Historical Information

History is memory. The memory of history is sacred. And the further time moves one or another historic event aside from us, the more descendants — the successors of glorious deeds and traditions are interested in it, the more valuable is the experience of the ancestors, the more visible are their former transactions, aspirations and desires to make their homeland more powerful, richer and more beautiful. It is no exaggeration to say that in the 1830s two major events occurred in Russian Forestry. The Society for Encouraging Forestry was founded on February 25, 1832 by the order of the Russian Emperor Nikolas I according to the report of E.F. Kankrin, the Finance Minister, who was the Сhief of the Forest Department at that time. The Society resolved to start publishing the first forestry periodical in Russia on January 27, 1833 — Lesnoy Zhurnal "... with the assumption that this will allow the Society to assist the owners in proper forestry management by providing useful information on forest sciences and new discoveries in this area". Publication of the Lesnoy Zhurnal became one of the main concerns of the Society.

Periodical consisted then of five sections:

  1. Forestry Sciences: Forests and Trees Breeding; Forest Protection; Forest Technology or Forest Exploitation; Forest Assessment or Forest Inventory; the History of Forestry.
  2. Auxiliary sciences: Forest Botany, Forest Chemistry, Sylvogenic Soils, Zoology, in particular Forest Entomology, Forest Measurement, Forest Geography, Forest Statistics and Topographic Descriptions of Forests.
  3. Literature on the Forest Sciences: critical analyses of writings on Forestry; the the bibliographical information and announcements of the newly outgoing works on the Forestry; the biography of scientists, the works on Forestry by the most widely known graduated foresters and writers.
  4. Nature areas of unique interest, the newest searches and the observations: the descriptions of uncommon and rare phenomena; the newest inventions in Forestry; the description of useful forest instruments, tools and models.
  5. Miscellaneous: forestry institutions’ and establishments’ presentations; tasks in the forest subjects; articles on hunting; the foresters’ and hunters’ funny stories...

The topics of periodical covered all activities within Forestry, Forest Inventory, Forest Assessment, Botany, Dendrology, Zoology, Pedology, Entomology, Resin-Tapping, Forest Statistics and Geography, the History of Forestry and others. The periodical came out monthly until 1845. The first editors were Yukhantsev and Lange.

In March 1845 the Society for Promotion of Forestry was incorporated in the Emperor Free Economic Society which was publishing Lesnoy Zhurnal until late 1851 under the editorship of Arsenyev.

Some periodical’s objectives were reduced in that period of time: the editorial staff considered the purpose «to extend the concept of rational forestry in the motherland in order to excite the desire to its study». In the periodical there were four headings: 1. Forests and silviculturein Russia; 2. Forests and silviculture in the Foreign States; 3. Bibliography; 4. Miscellaneous.

A distinguished part in enhancing the work of Lesnoy Zhurnal, at that time, was played by V.S. Semyonov, an eminent contributor to Forest Science, the teacher of Saint-Petersburg Forest Institute. The number of articles he published during 1835-1846 totaled 68. Forest Assessment and forest inventory specialists are still interested in his historical insights: «Some Historical Information about the Forest Assessment and forest inventory before Gartiga» (Forest Jour. — 1841. — Part 3, book 3, № 9 — P. 290 — 342) and «Some Historical Information about the methods of forest assessment from Gartig to the Newest Time» (there — 1842. — Part 2, book 2, № 5 — P. 133— 186).

Printed on the pages of Lesnoy Zhurnal the original works of talented Russian foresters, such as A.A. Dlatovsky, A.E. Teploukhov, A.P. Vargas, were introduced in the Forest Science treasury.

A.E. Teploukhov’s great work «Some Information about the Correct Forestry Establishment in the S.V. Stroganova’s Estate — Maryino» causes the permanent interest among foresters (there — by 1841, Part 2. — P. 205-277). In all, the patriarch of Russian Arboriculture had published 19 most interesting articles on different matters of Forestry from 1842 to 1850.In following years, being published in The Transactions of Free Economic Society, The Forestry and Hunting Newspaper, The Proceedings of Economics, The Proceedings of The Forestry Committee, The Perm Province Gazette, The Perm Collected Articles, the author of the first Russian Management on Forestry (The Organization of Scaffolding in the Landowners’ Estates: Guidance for Estate Managers, Foresters and Land Surveyors. — St. Petersburg, 1848) and «Historical View on the Forestry in the deg. Stroganova’s Perm Indivisible Estate (Perm, 1881) — the remarkable and unique book at that time — one of his last works which he committed to print in Lesnoy Zhurnal. The article «Wood Plants, Which Vegetate in the Garden of Mine in Open Air, in the Village of Ilinskoe, in the valley of the Obva River in the Perm Gubernia» contains the long-term thorough observation results of the local and introduced forms of wood plants which are useful for the contemporary foresters and gardeners. It was printed in Lesnoy Zhurnal at the death year of the outstanding Russian forester (1885. — № 3).

There is a great importance in the A.R. Vargas de Bedemar’s researches of growing stock reserve and the increase in the St. Petersburg, Tula and Samara Gubernias. Their results were reflected in Lesnoy Zhurnal.

A remarkable work of N.G. Malgin, the forester, — «Some Information about the Proper Forestry Management in the Dachas of the Botkinsky and the Goroblagodatskys Plants» (Forest Jour. — 1841. Part 3, book 2, № 8 — Р. 159-241), in which, the first Russian Forest management document — «Instruction about Management of the Forest at the Ural Mountain Range Plants According to the Rules of Forestry Science and Good Economy» — is highly estimated(St. Petersburg: Ministry of Finance, 1830. — 175 p.). The significance of this work is represented by the fact that half a century later Lesnoy Zhurnal published «Malgin’s Opinion about Forest Organization in the Urals» (1892. — Iss. 6. — P. 505-526.).

A permanent employee of Lesnoy Zhurnal was F.K. Arnold, the secretary of the Free Economic Society‘s Forest Department. Unfortunately, eminent scholar, the author of major works «Russian Forest» (1890, 1899) and the «The History of Forestry in Russia, France and Germany’’ (1895) only in brief mentioned Lesnoy Zhurnal. It is also annoying that in «The History of Forestry...» on pages 254, 334, and 363 he incorrectly indicated the year of Lesnoy Zhurnal’s closing— 1850, connected with the abolishing of the Forest Department in the Free Economic Society. In reality, this sad event for Russian Foresters occurred at the end of 1851 by the evil will of those officials who were not concerned with the fate of the scaffolding of Russia, and on whom the Lesnoy Zhurnal’s financial support depended. In spite of all efforts of the editorial staff of the periodical and the forest community, at the end of 1851 came out the last 12th issue of Lesnoy Zhurnal consisting only of 39 pages. The periodical had stopped functioning for two years. According to F.K. Arnold, «... the forestry had remained until 1855 without a special body of press. This deficiency was very sensitive» (The History of Forestry... P. 363).

And, the tireless troubles of F.K. Arnold, N.V. Shelgunov, N.M. Zobov and other foresters were crowned with success: January 1, 1855 «The Forestry and Hunting Newspaper» began to be published with the Forest Department subsidy of 2500 rubles a year. The first editor and publisher was F.K. Arnold. Since January 1, 1858 the newspaper had been edited by N.V. Shelgunovt, Shestakov, Konoplin and N.M. Zobov. «The Forestry and Hunting Newspaper» had proved a worthy successor of Lesnoy Zhurnal. It came out weekly on Saturdays with the application of special collected articles and books at the end of each month. The numerous bright articles finely written by N.V.Shelgunova and N.M. Zobova, who possessed encyclopedic knowledge and were devoted to Forestry, deeply concerned about the fate of Russian scaffolding.A great merit of the newspaper was to draw foresters as authors in co-operation of writing articles and notes. From the newspaper, N.V. Shelgunov appealed to the foresters and asked them to send comments and observation made in the forest. «These observations, gripped in the forest, but not extracted from the German forestry writings, cannot and must not disappear for the science», wrote N.V.Shelgunov and he asserted that «Forestry must not be separated from the life, Forestry does not exist as the removed knowledge». Due to the tireless activity of N.V. Shelgunov and N.M. Zobov «The Forestry and Hunting Newspaper» had faithfully served the Russian forest for 5 years, contributing actively to organization and development of the domestic forestry. However, its fate proved to be the same as the fate of Lesnoy Zhurnal: in 1859 the last issue came out. In his farewell article the editor of newspaper N.M. Zobov addressing to the readers, he wrote: «The Forestry newspaper... in that field of knowledge, which it dealt with, appeared as a result of the need of contemporary thought and in turn had an influence on the development of this thought; ...it constantly declaimed against all moribund, but deeply taken root into the Russian soil, against the pedantry, routines, blind imitation to the country (Germany. — O. n.), in which the conditions differs from these ones in our fatherland, against the narrow and self-interested motives... The Forestry Newspaper ..., , in comparison with other periodic publications, has the completely exceptional position, it was able to preserve its dignity: It has never served as the exclusive agency of any political party, and the interests, alien to science, never stained its pages... the Editorial staff has the courage to sincerely thank near and far colleagues, friends and acquaintances only by conviction, and say to the readers that if it did not do everything, it had to do, it did everything, it could» (1859. — P. 624).

In the subsequent 12 years there was no forestry-focused periodical in Russia, but «forestry news found a shelter with The Agriculture and Forestry, the periodical published by the Ministry of State Property (Arnold, F.K.: The History of Forestry in Russia, France, and Germany. — St. Petersburg, 1895. — 364 p.). some articles on Forestry were printed in «The Transactions of the Free Economic Society» released from 1766 to 1915 (280 volumes), in the periodical ‘’The Russian Agriculture’’ and others, often far from the forest subject. In whole it made materials be separated and difficult to access for the forest specialists, most of whom worked in the provinces, far from St. — Petersburg and Moscow. However, scattered on the immense expanses of Russia, foresters, forest owners and timber merchants had a great need for the mutual exchange of experience of management, ideas, new information, and achievements in Forestry. N.V. Shelgunov, N.M.Zobov and other authors constantly wrote about it in The Forestry and Hunting Newspaper.

Days passed. On March 2, 1871, the Ministry of State Property approved the charter of St. Petersburg Forest Society and V.S. Semyonov, Forester’s Corps General and Vice Inspector, Chairman of Academic Council under the Ministry of State Property was appointed its first chairman. The Society renewed the publication of Lesnoy Zhurnal, its first issue came out in August 1871: the periodical covered all fields of Forestry. The periodical had provided eight sections: 1. articles on all areas of Forestry; 2. the influence of laws and customs on the success in Forestry; 3. a timber-trade section 4.forestry bibliography, critical analyses of Russian and foreign works on Forestry; 5. forest chronicle and mix, 6.news about the Forest Society activity; 7. the newly emerging regulations on Forest Management overview; 8. announcements concerning Forestry. A lot of attention was paid to the forest experimental work organization, the steppe afforestation development, training specialists.

At the different periods of time the periodical was edited by N.S.Shafranov, A.F. Rudzskiy (1877-1880), N.S.Nesterov, L.I. Yashnov and other prominent graduated foresters. The last editor of The ‘old’ Lesnoy Zhurnal was G. F. Morozov (1904-1918).

The periodical was publishing articles written by forest rangers, working-plan officers, researchers. Of special interest were the topical writings by Zhurda (1875. — Iss. 4, 6), from the series «Questions of the Day». Talentedly written and brightly styled, they still make interesting reading. Among other remarkable works were those by F.K. Arnold, A.F.Rudzkiy, P.N. Verekha, V.T. Sobichevsky, N.S. Shafranov, M.K. Turskiy, D.M. Kravchinskiy, D.N. Kaigorodov, M.M.Orlov and many other talented foresters and scientists. It is interesting to note that A.F. Rudzkiy signed his very lively, vibrant critiques by pseudonym «Provincial».

Because of Lesnoy Zhurnal, the article by N.A. Grakov — a taxator from Arkhangelsk who substantiated the existence of even-aged stands/ coeval cultivation — was released into the world silviculture domain. (Turnover Economy: Apropos study of the scaffolding of Arkhangelsk Gubernia (it is Lesnoy Zhurnal. — 1896. — Iss. 2; 1897. — Iss. 3. — P. 419-447). This discovery has fundamentally changed the approach to selection systems in the forests of the North and allowed foresters to solve properly complex issues on forest management.

Due to Lesnoy Zhurnal, the forest manager I.I. Gutorovich, from Vologda, became famous for his article that offered classification of the ‘types of economic forests’. The article came out under the title «Northern Forester’s Sketch Book» (1897) and is still appealed to by many explorers of the forests in the European part of Northern Russia (Iss. 2. — P. 216-228; Iss. 5 — P.789-799).

In 1902 Lesnoy Zhurnal released a thorough work by N.K. Guenko under the title «Characteristics of Bialowieza Forest and Historical Data about It» (Iss. 5 — P. 1012-1056; Iss. 6. — P. 1269-1302). N.K. Genko was deservedly placed among the first Russian forest typologists by the originality of his classification of the types of forest stands and simplicity of solving the most complex, for those time, issue on the economic separation of scaffolding by the natural basis.

Simultaneously, as I.I. Gutorovich and N.K. Guenko were doing their researches, other Russian forest managers and forest rangers were working out the classifications of the economic types of growing stock, independently of each other. Among them the most remarkable was P.P. Serebrennikov, from the Velsk district, whose works on Forest Typology and Forest Management were published in Lesnoy Zhurnal (1904. — Iss. 1. — P. 69-93; Iss. 2. — P. 341-380 and others).

Among famous forest managers who contributed a lot to the research of taiga forests and whose articles of great talent appeared in Lesnoy Zhurnal, on cannot mention F.N. Florovskiy. In issue 2, 1894 a very meaningful article «About Working Groups in the Forests of the North», signed «One of the forest rangers of the North» was published. Examining the wide range of problems of the northern forestry, the author gives capacious characteristics of forest communities (types of crops), the most frequently encountered in the European North of Russia, focusing special attention on their economic value. The author of this splendid article proved to be F.N. Florovskiy, as we find out the publication of A.A. Bitrikh (Lesnoy Zhurnal. — 1916. — Iss. 3-4. — P. 335-341). Despite the many creatively distinctive speeches and publications delivered by this connoisseur in forests, Florovskiy’s name was known only to a small community of foresters as he chose to publish his articles under different pseudonyms known only to the publishers.

The editor of Lesnoy Zhurnal G.F. Morozov — the high priest of silviculture created his own chapter in its history. He had influence on gradually changing ideological orientation of the periodical; it started to raise and discuss social issues. G.F. Morozov considered Lesnoy Zhurnal to deal with the challenges and issues on silviculture, agroforestry, economics, forest management, and policy. According to V.N. Sukachyov, G.F. Morozov had raised the periodical to its highest pitch for 15 years of his editorship (Georgiy Fedorovich Morozov (On the 100-anniversary of the birthday) 1867-1967. M.: Timber Industry, 1967. — 11).

Lesnoy Zhurnal of Morozov period offered a multitude of interesting publications that still find relevance in the contemporary science and practice.

These publications were written by forest rangers, managers and graduated foresters. The Pleiad of eminent authors also included northern silviculturists — P.P. Serebrennikov, A.S. Rozhkov, A.A. Bitrikh, G.G. Gulyushkin, M.D. Uspenskiy, S.G. Nat, E.I. Shabac, and K.I. Yegorov. St. Petersburg Forest Society’s Papers, reviews of domestic Russian and foreign Literature on Forestry, biographies and portraits of prominent foresters, excellent photographs of forest landscapes, which made the periodical much more attractive, were published there.

Whereas the ‘old’ Lesnoy Zhurnal is regarded as national heritage, a forestry chronicle, a priceless fount accumulated scientific and practical knowledge about forest and forestry, a remarkable printed monument to founders of the domestic forestry — graduated foresters, forest wardens, forest managers and all who cared for the Russian scaffolding and realized its exceptionally important significance for Russia.

The Socialist Revolution of 1917, new development, fundamental break with the life of Russia, unfortunately, led to the phasing out of all forest periodicals. Lesnoy Zhurnal did not avoid this fate either; it ceased to exist in late 1918. New forest periodicals appeared which were rapidly developed. It suffices to say that for the period of 1917-1927 there had been 51 forest periodicals, including The Scaffolding of Republic, The Forestry Business, The Agriculture and Forestry, The Forestry Cooperation, The Timber Industry, The Forestry, The Timber Industry and Fuel, The Farmer and Forester, The Forester. Over the time some editions disappeared, others appeared.

The publication of the periodical under its historic name was supported and approved by the resolution of central bodies and by the order of the Ministry of Higher Education of the USSR, dated July 31, 1957. № 787, as one of the periodicals of a series: The Bulletin of Higher Educational Institutions. The fact that the duties of the periodical publishing were laid with the Arkhangelsk Forestry Engineering Institute evidenced the successful performance of the forest industry in the European North and of the region’s only forestry school. AFEI — ASTU has been publishing the periodical for half a century. Professor F.I. Koperin, the Rector of AFEI was appointed its first editor-in-chief (1958-1967); his deputies were associate professor P.I. Voichal (Arkhangelsk) and Prof. A.E. Grube (Leningrad). The members of the editorial board were the top scientists employed by forest engineering schools: Prof. I.S. Melekhov (Arkhangelsk), Prof. F.M. Manzhos (Moscow), Prof. S.Ya. Korotov (Leningrad), Prof. V.K. Zakharov (Minsk), Prof.M.D. Danilov (Yoshkar-Ola), Prof. N.P. Voznesensky (Krasnoyarsk), associate professor V.V. Schelkunov (Arkhangelsk), associate professor N.V. Nikitin (Arkhangelsk), associate professor S.I, Rakhmanov (Sverdlovsk), the chairman of Arkhangelsk National Economy Council I.E. Voronov. A.I Koltsova had been an executive secretary of the editorial staff for a period of 32 years; she had a lot of organization work to do. The first issue of the periodical came out in February,1958 and it began with the heading «From the Editorial Staff» by P.I. Voichal in which he wrote: «The title of Lesnoy Zhurnal put the great matter in our hands and forces us to make the periodical worthy to bear the glorious name of its predecessor».

A lot was done for development of Lesnoy Zhurnal by the editors-in- chief — AFEI Rector I.M. Bokhovkin (1967–1979) and by Vice-Rector for Scientific Work, at that time, N.V. Nikitin, who had been a member of the Editirial board for third of century. Of special merit is contribution by I.S. Melekhov, an internationally recognized silviculturist, a permanent member of the editorial board from the very revival of the periodical up to the end of his life, its editor-in-chief later (1980–1993). More than 31 years were dedicated to Lesnoy Zhurnal by P.I. Voichal, a man of high culture, infinitely devoted to the profession of forester. He was a lexicographer. An unrivaled expert in the field of land wood transport, V.V. Schelkunov had been a member of the editorial board for 40 years from the foundation of the periodical. A high- class specialist in chemical processing of wood, G.L. Dranishnikov had taken an active part in the editorial board for 26 years.

In 1993, the periodical was headed by O.M. Sokolov, Doctor of Chemistry, Professor, RF Honoured Worker of Science and talented manager. Not only did he manage to maintain the publication during the difficult years of transition to market economy, but he also repackaged the periodical and expanded its topical coverage in relation to new branches of science.

Since 2009, the editor-in-chief has been Prof. A.L. Nevzorov. And his deputy was Prof. E.S. Romanov, who devoted 40 years of his work to the periodical, contributing his vast experience and knowledge. His scientific sophistication, dedication and personal involvement ensured the prestige and demand on the periodical.

Lesnoy Zhurnal is established and published by Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov.

The Editorial Board has changed over time. Since 2011, the periodical has been edited by V.I. Melekhov, D. Sc. in Engineering, Professo, RF Honoured Science Worker, the head of NArFU Department of Wood Technology and Wood Heat Treatment.

The members of the Editorial Board are the top scientists from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Bryansk, Krasnoyarsk, Petrozavodsk, Yoshkar-Ola, Arkhangelsk, Lvov (the Ukraine), Emden (Germany). You, dear reader, can see their names in the periodical at page 2. They ensure that the published articles keep up the highest scientific level and largely define the article contributor’s makeup and portfolio of articles (the latter containing reviews and topical articles covering the recent challenges in the forestry sector).

The 60 years of publication have put more than 16 thousand articles into the periodical editorial staff’s portfolio. The geography of publication is extensive and comprises almost all regions of Russia, CIS and non-CIS countries.

Authoring team of the periodical: scientists, high school teachers, engineers, technicians, graduate students, young researchers at the start of their career.

The reviewers are often high-profile scientists from universities and research institutes who major in the subjects covered by Lesnoy Zhurnal. The editors often get the letters from the authors letters of acknowledgements to their anonymous opponents for the competent evaluation evaluation of the articles.

Keeping the best traditions of its famous predecessor, its main idea of the unity of all branches of forestry and being on the cutting edge of progressive theory and practice, the contemporary periodical has considerably extended its subject-matter and a range of topics covered the subject. Lesnoy Zhurnal is publishing scientific articles covered all sectors of forestry, research papers dealt with launching of scientifically-based technology into forest industry, the advanced experience in forestry and all sectors of the forest industry, the information about the activities of higher educational institutions, advertising and announcements. The periodical is destined for scientists, graduated students, forestry and timber industry engineers, high school teachers and students.

Lesnoy Zhurnal is also well-known, read and subscribed far abroad. The periodical is reviewed by three US information editions — Current Contents on DisketteR, Sci SearchR and Current Contents SearchR — and several bibliographic ones including the Biological Abstracts and others.

Speaking about improving the publishing process, it is impossible not to note the excellent work of a records manager T.G. Tagaeva, who perfectly realizes the immense responsibility for the release of Lesnoy Zhurnal, which is highly valued by the scientific community.

R.V. Belyakova, the RF Honored Worker of Higher Professional Education has been the executive secretary of the editorial board from 1990 till 2015. Having a rich experience in publishing, she paid much attention to the development and propaganda of scientific achievements in the field of forestry and wood processing industries, the environment, schools of large domestic scholars, annually organized the scientific readers’ conferences, round tables, offsite meeting of the editorial board of Lesnoy Zhurnall in related universities in Russia and CIS. She chaired creatively and proactively the work of the editorial staff, coordinated the work of the members of the Editorial board, authors and reviewers.

Candidate of Agricultural Sciences A.M. Komarova is the executive secretary of the journal since 2015.

The editors L.P. Tulyakova, Z.F. Kekisheva, N.P. Boykova, the proofreaders T.A. Palmina, V.S. Zhuravleva, V.P. Oltarzhevskaya, G.P. Ivanova, E.N. Vlasova, L.L. Aksenova, L.S. Okulova; the clerk-typists G.B. Nifantova, V.I. Zelenkova and others, the translators L.A. Korelskaya, N.T. Podrazhanskaya in different years have made a major contribution in the journal.

Being at the forefront of the forest science, Lesnoy Zhurnal widely promotes scientific and technical knowledge in all fields of forestry. It actively contributes to scientific and technical progress in forestry, timber, woodworking, pulp and paper and wood chemical industries and enhances qualifications of the engineering, technical and academic staff. It is included in the list of publications recommended by HAC for publishing the doctoral and master’s theses.

For the 190-year history of Lesnoy Zhurnal the last half-century period is filled with a great content. The «new» Lesnoy Zhurnal has made a significant contribution into the Forestry Science treasury. The value of this contribution is enduring.