Ivan Chersky

Jan Stanisław Franciszek Czerski (b. 3 May 1845 in Swolna – d. 25 June 1892 nr. Kolyma) was a Polish paleontologist, osteologist, geologist, geographer and explorer of Siberia. He was exiled to Transbaikalia for participating 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 sites. He authored the first map of Lake Baikal.

Son of Dominik and Xenia Czerski, members of the Polish nobility, he was born in the then Vitebsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in Vitebsk Region, Belarus). At the age of 18, as a high-school student of the Instytut Szlachecki (Noble Institute) in Vilnius, 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, his lands confiscated and repossessed by another family member loyal to the Russian government. Czerski was then forcibly conscripted into the Russian Army and sentenced to be exiled to Siberia in Blagoveshchensk near the Amur River. He never made it to Blagoveshchensk, but was detached instead to serve in a formation near Omsk. During this time he was befriended by several Poles living in exile in the Omsk region, including: Marczewski and Kwiatkowski, as well as a Russian geographer, Grigory Nikolayevich Potanin. Under their influence, he became interested in the natural history of the region. They provided him with literature on Siberia and the natural sciences, so that during his free time he was able to educate himself and carry out his first research.

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