Ekologija| In memoriam| Nauka

Dr Sergej Dimitrijevič Matvejev, 1913-2003

albicilla RSS / 20.08.2009. u 12:44

Ptice Jugoslavije, 1947
Ptice Jugoslavije, 1947
Bio je izuzetan naučnik, čije je područje istraživanja bilo čitavo Balkansko poluostrvo, a značaj uveliko nadilazio tu oblast i dostizao svetske razmere (pisano 2003; objavljeno u Acrocephalusu, Vol. 24, No. 116 - tekst na srpskom sledi na kraju):

I became acquainted with Dr. Matvejev in the early 1990s, when chancing upon his book “Distribution and Life of Birds in Serbia” in the bookshop of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Another couple of years passed, before I learned that the author was actually not only alive but still a very active ornithologist.

 

My first personal contact with him dates to the time when he rang us during the founding meeting of the League for the Ornithological Action of Serbia and Montenegro, congratulating us on the initiative and offering us some of his books for our future library. This was a special honour for me, considering that it is the amateurs who normally attempt to make contact with the experts, while on this particular occasion the communication took place in the very opposite direction.

A few days later I visited Dr. Matvejev at his home in Belgrade. This time I was somewhat surprised to learn, that he had first graduated in architecture, that he published his first ornithological work (on the Syrian Woodpecker Dendrocopos syriacus) in 1938, and during World War II finally graduated in biology as well. I always imagined somehow that he had been recording birds’ folk names by inquiring about them from simple country people, but the actual process was quite the opposite. He always carried out the preparatory work on the birds, which he either caught during his fieldwork or obtained from farmers, on the spot himself, and this gave him a chance to gather these people around him and learn more of the details he was interested in. Dr. Matvejev’s bibliography numbers 219 titles (208 scientific works and 11 books). 

Here are some details from his biography (Živković-Hristić, 2003): He was born in 1913 in imperial Russia and in 1921 emigrated with his family to Kragujevac, Serbia. In 1938 he obtained his diploma in architecture, but was in the same year invited, on the recommendation of the ecologist Dr. Siniša Stanković, to work for the Museum of the Serbian Countryside (today’s Natural History Museum in Belgrade). In 1940 he began to study biology at Belgrade University, and obtained his Ph.D. in 1959 from the University of Ljubljana. His fieldwork, which began in 1938, lasted until 1983. From 1947 to his retirement in 1976 he worked at the Biological Research Institute “Dr. Siniša Stanković” in Belgrade. 

As an associate of the Fauna Committee, functioning within the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, he studied, apart from birds, the ecology of relict grasshoppers of the Balkans. At the Biological Institute of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences of Arts in Ljubljana he worked, together with botanist I. Puncer, on the chart of habitat types in Slovenia and other republics of the former Yugoslavia (Matvejev 1989, Matvejev & Puncer 1991, Matvejev 1993, Matvejev & Lopatin 1995). 

Through the disintegration of Yugoslavia he experienced, in Slovenia, the third war in his life, and then also witnessed the bombardment of Belgrade to which he had returned in 1996. Dr. Matvejev donated his scientific works (bound notebooks, files, photographs, reprints, books, manuscripts) to the Archives of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade. 

While visiting Dr. Matvejev in Belgrade, he showed me a number of his photographs. I was particularly impressed by the scene of a young architect with a rifle on his shoulder, riding across the terrain he was investigating immediately after World War II. I planned to visit him again, as I wished to take my copy of his “Distribution and Life of Birds in Serbia” with me and ask him for a dedication in it, but he died suddenly. 

Dr. Sergej Dimitrijevič Matvejev passed away on 27 June, 2003, at his home. 

Dr. Matvejev was, and still is, the father of Serbian, Yugoslav and Balkan ornithology. While investigating the birds of Kopaonik (about which he published a number of books), he saw himself as continuing the work of Dr. Josif Pančić. All those of us who study and protect the birds of our country are successors to Matvejev, Pančić, and others, and continue their work. As long as we too are dedicated to the study of birds, these great men will continue to live in us.

 

U odgovor na zahtev prvih čitalaca

 

Dr. Matvejeva sam prvi put sreo posredstvom "Rasprostranjenja i života ptica u Srbiji" iz 1950, na koju  sam naišao u knjižari SANU negde početkom devedesetih. Prošlo je još par godina pre nego sam saznao da je autor ne samo živ, već i dalje aktivan ornitolog.  

Prvi put smo se uživo čuli kada se tokom osnivačke skupštine Lige za ornitološku akciju SCG telefonom obratio da nam čestita na inicijativi, te ponudi nekoliko svojih knjiga za buduću biblioteku. Doživeo sam to kao naročitu čast, budući da je uobičajeno da se amateri obraćaju stručnjacima, a retkost da ta komunikacija teče u suprotnom pravcu. 

Nekoliko dana kasnije sam Dr. Matvejeva posetio u njegovom domu u ulici Veljka Dugoševića u Beogradu. Tom prilikom sam saznao da je, pomalo iznenađujuće, prvo zavrsio arhitekturu i svoj prvi ornitoloski rad (o seoskom detliću Dendrocopos syriacus) objavio 1938, da bi tokom II svetskog rata završio biologiju. Takođe, uvek sam nekako zamišljao da je narodna imena ptica zapisivao idući od seljaka do seljaka i raspitujući se, dok je stvaran proces bio upravo obratan: budući da je lovio i pribavljao kožice za zbirku, ptice je preparirao na samom terenu, što je bivao povod seljacima da se okupe i njemu prilika da ih propita. Matvejevljeva bibliografija broji 219 naslova (208 naučnih radova i 11 knjiga). 

Nekoliko podataka iz biografije (Zoran Živković-Hristić, 2002): Rodio se 1913. u carskoj Rusiji, da 1921. sa porodicom stigne u Kragujevac. Godine 1938. diplomira arhitekturu, a, na preporuku ekologa Dr. Siniše Stankovića, kao stručnjak za ptice, biva iste godine primljen za saradnika tadašnjeg Muzeja srpske zemlje (današnji Prirodnjački muzej). Od 1940. studira biologiju na Filozofskom fakultetu u Beogradu, a doktorirao je na Univerzitetu u Ljubljani 1959. godine. Njegov terenski rad, započet 1938, traje sve do 1983. godine. Od 1947. do penzionisanja, 1976, radi u Institutu za bioloska istraživanja "Dr. Siniša Stanković" u Beogradu. 

Kao saradnik Odbora za faunu SANU, mimo ptica istražuje ekologiju reliktnih skakavaca Balkana. U Biološkom institutu SAZU u Ljubljani je sa botaničarom I. Puncerom radio na karti bioma (tipova staništa) Slovenije i ostalih delova Jugoslavije (1989, 1991, 1993. i 1995).  

U Sloveniji je, kroz raspad Jugoslavije, doživeo i treći rat u svom životu, da bi bombardovanje SRJ preživeo u Beogradu, u koji se vratio 1996.  Svoja naučna istraživanja (tj. ukoričene terenske beležnice, mape, fotografije, slajdove, separate, knjige, rukopise) je kao legat poklonio Arhivu SANU u Beogradu. 

Njegov naučni rad obeležio je i Američki biografski institut u The International Directory of Distinguished Leadership 2001. godine, a pocetkom 2002. imenovan je za vice-konzula International Biographical Centre u Kembridžu, Britanija.  

Prikom moje posete, Dr. Matvejev mi je pokazao i nekoliko svojih fotografija. Posebno mi je u sećanju ostao prizor mladog inženjera arhitekture, kako se tada govorilo, gde sa puškom o ramenu na konju jezdi nekim terenom koji je istraživao neposredno posle II svetskog rata. 

Trebalo je da ga obiđem ponovo, te sam želeo da tom prilikom ponesem i svoj primerak "Rasprostranjenja i života ptica u Srbiji" da autora zamolim za posvetu, ali me je pretekla njegova smrt. Dr. Sergej Dimitrijevič Matvejev preminuo je 27.6.2003. u svom domu. 

Bio je i ostao doajen srpske, jugoslovenske i balkanske ornitologije. Istražujuci ptice Kopaonika (o kojima je objavio više knjiga), sebe je video kao nastavljača rada Dr. Josifa Pančića. Svi mi koji istražujemo i štitimo ptice svoje zemlje, nastavljači smo rada Matvejeva, Pančića i drugih. I dok god mi istražujemo ptice, ti velikani žive u nama.

 

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KRALJMAJMUNA KRALJMAJMUNA 17:01 20.08.2009

Motiv

Tekst je zanimljiv. Ali me interesuje zašto ste napisli tekst na engleskom. Time ste ga učinili manje čitljivimi
nikvet pn nikvet pn 18:21 20.08.2009

Re: Motiv

Tako je. Došao je tiho i ušao u legendu. Prevod je najmanje što je zaslužio.
albicilla albicilla 19:08 20.08.2009

Re: Motiv

nikvet pn
Tako je. Došao je tiho i ušao u legendu. Prevod je najmanje što je zaslužio.


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