Born on May 22 (June 3 according to the old calendar) in 1843 in St. Petersburg into the family of the head of the St. Petersburg customs district.
Like many children from noble families of that time, Clement was homeschooled from an early age. Under the influence of a progressive father, the boy absorbed liberal republican views from childhood.
Since 1860 Timiryazev K.A. entered to study at the Petersburg University at the cameral (law) faculty, but then moved to another faculty - physics and mathematics at the natural department. In 1861, he was expelled from the university for participating in student riots and refusing to cooperate with the authorities. He was allowed to continue his studies at the university as an auditor only a year later. As a student, he has already published a number of articles on Darwinism, as well as on socio-political topics. In 1866, Timiryazev successfully completed his studies with a candidate's degree and a gold medal for his work "On liver mosses", which was never published.
Timiryazev began his scientific career under the guidance of the well-known Russian botanist A.N. Beketov. The first real scientific work of K. A. Timiryazev "A device for the study of the decomposition of carbon dioxide" was published in 1868. In the same year, the young scientist went abroad to expand his knowledge and experience, as well as to prepare for a professorship. Among his teachers and mentors were: Hoffmeister, Bunsen, Kirchhoff, Berthelot, Helmholtz and Claude Bernard. The formation of K.A. Timiryazev's worldview was influenced by the revolutionary democratic upsurge in Russia, and the development of his scientific thinking was influenced by a whole galaxy of naturalists, among whom were D.I.Mendeleev, I.M.Sechenov, I.I. Mechnikov, A. M. Butlerov, L. S. Tsenkovsky, A. G. Stoletov, brothers Kovalevsky and Beketov. K. A. Timiryazev was strongly influenced by the works of such great Russian revolutionary democrats as V. G. Belinsky, A. I. Herzen, N. G. Chernyshevsky, D. I. Pisarev and N. A. Dobrolyubov, who were interested in natural science and used scientific achievementsto substantiate materialistic views of natural nature. The evolutionary doctrine of Charles Darwin had a tremendous influence on the talented scientist. Timiryazev was one of the first Russian scientists to get acquainted with Karl Marx's Capital and was imbued with new ideas.
Upon his return to his homeland in 1871, K.A. Timiryazev successfully defended his thesis "Spectral analysis of chlorophyll" for a master's degree and became a professor at the Petrovskaya Agricultural and Forestry Academy in Moscow (now it is called the Moscow Agricultural Academy named after K.A.Timiryazev) ... Until 1892 Timiryazev gave lectures on botany there in full. At the same time, the scientist led an active and eventful activity. In 1875 Timiryazev became a doctor of botany for his work "On the assimilation of light by a plant." In 1877 he began to work at the Department of Plant Anatomy and Physiology at Moscow University. In addition, he regularly lectured at Moscow women's collective courses. He was the chairman of the botanical branch of the Society of Natural Science Lovers, which worked at that time at Moscow University.
It should be noted that from the very beginning of his writing career, Timiryazev's scientific work was distinguished by strict consistency and unity of the plan, the elegance of experimental technique and the accuracy of methods. Many of the questions outlined in the first scientific works Timiryazev, in later works were expanded and supplemented. For example, on the decomposition of carbon dioxide by green plants using solar energy, the study of chlorophyll and its genesis. For the first time in Russia, Timiryazev introduced experiments with plants on artificial soils, for which in 1872 at the Petrovskaya Academy he built a growing house for plant cultivation in vessels (the first scientifically equipped greenhouse), literally immediately after the appearance of such structures in Germany. A little later, Timiryazev installed a similar greenhouse in Nizhny Novgorod at the All-Russian Exhibition.
Thanks to his outstanding scientific merits in the field of botany, Timiryazev was awarded a number of sonorous titles: a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences since 1890, an honorary member of Kharkov University, an honorary member of the St. Petersburg University, an honorary member of the Free Economic Society, as well as many other scientific communities and organizations.
In the scientific community, Timiryazev was known as a popularizer of natural science and Darwinism. He devoted his whole life to the struggle for freedom of science and sharply opposed attempts to turn science into a support of autocracy and religion. For this he was constantly on suspicion of the police and felt a certain pressure. In 1892, the Petrovskaya Agricultural Academy was closed due to the unreliability of its teaching staff and students, and Timiryazev was expelled from the state. In 1898, for the length of service (30 years of teaching experience), he was dismissed from the staff of Moscow University, in 1902 Timiryazev finishes lecturing and remains the head of the botanical office. In 1911, he, along with a group of other teachers, left the university in disagreement with the violation of the autonomy of the university. Only in 1917 he was restored to the rank of professor at Moscow University, but he could no longer continue to work due to illness.
Popular science lectures and articles by Timiryazev were distinguished by their rigorous scientific character, clarity of presentation and a refined style. Collections "Public lectures and speeches" (1888), "Some basic tasks modern natural science"(1895)," Agriculture and Plant Physiology "(1893) and" Charles Darwin and His Teachings "(1898) were popular not only in the scientific community, but went far beyond its limits. The Life of Plants (1898) became an example of a course on plant physiology accessible to any person and was translated into foreign languages.
Timiryazev K.A. is known all over the world. For his services in the field of science, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of London, Edinburgh and Manchester Botanical Societies, as well as an honorary doctor of a number of European universities - in Cambridge, Glasgow, Geneva.
Timiryazev K.A. has always been a patriot of the homeland and was happy with the accomplishment of the Great Socialist Revolution. Scientist before last days took part in the work of the State Scientific Council of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR. He actively continued his scientific and literary work. In 1920, on the night of April 27-28, the world famous scientist died and was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery. A memorial museum-apartment of Timiryazev was created in Moscow and a monument was erected. The name Timiryazev was assigned to the Moscow Agricultural Academy and the Institute of Plant Physiology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. A district of Moscow and streets in different cities of Russia are named in honor of the scientist.
In honor of the scientist, the following are named: a settlement in the Lipetsk and Ulyanovsk regions; Lunar crater; motor ship "Akademik Timiryazev"; Moscow Agricultural Academy, Institute of Plant Physiology RAS, State Biological Museum, library in the city of St. Petersburg, Vinnytsia Regional Universal science Library in Ukraine, the Central Station of Young Naturalists and the Moscow Metro Station.
The film "Deputy of the Baltic" is dedicated to Timiryazev. Behind best works on plant physiology are awarded the RAS Prize named after the scientist. A bust has been installed in the Museum of Geosciences of Moscow State University.
28.04.1920
Timiryazev, Clement Arkadevich
Russian Naturalist
Scientist Biologist
Kliment Timiryazev was born on June 3, 1843 in the city of St. Petersburg. He received his primary education at home. In 1866 he graduated with honors from the natural faculty of St. Petersburg State University. The philosophical views of A. Herzen, N. Chernyshevsky, the works of D. Mendeleev, I. Sechenov and especially Ch. Darwin played an important role in the formation of Timiryazev's worldview.
IN student years Timiryazev published a number of articles on socio-political topics and Darwinism, including: "Garibaldi on Caprera", "Famine in Lancashire", "The Book of Darwin, its critics and commentators." At the same time he wrote the first popular book outlining the teachings of Darwin, "Charles Darwin and His Teachings"; his book "The Life of Plants" was reprinted more than 20 times and aroused great interest both in Russia and abroad.
In 1868, to prepare for a professorship, he was sent abroad, where he worked in the laboratories of major physicists, chemists, physiologists, botanists. Returning to Russia, Timiryazev defended his master's thesis and took the position of professor at the Petrovsk Agricultural Academy in Moscow, where he lectured on all departments of botany. At the same time he taught at Moscow State University at the Department of Plant Anatomy and Physiology, at the women's "collective courses". He headed the botanical department of the Society of Natural Science Lovers at the university.
Clement Arkadievich became one of the founders of the Russian school of plant physiology, having studied the process of photosynthesis, for which he developed special techniques and equipment. In plant physiology, along with agrochemistry, the scientist saw the basis of rational agriculture. The professor was the first to introduce in Russia experiments with plant culture in artificial soils; arranged the first greenhouse for this purpose at the Petrovskaya Academy in the early 1870s.
In 1920, a collection of his articles "Science and Democracy" was published. The last 10 years of his life, due to illness, he could no longer teach, but continued to engage in literary and journalistic activities, participated in the work of the People's Commissariat of Education of Russia and the Socialist Academy of Social Sciences. Was elected as a Deputy of the Moscow City Council.
Timiryazev was a member of the Royal Society of London. He was an Honorary Doctor of the universities in the cities of Glasgow, Cambridge and Geneva; Corresponding Member Russian Academy Sciences and the Edinburgh Botanical Society, also an Honorary Member of many foreign and domestic universities and scientific societies... Author of numerous articles, books, biographical sketches.
Kliment Arkadevich Timiryazev died on April 28, 1920 in the city of Moscow. Buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
TIMIRYAZEV Kliment Arkadievich (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 Petrovskaya Agricultural and Forestry Academy (since 1871) and Moscow University (1878-1911), resigned in protest against the oppression of students. Deputy of the Moscow City Council (1920). Revealed the laws of photosynthesis as a process of using light for education organic matter in the plant. Works on methods of research of plant physiology, biological foundations of agronomy, history of science. One of the first propagandists of Darwinism and materialism in Russia. Popularizer and publicist (Life of a Plant, 1878; Science and Democracy, 1920).Kliment Timiryazev, 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 civilian positions in Russia. His father, a senator, was a republican man and a fan of Robespierre. Mother is 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 the usual home education for noble families with the study of several languages, was fond of chemistry, literature, music, painting. At the same time, at the age of fifteen, he began to independently earn a living by translations. In 1861, Timiryazev entered the Petersburg University at the cameral faculty (he trained officials for the management of state property), from which he soon switched to the physico-maematic faculty. For participation in student unrest, he was expelled from the university, but for three years he graduated as a volunteer (1865) in the natural sciences department of the physics and mathematics faculty, 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-scientific positivism (in the spirit of O. Comte, whose philosophy influenced him big influence), an ardent supporter of democratic freedoms in university scientific and public life. (Subsequently, Timiryazev accepted the October Revolution, and in 1920 he sent his book Science and Democracy to VI Lenin with an inscription in which he spoke of the happiness of “being his contemporary and witness to his glorious activities.” 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. Boussingault and M. Berthelot in Paris (Timiryazev considered the latter his teacher). Period 1870-92 associated with teaching at the Petrovskaya 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 policies of the ministerial authorities. 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 encyclopedic scientists of the second half of the 19th century, whose interests could still be realized in various branches of science, scientific and organizational activities and the popularization of knowledge, while the general civic orientation was the desire to combine scientific knowledge with practice and democratic transformations. ... Driven by a patriotic purpose - to promote the rise agricultural economy in Russia - the first period of his creative activity (1860-70s) Timiryazev devotes to the study of photosynthesis and drought resistance of plants. Proceeding from the position that a true plant physiology can be created only on solid foundations of physics and chemistry, he conducted original experiments to determine component parts the spectrum of sunlight involved in the assimilation of carbon dioxide by the plant and the formation of organic matter. 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 by subtle and careful experiments, he proved that the main importance is not the yellow, subjectively brightest rays (the conclusion of the American scientist J. Draper), but maximum energy red. In addition, he found different efficiency of absorption by chlorophyll of all rays of the spectrum with a consecutive decrease with decreasing wavelength. Timiryazev suggested that the light-capturing function of chlorophyll arose evolutionarily first in seaweed, which is indirectly confirmed by the greatest variety of pigments absorbing solar energy in this particular group of plants. The results of research on photosynthesis were presented in two dissertations: master's thesis "Spectral analysis of chlorophyll" (1871) and doctoral "On the assimilation of light by a plant" (1875), were published in domestic and foreign publications. Timiryazev summed up his many years of research into photosynthesis in the so-called Krounian lecture “The Cosmic Role of a Plant” delivered at the Royal Society of London in 1903. In his last article, he wrote that “to prove the solar source of life was the task that I posed from the very first steps of scientific activity and persistently and comprehensively carried out it 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 analyzed all biological phenomena based on the concept of the unity of structure and function and the adaptive nature of evolution. The study of the evolution of specific adaptations, and led to success in research on photosynthesis and drought tolerance. These works define Timiryazev's place in the history of science as one of the founders of the evolutionary-ecological physiology of plants.
Timiryazev plays a special role in promoting and defending the Darwinian theory of evolution. He made the best translation (1896) of Charles Darwin's book "The Origin of Species", which served as the basis for all subsequent editions, wrote a number of works about the essence of Darwinism and Darwin himself, whom Timiryazev visited in 1877 ("A Brief Sketch 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. biological evolution... The presentation and propaganda of Darwinism was facilitated by Timiryazev's inherent brilliant talent as a publicist and polemicist. 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 the printed and public speeches of Timiryazev.
The name and authority of Timiryazev were unfairly used by T. D. Lysenko and his supporters in the fight against genetics and for the approval of their pseudoscientific constructions. Timiryazev gave ambivalent assessments of G. Mendel and Mendelism: he recognized the "enormous significance" of Mendel's work for Darwinism, but at the same time doubted the universality of the regularities discovered by Mendel, which he did not quite understand, and sharply criticized early Mendelism, in which he tempered the desire to replace Darwinism ... Waving the name of Timiryazev, the Lysenkoites quoted some of his statements and were silent about others. Numerous articles and essays by Timiryazev on the history of natural science, especially on the development of biological sciences in the 18-19th centuries, essays on university life, and memoirs are of scientific and historical value. His book "The Life of a Plant" (1878) was repeatedly published in Russian and foreign languages \u200b\u200bas an example of popularizing 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 "Great Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius"
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He was born in St. Petersburg in the family of a customs official Arkady Semenovich Timiryazev, who came from an ancient noble family. Arkady Semyonovich was a man of republican views, for which he caused the personal dislike of Tsar Nicholas I as "unreliable." In his youth, the father of the future scientist spoke enthusiastically about the Great french revolution and, being a participant in the military campaign of 1813-1814, he dreamed of getting to Paris, which was dear to him. However, having reached Montmartre (a suburb of Paris), Arkady Semenovich received the strictest order to return home. Even there, the tsarist servants were closely watched over the "free-thinker" and the hater of autocracy. Later, when the latter was already serving as the director of customs, they tried to fabricate various charges against him by intrigue, only Arkady Semyonovich's impeccable honesty prevented the implementation of insidious plans. In the end, they got rid of him by abolishing the post, sending him to a very small pension. And then the question arose of maintaining his huge family. Arkady Semenovich from his first marriage already had a daughter, Maria, and two sons - Alexander and Ivan, and there were also four sons from his second marriage: Nikolai, Dmitry, Vasily and the youngest - Clement.
At that time, Clement was only 15 years old, and he, like his brothers, had to start early to work in order to help the family. His first profession was working as an assistant and newspaper translator. Two years later, he and his brother Vasily entered the cameral faculty of St. Petersburg University, and then, having orientated himself, Clement chose the natural department of the physics and mathematics faculty, and Vasily - the law faculty. In 1861, Kliment Timiryazev enthusiastically plunged into public life, participating in the student movement. He was expelled from the university for refusing to accept the new disciplinary rules - the "matricula" of Minister Putyatin. What the young man thought then is best described by the words he published in 1905 in his article "On the Threshold of a Renewed University":
“In our time, we loved the university, as now, perhaps, we do not love it, and not without reason. For me personally, science was everything. This feeling was not mixed with any considerations about a career, not because I was in special favorable circumstances - no, I myself earned my own food, but there was simply no place in my head for thoughts about a career, about the future: it was too full of the present. But then a storm came in the image, not of good memory, of Minister Putyatin with his notorious matrikules. We had to either submit to the new, police system, or abandon the university, abandon, perhaps forever, science - and thousands of us did not hesitate in our choice. It was, of course, not in some kind of matriarchs, but in the conviction that we, in our modest share, are doing a common cause, we are fighting back the first breath of reaction, in the conviction that it is shameful to surrender to this reaction. Two years later, Timiryazev recovered at the university, but already as an auditor.
Immediately after graduating from the university in 1866 K.A. Timiryazev goes to work at the Simbirsk experimental field, where, under the leadership of D.I. Mendeleeva experiments with fertilizers and other agricultural issues. Here he established the beneficial effect of superphosphate on grain crops even in dry summer conditions and for the first time showed the importance of deep plowing for combating drought. Later, throughout his life, he was actively involved in many important problems of agriculture: plant nutrition, fertilization, drought control, breeding, seed production, etc. Some of these works were reflected in his book Agriculture and Plant Physiology (1906). The main thing in the scientific work of Clement Arkadievich was the study of photosynthesis in plants. He enriched this branch of plant physiology with classical research, unsurpassed in depth and originality. Works on photosynthesis by K.A. Timiryazev began publishing in 1867. The most important of them are collected in his book "The Sun, Life and Chlorophyll" (1923). He often and with great success delivered public lectures on various issues of natural science and agronomy. A cycle of these lectures was his famous book "The Life of a Plant" (1878).
As a biologist K.A. Timiryazev developed Darwinism, fought against Darwin's idealistic mistakes, defended his teachings from the attacks of reactionaries and obscurantists. He first read The Origin of Species less than two years after it was published - as a 1st year student. Four years later, on the pages of Otechestvennye zapiski, he publishes his first articles about him, which the following year became part of the book, later called Charles Darwin and His Teachings. In 1877, having visited Darwin at his estate Down, Timiryazev presented him with his work about him. A year before his death, the great Russian scientist completes the characterization of his teaching with the articles “Ch. Darwin and K. Marx ”and“ The Historical Method in Biology ”. In the latter, Timiryazev narrates that Darwin's main merit lies in the fact that he, having managed to combine “biology with history” and explain “the harmony of the organic world as a result of eliminating all inharmonious natural selection", Answered the question" how the evolutionary process is carried out. "
Clement Arkadievich considered it necessary to study the history of science in close connection with practice, with production, in which he saw the most important source of the development of science. "The demands of life have always been the first stimuli that prompted the search for knowledge, and in turn, the degree of their satisfaction served as the most accessible, most visible sign of his success." Timiryazev noted, in spite of the idealistic perversions of the Machians, that the main driving forces of science, which stemmed from people's striving for knowledge, action, and aesthetic pleasure, initially served as a means to achieve practical goals and only later, by virtue of exercise, turned into an independent need, an urge of a higher order. He saw the sources of the origin of science not in the ideological impulses of the individual, as in the Machist Petzold, but in his material needs, production activity. "Almost every science owes its origin to some kind of art, just as all art, in turn, stems from some need of man." Timiryazev does not tire of repeating that the scientists who really moved science forward never ignored the centuries-old experience ordinary people, workers. As an example of such a close unity of science and practice, Timiryazev cites Darwin's activities: “… Darwin's teaching is due to the facts acquired by practitioners in the field of gardening and animal husbandry; everyone knows that one of the main merit of this scientist lies precisely in the fact that he used this enormous store of factual knowledge to build his theory, that he owes the most basic idea of \u200b\u200bhis teaching to practitioners. "
Timiryazev linked the rapid development of Russian science in the middle of the 19th century both with the successes of natural science abroad and with the general rise of the revolutionary democratic movement in Russia: “... if our society had not generally woken up to new ebullient activity, perhaps Mendeleev and Tsenkovsky would have passed their century as teachers in Simferopol and Yaroslavl, the lawyer Kovalevsky would be the prosecutor, the cadet Beketov - the squadron commander, and the sapper Sechenov would dig trenches according to all the rules of his art. Speaking about the awakening of natural science, we, of course, should bear in mind here not only its development in a close circle of specialists who studied and promoted science, but also the general movement that swept wide circles of society, left its stamp on the school (higher and secondary) , on literature, influenced more or less deeply the general mentality. "
One of the conditions favorable to the development of natural science in Russia, according to Kliment Arkadievich, was the fact that “the natural sciences, as the most distant from politics, were considered the most harmless ... only this relative tolerance for natural science ... we can probably explain that the fact that this striving for the study of natural science, which was clearly expressed in the second five years of the fifties, was caused by a whole galaxy of talented figures, initial development which should be attributed to the end of the forties and the first half of the fifties ”.
For 22 years (1870-1892) K.A. Timiryazev was a professor at the Petrovsk Agricultural and Forestry Academy. In it, he built the first growing house in Russia for experiments with plants. At the All-Russian Exhibition in 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod -
de he achieved the construction of an even better growing house, in which he personally demonstrated plant nutrition.
Back in 1867, on his way from Simbirsk, he stopped in the recently opened Petrovka to see professor of chemistry P.A. Ilyenkov, where he finds him in the study-library at the desk; before him lay a thick, fresh German volume of Karl Marx's Capital. Pavel Antonovich immediately shared his expressive lecture on what he had read. The chemistry professor was already familiar with the activities of Marx, since during the first commune in 1848 he was in Paris: he was one of the first disseminators of Marx's ideas in Russia. As suggested by another professor of Petrovka, Fortunatov, Ilyenkov was the initiator of attracting Timiryazev to the new university. A. Fortunatov, who perfectly knew the scientific and social views of Kliment Arkadievich, who sat next to him shoulder to shoulder for more than five years, noted that Timiryazev, while maintaining the dignity of a scientist, more than once thrilled his colleagues, members of the Council of the Petrovsk Academy, with his “seditious spirit. " Even then, the young teacher of botany was closely associated with the advanced part of the freedom-loving professors. During his work in Petrovka, Timiryazev more than once defends revolutionary-minded students from the repression of the academic authorities, and in the early 90s. XIX century receives the first reprimand in a "strange form" for protecting students who participated in the demonstration on the occasion of the death of Chernyshevsky.
Professors of the Imperial Moscow University who resigned in protest against the resignation of the rector and vice-rectors of the university. Sitting: V.P. Serbian, K.A. Timiryazev, N.A. Umov, P.A. Minakov, A.A. Manuilov, M.A. Menzbir, V.A. Focht, V.D. Shervinsky, V.K. Cerasky, book. E.N. Trubetskoy. Standing: I.P. Aleksinsky, V.K. Roth, N. D. Zelinsky, P.N. Lebedev, A.A. Eichenwald, G.F. Shershenevich, V.M. Khvostov, A.S. Alekseev, F.A. Rein, D.M. Petrushevsky, B.K. Mlodzievsky, V.I. Vernadsky, S.A. Chaplygin, N.V. Davydov. 1911. Photo by A. Staker
Timiryazev's "criminality" haunted the conservative-minded part of the nobility and professors: the literary critic Strakhov and Academician Famintsyn scribbled numerous libels at the leader of the Petrovsky opposition Timiryazev. The Black Hundred publicist prince V.P. Meshchersky in his newspaper "Grazhdanin" attacks K.A. Timiryazev for the fact that he "expels God from nature." Professor Tikhomirov, having opposed the Darwinists with a lecture "Two Liars - Darwin and Tolstoy", was promoted to the rank of trustee of the Moscow educational district. Outstanding, V.O. Kovalevsky and I.I. Mechnikov, forced to go to work abroad.
As Timiryazev later noted: “The present century, like its predecessor, tends to decline, with undoubted signs of a general reaction. The reaction in the field of science is only one of its particular manifestations. Just as any reaction does not come out with an open visor, but loves to hide under a guise that does not rightfully belong to it, so the modern campaign against science, proclaiming its alleged bankruptcy, likes to call itself "the revival of idealism."
K.A. Timiryazev does not limit himself to pointing out the connection between the reaction in science and the general political reaction, he shows the social roots of this reaction and the social carriers of it - the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie, in solidarity with the nobility in the new conditions and based on clericalism and idealist philosophy. “The decaying bourgeoisie,” writes Timiryazev, “is getting closer and closer to the moribund metaphysics, does not hesitate to enter into an alliance with both mysticism and the militant church ...” In contrast to the prediction of obscurantist Bergson that “the past will gnaw at the future and therefore grow fat”, Timiryazev writes that "science, reality, history teach the opposite: the gaps of the present, dispelling the darkness of the past, prepare a brighter future."
From the academy, he, along with other "unreliable" professors and students, was dismissed by the Minister of Education Ostrovsky in connection with its closure for the speeches of revolutionary-minded students, whom the great scientist always supported. In 1892 the Academy was disbanded and turned into the Moscow Agricultural Institute.
From 1877 to 1911 K.A. Timiryazev was a professor at Moscow University, where he continued to defend everything progressive in science and social life. However, after his dismissal from Petrovka, he was haunted by the university: unequipped, cramped and stuffy rooms that did not satisfy not only pedagogical, but even hygienic requirements were provided for work. After a cerebral hemorrhage in 1909, Timiryazev remained paralyzed left hand and a leg. Although the seriously ill scientist had no other sources of income, in 1911 he left the university with 124 professors, protesting against the oppression of students and the reactionary policies of the Minister of Education, Kasso.
On the occasion of Timiryazev's 70th birthday, the great physiologist I.P. Pavlov described his colleague as follows: “Kliment Arkadyevich himself, like his beloved plants, strived for the light all his life, storing in himself the treasures of the mind and the highest truth, and he himself was a source of light for many generations striving for light and knowledge and looking for warmth and the truth in the harsh conditions of life. "
Kliment Arkadyevich from the very beginning condemned the war unleashed by the imperialists in 1914, and a year later accepted Gorky's invitation to head the science department in the anti-war journal Letopis. It was largely thanks to Timiryazev that he was able to attract his fellow physiologists - Nobel laureates Ilya Mechnikov, Ivan Pavlov and many cultural figures, socialists of different parties and trends - to work in the journal for direct or indirect participation. In the same period V.I. Lenin began to strive to be published in this journal and even dreamed of uniting with Clement Arkadievich against the August bloc of 1912, which was then a member of the organizing committee of the Letopis.
In public speeches that were bold for their time, K.A. Timiryazev denounced arbitrariness and oppression in the countryside and came to the correct conclusion that getting two ears of corn where one used to grow is a political issue. This issue was resolved by the Great October Socialist Revolution, which, thanks to the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, carried out collectivization - the revolutionary restructuring of small peasant farming into a large, mechanized and socialist one.
In 1917, Timiryazev supported the famous Lenin's "April Theses". Despite the fact that the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party from September of that revolutionary year nominated K.A. Timiryazev for the post of Minister of Education of the Uniform Socialist Government, after the victory of the Great October Revolution, the great scientist from the very beginning supported the policy of the Bolshevik Party and took an active part in building a new life; he was elected a member of the Moscow Council and a full member of the Socialist Academy of Social Sciences.
In educating young people, Timiryazev attached great importance to acquainting them with the life and work of the great luminaries of science, with their courageous struggle for the implementation of their brilliant ideas. He spoke with special love of those of them who managed to combine their activities with the struggle for the liberation of their people. For more than half a century, Kliment Arkadyevich has created a whole gallery of biographies of fighters for the people's cause - from the biography of the socialist Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1862 to an essay about the Friend of the People Marat in 1919. At the same time, Timiryazev was able to notice the weaknesses of this or that scientist. He also rebelled against the immoderate praise and indiscriminate condemnation of historical figures, demanding an objective approach to their assessment: "Our duty in relation to the dead is the same as in relation to the living — the truth."
The most important articles on social and political issues, published by him in different years, are collected in his book "Science and Democracy" (1920). The first copy of this work, published a month before his death, the author sent to his friend V.I. Lenin, signing: "Dear Vladimir Ilyich Lenin from K. Timiryazev, who considers it happiness to be his contemporary and a witness to his glorious work."
On April 21, Timiryazev falls ill with pneumonia. On April 27, he received from V.I. Lenin's letter in which Ilyich admires Kliment Arkadyevich's book Science and Democracy, reading Timiryazev's remarks “against the bourgeoisie and for Soviet power,” and wishes the author “with all my heart ... health, health and health!”, Passing it on through the new attending physician B .FROM. Weisbrod's invitation to an evening dedicated to his 50th birthday. On the same day Timiryazev wrote his last letter, transmitted with this communist doctor:
“I have always tried to serve humanity and am glad that in these serious moments for me I see you, a representative of the party that really serves humanity. The Bolsheviks pursuing Leninism - I believe and am convinced - work for the happiness of the people and will lead them to happiness. I have always been yours and with you. Convey to Vladimir Ilyich my admiration for his brilliant solution of world questions in theory and in practice. I consider it happiness to be his contemporary and witness to his glorious work. I bow to him and want everyone to know about it. Please convey to all comrades my sincere greetings and wishes for further successful work for the happiness of mankind. "
On the night of April 28, 1920, Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev died. In Moscow, K.A. Two monuments were erected to Timiryazev, his name was given to the Institute of Plant Physiology of the Academy of Sciences, the Biological Museum and Petrovka, which became the Moscow Agricultural Academy, which is now called the Russian State agrarian university.
V.A. RODIONOV
Candidate of Agricultural Sciences