Irina Levshakova

Irina Yuryevna Kuznetsova was born in Leningrad[4] (modern Saint Petersburg) on 6 May 1959.[5] She was born into a family of academics.[6] Levshakova's mother was Irina Vladimirovna Linnik, an art historian specialized in Western European art.[7] Her father, Yuri Ivanovich Kuznetsov, was also an art historian.[3] Her grandfather Vladimir Pavlovich Linnik (1889–1984) was a famous Soviet physicist[8] and her uncle Yuri Linnik (1915–1972) was a mathematician.[7]

Levshakova did not grow up in her family home, the 'Linnik Dacha' in Komarovo. At the time, the dacha was owned by her physicist grandfather, who did not like small children since he thought they interfered with his work. She instead spent her early years with her uncle Yuri. Yuri's house was also a dacha in Komarovo, which he had built himself.[7]

Levshakova was in her youth considered a hippie, a lifestyle frowned upon in the Soviet Union. Her acquaintances later described her as beautiful but also unusual in that she smoked and sometimes used obscene language.[2] After the intervention of some of the adults, she reportedly "corrected herself";[2] in 1977 she was married and also began to study at the Leningrad State University.[2][9] Her first marriage was to Sergey Levshakov.[10] Already in the same year of their marriage,[10] Levshakova at the age of eighteen had the twin sons[1] Vladimir and Mikhail.[10] For most of her adult life following the first marriage, she used the name Irina Levshakova.[3]

Drawing of the skull of Varanus darevskii (top view), an extinct species of monitor lizard named by Levshakova

Levshakova was a paleontologist[7] and geologist.[8] She studied at the Department of Palaeontology[6] at the Leningrad State University under Lev Isaakovich Khosatzky, a well-known Soviet zoologist and paleontologist specialized in turtles.[11] During her studies Levshakova wrote two unpublished student works (supervised by Khosatzky) on trionychid turtles, one on trionychids from Late Cretaceous Fergana (1980) and one on trionychids from Cretaceous and Paleogene Mongolia (1981).[12] For her graduate thesis, Trionychids of the Cretaceous and Cenozoic of Middle Asia and Mongolia (1982),[12] Levshakova sorted through and studied fossil bones collected by the renowned Soviet paleontologist and author Ivan Yefremov,[6][7] also from Komarovo.[6] Yefremov's material had previously been studied by Khosatzky but never published.[11] Based on some of the bones she examined, Levshakova named two new species of the softshell turtle Trionyx.[7][lower-alpha 2]

Other than her works as a student, Levshakova's contributions to palaeontology are somewhat sparse.[6] In 1986, she named a new species of fossil monitor lizard,[7] Varanus darevskii, based on a relatively well-preserved skull from the Early Pliocene found near the village of Sor in Tajikistan.[14] Levshakova believed V. darevskii to be the ancestor of the modern desert monitor (V. griseus).[7][14] In a 2004 interview, Levshakova jokingly described her naming of species as placing her "on par with Linnaeus".[7]

In addition to her paleontological work, Levshakova like many Soviet scientists[6] also spent several years in Central Asia doing geological surveys before she permanently moved back to Komarovo.[7][15]

The Linnik Dacha in August 2010

Levshakova was arrested on 14 September 2010[5] for growing cannabis at her dacha.[8] Her plantation was reported by the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia to have been the largest known in recent years[18] and the largest ever cannabis plantation in northwestern Russia.[3] In total, over 1247 bushes were found, alongside around 600 grams of already dried product and large amounts that were still being dried.[18] Levshakova made no attempt at hiding her guilt and also confessed to having consumed marijuana for a long time.[18] While they were cutting it down, Levshakova is reported to have yelled out to the policemen to at least let the cannabis ripen.[3]

Levshakova was tried for the crime of storage and cultivation of drug-containing plants.[18] Despite the size of the plantation, she received a generous sentence of five years probation, meaning that she could continue to live at home in the Linnik Dacha.[6][3]

Levshakova in October 2003

In 1993,[15] Levshakova married for the second time, marrying Georgy Dmitrievich Orbeli,[4] an artist[15] and the son of a doctor.[4] The couple had a son, Dmitry (born in 1994).[9] Orbeli hanged himself in 1997, four years after their marriage.[15] For most of her life, Levshakova lived at the Linnik Dacha in Komarovo, often with numerous animals. In 2004, she lived with a cat, five dogs and a small herd of Saanen goats whose milk she sold to the other villagers.[7] Levshakova's mother stayed with her at times[7] until she died in 2009.[19]

Opinions on Levshakova among the residents of Komarovo were sharply divided. Some considered her an important and indispensable figure in the village whereas others (like Chistyakov had) derided her as a "witch",[2] in large part due to the bad reputation her dacha had gathered during its time as a haven for rock music and drugs.[3] Throughout her later years, Levshakova faced repeated harassment from ill-wishers. The most notable incident saw the killing of all but one of her dogs through poisoning their food.[3] Levshakova also had a poor relationship with her eldest sons, who had grown up largely without her. At one point the twins reportedly attempted to burn down her dacha.[2]

Levshakova did not watch television or read books, with the exception of the works of Kozma Prutkov, which she greatly enjoyed. She listened to the Echo of Moscow and Radio Liberty radio stations. In her later life, Levshakova largely stopped listening to Russian rock since it was "not very good", instead listening to the band Gipsy Kings and to Arabic music. She regularly received Arabic records from her brothers, one of whom worked in Kuwait and another who worked as an ambassador in Baghdad.[7] Levshakova also enjoyed writing poetry.[1]

Levshakova continued to be remembered by the residents of Komarovo after her death, with some claiming that the Linnik Dacha remained "cursed" and "inhabited by an immortal witch".[6]

In 2023, Natalia Jagielska published a short biography of Levshakova in the Palaeontology Newsletter, published by the Palaeontological Association.[6] Jagielska assessed Levshakova as follows:

Rarely can a palaeontologist leave behind such a colourful history, from cannabis to underground rock movements and failed murder attempts. Irina Levshakova is a fascinating figure, not known to all within the world of palaeontology, but too fascinating to ignore or move into the obscurity of time.[6]

• List of Russian Earth scientists
• List of Russian women artists