Richard Karlovich Maack (1825-1886)

Richard Karlovich Maack was born on September 4, 1825 in Estonia. He was a 19^th century Russian naturalist, geographer, and anthropologist.

He is most known for his exploration of the Russian Far East and Siberia, particularly the Ussuri and Amur River valleys.

He was a member of the Siberian branch of the Russian Geographical Society. He studied natural sciences at the University of St. Petersburg. In 1852 he became a professor of natural sciences at the Gymnasium in Irkutsk and later director of the school.

From 1868 to 1879, he was the superintendent of all schools of northern Siberia. During the 1850s he undertook a number of expeditions in Siberia including those to the Amur River valley (1855–1856) and the Ussuri River (1859).

Maak was the first Russian and European scientist, who described the Amur, its banks and closest vicinity. When he came to Khabarobka, he met with the aboriginal people living near the Amur Cliff at the Byri River (the future Chardymovka River).

Later Maak wrote in his notes about the wealth of local nature ,”During this trip I was certain that the Amur is rich in fish, I shot some sturgeons with my gun; huge sturgeons jumped out of the water and disappeared again, flapping their wide tails. Sturgeons and a lot of other fish were swimming near our feet between the stones; they were playing under the sun, splashing the water and leaving quickly disappearing circles on the surface of the river. (The scientist observed this pageant near the present-day plant “Daldiesel”).

The scientist wrote some of the first scientific descriptions of the natural history of remote Siberia and collected many biological specimens, many of which were original type specimens of previously unknown species. Maack is most famous for collecting previously unknown species and sending specimens back for scientific descriptions and naming. A number of those he found during the Amur River expedition bear his name.