Byalynitsky-Birulya Alexey Andreevich 
(02.11.1864–18.06.1937)

Zoologist and landscape painter, professor at Leningrad University, director of the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Arctic explorer. 
Born in the village of Babkovo, Orsha district, Mogilev province. He graduated from high school in Vyazma, and then St. Petersburg University. In 1891 he conducted research in the Caucasus, from 1893 he worked as a zoologist at the Zoological Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1898 he was awarded the IRGO silver medal in the department of mathematical and physical geography. 
In 1899, Byalynitsky-Birulya participated in the Spitsbergen expedition of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1900 he was invited by a zoologist to the Russian Polar expedition E.V. Toll. During the wintering off the coast of the Taimyr Peninsula, he made a two-month  route to Cape Chelyuskin, collecting a wealth of zoological material and mapping the coast from the place of wintering to Cape Sterlegov. The tireless Byalynitsky-Birulya was escorted by N.N. Kolomeitsev and S.I. Rastorguev in their last trip to the Yenisei. 
For the second time he spent the winter with the expedition on the western coast of  Kotel'niy Island Archipelago Novosibirsk Islands. With two satellites, Byalynitsky-Birulya moved to New Siberia Island, from where they had to remove the "Zarja". The vessel could not pass to New Siberia, and, having lost hope, the travelers built a winterable kitchen. Fortunately, they did not have to spend the winter. At the end of November, they set foot on the mainland on established ice on dogs and arrived in the village of Kazachye in mid-December. During the five-month stay in New Siberia, they collected a rich zoological material. 
Byalynitsky-Birulya worked on various groups of animals from intestinal cavities to mammals, published numerous works on the systematics of animals, which he illustrated. He is one of the founders of research on parasitology in the USSR. The geographic activity of Byalynitsky-Birulya in 1921 was marked by the Konstantinovsky medal  of the Russian Geographical Society. 
No less well known is Byalynitsky-Birulya and as an artist. The main theme of his works of art - beautifully made arctic landscapes, which he created on the basis of his expeditionary sketches. In 1908 he was elected an academician of the Russian Academy of Arts. 
In 1923, Byalynitsky-Birulya was elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In the 1920s, he served as deputy chairman of the Permanent Polar Commission of the Academy of Sciences, was a member of the Permanent Commission for the Study of Tropical Countries, participated in the work of the NRC, worked in the Geographical and Economic Research Institute at the Faculty of Geography of Leningrad State University. 
In 1929, the reorganization of the Zoological Museum, headed at that time by Byalynitsky-Birulya, began. The government commission worked, which checked the staff of the Academy of Sciences after the failure of several government nominees in elections. Checked - this means cleaning out the ranks of the Academy of employees who are not suitable for ideological reasons. The professional level of the employee in this case was of secondary importance. In particular, scholars associated with the church or who had a theological education were expelled. According to the results of the Commission’s work in the Zoological Museum, an opinion was expressed on the advisability of removing the director of the museum from his post: “... thinks that A. Byalnitsky-Birulya’s director of the Z [oological] m [usya] has great merits in scientific attitude, and in preserving the values of the museum; however, as an organizer, it is extremely difficult for him to cope with the ever-increasing demands made by life on the Z [oological] m [Uzei] ... and therefore he finds it expedient to raise the question of changing the leadership of the Z [oological] m [uzeya] in advance”. In this situation, Byalynitsky-Birulya was forced to leave his post. 
In 1930 he was arrested in the “case of the Academy of Sciences” and sentenced to three years in the camps. He served a term lekpohom (assistant doctor) in Belbaltlag (business trip to the city of Segezha), was released early and sent to exile in Arkhangelsk, where he worked in the Arkhangelsk city branch of the State Oceanographic Institute. Later, Byalynitsky-Birulya worked under a contract at the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1935, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Biological Sciences without protection. In 1935 - 1936, he held the positions of senior specialist and head of the zoology sector of the Kazakhstan branch of the Academy of Sciences.

He died in Leningrad. In the newspaper Leningradskaya Pravda dated June 20, 1937 there is a message from the Zoological Museum about his death and a telephone number was given to clarify the date and place of the funeral. At present, even in the Zoological Museum, they do not know where he was buried. 
Bay (Birulya) on the peninsula Zarya Khariton Laptev coast. Called by E.V. Toll in 1901. 
River in the north of the island of New Siberia.