Leonid Portenko (1896–1972)—world-famous naturalist, participant of expeditions to the Arctic and Far East

Abstract

A native of Cherkasy Oblast from the family of a Ukrainian surveyor. A world-class naturalist from Ukraine (who is mentioned manipulatively only as a Soviet→Russian zoologist). He began his career in Kyiv in institutions established by the Ukrainian People’s Republic. In 1918, L. Portenko wrote his first articles in Ukrainian and acted as a secretary for several Ukrainian societies. L. Portenko was one of the founders of the Ukrainian Zoological Society and the Ukrainian Zoological Journal. He had participated in expeditions to the Black Sea coast, Carpathians, Siberia, Arctic, and Far East. He was a talented ornithologist, mammalogist, zoogeographer, systematist, expert in museology and conservation, and a self-taught photographer and animal-artist. L. Portenko wintered at Dezhnev Cape and Wrangel Island (Arctic). He considered Dr. P. Sushkin (Kharkiv-Leningrad) and Dr. M. Menzbir (Leningrad) as his teachers. L. Portenko had spent near two-thirds of his life in the former Russian SFSR, and worked manly in the Zoological Institute (Leningrad). He was a doctor and a professor and authored over 170 scientific works, including several monographs. His students were from Ukraine, Russia, and Bulgaria. Among them was the talented ornithologist of the North—Dr. O. Kyshchynsky, who was the son of a Ukrainian who died in the Gulag. This essay examines also the Stalinist repressions in around L. Portenko. The Chukchi’s shrew and the Wrangel’s lemming were named to honour the scientist. Near forty species and subspecies of birds were described and named by Portenko, including some to honour the memory of famous scientists (B. Stegman, M. Menzbir, R. Hecker, etc.), and Chukchi Tayan. He became a classic scientist during his life. Dr. Portenko made a significant contribution to the study of zoogeographical zonation of Podillia (Ukraine) and he proved the unity of vertebrate fauna of the Circumarctic tundra. He justified the need to allocate the Holarctic zoogeographical region. L. Portenko donated dozens of books to the scientific library of the Institute of Zoology (Kyiv). Academician I. Pidoplichko was named by him as a countryman. The memory of Dr. Portenko is honoured in many scientific publications in Ukraine and abroad.