Scientist-Hunting Expert V.Ya. Generozov in the Pechora Expedition of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the RSFSR (1927–1928)

The development of scientific game management in Russia in the late 19th and the first half of the 20th century is closely associated with researchers who advocated the rational organization of the hunting economy to preserve the country's natural resources and the traditional way of life of populations dependent on hunting. Economist Vladimir Yakovlevich Generozov (1882–1963) became interested in game management and the organization of fur farming in the 1910s while on an extended official mission in North America. Upon his return to Russia, he sought to apply the data and personal observations he had collected. His work Fur Trade (1926) was not only a relevant overview of the economic geography of the fur trade in the USSR but also a schematic program for the economic survey of hunting economies in various regions of the country. Generozov himself participated in such a survey in the Komi Autonomous Region (1927–1928) as part of the Pechora Expedition of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the RSFSR. Based on archival documents from the Scientific Archive of the Federal Research Center Komi Science Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, this article presents, for the first time, details of the scientist’s participation in the expedition and the results of his work. As a result of Generozov’s surveys, an economic description of the Upper, Lower, and Middle Pechora regions was compiled, outlining the economic conditions of the local population. Furthermore, an assessment of the state of the hunting economy was provided, along with recommendations for its revitalization and development.