pests by chemical and biological methods. He tried to reduce the spread of Gomphocerus sibiricus, one of the species of insect belonging to the family Acrididae. Nikolai Skalozubov paid great attention to the development of various branches of animal husbandry in the province. He helped agricultural cartels to purchase dairy cows from Yaroslavl and Vologda, drew attention to keeping new breeds of pigs and horses and wrote popular brochures on these issues. In December 1905, during the First Russian Revolution, Nikolai Skalozubov was one of the organizers of the Peasant Congress in Tobolsk. In January 1906, he was arrested and banished to Beryozovo.
After returning from exile, in 1907-1911, Nikolai Skalozubov was elected a Deputy in the Second, and then in the Third State Duma from Tobolsk Province. In the Duma, Nikolai Skalozubov was the Secretary of the Agricultural and a member of the Budget Commissions. He promoted the launch of the first experimental fields in Russia, including Siberian fields in Shadrinsk, Kurgan, Makushinsk, Yalutorovsk in Tobolsk Province, etc.
In 1912, Nikolai Skalozubov organized the first plant breeding station in Siberia in Petrovskoe village, Kurgan District. Here he was engaged in the selection of wheat and other crops. February 19 (March 4) 1915, Nikolai Skalozubov died of typhus and was buried in Kurgan. By his will, all breeding materials were sent to the Omsk Agricultural School for further work.
Then, Omsk opened a selection station named after Nikolai Skalozubov, which became the base for the modern Siberian Research Agricultural Institute. Spring wheat varieties Milturum-321 and Cesium-111 were bred in 1939 from Nikolai Skalozubov's breeding line. They became one of the most widespread in Siberia and northern Kazakhstan. Nikolai Skalozubov's breeding achievements found their successful continuation in Siberia.
Nikolai Skalozubov's descendants inherited his love for the profession. Four of his six children became agronomists. One of his daughters, Ariadna, became a breeder and with other scientists created a famous wheat variety Skala, named after her father.
In 1916, the 27th edition of the Yearbook of the Tobolsk Provincial Museum was devoted to the memory of this outstanding figure. The Yearbook published a list of 257 literary works by Nikolai Skalozubov, published from 1890 to 1916 and also a list of 30 periodicals with the scientist's publications.
Lit: Бабенко М. С. Н. Л. Скалозубов в Западной Сибири // Мира не узнаешь, не зная края своего: материалы 6-х краеведческих чтений. Нижневартовск, 2002. С. 17–21; Белобородов В. Рядовой человек с более или менее развитой совестью // Югра. 2007. № 6. С. 58–61; Иваненко А. С., Иваненко В. Е. Семья Скалозубовых и Сибирь // Сибирский исторический журнал. 2002. № 1. С. 72–82; Исламова Д. «Любить Отечество велит природа, Бог…» // Тюменская правда. 2011. 11 ноября. С. 3–4; Пахомчик С. А. Первый правительственный агроном Тобольской губернии — Николай Лукич Скалозубов и его влияние на развитие сельского хозяйства и кооперации края. Тюмень, 2011; Прибыльский Ю. П. Скалозубов Николай Лукич // Большая Тюменская энциклопедия. Тюмень, 2004. Т. 3: Р–Я. С. 115; Тобольский биографический словарь / авт.-сост.: В. Ю. Софронов, Ю. П. Прибыльский. Екатеринбург, 2004. С. 440–441.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Ежегодник Тобольского губернского музея. Вып. 27. Тобольск, 1916
Скалозубов Н. Л. О свиноводстве в Тобольской губернии. Тобольск, 1906
Скалозубов Н. Л. Опыт естественно-исторического описания Тобольской губернии. Тобольск, 1899
Френкель З. Николай Лукич Скалозубов // Земское дело. 1915. № 5. С. 313–323
The article is prepared by the Tyumen Branch of the Presidential Library