This is the first scientific biography of the famous Soviet scientist, professor, entomologist-taxonomist and zoogeographer, creator in the USSR of the scientific school of worldmecologists - specialists in the systematics and ecology of ants. Of great interest are the scientist's studies in the field of geographical variability of insects, the concept put forward by him about the structure of their range, work on the "entomological belt" formed by relict species of tertiary insects that survived glacial time.