Alexander Petrunkevitch

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Alexander Ivanovitch Petrunkevitch (1875 in Pliski near Kiev – 1964 Yale) was an eminent arachnologist of his time. From 1910 to 1939 he described over 130 spider species.

His aristocratic father, Ivan Illitch Petrunkevitch, was a liberal member of the First Duma and founded the Constitutional Democratic Party.

After finishing his studies in Moscow and in Freiburg under August Weismann, he settled in Yale in 1910, becoming a full professor in 1917.

Apart from describing species, he studied fossil spiders and experimented with live specimens. He also worked on insects.

He was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1954.

Throughout his career he remained politically active, trying to increase awareness of problems in Russia. He was also a skilled machinist and wrote two volumes of poetry (under the pseudonym Alexandr Jan-Ruban), and translated Pushkin into the English language, and Byron into Russian.