Zoya Nikolaevna Smirnova was a renowned Soviet bryologist and geobotanist. She was born in Saint-Petersburg, on February 7, 1898, to the family of a shipyard employee. In 1913, Z.N. received her comprehensive education from the Women’s Gymnasium in Saint-Petersburg, which she graduated from with a silver medal. Being a person of many interests, she decided later to advance her education in the same Gymnasium by taking extra courses in cosmography, logics, law, political economy, psychology, teaching methodology, and Latin language (in addition to German and French languages). In 1914, Z.N. became a student of the Women’s Pedagogical Institute and after her graduation she started teaching geography and natural sciences at school. In the 1920s, she was hired as an Assistant Professor by the Department of Plant Systematics and Morphology in Leningrad Agricultural Institute, later combining it with a job as a Research Associate at the Laboratory of Plant Morphology and Systematics in the Institute of Natural Sciences at Petergof, near Leningrad. In this lab, a highly erudite Professor N.A. Bush organized a group of promising scholars led by distinguished and experienced botanists, like V.N. Sukachev, I.D. Bogdanovskaya-Gienef, V.G.Tranzschel and others; the creative atmosphere of the team contributed greatly to Z.N.’s education. Vascular plant flora of the North-Western portion of Russia and geobotanical studies of meadow plant associations were among her first projects. Parallel with this, she was tasked to identify mosses that were brought by her colleagues from expeditions, under the supervision of the bryology consultant L.I. Savich-Lyubitskaya, who later would become her closest ally and colleague in bryological studies. Field research by Z.N. in forests and bogs of the Leningrad Oblast resulted in geobotanical publications with surprisingly accurate and detailed characterizations of the moss component of the explored communities, remarkable for the 1920s. In her subsequent expeditions across the country – to Ural Mts. and northern tundra areas (Kolguev Island) – methods of the Soviet geobotanical school were successfully applied, and her knowledge of bryophytes as well as lichens was essentially advanced. The Tables of Lichens of the Tundra Zone of the USSR were later published by her, based on this experience. In the late 1930s, Z.N. was hired as a lecturer in telmatology (peatland science) in the Leningrad Peat Industrial and Technical School, and then in the Leningrad Zootechnical Institute. In 1936, she received a degree in biological science, based on the totality of her work.

At the time of the Great Patriotic War (World War II) Z.N. Smirnova struggled a lot. Her husband died during the siege of Leningrad, after she was evacuated to Vologodskaya Oblast together with her three kids. There she had to work teaching at a school. Then they moved to Kostroma, where she found a job as an inspector of the Central Statistics Agency. During the next three years, Z.N. provided exceptional, dedicated work as a caregiver at a local orphanage, for which she was later awarded with the medal “For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945”.

In August 1945 Z.N. returned to Leningrad by personal request of L.I. Savich-Lyubitskaya, the head of the Laboratory of Bryology of the Department of Spore Plants at the Botanical Institute. Z.N. was invited to start her doctorate research on the systematics of the genus Drepanocladus. Thus, from 1945 bryology became her main specialization. For three summers (1946-1949) she worked in the Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden in Khibiny on the topic of her dissertation. This period of her personal life was also full of hardships. Professional and personal support was provided by many colleagues, especially by L.I. Savich-Lyubitskaya, I.D. Bogdanovskaya-Gienef  and R.N. Shlyakov. In March 1954, Z.N. defended her dissertation – a worldwide monograph of the genus Drepanocladus, and she received a full-time position as a Senior Research Associate of the Department of Spore Plants at the Botanical Institute.

As her first scientific area of expertise was geobotany, during her career Z.N. taught geobotanists to identify mosses and lichens. In 1962 she published her “Forage Lichens of the Far North of the USSR (a short key)”. She participated in creating handbooks of mosses of specific Russian regions (Arctic), or special systematic groups (Sphagnum) – not only for bryologists, but also for biologists of different disciplines. Z.N. worked on exsiccates of mosses of many regions of the country, which are still in use as reference herbaria. Innovative directions of her research in 1959-1972 were cooperative works with L.I. Savich-Lyubitskaya on mosses of Antarctica. With the same co-authorship three theoretical articles on the species concept in bryophytes were also published. Z.N. made a major contribution to the study of the bryoflora of the Ural Mts. and Yakutia.

Z.N. supported active collegial contacts with bryologists from all across the former USSR (e.g. V.Ya. Ardeeva/Cherdantseva, L.V. Bardunov, E.M. Bradis, A.F. Bachurina, K.O. Ulychna, G.F. Rykovsky, A.A. Abolin’, U.K. Mamatkulov). Her knowledge of foreign languages allowed her to communicate with colleagues from abroad (J. Duda, R. Grolle, B. Szafran, S. Lisowski, H. Persson, E. Nyholm, K. Holmen, T. Koponen, J. Dickson, E. Loge, T.C. Frye, A.Y. Sharp, L.E. Anderson, W.C. Steere, Z. Iwatsuki, H. Ando and others). 

Z.N. Smirnova published about 70 works; among the most significant publications are: “Genus Drepanocladus (C. Muell.) Roth (monographic study)”, Diss. Doct. Biol. Science (1954, 1469 pp.!), “Handbook of the mosses of the Arctic of the USSR” (1961, co-auth. A.L. Abramova & L.I. Savich-Lyubitskaya ), “Manual of Sphagnum mosses of the USSR” (1968, co-auth. L.I. Savich-Lyubitskaya), and “Handbook of the mosses of the USSR. Acrocarpous mosses” (1970, co-auth. Savich-Lyubitskaya).

Throughout her life Zoya Nikolaevna Smirnova set an outstanding example of service to science and society. She was an internationally recognized scientist and a woman of indomitable spirit and perseverance.

The text of this biography was created by Y.I. Kosovich-Anderson who sourced her information from:

 ???????, ?.?. [Katenin, A.E.] ?????? ??? ?????????? ?????????, 1989-1979 [In memory of Zoya Nikolaevna Smirnova, 1898-1979]. 2002. Arctoa 11: 399-408. (in Russian)

We appreciate the help of O.M. Afonina who provided this publication with a rare archive photo.