Ivanitsky Nikolay Alexandrovich
Siberian gardener and breeder, researcher at the Tomsk Regional Museum, executed in 1937
Born in 1873 in Tomsk. From the family of a state councilor, an official of the Tomsk provincial administration. He received a gymnasium education in Tomsk, then studied at the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. After completing his studies at the university and returning to Tomsk in 1903, he was accepted to serve in the Tomsk District Court as an assistant to the court secretary, then as a court secretary.
In 1909–1920 he served as an assistant controller of the Siberian Railway Control. In 1915, he was elected as a district monastery sanitary trustee under the city sanitary trusteeship; in 1917, he was on the list of candidates for the Tomsk City Duma. He was fond of chess and was a member of the local chess club. However, since 1897, N.A. Ivanitsky devoted his entire life to his favorite business — the development of gardening in Siberia, the acclimatization of a number of fruit and berry plantations in Siberian conditions. He was a member of the Tomsk Society of Gardeners (from 1908 until its closure), was elected its chairman and secretary, was an active member of the West Siberian Society of Agriculture, heading its cultural and educational work, edited the magazines "Siberian Gardener" and "Siberian Farmer", actively promoting fruit growing in Siberia as a new branch of the national economy. He participated in the organization of all agricultural exhibitions and examinations held in Tomsk since 1903. He was (since 1925) a full member of the Society for the Study of the Tomsk Region. He was far from any political activity and was not a member of any party either before or after the revolution.
On May 1, 1928, N.A. Ivanitsky, at the age of 55, was accepted to serve in the Tomsk Regional Museum, and in September 1928 he was appointed head of the Department of Agriculture and Industry. In the autumn of 1928, on his initiative, a nursery of fruit plants and new industrial crops was founded in the museum garden.
One of the largest Siberian gardeners and breeders, popularizer of fruit growing. Researcher at the Tomsk Regional Museum in 1928–1933. After Shatilov’s arrest, M. B. was forced to leave the museum.
On November 28, 1937, he was arrested and on December 4, 1937, by decision of the troika of the NKVD for the Novosibirsk region, he was accused of participating in a counter-revolutionary cadet-monarchist organization and sentenced to capital punishment; he was shot on December 15, 1937. He was rehabilitated in 1959.
Дополнительная информация и документы:
Documents (1)
Fund 002 / Inventory 003: Статьи / Case 157
001. Ivanitsky Nikolai Aleksandrovich - researcher at the Tomsk Regional Museum in 1928-1933. / V. A. Khanevich // Tomsk Museums. Museum of Local Lore named after. M.B. Shatilova. Municipal museums. Materials for the encyclopedia “Museums and museum affairs in the Tomsk region. - Tomsk: Tomsk University Publishing House, 2012. - P. 207-210.
The essay is dedicated to the life and work of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Ivanitsky (1873–1937), one of the largest Siberian gardeners and breeders, a popularizer of fruit growing, and a research associate at the Tomsk Regional Museum in 1928–1933. Based on archival data and memoirs, the article reveals Ivanitsky’s contribution to the development of gardening in Siberia, the acclimatization of fruit and industrial plants, the work on organizing agricultural exhibitions, training peasants and schoolchildren, as well as his activities in various agricultural societies. Particular attention is paid to his work at the museum, the creation of a nursery, the introduction of sericulture practices, and the promotion of the rational use of Siberia’s natural resources. The article also examines the dramatic fate of the scientist, who suffered during the years of Stalin’s repressions: dismissal from the museum after the arrest of his colleagues, arrest in 1937, political charges and execution, and posthumous rehabilitation in 1959.
List of persons:
- Ivanitsky Nikolai Aleksandrovich - Siberian gardener and breeder, research associate at the Tomsk Regional Museum (1928-1933), repressed in 1937, rehabilitated in 1959.
- Ivanitskaya Maria Karlovna (née Rispel) - wife of N.A. Ivanitsky, teacher of German.
- Potanin Grigory Nikolaevich - traveler, ethnographer; mentioned as a source of bamboo seeds.
- Shatilov Mikhail Bonifatievich - head of the Tomsk Regional Museum, arrested and convicted by the OGPU in 1933.
