About THE HISTORY OF THE STUDY STEPPE BIOM OF THE WESTERN CISCAUCASIA
The steppes of the Western Ciscaucasia are the least studied in botanical terms. The first information on the flora of the steppes can be found, oddly enough, in the historical sources of I.T. Radozhitsky, A. Vargas de Bedemar, E.D. Felitsyn, I. Popka, F. Scherbiny. The first professional description of the steppe vegetation of the Kuban region was given by F.I. Poltoratsky. There was no fundamental work on the steppe type of vegetation in the botanical literature of the XIX and early XX century. From the early information on steppe vegetation, one can point out the articles of the botanist A.N. Krasnov, the soil scientist S.A. Yakovlev. In the early XX century began to raise the question of the southern border of the Kuban steppe. The first professional botanical works dedicated to steppe vegetation appeared in the 30's and 40's. Since the middle of the XX century, there have appeared major scientific monographs and articles by I.S. Kosenko, A.P. Putilina, E.V. Schiffers. Further, within 20-30 years, the steppe vegetation of the Western Ciscaucasia does not attract the attention of botanists. Only in 1984 there were two articles by S.A. Litvinskaya, the monograph by V. Novosad and the work of the scientists of the Kuban State University. But fundamental work on the steppe gene pool of the Western Ciscaucasia did not appear.