RGS Awards
The Russian Geographical Society, for special merits and achievements in the field of geographical science and related sciences about nature and society, as well as for organizational and other assistance to the Society, has the right to award awards, nominate and support candidates for honorary titles of the Society, awards and prizes awarded by the Russian Federation, Russian Academy of Sciences, other organizations and institutions, as well as governments and organizations of foreign states.
To consider submissions for medals and awards of the Society, the Governing Council of the Society forms an Awards Commission.
Award "Honored Geographer of the Russian Federation" Photo: Anna Yurgenson/RGS press service
The S.I. Dezhnev Prize is awarded once a year for the best scientific works and research on the geography of Northeast Asia carried out during the last three years preceding the year of the next competition. This award can be awarded exclusively to scientific works of individual Russian citizens and author groups.
The works are provided in Russian, printed on electronic media or in a typographic way. At the same time, it is mandatory to provide brief biographical information about the authors with a list of the main scientific works.
The funds necessary for the payment of the award are allocated by the Russian Geographical Society by providing an appropriate grant. The award decision is posted on the Company's website. The award given for collective work, in the absence of an indication of the share of work of each author, is divided equally among all authors.
It was established on December 3, 1846. The Konstantin Medal became the first award of the Society. The medal was conceived by the chairman of the Society, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. The first winner of the Konstantinovsky Medal was in 1849 Ernst Karlovich Hoffman, the head of the first expedition of the Russian Geographical Society to the Northern Urals (1847-1848) "for his work on the expedition to the Polar Urals."
In 2010, after almost a century of interruption (since 1926), the awarding of the Konstantinovsky Medal, the main award of the Society, resumed. Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin presented the award to biogeographer and TV presenter Nikolai Nikolaevich Drozdov. The Medal is awarded to members of the Society for great achievements in geographical science and exceptional contribution to the activities of the Society.
In different years, the medals were awarded:
1858 – Aksakov Ivan Sergeevich for research on trade at Ukrainian fairs;
1863 – Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl for the "Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian language";
1874 – Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky for scientific research and geographical discoveries and travels to Mongolia and the Tangut country;
1878 – Nordenskiold Adolf Eric for research and navigation in the Arctic Ocean along the northern coasts of Western and Eastern Siberia;
1897 - Nansen Fridtjof for the feat he accomplished, which constitutes an epoch in the exploration of the Arctic Ocean;
1900 – Vladimir Afanasievich Obruchev for his works on the geology of Asia;
1902 – Peter Kuzmich Kozlov for the Tibetan expedition in 1899-1901.;
1905 – Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich for his participation in the expedition of Baron E.V. Toll and especially for the trip to Bennett Island;
1907 – Grum-Grzhimailo Grigory Efimovich for the total set of works on the geography of Asia and for the work "Description of a trip to Western China. Vol. III."
