Grigoriev Alexander Vasilyevich 
(1848-25.10(07.11).1908)

Russian geographer, zoologist, botanist, ethnographer, secretary of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics, St. Petersburg University. 
Born in Petersburg. Initial education received home, another two years before entering the gymnasium, he stayed abroad and only at the age of 14 entered the first gymnasium, and then at the natural faculty of St. Petersburg University. A year after he graduated with the degree of candidate in 1871, he received an invitation to teach botany at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. 
In 1876, Grigoriev, accompanying Professor N.P. Wagner's expedition to the White Sea, received the most valuable materials dredging the seabed.He proved the fallacy of the assumption that the Gulf Stream branch entered the White Sea. 
In 1879, the Imperial Russian Geographical Society commanded Grigoriev to the outfit with A.M. Sibiryakov funds   expedition on the steam schooner "Nordenskiöld", which was supposed to go around Asia from the south and come to the aid of N.А.Е. Nordenskiöld, wintered on the ship "Vega" off the coast of Siberia. Near the Japanese  Esso Island schooner ran aground. Grigoriev, taking advantage of a forced stop in Japan, engaged in ethnographic research on the Ainu. Upon his return in 1880, he presented his zoological collection as a gift to the Academy of Sciences, and the ethnographic collection to the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. 
In 1881, Grigoriev was the chief commissioner of the Russian department of the geographical exhibition in Venice, organized on the occasion of the Geological Congress. It is to him that the Russian department of the exhibition owes its outstanding success. 
In the course of his active expeditionary work, Grigoriev visited the Solovetsky Islands in 1886, the following year he participated in the expedition A.I. Vilkitsky to Novaya Zemlya, where he gathered wonderful natural-historical collections, which he transferred to the Museum of the Academy of Sciences. 
In 1889, he was elected a delegate to the Geological Congress in Paris. 
In 1896, as a statistician, Grigoriev participated in the census of the population in the northern provinces of Russia. His task was to coordinate and unite the actions of the census institutions of the Arkhangelsk and Vologda provinces. To solve it, he left St. Petersburg for a long time and twice traveled around these vast desert territories, in many places where there was neither a post, nor a telegraph, and often roadways. These trips undermined his health, and after them he was no longer able to make any travels. 
Grigoriev devoted much of his strength and energy to his work at Imperial Russian Geographical Society, taking up in 1883 the post of secretary of the company, whose duties he had been performing for 20 years. Over the years, he has established close relations with foreign geographic societies and selected prominent geographers, and has promoted a wide exchange of scientific publications and the replenishment of the library fund. During its secretarial activities, the Library of the Society was enriched with excellent travel publications of its own with excellent cartographic applications, and the publication of the Yearbook of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society began. In addition to the daily duties of the secretary of the Society, Grigoriev also performed various extraordinary tasks: building a monument to N.M. Przhevalsky in St. Petersburg and Issyk-Kul, arranging anniversary celebrations of the Society, receiving F. Nansen, searching for S. Andre. 
Grigoriev owns numerous publications in editions of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society on the geography of mainly the northern margins of Europe and Asia. 
In 1902, he fell seriously ill and was forced to leave the post of secretary of the Society, and within a year to completely abandon any work. At the meeting of the Society, at the suggestion of his Vice-Chairman P.P. Semenov, Grigoriev was elected an honorary member and a member of the Council. In 1908 he was elected assistant to the vice-chairman, he again began to visit the Society, again took up work, but sudden death interrupted her. 
As stated in the obituary, “Grigoriev fell to great happiness: he was a witness and participant in the brilliant band of G. Society. Under him, the scientific conquest of Central Asia was accomplished, all the largest expeditions were organized, starting with Przhevalsky and Pevtsov and ending with the last expedition of P.K. Kozlov. 
But we can safely say that the share of large Russian travelers had the enviable fate of working in Germany. At a time when A.V. was its secretary. No large expedition organized without his assistance, no traveler who did not use his advice. and did not owe a part of his success to A.V.".  
He died in Petersburg, buried at the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery. The grave could not be found. 
Strait, leading to the Bay of Middendorf on the bank of Khariton Laptev, Taimyr. Named in 1900 by E.V. Toll.