Russian scientist, naturalist, major researcher of photosynthesis. Biography of Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev

Kliment (s) Arkadyevich Timiryazev was born in St. Petersburg in 1843 in the family of the head of the customs district of St. the service of the very poor, in connection with which, from the age of 15, Clement himself earned a living. Name (Temirgazy - Temir?azy - Tatar language) - Timergazi - is formed from the words Timer (iron) and Gazi (fighter for the faith, warlike) - a dialectical variant - Timiryaz, from this name the surname Timiryazev is formed, which is very common among Tatar Christians and among the Russians, but K. A. Timiryazev is from the noble family of the Timiryazevs. He received his primary education at home. Thanks to his ethnic English mother Adelaide Klimentievna, he knew the language and culture of Russians and English equally well, often visited the homeland of his ancestors, met personally with Darwin, together with him contributed to the organization in the United Kingdom of plant physiology, which was previously absent there, was proud that, thanks to their cooperation, the latter Darwin's work was devoted to chlorophyll. A huge influence on K. A. Timiryazev was exerted by his brothers, especially D. A. Timiryazev, a specialist in the field of agricultural and factory statistics and a chemist who dealt, among other things, with chlorophyll, a secret adviser. Brother Timiryazev Vasily Arkadyevich (c. 1840-1912) - a well-known writer, journalist and theater reviewer, translator, collaborated in the Notes of the Fatherland and the Historical Bulletin; during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. - war correspondent, including in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Brother Nikolai Arkadyevich (1835-1906) - the largest military leader of tsarist Russia, having entered the elite Cavalier Guard Regiment as a cadet, rose to the rank of its commander, during the war of 1877-1878. participated in affairs and battles near Mountain Dubnyak, Telish, Vrats, Lyutikov, Philippopolis (Plovdiv) and was awarded golden weapons and the Order of St. Vladimir 3rd class. with swords, in March 1878 he was appointed commander of the Kazan Dragoon Regiment and participated in the affairs of Pepsolan and Kadykioy. Subsequently, he retired as a cavalry general, known for charity, honorary guardian. Nephew of K. A. Timiryazev, son of his half-brother Ivan from his father's first wife - V. I. Timiryazev. In 1860, K. A. Timiryazev entered St. Petersburg University at the cameral faculty, which was subsequently liquidated according to the Charter of 1863, then moved to the physical and mathematical faculty, the course of which he graduated in 1866 with a candidate’s degree and was awarded a gold medal for his essay “On liver mosses” (not printed). In 1861, for participating in student unrest and refusing to cooperate with the police, he was expelled from the university. He was allowed to continue his studies at the university only as a volunteer after a year. In 1867, on behalf of D. I. Mendeleev, he was in charge of an experimental agrochemical station in the Simbirsk province, at that time, long before V. I. Lenin and G. V. Plekhanov, he got acquainted with Marx's Capital in the original. He believed that, unlike the Marxists, he was a supporter of Karl Marx himself. In 1868, his first scientific work "A device for studying the decomposition of carbon dioxide" appeared in print, and in the same year Timiryazev was sent abroad to prepare for a professorship. He worked with V. Hofmeister, R. Bunsen, G. Kirchhoff, M. Berthelot and listened to lectures by G. Helmholtz, J. Bussengo, C. Bernard and others. Returning to Russia, Timiryazev defended his master's thesis (“Spectral analysis of chlorophyll”, 1871) and was appointed professor at the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy in Moscow. Here he lectured in all departments of botany, until he was left behind the state due to the closure of the academy (in 1892). In 1875, Timiryazev received a doctorate in botany for his essay "On the Assimilation of Light by a Plant." Kharkov professor V. P. Buzeskul, and K. A. Timiryazev could say this about himself, wrote: The position of a Russian professor is difficult: you feel like an extra person. Blows threaten both left and right, and above and below. For the extreme left, universities are just a tool to achieve their goals, and we, professors, are unnecessary trash, and from above they look at us as a necessary evil, only tolerable shame for the sake of Europe. - OR RSL. F. 70. K. 28. D. 26 “Timiryazev,” recalls his student writer V. G. Korolenko, who portrayed Timiryazev as Professor Izborsky in his story “On Two Sides,” had special sympathetic threads that connected him with students, although very often his conversations outside the lecture turned into disputes on subjects outside the specialty. We felt that the questions that occupied us also interested him. In addition, true, ardent faith was heard in his nervous speech. It related to science and culture, which he defended against the wave of “forgiveness” that swept over us, and there was a lot of sublime sincerity in this faith. The youth appreciate it." In 1877 he was invited to Moscow University to the Department of Plant Anatomy and Physiology. He was a co-founder and teacher of women's "collective courses" (courses of Professor V.I. Guerrier, Moscow Higher Women's Courses, which laid the foundation for higher women's education in Russia and stood at the origins of the Darwin Museum, Russian National Research Medical University named after N.I. I. Pirogov, Lomonosov Moscow State University of Fine Chemical Technologies, Moscow State Pedagogical University. In addition, Timiryazev was the chairman of the botanical department of the Society of Lovers of Natural Science, Ethnography and Anthropology at Moscow University.

Although he was half paralyzed after an illness and had no other sources of income, he left the university in 1911 along with about 130 teachers, protesting against the oppression of students and the reactionary policy of the Minister of Education Kasso. On the occasion of Timiryazev’s 70th birthday on May 22, 1913, I.P. Pavlov described his colleague as follows: was a source of light for many generations, striving for light and knowledge and looking for warmth and truth in the harsh conditions of life. Like Darwin, Timiryazev sincerely sought to bring science closer and, as it then seemed to him, based on reason and the liberation of the liberal policy of Russia (especially his nephew) and Great Britain, since he considered both conservatives and Bismarck and the German militarists who followed his course to be enemies of the interests and common people England, and the Slavs, for whom his brothers fought, welcomed the Russian-Turkish war for the liberation of the Slavs and, at first, the Entente and Russia's defense of Serbia. But, already in 1914, having become disillusioned with the world slaughter, in 1915 he accepted the invitation of A. M. Gorky to head the department of science in the anti-war journal Letopis, which, in many ways, thanks to Timiryazev, rallied his fellow physiologists Nobel laureates I. I. Mechnikov, I. P. Pavlov, and cultural figures of the grandson of the "dear and beloved teacher" K. A. Timiryazev A. N. Beketov A. A. Blok, I. A. Bunin, V. Ya. Bryusov, V. V. Mayakovsky, S. Yesenin, L. Reisner, I. Babel, Janis Rainis, Jack London, HG Wells, Anatole France and socialist internationalists of different parties and trends. V. I. Lenin, considering the Chronicle as a bloc of "Machists" (positivist Timiryazev) with the Organizing Committee of the August bloc of 1912, in a letter to A. G. Shlyapnikov dreamed of achieving an alliance with Timiryazev against the August bloc, but, not believing in this, he asked at least to place his articles in this popular magazine. Nevertheless, only N. K. Krupskaya formally became an employee of Timiryazev. Since September 1917, the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party nominated K. A. Timiryazev for the post of Minister of Education of the Homogeneous Socialist Government. But observing the dispossession of the "Germans" (who successfully competed with the landowners of peasant commodity producers, especially front-line soldiers), the natural food crisis and the surplus appropriation, the refusal of the Provisional Government to return to the peasants all the land illegally seized by the landlords, and to the land and plants - the peasants from the trenches, K. A. Timiryazev enthusiastically supported Lenin's April theses and the October Revolution, which brought him back to Moscow University. In 1920, one of the first copies of his book Science and Democracy was sent to V. I. Lenin. In the dedicatory inscription, the scientist noted the happiness "to be his [Lenin's] contemporary and witness to his glorious activity." “Only science and democracy,” testifies Timiryazev, who viewed Soviet power, like many of the “Smenovekhovites” and English liberals, as a form of transition to liberal democracy, are in their very essence hostile to war, for both science and labor equally need a calm environment. A science based on democracy and a democracy strong in science - this is what will bring peace to the peoples.” He participated in the work of the People's Commissariat of Education, and after the cancellation of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of his decisions to expel representatives of socialist parties and anarchists from the Soviets, he agreed to become a deputy of the Moscow Council, took this activity very seriously, because of which he caught a cold and died.

Scientific work

Timiryazev's scientific works, distinguished by unity of plan, strict consistency, precision of methods, and elegance of experimental technique, are devoted to drought resistance of plants, questions of plant nutrition, in particular, the decomposition of atmospheric carbon dioxide by green plants under the influence of solar energy, and contributed a lot to understanding this most important and interesting chapter of plant physiology. . The study of the composition and optical properties of the green pigment of plants (chlorophyll), its origin, the physical and chemical conditions for the decomposition of carbon dioxide, the determination of the constituent parts of the solar ray that take part in this phenomenon, the determination of the fate of these rays in the plant, and, finally, the study of the quantitative relationship between the absorbed energy and the work done - these are the tasks outlined in the first works of Timiryazev and largely resolved in his subsequent works. The absorption spectra of chlorophyll were studied by K. A. Timiryazev, who, developing Mayer’s provisions on the role of chlorophyll in converting the energy of the sun’s rays into the energy of chemical bonds of organic substances, showed exactly how this happens: the red part of the spectrum creates instead of weak C-O bonds and O-H high-energy C-C (before that, it was believed that photosynthesis uses the brightest yellow rays in the spectrum of sunlight, in fact, as Timiryazev showed, they are almost not absorbed by leaf pigments). This was done thanks to the method created by K. A. Timiryazev for taking into account photosynthesis by absorbed CO2, in the course of experiments on plant illumination with light of different wavelengths (different colors), it turned out that the intensity of photosynthesis coincides with the absorption spectrum of chlorophyll. In addition, he found a different efficiency of absorption by chlorophyll of all rays of the spectrum with a consistent decrease as the wavelength decreases. Timiryazev suggested that the light-trapping function of chlorophyll evolved first in seaweed, which is indirectly confirmed by the greatest variety of solar-absorbing pigments in this particular group of living beings, his teacher Academician Famintsyn developed this idea with a hypothesis about the origin of all plants from the symbiosis of such algae, which were transformed into chloroplasts with other organisms. Timiryazev summed up his many years of research on photosynthesis in the so-called Krunian lecture “The Cosmic Role of the Plant”, read at the Royal Society of London in 1903 - both this lecture and the title of a member of the Society were associated with his status as a British, not a foreign scientist. Timiryazev establishes an extremely important position that assimilation only at relatively low light voltages increases in proportion to the amount of light, but then lags behind it and reaches a maximum "at a voltage approximately equal to half the voltage of a solar beam incident on a sheet in the normal direction." A further increase in tension is no longer accompanied by an increase in the assimilation of light. On a bright sunny day, the plant receives an excess of light, causing a harmful waste of water and even overheating of the leaf. Therefore, the position of the leaves in many plants is an edge to the light, especially pronounced in the so-called "compass plants". The path to drought-resistant agriculture is the selection and cultivation of plants with a powerful root system and reduced transpiration. In his last article, K. A. Timiryazev wrote that "to prove the solar source of life - such was the task that I set from the very first steps of scientific activity and persistently and comprehensively carried it out for half a century." According to Academician VL Komarov, Timiryazev's scientific feat consists in the synthesis of the historical and biological method of Darwin with the experimental and theoretical discoveries of physics of the 19th century, and, in particular, with the law of conservation of energy. The works of K. A. Timiryazev became the theoretical basis for the development of agriculture, especially drought-resistant agriculture, and the “green revolution”. To this it should be added that Timiryazev was the first to introduce experiments in Russia with plant culture in artificial soils. The first greenhouse for this purpose was arranged by him at the Petrovsky Academy in the early 1870s, that is, shortly after the appearance of this kind of devices in Germany. Later, the same greenhouse was arranged by Timiryazev at the All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod. Greenhouses, especially those with artificial lighting, seemed to him extremely important not only for speeding up breeding work, but also as one of the main ways of intensifying agriculture. The study by Timiryazev of the absorption spectrum of chlorophyll and the assimilation of light by a plant is still the basis for the development of artificial lighting sources for greenhouses. In one of the chapters of his book "Agriculture and Plant Physiology" Timiryazev described the structure and life of flax and showed how to apply this knowledge in agronomy. Thus, this work of K. A. Timiryazev was the first exposition of the particular ecology of plants. In addition to studying the magnesium enzyme chlorophyll, a structural analogue of iron-containing hemoglobin, Timiryazev was the first in the world to establish the essentiality (need for life) of zinc and the possibility of reducing the need for iron in plants when they are fed with zinc, which explained the transition of flowering plants to hunting animals (carnivory) on soils , poor in iron. Timiryazev studied in detail not only the problems of plant physiology, plant assimilation of light, water, soil nutrients, fertilizers, problems of general biology, botany, and ecology. He considered it necessary to dispel the speculation about the dry pedantry of eccentric professors and especially botanists, was well versed not only in photography, but also in painting, translated a book about the famous painter Turner and wrote an introductory article to it "Landscape and natural science". Timiryazev's outstanding scientific merits earned him the title of a member of the Royal Society of London, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an honorary member of Kharkov and St. Petersburg Universities, the Free Economic Society and many other learned societies and institutions.

Rejection of anti-Darwinism, including many supporters of the genetics of Mendel and Weismann

Timiryazev recognized the "tremendous significance" of the results of G. Mendel himself and "Mendelism", actively used "Mendelism", regretting that Mendel published his works "in an unknown journal" and did not turn to Charles Darwin in time - then they would surely have been with Darwin he was supported during his lifetime, "like hundreds of others." Timiryazev emphasized that, although late (not earlier than 1881) he got acquainted with the works of Mendel, he did this much earlier than both the Mendelists and the Mendelians, and categorically denied the opposite of Mendelism "Mendelianism" - the transfer of the laws of inheritance of some simple traits of peas to the inheritance of those traits , which, according to the works of both Mendel and the Mendelists, do not and cannot obey these laws. He emphasized that Mendel, as a "serious researcher," "could never have become a Mendelian." In the article "Mendel" for the "Granat" dictionary, Timiryazev wrote about the clerical and nationalist activities of contemporary anti-Darwinists - supporters of this Mendelianism, which distorts the teachings of Mendelism and the laws of G. Mendel:

In the 1930s-1950s. T. D. Lysenko reproduced these quotes taken out of context from the works of Timiryazev in his speeches. In particular, in the report of June 3, 1943 “K. A. Timiryazev and the tasks of our agrobiology” at the solemn meeting of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of K. A. Timiryazev in the Moscow House of Scientists, Lysenko cited these statements of Timiryazev, calling Mendelian genetics “false science”. Timiryazev also saw the senselessness of Mendelianism and the arguments of the German nationalists against the Anglo-Saxon and Slavic theory of evolution that he presented, in the fact that Gregor Mendel himself stood on the shoulders of titans: Timiryazev’s relatives, the British breeders Gardners and Darwins, and, unlike the Mendelians, recognized this and conscientiously referred to their "unclean" predecessors. Timiryazev emphasizes the pseudoscientific nature of Mendelianism and the absence of a real connection with Mendelism by the fact that, disappointed by such, in their opinion, Mendel's unscrupulousness in the problems of race, the Mendelians often renounced him and called Mendeleev their leader. In 1950, in the article “Biology”, the TSB wrote: “Weisman absolutely groundlessly called his direction “neo-Darwinism”, which K. A. Timiryazev resolutely opposed, showing that Weismann’s teaching was completely directed against Darwinism.” . Weisman, calling himself a Darwinist and denying that somatic cells, their nuclei and cytoplasm contain a complete set of hereditary information of the whole organism, thus represented Darwinists as supporters of the spontaneous generation of life and opponents of the cell theory, and by cutting off the tails of tens of thousands of rats to justify the fallacy of Lamarck's theory by the absence of scanty rats in the offspring compromised experimental biology and made a mockery not only of himself, but of all Darwinists and eccentric professors in general, which greatly upset Timiryazev. The very first creator of the theory of evolution, Wallace, described the futility of Weismann's experiments in exactly the same way: “As for deformities, it is usually accepted that they are not transmitted hereditarily, and there is a lot of evidence for this. During the fashion for horses with anglized tails, nevertheless, horses with short tails were not born; Chinese women are not born with deformed feet; numerous forms of mutilation of different human tribes are not transmitted hereditarily, although some of them have been practiced for hundreds of generations ”(Wallace A.R., 1898, p. 672). K.A. Timiryazev did not deny the rationality of some of the ideas of Zh. -B. Lamarck: in particular, he emphasized that Darwin, completely denying the main principle of Lamarck about the participation of mental and volitional acts in adaptation to the environment, always recognized the dependence of life forms on the environment. Timiryazev joined the position of the English philosopher and sociologist H. Spencer (1820-1903), who argued: "Either there is a heredity of acquired traits, or there is no evolution." The heredity of acquired traits is indeed most clearly manifested when plants are propagated by cuttings, which Weisman, as a zoologist, did not think about, in some cases during asexual reproduction of animals, sometimes as a result of neoteny during sexual reproduction, even in normal mammals, many features of the chemical composition of the mother's body are inherited, her immune systems. The difference between Timiryazev and Darwin, on the one hand, and creationists and Lamarckists, including "Soviet creative Darwinism", on the other, lies in the Darwinist theory of evolution by natural selection, which recognizes statistical! possibility! inheritance of some! acquired traits and new hereditary information, and, although genuine Darwinists categorically deny the concept of the struggle for existence between genes in one organism proposed by Weisman, the mechanisms for transmitting hereditary information can also evolve. Therefore, about the statement of the breeder Vilmorin, whose works, as well as the works of L. Burbank, the breeders of Russia became acquainted with the translations of Timiryazev, Timiryazev wrote: “they talk about the heredity of acquired properties, but heredity itself - is it not an acquired property?”. In the heat of the debate, Timiryazev even quarreled with the Academy of Sciences, sharply criticizing one of his teachers, Academician Famintsyn, for making concessions to the anti-Darwinists, who, objecting to the reading of the writings of anti-Darwinists (including Lamarckists and neo and post-neo "Darwinists") by the general public, believed that that they can still be published in small editions for specialists, since specialists will be able to separate the rational grain of these works from the delusions of anti-Darwinists, and answers to the objections of anti-Darwinists will help to move science forward. K. A. Timiryazev never forgave Dostoevsky for the fact that Sonechka Marmeladova read the works of the Darwinist Lyell, and Raskolnikov justified the murder of the old pawnbroker by the struggle for existence. Timiryazev called the very term "struggle for existence" an "unfortunate metaphor" and pointed to the presence in nature not only of struggle, but also of mutual assistance, which is especially clearly manifested in the so-called symbiosis, i.e., mutual assistance. e. cohabitation of organisms of different species - brilliant discoveries in the study of symbiosis were carried out just by one of his teachers, Academician Famintsyn. That is why the "struggle for existence" between genes according to the concept of August Weismann was especially depressing for Timiryazev, since, as anti-Darwinists rightly pointed out, Weismann's exposition of Darwinism exposes Darwinists as opponents of the cellular theory and supporters of vitalism and social Darwinism. At the same time, Timiryazev was never a supporter of partisanship and groupism in science, in particular, he respected those vitalists who did not claim to be their exposition of Darwinism. So, he always emphasized that I. P. Borodin is "a very serious botanist." In the process of forming a scientific worldview, Timiryazev assigned biology a central place. Biology, he emphasized, stands at the junction of the inorganic world and the human world, and therefore its development "served for a more complete philosophical unification of the entire vast real content of human knowledge, proving the universality of that scientific method of revealing the truth, which, starting from observation and experience and testing itself observation and experience, turned out to be capable of solving the most complex problems, before which the poetic intuition of the theologian and the most subtle dialectic of the metaphysician had helplessly halted.

Popularization of natural science

Among the educated Russian society, Timiryazev was widely known as a popularizer of natural science. His popular scientific lectures and articles included in the collections "Public lectures and speeches" (M., 1888), "Some main tasks of modern natural science" (M., 1895) "Agriculture and plant physiology" (M., 1893), "Charles Darwin and His Teaching" (4th ed., Moscow, 1898) is a happy combination of rigorous science, clarity of presentation, and brilliant style. His Life of a Plant (9th lifetime ed., Moscow, 1919; translated into all major foreign languages) is an example of a publicly available course in plant physiology. In his popular scientific works, Timiryazev is an ardent defender and popularizer of Darwinism and a staunch and consistent supporter of the rationalistic (as they used to say, "mechanistic", "Cartesian") view of the nature of physiological phenomena. He contrasted reason with occultism, mysticism, spiritualism, and instinct. Six volumes of Comte always lay on his desktop, he called himself a supporter of positive philosophy - positivism, and he considered both Darwinism and Marx's political economy to be the correction of mistakes and the development of Comte's biology and the political economy of Saint-Simon and Comte, respectively, guided by Newton's motto - "Physics, beware of metaphysics."

Publications

A list of 27 scientific works by Timiryazev that appeared before 1884 is included in the appendix to his speech "L'etat actuel de nos connaissances sur la fonction chlorophyllienne" ("Bulletin du Congr?s internation. de Botanique? St.-Peterbourg", 1884) . After 1884 appeared:

"L'effet chimique et l'effet physiologique de la lumi?re sur la chlorophylle" ("Comptes Rendus", 1885)
"Chemische und physiologische Wirkung des Lichtes auf das Chlorophyll" ("Chemisch. Centralblatt", 1885, no. 17)
"La protophylline dans les plantes ?tiol?es" ("Compt. Rendus", 1889)
"Enregistrement photographique de la fonction chlorophyllienne par la plante vivante" ("Compt. Rendus", CX, 1890)
“Photochemical action of the extreme rays of the visible spectrum” (“Proceedings of the Department of Physical Sciences of the Society of Natural Science Lovers”, vol. V, 1893)
"La protophylline naturelle et la protophylline artificielle" ("Comptes R.", 1895)
"Science and Democracy". Collection of articles 1904-1919 Leningrad: "Priboy", 1926. 432 p.

and other works. In addition, Timiryazev owns the study of gas exchange in the root nodules of leguminous plants (“Proceedings of St. Petersburg. General Naturalist”, vol. XXIII). Under the editorship of Timiryazev, Charles Darwin's Collected Works and other books were published in Russian translation. As a historian of science, he has published biographies of many prominent scientists. Over the course of more than 50 years, he created a whole gallery of biographies of many fighters for the people's cause - from the biography of the socialist Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1862 to the essay on "The Friend of the People" Marat in 1919 - and showed that despite impeccable personal honesty and devotion to the people, the Jacobins, and the leaders of the Bolsheviks, unlike many of their opponents, were narrow-minded, bourgeois revolutionaries, and the obstacles they created to the development of democracy and violations of human rights are connected with this.

Addresses

May 22, 1843 - 1854 - Galernaya street, 16;
1854 - the house of A.F. Junker - Bolshoy Prospekt of Vasilyevsky Island, 8;
1867 - October 1868 - Sergievskaya street, 5;
autumn 1870 - Kamennoostrovsky prospect, 8.

1880s - Malaya Molchanovka, 9

Memory

In honor of Timiryazev are named:

Timiryazevsky district of Moscow
the village of Timiryazev in the Lipetsk region, many villages in Russia and Ukraine, a village in Azerbaijan
lunar crater
Motor ship "Akademik Timiryazev"
Moscow Agricultural Academy
Institute of Plant Physiology. K. A. Timiryazev RAS
State Biological Museum. K. A. Timiryazeva
K. A. Timiryazev Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the best works in plant physiology, Timiryazev Readings of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Vinnytsia Regional Universal Scientific Library. K.A. Timiryazev
Central Station for Young Naturalists (Moscow)
In 1991, the Timiryazevskaya metro station was opened on the Serpukhovskaya line of the Moscow Metro. The line became known as Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya.
Agricultural College of Oktyabrsky Gorodok village
Timiryazev and Timiryazevskaya streets in many settlements

In philately

Postage stamps of the USSR

Postage stamp of the USSR, 1940

Postage stamp of the USSR, 1951

Postage stamp of the USSR, 1965

Quotes

The composition of what we call humanity includes more dead than alive, the one who no longer exists continues to live between us in his ideas, in his deeds, by his example.
Science is its own philosophy
I set myself two parallel tasks: to work for science and to write for the people, i.e. popular (from populus - people). This dual activity of the scientist was already understood by the great Peter.
I confess three virtues: faith, hope and love; I love science as a means of achieving the truth, I believe in progress and I hope for you (students)
No one was so wrong in his predictions as the prophets of the limitations of human knowledge.
If science does not know something at present, it will know it in the future.
The plant is the mediator between heaven and earth. It is the true Prometheus who stole the fire from the sky
Anyone who could grow two ears of corn where one used to grow, two blades of grass where one grew, would deserve the gratitude of all mankind.
A slice of well-baked bread is one of the greatest inventions of the human mind.
... a resourceful inventor will appear and offer the astonished world an apparatus that imitates a chlorophyll grain, receiving free air and sunlight from one end, and serving baked bread from the other
magister dixit (which in the present case would have to be translated "the German said") I have never recognized and do not recognize as a logical argument. Opinions, no matter who they are, are only words for me - I recognize the convincing force behind facts and logical arguments
Now take any book from a foreign scientific journal and you will almost certainly come across a Russian name
The work of a poet, the dialectics of a philosopher, the art of a researcher - these are the materials that make up a great scientist
The main duty of a scientist is not to try to prove the infallibility of his opinions, but to always be ready to abandon any view that seems unproven, from all experience that turns out to be erroneous.
.... it is not the pressure of needs, not the demands of technology that leave their mark on the development of science, as is often claimed, but science, which develops in its own independent logical way, and the personal talents of its servants, generously scatter those applications to life that amaze the imagination of the masses.
Science cannot move on order in one direction or another; it studies only what is ripe at the moment, for which research methods have been developed ... Science always goes its own way, scattering countless precious applications around, and only extreme myopia can catch applications without noticing where they are pouring from
Practical, in the highest sense of the word, was not the age-old practice of medicine, but the theory of a chemist. Forty years of theory gave humanity what forty centuries of practice could not give it (about Pasteur's research)
Just as Prometheus on this fresco ignites his first light at lightning, so modern Prometheus - science - must first subjugate this heavenly fire to his power, and then already turn the destructive force of a mountain stream into a source of future fertility of the earth. (about mountain hydroelectric power plants)
To assert that, having discovered the laws of struggle and natural selection in the phenomena of unconscious nature, Darwin made obligatory obedience to these blind laws and all conscious human activity, means to impose on him an absurdity for which he is not at all responsible
The dependence of forms on the environment, that is, that part of Lamarck's teaching, which retained all its significance, Darwin recognized from the very first steps (recall his first draft in a notebook in 1837) and, the further, the more he attached importance to it. Only the combination of this side of Lamarckism with Darwinism promises a complete solution of the biological problem.
If Henry IV could once say: “Saltpeter (understand, gunpowder) protects states, protects thrones,” then a modern person can say with great right: saltpeter elevates the well-being of peoples, increases the productivity of the farmer’s hard work
It is good for those countries where governments do not madly get in the way of the historical development of peoples, trying to barricade it with bayonets. Glory to the peoples who, in the most difficult moments of their historical trials, do not lose complete self-control.
The wave of Stolypin's "comfort" reached Moscow University and took Lebedev to eternal rest. This new victim again and again brings to mind the involuntary cry that once escaped from Pushkin's sore chest - a cry of despair, a cry of cursing the country that gave birth to him: "I managed to be born in Russia with my mind and heart"
In their explanations, both Darwin and Marx proceeded from the actual study of the present, but the first, mainly to explain the dark past of the entire organic world, while Marx, mainly, to predict the future, based on the "tendency" of the present, and not only predictions, but also the impact on it, because, according to him, “philosophers are engaged in the fact that everyone explains the world in their own way, and the point is how to change it”
Diplomats lead their people blindfolded to the very edge of the abyss, into which they are instantly pushed. The diplomats of the other side do the same. And when peoples who did not expect anything, who do not understand anything, find themselves in a deadly battle, in which there is only one thing left - to cut your throat as soon as possible before it is cut through to you - diplomats admire the work of their own hands, explaining it by racial hatred, historical tasks, the struggle for culture and other good words.. And this is all the more easy because with the war the kingdom of lies is established, lies forced and willing, lies bought and gratuitous, lies of deceivers and deceived, and then there is no way out. That is why it is obvious that the fight against war can be counted on not during the war and not even after it, but only by preventing its possibility by eliminating those whose specialty is to unleash this demon of war.
The war had, has and can have only two results: the victors ... conquests cause greed for new conquests, which degenerates into a mania for world domination, while the vanquished grow suppressed and all the more powerful malice, embodied in the long-familiar word "revanche"
After the amazing, self-sacrificing successes of our comrades in the ranks of the Red Army, who saved our Soviet Republic, which was on the verge of destruction, and thereby compelled the astonishment and respect of our enemies, it is the turn of the Red Army of Labor. All of us - old and young, toilers of muscles and toilers of thought - must unite in this common army of labor in order to achieve the further fruits of these victories. War against an external enemy, war against internal sabotage, freedom itself - all these are only means; the goal is the prosperity and happiness of the people, and they are created only by productive labor.
"... The Bolsheviks who carry out Leninism - I believe and am convinced - work for the happiness of the people and will lead them to happiness." - The last quote was written after the death of the scientist from the words of the attending physician K. A. Timiryazev and V. I. Lenin Weisbrod. It should be considered in the context of Weisbrod's search for a motive for poisoning his patients by malefactors.

Kliment Arkadievich Timiryazev was born on May 22 (old style) 1843 in St. Petersburg, on Galernaya Street. Later, the family moved to Vasilyevsky Island.

In 1860 Timiryazev entered St. Petersburg University. In 1861, Kliment Arkadievich was forced to leave the university for participating in student unrest. Only in 1863 Timiryazev was able to resume classes at the university as a volunteer.

In 1864, Kliment Arkadievich wrote a student's scientific work on liver mosses. In botany at that time little was known about plant organisms. Timiryazev's work was awarded a gold medal.

In the autumn of 1865, Kliment Arkadievich finished his studies at the university. In the same year, Timiryazev's first book, A Brief Outline of Darwin's Theory, was published.

On February 18, 1866, K. A. Timiryazev received a diploma of graduation from St. Petersburg University.

In early January 1868, the First Congress of Russian Naturalists and Physicians opened. Kliment Arkadievich made his report there. His message was entitled "Instrument for Investigation of the Air Nutrition of Leaves and on the Application of Artificial Illumination to Research of this Kind."

The young scientist demonstrated to the participants of the Congress of Naturalists and Doctors a device that under any conditions - in the laboratory, in the field, in the forest - provided the study of the air supply of the green leaf. The device gave answers to the questions: how much carbon dioxide did the green leaf absorb? How much food did you take in?

The second part of Timiryazev's scientific report was to clarify the question: does the assimilation of carbon dioxide occur under artificial lighting? The new device gave the researcher the opportunity to answer this question. The results of the study showed that under artificial light, the process of assimilation of carbon dioxide by the plant is significantly reduced.

The Council of St. Petersburg University made a decision to grant Timiryazev a two-year scientific trip abroad. Kliment Arkadievich left for Heidelberg, where he began working at the local university, in Bunsen's laboratory.

Working in the laboratory, Timiryazev discovered a substance in chlorophyll that determines its characteristic optical properties. Kliment Arkadievich called this substance chlorophyllin. Timiryazev succeeded in isolating pure chlorophyllin.

Kliment Arkadievich proved that the action of sunlight changes the composition of this substance, like the action of acids: in both cases, chlorophyll turns brown, turns into phylloxanthin.

Timiryazev's candidacy was proposed for the position of teacher in the Department of Botany at the Petrovsky Academy (Moscow). The corresponding official notice was sent to Kliment Arkadievich abroad.

Timiryazev accepted the offer of the Academy, and on November 22, 1869, he was elected to a teaching position.

In early September 1870, Kliment Arkadievich arrived in Moscow and settled near the Academy.

In the person of Kliment Arkadievich, the academy received a teacher who was close to her in spirit.

In May 1871, Timiryazev defended his thesis for a master's degree at St. Petersburg University on the topic "Spectral Analysis of Chlorophyll". Two months after the defense, Kliment Arkadievich was elected an extraordinary professor at the Petrovsky Academy.

In 1872, Kliment Arkadievich was invited to the position of a freelance teacher at Moscow University. In the fall of this year, he delivered an introductory lecture to the university auditorium. From that time until the end of his life, Timiryazev was associated with Moscow University. Kliment Arkadievich and his ideological friends made up a close-knit group of advanced scientists at the university.

In 1875, Timiryazev defended his doctoral dissertation at St. Petersburg University on the topic "On the assimilation of light by a plant." Of all the waves of the radiant energy of the sun that reach the green grains of chlorophyll, the waves of red light have the highest energy: under their influence, the process of photosynthesis is most intense, since they carry the greatest amount of energy to the green leaf.

This was the most important conclusion from the doctoral dissertation of Kliment Arkadievich Timiryazev.

In 1877, Kliment Arkadievich was elected an extraordinary professor at Moscow University.

In 1878, the first edition of Timiryazev's book "The Life of Plants" was published, which was based on a course of lectures on plant physiology, read by the author in a large auditorium of the Moscow Museum of Applied Sciences (now the Polytechnic Museum).

At the VI Congress of Russian naturalists and doctors in St. Petersburg, Timiryazev presented reports: "Quantitative analysis of chlorophyll", "A new method for studying the process of respiration and decomposition of plant carbon dioxide", "Objective study of the law of absorption and quantitative study of mixtures of two chlorophyll pigments", "Gluten as a material for osmotic studies as applied to chlorophyll", "On the physiological significance of chlorophyll".

In 1884, Kliment Arkadievich was approved as an ordinary professor at Moscow University.

A significant contribution to the science of research Kliment Arkadyevich served as his election in 1890 as a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev died on April 28, 1920. He was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery.

Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev

Physiologist-botanist, Darwinist.

The Timiryazevs came from an old noble family, but Timiryazev's father always considered himself an avid Republican. With the army of Kutuzov in the Patriotic War of 1812, he reached Paris, from where he was recalled to St. Petersburg for freethinking. In St. Petersburg, he served as the director of customs. When asked what career he was preparing for his sons, Timiryazev Sr. jokingly, but also with a degree of seriousness, answered: “What career? castle!.". It is clear that statements of this kind could not but affect the development of his career: the post of director of customs was abolished and Timiryazev Sr. was left out of work.

“... From the age of fifteen,” Timiryazev recalled, “my left hand did not spend a single penny that my right hand would not have earned. Earning a livelihood, as always happens under such conditions, was in the foreground, and the pursuit of science was a matter of passion, in leisure hours, free from occupations caused by need. On the other hand, I could console myself with the thought that I was doing this at my own peril, and that I was not sitting on the back of dark workers, like the children of landowners and merchant sons. Only over time, science itself, taken by me from the battle, became for me a source of satisfaction not only for the mental, but also for the material needs of life - first of my own, and then of my family. But then I already had the moral right to realize that my scientific work represented a social value, at least the same as the one with which I earned my living before.

In 1861, Timiryazev entered the St. Petersburg University at the chamber faculty. From cameral, he soon transferred to natural. Of the professors, he recalled A. I. Beketov and D. I. Mendeleev with special gratitude all his life. Actually, he chose plant physiology as a subject of constant studies thanks to Mendeleev, who more than once took him with him to field studies related to the study of the effect of mineral fertilizers.

“... In our time, we loved the university, as now, perhaps, they don’t like it,” Timiryazev recalled, “and not without reason. For me personally, science was everything. This feeling was not mixed with any considerations about a career, not because I was in special favorable circumstances - no, I earned my own living, but simply thoughts about a career, about the future, there was no place in my head: it was too full of the present. But then a storm came up in the form of the bad memory of Minister Putyatin with his notorious matrics. We had to either submit to the new, police system, or give up the university, perhaps forever from science - and thousands of us did not hesitate in our choice. The point was, of course, not in some matricules, but in the conviction that we, in our modest share, are doing a common thing, rebuffing the first breath of reaction, in the conviction that it is shameful to surrender to this reaction.

Matrikul - a special subscription on the refusal to participate in any kind of public disorder. Many students have given up the matricules by submitting special petitions.

Timiryazev and his brother filed such petitions.

The bailiff of the district tried in vain to persuade the brothers to take the applications - they firmly refused. “Then you will be expelled from St. Petersburg to the place of your birth!” - said the bailiff and heard in response that this did not frighten the brothers at all, because they were born not just in Petrograd, but even on the site entrusted to the bailiff.

Timiryazev returned to the university a year later - as a volunteer.

At the same time, he completed the first scientific work, published many popular essays on the pages of newspapers and magazines. Some of them later compiled the book A Brief Outline of Darwin's Theory.

In 1865, Timiryazev graduated from the university with a Ph.D. and a gold medal for his work On Liver Mosses.

In the summer of the same year, on the recommendation of Beketov, Timiryazev was sent abroad. “Really, I have to give you instructions,” Beketov told Timiryazev, “but I prefer that you write it yourself; then we will see if you have a clear idea where and why you are going.”

For two years, Timiryazev worked in Germany and France, first in Heidelberg with professors G. Kirchhoff and R. Bunsen, then in Paris with the founder of scientific agronomy J. Bussingault and chemist P. Berthelot.

Returning to Russia, Timiryazev received a position as a professor of botany at the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya (now named after him) Agricultural Academy.

The following year he defended his master's thesis "Spectral analysis of chlorophyll", and in 1875 his doctoral thesis "On the assimilation of light by a plant".

The constant hot propaganda of Darwinism evoked in one of the newspapers the malicious note of Prince Meshchersky: “Professor of the Petrovsky Academy Timiryazev expels God from nature at public expense,” which Timiryazev himself recalled more than once with a smile.

In 1877, Timiryazev headed the Department of Plant Anatomy and Physiology at Moscow University.

He worked in this department for thirty-four years.

“... I admired him,” wrote the famous writer Andrei Bely. - Excited, nervous, with the thinnest face, on which the change of through expressions seemed to spin, especially bright during pauses, when, stretching his body forward, and stepping back with his foot, as in a minuet, he was preparing to rush in a squeal with his voice, thought, hand and strand, - so he flew into a large physical auditorium, where he read and where people from all faculties and courses flowed to meet him with a thunder of applause and shouts: flying in in a frock coat that was tight around the thinnest waist, he, greeted by thunder, interrupted his run and otpryad, like a dancer in front of his embarrassed improvisation of the thousandth counterpart in the complex act of performing eurythmy; he stood, half-bent, but as if stretched out or drawn towards us, weighing in the air a very thin, graceful hand; overexcited, suddenly brightening up, shining eyes, blooming with a smile, becoming a little pink, bowing; and stretched out, slightly shaking, his most nervous hands ... At the first lecture for the third year, under stomping, applause, he flew in with a watermelon under his arm; knew that he would leave this watermelon; the watermelon will be eaten by the students; he is a demonstration of a cell: a rare example that it can be seen with the eyes; Timiryazev cut pieces of watermelon and put them between the rows ... "

Another famous writer left a portrait of the scientist - V. G. Korolenko, who also studied with Timiryazev.

“... A tall, thin blond with beautiful big eyes, still young, mobile and nervous, he was somehow elegant in his own way in everything. His experiments on chlorophyll, which brought him European fame, he even furnished from the outside with artistic taste. He spoke at first unimportantly, sometimes pulled and stuttered. But when he was inspired, which happened especially at lectures on plant physiology, then all the shortcomings of speech disappeared, and he completely mastered the audience.

In 1899, after powerful student unrest in the capital, the government passed a decree according to which rebellious students could be given into soldiers.

In January 1901, the decree was applied to one hundred and eighty-three Kyiv students.

Of course, Muscovites immediately agreed with the people of Kiev.

In retaliation for this, five hundred students of Moscow University were immediately arrested.

When on February 28 an appeal by Moscow professors appeared in the Russkiye Vedomosti newspaper urging students to stop the riots and return to classes, Timiryazev's signature was not under the appeal. The famous professor motivated the absence of his signature by the fact that, according to the current charter of higher educational institutions, professors were not supposed to analyze or discuss any cases relating to the behavior of students.

Moreover, Timiryazev proposed to cancel the 1899 decree.

“... Professor Timiryazev,” noted in the minutes of the meeting of the University Council on February 28, 1901, “agreeing with the usefulness of the commission for studying the causes of the latest phenomena of university life and the means for restoring its more normal course, they ask Mr. Chairman for permission to say a few words on two issues , the discussion of which seems to him more significant in the anxious moment he is experiencing ...

A more significant point concerns the question raised by Professor Timiryazev already at the meeting on February 24th. He is deeply convinced that only one petition for at least a temporary suspension of the temporary rules can calm the prudent part of the student body, which is ready for all sorts of sacrifices, guided by one desire to share responsibility for what has happened with their comrades. Presenting this statement, as his conscience tells him, Professor Timiryazev does not even ask for a vote on his proposal, but accepts it entirely on his own responsibility, insisting on his right to have it recorded in the minutes and brought to the attention of the ministry.

To the remark of Mr. President that in the midst of the excitement of the minds such a petition could not count on success, Professor Timiryazev objected that in the calm course of university life he would have neither the opportunity nor the opportunity to express his statement, and when the order on the application of temporary rules will be received, this possibility will disappear completely, and therefore it is the moment he is experiencing that he considers the only convenient one for bringing his statement to the attention of his superiors ... "

As Timiryazev thought, his proposal was rejected, and the trustee of the Moscow educational district reprimanded him for "avoiding influence on students in the interests of appeasing them."

Timiryazev resigned in protest.

“... I am a proud person,” he wrote to Professor P. A. Nekrasov, a member of the Council, “but a proud person does not hide behind the backs of his comrades, does not shout: they offended me, have pity on me! You, no doubt, know cases from my university life when I was not afraid to remain not only in an insignificant minority, but also in complete solitude.

Fearing even greater unrest, colleagues begged Timiryazev to withdraw his resignation.

The Russian Word newspaper wrote:

“... There are rarely such touching meetings, which was arranged on October 18 at the University of prof. K. A. Timiryazev, who was to give a lecture for the first time this year! So many students gathered in the huge auditorium that they not only sat several people in one place, not only were all the aisles occupied, but even in order to applaud, it was necessary to raise their hands above their heads. From doctors of the 3rd and 5th courses, from naturalists of the 1st and 3rd courses, addresses were read, welcoming the beginning of the lectures of the esteemed Klementy Arkadyevich, sincerely expressing their love and respect for him, expressing joy at the fact that rumors stubbornly circulated about the resignation of the beloved professor were not justified.

After reading the addresses, Klementy Arkadievich, who was showered with flowers, kissed the students who were reading, with tears in his eyes, in an excited voice, said approximately the following: “Gentlemen, I came here to give a lecture on plant physiology, but I see that something more extensive needs to be said. I have always been sure of your sympathy for me, but what is happening now, I never expected. I consider it my duty to confess to you. I confess three virtues: faith, hope and love; I love science as a means of achieving truth, faith in progress, and I hope for you.”

These words were covered with applause.

The problem that Timiryazev dealt with all his life was so broad that it went beyond the boundaries of physiology. He was the first to speak about the cosmic role of terrestrial plants, about the role they play in the transmission of solar energy to our entire planet.

Scientists have long been interested in how plants develop.

This interest was expressed in two questions formulated at the time by R. Mayer and G. Helmholtz, the founders of the law of conservation of energy. “Does the light that falls on a living plant really receive a different consumption than the light that falls on dead bodies?” And - "Does the living force of the sun's rays that disappear when they are absorbed by the leaf exactly correspond to the accumulating stock of chemical forces of the plant?"

Timiryazev answered both questions.

Numerous predecessors of Timiryazev, who dealt with the problem of the synthesis of organic matter in plants, found that the formation of organic matter in plants from inorganic occurs mainly in the leaves - with the help of microscopic chlorophyll grains filling them, and the plants draw the carbon necessary to create organic matter directly from the air, in which always contains carbon dioxide. The latter, under the action of light, decomposes into oxygen and carbon. The released pure oxygen goes into the atmosphere, but the carbon goes to the construction of the substance of the plant, thus - through the plant - feeding the entire animal world.

“... I was the first botanist who spoke about the law of conservation of energy,” Timiryazev wrote in his book “The Sun, Life and Chlorophyll,” and, accordingly, with this expression “radiant energy” that replaced the word “light”. Taking this point of view of the doctrine of energy, I was the first to suggest that it is more logical to expect that the process of decomposition of carbon dioxide should depend on the energy of the sun's rays, and not on their brightness.

The process studied by Timiryazev was called photosynthesis.

For a long time it was not clear how photosynthesis actually proceeds, what is the chemical composition of chlorophyll grains, what are the rays of complex sunlight and how do they act in this case?

The main merit of Timiryazev lies precisely in the experimental and theoretical development of photosynthesis. He was the first to show that the intensity of the ongoing process is proportional to the absorbed energy in relatively weak light, and in strong light it reaches a certain value and no longer grows. That is, Timiryazev discovered the phenomenon of light saturation of photosynthesis; he experimentally discovered that there are two maximum absorption of light by a plant, which lie in the red and blue rays of the spectrum and proved the applicability of the law of conservation of energy to the process of photosynthesis. At that time, Timiryazev did not yet have the opportunity to conduct a complete physical and chemical analysis of chlorophyll, but the data obtained during the experiments allowed him to make a number of bold conclusions and make hypotheses that were later confirmed.

Timiryazev was the first to suggest that chlorophyll can be found in plants in two forms - reduced and oxidized. In this case, both forms in the process of photosynthesis can pass one into another. The oxidized form of chlorophyll, reacting with carbon dioxide in the air, releases oxygen and forms compounds of chlorophyll with carbon monoxide, turning into the reduced form of chlorophyll. And the latter interacts with water, oxidizes and gives the first synthesis product - formaldehyde, which then turns into starch, and goes into the original oxidized form.

Of course, in reality this is a more complicated process, but Timiryazev correctly built a model in which chlorophyll always serves as a kind of carbon transmitter to a plant, just as blood serves to transfer oxygen to an animal organism. By the way, the plot of the excellent science fiction novel by the talented Ural writer Yu. Yarovoy, who died early, was based on the similarity of these processes.

Timiryazev dreamed that someday “... physiologists will find out in the smallest detail the phenomena occurring in the chlorophyll grain, chemists will explain and reproduce outside the body its synthesis processes, resulting in the formation of complex organic bodies, carbohydrates and proteins, based on carbon dioxide; physicists will give a theory of photochemical phenomena and the most profitable utilization of solar energy in chemical processes; and when everything is done, that is, explained, then a resourceful inventor will appear and offer the astonished world an apparatus imitating a chlorophyll grain, receiving free air and sunlight from one end, and serving baked bread from the other, and then it will become clear to everyone that there were people who so persistently racked their brains over the solution of such a seemingly idle question: why and why is the plant green?

Research on photosynthesis brought Timiryazev worldwide fame. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of London, an honorary doctor of the University of Cambridge, Geneva, and the University of Glasgow, a full member of the Edinburgh and Manchester Botanical Societies. Only in Russia Timiryazev remained only a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

However, it was all about politics.

Even from the Petrovsky Academy, transformed by Timiryazev into the Agricultural Institute, he was fired for his intransigence and propaganda of Darwinism. And in 1898 he was fired from among the staff professors of Moscow University.

For some time, Timiryazev lectured freelance, but in 1902 he left teaching forever, taking on only the management of the botanical office.

In 1911, together with other professors, Timiryazev finally left Moscow University in protest against the reactionary policy of the then Minister of Education.

Once outside the walls of scientific institutions, Timiryazev completely devoted himself to the cause of popularization. Sometimes he turned a series of lectures he read into a book, sometimes he combined various articles into a book. All his works were distinguished by their undoubted talent, and such books as Charles Darwin and His Teachings, Plant Life, The Sun, Life and Chlorophyll, Agriculture and Plant Physiology, Science and Democracy are still being read now.

In 1903, speaking at the Royal Society of London, Timiryazev began his lecture “The Cosmic Role of the Plant” in this way:

“When Gulliver inspected the academy in Lagado for the first time, he was first of all struck by a lean-looking man who was sitting with his eyes fixed on a cucumber sealed in a glass vessel. To Gulliver's question, the outlandish man explained to him that for eight years now he had been immersed in the contemplation of this subject in the hope of solving the problem of capturing the sun's rays and their further application. For the first acquaintance, I must frankly admit that this is such an eccentric before you. I spent more than thirty-five years staring, if not at a green cucumber sealed in a glass dish, then at something quite equivalent - at a green leaf in a glass tube, puzzling over the solution of the issue of storing the sun's rays for future use!

From 1864, Timiryazev constantly spoke out in defense of Darwinism.

He immediately realized that the publication of the famous book by Charles Darwin "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Adapted (Favored) Races in the Struggle for Existence" opened a new era in the history of world science.

By the way, it was Timiryazev who translated The Origin of Species into Russian.

As for the essence of his own scientific method, firmly associated with Darwinism, Timiryazev explained it this way:

“... I mainly try to explain the mutual relations in which the two main methods of studying living beings should be found: the experimental-physiological method and the historical-biological method. Many modern naturalists, both in our country and in the West, still sin by misunderstanding the mutual relationship of these two paths of research, which serve as a support and continuation of one another. Among biologists, one can still meet those who think that once the word struggle for existence is uttered, everything is explained by this, and are ready with indignation or mockery, which only reveals their ignorance, to treat any application of physical methods of research to living beings. In the same way, among physiologists one can meet those who believe that the discovery of the adaptations of a living organism goes beyond the limits of strictly scientific research. From the very first steps of my scientific activity, I tried to prove the one-sidedness of these points of view, taken separately, and the fruitfulness of their harmonious fusion into one harmonious whole. Where the task of directly physiological experience ends, a vast field of historical biological research opens up before physiology, and, conversely, any historical biological research, as its necessary initial premises, must be based on facts always obtained by more accurate experimental physiological methods.

Timiryazev owns many fundamental works on the history of human thought: "The main features of the history of the development of biology in the 19th century" (1908), "The development of natural science in Russia in the era of the 60s" (1908), "The awakening of natural science in the third quarter of the century" (1907 ), "The science. Essay on the Development of Natural Science in Three Centuries (1920), The Major Advances in Botany at the Beginning of the 20th Century (1920). A huge number of articles were written by him for the encyclopedic dictionary of the Garnet brothers.

“... As for the duties of a professor, since they were also discussed,” Timiryazev wrote in his Reply to Anti-Darwinists, not without humor, “I will note that every profession, including professorship, has its difficult and sacred duties. Among the heavy duties of a professor is the obligation to read thick books and stupid books, which is doubly difficult when thick books turn out to be stupid at the same time. Among the most sacred duties of a professor is the obligation to make it easier for his listeners to read thick and stupid books, to supply these listeners with a compass with which they could break through the most impenetrable scholastic jungle, without risking completely getting lost in them.

After the revolution, Timiryazev continued his scientific and educational activities. He gave a lot of energy to social activities. Having become a member of the Moscow Soviet of Workers', Peasants' and Red Army Deputies, he directly responded to the reproaches of some former friends: Russian people cannot but admit that during the thousand-year existence of Russia in the ranks of the government it was impossible to find so much honesty, intelligence, knowledge, talent and devotion to their people, as in the ranks of the Bolsheviks.

In March 1920, having already survived the stroke, courageously fighting the disease, Timiryazev sent a letter of congratulations to the Moscow Soviet, clearly expressing his attitude to reality.

“... Chosen by the comrades working in the carriage workshops of the Moscow-Kursk Railway,” he wrote, “I first of all hasten to express my deep gratitude and at the same time express regret that my years and illness do not allow me to attend today's meeting. And after that, the question arises before me: how can I justify the flattering trust placed in me, what can I bring to the service of our common cause?

After the amazing, self-sacrificing successes of our comrades in the ranks of the Red Army, who saved our Soviet Republic, which was on the verge of destruction, and thereby compelled the surprise and respect of our enemies, it is the turn of the Red Army of Labor. All of us - old and young, toilers of muscles and toilers of thought - must unite in this common army of labor in order to achieve the further fruits of these victories. War against an external enemy, war against internal sabotage, freedom itself - all these are only means; the goal is the prosperity and happiness of the people, and they are created only by productive labor.

Work, work, work!

This is the call to be heard from morning to evening and from end to end of a long-suffering country that has a legitimate right to be proud of what it has already accomplished, but has not yet received a well-deserved reward for all its victims, for all its exploits. At this moment there is no petty, unimportant labor, and even more so there is no shameful labor. There is one work - necessary and meaningful. But the work of an old man can also have a special meaning, free, not obligatory, not included in the national estimate - this work of an old man can stir up the enthusiasm of the young, can shame the lazy. I only have one good hand. But she could also turn the drive handle, I have one healthy leg, but this would not prevent me from walking on a topchak. There are countries that consider themselves free, where such labor is imputed as a shameful punishment to criminals, but, I repeat, in our free country at the present moment there can be no shameful, disgraceful labor. My head is old, but it does not refuse to work. Perhaps my many years of scientific experience could find application in school affairs or in the field of agriculture. Finally, one more consideration: once my convinced word found a response in a number of generations of students; perhaps now, on occasion, it will support those who waver, and make those who run away from the common cause think again.

So, comrades, all for the common work, tirelessly, and may our Soviet republic, created by the selfless feat of the workers and peasants and just saved before our eyes by our glorious Red Army, flourish!

The last thing the dying scientist read was Lenin's letter, received in response to the book "Science and Democracy" sent to him.

“Dear Klementy Arkadyevich! Thank you very much for your book and kind words. I was downright delighted reading your remarks against the bourgeoisie and for Soviet power. I firmly, firmly shake your hand and wholeheartedly wish you health, health and health! Yours V. Ulyanov (Lenin)."

From the book The Most Famous Scientists of Russia author Prashkevich Gennady Martovich

Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev Physiologist-botanist, Darwinist. He was born on June 3, 1843 in St. Petersburg. The Timiryazevs came from an old noble family, but Timiryazev's father always considered himself an avid republican. With the army of Kutuzov in the Patriotic War of 1812, he reached

From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (KL) of the author TSB

From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (TI) of the author TSB

From the book Encyclopedia of Russian Surnames. Secrets of origin and meaning author TIMIRYAZEV The surname of the Russian scientist Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev, which became known to the whole world, was formed on behalf of the no less famous Timur (Tamerlane) - the Central Asian emir and commander, which is a derivative of the name Temir (Turkic - 'iron').

From the author's book

CLEMENT V (Clemens V,? - 1314), Pope since 1305 629 Church Militant. // Ecclesia militans. From a letter to the French King Philip IV the Handsome (1311) This refers to the earthly Church until the second coming of Christ, which fights for the salvation of souls, in contrast to the “triumphant Church” (“Ecclesia

From the author's book

CLEMENT VII (Clemens VII, 1478–1534), Pope since 1523 630 Non possumus (lat.). // Can not. So in 1529, Clement answered the request of the English King Henry VIII to give him a divorce from Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Five years later (1534) Henry VIII separated the English Church from

From the author's book

CLEMENT XIII (Clemens XIII, 1693-1769), Pope since 1758 631 Let them be as they are, or let them not be at all. // Sint ut sunt, aut non sint (lat.). Response to the proposal of the French Cardinal Jean-Francois Joseph de Rochechouart (de Rochechouart) to change the constitution of the Jesuit order (in

From the author's book

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIAN (? - before 215), Greek philosopher, head of the Christian school in Alexandria 632 * Putting a book into the hands of an ignoramus is just as dangerous as putting a sword into the hands of a child. Paraphrased thought of Clement in the version of H. L. Borges. ? Borges, 3:271. In Clement: "Introducing

From the author's book

CLEMENT V (Clemens V,? - 1314), Pope since 1305148Church Militant. // Ecclesia militans. From a letter to the French king Philip IV the Handsome (1311). This refers to the earthly Church before the second coming of Christ, which fights for the salvation of souls, in contrast to the "triumphant Church" ("Ecclesia

From the author's book

CLEMENT VII (Clemens VII, 1478–1534), Pope from 1523 149 Non possumus (lat.). // We cannot. In 1529, in response to the request of the English King Henry VIII to give him a divorce from Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Five years later (1534) Henry VIII separated the English Church from Rome.

Born on May 22 (June 3 according to the old calendar), 1843 in St. Petersburg in the family of the head of the customs district of St. Petersburg.

Like many children from noble families of that time, Clement from an early age underwent versatile home schooling. Under the influence of a progressive father, the boy absorbed liberal republican views from childhood.

Since 1860, Timiryazev K. A. entered St. Petersburg University to study at the cameral (law) faculty, but then moved to another faculty - physics and mathematics, to the natural department. In 1861, for participating in student unrest and refusing to cooperate with the authorities, he was expelled from the university. He was allowed to continue his studies at the university as a volunteer only after a year. As a student, he had already published a number of articles on Darwinism, as well as on socio-political topics. In 1866, Timiryazev successfully completed his studies with a candidate's degree and a gold medal for his work On Liver Mosses, which was never published.

Timiryazev began his scientific activity under the guidance of the well-known Russian botanist A. N. Beketov. The first real scientific work by K. A. Timiryazev “A device for studying the decomposition of carbon dioxide” was published in 1868. In the same year, the young scientist went abroad to expand his knowledge and experience, as well as to prepare for a professorship. His teachers and mentors were, among others: Chamberlain, Bunsen, Kirchhoff, Berthelot, Helmholtz and Claude Bernard. The formation of the worldview of K. A. Timiryazev was influenced by the revolutionary-democratic upsurge in Russia, and the development of his scientific thinking was influenced by a whole galaxy of naturalists, among whom were D. I. Mendeleev, I. M. Sechenov, I. I. Mechnikov, A. M. Butlerov, L. S. Tsenkovsky, A. G. Stoletov, brothers Kovalevsky and Beketov. K. A. Timiryazev was strongly influenced by the works of such great Russian revolutionary democrats as V. G. Belinsky, A. I. Herzen, N. G. Chernyshevsky, D. I. Pisarev and N. A. Dobrolyubov, who were interested in natural science and used scientific advances to substantiate materialistic views of nature. The evolutionary teachings of Ch. Darwin had a huge impact on the talented scientist. Timiryazev was one of the first among Russian scientists to get acquainted with Karl Marx's "Capital" and imbued with new ideas.

Upon returning to his homeland in 1871, Timiryazev K. A. successfully defended his dissertation "Spectral analysis of chlorophyll" for a master's degree and became a professor at the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy in Moscow (currently it is called the Moscow Agricultural Academy named after K. A. Timiryazev) . Until 1892, Timiryazev lectured there in full on botany. At the same time, the scientist led an active and eventful activity. In 1875, Timiryazev became a doctor of botany for his work "On the assimilation of light by a plant." Since 1877, he began working at the Department of Plant Anatomy and Physiology at Moscow University. In addition, he regularly lectured at Moscow women's collective courses. He was the chairman of the botanical department of the Society of Natural Science Lovers, who at that time worked at Moscow University.

It is worth noting that from the very beginning of his writing activity, Timiryazev's scientific work was distinguished by strict consistency and unity of plan, the elegance of experimental technique and the accuracy of methods. Many questions outlined in the first scientific works of Timiryazev were expanded and supplemented in later works. For example, on the issues of decomposition of carbon dioxide by green plants with the help of solar energy, the study of chlorophyll and its genesis. For the first time in Russia, Timiryazev introduced experiments with plants on artificial soils, for which in 1872 at the Petrovsky Academy he built a growing house for growing plants in vessels (the first scientifically equipped greenhouse), literally immediately after the appearance of such structures in Germany. A little later, Timiryazev installed a similar greenhouse in Nizhny Novgorod at the All-Russian Exhibition.

Thanks to outstanding scientific achievements in the field of botany, Timiryazev was awarded a number of high-profile titles: corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences since 1890, honorary member of Kharkov University, honorary member of St. Petersburg University, honorary member of the Free Economic Society, as well as many other scientific communities and organizations.

In the scientific community, Timiryazev was known as a popularizer of natural science and Darwinism. He devoted his whole life to the struggle for the freedom of science and sharply opposed attempts to turn science into a pillar of autocracy and religion. For this, he was constantly on suspicion of the police and felt a certain pressure. In 1892, the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy was closed due to the unreliability of its teaching staff and students, and Timiryazev was expelled from the staff. In 1898, he was fired from the staff of Moscow University for his length of service (30 years of teaching experience), in 1902 Timiryazev finished lecturing and remained head of the botanical office. In 1911, as part of a group of other teachers, he left the university as a sign of disagreement with the violation of the autonomy of the university. Only in 1917 he was reinstated in the rank of professor at Moscow University, but he could no longer continue his work due to illness.

Timiryazev's popular science lectures and articles were distinguished by their strict scientific content, clarity of presentation, and polished style. The collections Public Lectures and Speeches (1888), Some Fundamental Problems of Modern Natural Science (1895), Agriculture and Plant Physiology (1893), and Charles Darwin and His Teachings (1898) were popular not only in the scientific community, but went far beyond it. The Life of Plants (1898) became an example of a course on plant physiology accessible to any person and was translated into foreign languages.

Timiryazev K. A. is known all over the world. For his services in the field of science, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of London, the Edinburgh and Manchester Botanical Societies, as well as an honorary doctorate from a number of European universities - in Cambridge, Glasgow, Geneva.

Timiryazev K. A. has always been a patriot of the motherland and was glad to accomplish the Great Socialist Revolution. Until the last days, the scientist took part in the work of the State Academic Council of the People's Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR. Actively continued scientific and literary work. In 1920, on the night of April 27-28, the world famous scientist died and was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery. A memorial museum-apartment of Timiryazev was created in Moscow and a monument was erected. Timiryazev's name was given to the Moscow Agricultural Academy and the Institute of Plant Physiology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The area of Moscow and streets in different cities of Russia are named in honor of the scientist.

Kliment Timiryazev was born on June 3, 1843 in St. Petersburg. He received his primary education at home. In 1866 he graduated with honors from the natural faculty of St. Petersburg State University. The philosophical views of A. Herzen, N. Chernyshevsky, the works of D. Mendeleev, I. Sechenov, and especially Ch. Darwin played an important role in shaping Timiryazev's worldview.

During his student years, Timiryazev published a number of articles on socio-political topics and on Darwinism, including: "Garibaldi on Caprera", "Famine in Lancashire", "Darwin's Book, Its Critics and Commentators". At the same time, he wrote the first popular book outlining Darwin's teachings, Charles Darwin and His Teachings; his book "The Life of Plants" was reprinted more than 20 times and aroused great interest both in Russia and abroad.

In 1868, in order to prepare for a professorship, he was sent abroad, where he worked in the laboratories of prominent physicists, chemists, physiologists, and botanists. Returning to Russia, Timiryazev defended his master's thesis and took up the position of professor at the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy in Moscow, where he lectured in all departments of botany. At the same time, he taught at the Moscow State University at the Department of Plant Anatomy and Physiology, in the women's "collective courses". He headed the botanical department of the Society of Natural Science Lovers at the university.

Kliment Arkadyevich became one of the founders of the Russian school of plant physiology, having studied the process of photosynthesis, for which he developed special methods and equipment. In plant physiology, along with agrochemistry, the scientist saw the basis of rational farming. The professor was the first to introduce experiments in Russia with plant culture in artificial soils; arranged the first greenhouse for this purpose at the Petrovsky Academy in the early 1870s.

In 1920, a collection of his articles Science and Democracy was published. For the last 10 years of his life, due to illness, he could no longer teach, but continued to engage in literary and journalistic activities, participated in the work of the People's Commissariat for Education of Russia and the Socialist Academy of Social Sciences. Elected Deputy of the Moscow City Council.

Timiryazev was a member of the Royal Society of London. He was an honorary doctor of universities in the cities of Glasgow, Cambridge and Geneva; Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Edinburgh Botanical Society, also an Honorary Member of many foreign and domestic universities and scientific societies. Author of numerous articles, books, biographical essays.

Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev died on April 28, 1920 in Moscow. He was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery.

In honor of the scientist are named: a village in the Lipetsk and Ulyanovsk regions; Lunar crater; ship "Akademik Timiryazev"; Moscow Agricultural Academy, Institute of Plant Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, State Biological Museum, library in St. Petersburg, Vinnitsa Regional Universal Scientific Library in Ukraine, Central Station for Young Naturalists and Moscow Metro Station.

The film "Deputy of the Baltic" is dedicated to Timiryazev. For the best work in plant physiology, the award of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after the scientist is awarded. A bust has been erected to him in the Museum of Geosciences of Moscow State University.