Petrov, Mikhail Platonovich

Born Sept. 26 (Oct. 9), 1906, at the Zuevka railroad station, in present-day Kirov Oblast. Soviet botanical and physical geographer. Doctor of biological sciences (1940); academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Turkmen SSR (1951); Honored Scientist of the Turkmen SSR (1944).

Petrov graduated from the geography department of Leningrad State University in 1930. He has been a professor at Leningrad State University (from 1958), vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the Turkmen SSR (from 1951 to 1956), and vice-president of the Geographic Society of the USSR (from 1970). Petrov has gone on expeditions to Iran, Middle Asia, and Central Asia, where he investigated the development of arid landscapes. He has done work on the classification, genesis, and geography of deserts; the preservation and rational use of desert resources; and the ecology of desert vegetation. A recipient of the Grand Gold Medal of the Geographical Society of the USSR in 1969, Petrov has also been awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Badge of Honor.