Logopedic portal / Experience exchange / Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev message. Biography of Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev. Rejection of anti-Darwinism, including many supporters of the genetics of Mendel and Weismann

Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev message. Biography of Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev. Rejection of anti-Darwinism, including many supporters of the genetics of Mendel and Weismann

01.05.2022

Professor of Moscow University; genus. in St. Petersburg in 1843. He received his primary education at home. In 1861 he entered the St. Petersburg University. to the cameral faculty, 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 published). In 1868, Mr.. appeared in print his first scientific work "A device for the study of the decomposition of carbon dioxide", and in the same year T. was sent abroad to prepare for a professorship. He worked with Hofmeister, Bunsen, Kirchhoff, Berthelot and listened to lectures by Helmholtz, Claude Bernard and others. Returning to Russia, T. defended his master's thesis ("Spectral Analysis of Chlorophyll", 1871) and was appointed professor at the Petrovsky Agricultural 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, T. Doctor of Botany for Op. "On the assimilation of light by a plant", and in 1877 he was invited to Moscow University to the department of anatomy and physiology of plants, which he continues to occupy to this day. He also lectured at women's "collective courses" in Moscow. In addition, T. is chairman of the botanical department of the Society of Natural Science Lovers at Moscow University. T.'s scientific works, which are notable for their unity of plan, strict consistency, precision of methods, and elegance of experimental technique, are devoted to the decomposition of atmospheric carbon dioxide by green plants under the influence of solar energy and have contributed greatly to the elucidation of this most important and most interesting chapter of plant physiology. The study of the composition and optical properties of the green pigment of plants (chlorophyll), its genesis, the physical and chemical conditions for the decomposition of carbon dioxide, the determination of the components 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 T. and to a large extent resolved in his subsequent writings. To this it should be added that T. 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 70s, i.e., soon after the appearance of this kind of devices in Germany. Later, the same greenhouse was arranged by T. at the All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod. Outstanding scientific achievements of T. awarded him the title of Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences, Honorary Member of the Kharkov and St. Petersburg Universities, the Free Economic Society, and many other learned societies and institutions. Among the educated Russian society, T. is 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 Plant Life (5th ed., Moscow, 1898; translated into foreign languages) is an example of a public course in plant physiology. In his popular scientific works, T. is a staunch and consistent supporter of a mechanical view of the nature of physiological phenomena and an ardent defender and popularizer of Darwinism. A list of 27 scientific works of T., which appeared before 1884, is placed in the appendix to his speech "L" etat actuel de nos connaissances sur la fonction chlorophyllienne "(" Bulletin du Congrès internation. de Botanique à St.-Peterbourg ", 1884) After 1884 appeared: "L" effet chimique et l "effet physiologique de la lumière 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 étiolées" ("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), etc. In addition, T belongs to the study of gas exchange in the root nodules of leguminous plants ("Proceedings of St. Petersburg. .", vol. XXIII). Ed. T. came out in Russian. translation of "Collected Op." Ch. Darwin and other books.

(Brockhaus)

Timiryazev, Kliment Arkadievich

Rus. naturalist-Darwinist, outstanding botanist-physiologist, talented popularizer and propagandist of scientific knowledge, corresponding member. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (since 1890). Born in St. Petersburg in a progressive noble family. In 1860 T. entered St. Petersburg. un-t to the cameral (legal) faculty, but soon moved to the natural department of physics and mathematics. fact. For refusing to sign an obligation not to participate in student gatherings and organizations in 1862, he was expelled from the university and returned there only a year later as a volunteer. As a student, publ. a number of articles on Darwinism and socio-political. themes ("Garibaldi on Caprera", 1862, "Famine in Lancashire", 1863, "Darwin's Book, its critics and commentators", 1864). In 1865 he graduated from the un-t, having received the degree of candidate of sciences for his work on liver mosses; scientific activity T. began under the guidance of the famous Rus. botanist A. N. Beketov.

The outlook of T. was formed in the era of the rise of the revolutionary democratic. movements in Russia; scientific thought was developed by a brilliant constellation of naturalists: D. I. Mendeleev, I. M. Sechenov, brothers V. O. and A. O. Kovalevsky, I. I. Mechnikov, brothers A. N. and H. N. Beketovs, A. M. Butlerov, L. S. Tsenkovsky, A. G. Stoletov, and others. natural sciences. On T., as in all Russian. naturalists of the "sixties", a strong influence was exerted by the works of the great revolutionary democrats V. G. Belinsky, A. I. Herzen, N. G. Chernyshevsky, D. I. Pisarev, N. A. Dobrolyubov, who were interested in natural science and used its achievements to substantiate materialistic view of nature. A huge role in shaping the worldview of T. played the works of Sechenov, as well as materialistic. evolutionary teachings of Ch. Darwin. T. was one of the first in Russia who got acquainted with the "Capital" of K. Marx.

In 1868, at the 1st Congress of the Russian. naturalists and physicians T. made a presentation on "A device for the study of air supply of leaves and the use of artificial lighting for research of this kind." This work marked the beginning of his research in the field of plant photosynthesis, to which he devoted his entire life. In 1868-70 he was on a business trip abroad and worked in the laboratories of the largest scientists (in Germany - with the physicists G. Kirchhoff and G. Helmholtz, the chemist R. Bunsen, the botanist W. Hofmeister, in France - with the chemist P. Berthelot, the agricultural chemist J. Bussengo, physiologist C. Bernard). In 1869, T. was elected a teacher of botany at the Petrovsky farmer. and the Forest Academy (now the Moscow Agricultural Academy named after K. A. Timiryazev). In 1871 he defended his master's thesis. "Spectral analysis of chlorophyll" and became an extraordinary prof. academy; in 1875 he defended his doctoral thesis. "On the assimilation of light by a plant" and received the title of ordinary prof. At the academy T. organized a laboratory of plant physiology and built (1872) the first in Russia (and one of the first in Europe) a growing house for growing plants in vessels. In 1877 he was elected prof. Moscow un-ta on the department of anatomy and physiology of plants. T. enjoyed great popularity and love among students. His public lectures on plant physiology, books on Darwinism, and articles on the history of science were exceptionally well known and aroused Russian in wide circles. intelligentsia interest in biology and natural science in general.

T. was a materialist, an active fighter for the freedom of scientific research and for democracy. All his life he fought against reactionary attempts to force science to serve to strengthen the autocracy and religion; was constantly under the suspicion of the tsarist government and was persecuted, although his name as the greatest physiologist and evolutionist was known throughout the world. In 1892, Petrovskaya S.-H. Academy due to the "unreliability" of its prof. and students was closed and instead organized by Moscow. s.-x. in-t; T., together with other scientists objectionable to the tsarist government, was not admitted to prof. activities and remained "out of state". In 1898 he was dismissed from among the full-time prof. Moscow un-ta "for long service" (30 years of teaching), and in 1902 removed from lecturing and left only the head of botanical. office. In 1911, he left the university, along with a large group of professors and teachers, in protest against the gross violation of university autonomy by Minister Kasso. Only in 1917 T. was restored to the rank of prof. Moscow un-ta, but due to illness he could no longer work at the department.

Recognition of T. outstanding services to world science was expressed in the election of his member. London. queens. about-va, honorary doctor of high fur boots in Cambridge, Glasgow and Geneva, member. Edinburgh. and Manchester. botanical about-in. T. was an honorary member. many Russian un-tov and scientific about-in. However, the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences limited itself to electing him as a corresponding member.

T. enthusiastically welcomed the Great Oct. socialist. revolution and gave all his strength to selfless service to the young socialist. the state; T. has always been an ardent patriot, but this was especially evident during the years of Soviet power. In protest against the British intervention in Russia, he refused in 1919 an honorary doctorate from Cambridge. university Despite a serious illness, 75-year-old T. actively participated in the work of the State. Academic Council of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR, helped in organizing the Socialist. (later Communist) Academy, a member of which he was elected in 1919. In 1920, Moscow. the workers elected him a deputy in Moscow. advice. Until the end of his life T. continued scientific and literary work. He prepared for publication the collection "The Sun, Life and Chlorophyll" (1923), prepared for a separate edition his work "The Historical Method in Biology ..." (1922), wrote and published. a number of articles. Shortly before T.'s death, a collection of his articles Science and Democracy (1920) was published. Regarding this book, V. I. Lenin wrote in a letter to T.: “I was downright delighted when I read your remarks against the bourgeoisie and for Soviet power” (Soch., 4th ed., vol. 35, p. 380).

On the night of April 27-28, 1920, the great scientist died. T. was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery. The Soviet people deeply honor his memory. In Moscow, T. erected a monument and created a memorial museum-apartment; his name was given to Moscow. s.-x. Academy, Institute of Plant Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the USSR. One of the districts of Moscow and streets in many cities of the USSR are named after T. The Academy of Sciences of the USSR awards the T. Prize for the best works in plant physiology and annually conducts the so-called. Timiryazev readings. By decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, T.'s Works were published in 10 volumes (1937-40).

The role of Timiryazev in the development of plant physiology. T. was one of the most prominent plant physiologists of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries; his main merit as a physiologist lies in the experimental and theoretical. development of the problem of plant photosynthesis. Works on the study of the dependence of photosynthesis on the intensity and qualitative composition of light, of which the most important are Spectral Analysis of Chlorophyll (1871) and On the Assimilation of Light by a Plant (1875), are still of great importance and made his name immortal. T. managed to show that at high intensities of illumination, close to full solar, the intensity of photosynthesis reaches a certain value and does not change further, that is, he discovered the phenomena of light saturation of photosynthesis (“Dependence of carbon assimilation on light intensity”, 1889), currently recognized as one of the main indicators characterizing the dependence of photosynthesis on the amount of light. Prior to T.'s research, it was believed that photosynthesis took place with the greatest intensity in the yellow-green rays of the solar spectrum, which were very weakly absorbed by chlorophyll, and even arguments were made that chlorophyll was not related to photosynthesis (N. Pringsheim). This idea was finally refuted by the brilliant experiments of T., which showed that the use of light to form organic. substances of plants is the essence of photosynthesis. T. firmly established that sunlight can not be used for chemical. the work that takes place in a green plant, if it is not absorbed by the sensitizing pigment - chlorophyll, the main absorption maximum of which lies in the red rays of the spectrum. That. he experimentally proved the applicability of the law of conservation of energy and the first law of photochemistry to the process of photosynthesis. T. was the first to apply the concept of sensitization to photosynthesis, which was subsequently widely used in the study of light reactions of photosynthesis. Further research led T. to the discovery of the second maximum absorption of light by chlorophyll (and the second maximum of photosynthesis), located in the blue rays of the spectrum ("Photographic registration of carbon absorption by chlorophyll on a living plant", 1890).

The success of T.'s research in the field of photosynthesis is largely due to the attention that he invariably paid to the development of new, more advanced methods for studying physiological. processes in plants; proposed a highly sensitive device for gas analysis and a number of other devices for studying the absorption of various rays of the solar spectrum by a green leaf of a plant.

No less valuable than the experimental work of T., is the idea expressed by him about the need to apply the principles of Darwinism, primarily natural selection, to explain the physiological. processes in plants. Using the historical method, he made an attempt to explain why chlorophyll, which has the optical properties described above. properties, has gained universal distribution in autotrophic plants and why the evolution of plants has led to such a perfect way of using solar energy for photosynthesis. From the modern point of view, this happened because it is the red rays, predominantly absorbed by chlorophyll, that carry the largest number of quanta that have an energy reserve sufficient for photosynthesis. Therefore, they can provide the greatest photochemical. action with the highest payoff. T. posed the problem of the evolution of photosynthesis, which has been widely developed in modern science. He attached great importance to the study of plant photosynthesis in a natural environment and developed special equipment for this, which is the prototype of many modern devices. In the famous so-called. Kronian lecture given in London. queens. ob-ve - "The Cosmic Role of the Plant" (1903, in Russian. Per. 1904), T. summed up his thirty years of work on photosynthesis. The very invitation to read this lecture spoke of the world recognition of T. as the greatest scientist in the field of plant physiology. T. expressed a number of theoretical. regulations and other sections of plant physiology: on the water regime, mineral nutrition and other issues of plant life.

Of great importance was the activity of T. as a popularizer of achievements in the field of plant physiology and an active fighter for their implementation in Russian practice. with. x-va. He considered the task of a botanist-physiologist not only to describe and explain the phenomena of plant life, but also to control the processes of their vital activity ("Agriculture and Plant Physiology", 1906, "Science and Farmer", 1906). One of the main principles of T. was the study of plant physiology in connection with agriculture. For example, he considered it expedient to breed varieties with a powerfully developed root system or low transpiration, substantiated the possibility of increasing the productivity of transpiration with the help of fertilizers; pointed out the need to use the vegetation method in the village. x-ve, the creation of plants for the production of saltpeter; predicted the production value of growing plants with artificial electricity. lighting.

The role of Timiryazev in the protection and development of Darwinism. While still a first-year student T. got acquainted with the book of Charles Darwin "The Origin of Species" (1859). In Darwin's evolutionary theory, he was able to see the ingenious general theory of organic development. world and understand its philosophical materialistic. basis. T. became one of the first and most talented promoter of Darwinism in Russia. From 1864, he began publishing articles on Darwinism in the then progressive journal Otechestvennye Zapiski. Summarizing them, he published the following year the book "A Brief Outline of Darwin's Theory" (1865), which was the predecessor of the famous work "Charles Darwin and His Teachings", which went through 15 editions from 1883 to 1941. A series of articles was published. T. (1908-10) in connection with the 50th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's book "The Origin of Species". The propaganda of the ideas of Darwinism is largely devoted to other works of T. - "The Life of a Plant" (1878, 15th edition, 1949) and "The Historical Method in Biology" (published posthumously, 1922), etc.

Darwin's theory was enthusiastically received by advanced scientists, who saw in it one of the most important discoveries of the 19th century, which marked a revolution in biology, and furious attacks on it by reactionary scientists and churchmen, who tried to preserve the doctrine of the constancy of species, the doctrine of final causes, of inherent in organisms tendencies towards improvement, etc. idealistic. concepts that led to the recognition of the divine will of the creator of all living things. T. was a militant materialist who defended science from the penetration of idealism into it in any form. He invariably emphasized that science originates from practice and that it develops under the pressure of the demands of human economic activity. T. all his life was an atheist, never agreed that with science one way or another you can reconcile religion. In Russia, anti-Darwinism in the 19th century. most sharply expressed in the speeches of N. Ya. Danilevsky, H. N. Strakhov, V. S. Solovyov, and a number of other reactionaries. In defense of Darwinism from an attack on it, the religious-idealistic reaction immediately, with his characteristic passion, made T. with his brilliant public lectures and articles - "Refuted whether Darwinism?" (1887), "The Impotent Malice of the Anti-Darwinist" (1889), "A Strange Sample of Scientific Criticism" (1889), "Some Basic Problems of Modern Natural Science" (2 hours, 1895-1904). T. spoke no less passionately in defense of Darwinism at the beginning of the 20th century, when the English. the geneticist W. Betson announced that genetics could replace Darwinism ("Reply to the Vitalists" and "End of the Mendelians", 1913). In the fight against anti-Darwinism T. consistently defended the teachings of Darwin as progressive materialistic. development theory.

Promoting Darwinism, T. at the same time developed it, overcoming the weaknesses of Darwin's theory and raising it to a higher level. Darwin, as is well known, not only erroneously used Malthus's reactionary "theory" of overpopulation as one of the starting points in the chain of evidence for his correct explanation of evolution through the struggle for existence and natural selection in the animal and plant kingdoms, but also recognized that the progressive development of man also under the influence of natural selection. T. all his life fiercely fought against any form of so-called. social Darwinism. Realizing that social phenomena cannot be explained biologically. laws, T. declared that the doctrine of the struggle for existence stops on the threshold of cultural history and that "the law of Malthus is terrible only for unconscious beings" (Soch., v. 3, 1937. p. 31).

Darwin gave materialistic. historical explanation. organic development. peace. T. set as the immediate task of science the study of the issue of physiological. the nature of variability, seeing in this the key to the success of active human intervention in the process of shaping. Therefore, he fought with such energy for the development of experimental morphology, which, in his opinion, should develop methods for controlling the nature of the plant.

T. gave a deep analysis of the factors of evolution - variability, heredity and natural selection in their relationship, and, developing the teachings of Darwin, made a lot of his own understanding of each of the elements of this triad.

More specifically than Darwin, he spoke of the role of the environment in the variability of organisms; believed that the initial cause of changes in organisms is the direct or indirect (indirect) action of external conditions, and only then comes the action of secondary influences, such as correlations in the development of organs, etc.

T. defined heredity as the property of organisms to retain the influence of previously existing conditions, as the property to maintain similarity due to the successive transmission of the characteristics of organization and functions. To find ways to understand the physiology of heredity, he recommended studying the phenomenon of "aftereffect", with Krom for several generations, the effect of an absent, but existing in the past, cause is manifested.

T. paid special attention to natural selection, developing and deepening this "characteristic essence of Darwinism", emphasizing the creative role of selection. This is due to T. with a very clear understanding that the evolutionary process cannot be reduced to variability and heredity. He wrote: “The environment changes, but changing does not mean improving. Heredity complicates, but complication is not yet improvement. Of all the natural factors known to us, only that critical principle improves, which from this changed and complicated material preserves the useful, eliminates the harmful. Improves organisms that combination of boundless productivity and inexorable criticism, which we figuratively call natural selection" (Soch., vol. 5, 1938, pp. 139-140). In the failure to understand this basic position of Darwinism, T. saw the fundamental defect of anti-Darwinism. evolutionary theories against which he fought.

T. also brought greater clarity to the understanding of the species compared to with Darwin. Darwin repeatedly pointed out that "species" is an arbitrary concept invented for the sake of convenience to refer to a group of closely similar individuals. At the same time, an analysis of Darwin's work shows that in fact he recognized the species as really existing for a certain period of time. T. clearly said that the species is both an abstract general concept (the category of the general in relation to the individual - individuals) and a real fact. At the same time, wildlife, the totality of organic beings, according to T., represents "an undoubted chain, but a chain of separate links (species - ed.), and not a continuous thread" (Soch., vol. 8, 1939, p. 115). T. epistemologically correctly saw the basis of the problem of species in the unity of the discontinuous and continuous in the process of development of nature.

The merit of T. is the development of historical. method as an obligatory link in the scientific knowledge of the world. Being a first-class experimenter and a tireless promoter of the experimental method, fighting for the convergence of biology with the "exact sciences", especially physics and chemistry, T. nevertheless understood the insufficiency of this method in application to the analysis of the laws of the evolutionary process. In this analysis, T., along with descriptive and experimental methods, acquires a leading place historical. method - "neither morphology, with its brilliant and fruitful comparative method, nor physiology, with its even more powerful experimental method, cover the entire field of biology, do not exhaust its tasks; both are looking for additions to the historical method" (Soch. , vol. 6, 1939, p. 61).

Timiryazev as a historian and popularizer of science. All the characteristic features of a materialistic T.'s worldview, his passion in the struggle for free scientific thought was fully manifested in his numerous works on the history of science. Each speech T. on the history of science was polemical. character, was an integral part of the unified struggle for science and democracy. He wrote summarizing works: Centenary Results of Plant Physiology (1901), Main Features of the History of the Development of Biology in the 19th Century (1907), Awakening of Natural Science in the Third Quarter of the Century (1907; published in 1920 under the title Development of Natural Science in Russia in the era of the 60s"), "Successes of botany in the XX century" (1917; in 1920 it was published under the title "The main successes of botany at the beginning of the XX century"), "Science. An outline of the development of natural science for 3 centuries (1620-1920)" (1920) and others. Proudly noting the achievements of science in Russia, promoting the work of outstanding Russian. naturalists and emphasizing their contribution to world science, T. was alien to nationalism. He paid tribute to foreign progressive scientists, wrote about the influence that their ideas had on the development of science in Russia. He defended the idea of the international character of genuine science and the enormous role of science in the struggle for peace. In 1917, T. wrote: “... Science and democracy are in their very essence hostile to war. Science is identical with truth; outside of truth it does not exist, it is simply unthinkable, and that is why it is one" (Soch., vol. 9, 1939, p. 252).

The popularization of science was for T. a real need. He wrote: "From the first steps of my mental activity, I set myself two parallel tasks: to work for science and to write for the people, that is, popularly" (ibid., pp. 13-14). He considered the popularization of scientific knowledge as a way on which science and democracy are combined. All articles and books T. written in a clear and simple language - they are at a high scientific level and at the same time, the nature of the presentation is available to the widest circles. The utmost clarity of his figurative and temperamental language, the brightness and richness of comparisons, examples, comparisons, and in particular the ability to reveal the logic of scientific research, show the paths of scientific discovery, describe the picture of the development of science in its struggle for truth put T.'s popular science works on one of the first places in the world scientific literature.

In the person of T., science in Russia had not only a great scientist, but also a materialist thinker, who rose in his works to deep philosophical generalizations.

Studying the process of photosynthesis and seeing in it direct evidence of the unity of organic. and inorganic. nature, developing the historical method in biology and using it in his research and generalizations, actively participating in public life on the side of the progressive forces of society and selflessly serving the people, T. went "through the data of his science" from revolutionary democracy to scientific communism, to dialectical. materialism. T. cannot be called a consistent dialectic materialist, but his philosophical statements and scientific generalizations, especially in the last period of his life, when he became more familiar with Marxism and, in particular, with the works of V. I. Lenin, played a huge role in the development of modern . biology. T. was the first of the major Russian. scientists who adopted the Great Oct. socialist. revolution. Shortly before his death, he said: "... The Bolsheviks who carry out Leninism - I believe and am convinced - are working for the happiness of the people and will bring them to happiness."

Works: Works, vol. 1-10, M., 1937-40; Selected works, vols. 1-4, Moscow, 1928-49; Selected works, vols. 1-2, Moscow, 1957.

Lit .: In memory of K. A. Timiryazev. Collection of reports and materials of the session ... dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the death of K. A. Timiryazev. 1920-1935, ed. P. P. Bondarenno [and others], M.-L., 1936; Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev. Collection, M., 1940 (Moscow Agricultural Academician named after Timiryazev); Great scientist, fighter and thinker. Collection, ed. acad. L. A. Orbeli, M.-L., 1943; Komarov V. L., Maksimov N. A. and Kuznetsov B. G., Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev, M., 1945 (there is a bibliography of works on T., published before 1945); Korchagin A. I., K. A. Timiryazev. Life and creativity, M., 1948; Novikov S. A., K. A. Timiryazev, ed. A. K. Timiryazev. Moscow, 1948. Platonov G. V., Worldview of K. A. Timiryazev, 2nd ed., M., 1952 (there is a bibliography of works on T., published in 1945-52); Tsetlin L. S., K. A. Timiryazev, 2nd ed., M., 1952; Platonov G.V., Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev, M., 1955 (Workers of Russian agronomy).

Big biographical encyclopedia. 2009 .

Known as:

naturalist, founder of the Russian scientific school of plant physiologists

Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev(May 22 (June 3), St. Petersburg - April 28, Moscow) - Russian naturalist, physiologist, physicist, instrument maker, historian of science, writer, translator, publicist, professor at Moscow University, founder of the Russian and British scientific schools of plant physiologists. Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917; Corresponding Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences since 1890). Member of the Royal Society (the British analogue of the Academy of Sciences in other countries) since 1911. Honorary Doctor of Cambridge, the Universities of Geneva and Glasgow. Corresponding Member of the Edinburgh and Manchester Botanical Societies. Member . Member of the Moscow Physical Society (named after P. N. Lebedev). He was the organizer of congresses of Russian natural scientists and doctors, chairman of the IX Congress, chairman of the botanical department of the Society of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography Lovers at Moscow University. Member of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society, St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, Moscow Society of Naturalists, Russian Photographic Society. Deputy of the Moscow City Council (1920).

Biography

Very common among Tatar Christians (the Arabic pronunciation of the root "gazi" is preserved in Muslim surnames) and among Russians, the surname Timiryazev is formed from the dialectical variant Timiryaz or the name (Temirgazy - Temirgazy - Tatar language) Timergazi - comes from the words of Mongolian-Turkic origin Timir ( iron) and either from the Arabic Gazi (fighter for the faith, warlike), or the nickname of the blacksmith (from yaz - to straighten), but K. A. Timiryazev is from the only noble family of the Timiryazevs. “I am Russian,” wrote Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev, “although a significant proportion of English is mixed with my Russian blood.” Kliment (s) Arkadyevich Timiryazev was born in St. Petersburg in 1843 in the second marriage of the widowed head of the customs district of St. Petersburg, a participant in the campaigns of 1812-1814, later a real state councilor and senator Arkady Semyonovich Timiryazev, known for free-thinking and honesty, and therefore, despite a brilliant career very poor in the customs service, in connection with which, from the age of 15, Clement himself earned a living. He received his primary education at home. Thanks to her mother, a Russian citizen, an ethnic Englishwoman, the granddaughter of the semi-sovereign Alsatian landowner Adelaide Klimentievna Bode, who fled from the French Revolution, she not only had a perfect command of German and the international language of the nobility - French - but also knew the language and culture of Russians and English equally well, often visited the homeland of her ancestors, personally met 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, Darwin's last work was devoted to chlorophyll. A huge influence on K. A. Timiryazev was exerted by his brothers, who especially introduced him to organic chemistry D. A. Timiryazev, a specialist in the field of agricultural and factory statistics and a chemist who dealt, among other things, with chlorophyll, privy councillor. 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 Gorny Dubnyak, Telish, Vrats, Lyutikov, Philippopolis (Plovdiv) and was awarded a golden weapon 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 to study the cameral category of the Faculty of Law, which was transformed in the same year into the category of administrative sciences and subsequently liquidated according to the Charter of 1863, then switched to the natural category of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, was awarded a gold medal for writing "On liver mosses" (not published), completed the course in 1866 with a Ph.D. 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”, ) 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 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 in this faith there was a lot of sublime sincerity. 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. Gerrier, 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. Pirogov, Moscow State University of Fine Chemical Technologies named after M. V. Lomonosov, 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 strove for the convergence of science 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 the conservatives and Bismarck and the German militarists who followed his course as 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 disillusioned with the world slaughter, he accepted the invitation of A. M. Gorky to head the department of science in the anti-war journal Chronicle, largely thanks to Timiryazev, who 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 block 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, the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party has been nominating 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 landowners, 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 considered Soviet power, like many Luxembourgians, Smenovekhites 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. Science based on democracy and 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 illuminating a plant with light of different wavelengths (of 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 back 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, the possibility of reducing the need for iron in plants when they are fed with zinc, which explained the mystery of the transition of flowering plants to hunting animals that interested him and Darwin (carnivorous) 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, he was well versed not only in photography, "necessary for everyone who does not have Shishkin's brush", but also in painting, translated a book about the famous painter Turner, but still as a scientist - the naturalist could not resist and wrote to her an introductory article of great value "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 dictionary “Pomegranate”, Timiryazev wrote about the clerical and nationalist activities of his contemporary anti-Darwinists - supporters of this Mendelianism, which distorts the teachings of Mendelism and the laws of G. Mendel:

The research recipe was extremely simple: do cross-pollination (which every gardener can do), then calculate in the second generation how many were born in one parent, how many in the other, and if, approximately, like 3: 1, the work is ready; and then glorify the genius of Mendel and, without fail hitting Darwin along the way, take on another. In Germany, the anti-Darwinist movement did not develop on clerical ground alone. An outbreak of narrow nationalism, a hatred of everything English and an exaltation of German, provided even stronger support. This difference in points of departure was even expressed in relation to Mendel's personality itself. While the cleric Batson takes special care to clear Mendel of any suspicion of Jewish origin (an attitude that until recently was unthinkable in an educated Englishman), he was especially dear to the German biographer, as "Ein Deutscher von echtem Schrot und Korn" (" A real, genuine German". Ed.). The future historian of science will probably see with regret this intrusion of the clerical and nationalist element into the brightest area of human activity, which has as its goal only the disclosure of truth and its protection from all unworthy deposits.

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.,), "Some Basic Problems of Modern Natural Science" (M.,), "Agriculture and Plant Physiology" (M.,), "Charles Darwin and his teaching ”(4th ed., M.,) are a happy combination of strict scientificity, clarity of presentation, and brilliant style. His Plant Life (9th lifetime edition, Moscow, 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 rationalist (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 Timiryazev's scientific papers that appeared before 1884 is included in the appendix to his speech "L'etat actuel de nos connaissances sur la fonction chlorophyllienne" ("Bulletin du Congrès internation. de Botanique à St.-Peterbourg", ). After 1884 appeared:

"L'effet chimique et l'effet physiologique de la lumière sur la chlorophylle" ("Comptes Rendus", )

"Chemische und physiologische Wirkung des Lichtes auf das Chlorophyll" ("Chemisch. Centralblatt", no. 17)

"La protophylline dans les plantes étiolées" ("Compt. Rendus", )

"Enregistrement photographique de la fonction chlorophyllienne par la plante vivante" ("Compt. Rendus", CX, )

“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,)

"La protophylline naturelle et la protophylline artificielle" ("Comptes R.", )

"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
In St. Petersburg
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.

In Moscow
Memory

In honor of Timiryazev are named:

the village of Timiryazev, Lipetsk region, many villages in Russia and Ukraine, a village in Azerbaijan

lunar crater

Motor ship "Akademik Timiryazev"

Timiryazev Kliment Arkadyevich (1843-1920), Russian naturalist, one of the founders of the Russian scientific school of plant physiologists, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917; corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences since 1890). Professor of the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy (since 1871) and Moscow University (1878-1911), resigned in protest against the harassment of students. Deputy of the Moscow City Council (1920). He revealed the patterns of photosynthesis as a process of using light to form organic substances in a plant. Proceedings on the methods of research of plant physiology, the biological foundations of agronomy, the history of science. One of the first promoters of Darwinism and materialism in Russia. Popularizer and publicist ("The Life of a Plant", 1878; "Science and Democracy", 1920).
Timiryazev Kliment Arkadyevich, Russian naturalist, plant physiologist, popularizer of science.
Timiryazev was born into an intelligent noble family. The origin of the Timiryazev surname is associated with the name of the Horde prince Temir-Gazi (14th century), whose descendants served in prominent military and civil positions in Russia. His father, a senator, was a man of republican views and an admirer of Robespierre. Mother - the daughter of an English baroness who emigrated to Russia, an energetic and enterprising woman who devoted a lot of effort to raising children. Timiryazev received a home education, common for noble families, with the study of several languages, was fond of chemistry, literature, music, and painting. At the same time, from the age of fifteen, he began to independently earn money for a living through translations. In 1861, Timiryazev entered the St. Petersburg University at the cameral faculty (training officials in the management of state property), from which he soon switched to the physical and mathematical faculty. For participation in student unrest, he was expelled from the university, but in three years he graduated as a volunteer (1865) in the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, among whose teachers were A. N. Beketov, D. I. Mendeleev, A. S. Famintsin and other eminent scientists. Under the influence of the progressive views of his teachers and colleagues, as well as the revolutionary democratic movement of the 60s, Timiryazev became one of the prominent representatives of natural science positivism (in the spirit of O. Comte, whose philosophy had a great influence on him), an ardent supporter of democratic freedoms in university science. and public life. (Subsequently, Timiryazev accepted the October Revolution, and in 1920 sent his book "Science and Democracy" to V. I. Lenin with an inscription in which he spoke of happiness "to be his contemporary and witness to his glorious activity." Lenin replied that he "was right in ecstatic,” reading Timiryazev’s remarks “against the bourgeoisie and for Soviet power.”).
In 1868, Timiryazev was sent abroad (Germany, France) to work in the laboratories of R. Bunsen and G. Kirchhoff in Heidelberg and J. Bussingault and M. Berthelot in Paris (the latter Timiryazev considered his teacher). Period 1870-92 associated with teaching at the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy (now the Moscow Agricultural Academy named after K. A. Timiryazev). From 1878 to 1911 Timiryazev was a professor at Moscow University, from which he voluntarily resigned in protest against the policy of the ministerial authorities. For the last ten years of his life he was engaged in literary and journalistic activities.
In terms of the breadth of his research program, Timiryazev approached those scientists-encyclopedists of the second half of the 19th century, whose interests could still be realized in various branches of science, scientific-organizational activities and the popularization of knowledge, while the general civic attitude was the desire to combine scientific knowledge with practice and democratic transformations. . Driven by a patriotic goal - to promote the rise of the agricultural economy in Russia - the first period of creative activity (1860-70s) Timiryazev devotes to the study of photosynthesis and drought resistance of plants. Proceeding from the position that the true physiology of plants can be created only on the solid foundations of physics and chemistry, he carried out original experiments to determine the components of the spectrum of sunlight involved in the assimilation of carbon dioxide by the plant and the formation of organic substances. By research using a specially developed technique, Timiryazev showed a functional relationship between the green color of plants (the presence of chlorophyll) and photosynthesis, as well as subtle and careful experiments proved that it is not the yellow, subjectively brightest rays that are of primary importance (the conclusion of the American scientist J. Draper), but those that have maximum energy red. 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 seaweeds, which is indirectly confirmed by the greatest variety of pigments that absorb solar energy in this particular group of plants. The results of photosynthesis research were presented in two dissertations: master's "Spectral analysis of chlorophyll" (1871) and doctoral "On the assimilation of light by a plant" (1875), published in domestic and foreign publications. 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. In his last article, he 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 stubbornly and comprehensively carried it out for half a century.
As a plant physiologist, Timiryazev dealt with the problems of drought resistance and mineral nutrition of plants, on his initiative in 1872 the first growing house was created in Russia.
Timiryazev carried out an analysis of all biological phenomena based on ideas about the unity of structure and function and the adaptive nature of evolution. The study of the evolution of specific adaptations has led to success in studies of photosynthesis and drought tolerance. These works define Timiryazev's place in the history of science as one of the creators of the evolutionary-ecological physiology of plants.
A special role belongs to Timiryazev in promoting and defending the Darwinian theory of evolution. He made the best translation (1896) of Ch. Darwin's book "The Origin of Species", which formed the basis of all subsequent editions, wrote a number of works on the essence of Darwinism and Darwin himself, whom Timiryazev visited in 1877 ("A Brief Outline of Darwin's Theory", 1865; " Charles Darwin and his Teachings", 1882; a series of articles in connection with the half-century anniversary of Darwin's main work). At the level of knowledge of that time, Timiryazev tried to convince a large audience that it was hereditary variability and natural selection that were the driving forces of biological evolution. The brilliant talent of a publicist and polemist inherent in Timiryazev contributed to the exposition and propaganda of Darwinism. A thorough scientific training and extensive knowledge of literary sources allowed him to reasonably and timely enter into discussions with domestic and foreign opponents of Darwinism, as well as supporters of vitalism. More than one generation of Russian evolutionary biologists was brought up on Timiryazev's printed and public speeches.
The name and authority of Timiryazev were unscrupulously used by T. D. Lysenko and his supporters in the fight against genetics and to assert their pseudoscientific constructions. Timiryazev gave ambivalent assessments of G. Mendel and Mendelism: he recognized the “tremendous importance” of Mendel’s work for Darwinism, but at the same time he doubted the universality of the patterns discovered by Mendel, which he did not quite understand, and sharply criticized early Mendelism, in which he conceived the desire to replace Darwinism . Waving Timiryazev's name, Lysenkoites quoted some of his statements and were silent about others. Of scientific and historical value are Timiryazev's numerous articles and essays on the history of natural science, especially on the development of the biological sciences in the 18th and 19th centuries, essays on university life, and memoirs. His book Plant Life (1878) was repeatedly published in Russian and foreign languages as an example of the popularization of science. Timiryazev was a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1890), a member of the Royal Society of London (1911), an honorary member and doctor of many Russian and foreign scientific societies and universities. In 1923, a monument to Timiryazev was erected on Tverskoy Boulevard in Moscow; his name was given to many scientific institutions, streets, etc.

article by A.B. Georgievsky from The Great Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius

Timiryazev Kliment Arkadievich

Timiryazev (Kliment Arkadyevich) - professor at Moscow University, was born in St. Petersburg in 1843. He received his initial education at home. In 1861 he entered the St. Petersburg University at the cameral faculty, then switched 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 published). 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 Hofmeister, Bunsen, Kirchhoff, Berthelot and listened to lectures by Helmholtz, Claude 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 Academy in Moscow. Here he lectured in all departments of botany, until he was left behind the state in view of the closure of the academy (in 1892). In 1875, Timiryazev was Doctor of Botany for his essay "On the Assimilation of Light by a Plant", and in 1877 he was invited to Moscow University to the Department of Plant Anatomy and Physiology, which he continues to hold to this day. He also lectured at women's "collective courses" in Moscow. In addition, Timiryazev is the chairman of the botanical department of the Society of Natural Science Lovers at Moscow University. Timiryazev's scientific works, distinguished by their unity of plan, strict consistency, precision of methods, and elegance of experimental technique, are devoted to the question of the decomposition of atmospheric carbon dioxide by green plants under the influence of solar energy, and have greatly contributed to the elucidation of this most important and most interesting chapter of plant physiology. The study of the composition and optical properties of the green pigment of plants (chlorophyll), its genesis, the physical and chemical conditions for the decomposition of carbon dioxide, the determination of the components 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 to a large extent resolved in his subsequent works. 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 70s, i.e., soon after the appearance of this kind of devices in Germany. Later, the same greenhouse was arranged by him at the Petrovsky Academy in the early 70s, that is, soon 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. Timiryazev's outstanding scientific merits earned him the title of Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences, Honorary Member of Kharkov and St. Petersburg Universities, Free Economic Society and many other scientific societies and institutions. Among the educated Russian society, Timiryazev is widely known as a popularizer of natural science. His popular scientific lectures and articles included in the collections "Public Lectures and Speeches" (Moscow, 1888), "Some Basic Problems of Modern Natural Science" (Moscow, 1895), "Agriculture and Plant Physiology" (Moscow, 1893), "Charles Darwin and his Teaching" (4th ed., Moscow, 1898) are a happy combination of rigorous science, clarity of presentation, and brilliant style. His Plant Life (5th ed., Moscow, 1898; translated into foreign languages) is an example of a public course in plant physiology. In his popular scientific works, Timiryazev is a staunch and consistent supporter of the mechanical view of the nature of physiological phenomena and an ardent defender and popularizer of Darwinism. A list of 27 scientific works of 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 Congres internation. de Botanique a St.-Peterbourg", 1884). After 1884 appeared: "L" effet chimique et l "effet physiologique de la lumiere sur la chlorophylle" ("Comptes Rendus", 1885), "Chemische und physiologische Wirkung des Lichtes auf das Chlorophyll" ("Chemisch. Centralblatt", 1885, ¦ 17), "La protophylline dans les plantes etiolees" ("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), etc. In addition, Timiryazev owns study of gas exchange in the root nodules of leguminous plants ("Proceedings St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists", vol. XXIII). Under the editorship of Timiryazev, the Collected Works of Charles Darwin and other books were published in Russian translation.

Brief biographical encyclopedia. 2012