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[[File:Potanin.jpg|right|thumb|Grigory Nikolayaevich Potanin]]
:''This article is about Grigory Potanin. For other uses, see [[Potanin]].
{{wikisource|Author:Grigory Potanin}}

'''Grigory Nikolayevich Potanin''' (alt. Grigorij Potanin) ({{lang-ru|Григорий Николаевич Потанин}}; 4 October 1835 – 6 June 1920) was a [[Russian people|Russian]] ethnographer and natural historian. He was a [[Victorian-era]] explorer of [[Inner Asia]], and was the first to catalogue many of the area's native plants. On home soil, Potanin was an author and a political activist who aligned himself with the [[Siberian separatism|Siberian separatist movement]].

== Life ==

=== Early life ===
Potanin attended a [[Page Corps]] in [[Omsk]], a military school for children from wealthy families.<ref name = "ref2">{{cite web | url = http://irbis.asu.ru/docs/altai/art/gurkin/english/vues/potanin.html | title = The Drawings. The Great Siberians -- Potanin }}</ref>

Potanin initially travelled to [[Siberia]] while serving with a [[Cossack]] division in [[Altai (city)|Altaj]] in the 1850s. He returned to [[Saint Petersburg]] in 1858 to study [[Mathematical Physics]]. He was arrested for his participation in student demonstrations in 1861, and expelled from [[Saint Petersburg University]]. After spending three months in [[Petropavlovskaya fortress]], he returned to Siberia.<ref name = "ref1">{{cite web | url = http://www.prometeus.nsc.ru/eng/partner/intrview.ssi | title = Potaninskaya Library - Interview with Angelica Conner | publisher = Potaninskaya Library}}</ref>

After leaving prison, he travelled to Siberia with [[Nikolai M. Yadrintsev]], where he began to work as a publisher. Due to his support for regionality and rights for [[Siberian peoples]], he was arrested on charges of supporting [[separatism]] for Siberia in 1867. Convicted, he was sentenced to three years in [[prison]] and fifteen of [[hard labour]]. His hard labour was reduced to five years, and during those five years he wrote a book on the history of Siberia.<ref name = "ref1" />

In 1876, Potanin led an expedition into [[Mongolia]]. The expedition spent the winter of 1876-1877 in [[Khovd (city)|Kobdo]], with bitter cold and few provisions. While there, the expedition collected various [[biological specimen]]s and conducted [[ethnology|ethnological]] research. The expedition split into two parts upon leaving the city in the middle of March, 1877. Some members went to [[Han-Chai]], while Potanin and some others left for [[Hami City|Hami]] and [[Uliastai]].<ref name = "JSTOR1">{{cite journal | title = Brief Notice of M. Prejevalsky's Recent Journey to Lob-Nor and Tibet, and Other Russian Explorations | author = E. Delmar Morgan | journal = Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London | year = 1877 | publisher = The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) | volume = 22 | pages = 51–53 | doi = 10.2307/1799729 | issue = 1 | jstor=1799729}}</ref>

=== 1884-1886 expedition ===
Potanin journeyed to northern [[China]] from 1884 to 1886 with [[Augustus Ivonovitch Skassi]]. His expedition departed [[Peking]] on May 13, 1884. The expedition travelled first over the [[Wutaishan|U-tai-shan]] mountains, arriving in [[Hohhot]]. The expedition left Hohhot and travelled across the [[Yellow River]] into the [[Ordos Desert]]. They travelled to the ruins of [[Borobalgassun]] and from there on to [[Lanzhou|Lang-chau]]. He encountered a [[Turkic people]] called the [[Salar people|Salars]], and Potanin recorded information about [[Salar language|their language]]. He then spent time recording the cultural practices of the [[Upper Mongols|Amdos Mongol]]s. The party then travelled to [[Xining|Si-ning]] and met its governor, who authorised their travel into eastern [[Tibet]]. They departed Si-ning and went to [[Min County|Ming-chau]], crossing the high altitude [[Tibetan Plateau]], where they recorded information on the native vegetation. There, the expedition visited [[Gui-dui]], [[Bóunan]], [[Labrang]] and [[Josi]] before reaching Ming-chau. The expedition ran out of supplies in [[Songpan County|Sung-pang-ting]], and turned back towards [[Lanzhou|Lang-chau]], stopping in [[Lung-an-fu]], [[Wen County, Gansu|Ven-hsien]], [[Tse-chau]], [[Hung-chang-fu]] and [[Lintao County|Di-dao]]. They spent the winter of 1885 in the [[Kumbum Monastery]], before returning to Russia.<ref name = "JSTOR2">{{cite journal | title = Potanin's Journey in North-Western China and Eastern Tibet | journal = Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography, New Monthly Series | volume = 9 |date=April 1887 | pages = 233–235 | doi = 10.2307/1801220 | issue = 4 | publisher = Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography, Vol. 9, No. 4 | jstor=1801220}}. (This can also be found at https://books.google.com/books?id=acqfAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA233 )</ref>

While there, he was the first foreigner to report on the [[Eastern Yugur language|East Yugur]] and [[Western Yugur language|West Yugur]] languages, making a glossary that was published with assistance from [[Vasily Radlov]] in his book on the expedition, ''[[The Tangut-Tibetan Borderlands of China and Central Mongolia]]'' in 1893.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20120316172207/http://altaica.ru/LIBRARY/POPPE/poppe_salar.pdf</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://home.arcor.de/marcmarti/yugur/yugurol.htm |title=Yugurology |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20031005162152/http://home.arcor.de/marcmarti/yugur/yugurol.htm |archivedate=October 5, 2003 }}</ref><ref name="Potanin1893">{{cite book|author=Grigoriĭ Nikolaevich Potanin|title=Tangutsko-Tibetskai͡a okraina Kitai͡a i TSentralnai͡a Mongolii͡a|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=crgQAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=1893}}</ref><ref name="Потанин1893">{{cite book|author=Григорий Николаевич Потанин|title=Тангутско-Тибетская окраина Китая и Центральная Монголія: путешествіе Г.Н. Потанина 1884-1886. Том 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1QMyAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=1893|publisher=Тип. А.С. Суворина}}</ref><ref name="Потанин1893 1">{{cite book|author=Григорий Николаевич Потанин|title=Тангутско-Тибетская окраина Китая и Центральная Монголія: путешествіе Г.Н. Потанина 1884-1886|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PwTAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=1893|publisher=Тип. А.С. Суворина}}</ref><ref>http://members.home.nl/marcmarti/yugur/biblio/ROOS_WesternYugurLanguage.pdf</ref> The book also contains a language glossary for the [[Salar language]].<ref name = "JSTOR2" /><ref name="Potanin1893 1">{{cite book|author=Grigoriĭ Nikolaevich Potanin|title=Tangutsko-Tibetskai͡a okraina Kitai͡a i TSentralnai͡a Mongolii͡a|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=crgQAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA426#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=1893|pages=1–}}</ref><ref name="Потанин1893 2">{{cite book|author=Григорий Николаевич Потанин|title=Тангутско-Тибетская окраина Китая и Центральная Монголія: путешествіе Г.Н. Потанина 1884-1886|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PwTAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA426#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=1893|publisher=Тип. А.С. Суворина|pages=426–}}</ref><ref name="Потанин1893 3">{{cite book|author=Григорий Николаевич Потанин|title=Тангутско-Тибетская окраина Китая и Центральная Монголія: путешествіе Г.Н. Потанина 1884-1886. Том 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1QMyAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA426#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=1893|publisher=Тип. А.С. Суворина|pages=426–}}</ref>

=== Later life ===
In 1889, Potanin led the group that formed the first [[University]] in Russian Asia, [[Tomsk State University]], in [[Tomsk]].<ref name = "ref2" />

Potanin was arrested in 1905 for his support of the [[Revolution of 1905]].<ref name = "ref1" />

Potanin was a leading light in the ''[[oblastniki]]'' which aimed at some degree of regional self-government for Siberia, but this movement lacked any party or regional organisation, and was limited to a small group of intellectuals mainly based at Tomsk University. It was here that they organised a Regional Conference in August 1917, and a Congress in October to draft a constitution for an autonomous Siberia. Potanin was elected chairman of the [[Provisional Siberian Council]] 8 December 1918 at Tomsk by delegates from the major centres of Siberia. But this assembly was largely dominated by the [[Socialist-Revolutionary Party|Esery]] (Social Revolutionaries, SRs), and Potanin resented being used as a mere figurehead and resigned in protest 12 January 1918 as the first ''Siboduma'' convened. Subsequently he abandoned the idea of Siberian autonomy in favour of a strong central authority able to restore order and defeat the [[Bolsheviks]].<ref>J.D. Smele (1996) Civil War in Siberia CUP, 1996, p19-20.</ref> The members of ''Siboduma'' dispersed or were rounded up by local [[Red Guards (Russia)|Red Guards]] on the night of January 25–26, 1918. Potanin died at Tomsk in June 1920.

Potaninskaya Street in [[Novosibirsk]], Russia, is named after him.

A [[species]] of Chinese [[skink]], ''[[Scincella|Scincella potanini]]'', is named in his honor.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Potanin", p. 210).</ref> The handsome Chinese tree ''[[Sumac|Rhus potaninii]]'' which glows like a red banner in autumn also bears his name.<ref>http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200012709</ref> Also the asteroid [[9915 Potanin]], discovered in 1977, bears his name.
{{Botanist|Potanin|Po}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Potanin, Grigorij Nikolaevich}}
[[Category:1835 births]]
[[Category:1920 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Pavlodar Region]]
[[Category:Turkologists]]
[[Category:Russian orientalists]]
[[Category:Russian explorers]]
[[Category:Explorers of Asia]]
[[Category:Explorers of Central Asia]]
[[Category:Siberian nationalism]]

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