SOTCHAVA 368 



and others . Theoretical Astrophysics (A. A. Ambartsumian, 

 ed.) Moscow -Leningrad: 1952. (Pergamon Press, 1958) 

 Transfer of Radiant Energy in the Atmospheres of Stars and 

 Planets. Moscow: 1956. 

 Office: Leningrad University 



Leningrad, USSR 



SOTCHAVA, VIKTOR BQRISQVICH (Geobotanist and 

 Geographer) 



V. B. Sotchava was born June 20, 1905. In 1924, he graduat- 

 ed from the Leningrad Agricultural Institute where he worked 

 until 1926. From 1926 to 1936, and since 1943, he has been 

 working at the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences Botanical Insti- 

 tute. He worked, in 1931-1935, at the Institute of Reindeer 

 Breeding at the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sci- 

 ences. From 1935 to 1938, he was Chairman of the Department 

 of Reindeer Breeding of the Arctic Institute. He taught at the 

 A. I. Gertsen Pedagogical Institute in Leningrad from 1939 to 

 1950. Since 1938, he has been teaching at Leningrad University 

 where he became a professor in 1944. He has been the recipi- 

 ent of several medals and the Order of Lenin. In 1958, he was 

 elected to the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences as a Corresponding 

 Member. 



Sotchava has studied vegetation, landscapes of various zones 

 of the U.S.S.R. Beginning in 1926, he took part in expeditions 

 to the Far North, the Far East, Siberia, Urals, Caucasus, 

 Carpathians, Moldavia and China, Rumania and Czechoslovakia. 

 In a series of botanical-geographical outlines, he presented data 

 on the vegetation of previously unexplored territories such as 

 basins of the Anadyr, the Penzhin, and North Sikhote-Alin. He 

 studied pastures of the Tundra zone, proposed some measures 

 for organizing a food base for Soviet reindeer breeding. He 

 studied the relationship between the forest and Tundra vege- 

 tation. He proposed a scheme of classifying vegetation based 

 on ecologo -geographical and genetic factors and developed 

 principles of classification of geobotanical and landscape sec- 

 tions. He published a summary work on the forest vegetation 

 of the U.S.S.R. A series of his works deal with questions of 

 paleography and the history of contemporary vegetation of the 

 Far East, of polar countries, the Caucasus, of North and 

 Central Siberia. He directed the compilation of a series of 

 maps, the main among which is the "Geobotanical Map of the 

 U.S.S.R." (scale 1/4,000,000) and the explanatory text to it. 



