Field Science at Sea: A History of Marine Biological Stations

Abstract

This review article outlines the main lines of the rather long and confused history of marine biological stations in Russia, and shows how most of the stations in question are linked through the people who established and developed them. The focus is on the Russian stations located on the coasts of the northern seas, some of which continue to play an important role in the education of future biologists in the two leading universities of the country. Much has been written about the history of marine biological stations, but at the same time there is a feeling that it is still a rather narrow circle of scholars that knows about them and their significance. The article approaches the history of the stations as a single stream, splitting into separate streams and sometimes gathering again. It focuses on the legacy of this particular research culture, which had grown in Russia from a common European root, but which underwent significant transformations during the Soviet era. The focus is on the stations located in the White and Barents Seas, for the reason that their history starts earlier than, for example, the history of stations on the Far East seas, is much better studied, and also because the author had her own experience of working at one of such stations in the 1980s and 1990s.