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Nature and Journey,
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Jan Czerski
(1845-1892)

Jan Czerski was an outstanding geologist and paleontologist. His journey in natural science began in Siberia, where he was sent as a punishment for participating in the January Uprising of 1863. He was conscripted into service in the Tsarist army, during which his interest in the local natural environment developed.

Siberia is an extensive geographical region in northern Asia, covering over 10 million km². It is characterized mainly by a harsh, cold climate. The dominant vegetation is the taiga, consisting of vast, boreal coniferous forests, with occasional small admixtures of deciduous trees. Among the typical species are Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica Du Tour), Siberian spruce (Picea obovata Ledeb.), and Siberian larch (Larix archangelica P. Lawson). The coniferous trees are well adapted to the harsh Siberian conditions. In the lower forest layers, one can find a few shrub species, such as juniper (Juniperus sp.).

Due to a decline in his health, Jan Czerski was released from military service after a few years, but he was not granted permission to return to his homeland. He therefore moved to Irkutsk, where he devoted himself to his interests – pursuing studies in geology and paleontology and beginning his scientific work. In collaboration with other Polish scientists – Aleksander Czekanowski and Benedykt Dybowski – he studied the regions around Lake Baikal and the nearby mountain ranges – the Sayan Mountains. He was primarily interested in their geological history – he became the author of the first geological map of the Lake Baikal coast and also presented the genesis of its formation. He additionally proposed the first paleotectonic scheme of Siberia. A few years later, Czerski undertook one of his most important expeditions to the remote New Siberian Islands in the Arctic. There, he studied fossils of Quaternary mammals, such as mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses.

Czerski’s research remains to this day an invaluable source of knowledge on the formation of the regions of the Siberian lands and their Pleistocene fauna. For his work, he received numerous honors, including a gold medal from the Russian Academy of Sciences. His contributions are also commemorated today by mountain ranges, chains, and peaks named in his honor. In 1961, a biographical novel by Bolesław Mrówczyński devoted to Czerski was published, titled The Blue Trail (The Story of a Soldier Who Wandered Beyond the Polar Circle).