The term «forest stand» in the historical development of Russian forest science terminology

The complex process of forming the language of Russian forest science remains an understudied and relevant area of research to this day. The relevance of studying terminological vocabulary is determined not only by its role in the system of scientific knowledge but also by its recognized authority in identifying scientific reflection of a certain period. This article examines one of the keys and at the same time controversial terms in the history of Russian forest science – “forest stand” (nasazhdenie) Based on retrospective analysis of diverse textual material, an attempt is made to reconstruct the initial stage of formation and transformation of the content of the term in Russian forestry. It is suggested that the term was introduced into scientific circulation and initially recorded in writing in P. Perelygin's work “Description of Forestry Rules” (1831) (Nachertanie pravil lesovodstva). The commonly used polysemous word “nasazhdenie” as a translation of the German forestry term “Bestand”, has been widely adopted within professional circles despite lacking formal lexicographic definition. The first dictionary entry for the term “nasazhdenie” appears towards the end of the nineteenth century in P. Verekha’s “A Sketch of Forestry Terminological dictionary” (Opyt lesovodstvennogo terminologicheskogo slovarya). Significant natural science works from the second half of the nineteenth century (by N. Annenkov, Kravchinsky, M. Tursky, A. Krauze et al.) are utilized to detail the debated aspects of interpreting the term within the Russian forest scientific discourse. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the term “nasazhdenie”, which had undoubtedly taken root, was more frequently employed than “lesonasazhdenie’. Scientists often regarded the nomination of the term as unsatisfactory, leading to attempts to find alternative names, among which the most common was “drevostoy”. There emerged a tendency toward ordering the semantic scope of the term, differentiating it from other concepts (group, quarter, plot), classifying characteristics of stands were highlighted, followed by their grouping into ‘types of stands”. These debates continued during the first half of the twentieth century and were linked with issues of forest typology.

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