MUSEUM OF FORESTRY named after G.F. MOROZOV
The museum of forestry is located in the main building of the University at the Institute of Forest and Nature Use. The museum was named after its creator — G.F. Morozov (1867–1920), an outstanding Russian scientist, a classical scholar of forestry, a true expert of nature.
Paying great attention to the visibility of teaching and organizing educational museums, he set the goal of collecting and showing in the Museum of Forestry everything that could help students to study the basic processes and patterns of forest life more thoroughly. “The task of the forest museum,” wrote G.F. Morozov, — is to show on vivid examples the essence of forest as a biological, social and geographical phenomenon “.
The museum was created at the time when Professor G.F. Morozov was the Head of the Department of General Forestry. The museum was used for practical purposes. It was further developed after the revolution.
The centrepiece of the first hall of the Museum is occupied by a skilfully made model — a plot of a real Russian forest — dry pine forest typical for the central part of European Russia. Under the crowns of mature pines there grow young fir trees, young pines, birches; lower on- shrubs: juniper, heather with very small stiff leaves, elegant fishnet ferns. The surface of the soil is covered with soft moss, grayish-white dry lichens. In such forests mushrooms and berries grow abundantly. Here one can see crimson cranberries, and there – a boletus mushroom with a brown cap and orange cap boletus mushrooms “sitting” deep in the moss.
The exposition shows clearly that the forest, according to the doctrine of G.F. Morozov, is a complex organism, the unity of plant and animal life, soil, atmosphere.
The topic of another display is “Forest and Fauna”. It shows the interaction of forest with the animals and birds that inhabit it. In a large photo one can see a mixed forest and its typical inhabitants: squirrels, owls, woodpeckers, tits, wood grouse. On the model — a schematic section of soil — the rodents living in it can be seen: a mole, forest mice.
In the centre of the hall there are two stands: one contains the main documents on forests; and the whole area of the other stand is occupied by a huge map of the forests of Russia.
The oldest and therefore especially valuable exhibits are the samples of the roots of pine and spruce, collected by the founder of the Museum. Here you can get acquainted with different types of soils.
The models “Forest and Light”, “Forest and Precipitation”, “Forest and Wind” demonstrate the influence of forest on the distribution of light, precipitation; the role of wind in the life of the forest.
In the second hall of the museum there are five large show-windows with very well made forest models. This is one and the same section of forest demonstrating species succession during 100–150 years under the influence of climatic conditions, economic activity and changes in soil composition. The model vividly illustrates one of the main provisions of Morozov’s doctrine that in the forest there is a constant struggle for existence, which results in suppressing and forcing out the weak by the strong, the strong winning in the struggle.
There is also a display devoted to logging. Felling is carried out on a strictly scientific basis. It is necessary to cut forest down (clear cut, cut gradually or selectively) so that it does not suffer from it and could grow again, and the most valuable tree species could be reforested.
In the Museum of Forestry named after G.F. Morozov there is an interesting collection of fungi which parasitize on the trunks of growing trees, as well as the collection of photographs of fungi and bacteria that destroy wood, forest birds and animals.
There are many bright colourful stands in the second hall of the Museum. Some of them demonstrate plantation types with woody and herbaceous vegetation and soil typical for them; others are dedicated to forest protection and to fighting the most terrible enemy of forests — forest fires. Some stands demonstrate what the forest gives a man, how wood is used in the national economy.
Everything in the Museum testifies to the special and caring attitude of grateful descendants to the name of G.F. Morozov — the coryphaeus of Russian forestry. The first editions of his works are stored in the Museum with great care. The museum reveals to us the secrets of the forest, the teachings of which made G.F. Morozov world famous.
