On June 25, a PCWCS dedicated to the 125th Birth Anniversary of Stanislav Kalesnik, a geographer, a glaciologist, and the President of the Russian Geographical Society, was put into postal circulation in the Geographical Projects of Russia series

Stanislav Kalesnik (1901–1977) was a Soviet geographic scientist, a Doctor of Geographical Sciences, a professor, and a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

S. Kalesnik was born on January 10 of 1901 in St. Petersburg. In 1922, he finished the courses at the Military Teachers' Institute in Petrograd, and in 1929, he graduated from the Geographical Faculty of Leningrad State University. He was a participant and the leader of a great number of geomorphological studies: mountainous regions of the Central Asian part of the USSR, glaciers of the Tien Shan, and Ala Tau. Kalesnik participated in expeditions to Novaya Zemlya, the islands of the Kara Sea, the North Caucasus, Crimea, the Khibiny Mountains, the Kola Peninsula, and Karelia. In 1929-1931, he was an associate professor at the Leningrad Mining Institute. In 1932-1937, he worked at the Bubnov Leningrad Regional Pedagogical Institute. Since 1935, he was an associate professor at Leningrad University. After defending his theses, which immediately gave him the degree of Doctor of Geographical Sciences, he became a professor and the Head of the Chair of Geography. In 1943-1949, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Geography and Vice-Rector of Leningrad State University. In 1951, he was appointed Head of the Department of Physical Geography at the University. Since 1955, he worked at the Laboratory of Lake Hydrology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and since 1971 — at the Institute of Lake Hydrology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1964-1977, he was the President of the Geographical Society of the USSR (presently, the Russian Geographical Society); in 1968-1972, he was a Vice-President of the International Geographical Union.

The scientist’s major works tackled theoretical issues in physical geography, landscape science, glaciology, and geomorphology. He developed a concept of general Earth science. He proposed the terms global ecology, chionosphere (glacial shell), energy of glaciation, and geographical structure; he clarified the concepts of geographical landscape and geographical environment. In 1940-1973, he was the Editor of the Izvestia VGO magazine. S. Kalesnik was the Editor of the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Geographical Names (M., Sovetskaya Encyclopedia, 1973).

The main illustration shows a portrait of S. Kalesnik against the backdrop of a photograph from the expedition to the Dzungarian Alatau in 1930–1931 and the RGO logo; the commemorative stamp features images symbolically reflecting geographical projects.

In addition to the issue of the postcard with a commemorative stamp, JSC Marka produced special cancels for Moscow and St. Petersburg.


Design Artists: S. Kapranov and M. Bodrova.
Quantity: 3.5 thousand postcards.

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