Soil of savannahs and woodlands in Eurasia. Presentation on the theme "savannas and woodlands". Tropical rainforests
On the night of October 2 to 3, 1814, in Moscow, in the family of army captain Yuri Petrovich Lermontov and nineteen-year-old Maria Mikhailovna (nee Arsenyeva), a boy named Mikhail was born, for whom fate had prepared a great, but dramatic future.
Mikhail Yuryevich on his father's side is a Scot, on his mother's side he is Russian.
In Scotland, where the Tweed merges with the Leader, the ruins of Ersildoun Castle are still intact, which are now called the Lermontov Tower. The most distant ancestor of the Lermontovs in 1061 was the leader of King Malcolm and participated in the struggle against Macbeth, who inspired the great Shakespeare, whose drama is still admired and amazed by the audience of all culturally developed countries.
The marriage of the parents of the future poet, concluded against the will of the mother of the bride, the Penza landowner Elizaveta Alekseevna Arsenyeva, was difficult to call happy.
In 1817 Mikhail's mother died. The father was not allowed to see the boy, and Misha spent all his childhood under the care of his grandmother, who loved him madly, did not spare any money for his upbringing. Misha loved his grandmother, but she never became a close person to her grandson.
What is it like to live without parents - it is not worth talking about it in detail. This fact, and the mutual enmity between the grandmother and the father of the future poet, caused the child considerable suffering, and in the end, all this affected his character, state of mind. Misha was sick a lot, experienced a lot of bodily torment.
He often plunged into an unreal world of dreams and dreams, worries and sadness.
For the purpose of recovery in 1825, the grandmother took her grandson to the North Caucasus, for treatment with mineral waters. Wonderful pictures were opened to Lermontov in the Caucasus. He fell in love with this marvelous land with all his heart.
In 1827, Mikhail Lermontov and his grandmother, Elizaveta Alekseevna, went to Moscow to study. In 1828, Mikhail entered the Noble University Boarding School. The teachers (mostly professors of Moscow University) turned out to be beyond praise.
In 1829, M.Yu. Lermontov brilliantly completed his course at the Noble Boarding School.
Grandmother won Michael from his father before the age of sixteen. The father patiently withstood this period. Previously, he rarely saw his son. But in Moscow, while the boy was studying at a boarding school, Yuri Petrovich often met him and often even took part in his classes, became very close to him and decided not to yield his son to his grandmother.
The fight began. Grandmother did not want to part with her pet, reminded him of loneliness, that she would not survive separation, that her life would be aimless if he left her and went to his father. Misha felt sorry for both his grandmother and his father; he was terribly agitated, extremely irritable; but a feeling of compassion for the old woman took over, and he stayed with his grandmother. Father, excited, shocked by this, left Moscow for his village and soon died there.
Then a bitter epitaph poured out from under the pen of Mikhail Yuryevich. A sixteen-year-old boy became disillusioned with people - he has a number of gloomy poems. He is convinced that the world around him does not correspond to his cherished thoughts, and, looking back at his short past and seeing clearly the present, he says: “I feel lonely among people; in my mind I created another world and other images of existence.
At this time, he, looking more vigilantly into himself, finds that he is marked by fate, that the earthly world is small for him, and begins to live exclusively by his inner world, his inspiration and love for nature, which he lives for for short years. Even then it already seemed to the young man that everything was changing him, only the sounds of the lyre could not be changed ... inspiration saves from petty worries. He believes in the depths of his soul that his "mind is not trivially striving for something secret."
In the spring of 1830, M.Yu. Lermontov entered Moscow University, but he did not stay there for long. In 1832, the future poet, against his wishes, was drawn into a story with one of the professors, and therefore left the university and Moscow and moved with his grandmother to St. Petersburg.
At Petersburg University, he was offered to start classes again from the first year. This seemed to the young man tedious and boring, and he entered the school of the guards junkers.
Strict discipline and a certain emptiness of life worried him. Military prowess did not capture Mikhail - in his soul he was completely different. The young man had many enemies, because often his caustic ridicule, witticisms, sharp as a razor, irritated. Inspiration, poetic daydreams saved him here too. He went into his work, only then he was himself. Life dragged on monotonously, but time flew by quickly.
In November 1834, Lermontov graduated from the cadet school and was promoted to cornet of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment stationed in Tsarskoye Selo. At this time, without his will, his poem "Khadzhi Abrek" appeared on the pages of the "Library for Reading" magazine.
In the military circle, Mikhail Yuryevich was already known as a poet, but general fame came to him in January 1837.
It was a difficult time - Lermontov was extremely restless when the sad news (the poet Pushkin, wounded in a duel by Dantes, died) reached him. What happened deeply shocked him. The aspiring poet passionately loved Pushkin from childhood, and the bitter news stirred his soul, and he threw his iron verse, drenched in bile, to secular society, which later became known to everyone and everyone: "The poet died ...".
The poem also reached Emperor Nicholas I. Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich also read it. He, smiling, said: "Oh, how did he (Lermontov) disagree."
Glory came, but the poet was transferred from the cornets of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment as an ensign to the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment, which was stationed in the Caucasus, where he was supposed to retire.
Again, before Lermontov, the Caucasus, dear to his soul, again shines with eternal snow before his eyes, Elbrus - Shat-mountain, leaving in the clouds. Marvelous images, wonderful poetic dreams capture his soul, and he writes a lot, quickly, with inspiration. His wonderful epic “Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilievich, a young guardsman and a daring merchant Kalashnikov” was also written there.
The fame of the poet is growing; but he feels his loneliness more and more and moves further away from people. Grandmother intercedes for her pet, he is returned back to St. Petersburg, assigned to the Grodno Hussars, then transferred to the same one in which he served before exile. 1839 and the beginning of 1840 are coming. Many of his major works in verse and prose are published and accepted with enthusiasm.
And suddenly, at the beginning of 1840, a new unpleasant story for M.Yu. Lermontov: an insignificant conversation that took place at the ball at the ball of Countess Laval with Barant, the son of the French envoy to the Russian court, led to the fact that Barant challenged Lermontov to a duel. This duel ended in nothing - Lermontov shot into the air, and the opponents remained safe and sound.
But the poet was again sent to the Caucasus, where he was transferred to the Tenginsky Infantry Regiment. In April, he left the capital and went to the mountains dear to him, this time sadly parting with St. Petersburg. Longing and heavy forebodings crushed his heart.
In this year, 1840, Lermontov took part in a military expedition against the highlanders, where he distinguished himself by bravery at the Valerik river and wrote a poem there under that title. That year, several poems and two new stories were published from his pen: "Maxim Maksimovich" and "Princess Mary".
At the end of 1840, at the request of his grandmother, Mikhail Yuryevich was allowed to leave for St. Petersburg, where he spent some time, and then again went to his regiment, to the Caucasus, having spent several weeks in Moscow. This was his last trip to the mountains, where a few months later, at the sole of a shaggy, like a Persian hat, Mashuk, near Pyatigorsk, on July 15, 1841, in the evening, in a terrible thunderstorm, he was killed in a duel by Captain Martynov.
Thus, another “sun of Russian poetry” set - just as the genius Pushkin was killed, the same fate befell Mikhail Lermontov.
Mikhail Lermontov is one of the most famous Russian poets, and recognition came to him during his lifetime. His work, which combined acute social themes with philosophical motives and personal experiences, had a huge impact on poets and writers of the 19th-20th centuries. Kultura.RF tells about the personality, life and work of Mikhail Lermontov.
Moscow youth
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was born on the night of October 2-3 (October 15 according to a new style) in 1814 in a house opposite the Red Gate Square - the very one where the most famous monument to the poet in Russia stands today.
Lermontov's mother was not even seventeen at that time, and his father had a reputation for being an attractive but frivolous person. The real power in the family was in the hands of the poet's grandmother, Elizaveta Arsenyeva. It was she who insisted that the boy be called not Peter, as his father wanted, but Michael.
Young Lermontov was not distinguished by either good health or a cheerful disposition.
The artist is unknown. Portrait of Mikhail Lermontov. 1820–1822 Institute of Russian Literature, St. Petersburg
All childhood he was ill with scrofula. A slender boy with an eating disorder and a rash all over his body caused neglect and ridicule among his peers. “Deprived of the opportunity to have fun with the usual amusements of children, Sasha began to look for them in himself ...”- Lermontov wrote in one of his autobiographical stories. The more often Lermontov was unwell, the more intensively his grandmother was engaged in his treatment and education. In 1825, she brought him to the Caucasus - this is how the most important toponym for him appeared in Lermontov's life. “The Caucasian mountains are sacred to me”- wrote the poet.
Since September 1830, the poet studied at Moscow University - first in the moral and political, and then in the verbal department. Later, following the Caucasus, Lermontov would also call the University his "holy place".
True, Mikhail did not seek the friendship of fellow students, did not take part in student circles, and ignored disputes. Among those "ignored" by Lermontov was Vissarion Belinsky: for the first time they talked much later - during the first arrest of the poet. At the end of the second year at the rehearsal of exams in rhetoric, heraldry and numismatics, Lermontov showed erudition beyond the program and ... almost complete ignorance of the lecture material. Arguments arose with the examiners. So in the records of the administration, opposite the name of Lermontov, a note appeared in Latin: consilium abeundi (“advised to leave”). After that, the young man moved to St. Petersburg.
Petersburg students
Lermontov disliked the city on the Neva, and this feeling was mutual. St. Petersburg University refused to count Lermontov two Moscow years of study - he was offered to enter the first year again. Lermontov was offended and, on the advice of a friend, passed the exam for the School of Guards Ensigns and Cavalry Junkers.
On the eve of admission, Lermontov wrote a credo poem "Sail". However, instead of a “storm”, only drill and routine awaited the poet at school. Here “it was not allowed to read books of purely literary content”. Lermontov called the years of study "terrible" and "ill-fated".
At the School of ensigns, the poet received the nickname Mayushka (in consonance with the French "doigt en maillet" - "crooked finger"). Lermontov really was stooped, but the accuracy of the nickname was not only in this. Its second meaning is a reference to the character of the novels named Mae - a cynic and a wit. On the course, the poet really kept himself independent and bold, while in his studies he was among the best students. In the notes of fellow student Nikolai Martynov (the same one who challenged the poet to the last duel), Lermontov is characterized as a person "so superior in his mental development to all other comrades that it is impossible to draw parallels between them".
Mikhail Lermontov. Pyatigorsk. 1837-1838. State Literary Museum, Moscow
Mikhail Lermontov. Attack of the Life Guards Hussars near Warsaw. 1837. State Lermontov Museum-Reserve "Tarkhany", Lermontovo village, Penza region
Mikhail Lermontov. View of Tiflis. 1837. State Literary Museum, Moscow
In the St. Petersburg period, the poet began a historical novel on the theme of Pugachev (“Vadim”), wrote lyrics (poems “Prayer”, “Angel”), a poem “Boyarin Orsha”, worked on the drama “Masquerade”.
On January 27, 1837, the duel between Alexander Pushkin and Georges Dantes took place on the Black River. Even before his death, rumors about the death of the poet spread throughout St. Petersburg - they reached Lermontov as well. Already on January 28, the first 56 verses of The Death of a Poet were finished, and the work began to spread rapidly in the lists. Literary critic Ivan Panaev wrote: “Lermontov’s poems on the poet’s death were copied in tens of thousands of copies, reread and memorized by everyone”. On February 7, Lermontov wrote the 16 final lines of the poem (starting with “And you, arrogant descendants // By the well-known meanness of the illustrious fathers”), in which, along with the "murderer", he called the highest Petersburg society and those close to the "throne" guilty of the death of the poet.
At the end of February, Lermontov was taken into custody. The trial took place with the personal participation of Emperor Nicholas I. Pushkin's friends (primarily Vasily Zhukovsky) and Lermontov's grandmother, who also had secular connections, stood up for Lermontov. As a result, he was transferred "with the preservation of his rank" to the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment, which was then operating in the Caucasus. Lermontov left Petersburg as a scandalous celebrity.
Literary glory
Lermontov's first Caucasian exile lasted only a few months, but was rich in events: work on Mtsyri and The Demon, acquaintance with the exiled Decembrists, a visit to Pyatigorsk with its "water society" and a trip to Tiflis. During the exile, the poet's youthful gaiety almost disappeared, he became even more withdrawn, often in "black melancholy."
Through the efforts of his grandmother, in 1838, Lermontov returned to Petersburg society again. He was accepted into the circle of the literary elite: Pyotr Vyazemsky, Vasily Zhukovsky, Nikolai Karamzin. Lermontov became one of the most popular writers of the capital. Almost every issue of Andrei Kraevsky's journal "Domestic Notes" came out with new poems by the poet.
However, two years later, after another participation in a duel - with the son of the French ambassador Ernest de Barante - Lermontov again ended up in the Caucasus. He was ordered to be in the active army. Lermontov accepted the new punishment with passion: he participated in many battles, including the battle on the Valerik River. He dedicated the poem "Valerik" to this battle.
In the Caucasus, the poet worked on the novel A Hero of Our Time, the first chapters of which had been written a few years before. The work was printed in excerpts in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski, and later released as a separate book - it was sold out very quickly. In the same year, 1840, the only lifetime edition of Lermontov's poems was published.
Pyotr Konchalovsky. Portrait of Mikhail Lermontov. 1943. Image: russianlook.com
Ilya Repin. Duel (fragment). 1897. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
In early February 1841, Lermontov secured a short vacation in St. Petersburg. In the poet’s notebook at that moment, the textbook “Cliff”, “Dream”, “Prophet”, “Oak leaf came off the branch of my dear” and “I go out alone on the road” were already recorded. In the capital, Lermontov busied himself with publishing the poem "The Demon" and pondered a plan to publish his own journal. However, these projects were not destined to come true: in April, the poet received an order to leave the city back to the regiment within 48 hours.
A quarrel with Nikolai Martynov happened on the way of the poet to the Caucasus, in Pyatigorsk. Being in his most caustic and melancholy mood, Lermontov teased the retired major evening after evening - and he challenged him to a duel. It took place on July 27, 1841 at the foot of Mount Mashuk near Pyatigorsk. According to eyewitnesses, during the duel, the poet defiantly fired into the air. However, Martynov was too offended to show the same generosity. Mikhail Lermontov was shot dead through the chest.
The only lifetime collection of Lermontov was "Poems by M. Lermontov", published in 1840 with a circulation of 1000 copies. The collection includes two (out of 36) poems by the author and 26 (out of 400) poems.
Savannah and woodland is a natural area that can only be found in certain geographical zones. They are widespread in the subequatorial belts in both hemispheres, and small areas are also located in the subtropics and tropics. More precisely, they are territorially located on almost half of the African continent (about 40% of the total area). The savanna and woodlands are also very common in South America, in the northern and eastern parts of Asia (for example, in Indochina), and also in Australia. Geographical position.
For most natural areas, the main reason for the characteristics of the animal and plant world, as well as the state of the soil, is, first of all, the climate, and directly the temperature regime and temperature changes (both daily and seasonal). Based on the above-described features of the geographical position of the savannahs, it is reasonable to conclude that hot weather is typical here for all seasons of the year, and dry tropical air is noted in winter, while in summer, on the contrary, humid equatorial air prevails. The removal of these territories from the equatorial belt, respectively, affects the reduction of the rainy season to a minimum of 2-3 months from its characteristic 8-9. Seasonal temperature fluctuations are relatively stable - the maximum difference is 20 degrees. However, the daily difference is very large - it can reach a difference of as much as 25 degrees. Savannah and woodland zone. Climate features.
Seasonal animal migrations are one of the most impressive phenomena in nature. Birds are the most avid travelers in the animal world. Half of all bird species fly long distances to places where there is a lot of food or where they can hatch chicks. Huge flocks or herds, as if on command, are removed from their place and set off on a journey hundreds and thousands of kilometers away. Migration can be caused by the need to search for food, the lack of which is due to natural causes. In much of Africa, for example, during a drought, the grass dries up completely, and wildebeest and zebra are forced to go in search of new fresh pastures. Predators that feed on herbivores also migrate behind them. They return later. Seasonal migration of animals. What is it caused by?
The condition of the soil, its fertility directly depend on the duration of the rainy period and is characterized by increased leaching. Thus, closer to the equator and equatorial forests, the natural zone of savannas and light forests, namely their soil, is characterized by a huge content of red soils. In areas where the rainy season lasts for 7-9 months, most soils are ferralitic. Places with rainy seasons of 6 months or less are "rich" in red-brown savannah soils. In poorly irrigated areas with rains that fall only in a period of two to three months, unsuitable soils are formed with a very thin layer of humus (humus). Soil type in the savannah.
Even soils such as savannas have found their way into human activities - the most suitable of them are used for grazing livestock, as well as for growing various crops, but due to their misuse, already depleted areas turn into depleted and deserted areas, unable to in the future, at least somehow feed both people and animals.
Describing the flora of such a natural area as savannah and woodlands, it is impossible not to mention baobabs - amazing trees, like camels, accumulating water reserves in their trunk. Acacias, epiphytes, palm trees, quebrachos, tree-like cacti, etc. are also often found. During the period of drought, many of them turn yellow, wither, but with the advent of rains, the whole environment seems to be reborn and once again gives the arrived animals the opportunity to gain strength and prepare for the next drought . Vegetation of savannahs and light forests.
We can immediately say that this is a unique world that is not found anywhere else on Earth. First of all, because of the variety of large and very large animals. Before the advent of white colonialists, the animals of Africa felt free and at ease. Savannahs provided food for countless herds of herbivores that moved from place to place in search of water. They were accompanied by numerous predators, and carrion eaters (jackals and vultures) moved behind them. Thanks to the animals, the savannah has a characteristic, incomparable appearance. Animal world.
The appearance of the wildebeest is so peculiar that it is difficult to confuse it with another animal - a dense and short body on disproportionately thin legs, a heavy head decorated with sharp horns and a mane, and a fluffy tail. Next to them there are always small herds of cute African horses - zebras. Antelopes and zebras.
Photos of the African savannah, which we see in textbooks, brochures of travel companies, necessarily show us one of the typical representatives of the fauna of these places - giraffes. Once the number of these animals was very large, but they were the first to suffer from the white colonists - they made coverings for wagons from their skins. Now giraffes are under protection, but their number is small. Giraffes.
They are the largest land animals in Africa. Savannahs are unimaginable without huge steppe elephants. They differ from their forest counterparts in powerful tusks and wider ears. By the beginning of the 21st century, the number of elephants had greatly decreased, but thanks to conservation measures and the creation of nature reserves, today there are more elephants than in the last century. Elephants.
The fate of the white and black rhinos that inhabit the African savannah causes serious concern for scientists. Their horns cost four times as much as elephant tusks. Therefore, they are the most desirable prey for poachers. Only the reserves created in Africa helped protect these animals from complete extermination. Rhinos.
African savannas are inhabited by many predators. Unconditional superiority among them have lions. They live in groups (prides). They include adults and juveniles. In prides, responsibilities are clearly distributed - young and mobile lionesses provide the family with food, and males protect the territory. Lions.
These predators are a little similar to each other in appearance, but differ in their way of life. The main prey of the cheetah is the gazelle. The leopard is a universal hunter, he successfully hunts for warthogs (African wild pigs), baboons, small antelopes. Leopards and cheetahs.
There are many insects and worms in the grass and soil, so the savannah fauna is distinguished by a large number of birds. They flock here from all over the world. The most common are storks, red-billed quillies, vultures, marabou, African ostriches, vultures, horned crows, etc. The largest and, perhaps, one of the most beautiful birds in the world, ostriches, live in the savannas. The picture of the animal world of the African continent would be incomplete if we did not mention termites. These insects have dozens of species. Their buildings are a characteristic element of the savannah landscape. It should be noted that animals are very revered in Africa. Indeed, it is not for nothing that their images can be seen on the emblems of many African states: the lion - the Congo and Kenya, the zebra - Botswana, the elephant - Côte d'Ivoire. The wildlife of the African savannah has developed over the centuries as an independent whole. The degree of adaptability of animals to specific conditions is unusually high It can be attributed to a strict division according to the method of nutrition and the composition of feed.Some use the shoots of young shrubs, others use the bark, others use the buds and buds of plants.In addition, different animals take the same shoots from different heights.Birds.
Conclusion: The savannah of South Africa is a place where diametrically opposed landscapes and amazing ecosystems are combined in an amazing way. The harsh struggle for life in these places is in amazing harmony with the luxurious nature, and the richness of flora and fauna - with attractive exoticism and African flavor.
Savannah is a vast expanse in the tropical zone, with intermittent precipitation, covered with grassy vegetation with sparsely scattered trees and shrubs. The most common savannas are in central Africa. The main mass of plants of the cereal savannah are cereals, reaching a great height (up to 4 m). The savannahs in the Orinok lowland are called llanos, in.
Savannah is a zonal type of landscape in tropical and subequatorial climatic zones. In this natural zone, the change of the wet and dry seasons is clearly expressed at consistently high air temperatures (from + 15°C to + 32°C). As you move away from the equator, the period of the wet season decreases from 8-9 months to 2-3, and precipitation - from 2000 to 250 mm per year. The violent development of plants in the rainy season is replaced by droughts of the dry period with a slowdown in the growth of trees, grass burning out. Some plants are able to store moisture in the trunks (baobabs, bottle tree). The savannah is characterized by the predominance of grassy cover, among which high (up to 5 m) grasses dominate. Shrubs and solitary trees rarely grow among them, the frequency of which increases towards the equator. Of the woody vegetation on different continents, palm trees, a variety of acacias, tree-like cacti are found here.
The soils of the savannas depend on the length of the rainy season. Closer to the equatorial forests, where the rainy season lasts 7-9 months, red ferrallitic soils form. Where the duration of the rainy season is less than 6 months, typical red-brown savannah soils are common. On the borders with semi-deserts, where scarce rains fall for only 2-3 months, unproductive soils with a thin layer of humus are formed.
The dense and high grass cover provides abundant food for the largest animals, such as elephants, giraffes, rhinos, hippos, zebras, antelopes, which in turn attract such large predators as lions, hyenas and others. The world of birds in the savannas is rich and diverse. A small beautiful bird lives here - a nectary, the largest birds on Earth are ostriches. Of the predatory animals, the secretary bird with long legs stands out for its appearance and habits. She hunts for small rodents, reptiles. There are many termites in the savannah.
Savannahs are located mainly in the Southern Hemisphere from 30 ° to 5-8 ° south latitude. In the Northern Hemisphere, they cross Africa, forming a transition zone directly south of the Sahara - the Sahel. Most of the savannas are in Africa. Here they occupy about 40% of the continent.
Savannahs in the north of South America are called llanos (Spanish llanos - plural of "plain"), and on the Brazilian plateau - campos (port, satro - field). This is an area of intensive animal husbandry in Brazil.
Savannas play a very important role in human economic life. Significant areas are plowed up here, cereals, cotton, peanuts, jute, sugar cane and others are grown. Animal husbandry is developed in drier places. Some species of trees growing in savannahs are used by humans for their own purposes. So, teak wood gives solid valuable wood that does not rot in water.