Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko

Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko (7 February 1844 – 15 September 1873) was a Russian naturalist and explorer well known for his travels in central Asia.

He was born at Irkutsk, in Siberia, and after attending the gymnasium of his native town, proceeded to the university of Moscow, for the study more especially of zoology and geology. In 1868 he travelled through Turkestan, Samarkand, Panjkent and the upper Zarafshan River valley. In 1870 he explored the Fan Mountains south of the Zarafshan. In 1871 he reached the Alay Valley at Daroot-Korgan and saw the northern Pamir Mountains but was unable to penetrate southward. Soon after his return to Europe he perished on Mont Blanc while engaged in an exploring tour in France.

Accounts of the explorations and discoveries of Fedchenko have jeen published by the Russian government; his Journeys in Turkestan in 1874, In the Khanat of Khokand in 1875, and Botanical Discoveries in 1876.

The Fedchenko Glacier in the Pamirs is named after him, as is the asteroid 3195 Fedchenko. See Petermanns Mittheilungen (1872–1874).

He also discovered the life cycle of Dracunculus which causes Dracunculiasis, more commonly known as Guinea worm disease (GWD).

Works

• 1875 Puteshestvie v Turkestan; zoogeographicheskia izledovania. Gos. izd-vo Geograficheskoi Literatury, Moskva.

References

• Robert Middleton and Huw Thomas, "Tajikistan and the High Pamirs", Odyssey Guides, 2008
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Baker, D. B., 2004 Type material of Hymenoptera described by O. L. Radoszkowsky in the Natural History Museum, London,and the localities of A. P. Fedtschencko's Reise in Turkestan Dt. ent. Zeitschr. 51, 231-252.
• Lohde, G. 1873 [Fedtschenko, A. P.] Berl. Ent. Ztschr. 17 236-238.
• Mac Lachlan, R. 1973 [Fedtschenko, A. P.] Entomologist's Monthly Magazine (3) 10(1873-74)141.
• Pesenko, Yu. A. & Astafurova, Yu. V. 2003: Annotated Bibliography of Russian and Soviet Publications on the Bees 1771 - 2002 (Hymenoptera: Apoidea; excluding Apis mellifera). Denisia 11 1-616.
• Regel, E. 1874 [Fedtschenko, A. P.] Regel, Gartenflora 3-7, Portr.