August, '21] OBITUARY 377 



MR. N. V. KURDIUMOFF, RUSSIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 

 DIED 1917. 

 By Dr. D. Borodin 



In Memoriam 



From correspondence which I have had with American entomologists 

 since I arrived in this coimtry, I see that the name of N. V. Kurditrmoff 

 is well knowTi here, but that many do not know about his tragic death. 

 I therefore take the liberty, as one who knew him well and who had been 

 working in the same city with him, to make a brief statement of his life 

 and work. 



N. V. Kurdiumoff was born in 1882 in the Kursk district. After 

 graduating from the High School there, he entered the Polytechnical 

 Institute of Kief, studying in the College of Agriculture, and receiving 

 his degree. 



The liberal political m.ovem.ent which at that time absorbed the best 

 ranks of the Russian students captivated him., and he was often heard as a 

 brilliant speaker and a determ.ined enemy of the old regime. 



His yearning for knowledge and desire for improvement impelled him 

 to leave Russia in 1911, when he came to America and worked under the 

 guidance of Doctor Howard in the Bureau of Entomology, visiting also a 

 number of field stations, notably the one under the direction of Dr. W. D. 

 Hunter in Texas. He returned to Russia, filled with the aspiration 

 to apply all the knowledge acquired in the United States imder the 

 guidance of his teacher, Doctor Howard, who is famous throughout the 

 whole world. 



After his return to Russia, he orgarized a Department of Entomology 

 on the plan of similar institutions ir the United States, selecting as his 

 station the oldest Russian Agricultural Experiment Station at Poltava, 

 fam.ous for the early research work of Metchnikoff. He founded a 

 great library, in which were collected the principal entom.ological works 

 of America and Europe. 



He worked indefatigably and did not lose contact with the United 

 States. He studied the 1 ife histories of several new and ver\' little-known 

 injurious insects, and jjublished a num.ber of works which have become 

 standards of Russian investigations, applying at the same time the 

 methods invented by the bright American school to the Russian terri- 

 tory'. 



