Kliment Arkadievich Timiryazev (May 22 (June 3) 1843, Petersburg - April 28, 1920, Moscow) - Russian naturalist, professor at Moscow University, founder of the Russian scientific school of plant physiologists, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917; corresponding member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences since 1890) ... Deputy of the Moscow City Council (1920). Honorary Doctor of Cambridge, Universities of Geneva and Glasgow.

Clement Arkadievich Timiryazev was born in St. Petersburg in 1843. He received his primary education at home. In 1861 he entered the Petersburg University at the cameral faculty, then switched to physics and mathematics, the course of which he graduated in 1866 with a candidate's degree and was awarded a gold medal for the essay "On liver mosses" (not published).

The composition of what we call humanity includes more dead than living.

Timiryazev, Clement Arkadevich

In 1860, his first scientific work, "A device for studying the decomposition of carbon dioxide," appeared in print, and in the same year Timiryazev was sent abroad to prepare for professorship. He worked for Hofmeister, Bunsen, Kirchhoff, Berthelot and listened to lectures by Helmholtz, Boussingault, Claude Bernard, and others.

Returning to Russia, Timiryazev defended his master's thesis (Spectral Analysis of Chlorophyll, 1871) and was appointed professor at the Petrovskaya Agricultural Academy in Moscow. Here he lectured in all departments of botany, until he was left behind due to the closure of the academy (in 1892).

In 1875 Timiryazev received his doctorate in botany for his essay "On the assimilation of light by a plant." In 1877 he was invited to the Moscow University to the Department of Plant Anatomy and Physiology. He also lectured at women's "collective courses" in Moscow. In addition, Timiryazev was the chairman of the botanical branch of the Society of Natural Science Lovers at Moscow University.

Only by fulfilling its best dreams, humanity moves forward.

Timiryazev, Clement Arkadevich

In 1911 he left the university, protesting against the oppression of the student body. Timiryazev welcomed the October Revolution, and in 1920 he sent one of the first copies of his book Science and Democracy to VI Lenin. In the dedicatory inscription, the scientist noted the happiness "to be his [Lenin's] contemporary and witness to his glorious work."

Timiryazev's scientific works, distinguished by the unity of the plan, strict consistency, accuracy of methods and the elegance of experimental technique, are devoted to the decomposition of atmospheric carbon dioxide by green plants under the influence of solar energy and contributed much to the understanding of this most important and interesting chapter of plant physiology.

Study of the composition and optical properties of the green pigment of plants (chlorophyll), its genesis, physical and chemical conditions for the decomposition of carbon dioxide, determination of the constituent parts of the sun's ray taking part in this phenomenon, clarification of the fate of these rays in the plant and, finally, the study of the quantitative relationship between the absorbed energy and the work done - these are the tasks outlined in the first works of Timiryazev and to a large extent solved in his subsequent works.

To this it should be added that Timiryazev was the first in Russia to introduce experiments with plant culture in artificial soils. The first greenhouse for this purpose was built by him at the Petrovskaya Academy back in the early 70s, that is, soon after the appearance of this kind of adaptations in Germany. Later, the same greenhouse was arranged by Timiryazev at the All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod.

Timiryazev's outstanding scientific merits earned him the title of Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences, Honorary Member of Kharkov and St. Petersburg Universities, Free Economic Society and many other scientific societies and institutions.

In the 1930-1950s. these views of Timiryazev were reproduced in his speeches by T. D. Lysenko. In particular, in the report on June 3, 1943, “K. A. Timiryazev and the tasks of our agrobiology "at the ceremonial meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of K. A. Timiryazev in the Moscow House of Scientists, Lysenko quoted Timiryazev's statements, calling Mendelian genetics a" false science. "

In 1950, in the article “Biology”, TSB wrote: “Weisman absolutely groundlessly called his direction 'neo-Darwinism', which was resolutely opposed by K. A. Timiryazev, who showed that Weismann's doctrine was entirely directed against Darwinism”.

K.A. Timiryazev acted as a supporter of the ideas of J.-B. Lamarck: in particular, he joined the position of the English philosopher and sociologist G. Spencer (1820-1903), who argued: "either there is a heredity of acquired traits, or there is no evolution." About the statement of the breeder Vilmorin Timiryazev wrote: "They talk about the heredity of acquired properties, but heredity itself - isn't it an acquired property?"

Among educated Russian society, Timiryazev was widely known as a popularizer of natural science. His popular scientific lectures and articles included in the collections "Public Lectures and Speeches" (Moscow, 1888), "Some Basic Tasks of Contemporary Natural Science" (Moscow, 1895) "Agriculture and Plant Physiology" (Moscow, 1893), Charles Darwin and His Teachings (4th ed., Moscow, 1898) are a happy combination of rigorous scientific character, clarity of presentation, and brilliant style.

His Life of a Plant (5th ed., Moscow, 1898; translated into foreign languages) is an example of a public course in plant physiology. In his popular scientific works, Timiryazev is a staunch and consistent supporter of a mechanical view of the nature of physiological phenomena and an ardent defender and popularizer of Darwinism.

Publications
A list of 27 scientific works by Timiryazev, which appeared before 1884, is included in the appendix to his speech "L'etat actuel de nos connaissances sur la fonction chlorophyllienne" ("Bulletin du Congres internation. De Botanique a St.-Peterbourg", 1884). After 1884 appeared:
* "L'effet chimique et l'effet physiologique de la lumiere sur la chlorophylle" (Comptes Rendus, 1885)
* "Chemische und physiologische Wirkung des Lichtes auf das Chlorophyll" ("Chemisch. Centralblatt", 1885, No. 17)
* "La protophylline dans les plantes etiolees" ("Compt. Rendus", 1889)
* "Enregistrement photographique de la fonction chlorophyllienne par la plante vivante" ("Compt. Rendus", CX, 1890)
* "Photochemical action of the extreme rays of the visible spectrum" ("Proceedings of the Department of Physical Sciences of the Society of Natural Science Lovers", vol. V, 1893)
* "La protophylline naturelle et la protophylline artificielle" ("Comptes R.", 1895)
* "Science and Democracy". Collection of articles 1904-1919. Leningrad: "Surf", 1926.432 p.

and other works. In addition, Timiryazev was responsible for the study of gas exchange in the root nodules of leguminous plants ("Proceedings of St. Petersburg General Natural Science", vol. XXIII). Under the editorship of Timiryazev, Charles Darwin's Collected Works and other books were published in Russian.

Memory
Named in honor of Timiryazev:
* lunar crater
* motor ship "Akademik Timiryazev"
* Moscow Agricultural Academy
* Timiryazeva Street in Zaporozhye
* Timiryazeva Street in Voronezh.
* Timiryazeva Street in Lipetsk.
* Timiryazeva Street (since 1999 Y. Akaev) in Makhachkala
* Timiryazev Street in Minsk.
* Timiryazevskaya street in Moscow.
* Timiryazeva Street in Nizhny Novgorod.
* Timiryazeva Street in Perm.
* Timiryazev Street in Bishkek.
* Timiryazev Street in Almaty
* Timiryazeva Street in Chelyabinsk
* Timiryazeva Street in Magnitogorsk
* In 1991, the Timiryazevskaya metro station was opened on the Serpukhovskaya line of the Moscow metro.
* Agricultural technical school of the village Oktyabrsky town
* Timiryazeva Street in Shymkent
* Timiryazeva Street in Yalta
* Timiryazeva Street in Krasnoyarsk
* Timiryazev Street in Bendery (PMR)
* Timiryazeva Street in Izhevsk
* Timiryazeva Street in Odessa.

(1843-1920) Russian naturalist-Darwinist

Clement Arkadievich Timiryazev was born on May 22, 1843 in St. Petersburg into a noble family. He received his primary education in a family, and in 1860 entered the natural sciences department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg University. But he was soon expelled from it for refusing to sign a statement that the students promised not to engage in anti-government activities. But he still graduated from the university, though not as a student, but as an auditor, and he was awarded a gold medal for his graduation work.

After graduating from the university, Kliment Timiryazev went abroad, first to Germany, and later to France, where he worked in the laboratories of prominent scientists: Hermann Helmholtz, G. Kirchhoff, P. Burtloh. In the spring of 1871, the scientist defended his master's thesis "Spectral analysis of chlorophyll" at St. Petersburg University and became the head of the botany department at the Petrovskaya Agricultural and Forestry Agricultural Academy in Moscow (now the Moscow Agricultural Academy named after Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev).

Later he was invited by Moscow University to the Department of Plant Anatomy and Physiology.

Kliment Timiryazev devoted more than 30 years to the development of the most important issues of biology, for example, the role of sunlight in the creation of organic matter by an earth plant. As a result of a long study of the absorption spectrum of the green pigment chlorophyll, the scientist found that red and slightly weaker blue-violet rays are absorbed most intensively. In addition, it turned out that chlorophyll not only absorbs light, but also chemically participates in the very process of photosynthesis. Modern science has finally confirmed the conclusions of the scientist.

However, the main scientific merit of Kliment Timiryazev lies in proving that the greatest law of nature - the law of conservation of energy - applies to the process of photosynthesis, and therefore to living nature. Having developed a technique of unusually precise research, Timiryazev established that only the rays absorbed by the plant do work, that is, they carry out photosynthesis. Green rays, for example, are not absorbed by chlorophyll, and photosynthesis does not occur in this part of the spectrum. In addition, he noted that there is a direct proportionality between the amount of absorbed light rays and the work done. Chlorophyll absorbs red rays the most, so photosynthesis in red rays is more intense than in blue or violet rays, which are less absorbed.

Finding out why plants are green, Timiryazev proceeded from the principles of Darwinism. He considered the green color as a natural result of the adaptation of plants in the process of evolution (natural selection). In his opinion, as a result of natural selection, those plant forms survived that adapted with the help of chlorophyll.

Many years have passed since the appearance of Kliment Timiryazev's works on photosynthesis. Now the chemical composition of chlorophyll and even the arrangement of all the atoms in its complex molecule are precisely known. It is also known that the energy of a light beam decomposes water, not carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, the results of the scientist's work remain a solid foundation on which the modern teaching about the process of creating organic matter from carbon dioxide and water under the influence of sunlight is based.

Clement Arkadievich Timiryazev harmoniously combined the unity of theory and practice in his work. In articles under the general title "Agriculture and Plant Physiology," he promoted certain agronomic measures, such as, for example, the widespread use of sunlight. This can be achieved by earlier sowing dates, the correct distribution of plants in the field, the use of fertilizers, the creation of the most productive varieties, etc. Timiryazev attached great importance to the popularization of science. His book "The Life of Plants", published for the first time in 1878, went through dozens of editions in Russian and foreign languages. He gave a course of public lectures "The Life of a Plant", spoke with Sunday folk talks at the Polytechnic Museum.

Kliment Timiryazev was one of the first propagandists of Darwinism in Russia. Even in his student years, the future scientist published his articles on the theory of Charles Darwin in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski, and in his last year at the university he published them as a separate book, A Brief Sketch of Darwin's Theory. These articles later grew into his wonderful work - the book "Charles Darwin and His Teachings." Notable for the depth and clarity of the interpretation of the foundations of Darwinism, this work played an outstanding role in promoting Darwin's ideas among the scientific community in Russia.

In 1877 Timiryazev visited the English naturalist at his estate Down. The conversation with him further inspired the scientist and convinced him of the correctness of his own views on evolutionary theory.

In 1911, Kliment Timiryazev was forced to leave Moscow University along with 125 professors and associate professors in protest against the dismissal of the rector and two of his assistants by the reactionary minister Kasso, who had fought the police brutality within the walls of the university. By this time, the scientist was already old and sick, but his working capacity was preserved, and he did not stop his scientific and journalistic activities.

The merits of Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev are recognized all over the world. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, Honorary Doctorate of many universities, Corresponding Member of the Edinburgh Botanical Society. Timiryazev enthusiastically accepted the October Revolution, believing that he would now be able to freely implement his ideas. In early 1920, the scientist published the book Science and Democracy, in which he showed that real scientific progress is possible only in a democratic society.

Clement Arkadievich Timiryazev (1843-1920)

Among Russian scientists, there are few who would be so popular and revered among the people, like Clement Arkadyevich Timiryazev, who immortalized his name with classical studies of the process of photosynthesis, with which the existence of the entire animal world is associated.

A monument to K.A.Timiryazev was erected in Moscow in the immediate vicinity of the monument to the greatest poet A.S. Pushkin. Scientific, educational and educational institutions of the country bear his name: the oldest Agricultural Academy, formerly Petrovskaya, in Moscow; a number of Houses of Education in cities and villages. The image of KA Timiryazev inspired the famous writer VG Korolenko, who in the 80s brought him out under the name of Professor Izborsky in the story "From Two Sides". KA Timiryazev is portrayed in the person of Professor Polezhaev in the modern feature film "Deputy of the Baltic".

KA Timiryazev is a scientist who has left an exceptionally deep mark on science and has earned an eternal grateful memory of the most diverse strata of the Russian people.

Clement Arkadievich Timiryazev was born in St. Petersburg on June 3, 1843. His father, Arkady Semyonovich Timiryazev, came from an old service noble family, but was a republican with pronounced revolutionary sentiments. He was proud to be born in the year the French Revolution began and he loved Robespierre. When one day he was asked what career he was preparing for his sons, he replied: "What career? But what kind: I will sew five blue blouses, like the French workers, buy five guns and go with others to the Winter Palace."

A.S. Timiryazev's free-thinking extended to questions of religion. With admiration Kliment Arkadyevich recalled that when Arkady Semyonovich read the book "Charles Darwin and his teachings" written in 1865 by Timiryazev-son, he said: "Very good, very interesting, but that you are all writing about different pigeons and not a word about a person ... Afraid, Moses forbade you to talk about it with his book of Genesis. " Darwin's The Descent of Man came out six years later.

His mother, Adelaida Klimentievna, also had a significant influence on the upbringing of K. A. Timiryazev. Thanks to her, he already knew several European languages ​​in childhood and perfectly studied fiction. This developed in him a taste for the artistic word and subsequently provided an inexhaustible supply for successful images and apt comparisons, which abound in his speeches and articles.

Keeping an ardent feeling of gratitude and love for his parents, K. A. Timiryazev, already in his declining years, dedicated his book "Science and Democracy" to them. In this dedication, he wrote: "... you have inspired me, by word and example, an unlimited love for truth and an ebullient hatred for any, especially public, untruth."

Even as a child, K. A. Timiryazev loved to observe natural phenomena. He considered his brother, who set up a small chemical laboratory at home, to be his first teacher of natural science. KA Timiryazev prepared for entering the university at home and therefore did not experience the oppressive regime of the old classical gymnasium. However, even before KA Timiryazev entered the university, his father, as "politically unreliable", was forced to leave the service, and a large family of 8 people had to live on a paltry pension. Therefore, from the age of fifteen, Kliment Arkadyevich had to earn his livelihood by translating foreign writers, and more than one running fathom of volumes passed through his hands, according to him.

Much later, addressing the students of the first working faculty, he wrote: "The path of acquiring scientific knowledge for a working person is a hard path; I say this on the basis of a lifetime of hard experience. Since the age of fifteen, my left hand has not spent a single penny that I would not have earned. Earning a means of subsistence, as always happens under such conditions, was in the foreground, and doing science was a matter of passion, during leisure hours, free from activities caused by need. but I do not sit on the back of the dark, hard workers, like the children of landowners and merchant sons. Only over time, the science itself, which I took in battle, became for me a source of satisfaction not only mental, but also material needs of life - first my own, and then my family. " ...

In 1861, eighteen-year-old K.A. Major student unrest erupted at the university this year. KA Timiryazev took an active part in them and was expelled from the university. He moved to the position of an auditor. This did not deprive him of the opportunity to listen to lectures, work in laboratories and even participate in the competition for a gold medal, which he received for his first scientific work "On the structure of liver mosses".

Of the professors, he recalls with gratitude the botanist-taxonomist A. N. Beketov and the brilliant chemist D. I. Mendeleev. After graduating from the university, K. A. Timiryazev chose plant physiology as his specialty. Apparently, this happened under the influence of participation in field studies of the effect of mineral fertilizers on productivity in the Simbirsk province (now Ulyanovsk region), organized and led by D.I.Mendeleev. K. A. Timiryazev, participating in this work, made his first experiments on aerial nutrition of plants, which he reported in 1868 at the I Congress of Naturalists in St. Petersburg. In this report, he already then gave a broad plan for the study of photosynthesis (air nutrition of plants), according to which work is proceeding to a large extent at the present time.

In the same 1868, KA Timiryazev, at the suggestion of Professor Beketov, received a business trip abroad, where he worked first in Heidelberg with Kirchhoff and Bunsen, and then in Paris with the founder of scientific agronomy Bussengo and the famous chemist Berthelot. The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 interrupted his work, and he returned to Russia.

In the spring of 1871, KA Timiryazev defended his magical dissertation "Spectral Analysis of Chlorophyll" at St. Petersburg University and took the Department of Botany at the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya (now Timiryazevskaya) Agricultural Academy in Moscow. In 1877 he was elected by the Moscow University to the Department of Plant Anatomy and Physiology. KA Timiryazev enjoyed immense popularity among the students. “Timiryazev,” recalls his student, the writer Korolenko, had special sympathetic threads connecting him with students, although very often his conversations outside the lecture turned into disputes on subjects outside the specialty. We felt that the questions that occupied us were also of interest to him. Moreover, in his nervous speech one could hear a true, ardent faith. It related to science and culture, which he defended from the wave of "forgiveness" that swept us, and in this faith there was a lot of sublime sincerity. The youth appreciated this. The tsarist government knew the influence of K. A Timiryazeva on the student body, and not without reason, considered this influence harmful to himself.

In 1892, the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya Agricultural Academy, as a "restless" educational institution, was closed, and all personnel were dismissed. When after a while it was reopened, K. A. Timiryazev was not among those professors who were invited to take the department.

In 1911, he was forced to leave Moscow University, along with 125 professors and associate professors, in protest against the dismissal of the rector and two assistants by the reactionary minister Kasso, who had fought the police brutality within the walls of the university.

He left the university as a sick old man. Two years earlier, he had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, after which his left arm and leg were paralyzed, so that he could not move without assistance. But his mental capacity was completely preserved, and he did not stop scientific and journalistic activities.

Since the beginning of the war in 1914, KA Timiryazev was the first among scholars to appear in the internationalist journal of M. Gorky "Letopis" against chauvinistic sentiments. He met the February revolution with tears of joy in his eyes, but soon experienced deep disappointment in the Provisional Government, which continued the war and suppressed the revolution. In the fall of 1917, K. A. Timiryazev wrote to M. Gorky: "Again and again I repeat the words of Nekrasov:" there were times worse, but there was no meaner. "

With great joy he greeted the Great October Socialist Revolution, which gave power into the hands of the workers and peasants. The 2 1/2 years he lived under Soviet power were years of exceptional upsurge in his life. Despite his illness, he took an active part in the work of the Moscow Council as its deputy.

On April 20, 1920, returning home after the meeting, K. A. Timiryazev caught a cold and on the night of April 28 of this year died of pneumonia.

KA Timiryazev as a scientist represents a rare type of researcher who has worked experimentally all his life to solve one problem. But the significance of this problem - the problem of air nutrition of plants, or photosynthesis - goes far beyond the physiology of plants, since the existence of not only plants, but also the entire animal world is associated with this process. Moreover, in photosynthesis, the plant takes and assimilates not only the substance, namely the carbon dioxide of the air, but also the energy of the sun's rays. This gave KA Timiryazev the right to talk about the cosmic role of the plant as a transmitter of the sun's energy to our planet.

What did K. A. Timiryazev do to solve this enormous problem of general biological significance?

He answered this question himself, summing up his research in his last dying article: “The main content of my half-century of scientific activity was a comprehensive experimental answer to the requests presented to science by two thinkers - Helmholtz and Robert Mayer - the founders of the law of conservation of energy. in their desire to substantiate this law, by their own admission, it was to end forever with their contemporary doctrine of "life force", which, according to Mayer, interrupted the path to further research and made it impossible to apply the laws of exact science to the study of life. "

In order to substantiate the law of conservation of energy as applied to organisms, Mayer considered it necessary to experimentally solve the question of "whether the light that falls on a living plant receives a different consumption than the light that falls on dead bodies." Helmholtz also came to the same question, who considered it necessary to show experimentally whether the living force of the sun's rays disappearing when they are absorbed by the leaf corresponds to the accumulating stock of the plant's chemical forces. "To carry out this experiment," says K. A. Timiryazev, "to turn the brilliant idea of ​​two great scientists into an undoubted truth, to prove the solar source of life - this was the task that I set from the very first steps of scientific activity and stubbornly and comprehensively carried out for half a century ".

At the end of the 1860s, when K.A. Timiryazev began to solve this problem, plant physiology associated the decomposition of carbon dioxide not with the energy of the ray, but with its brightness for our eyes. The evidence of this connection was the classic experiments of Dreper, who believed that the plant most strongly decomposes carbon dioxide in the yellow rays that are brightest for the eye, and German physiologists confirmed this. KA Timiryazev, proceeding from the fact that the reaction of decomposition of carbon dioxide requires a large expenditure of energy, sought the connection of this process not with brightness, but with the energy of the rays absorbed by the sheet. From this point of view, the strongest decomposition was to be expected in the red rays, which have more energy and are better absorbed by chlorophyll than the yellow rays. Repeating Dreper's experiments with all care, he proved that this author obtained the maximum decomposition of carbon dioxide in yellow rays due to the fact that the spectrum in his experiments was not sufficiently pure. With the wide slit of the spectroscope, which he used, a significant amount of red rays are always mixed with the yellow part of the spectrum. In pure, monochromatic (monochromatic) spectral rays, the decomposition proceeds most strongly in that part of the red rays, which is especially strongly absorbed by chlorophyll. On the contrary, the weakest decomposition of carbon dioxide occurs in green rays and extreme red ones, which are hardly absorbed by chlorophyll. Thus, the connection of photosynthesis with chlorophyll and with the energy of the rays absorbed by it was proved.

It should be said that the implementation of these experiments presented enormous difficulties. To obtain a clean spectrum, it was necessary to pass the beam through a very narrow slit of the spectroscope, and, therefore, to attenuate the rays so much that in order to detect the decomposition of carbon dioxide in them, it was necessary to develop a special method of gas analysis, which made it possible to analyze small amounts of gas with an accuracy of a thousandth of a cubic centimeter.

Even at present, the implementation of these classical experiments in the pure spectrum presents such experimental difficulties that until now they have not been repeated by anyone and remain so far the only ones. At the same time, they were performed so carefully, and the confidence in the presence of a connection between the decomposition of carbon dioxide and the energy of the beam is so great that K.A. the rays are yellow, but that they contain the maximum energy of the entire solar spectrum, which physicists of that time placed in infrared rays. Indeed, several years later, the physicist Langley's research confirmed the instructions of K. A. Timiryazev. Langley found the maximum energy of the midday sun in red rays, precisely in that part of them that is most strongly absorbed by chlorophyll. True, the subsequent measurements of the astrophysicist Abbot moved this maximum to yellow-green rays, but this did not shake the statements of K.A.Timiryazev. The new quantum theory of light has convincingly proved that the most favorable energy conditions for the decomposition of carbon dioxide were formed in red, not yellow-green rays.

Not content with experiments in the spectrum, where sections of leaves were in tubules with a high concentration of carbon dioxide, K. A. Timiryazev carried out experiments with a natural, low content of carbon dioxide. To do this, he threw the spectrum onto a sheet, marking the places of absorption of chlorophyll on it. After prolonged exposure to the sun, he developed starch in the leaf with iodine and got blackening just in the absorption band of chlorophyll in red rays. This experiment has shown especially clearly that indeed the decomposition of carbon dioxide occurs predominantly in the red rays of the solar spectrum, which are most absorbed by chlorophyll and at the same time are most suitable for this reaction in terms of their energy. Thus, chlorophyll turned out to be not only an energy absorber, but also the most perfect absorber, which, according to Darwin's theory, should have been formed in the evolution of plants by selection.

KA Timiryazev arrived at this result on the basis, on the one hand, of the physical law of conservation of energy, and on the other, of the biological doctrine of Darwin.

In order to fully appreciate the connection between chlorophyll and photosynthesis, which he found, it should be pointed out that at that time the significance of the green color of plants was completely unclear. It was believed that the color of chlorophyll is pure coincidence and does not matter. K. A Timiryazev was the first to prove that the green color of chlorophyll is specially adapted to absorb solar energy necessary for the decomposition of carbon dioxide.

Having proved the participation of chlorophyll in photosynthesis, K. A. Timiryazev went further. He, if not explained, then indicated the way to explain how the solar energy absorbed by chlorophyll participates in the decomposition of carbon dioxide. He showed that this pigment can be regarded as a sensitizer (sensitizer) similar to photographic sensitizers. Just as colorless silver salts, which do not absorb yellow and red rays, are decomposed by these rays in the presence of yellow and red pigments, so colorless carbon dioxide can be decomposed by light only where the plasma is colored with chlorophyll, i.e., in chloroplasts. In the explanation of the mechanism of sensitizers lies the explanation of the action of chlorophyll.

Further work of K. A. Timiryazev was devoted to the development of his theory of chlorophyll as an energy absorber for photosynthesis and to the study of the properties and formation of this pigment. Usually these were short messages, distinguished by the originality of the posing of the questions, the wit and elegance of their solution. A summary of all his works for 35 years Kliment Arkadyevich gave in a brilliant Krunian lecture ( The Krunian Lectures, named after Kroon, are organized with funds bequeathed by him to the Royal Society of London almost 2 centuries ago.), entitled "The Cosmic Role of the Plant". KA Timiryazev delivered this lecture at the invitation of the Royal Society of London.

KA Timiryazev's scientific activity was highly appreciated abroad. In addition to the Royal Society of London, the universities of Cambridge, Glasgow and Geneva have elected him as their honorary member. However, German scientists, with whom he conducted fierce polemics, hushed up his work.

KA Timiryazev was not limited to research work. He was at the same time a popularizing writer who widely disseminated the achievements of biological science, and a publicist who passionately defended the ideas of materialism and the democratization of science.

KA Timiryazev showed a penchant for this kind of activity very early, even at the university. As a student, he published publicistic articles "Garibaldi on Caprera" and "Famine in Landkashire" in the progressive journal Otechestvennye Zapiski, where he outlined the newly emerging theory of Darwin and, moreover, expounded so skillfully that this presentation remains the best popular presentation of the doctrine. Darwin.

"From the very first steps of my mental activity," says K. A. Timiryazev, "I set myself two parallel tasks - to work for science and write for the people, that is, popular." From these words it is clear that he put the popularization of science among the people on a par with scientific activity. In his understanding, science is impossible without popularization. “The state of science is hopeless,” he says, “when it is in the midst of the boundless desert of universal indifference. In popularization, he saw "one of the most powerful weapons in the struggle against the harmful consequences of the extreme division of labor, savagery among a flourishing civilization." In addition, popularization, in his opinion, implements the idea of ​​democratization of science, which K. A. Timiryazev brought from the spring of his life - the era of the 60s. “Science has no right,” he said, “to enter its sanctuary, hide from the crowd, demanding that they believe its usefulness at their word. Representatives of science, if they want it to enjoy the support and sympathy of society, should not forget that they are servants of this society, that from time to time they must appear before him, as before the principal, to whom they owe a report. "

In accordance with such a high understanding of popularization, K.A. Timiryazev gave her so much creative strength and talent that what he did in this respect does not at all compare with ordinary popularization and really stands on the same level with scientific activity.

Thanks to his artistic, figurative presentation, alien to any vulgarization, such popular books of his as "The Life of Plants", "Charles Darwin and His Teachings", "The Historical Method in Biology" and others are still being republished and read with fascinating interest. Even in English translation, "Plant Life", 30 years after its appearance, turned out to be, according to the opinion of the English critic, "a whole head and shoulders in addition higher than its companions." The reason for this long-term success lies not only in the exceptional presentation. KA Timiryazev in his popular articles acts as a thinker who critically analyzes what is being reported. Successful juxtapositions and original thoughts, a passionate defense of what he believed to be right, and an equally passionate destructive criticism of everything that he considered to be wrong, give his work exceptional interest. In particular, in his articles in defense of Darwin, he gave extremely much for the development, strengthening and critical coverage of the doctrine of selection, variability and heredity. How relevant until now everything that he wrote on these issues is proved by constant references to K. A. Timiryazev in modern disputes about variability and heredity.

KA Timiryazev acts as one of the greatest theorists and creative successors of the Darwin cause. In this respect, his book "The Historical Method in Biology" is one of the classic works in the field of the doctrine of life, but sharply differing from other similar books in its pronounced materialistic and philosophical interpretation of the issues of biological sciences. He devotes all his creative mind and exceptional erudition to the further development of the doctrine of the causes and laws of the development of the organic world. First of all, he specifically reveals and methodologically substantiates the unity of the living and the inanimate, and after that he affirms the unity of the forces of movement and development in both kingdoms of nature. Hence his passionate struggle with vitalism as a "reaction in science."

A brilliant achievement of theoretical biology is K. A. Timiryazev's interpretation of the basic concept in biology, the concept of a species. In this interpretation, he subverts the old metaphysical view of the species. "A species as a category, strictly defined, always equal to itself and unchanging, does not exist in nature: to assert the opposite would really mean repeating the old mistake of the 'realists' scholastics." At the same time, K. A. Timiryazev believes that "species - at the moment we observe - have a real existence, and this is a fact awaiting explanation", which K. A. Timiryazev finds in Darwin's concept of the species.

As a logical consequence of the problem of the species, K.A. Timiryazev approaches the solution of the main problems of the doctrine of the self-development of the organic world - the problem of organic expediency, as well as the analysis of the forms and nature of the action of natural selection. In this matter, he relies not only on descriptive works, but also on the data of the first experimental works confirming the creative role of selection (and in particular, on the extremely valuable works of the Russian botanist Zinger), as well as on the data of agricultural practice. At the same time, he deeply solves the problem of the relationship between heredity and variability, the problem of divergence (divergence) of species and a number of other basic questions of the science of life.

And everywhere he considers it his civic duty to fight the reaction in the form of various anti-Darwinian - anti-scientific tendencies and trends. In this he saw "the urgent task of modern natural science" - so he called his collection of bellicose articles directed against obscurantism in science.

KA Timiryazev did not confine himself to defending only the biological side of Darwin's teachings; he defended it as the basis of the modern materialistic worldview, eliminating everything supernatural, which, before Darwin, was imbued with the explanation of the adaptability of living organisms to the environment. This is how he speaks in his articles against vitalism as an idealistic, reactionary doctrine, against vitalists in Russia (Korzhinsky, Borodin) and abroad (Driesch, Reinke, Bergson, Lodge, etc.).

KA Timiryazev was one of the greatest historiographers of life science. A number of wonderful and outstanding works belong to him. These are "The main features of the history of the development of biology in the XIX century" (1908), "The awakening of natural science in the third quarter of the century" (1907), "Science. An outline of the development of natural science for 3 centuries (1620-1920)" (1920), "The main successes of botany at the beginning of the XX century "(1920)," The development of natural science in Russia in the era of the 60s "(1908), not counting the large number of small articles-characteristics devoted to a number of individual major scientists (Pasteur, Berthelot, Stoletov, Lebedev, Bussengo , Burbank and many others).

KA Timiryazev definitely had a negative attitude towards those scientists who neglect knowledge of the history of their science. First of all, he applied the "historical method" to the development of sciences, and primarily biological ones. He gave a causal periodization of the development of these sciences in a certain sequence. “The first in turn was a comparatively simple question - a morphological one, resolved outside of connection with other disciplines of knowledge, with the help of a comparative method that is characteristic for biology and achieved the most brilliant development in it. successes of biology in the past century is, on the one hand, the subordination of its tasks to the strict determinism of the experimental method borrowed from the science of the physical cycle and eliminated forever the useless and harmful hypothesis of willful life force, and on the other hand, the extension of the historical method to it, instead of idle teleological guesses , seeking an explanation not only in the experimentally studied present of these phenomena, but also in their entire long past. "

As a true scientist-citizen, K. A. Timiryazev harmoniously combined the unity of theory and practice in his work.

In articles under the general title "Agriculture and Plant Physiology" he showed an example of the connection between theoretical science and practice. In them, he promoted certain agronomic measures, proceeding from the idea that "agriculture became what it is only thanks to agronomic chemistry and plant physiology." In the article "The Origin of Plant Nitrogen", he warmly supports the first steps of Moscow agronomists to introduce clover into crop rotation, promotes the use of mineral fertilizers, artificial irrigation and deep plowing to combat drought, etc.

In the nine hundredths, he also spoke on issues of academic life, scourging individual manifestations of careerism, violation of the dignity of science and a decline in its level. With the onset of the war of 1914, he began to fight against chauvinistic sentiments that had penetrated the academic environment around him, and with the advent of Soviet power, he devoted all his brilliant publicistic talent to criticizing the bourgeoisie, to strengthening the new government, in which he saw the guarantee of the fulfillment of his aspirations for the coming domination science and democracy. The collection of these articles entitled "Science and Democracy" was highly appreciated by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who wrote in a letter on April 27, 1920: "Thank you very much for your book and kind words. I was delighted to read your remarks against the bourgeoisie and for Soviet power ".

KA Timiryazev's brilliant and fascinating in form popularizing and journalistic articles have retained their relevance to this day. This part of his legacy deserves special dissemination, being an excellent weapon in the fight against the enemies of science, democracy and the peace of nations.

"Only science and democracy," he says, "by their very essence are hostile to war, for both science and work alike need a calm environment. Science based on democracy and a strong science of democracy are what will bring peace with it. peoples ".

The main works of K. A. Timiryazev: Works (10 volumes), M., 1937-1940. Selected editions of the main popular works: Charles Darwin and his doctrine, M., 1940; Plant life, M., 1940; Historical method in biology, M.-L., 1943; Agriculture and plant physiology, M.-L., 1941; Science and Democracy, M., 1920, L., 1926).

About K. A. Timiryazev: Clement Arkadievich Timiryazev (Collection), ed. Moscow Order of Lenin S.-kh. academy named after K. A. Timiryazeva, M., 1940; The great scientist, fighter and thinker (to the centenary of his birth), ed. USSR Academy of Sciences, M.-L., 1943; Vasetsky G. S, Socio-political and philosophical views of K. A. Timiryazev; Korchagin A.I., K.A.Timiryazev. Life and work, M., 1943; Yugov A.K., K.A.Timiryazev. Life and work, M., 1936; Safonov V., Kliment Arkadievich Timiryazev, M., 1943; Novikov S. A., Biography of K. A. Timiryazev, Collected Works of Timiryazev, vol. I, 1937; Novikov S.A., Timiryazev, M.-L., 1946; Tsetlin L. S, Timiryazev, M.-L., 1945; Komarov V.L., Maksimov N.A., Kuznetsov B.G., Kliment Arkadievich Timiryazev, M., 1945.

TIMIRYAZEV, KLIMENT ARKADIEVICH(1843–1920) - an outstanding Russian botanist and physiologist, researcher of the process of photosynthesis, supporter and popularizer of Darwinism.

Born May 22 (June 3) 1843 in St. Petersburg, in a noble family. His parents, who themselves adhere to republican views, passed on to their children a love of freedom and democratic ideals. K.A. Timiryazev received an excellent education at home, which allowed him in 1860 to enter the law faculty of the university, from which he soon transferred to the natural department of the physics and mathematics faculty of St. Petersburg University.

His early years were fanned by the revolutionary ideas of the 60s, which were expressed by Herzen, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Pisarev, which explains the unconditional acceptance of the October Revolution by scientists.
Among his teachers at the university were the botanist-taxonomist A.N. Beketov and the chemist D.I. Mendeleev. KA Timiryazev made a report on his first experiments on aerial nutrition of plants in 1868 at the I Congress of Naturalists in St. Petersburg. In this report, he already gave a broad plan for the study of photosynthesis.

After graduating from university, Timiryazev worked in the laboratories of France with the chemist P.E. Berthelot and the plant physiologist J.B. Bussengot, and in Germany with the physicists G.R. Kirchhoff and Bunsen and with one of the founders of spectral analysis, physiologist and physicist G. L. Helmholtz. Later he had a meeting with Charles Darwin, whose ardent supporter Timiryazev had been all his life.

Upon returning from abroad, Timiryazev defended his dissertation at St. Petersburg University Spectral analysis of chlorophyll and began teaching in Moscow at the Petrovsk Agricultural Academy, which now bears his name. Later he became a professor at Moscow State University, from which he retired already in his declining years, in 1911.

The scientist welcomed the October Revolution. Despite his age and serious illness, he became a deputy of the Moscow Council.

Timiryazev worked all his life to solve the problem of plant aerial nutrition, or photosynthesis.

This problem goes far beyond the physiology of plants, since the existence of not only plants, but the entire animal world is associated with photosynthesis. Moreover, in photosynthesis, the plant takes and assimilates not only carbon dioxide from the air, but also the energy of the sun's rays. This gave Timiryazev the right to talk about the cosmic role of the plant as a transmitter of the sun's energy to our planet.

As a result of a long study of the absorption spectrum of the green pigment chlorophyll, the scientist found that red and slightly weaker blue-violet rays are absorbed most intensively. In addition, he found that chlorophyll not only absorbs light, but also chemically participates in the process of photosynthesis itself, and the law of conservation of energy applies to the process of photosynthesis, and therefore to all living nature. Most researchers of those years, especially the German botanists J. Sachs and W. Pfefer, denied this connection. Timiryazev showed that they made a number of experimental errors. Having developed a very precise research technique, K.A. Timiryazev established that only the rays absorbed by the plant produce work, i.e. carry out photosynthesis. Green rays, for example, are not absorbed by chlorophyll, and photosynthesis does not occur in this part of the spectrum. In addition, he noted that there is a direct proportional relationship between the number of absorbed rays and the work done. In other words, the more light energy is absorbed by chlorophyll, the more intensive is photosynthesis. Chlorophyll absorbs red rays the most, so photosynthesis in red rays is more intense than in blue or violet rays, which are less absorbed. Finally, Timiryazev proved that not all of the absorbed energy is spent on photosynthesis, but only 1–3 percent of it.
The main works of K.A. Timiryazev: Charles Darwin and his teachings; Plant life; The historical method in biology; Agriculture and plant physiology.

TIMIRYAZEV Clement Arkadievich (1843-1920). It was late June 1909. The streets of Cambridge, an old university town, were full of festive excitement. Famous biologists have come here from all parts of the world to take part in the celebrations of Charles' centenary. Among those present was Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev, a sixty-six-year-old professor at Moscow University.

Scientists from many countries knew well this thin man with a high forehead and a sharp beard. His works on natural science were world famous, and the famous book "The Life of a Plant" was enthusiastically read not only in Russia, but also abroad. The British especially revered Timiryazev. He has long been known as one of the most ardent defenders and promoters of the teachings of Darwin, their great compatriot. Even after his death, Darwin had many opponents. They, as before, tried to prove that all life on Earth remains unchanged, the way God created it. It was necessary, like Timiryazev, to have perseverance and courage to fight them: after all, behind their back stood the CHURCH and everyone who feared the truth in science.

Even in his youth, Timiryazev became interested in the influence of sunlight on plants. He came to the idea that plants not only absorb Light, but also serve as storehouses for the sun. He understood: hitting the ground, the energy of the sun does not disappear. It is deposited in plants, helping to produce substances necessary for life from carbon dioxide and water. Together with plant food, the energy of the sun enters the body of animals and humans, maintains strength in it. Without plants, there would be no life on Earth.

At the age of 28, Timiryazev became a professor at the Petrovsk Agricultural Academy, and then at Moscow University. The students immediately fell in love with the young professor. Slender, graceful, with a noble bearing, Timiryazev conquered the audience by his very appearance. He spoke softly, but with such ardor and enthusiasm, he presented the material so vividly that it was impossible not to get carried away.

Timiryazev was loved not only for this. When one day, having appeared at the academy, he learned that three of his students had been arrested by the police, he immediately demanded a meeting with the arrested and then bravely and ardently defended them at a meeting of the academic council.

Since childhood, Timiryazev hated arbitrariness and violence. He remembered his father's stories about the massacre, saw how the remarkable freedom fighter Chernyshevsky was taken to hard labor. Finally, he himself was expelled from the university for participating in a student strike. It got to the point that the police opened a special case against Professor Timiryazev, and his house was followed.

The authorities did their best to get rid of the seditious professor. At first he was dismissed from the Petrovskaya Academy, and ten years later he was removed from lecturing at Moscow University. But nothing could break the revolutionary scientist. He believed that soon the tsarist arbitrariness would end. And when the October Revolution took place in 1917, Timiryazev, without hesitation, sided with the Bolsheviks. Timiryazev believed that he should give the victorious people all his clothes and knowledge, and was ready for anything. Therefore, he was proud when he learned that the revolutionary workers had elected him their deputy to the Moscow Soviet! He dreamed of serving the revolution, because the revolution brought light and reason to humanity. And that was worth fighting for. Not without reason, when Timiryazev died, the words were carved on his monument: "... to a fighter and a thinker."