Essay on the history of Russian forest pyrology

Forest pyrology was used as a part of the forestry in the end of the nineteenth century. The founder of the forest pyrology in Russia was academician Ivan S. Melekhov. He defined it as a science of nature of forest fires, their effects, fire fighting methods, and positive function of fires in the forest. Formed as a branch of the forestry, forest pyrology became an independent science that developed as a theory and practice of forest protection. Separation of forest pyrology to an independent branch of the science was caused by the results of the much research that revealed great importance of the forest fires as a factor of the forest formation and as an ecological and evolutional factor that is of global importance. Fires greatly influence forest formation, their distribution, state, and productivity. In the paper, the short historical review of the main periods of Russian forest pyrology is given. Five periods were determined from the beginning of its origin to the further development. The total state of the science of forest fires in Russia is provided. It is noted that the organization of the laboratory of forest fires in 1959 in the V. N. Sukachev Institute of forest and wood SB AS USSR resulted in the academic recognition of the forest fires science; thus fire investigations in Siberia became systematic. The large contribution of the Russian scientists to the investigations of forest fires is emphasized. Many achievements of Russian forest fire scientists became world-famous