Biography

Russian botanist Sergei Korshinsky held a brief but significant tenure as director of the Botanical Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg (later the Komarov Botanical Institute). In his botanical research he was known for theoretical papers on the geography and systematics of the Russian flora and for his floristic studies of the Russian Steppe. He also published on the origin of species. He collected plants in many countries, but concentrated his explorations on Siberia and Turkestan.

Korshinksy gained his doctoral degree at the University of Kazan in 1888, after which he served as Professor at Tomsk University. He remained at Tomsk until 1891, when he was called to fill the role of chief botanist at the Imperial Academy of Sciences Botanical Museum following the death of Carl Maximovicz. In addition, the next year he was appointed director of the museum and occupied both roles until 1897, after which he was solely museum director. Korshinsky had little time left to enjoy this position, though, for he died at the early age of 39 three years later. He nevertheless began several important projects at the museum and expanded the staff, recruiting two new curators (D.I. Litvinow and V.G. Tranzschel). Among the projects he initiated was the compiling of a new flora of Imperial Russia, though the work remained unrealised. He also founded the museum journal, Travaux de Musée Botanique de l'Academie des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, first published two years after his death.

The documentation of the exsiccatae distribution of Russian plants begun in 1898 (under the Latin title Schedae ad Herbarium Florae Rossicae) was one of Korshinsky's most valuable publishing efforts. Each fascicle of exsiccatae consisted of 50 species, and sets of 2,500 specimens were distributed to leading herbaria within and beyond Russia. Korshinsky's paper on the origin of species, "Heterogenesis and Evolution" (1899), and his work Tentamen florae Rossiae orientalis (1898) also appeared during his time in St. Petersburg.

Sources:
S.G. Shetler, 1967, "The Komarov Botanical Institute: 250 years of Russian research": 48-49, 58-59
G.I. Tanfiljew, 1902, Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft, 19: (40)-(47).