Jan Czerski

Jan Stanisław Franciszek Czerski (3 May 1845 – 25 June 1892) was a Polish paleontologist (osteologist), geologist, geographer and explorer of Siberia. He was exiled to Transbaikalia for participation in the January Uprising of 1863. A self-taught scientist, he eventually received three gold medals from the Russian Geographical Society, and his name was given to a settlement, two mountain ranges, several peaks and other places. He authored the first map of Lake Baikal and died during an expedition to Kolyma.

Biography

Son of Dominik and Xenia Czerski, a noble family (szlachta), he was born on 3 May 1845 in Swolna, then Vitebsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in Vitebsk Region, Belarus). At the age of 18, as a high-school student in Vilnius (at the Instytut Szlachecki (Noble Institution)) he took part in the January Uprising (1863–1864). He was captured and taken prisoner on 28 April 1863, and then stripped of his noble status, with his lands being repossessed by another family member loyal to the Russian government. Czerski was then forcibly conscripted into the Russian Army and exiled to Siberia (to Blagoveshchensk near Amur River) by the Russian authorities. He never made it to Blagoveshchensk, and was detached to serve in a formation near Omsk. During that time he was taken in by some other Poles (Marczewski, Kwiatkowski) living in exile in Omsk region, as well as a Russian geographer, Grigory Nikolayevich Potanin. With their help he became interested in the natural history of the region. They provided him with literature on Siberia and natural sciences, and during his free time he self-educated himself and carried out his first research.