Pyotr Manteifel

A portrait by Manteifel

Pyotr Alexandrovich Manteifel (also written as Manteuffel) (1882-1960) was a Soviet zoologist and naturalist.^[1] He was a scion of the famous family of Baltic Germans. He was born in Moscow, the son of the writer, musician and civil servant . Pyotr spent his childhood in the estate in Serpukhov district. In 1902, he graduated from the  [ru] and entered the for higher studies. In 1905, he married the daughter of a court official; two years later, this marriage produced a son, , who became a prominent Soviet biologist.

In addition to classes at the academy, Manteuffel attended lectures at Moscow University, and went on nature expeditions to Central Asia and Central Russia. After graduating with honors in 1910, he became an agronomist and soil scientist. Soon he was called for military service, and in 1914 he was mobilized to the war front; the First World War and the Russian Civil War forced him to interrupt his scientific activities for many years.

In 1924, the director of the Moscow Zoo, MM Zavadovsky, invited Manteuffel to head the ornithological section. He was later appointed deputy director for scientific affairs. Manteuffel was a crucial figure behind the formation of the famous , or the Circle of Young Biologists of the Zoo, proving himself to be a popular and talented teacher. The pupils called him Uncle; many future scientists, zoologists and naturalists came out of this youth program, among them , , , Vera Chaplina, , , , the brothers and , , Yuri Isakov, , , and others.

A key achievement of Manteuffel and his students was the successful breeding of sable in captivity in 1928–29. In 1934–1937, he wrote regularly for Izvestia. At the end of 1937, Manteuffel was forced to leave the zoo after an unsuccessful attempt by a group of workers to remove the new director, L. V. Ostrovsky. After the Second World War, Manteuffel was deputy director for scientific work at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Hunting (VNIO) from 1948 to 1955. He also worked in the Presidium of the All-Russian Society for the Conservation of Nature.

Manteuffel was a talented writer and wrote several popular science books. His work was praised by the likes of Konstantin Paustovsky. He was translated into English, German, Bengali and other Indian languages, by the state translating houses Progress Publishers and Raduga Publishers.

• "Stories of a Naturalist" (1937)
• "In the Taiga and in the Steppe. Essays and Stories "(1939)"
• "Notes of a Naturalist "(1961).

He died in 1960 and was buried at the Lublin cemetery in Moscow.

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