Aleksandr Lavrent'yevich Chekanovskiy, Pioneer Geologist and Explorer of North Central Siberia, 1873-76

Aleksandr Lavrent'yevich Chekanovskiy, a Pole by nationality, who had studied geology at the universities of Kiev and Derpt (Tartu), was exiled to Siberia for his participation in the uprisings in Kiev in 1863. Through the intercession of his colleague Friedrich Schmidt, his sentence to hard labour at Padun was repealed in 1868 and he was allowed to move to Irkutsk where he was employed by the Siberian Branch of the Russian Imperial Geographical Society. Over the next few years he carried out extremely valuable geological surveys in the areas around Irkutsk and Ozero Baykal. Probably his major contribution during this phase of his career in terms of paleobotany was the discovery of a new genus of gingkos, namely Czekanowskia Heer.

With the support of the Geographical Society Chekanovskiy next mounted two very important exploring expeditions which focussed on the enormous and largely unknown area of north East Siberia lying between the Yenisey and Lena Rivers. Apart from geographical exploration he and his colleagues also made extensive studies and assembled impressive geological, botanical, and entomological collections. On the first expedition, in the spring and summer of 1873, Chekanovskiy travelled the full length of the Nizhnaya Tunguska River by boat. On the second expedition, which lasted throughout the whole of 1874, he travelled down the Olenek by raft, then explored the lower reaches of the river valley by reindeer sledge. He returned to Irkutsk by sledge in winter. Immediately thereafter, in the spring of 1875, he mounted a private expedition, travelling the full length of the Lena by boat and returning to the mouth of the Olenek to complete his geological and botanical work in that area; he then again returned to Irkutsk in winter.

Shortly thereafter, in March 1876, Chekanovskiy's sentence of exile was repealed and he moved west to St. Petersburg. Apparently depressed by opposition to his plans for yet another northern expedition, to the basins of the Anabar and Khatanga, he committed suicide in October 1876. His vast contribution to the knowledge of the geography, geology, botany, entomology, and ethnography of this vast area of northern Siberia, assembled during a remarkably intensive series of expeditions, has been recognized, if only to a minor degree, by the commemoration of his name in that of the Kryazh Chekanovskogo, the range of hills west of the mouth of the Lena, which he explored.