Borodin was born into the family of a centurion (later a yesaul) of the
Ural Cossack Host. In 1870 he entered the Ural Military Gymnasium, graduating with a gold medal in 1879. He was admitted to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of
Saint Petersburg University, first studying mathematics (1879–1880) and later switching to natural sciences (from September 1880). He graduated from the natural sciences department in December 1884. He founded and edited the newspapers
Uralets,
Ural Review, and
Cossack Herald (1901–1904). He also worked for
Our Life, contributed to the
Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, and edited sections on fisheries in several technical journals.
Political activity As a student Borodin joined the
social-democratic group of D. Blagoyev in 1883 and was briefly arrested in 1886 for revolutionary activities. Later, he founded educational and social organizations in Uralsk.
In the State Duma On 22 April 1906 he was elected to the
First State Duma of the Russian Empire as a member of the
Constitutional Democratic Party. He signed the
Vyborg Manifesto and was sentenced to three months in prison, losing his right to stand for election.
Later years and emigration After the
Russian Revolution of 1917 Borodin emigrated to the
United States in 1919, teaching at the Russian People's University in New York. From 1928 he served as curator of ichthyology at the
Museum of Comparative Zoology at
Harvard University, becoming a professor in 1931. == Personal life ==