The rebel boy received support from a state that needed romantics. He went to the East to make dreams come true. When the war began, he came to the rescue of the Fatherland.
The thirst for knowledge opened our hero a path into the circle of the most famous scientists of the country of the Soviets. Tough times challenged educated people, and this person coped with a difficult task, glorifying his name.
Childhood
Pasha was born in the summer of 1892 in Moscow. His father Alexander came from peasants. At a young age, he moved from a village in the Yaroslavl province to the second largest and most important city of the Russian Empire. The guy was lucky - he quickly got used to it, found a job and a wife, and felt like a Muscovite.
Moscow. Vintage postcard
The Baranov family was poor and ambitious. The son received primary education at a school for peasant children, and then entered a trade school. The parent dreamed of seeing his heir as a merchant. He did not like the fact that Pavlik’s books were much more interesting than the subtleties of business. However, the old man remembered how he himself went for a better life into the city, and understood that independence would still help his child out.
Youth
The boy was educated in the field of commerce, to which he had no soul at all. He dreamed of studying at the university, but only young people who graduated from high school were accepted there. Parents could not afford such a luxury as paying for their children in high school. Pasha could only engage in self-education.
In 1910, a bold young man entered the exam with graduates of the gymnasium. The idea ended successfully - he received a certificate of maturity and in the same year he became a student at Moscow University. The young man entered law school. Enthusiasm for one's own achievements very quickly gave way to disappointment - Baranov realized that he was mistaken in choosing a specialty. In 1911, he transferred to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, where there was a department of natural sciences.
Imperial University in Moscow. Vintage postcard
In the country of Soviets
Pavel Baranov was lucky to get a diploma in a turbulent 1917. A young specialist was carried away by the idea of a new government to realize the dream of universal literacy. He began working in the institutions of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR, taught at schools and universities in Moscow. In 1920, the teacher was made a tempting offer to go to Central Asia and begin training local personnel for science and educational activities there.
In a new place, the career of our hero developed rapidly. A guy from Moscow arrived in Tashkent and got a job at Turkestan State University, and 8 years later he headed the library of this educational institution and the department of plant morphology and anatomy. Pavel Alexandrovich worked not only in the laboratories and classrooms of the university, since 1921 he took part in expeditions to Central Asia.
Announcement on the establishment of a university in Tashkent
Chief nerd
A child of the revolutionary era, Baranov inherited the best features of his generation. He put his soul into the enlightenment of the inhabitants of the eastern republics. After the expedition to the Pamirs, the scientist got the idea to open a biological station there. In 1937, the first botanical garden in the region appeared next to it. In personal life, our hero adhered to a conservative way.
Pavel Baranov
The merits of Pavel Baranov appreciated his appointment as director of the Botanical Institute of the Uzbek branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. This happened in 1940. A year later, Central Asia became the rear, on which the combat effectiveness of the Red Army and the lives of many citizens of the Soviet Union depended. Now Pavel Baranov had to solve tasks more ambitious than one of the republics reaching a high level of culture and economy.
Contribution to Victory
One of the main problems of the USSR after the attack of Nazi Germany was food. The enemy immediately invaded the lands that traditionally supplied the country with agricultural products. Now, the whole burden of responsibility for the provisions fell on the East. Pavel Baranov made sugar beets the subject of his research. The successes in the selection of root crops were highly appreciated - in 1943 he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and the following year he was transferred to work in the capital.
In Moscow, our hero was entrusted with caring for the botanical garden of the Academy of Sciences, making him deputy director of this important institution. In the biography of Baranov, there was already the creation of a similar botanical laboratory from scratch. For the restoration of the war-torn property of the country, he took with firm confidence in the success of the venture.
Orangery of the Botanical Garden in Moscow
