Main Botanical Garden named after. N.V.

The Botanical Garden is a forested area in the north-east of Moscow, a favorite place for pensioners, rollerbladers and cyclists. As a rule, residents of nearby areas - Northern Administrative District and North-East Administrative District - come here for a walk. But there is something to see here, and the place is worth coming here especially from other parts of the capital.

The botanical garden was founded in 1945 on the site of preserved natural forests, such as the Ostankino and Leonovsky forests. If you believe official sources, then Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (remember the palace in Kolomenskoye?), the father of Peter I, hunted here.

If you are not a biologist-botanist and can barely distinguish a birch from an aspen, then at first glance the Botanical Garden will seem to you like an ordinary forest park, of which there are quite a few in Moscow. True, the area of ​​the park is comparable to Sokolniki Square, but here the forest is wilder and denser, and there are fewer asphalt paths.

The first feeling from the Botanical Garden is that no one planted anything here on purpose, but everything grew on its own, everything is so natural and organic. Only after spending some time here do you begin to understand that the naturalness of the park is actually thought out to the smallest detail and is the result of the painstaking work of caring hands. And most importantly, it’s simply beautiful and quiet here, this becomes especially relevant when you get tired of the noise and dust of the city. The only thing that reminds you of where you are is the point.

You will have to fork out a little for the silence and beauty - entrance to the park is paid, although only from April 29 to mid-October. In April and October you can enter the garden for free. Although according to official information it is closed for planting work, I personally was there in April, and there were many visitors. But in winter the garden is definitely not open, and this is a little upsetting, because you could make great snowmen there or go skiing or sledding with your children.

Ticket price to visit the Botanical Garden – 50 rubles. for pedestrians and 100 for cyclists, the cost of tickets for schoolchildren and students is 30 rubles, no fee is charged for pensioners. The story with cyclists and rollerbladers is not clear. The official website of the Botanical Garden states that rollerblading and bicycles are prohibited in the park. At the same time, they are allowed in, and they even set a special price for the entrance ticket.

If you don't like to wander aimlessly looking at unfamiliar tree species, you can book an excursion. To do this, you need to gather a group of like-minded people and come to an agreement with the administration. The cost of the excursion, depending on the direction, is from 100 to 200 rubles. per person, for foreigners – 250 rubles.

Conventionally, the garden can be divided into several zones according to regions, which represent the flora of the Caucasus, Central Asia, Far East, Siberia. The park also includes a rose garden. Last summer it was rebuilt and remodeled, so I never got a chance to admire the roses.

The park has a greenhouse, a glass building the height of a ten-story building. Inside it, through the glass, you can see huge palm trees and some beautiful tropical flowers of bright colors. But, as far as I know, you can only get inside with a guided tour; entry is closed to individual visitors, so you just have to be content with spying from the street.

A very popular place in the park - Japanese garden. Entrance here is paid, 100-150 rubles. At the very beginning of May you can see cherry blossoms here. Flowering lasts only two to three days, and on these days there is usually a stir in the Japanese Garden - many professional photographers and just amateurs. In general, photographers have taken a liking to the Japanese Garden. Most likely, this is why the administration has raised prices for professional photography so much. So be careful, if employees see you, for example, with a tripod, they may ask you to pay. In general, everything here is quite strict - you can’t sit on the lawns, nor on the rocks.

There are several ponds in the park. Swimming and fishing are prohibited here - you can only admire the water. One of the reservoirs is located near the main entrance opposite the Laboratory building, the other is on the border with the territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Center. There are also several other small streams and ponds.

The main paths of the park are paved, there are also many dirt paths, which, by the way, are much less crowded, so if you want to find a secluded corner for a romantic date, turn onto the path. There are signs at every intersection in the park, so only someone suffering from topographical cretinism can get lost here.

There are always a lot of people on the main paths of the park. If the weather is good, then this happens not only on weekends, but also on weekdays. Therefore, the benches along them are almost always occupied. Many, contrary to the instructions of the Rules, are located directly on the lawns - I have never seen anyone being kicked out. In general, the people here are mostly intelligent, everything is very clean and tidy, there is almost no garbage.

In the Botanical Garden, for the first time in my life, I saw how snowdrops grow, maybe you will discover something new and unusual here.

How to get there from the metro:

Main Botanical Garden them. N.V. Tsitsina is located a 5-minute walk from Vladykino metro station. You can also get here from the VDNH metro station by buses 24, 85, 803 and trolleybuses 9, 36.73. You can also get to the Botanical Garden from the metro station of the same name, but this is not very convenient - you have to travel a bit far. In general, there are several entrances to the park: at the Vladykino metro station, on the side of Botanicheskaya Street, on the side behind the Space pavilion, and there is also an entrance from Komarova Street. The park is large, so there are many entrances (see map below).

Recognized as one of the largest gardens in Europe, the Main Botanical Garden. N.V. Tsitsina Russian Academy Sciences is an institution of the Federal Agency scientific organizations Russia.

The decision to create it was made in 1945, immediately after Russia’s victory in the Great Patriotic War. The garden was planned as a symbol of Russia's victory and the reign of peace on its territory. The garden was named after Academician Tsitsin in 1991, for his services in the field of genetics, botany and selection. Nikolai Vasilyevich himself was twice awarded the Order of Hero of Labor. The academician led the garden for 35 years, from the very day of its foundation.

Modern garden funds include about 18 thousand different varieties of plants from all over the world. The garden occupies an area of ​​almost 332 hectares and is a national treasure of Russia. Employees and scientific staff of the garden conduct research papers on the study and conservation of rare plant varieties. In addition, the Main Botanical Garden is also known for its educational activities: lectures and conferences dedicated to the wealth of natural world Russia.

The garden is also known for its achievements in the field of plant growing and landscape architecture. On its territory, the basics of creating botanical gardens, as well as the secrets of hybridization and propagation of rare species, are being actively studied. Scientific personnel are actively developing theories for creating completely new plant species and saving endangered ones.

Throughout the year, Exhibitions of tropical and subtropical plants are open to the public in the Stock Greenhouse of the Main Botanical Garden.

Operating mode:

The greenhouses are open every day except Monday:

• from February 15 to March 15 from 11:00 to 18:00;
• from March 16 to September 31 from 11:00 to 19:00;
• from October 1 to October 31 from 10:00 to 18:00;
• from November 1 to February 14 from 10:00 to 17:00.

Ticket prices:

• full ticket - 250 rubles;
• ticket for students - 200 rubles;
• ticket for schoolchildren, pensioners, labor and war veterans - 150 rubles.

Stock greenhouse of the Main Botanical Garden named after N.V. Tsitsin RAS(“Moscow Tropics”) is a unique “museum” of living tropical and subtropical plants, where you can see and get acquainted with trees, herbs and shrubs from different continents.

The greenhouse exists as a scientific and educational center, on the basis of which work is carried out to study and preserve the biological diversity of tropical and subtropical plants. Its collections include several thousand species, including rare and endangered ones, obtained from botanical gardens in post-war Germany and as a result of exchange with other botanical gardens different countries, as well as those collected by employees of the Botanical Garden on expeditions. Despite such a long and dry name and serious tasks, in reality the Stock Greenhouse looks warm and homely - like a large indoor garden, and anyone can visit it.

It’s especially nice to come here in winter: regardless of the weather outside, the greenhouse always maintains a high temperature, and it will be a great find for those who yearn for summer on gloomy winter days!

Exposition

The greenhouse complex of the Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences includes two buildings: the Old Stock Greenhouse and the New Stock Greenhouse, however, only one of them is accessible to the public - the Old one, which has been operating since 1954.

The space inside the greenhouse is divided into several exhibition sections, built according to a geographical principle. Each of them maintains its own temperature regime and humidity level throughout the year, as close as possible to the natural living conditions of plants.

. Tropics of the Old and New Worlds: you can see here different kinds ficus and palm trees, huge bananas, cocoa trees, papaya and even a real baobab.

. Dry subtropics represented by Mediterranean plants, South Africa, Madagascar, Australia, North and South America. In this department you can see various types of succulents, xerophytes and cacti, aloe, acacia and eucalyptus trees, as well as a collection of azaleas and conifers.

. Humid subtropics divided into 3 separate exhibition sections. The first includes plants of the Canary Islands, South Africa, Japan, continental East Asia and South America: laurels, heathers and dracaenas, cypress and feijoa are available for inspection. The second showcases plants from Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, and the third contains a large collection of rhododendron and camellia varieties.

The branches do not just show plants to visitors, they exist as a semblance of full-fledged ecosystems characteristic of the stated region. Between them there are concrete or crushed stone paths, which you can walk along when visiting on your own or on a guided tour, and in some places there are even cozy benches under the branches of exotic trees.

The main part of the exhibition is permanent, but there are also temporary exhibits that change places depending on the season or are brought to visitors during the flowering period. In addition, during mass flowering of plants a certain type in the greenhouse they can arrange an exhibition of them: for example, blooming orchids, which annually attract a large number of visitors.

It is worth noting that the exhibition is replete with information signs with general information about the flora of the tropical and subtropical regions represented; however, the plants are mostly not labeled, so it is better to visit it with a guided tour.

History of the Stock Greenhouse

The Old Stock Greenhouse was opened in 1954.

According to a widespread legend, which has no documentary evidence, but seems quite reliable, the first collection of the greenhouse was based on the botanical collection of Hermann Goering, a prominent statesman and military figure of the Third Reich. Goering went down in history as the Chairman of the Reichstag and the Reich Minister of Aviation of Germany, but his biography also included other positions, including the Imperial Forester of Germany. Being a great lover of nature, Goering collected an extensive collection of orchids and other plants, which after the end of the Great Patriotic War taken to the Soviet Union.

The collection subsequently expanded through exchanges with other botanical gardens around the world, as well as through expeditions to tropical and subtropical regions.

Gradually, the collections became cramped in the old building, and in 1992, construction began on the New Stock Greenhouse, much larger and more technologically advanced than the previous one. However, for various reasons, construction was soon frozen and resumed only in 2002. The building was completed in 2016, however, it was never opened to the public; It is unknown when the new greenhouse will become available to citizens.

Opening hours and visiting procedures

The exposition of tropical and subtropical plants in the Old Stock Greenhouse is open all year round. You can visit it individually or with a guided tour.

On weekends, visitors are offered free sightseeing tours without prior registration (subject to purchasing a ticket to the greenhouse). It is also possible to order thematic excursions: “Plants in myths and legends”, “Ferns and gymnosperms”, “The very best: tall, ancient, long-lived”, “Useful tropical and subtropical plants: food, technical, medicinal, phytoncidal and ornamental” and others.

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A country Russia Date of foundation April 14, 1945 Metro Vladykino
VDNH Square 361 hectares - total
52 hectares - park area
150.4 hectares - exposition
52 hectares - area of ​​protected oak forest hectares Main Botanical Garden named after N.V. Tsitsin RAS on Wikimedia Commons

Scheme of the Main Botanical Garden
A - main entrance
B - entrance from the Ostankino Hotel
C - entrance from the street. Komarova
D - entrance from the station. metro station "Vladykino"

1 - arboretum
2 - reserved oak grove
3 - rose garden
4 - shady garden
5 - garden of coastal plants
6 - garden of continuous flowering
7 - exposition of plants of natural flora
8 - Japanese garden
9 - exposition of cultivated plants
10 - areas of natural forest
11 - laboratory building
12 - stock greenhouse
13 - new greenhouse

Main Botanical Garden named after N.V. Tsitsin RAS (Moscow)- the largest botanical garden in Europe, has the richest collections of plants representing a diverse vegetable world almost all continents and climatic zones of the globe. Founded on April 14, 1945 by Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin. Living collections include 8,220 species and 8,110 plant forms and varieties—a total of 16,330 taxa. Based on the collections using modern techniques of landscape architecture, botanical expositions of plants have been created: the natural flora of Russia, the former USSR, an arboretum, an exposition of tropical and subtropical plants, floral, ornamental and cultivated plants.

Story

The date of foundation of the Main Botanical Garden is considered to be April 14, 1945. It is located on the site of unique forest natural areas of Moscow. Thanks to scientific activity Garden workers preserved fragments of the Erdenevskaya grove as part of the Ostankino oak grove and the Leonovsky forest. These territories are first mentioned in the chronicles of 1584. They belonged to the princes of Cherkasy. In the hunting grounds where Alexey Mikhailovich (father of Peter I) loved to hunt. Then these lands came into the possession of the Sheremetevs, who received the “village of Ostashkovo” with the estate as the dowry of Varvara Cherkasskaya, who married Pyotr Borisovich Sheremetev. Count Nikolai Sheremetev, owner of Ostankino, turned the part of the grove closest to the estate into an English park. For this purpose, an English gardener was hired, who sought to achieve the natural character of the landscape. On the territory of the park, 5 artificial ponds were dug, which were fed with water from the Kamenka River, one of the tributaries of the Yauza. The main tree species in the park were oak, linden and maple. And among the shrubs, hazel, honeysuckle and viburnum predominated.

Long before the official founding date, there was a program for the creation of a Botanical Garden. This is evidenced by the preliminary designs of 1940 and 1945, developed by the architect I.M. Petrov. This program existed within the framework of the general Urban Development Plan for Moscow. According to the first project of 1940, the northern border of the garden was supposed to run along Okruzhnaya railway, and from the south - along modern Academician Korolev Street. At the same time capturing the territory of the entire Marfinsky complex in the west. And in the east extending to Mira Avenue. According to the 1945 project, the garden was limited by Botanical Street on the west, and on the east by Agricultural Street. At the same time, the northern and southern borders remained unchanged.

By decisions of the Moscow City Council and resolutions of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in the period from 1945 to 1969, the Main Botanical Garden was transferred to the lands on which the main landscape and botanical exhibitions are currently located. In 1998, 331.49 hectares were transferred to the garden for indefinite use.

Structure

In total, the Main Botanical Garden has 13 scientific departments and laboratories, one branch, and one group.

Structural scientific divisions

Main Botanical Garden named after. N.V. Tsitsin RAS in 2011

• flora department
• dendrology department
• department of tropical and subtropical plants
• decorative plants department
• department of cultivated plants
• plant protection department with quarantine service
• remote hybridization department
• laboratory herbarium
• laboratory of plant physiology and biochemistry
• laboratory of plant physiology and immunity
• laboratory of landscape architecture
• laboratory of plant biotechnology
• department for implementation of scientific and technical developments
• Cheboksary branch (Cheboksary Botanical Garden)

Non-structural scientific departments

Group of Chemosystematics and Evolutionary Biochemistry of Plants

In addition, the Garden has scientific-technical, scientific-auxiliary and production structural divisions

Collection funds

Expositions of plants of natural flora

Six botanical and geographical exhibitions were created on an area of ​​30 hectares: “ European part Russia", "Caucasus", "Central Asia", "Siberia", " Far East" and "Useful plants of natural flora."

Stock greenhouse

The stock greenhouse of the GBS RAS traditionally acts as a donor of plants for collections of tropical plants of other botanical gardens in Russia and the former countries Soviet Union. The basis for this collection was obtained in 1947 from the Sanssouci greenhouse (Potsdam, Germany). The collection of representatives of the Orchidaceae family consisted of 107 hybrids Paphiopedilum, 120 hybrids Cattleya and 140 species of orchids of other genera, 91 of which have survived in the collection to this day. During recent years the collection has undergone significant changes and has been expanded and supplemented. Currently, the collection includes 1120 species, subspecies and forms of orchids from 222 genera, as well as 300 hybrids.

At this plant site, owned by the Academy of Sciences, dogs feel like masters: the park is endless and practically homeless. A group of two dozen dogs are fed by pensioners walking here. The animals sleep under collection plants and (...) make sure that people do not walk on the lawns: turning off the asphalt path onto the grass, visitors risk hearing the menacing grumbling of “volunteer conservationists”

Notes

Literature

• Main Botanical Garden named after. N. V. Tsitsina - museum of living nature / A. S. Demidov, Z. E. Kuzmin, V. G. Shatko. Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the study and protection of cultural and natural heritage. - M.: GEOS, 2007. - 64 p. - (Natural and cultural heritage of Moscow).

Links

It was a bright head in which ideas blossomed one after another. This was a man who strived with every fiber of his soul to create something new and promote botanical and breeding science. Like many prominent scientists, he had oddities that, as they say, were more suitable for an uneducated peasant than for an academician with an all-Union name (they claimed that he “removed damage” from a village healer or scientific conferences called for following the Chinese version and exterminating all the sparrows that allegedly spoil the crops). But we know him first as a project manager on an all-Union scale.

It was this man who first headed VDNH (which opened under the name VSKhV - All-Union Agricultural Exhibition 76 years ago). It was he who took the helm of a grandiose work: first he opened and headed the Main Botanical Garden in Moscow, and then coordinated the creation of a network of botanical gardens throughout the Union. All this is he, Nikolai Tsitsin, a native of our city, who took his first steps in breeding work here.
The warm season, for obvious reasons, is the best period for the work of a scientist involved in selection, genetics, botany, and the most significant achievements of Nikolai Vasilyevich occur precisely in the spring-summer: April 14 (the victorious spring of 1945!) is considered the founding day of the Botanical Garden in Moscow , and August 2, 1939 is the opening day of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition. However, the “top of summer” also marks a sad date: exactly 35 years ago, on July 17, 1980, Academician Tsitsin passed away.
Let us remember this man, another great Nikolai of Russian genetics and selection, closely associated with Saratov...

Nikolay the second Russian selection
If you say the words “Nikolai”, “genetics” and “Saratov” one after another, then the first association will, naturally, be Nikolai VAVILOV. The brilliant scientist was unlucky: the city where he first promulgated his famous law of homological series, the city where he was called “Mendeleev of biology,” brought him misfortune, hunger and death. Nikolai Ivanovich’s namesake, Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin, probably did not have the dizzying flight of thought of his colleague, the depth of development of the problem, the extraordinary exclusivity of ideas (however, this is a field for judgments and assessments exclusively of specialists. - Author.) But Nikolai the Second from biology luckier. Significantly more. He lived a long successful life, STALIN himself trusted him, he managed to practically implement most of his projects, ideas, and initiatives. Of course, this is happiness for a scientist.
The achievements of Nikolai Vavilov are striking even in the geography of the colossal selection work: as is known, N.I. was the first European to travel with a caravan through the mountainous Kafiristan, an inaccessible region of Afghanistan; Vavilov was in the Sahara, in Ethiopia, in Syria, he had the opportunity to drive away hungry lions and fight with robbers, selecting grains for a future collection right under bullets. Having visited America, Africa, China and Japan, the Middle East and Central Asia, the peaks of Tibet and the Andes, he collected colossal material - a precious collection of plant seeds, the likes of which had never been collected by anyone.
The life and work of Tsitsin, especially at an early stage, is not so bright and does not strike the eye with the variety of forms and scientific approaches. The future academician was born on December 18, 1898 in Saratov into a poor family. After his father's death, his mother gave Nikolai to an orphanage. As a teenager, he began working as a messenger, telegraph operator, and packer in a factory. During the Civil War he took the side of the Reds, fought, in particular, participated in the defense of Tsaritsyn. With the end of hostilities, N.V. returned to Saratov and took the position of head of the cultural department here and became a member of the Provincial Communications Committee (organizational abilities were already evident then). Having only elementary education, decided to continue his studies - first at the workers' faculty, and then at the agronomic department of the Saratov Institute Agriculture and land reclamation. In 1927, the young agronomist found a job at the Saratov Agricultural Experimental Station (later the Research Institute of the South-East). It was here that he met people who changed his life, including biologists-breeders Georgy MEISTER, Alexey SHEKHURDIN and future academician Pyotr KONSTANTINOV.
Tsitsin's fate was decided: he finally decided to take up scientific selection, and a little later social and organizational activities for the implementation of large-scale research projects will be added to it.

Wheat + wheatgrass = food security?
Another meeting that had a huge impact on Tsitsin was the meeting with Ivan MICHURIN. Nikolai Vasilyevich visited Michurin’s garden while still a student, and he said: “Anyone can cross wheat with wheat. Now, if we could find a stronger manufacturer for her, then it would be a different matter...”
The task of obtaining unpretentious varieties of wheat capable of feeding the country was then, at the end of the 20s of the 20th century, more pressing than ever. The terrible famine in the Volga region was still fresh in my memory, collectivization and a new famine in the early 30s were inexorably approaching. And then Tsitsin, inspired by Michurin’s words, decided to cross wheat... with wheatgrass. It was a bold decision: attempts to literally mix the wheat with the chaff, to cross the symbol of the country’s food security with a malicious weed could, I beg your pardon, easily be equated with sabotage, and the conversation with the “pests” was short then. But Tsitsin took a chance and won: having started work on obtaining wheatgrass-wheat hybrids in Saratov, in 1932 he moved to Omsk, where he headed a specialized laboratory (later it would become the Siberian Research Institute of Grain Farming).
...Now, from time to time, reproaches are heard against Tsitsin: they say that he lived in the “agricultural era” of the notorious Trofim LYSENKO and partly identified with his views. Perhaps some of these reproaches are fair, and Nikolai Vasilyevich preferred not to oppose Lysenko in his activities and actually used a certain administrative resource. How else? Clouds were already gathering over Vavilov, a purge of the scientific community was already being prepared... They were preparing, so to speak, to separate the wheat from the chaff... But it was necessary to work. However, even before the Great Patriotic War, N.V. nevertheless quarreled with Lysenko and he ordered Tsitsin’s experimental fields to be plowed.
It is believed that the main goal that Qiqing set for himself was to create perennial wheat. He rose to prominence on this project, and in this area of ​​work he caught the eye of the country’s top leadership. Agricultural experts explain: if noble wheat and harmful wheatgrass were combined in the “golden” proportion, it would be an agricultural revolution. Tsitsin received his first full-fledged hybrid after the war, but in the next generations the wheatgrass genes took over, and the grain was too small, and the harvest was unprofitable, then the wheat genes prevailed - but then the crop was sick.
A " golden mean“To create a hardy and tenacious cereal, like wheatgrass, and a nutritious and productive cereal, like wheat, they are still looking for it today.

Main projects of life: exhibition and garden
In 1938, Nikolai Tsitsin was appointed director of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition under construction in Moscow. Last year, the capital celebrated the 75th anniversary of the opening of this grandiose exhibition project. In Saratov, the event went, in principle, unnoticed, although the main hero of the occasion was a native of our city.
...On August 2, 1939, over 10 thousand people came to the opening of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow, Marshal VOROSHILOV, MOLOTOV and Anastas MIKOYAN came. However, the one whom Tsitsin was waiting for more than all the others was not honored. Maybe it was for the better: the leader did not witness the slight embarrassment when Nikolai Vasilyevich pulled the cable to raise the exhibition flag, but something jammed and the flag never flew up.
However, VSHV, even with the jammed flag, was a huge success: in the first year (in 1939 it worked for only two and a half months) three and a half (!) million people visited it. On next year— five months of work and 4.5 million Muscovites and guests of the capital became acquainted with the latest achievements of agriculture, including Tsitsin’s achievements. In 1941, the exhibition was supposed to switch to the format permanent job, but was closed a month after the opening of the exhibition. For obvious reasons... And Academician Tsitsin, vice-president of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, went to Alma-Ata, where he continued intensive work on the issues of remaking the nature of plants and in 1943 received the Stalin Prize: “I will also introduce into the practice of state and collective farms the new perennials we have created and annual varieties of hybrid wheat.<…>In order to strengthen the power of the Red Army, I ask you to transfer the money from the prize awarded to me, 100,000 rubles, to a special fund of the High Command,” he wrote to the person whose name the prize awarded to N.V. was named.
The war has not yet ended, the victorious salvoes in Berlin have not died down, and Tsitsin finds himself at the head of a new project - the Main Botanical Garden. As contemporaries testify, Tsitsin paid very close attention to the implementation of this large-scale initiative, corrected the design documentation, developed the layout of the garden, and tried to fit the new object into the unique protected oak grove, into the special picturesque landscape of this place, as gratefully as possible for nature. I have had the opportunity to visit the Main Botanical Garden more than once, now named after N.V. Tsitsin, a truly amazing place, whoever hasn’t been, deign to visit!
Interesting fact: the basis of the GBS greenhouse was made up of plants from the personal winter garden of Reichsmarshal GOERING, taken from Potsdam. Moreover, they transported not only the flora - they dismantled and reassembled the entire structure in place in the new garden.
As you know, Nikolai Vasilyevich remained the permanent director of both the exhibition and the capital’s botanical garden until his death. In the same way, he did not stop his enormous research work, even a short description of which would not fit in this material. While in leading positions in national science, he has always been in the spotlight of the public. They talked about him a lot, willingly and in different ways: someone talked about how he sent orchids to Ekaterina FURTSEVA, and to Yuri GAGARIN - cacti, which the First, as you know, collected throughout his short life. Someone sarcastically recalled (was it or not?) how Academician Tsitsin, for a moment, the chairman of the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation, allegedly called on the Young Nationalists in the 50s to exterminate sparrows, by analogy with the experience of the “great helmsman” of the MAO. The author of the Moscow anthem “My Dear Capital”, Mark LISYANSKY, is credited with a malicious epigram: “The birds have fallen silent, / The bees are not buzzing. / Academician Tsitsin / Is embraced by silence...” (I hope that this refers to the dream of an elderly scientist). But, I think, it was clear to both humorists and envious people that in front of them was a man of colossal research culture, experience and patience.
P.S. On September 10 this year it will be exactly 30 years since the bust of Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin was inaugurated at the intersection of Rakhov and, of course, Vavilov streets. Then, in September 1985, the widow of the academician Alla Andreevna, as well as the entire top of the Saratov managerial, industrial, scientific and agricultural elite, were present at the opening of the monument.
Nikolai Vasilyevich always loved color.