Kolesnikov, Boris

Born May 17 (30), 1909, in St. Petersburg. Soviet geobotanist and forestry expert. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1970). Became a member of the CPSU in 1945.

In 1931, Kolesnikov graduated from the Far Eastern Forest Engineering Institute. He worked in research institutions of the Far Eastern Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR from 1934 to 1955 and at the Biology Institute from 1955 to 1964. He has worked at the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology of the Ural Scientific Center of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR since 1965. From 1963 to 1968, Kolesnikov was the rector at the A. M. Gorky Ural University, where he became the head of a subdepartment in 1968. His principal works are on forestry, geobotany, and conservation in the Urals and the Far East. He developed basic propositions concerning the geographic-genetic classification of forest types, forestry regionalization in the USSR, and the practical use of the forest resources of the taiga. Kolesnikov has been awarded two orders and various medals.