Sergey Jacques Paramonov (4 November 1894, Kharkiv – 22 September 1967, Canberra) was a Soviet and Australian entomologist, specializing on flies (Diptera), of which described about 700 species and subspecies. Paramonov published over 185 scientific articles, some of which were published posthumously.
Spellings of the name and pseudonym
In his first article, that was written in the Russian Empire in the , his name was given as and translated into English as S. I. Paramonov. In articles written in Ukrainian language he signed as or , the same as in Russian language, in German language he used spelling of his name S. J. Paramonow.
When he arrived in Australia, his full name was filled as Paramonov, Sergey Jacques in his form for application of registration. His scientific articles written in Australia were signed as S. J. Paramonov. Although in private life he often used Ukrainian transliteration of his full name - Serhiy Yakowich Paramoniv, and the inscription on his gravestone is written in this way.
Sergey Paramonov signed his works in Russian about the ancient history of the East Slavs and literature writings with the pseudonym - Sergey Lesnoy.
Biography
Early life
Sergey Jacques Paramonov was born on 4 November 1894 in Kharkiv, which was part of the Russian Empire at that time. Both his parents came from the village near Odessa. His father's full name was Yakiv Yukhymovych Paramonov. Sergey Paramonov's paternal grandparents were peasants. Sergey's mother's full maiden name was Olha Ivanivna Buravchuk. Her father Ivan Maksymovych Buravchuk was a well-educated and respectful person, he worked as an agronomist. Olha's mother was descended of serfs.
Sergey's father Yakiv studied at Kherson Agricultural Institute, where he obtained the forester qualification. During his studying Yakiv Paramonov got under influence of the Narodniks movement, as the result he was taking part in student unrest and was arrested in 1893, together with the future Bolshevik functionary Alexander Tsiurupa. At the beginning of 1894 Yakiv Paramonov married Olha Buravchuk and soon their first son Sergey was born in Kharkiv.
In his known letter to the mother Sergey Paramonov mentioned Raikivtsi, where she had nursed him as a toddler. It is probably the village in Podolia, but this village is not mentioned in any known S. Paramonov's official documents.
In 1902 the Paramonov family moved into Polotsk, where their second son Oleksiy was born in March 1903. From 1904 to 1908 Yakiv Paramonov worked as a forester in the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. At that time Sergey was studying at Veliky Ustyug Gymnasium, which was more than 50 kilometres from their home through difficult forest roads.
In 1908 the family moved closer to their home village Yasky. Yakov Paramonov got a job as a forester on the opposite bank of the Dniester river in Cioburciu village, now in Moldova, of the Bessarabia Governorate. Therefore, Sergey Paramonov continued his education in the uyezd centre at Akkerman Gymnasium, now Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Ukraine.
Kiev period
In 1912 Sergey Paramonov graduated from Akkerman Gymnasium and entered Kiev University. He choose Zoology as a main subject, his favourite branch was Ornithology at that time.
Despite the fact that in all known official documents Paramonov was mentioned as an ethnic Russian, he took part in the Ukrainian National Revival movement. In 1914 and 1915 Ukrainian organizations were trying to conduct the celebration of Taras Shevchenko's 100 years anniversary, as a result the police arrested some activists. During these events Sergey was detained twice for a month each time. To avoid more serious punishment Paramonov was helped by the privatdozent Viktor Kazanovsky's protection.
In 1915 Sergey Paramonov published his first scientific note "On the record of the spotted cuckoo in Bessarabian Government" in the Ornithological Journal. He found, a very rare bird in the Russian Empire, the spotted cuckoo by himself while he was having a holiday at his parents' in Cioburciu.
In spite of World War I and the collapse of the Russian Empire, Sergey managed to successfully graduate from Kiev University in 1917 and to get a job at the Kiev's station of plant pest control, where Viktor Kazanovsky worked as a director. It was the first time when Sergey faced practical dipterology. In particular he worked on a problem how to use parasitic flies as a natural limit of a number of pest insects.