Nikolay koltsov. The great nikolai konstantinovich rings

Nikolay Konstantinovich Koltsov

Nikolai Konstantinovich Koltsov (July 3 (15), 1872, Moscow - December 2, 1940, Leningrad) - an outstanding Russian biologist, author of the idea of ​​matrix synthesis.

Koltsov was a "merchant's son," born in Moscow into the family of an accountant at a large fur firm. He graduated brilliantly from the Moscow gymnasium. In 1890 he entered the natural sciences department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University, where he specialized in comparative anatomy and comparative embryology. Koltsov's scientific supervisor during this period was the head of the school of Russian zoologists M.A. Menzbir.

In 1895, Menzbier recommended Koltsov after graduation from the university to leave "to prepare for a professorship." Since 1899 Koltsov has been a privat-docent at Moscow University. After three years of studies and successfully passing six master's exams, Koltsov was sent abroad for two years. He worked in laboratories in Germany and at marine biological stations in Italy. The collected material served as the basis for the master's thesis, which Koltsov defended in 1901. Koltsov's works on the biophysics of the cell and, especially, on the factors that determine the shape of the cell, have become classical and are included in textbooks.

Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1925; Petersburg Academy of Sciences - from 1916, Russian Academy of Sciences - from 1917), Academician of VASKhNIL (1935).

In 1920, Koltsov was considered one of the defendants in the Tactical Center case.

And he was sentenced to death by the Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal, among the nineteen accused, but the execution was replaced, according to some sources, with a suspended prison sentence of five years, according to others - with a concentration camp until the end of the civil war.

Buried at the Vvedenskoye cemetery in Moscow.

Scientific activity

He showed, mainly on the spermatozoa of decapod crustaceans, the formative significance of cellular "skeletons" (the ring principle), the effect of ionic series on the reactions of contractile and pigment cells, physicochemical effects on the activation of unfertilized eggs for development. He was the first to develop the hypothesis of the molecular structure and matrix reproduction of chromosomes ("hereditary molecules"), anticipating the main fundamental principles of modern molecular biology and genetics (1928).

Lobashev Mikhail Efimovich

Lobashev Mikhail Eimovich (1907-1971) - Soviet geneticist and physiologist, professor at Leningrad State University (1953), head of the Department of Genetics and Breeding at Leningrad State University (since 1957). The main works on the physiology of mutation processes are (lat. Mutatio - change) - persistent (that is, one that can be inherited by the descendants of a given cell or organism) change in the genotype that occurs under the influence of the external or internal environment. The process of occurrence of mutations is called mutagenesis.

Causes of mutations:

Mutations are divided into spontaneous and induced. Spontaneous mutations occur spontaneously throughout the life of an organism in normal environmental conditions with a frequency of about 10 9 - 10? 12 per nucleotide per cell generation.

Induced mutations are inherited changes in the genome that occur as a result of certain mutagenic influences under artificial (experimental) conditions or under adverse environmental influences.

Mutations appear constantly in the course of processes taking place in a living cell. The main processes leading to the occurrence of mutations are DNA replication, DNA repair disorders and genetic recombination.

Recombination is the process of exchanging genetic material by breaking and combining different molecules. Recombination occurs during the repair of double-strand breaks in DNA and to continue replication if the replication fork stops in eukaryotes, bacteria, and archaea. In viruses, recombination between RNA molecules of their genomes is possible.

Recombination in eukaryotes usually occurs during crossing over during meiosis, in particular, during the formation of sperm and eggs in animals. Recombination, along with DNA replication, RNA transcription and protein translation, is one of the fundamental processes that emerged early in the process of evolution. the genetics of behavior, the physiology of higher nervous activity and the formation of adaptive reactions in the ontogenesis of animals.

The founder of Russian experimental biology. He was the first to develop the hypothesis of molecular structure and matrix reproduction of chromosomes, anticipating the fundamental provisions of modern molecular biology and genetics.

In 1890 he entered Moscow University, from which he graduated in 1894 with a 1st degree diploma and a gold medal for the essay "Belt of the hind limbs of vertebrates". At the University Koltsov specialized under Professor M.A. Menzbir. The early deceased assistant professor, later professor of embryology and histology V.N. Lvov had a strong influence on the scientific development and interests of Koltsov. As Koltsov himself wrote, it was Lvov who gave him, then a second-year student, to read A. Weisman's work "On the primordial path." From Professor N.A. Ivantsov, who taught evolutionary science and cytology, Koltsov took an interest in cytology. Although Koltsov's interests at the university were focused on issues of comparative anatomy, he read and worked books by Lamarck and Darwin, Weismann and Gegenbauer, Schopenhauer and Kant, Buckle and Spinoza. While still a student, he completed the work "Development of the pelvis in a frog" and in 1894 reported on it at a section meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Naturalists and Physicians. the summary of this report was Koltsov's first published work. In his third year, M.A. Menzbir invited him to write an essay for the gold medal "Belt of the hind limbs and hind limbs of vertebrates." Koltsov fulfilled this task: he read about 50 literary sources in different languages ​​(even in his gymnasium years he studied English, German, French, later Italian), and wrote a book in large calligraphic handwriting in an encyclopedia format of about 700 pages, with a large number of artistically executed pen drawings. The original of this unpublished work is kept in the library of the Institute of Developmental Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. During his studies at the university, he traveled a lot to various places in Russia, from the environs of Moscow to the Crimea and the Caucasus.

After graduating from university in 1894, he was left to prepare for a professorship. After passing his master's examinations in 1896, Koltsov went abroad (1897-1898) to work in the laboratory of V. Flemming in Kiel and at biological stations in Naples, Roskov and Villafranca. Communication with scientists from different countries played a large role in the future development of Koltsov as a researcher, in his departure from the purely comparative anatomical interests that prevailed in his student years, and ultimately led him to formulate and study fundamental general biological problems.

In 1900 he became a privat-docent at Moscow University and in October 1901, having defended his master's thesis "Development of the lamprey head", he was approved as a master of zoology. After returning from a new two-year business trip (1902-1903), Koltsov took up the duties of assistant professor of the university in the department of comparative anatomy, teaching students in histology and microscopic zoology. During this period, he began a cycle of research in a new field - cytology. In 1936, a collection of experimental studies "Organization of the cell" was published, summarizing this work.

In the revolutionary days of 1905, N.K. Koltsov entered the circle of "eleven hotheads" headed by the astronomer P.K.Sternberg. The suppression of revolutionary events directly affected the official position of N.K. Koltsov. A conflict began with M.A. Menzbir. NK Koltsov was unable to defend his doctoral dissertation on the structure of spermatozoa of decapod crayfish and the role of formations that determine the shape of cells. “I refused to defend my dissertation on such days behind closed doors: the students were on strike, and I decided that I did not need a doctorate. Later, with my speeches during the revolutionary months, I completely upset my relations with the official professors, and the idea of ​​defending a dissertation did not come up. into my head. " At the beginning of 1906/07 academic year. Mr. Menzbir offered Koltsov to vacate the office he occupied, removed him from the library management, and in the spring of 1907 took away the working room. Koltsov converted his personal apartment into a laboratory. In 1909/10 academic year The city of Menzbir removed Koltsov from conducting practical classes at the Institute of Comparative Zoology. Koltsov was left with only lecturing on the course of invertebrate zoology, which he taught in 1904. In 1903, he began teaching as a professor of the Higher Courses for Women until 1918, when they were transformed into the Second Moscow University and continued teaching as a professor at the Second Moscow University. up to 1924. Simultaneously (1903-1919) Koltsov taught at the City People's University. A.L. Shanyavsky.

While teaching at the Higher Courses for Women, Koltsov continued to be interested in university affairs. He published a pamphlet "On the University Question" (in 1909 and 1910), in which he criticized the order that prevailed in the universities. At the beginning of 1911, the new Minister of Education, Kasso, deprived the university of the last vestiges of autonomy. In protest, a large group of professors and teachers (Timiryazev, Chaplygin, Lebedev, Vernadsky, etc.) resigned, among them was Koltsov.

Starting his work in the heyday of descriptive biology and the first steps of experimental biology, Koltsov had a keen sense of the tendencies in the development of biology and early realized the significance of the experimental method. He preached the need for an experimental approach in all areas of biology and predicted its use even in evolutionary teaching (without opposing experimental methods to descriptive ones). It was not about a simple biological experiment, but about the use of methods of physics and chemistry. Koltsov more than once emphasized the enormous importance for biology of the discovery of new forms of radiant energy, in particular X-rays and cosmic rays, wrote about the use of radioactive substances. To study the organism as a whole, it is necessary to use all modern knowledge in the field of physical and colloidal chemistry, it is necessary to study the monomolecular layers inside the cell and their role in various transformations of substances. "Biologists are waiting for these methods (of X-ray structural analysis) to be improved so that they can be used to study the crystal structure of intracellular skeletal, solid structures of protein and other nature." This idea was prophetic and actually realized in the discovery by the method of X-ray structural analysis of the structure of the DNA molecule. Another idea of ​​Koltsov turned out to be prophetic, in which he also went from biology to chemistry. Based on the idea that he developed that each complex biological molecule arises from a similar already existing molecule, he predicted that chemists will follow the path of creating new molecules in solutions containing the necessary constituent parts of complex molecules by inoculating them with ready-made molecules of the same structure ... He wrote: "I think that only in this way will it be possible to synthesize proteins in vitro, and not just any, but certain ones, that is, the synthesis of which is planned in advance." Koltsova did not abandon the idea of ​​organizing a new scientific institution - the Institute of Experimental Biology.

In 1916 he was elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In the same year, the Society of the Moscow Scientific Institute was created, which outlined the organization of several scientific institutions, including those in experimental biology. In 1917 the institute was created and N.K. Koltsov became its first director (in 1967, having undergone various renaming, the institute was divided into the Institute of Developmental Biology and the A.N.Severtsov Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals). During the period from 1917 to 1940, the institute became a true center for the creation of a number of new areas of biology and approaches for synthesis between them.

In the field of view of N.K. Koltsov, there were always questions of genetics. Back in 1921, he published an experimental work "Genetic analysis of color in guinea pigs". Genetic studies were carried out on Drosophila. In these works, the scientist saw the establishment of the most important connection between genetics and evolutionary doctrine. Later, work began on chemical mutagenesis.

NK Koltsov deeply understood the importance of genetics for the practice of animal husbandry. In 1918 he organized the Anikovskaya genetic station, specializing in the genetics of farm animals. A little later, another poultry station was organized in the Tula region. In early 1920, both stations merged into one. In 1925 the station received the name of the Central Station for the Genetics of Farm Animals, the director of which in different years was Koltsov and his students. Koltsov's enormous merit is that he attracted many talented people to work at the station, who were later known as the creators of entire trends in genetics and the selection of certain types of farm animals.

After the revolution in 1918, NK Koltsov returned to Moscow University (which became known as the First) and taught as a professor until 1930, heading the Department of Experimental Biology. Returning in 1930 from an overseas business trip, he learned that during this time the courses that he taught had been abolished. But on the basis of his department, 5 departments arose, headed by his students: physiology, histology, genetics, dynamics of development, hydrobiology.

In 1927, a meeting of the Commission for the Study of the Natural Productive Forces of Russia (KEPS) of the Academy of Sciences was held at which a decision was made on the need to create an All-Union Institute of Animal Husbandry. The institute was opened in 1930 and, as a sector of genetics of selection, the Central Genetic Station joined it, N.K. Koltsov became the first head of the sector. In 1935 he was elected an academician of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and awarded the degree of Doctor of Zoology.

The last years of the scientist's life were overshadowed by attacks on some fundamental provisions of modern biology and a number of its areas, such as genetics, cytology, etc. They began to deny the role of chromosomes in heredity, those chromosomes, the study of which NK Koltsov devoted a significant part of his scientific activities. Being the largest figure in the field of genetics and cytology, N.K. Koltsov, along with N.I. Vavilov, bore the brunt of the shock of the wave of antigenetic and anti-Darwinian dogmatism. In 1938, N.K. Koltsov resigned from the post of head of the Institute of Experimental Biology, to which he gave 22 years of his life.

Since 1972, the Academy of Sciences began to hold regular Koltsov readings. The Institute of Developmental Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences was named after N.K. Koltsov.

Nikolai Konstantinovich Koltsov (July 3 (15), 1872, Moscow - December 2, 1940, Leningrad) - an outstanding Russian biologist, author of the idea of ​​matrix synthesis.

Koltsov was a "merchant's son," born in Moscow into the family of an accountant at a large fur firm. He graduated brilliantly from the Moscow gymnasium. In 1890 he entered the natural sciences department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University, where he specialized in comparative anatomy and comparative embryology. Koltsov's scientific supervisor during this period was the head of the school of Russian zoologists M.A. Menzbir.

In 1895, Menzbier recommended Koltsov after graduation from the university to leave "to prepare for a professorship." Since 1899 Koltsov has been a privat-docent at Moscow University. After three years of studies and successfully passing six master's exams, Koltsov was sent abroad for two years. He worked in laboratories in Germany and at marine biological stations in Italy. The collected material served as the basis for the master's thesis, which Koltsov defended in 1901. Koltsov's works on the biophysics of the cell and, especially, on the factors that determine the shape of the cell, have become classical and are included in textbooks.

Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1925; Petersburg Academy of Sciences - from 1916, Russian Academy of Sciences - from 1917), Academician of VASKhNIL (1935).

In 1920, Koltsov was considered one of the defendants in the Tactical Center case.

And he was sentenced to death by the Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal, among the nineteen accused, but the execution was replaced, according to some sources, with a suspended prison sentence of five years, according to others - with a concentration camp until the end of the civil war.

Buried at the Vvedenskoye cemetery in Moscow.

Scientific activity

He showed, mainly on the spermatozoa of decapod crustaceans, the formative significance of cellular "skeletons" (the ring principle), the effect of ionic series on the reactions of contractile and pigment cells, physicochemical effects on the activation of unfertilized eggs for development. He was the first to develop the hypothesis of the molecular structure and matrix reproduction of chromosomes ("hereditary molecules"), anticipating the main fundamental principles of modern molecular biology and genetics (1928).

Articles and publications:

Nose
The nose consists of an outer portion that forms the nasal cavity. The outer nose includes the root, bridge, tip, and wings of the nose. The root of the nose is located in the upper part of the face and is separated from the forehead by the bridge. Lateral sides of the nose in the midline with ...

Characteristics of the types of plant strategies (according to Ramensky-Greim). Plasticity of plant life strategies. Triangular diagram of primary and transitional types of strategies. Examples of
The description of the two-dimensional system of strategies was also carried out independently at least twice. L.G. Ramenskiy in 1935 divided all plant species into three "coenobiotic types", which he called violets, patents and ruderals. Violents ...

Horizontal structure (addition) of phytocenoses. Microgrouping. The concept of a price cell, a phytogenic field. The index of the intensity of the phytogenic field of tree species. Types (variants) of mosaicity. Character
The regular distribution of plant individuals within the same cenopopulation is an extremely rare phenomenon. It is also rare to find a regular or random distribution of cenopopulations in a phytocenosis. All this leads to the fact that the horizontal ...

Koltsov Nikolay Konstantinovich Koltsov Nikolai Konstantinovich

(1872-1940), biologist, founder of Russian experimental biology, Corresponding Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1916), Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917), Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1925), Academician of VASKhNIL (1935). Organizer and first director (1917-39) of the Institute of Experimental Biology. The first (1928) developed the hypothesis of the molecular structure and matrix reproduction of chromosomes ("hereditary molecules"), anticipating the fundamental provisions of modern molecular biology and genetics. Works on comparative anatomy of vertebrates, experimental cytology, physicochemical biology, eugenics.

Nikolai Konstantinovich KOLTSOV (1872-1940), Russian biologist, founder of Russian experimental biology, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1925; Petersburg Academy of Sciences - from 1916, Russian Academy of Sciences - from 1917), Academician of VASKhNIL (1935). Organizer and first director (1917-39) of the Institute of Experimental Biology. He was the first (1928) to develop the hypothesis of the molecular structure and matrix rep of chromosomes ("hereditary molecules"), anticipating the fundamental principles of modern molecular biology and genetics. Works on comparative anatomy of vertebrates, experimental cytology, physicochemical biology, eugenics (cm. EUGENICS).
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Nikolai KOLTSOV, Russian biologist, pioneer of experimental biology in Russia. The author of the "matrix principle" - the foundations of molecular biology. Founder of the Institute of Experimental Biology.
"Brilliant Nikolai Koltsov"
Born into the family of a large company accountant, he lost his father very early. Was related to K. S. Stanislavsky (cm. STANISLAVSKY Konstantin Sergeevich) and prominent scientists S. S. Chetverikov (cm. CHETVERIKOV Sergey Sergeevich) and his brother. Since childhood, he collected herbariums and collected insects, in his youth he traveled a lot. In 1890 he graduated from the 6th Moscow gymnasium with a gold medal and entered Moscow University. His teacher in comparative anatomy was the head of the Moscow zoological school M.A.Menzbir, (cm. MENZBIR Mikhail Alexandrovich) but by that time the potential of comparative anatomy was almost exhausted. Koltsov's independent character was reflected in the fact that his first work, written in 1894, he devoted to the problems of developmental biology (cm. DEVELOPMENT BIOLOGY)... After graduating from the university in 1894 (with a 1st degree diploma and a gold medal), he passed his master's examinations (1896) and began working at Mediterranean biological stations (in particular, at the Russian station of Villafranca, near Nice). This is how R. Goldschmidt recalled about Koltsov at that time: "There was a brilliant Nikolai Koltsov, perhaps the best zoologist of our generation, a benevolent, unthinkably educated, clear-thinking scientist, adored by everyone who knew him."
Koltsov's master's thesis on metamerism (cm. METAMERISM) vertebrate heads (Goethe theme (cm. Goethe Johann Wolfgang)) was recognized as a classic, its defense took place in 1901 (published in 1902). Carrying out this research, Koltsov has already outlined the outlines of a completely different direction in biology - the physicochemical explanation of the form of living formations.
"Research on the shape of cells"
When he was a privat-docent (1903-11) at Moscow University, Koltsov began to implement a program to study the shape of a cell, which, as it was then believed, consists of a shell and a homogeneous structureless content, a kind of "living substance" (for which Koltsov left a place only in geochemistry, but not in biology). Koltsov, on the other hand, engaged in physicochemical studies of intracellular structures: according to Koltsov, the shape of a cell depends on the shape of colloidal particles that form the cell skeleton (the "Koltsov principle", according to Goldschmidt). During 1903-11 his Investigations on the Shape of Cells were published.
Struggle for university freedoms
At the beginning of 1906, Koltsov refused to defend his doctoral dissertation (on the structure of spermatozoa of decapod crayfish and the role of formations that determine the shape of cells), thus supporting the student strike that began then. Consistently advocating university freedoms, as early as 1905 he helped print the manifestos of the student committee, which were kept in his office at the University, and in 1906 he published a brochure “In memory of the fallen. Victims from the environment of Moscow students in the October and December days. " Under these conditions, he refused to defend his dissertation, and later it became impossible, since the assistant to the rector Menzbir, who did not approve of Koltsov's scientific aspirations or his political activity, began to step by step deprive him of the opportunity to work at the university.
Teaching activities
Koltsov, advocating the approach of higher education to the tasks of independent research, came out with a pamphlet "White Slaves" (published anonymously in 1910), in which he criticized the outdated education system. Koltsov's teaching activities were not limited to the Imperial University, he worked very fruitfully at the Higher Courses for Women (cm. HIGHER WOMEN'S COURSES) Professor V.I.Ger'e (cm. GERIE Vladimir Ivanovich)(from 1903), as well as at the Moscow City People's University named after V.I. A. L. Shanyavsky (cm. SHANYAVSKY UNIVERSITY) from the day of its foundation in 1908. By this time belongs his work on the creation of the Small and Large zoological workshops with a number of specialties, which served as a basis for several generations of his students for independent research. At the Higher Courses for Women, he met student Maria Polievktovna Sadovnikova (sister of the future academician, organic chemist P.P. Shorygin) (cm. SHORYGIN Pavel Polievktovich), who soon became his wife (1907).
"The Casso Case"
The constant obstacles that stood in the way of the scientist did not cool his social fervor, he continued to actively speak in the press on topical issues of public life in Russia. In 1909-1910, in his book "On the University Question" Koltsov called for reforms in the education system. But at the beginning of 1911, the Minister of Public Education L.A. Kasso (cm. KASSO Lev Aristidovich) issued a series of regulations curtailing the autonomy of universities. Many professors and assistant professors left the university in protest. Then the government decided to invite German professors to the vacant positions, but Koltsov's efforts thwarted this plan (he managed to explain to scientists at Western European universities what prompted such a proposal, and they refused to accept it).
The result of the "Kasso affair" was an unprecedented flourishing of two private higher educational institutions in Moscow, which received leading university professors. Menzbir was admitted to Koltsov's department at the Higher Courses for Women. At the same time, the Society was created to organize the Moscow Scientific Institute in memory of February 19 (in 1911 the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the peasants was celebrated), which, in fact, was a Moscow non-governmental academy. Timiryazev compared him with the German Society for the Promotion of Sciences of Kaiser Wilhelm.
In the 1910s. Koltsov already possessed such high scientific authority that in 1915 the Imperial Academy of Sciences invited him to head the newly created department of experimental biology in the northern capital, but Koltsov did not want to leave Moscow and his students. In 1916 he was elected a corresponding member.
"Tactical Center"
Based on his interests in physicochemical approaches in biology and in human genetics, Koltsov put forward a project to create an Institute of Experimental Biology (IEB), which was approved. In September 1916 he was elected director of a new institute, which opened in the summer of 1917.
Koltsov, like the scientific community as a whole, adopted the Provisional Government (cm. INTERIM GOVERNMENT), which quite quickly approved socially and scientifically significant projects (including IEB). The regime of the Bolsheviks, who came to power as a result of the October Revolution, was perceived as an episode of the World War and the Civil War that followed. (cm. CIVIL WAR in Russia)... During Denikin's August offensive in 1919, Koltsov, who in many ways shared the views of the People's Socialists, (cm. PEOPLE'S SOCIALISTS) joined in a discussion organized by a group of liberal public figures on the restoration of the socio-economic life of Russia. The Cheka immediately fabricated the case of the "Tactical Center" (cm. TACTICAL CENTER)(it was initiated by Ya. S. Agranov). In August 1920, a process began at the Polytechnic Museum, through which N.N.Schepkin (cm. SHEPKIN Nikolay Nikolaevich),WITH. P. Melgunov (cm. MELGUNOV Sergey Petrovich), S.E. Trubetskoy, Koltsov and others. Among the 20 accused Koltsov was sentenced to death, but soon released: the sentence was canceled personally by V.I.Lenin thanks to the petitions of P.A.Kropotkin (cm. KROPOTKIN Petr Alekseevich), M. Gorky (cm. GORKY Maxim), A. V. Lunacharskiy (cm. LUNACHARSKY Anatoly Vasilievich) and others. While awaiting execution, Koltsov, without losing the instinct of a researcher, observed “what effect mental experiences produce on body weight” (these observations were included in the article “On the change in human weight in an unstable equilibrium”, Izvestia IEB, 1921). It is clear that in 1920 his candidacy for the vacancy of a full member of the Academy of Sciences was removed from consideration, but in subsequent campaigns against Koltsov and his institute, this episode was considered not to have taken place.
Institute of Experimental Biology (IEB)
IEB was one of the best biological institutes in the first half of the 20th century. Koltsov brought up a whole galaxy of students. Among them: M. M. Zavadovsky (cm. ZAVADOVSKY Mikhail Mikhailovich), P. I. Zhivago, I. G. Kogan, V. G. Savich, M. P. Sadovnikova-Koltsova, A. S. Serebrovsky (cm. SEREBROVSKY Alexander Sergeevich), S. N. Skadovsky (cm. SKADOVSKY Sergey Nikolaevich), G. I. Roskin (cm. ROSKIN Grigory Iosifovich), S. L. Frolova, G. V. Epshtein (cm. EPSHTEIN German Veniaminovich)). In the 1920s. IEB had departments: physical and chemical biology, zoopsychological, eugenic, cytological, hydrobiological, experimental surgery, tissue culture, developmental mechanics, and genetic. In addition, the institute had a microphotography room, several biological stations for summer work, and a scientific press (the modern Journal of General Biology is the successor to the IEB journals). The institute had an optimal size, allowing for a variety of problems being studied (united by an experimental approach), and the director had the opportunity to keep abreast of all matters, and administrative structures were at a minimum. The IEB was supported by the Ministries of Health, Education, Agriculture, as well as the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow State University, and the Publishing House of Medical and Biological Literature (Biomedgiz). In the 1920s. IEB was visited by prominent foreign scientists: K. Bridges, G. Meller (cm. MELLER Herman Joseph), J. B. S. Haldane (cm. HOLDEYN John), O. Vogt (cm. FOGT Oscar), W. Batson (cm. BATSON William), R. Goldschmidt, Z. Waxman (cm. VAKSMAN Zelman), S. Darlington. The Institute received all the leading biological journals in the world, in which the articles of the IEB employees were also published.
Russian Eugenic Society
In the 1920s. headed by Koltsov, the Russian Eugenic Society was created, in which N.A. Semashko took part (cm. SEMASHKO Nikolay Alexandrovich), A. V. Lunacharsky, G. I. Rossolimo (cm. ROSSOLIMO Grigory Ivanovich), D. D. Pletnev (cm. Pletnev Dmitry Dmitrievich), S. N. Davidenkov (cm. DAVIDENKOV Sergey Nikolaevich), A. I. Abrikosov (cm. ABRIKOSOV Alexey Ivanovich) and others. Gorky sympathetically reacted to the work of the Society (who answered Koltsov's questions for the report "Genealogies of our nominees"). Thanks to the Society's "Journal", readers got acquainted with the genealogies of A.S. Pushkin, L.N. Tolstoy, K. Baer (cm. BER Karl Maksimovich), Bakunin (cm. BAKUNIN Alexey Alexandrovich), associates of Peter I. In public lectures, Koltsov noted the "non-proletarian" origin of Lomonosov (Kholmogory was the place of exile for the disgraced boyars), emphasized that the nation's gene pool suffered more from revolutions than from wars (such views did not fit into the official ideology of Soviet power). Having a broad understanding of eugenics, Koltsov included in it the compilation of genealogies, the geography of diseases, vital statistics, social hygiene, etc. a number of diseases, examination of monozygotic twins. Speaking of eugenics, he was in fact engaged in human genetics and the complex biosocial study of man.
Persecution of IEB
In the late 1920s, the systematic siege of the IEB began. The system of external relations was destroyed and the structure of the IEB was simplified. With the liquidation of the Eugenics department, the topics and part of the staff were transferred to the Medico-Genetic Institute; topics on endocrinology and pathophysiology gave the basis for new institutes of gravidanourotherapy and endocrinology; the hydrobiological department and the Zvenigorod station were transferred to the Moscow State University; The Central Genetic Station became part of the All-Union Institute of Animal Husbandry. Koltsov could not accept only the defeat of the brilliant Genetic Department of Chetverikov (where B.L. Astaurov (cm. ASTAUROV Boris Lvovich), E. I. Balkashina, N. K. Belyaev, S. M. Gershenzon, (cm. GERSHENZON Sergey Mikhailovich) A. N. Promptov, P. F. Rokitsky, D. D. Romashov, N. V. Timofeev-Resovsky (cm. TIMOFEEV-RESOVSKY Nikolay Vladimirovich) and his wife, S.R. Tsarapkin). To restore it, he invited NP Dubinin to the IEB. (cm. DUBININ Nikolay Petrovich) But the repression continued. In the spring of 1930 Koltsov was dismissed from Moscow State University. Due to the interference of the Central Committee of the party in the 1928-31 elections to the Academy of Sciences, Koltsov was not even allowed to participate in the competition. In the spring of 1932, in order to save the institute from the inevitable defeat, the scientist wrote a letter to Stalin, which Gorky gave him.
Koltsov the researcher
Continuing research with the aim of physicochemical explanation of the shape of living formations and analyzing the shape of molecules, Koltsov argued that the chromosome (cm. CHROMOSOMES) basically represents a molecule or bundles of molecules with a linear arrangement of genes in them (cm. GEN (hereditary factor))(on this basis, in 1903 he logically substantiated the crossing-over mechanism (cm. CROSSINGOVER)). Koltsov formulated the matrix principle of reproduction of "hereditary molecules", on which the later concepts of the "double helix" are built: sequential, step by step, synthesis of a twin molecule on a matrix molecule (in the spirit of the times, he considered protein as a substrate, not DNA (cm. DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACIDS)).
Referring to the development of a form from an egg to an organism, Koltsov studied individual development in terms of a force field. Treating genes as modifiers of a single force field of an organism, he found out the actual role of those embryonic rudiments, which were usually considered useless, and showed how the entire species in its past and present, and to some extent the entire biosphere, works on each incipient organism.
Discussing the evolution of organisms, Koltsov rejected the idea of ​​continuous progress, emphasized the importance of Cuvier types (cm. Cuvier Georges), found out the significance of regressions, pointed out the critical stages of gene action, considered the change in genotype in neoteny (cm. NEOTENIA) and built a diagram of evolution by duplication and differentiation of genes, indicating a possible way of the emergence of new organs (new form).
"Organization of the cell"
In 1933 Koltsov was elected an honorary member of the Edinburgh Royal Society, in 1934 he was awarded the title of Honored Scientist of the RSFSR, in 1935 he became a doctor of zoology and a full member of the All-Union Agricultural Academy (cm. ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES)... In 1936 Koltsov published a collection of his works relating to the period 1903-1935, "Organization of the Cell", where he presented an original theoretical biological concept. But his possibilities in the development of theoretical questions of biology were limited: at the beginning of the century, the simplified Darwinism of Menzbier and Timiryazev suppressed new experimental directions, and since 1935 T. D. Lysenko (cm. LYSENKO Trofim Denisovich) and I. I. Present introduced a vulgar version of the interpretation of K. A. Timiryazev (cm. TIMIRYAZEV Clement Arkadievich) heredity as a physiological problem, a property of the whole organism.
The fight for science against Lysenko and Present
Stalin's persecution of genetics intensified: in April 1931, a discussion was held at the Communist Academy (a rehearsal of future Lysenko attacks on genetics), in which Koltsov for the first time led the supporters of the gene theory. On a national scale, the disputes between Lysenkoites and geneticists continued throughout 1936. In December, its culmination was the IV session of the All-Union Agricultural Academy (instead of the Moscow VII Congress of Genetics, which was banned by Stalin, scheduled for August 1937). Koltsov, who determined the course of the session, sharply criticized the position of the Lysenko-Prezent group. The answer to his position ("it is impossible to replace genetics with Darwinism, just as it is impossible to replace differential calculation with algebra", "the ignorance of the next editions of agronomists will cost the country millions of tons of bread") were pogrom articles in the official press. Koltsov understood that things were going to be arrested (he told Timofeev-Resovsky, who was working in Berlin at the time, not to return to the USSR, thereby saving his and his family's life). The reprisal against Koltsov himself was postponed due to the intervention of Western European scientists and diplomats.
Gone unbroken
At the beginning of 1939, the main newspaper of the country, Pravda, published a letter "There is no place for pseudoscientists in the Academy of Sciences", in which Koltsov's old articles on eugenics were sharply criticized. The scientist replied with a courageous letter to Stalin; on the commission of the academy, which sought to "admit mistakes", he held himself in the highest degree with dignity. Stalin appreciated his resilience: Koltsov was given freedom and the opportunity to work in his personal laboratory. Another execution was assigned to him: to watch how his Institute was destroyed. December 2, 1940 Koltsov died in Leningrad, where he was preparing a report "Chemistry and Morphology" for the 145th anniversary of the Moscow Society of Naturalists (cm. MOSCOW SOCIETY OF NATURAL EXPERIMENTS (MOIP)) .
A scientist of this level, even after his death, was a danger to the authorities. "Pravda" criticized him already during the "thaw" in 1958, and in 1973 Academician Dubinin published the book "Eternal Movement", in which, removing the blame from the party and state bodies and state security for the defeat of genetics, he accused Koltsov of his passion for eugenics, thereby making him and other geneticists of his generation responsible for the events of those years. Nevertheless, the good name of the outstanding scientist was gradually restored. In February 2000, a symposium dedicated to Koltsov "Population Genetics" was held in St. Petersburg - the first recognition of his eugenic ideas.
Koltsov's legacy is enormous, he left many students who continued his work. In 1948, at the famous August session of the All-Union Agricultural Academy (cm. AUGUST SESSION OF VASKHNIL) his student I.A.Rapoport (cm. RAPOPORT Joseph Abramovich) he was not afraid to speak out against the Lysenko obscurantists; V. V. Sakharov (cm. SAKHAROV Vladimir Vladimirovich) at the risk of his life, secretly trained genetic personnel; N.V. Timofeev-Resovsky ( cm.

N.K. Koltsov in 1922. A portrait by the sculptor N.A. Andreeva.
(Photo by E.V. Ramensky)

In 2003, the world will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the article by J. Watson and F. Crick, devoted to the structure of DNA. However, the hypothesis about the matrix organization of the "heredity substance" is the largest biological idea of ​​the 20th century. was born not in the USA and Great Britain, but in Russia. More precisely, in the Soviet Union. Its author was Nikolai Konstantinovich Koltsov. However, in the USSR, the name of one of the greatest biologists of the XX century. was deleted from the history of science for many years.

One hundred and twenty years ago F. Dostoevsky lamented that Russia does not yet have a science equal to its famous literature. But by that time our country had already become a powerful stronghold of Darwinism. By the end of the nineteenth century. Russian biology already had more than one major discovery. These were the works of I. Mechnikov, I. Sechenov and I. Pavlov, the discovery of double fertilization in flowering plants by S. Navashin, chemosynthesis by S. Vinogradsky, viruses by D. Ivanovsky, the invention of the chromatography method by botanist M. Tsvet, K. Merezhkovsky's hypothesis about the origin of cell organelles from symbiont bacteria and much more. Russia became the birthplace of a new science - soil science (V. Dokuchaev). At the very beginning of the twentieth century. Pavlov and Mechnikov were among the first laureates of the newly established Nobel Prize.

When Dostoevsky was publishing The Diary of a Writer, Kolya Koltsov had just entered the gymnasium. He was born in 1872 in Moscow into a family with an average income and strong moral foundations. Lost his father early. His mother, a merchant's daughter, was an educated woman, and his mother's grandfather was known as a famous polyglot. The Russian merchants were represented not only by "Titus Titichi Wild". Among the merchants there were a sufficient number of smart, educated people who generously donated to charity, to support education, science and art.

Nikolai Koltsov at the age of 4 himself learned to read, was interested in plants and animals, and after graduating from high school, in 1890 he entered the natural sciences department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University. There, a zoologist, professor M. Menzbier became his teacher. Koltsov, while still a student, received a gold medal for his work on the development of the hindlimb of vertebrates.

After graduating from a university course in Moscow, Koltsov spent 1896-1897. at foreign universities and at hydrobiological (then they were called zoological) stations near warm seas in France and Italy. He was preparing his master's thesis (which he defended in 1901) on the development of the lamprey head. The opportunity to work with living objects, personal communication with famous scientists from Europe and America, friendship and disputes with young researchers - all this led to a sharp turn in Koltsov's scientific interests. From comparative anatomy, he proceeds to the study of the cell, defining this direction as "matter and form", and in his last, unfinished work (late 1940) - as "chemistry and morphology." Koltsov was convinced: it is necessary to create a new, holistic picture of biology, relying on the achievements of chemistry, physics and mathematics. The scientist asks the question: "Has our generation put forward a thought that is not inferior to Darwinian?" Both he and his students managed to determine the face of the biological science of the 20th century in many ways. Remained for the present century.

Koltsov's first publication in a new direction: "On the shape-determining elastic formations in cells" (1903), was carried out on the sperm of decapod crustaceans Inachus scorpio... He developed this direction on various objects in a large, published in several parts, work "Investigations on the shape of cells" (1905-1929). This work included morphological, physiological and biophysical directions. I have never met in the works about Koltsov the realization that he was the first in the world to show the existence of the cytoskeleton as a special structure. Only in the 60s and 70s. XX century with the help of an electron microscope, they were able to identify the types of cytoskeletal proteins that form microtubules, microfilaments and intermediate filaments that determine the shape of cells and their mobility. Now no one even remembers Koltsov, although his foreign colleagues before the First World War called these ideas the "Koltsov principle of cell organization", and this principle was included in textbooks, monographs and lecture courses. And in Russia, a scientist who was formally only a master's degree, "disgraced" because of his political views and participation in the 1905 revolution, for these works in the 1910s. was presented for nomination as a full member of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The condition was Koltsov's move to the capital and the occupation of the department created "for him". But the scientist refused to leave Moscow, where his school of experimental biologists had already developed, and became “only” a corresponding member (ie, a nonresident member) of the Academy of Sciences.

Chromosome diagram before cell division, according to Koltsov. Four identical (2 + 2) polymer molecules are visible - genonemes

Koltsov was the first to realize and clearly expressed that the infinite variety of biological forms, apparently, is based on a limited set of macromolecules. For years he came to the idea of ​​the matrix reproduction of hereditary molecules. Koltsov understood that hereditary structures are stable and linear. They have vector properties (in modern terms, a strictly defined sequence of alternation of monomers in a polymer molecule). In his lectures in 1903, the scheme of crossing chromosomes with subsequent exchange of genes was already predicted - what was later called crossing over and was included in textbooks as the most important regularity in the transfer of genetic information.

Seventy-five years ago, in December 1927, at the III All-Union Congress of Zoologists, Anatomists and Histologists in Leningrad, the idea of ​​matrix reproduction was announced for the first time. In 1928, she also appeared in the magazine Biologisches Zentralblatt... It contained such main provisions as the concept of giant polymer molecules and the matrix method for doubling them. Small molecules of nuclear sap are complementary assembled on an already existing template, and then "stitched" into a polymer protein molecule, a copy of the template. At that time, nothing was known about nucleic acids as polymers. It is important that the same double spiral was drawn, which Watson and Creek would open in 1953. Genes, according to Koltsov, constitute the autonomous parts of this molecule. They are represented by different side radicals of a monotonous giant chain, which Koltsov, an excellent teacher, was briefly and biologically called genoneme- a thread of genes. The term is incomparably better than the modern one - "deoxyribonucleic acid macromolecule". A persistent, conservative inherited matrix is ​​not destroyed or re-created, it is passed from parent to child. Of course, the scientist believed, it is capable of undergoing abrupt changes, mutating. The mutation can be caused, for example, by a side chain alkylation reaction, i. E. replacing hydrogen with methyl (–CH3). 20 years later, Koltsov's student I. Rapoport will show the supermutagenic properties of alkylating agents. But world science in the 50s did not even suspect about the alkylation of nucleic acids and enzymes-methylases, and Koltsov, almost 35 years before their discovery, had already foreseen this reaction in his hypothesis! It can be considered that the development of molecular biology began with his speech in 1927. Or maybe it would be more correct to consider the year of her birth as 1903, when the scientist showed the existence in the cells of an internal protein skeleton that is variable, depending on environmental conditions?

The history of the study of hereditary molecules continued in Germany, where in 1925 the employee N.V. Koltsova Timofeev-Resovsky was sent on a mission to “teach the Germans” genetics. And this despite the fact that in 1913 at the First International Genetic Congress Russia was represented by one geneticist - Finn Federlei. Twelve years later, our country has already become, along with the United States, a powerful center of world genetics. In 1935 N.V. Timofeev-Ressovsky with German co-authors-physicists, K.G. Zimmer and M. Delbrück, created a target theory, and using reverse X-ray mutations in Drosophila, they were able to estimate the physical, molecular size of the gene. But there was still no data on the chemical nature of genes. The development of the idea continued after the Second World War. It is necessary to name several names: E. Chargaff, who applied the chromatographic method of M. Tsvet for the analysis of four nitrogenous bases in nucleic acids, Rosalind Franklin, who was the first to receive an X-ray of a DNA crystal, and also our former compatriot physicist Georgy Gamow, who did a lot in the USA to decipher the coding method proteins in the structure of nucleic acids. But the main prize, the Nobel Prize, for these many years of work was “thwarted” in 1962 by D. Watson, F. Crick and M. Wilkinson, the leader of Franklin, who died early. And in our country the Lysenkoites condemned the concept of “gene”, and the biologists could only joke gloomily: “guess the indecent word of three letters”.

The golden age of Russian biology, which began in the 19th century, continued into the 1920s. XX century It was a time of remarkable discoveries: homologous series and centers of origin of cultivated plants by N. Vavilov, nomogenesis by L. Berg, works by I. Pavlov, V. Vernadsky, A. Chizhevsky, microbiologists G. Nadson, V. Omelyansky, ecologist V. Sukachev and many others.

It is difficult, sometimes impossible, to separate what Koltsov has created from what his students have done. Architect K. Melnikov defined creativity as “it's mine”. This was not the case with Koltsov. And yet it is clear that many years of research on the shape and mobility of cells (cytoskeleton) and the matrix hypothesis are his and only his achievements. And besides, there was brilliant teaching at the Moscow and People's Universities (Shanyavsky), as well as at the Higher Women's (Bestuzhevsky) courses. Until the end of his days, his students remembered how the professor read his lectures (he prepared them anew every year), how images of organisms, cells and structures, created with the help of crayons, appeared at Koltsov's hand, as if alive. He established departments, laboratories, experimental stations, several journals, scientific societies and, of course, the Institute of Experimental Biology (IEB).

The building on Vorontsov Pole, 6, where the Institute of Experimental Biology was located for 30 years (since 1925). (Photo by E.V. Ramensky)

IEB was created in 1917 with money from the publisher and philanthropist A.F. Marx at 41 Sivtsevoy Vrazhka. At first, there were 3 employees on its staff. His main task was to spread genetics in Russia.

In 1925, thanks to the support of N. Semashko and M. Gorky, the IEB received a new building and a new staff. And although in comparison with the St. Petersburg institutes of those years - the All-Union Institute of Plant Industry N.I. Vavilov and Koltushi I.P. Pavlov - the Koltsov Institute was small, the famous German biologist R. Goldschmidt called the Koltsov brainchild "brilliant".

One of the most important directions of this institution was education - dissemination in our country, incl. among agronomists, veterinarians, doctors, ideas of modern biology.

The merits of Koltsov and his students in the fight against Lysenko's pseudoscience are also enormous. In 1938, Lysenko launched an offensive against the IEB. N.K. Koltsov was removed from the post of director, but, having taken a blow at himself, managed to keep his favorite brainchild - the Institute.

The Koltsov Institute can be likened to a choir, the conductor of which tries to make every unique voice sound. The teacher determined the direction of the throw and often made the first powerful jerk himself, then passing the baton to the students. The mission statement was novel and unprecedented in scope. But Koltsov refused to put his last name in the publications of employees, although often it was he who conceived, thought over and thought out their work.

Back in 1916, Koltsov included an experimental study of the evolution of organisms - the modeling of speciation - in the future directions of the IEB work. He planned to test the action of strong physical and chemical factors. First of all, X-ray radiation was tested (in the experiments of D. Romashov and N. Timofeev-Resovsky). In Russia at that time there were no genetically verified Drosophila lines with specific signaling genes. There was a civil war. It was hungry, there was no firewood and no X-ray unit. The Koltsovites received positive results, but, to insure themselves against Lamarckian mistakes, they did not publish their data. In 1922 J. Moeller arrived from the USA, the first to break the scientific blockade of the USSR. He brought the standard lines Drosophila melanogaster from New York and plunged into the idea-rich, open environment of the Koltsov circle. Returning to the United States, he quickly completed work on mutations in Drosophila under the action of X-rays and published it in 1927, bypassing the Moscow Koltsovites and Timofeev-Resovsky, who was establishing work in Germany. For this work in 1946, Möller received his Nobel Prize. I have never heard from the Koltsovites and have not read reproaches about this. Möller was loved by Soviet geneticists, he spent more than one year here, but the facts are stubborn.

But the primacy in the study of mutations under the influence of chemical compounds did not yield to the ring - starting with the work of V.V. Sakharov in 1932, and, mainly, thanks to the brilliant completion in the classical works of I.A. Rapoport, who was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1984.

And how is the formation of species in natural conditions? The theory of speciation was also created within the walls of the IEB - by S. Chetverikov's group. We examined natural populations of Drosophila from the Caucasus to Germany - and the obtained facts allowed us to say that new species arise due to spontaneous mutations that accumulate in any population. Population genetics made it possible to bridge the gap between the laboratory science of genetics and the evolutionary theory built by Darwin only on data on macroevolution, i.e. on the study of fossil remains of organisms of bygone eras.

In the 30s, the Koltsovites (A. Serebrovsky, N. Dubinin) were the first in the world to discover the complexity of the gene structure. The IEB has begun work on congenital human diseases. In addition to genetics and cytogenetics, they successfully studied the structure of the cell, developmental biology, sex regulation, hormone therapy, zoopsychology, the biological effect of cosmic rays (using stratospheric balloons), they were engaged in scientific microcinematography ...

Koltsov saw for decades to come. He can read about the great future of X-ray structural analysis of the structure of biomolecules, find a prediction of protein synthesis in a test tube using appropriate seed matrices, foresee the decisive role of genomics in building the natural phylogenetic tree of organisms ...

Koltsov and his scientific descendants also greatly influenced the areas of applied research in the USSR, from the creation of medicinal products (anticancer crucine and a whole range of producers of various antibiotics for the pharmaceutical industry) to ecology, soil science and pedagogy. From productive varieties and breeds for agriculture to medical (genetic) counseling, which grew out of the ideas of eugenics, whose hobby was blamed for Koltsov even for many years after his death. At the Koltsov Institute, the currently living G.V. Lopashov carried out nuclear transplantation back in the 1940s, a micro-operation on which the cloning of organisms is based. Lysenko residents banned the publication of this work! In 2000, the international project "Human Genome" was recognized as the highest scientific achievement. Isn't this a triumph of Koltsov's ideas?

Koltsov's students include hundreds of famous researchers, academicians and laureates. Among them were those nominated for the Nobel Prize: N. Timofeev-Resovsky (1950) and I. Rapoport (1962). Foreign "Nobelists" are also indebted to Koltsov's genius: J. Möller (1946), M. Delbrück, German student of Timofeev (1969), and student of Delbrück J. Watson (1962). It is significant that after the trampling of Soviet biology in 1948 it was Koltsov's scientific descendants who managed to rise to the world level: in chemical mutagenesis - I. Rapoport, in sex regulation - B. Astaurov and V. Strunnikov, in new areas of molecular genetics and "jumping genes "- to R. Khesin, G. Georgiev and V. Gvozdev.

The matrix hypothesis, experimental mutagenesis, and population genetics are the classic, main contributions to the biology of Koltsov and his students. According to N.V. Timofeev-Resovsky, this triad is the second, after Darwinian selection, general fundamental natural-historical principle. On it rests the synthetic theory of evolution - Darwinism of the twentieth centuries.

“A thought that is not inferior to Darwin’s one” was put forward and experimentally proved by Koltsov, over the years it was recognized everywhere and in many ways determined the face of biology of the twentieth century.