INTRODUCTION 13 



Black, Baltic and Caspian Seas was begun, followed later by that for the coast- 

 line of the Pacific Ocean. 



In the time of Peter the Great Russian science was enriched by the first 

 data on the fauna of the seas which wash the shores of Russia. The eighteenth 

 and the first quarter of the nineteenth century was a real epoch of great expedi- 

 tions to explore the Russian seas. Eighteenth-century discoveries were con- 

 nected with V. Bering's expedition and with the Great Northern expedition. 

 Kruzenshtern and Lisyansky (1803-05), Kozebou (1816-17), Bellingshausen 

 and Lazarev (1819-21) and Litke (1826-29) sailed round the world in the 

 first quarter of the nineteenth century, bringing back from their voyages, for 

 Russian and world science, the first geographical data on Russian seas and 

 the first information on their populations. 



Basic data on the Russian flora and fauna were gathered mostly during the 

 second half of the last century. Marine expeditions left for every corner of 

 Russia, laboratories and museums were enriched with collections of different 

 groups of marine fauna, marine stations were opened, scientific conferences 

 were organized, remarkable embryological investigations of marine fauna 

 were carried out by E. Metchnikov and A. Kovalevksy. The first scientific and 

 commercial expedition comprehensive both in the tasks it undertook and in 

 the results obtained was that of Baer to the Caspian Sea, which lasted from 

 1853 to 1856. 



Sevastopol Biological Station started its work in 1871-72, the Murman 

 Biological Station in 1881, and the Scientific Fishery Station at Astrakhan on 

 the Caspian Sea was opened in 1897. All these played an important role in the 

 development of marine biological research in Russia. 



In relation to the beginning of the present century the following should be 

 noted: ten-year (1898-1910) research work done by the 'Expedition for 

 Scientific-Industrial Research off the Murman Coast' on the ship Andrei 

 Pervozvanniy, organized by the eminent Russian oceanographer N. M. Knipo- 

 vitch, which discovered huge accumulations of commercial fish in the Barents 

 Sea ; Toll's expedition on the Zarya along the northern shores of Asia in 1900- 

 1901, and P. Schmidt's (1900-01) expedition to Korea and Sakhalin. 



Nordenskjold's remarkable Swedish expedition on the Vega, the first to sail 

 through the northeastern passage, in 1878-79, played a very important part in 

 the study of the fauna of the northern seas of Russia. 



N. Andrussov's and A. Lebedintzev's well-known expedition, which dis- 

 covered the contamination of the deep waters of the Black Sea with hydrogen 

 sulphide, worked in the early eighteen-nineties. 



The excellent work of K. Derjugin in the Kola Guba, on the Murman 

 Peninsula, and that of S. Zernov in the Black Sea, in the Sevastopol area, car- 

 ried out in the first decade of the present century, should also be noted. 



Biological research of the seas which wash the shores of the u.s.s.r. has 

 progressed greatly during the last 35 years or so, owing to the organization of 

 a large number of permanent marine institutions, carrying out a comprehensive 

 survey throughout the seas of the u.s.s.r. {Table 2). These numerous institu- 

 tions were under the authority of the Academies of Sciences of the u.s.s.r. and 

 Ukrainian s.s.r., of the Fishery Administration, of the Chief Administration 



