Hydrographic Society Russia

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It was dull weather when, on 20 December last year, some HSR members along with representatives of St. Petersburg Administration and hydrographic organisations, pupils of school No. 43 with its director and others gathered near a unremarkable house in the centre of St. Petersburg. The occasion was the inauguration of a memorial plaque devoted to the famous Russian hydrographer family Vil’kitskiy: father, Andrey Ippolitovich (1858 Ð 1913) and son, Boris Andreevich (1885 Ð 1961). Descendants of the Vil’kitskiy family were also present: Mr G. Plitkin and Mrs I. Tikhomirova. The plaque was designed by the well-known architect Tatiana Miloradovich and its production was sponsored by ÔVisco Ltd.’.
Member of HSR Council, Cap-tain Valentin Smirnov spoke briefly about the course of the lives of both Andrey and Boris Vil’kitskij. He recalled that Lieu-tenant-General Andrey I. VilÕkitskij was the Chief of the Head Hydrographic Department of Russia from 1907 until 1913. During these years he made many significant improvements in Russian hydrography. Besides all of this, Andrey I. Vil’kitskij is credited with the initiative to convene an International Conference of Seamen and Surveyors on safety of navigation; a first step towards the creation of an International Hydrographic Organisation. In 1913 Lieutenant-General A. I. Vil’kitskij died suddenly. In the same year his son, Captain of the 2nd rank B.A. Vil’kitskij, was designated the Chief of the Hydrographic Arc-tic Ocean Expedition. Pursuing research to the north of Poluostrov Taymyr his expedition discovered an unknown land, later named Zemlya of Emperor Nikolas II and now known as the Archipelag Severnaya Zemlya. In fact this was the last of the most significant geographical discoveries on our planet.
Named after Andrey I. Vil’kitskij are a bay, a glacier and two capes on the archipelago of Novaya Zemlja and several islands in the Arctic ocean. One island and a strait in the Laptev sea are named after Boris A. Vil’kitskij and a planet discovered in 1982 (No. 5314) is named ‘Vil’kitskaja’.
Captain V. Smirnov underlined the fact that this memorial plaque is unique in St. Petersburg because it is dedicated simultaneously to two persons, both of whom were hydrographers.
Last year the HSR took part in preparation of the Russian Government Regulation on perpetuation of the names of Russian polar researchers. This Regulation of 19 December 2002 gives names of merited Russian researchers to some nameless geographical objects in the Arctic region. They are: Belov valley, Bursevich mountain, Vladimirov mountain, Gordienko valley, Nikolay Dyatel terrace, Eguiazarova valley, Zheglov mountain, Zhilinskiy rise, Arcadiy Karasik valley, Kisilev mountain, Klenova valley, Knyazev mountain, Kozhemyakin mountain, Kucherov terrace, Mashchenkov mountain, Morozov mountains, Motrokhov mountain, Nalieutov mountains, Ostreukin mountain, Papanin mountain, Pozharskiy mountain, Pochtareuv mountain, Rogotskiy mountain, Ryabov mountain, Sen’ko valley, Skosyrev mountain-range, Timofeev mountain, Trukshin mountain, Fedotov mountain, Shadrin mountain, Shaykin mountain, Shamshur mountain, Shmakov ledge.
(English transcription of names is not official).

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Hydrographic Society of Russia
Attn. Victor Rybine