Alexander Chizhevsky
Encyclopedia
Alexander Chizhevsky (February 7, 1897 - December 20, 1964) was a Soviet-era interdisciplinary scientist, a biophysicist
who founded “heliobiology
” (study of the sun’s effect on biology) and “aero-ionization” (study of effect of ionization of air on biological entities). He also was noted for his work in ”cosmo-biology”
, biological rhythms
and hematology
." He may be most notable for his use of historical research (historiometry
) techniques to link the 11 year solar cycle
, Earth’s climate and the mass activity of peoples.
in Polish) in the Grodno region of the Russian Empire
(now Poland
). His father Leonid Vasilievich Chizhevsky was a Russian military general. He spent his early years, and later his teenage years, in Kaluga
. As a youth he met Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
, a noted space scientist
, who also lived in Kaluga. Chizhevsky was educated at the private modern school of F. Shakhmagonov. In 1915 he spent his summer observing the sun and first hypothesized the effect of periodic changes in solar activity on the organic world. In 1916 he entered World War I
as a Russian, fighting on the Galician front and earning a Cross of Saint George. There he observed directly that battles tended to wax and wane with the strength of solar flares and geomagnetic storms during the concurrent height of solar cycle 15
.
In 1918, Chizhevsky graduated from the Moscow Commercial Institute with a degree in archeology. His Moscow State University Doctorate of Philosophy thesis was “On the periodicity of the world-historical process”. (He would later call his view point heliotaraxy or heliotaraxia.) He lectured at Moscow University and Moscow Archaeological Institute on the History of Science in the Ancient World and the History of Archaeological Discovery. He attended lectures in physics and mathematics and studied at the Medical Department of Moscow University while working at the Lazarev Biophysical Research Institute. Nobel Prize in Chemistry
winner Svante Arrhenius
invited Chizhevsky to work for him. At a home laboratory Chizhevsky performed research on the influence of ionized air on animals, establishing the physiological action of negative and positive ions in the air on living organisms. (Negative ions making them more excitable and positive making them more lethargic.) He went on to work in the Duorv Zoo-Psychology Laboratory as a senior scientist and professor. During this time he compiled statistics on biospheric processes and their connection with cycles of solar activity.
In 1926, Chizhevsky worked with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
in the world’s first experimental research in the field of space biology
. In 1929 he was elected to the Tulan Academy of Sciences and He lectured on biophysics at Columbia University
in New York City
. In 1931 he set up the Central Research Laboratory for Ionisation in USSR. His work in aero-ionification was supported by the Soviet
government and was recognized by a Resolution of the Council of People’s Commissars of USSR. In 1935 he discovered the metachromasy
of bacteria - the so-called “Chizhevskii-Velkhover effect” – enabling solar emissions that were hazardous to man both on Earth and in space, to be forecast. He was head of two aero-ionisation laboratories. In 1939 he was the Honorary President of the International Congress of Bio-physics held in New York City.
In 1942, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
became aware of Chizhevsky’s research work, including Physical Factors Of The Historical Process, and Chizhevsky was asked to retract his writings on solar cycles, which contradicted Soviet theories of the reasons for the Russian revolutions of 1905
and 1917. He refused, was arrested and spent eight years in a forced labor gulag
in the Ural mountains
. He was released in 1950 and resettled in Karaganda
in Kazakhstan
where he underwent eight years of Soviet "rehabilitation"
where he conducted science work in coal mines of Karaganda. While he no longer wrote on solar cycle theory, he returned to Moscow and introduced aero-ionic therapy (similar to negative air ionization therapy
) into some medical establishments. He became a scientific consultant and ran an aero-ionification laboratory under the USSR State Planning Organisation.
Chizhevsky also was a painter of water colors shown in Soviet galleries and the composer of hundreds of poems. Chizhevsky died in Moscow in 1964 after a long illness. An "In memoriam" in the International Journal of Biometeorology
stated that he had "carved new paths and approaches to the vast expanse of unexplored fields." He is buried in Pyatnickoe cemetery in Moscow with a headstone featuring an engraved carving representing the sun.
He analyzed sunspot records (and approximated records), comparing them to riots, revolutions, battles and war in Russia and seventy-one other countries for the period 500 BCE to 1922 CE. (A process known as historiometry
.) He found that a significant percent of what he classified as the most important historical events involving large numbers of people occurred around sunspot maximum. Edward R. Dewey
, founder of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles, analyzed and published his data in 1951 in the Foundation's publications. In a 1971 book Dewey described the "four components" of Chizhevsky's eleven year cycle and their approximate lengths: 1) a three year period of minimum activity characterized by passivity and autocratic rule; 2) a two year period during which masses begin to organize under new leaders and one theme; 3) a three year period of maximum excitability, revolution and war; 4) a three year period of gradual decrease in excitability until the masses are apathetic. Dewey questioned Chizhevsky's theory because in Chizhevsey's data, the sunspot cycle height lagged about a year behind his "mass excitability index."
In 1992 Arcady A. Putilov, a researcher in Animal and Human Physiology , published a paper empirically testing Chizhevsky hypothesis analyzing events described in Soviet historical handbooks. Putilov found that the frequency and "polarity" of events, including revolution, is the highest in the years of the solar cycle maximum and the lowest in the year before the minimum. In 1996 professor of psychology Suitbert Ertel (University of Goettingen) corroborated a "substantial" relationship between solar activity and revolutionary behavior through statistical analysis of a "Master Index of Violence from Below" (MIVE) for the period 1700-1985 CE.
In 1965 The Soviet Academy of Sciences formed a special commission to research his Chizhevsky’s archives. In 1998 a Novosti Russian News Agency press release described described his work and wrote that he had prospects of becoming the USSR’s first Nobel Prize winner until his sunspot cycle theory was branded as heresy and he was sentenced to a labour camp.
A main-belt
asteroid
(or minor planet
) discovered by Soviet
astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh
in 1978 is named 3113 Chizhevskij
after Chizhevsky.
In 1996 a cycles conference attended by some 500 researchers was held in Stavropol
in Russia to honour the centenary of Chizhevsky's birth.
The Chizhevsky Science Center opened in Kaluga
, Russia
in 2000 in the home where Chizhevsky lived and worked for a number of years. It is part of the Tsiolkovsky Museum. There Chizhevsky researched sun-earth relations and conducted experimental research on the effects of ionized air on a living organism, laying down basics of air-ionization. The center features exhibits, photographs and films, lectures and tours.
Biophysics
Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that uses the methods of physical science to study biological systems. Studies included under the branches of biophysics span all levels of biological organization, from the molecular scale to whole organisms and ecosystems...
who founded “heliobiology
Chronobiology
Chronobiology is a field of biology that examines periodic phenomena in living organisms and their adaptation to solar- and lunar-related rhythms. These cycles are known as biological rhythms. Chronobiology comes from the ancient Greek χρόνος , and biology, which pertains to the study, or science,...
” (study of the sun’s effect on biology) and “aero-ionization” (study of effect of ionization of air on biological entities). He also was noted for his work in ”cosmo-biology”
Astrobiology
Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. This interdisciplinary field encompasses the search for habitable environments in our Solar System and habitable planets outside our Solar System, the search for evidence of prebiotic chemistry,...
, biological rhythms
Chronobiology
Chronobiology is a field of biology that examines periodic phenomena in living organisms and their adaptation to solar- and lunar-related rhythms. These cycles are known as biological rhythms. Chronobiology comes from the ancient Greek χρόνος , and biology, which pertains to the study, or science,...
and hematology
Hematology
Hematology, also spelled haematology , is the branch of biology physiology, internal medicine, pathology, clinical laboratory work, and pediatrics that is concerned with the study of blood, the blood-forming organs, and blood diseases...
." He may be most notable for his use of historical research (historiometry
Historiometry
Historiometry is the historical study of human progress or individual personal characteristics, using statistics to analyze references to geniuses, their statements, behavior and discoveries in relatively neutral texts...
) techniques to link the 11 year solar cycle
Solar cycle
The solar cycle, or the solar magnetic activity cycle, is a periodic change in the amount of irradiation from the Sun that is experienced on Earth. It has a period of about 11 years, and is one component of solar variation, the other being aperiodic fluctuations. Solar variation causes changes in...
, Earth’s climate and the mass activity of peoples.
Life and career
Chizhevsky was born in the town of Tsekhanovets (CiechanowiecCiechanowiec
Ciechanowiec is a small town in Wysoczyzna Drohiczyńska, Gmina Ciechanowiec, Wysokie Mazowieckie County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland.Alternate names used in the past or currently include Tshekhanovits Yiddish, Tsekhanovets Russian, Chechanovitz, Chekhanovits, Chekhanovitse, Rudelstadt and...
in Polish) in the Grodno region of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
(now Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
). His father Leonid Vasilievich Chizhevsky was a Russian military general. He spent his early years, and later his teenage years, in Kaluga
Kaluga
Kaluga is a city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Population: It is served by Grabtsevo Airport.-History:...
. As a youth he met Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was an Imperial Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory. Along with his followers the German Hermann Oberth and the American Robert H. Goddard, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics...
, a noted space scientist
Space science
The term space science may mean:* The study of issues specifically related to space travel and space exploration, including space medicine.* Science performed in outer space ....
, who also lived in Kaluga. Chizhevsky was educated at the private modern school of F. Shakhmagonov. In 1915 he spent his summer observing the sun and first hypothesized the effect of periodic changes in solar activity on the organic world. In 1916 he entered World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
as a Russian, fighting on the Galician front and earning a Cross of Saint George. There he observed directly that battles tended to wax and wane with the strength of solar flares and geomagnetic storms during the concurrent height of solar cycle 15
Solar cycle 15
Solar cycle 15 is the fifteenth solar cycle since 1755, when recording of solar sunspot activity began. The solar cycle lasted 10 years, beginning in August 1913 and ending in August 1923. The maximum smoothed sunspot number observed during the solar cycle was 105.4, and the minimum was 5.6...
.
In 1918, Chizhevsky graduated from the Moscow Commercial Institute with a degree in archeology. His Moscow State University Doctorate of Philosophy thesis was “On the periodicity of the world-historical process”. (He would later call his view point heliotaraxy or heliotaraxia.) He lectured at Moscow University and Moscow Archaeological Institute on the History of Science in the Ancient World and the History of Archaeological Discovery. He attended lectures in physics and mathematics and studied at the Medical Department of Moscow University while working at the Lazarev Biophysical Research Institute. Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
winner Svante Arrhenius
Svante Arrhenius
Svante August Arrhenius was a Swedish scientist, originally a physicist, but often referred to as a chemist, and one of the founders of the science of physical chemistry...
invited Chizhevsky to work for him. At a home laboratory Chizhevsky performed research on the influence of ionized air on animals, establishing the physiological action of negative and positive ions in the air on living organisms. (Negative ions making them more excitable and positive making them more lethargic.) He went on to work in the Duorv Zoo-Psychology Laboratory as a senior scientist and professor. During this time he compiled statistics on biospheric processes and their connection with cycles of solar activity.
In 1926, Chizhevsky worked with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was an Imperial Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory. Along with his followers the German Hermann Oberth and the American Robert H. Goddard, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics...
in the world’s first experimental research in the field of space biology
Astrobiology
Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. This interdisciplinary field encompasses the search for habitable environments in our Solar System and habitable planets outside our Solar System, the search for evidence of prebiotic chemistry,...
. In 1929 he was elected to the Tulan Academy of Sciences and He lectured on biophysics at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In 1931 he set up the Central Research Laboratory for Ionisation in USSR. His work in aero-ionification was supported by the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
government and was recognized by a Resolution of the Council of People’s Commissars of USSR. In 1935 he discovered the metachromasy
Metachromasy
Metachromasy is a characteristic change in the color of staining carried out in biological tissues, exhibited by certain aniline dyes when they bind to particular substances present in these tissues, called chromotropes. For example, toluidine blue becomes pink when bound to cartilage...
of bacteria - the so-called “Chizhevskii-Velkhover effect” – enabling solar emissions that were hazardous to man both on Earth and in space, to be forecast. He was head of two aero-ionisation laboratories. In 1939 he was the Honorary President of the International Congress of Bio-physics held in New York City.
In 1942, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
became aware of Chizhevsky’s research work, including Physical Factors Of The Historical Process, and Chizhevsky was asked to retract his writings on solar cycles, which contradicted Soviet theories of the reasons for the Russian revolutions of 1905
Russian Revolution of 1905
The 1905 Russian Revolution was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies...
and 1917. He refused, was arrested and spent eight years in a forced labor gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
in the Ural mountains
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
. He was released in 1950 and resettled in Karaganda
Karaganda
Karagandy , more commonly known by its Russian name Karaganda, , is the capital of Karagandy Province in Kazakhstan. It is the fourth most populous city in Kazakhstan, behind Almaty , Astana and Shymkent, with a population of 471,800 . In the 1940s up to 70% of the city's inhabitants were ethnic...
in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
where he underwent eight years of Soviet "rehabilitation"
Rehabilitation (Soviet)
Rehabilitation in the context of the former Soviet Union, and the Post-Soviet states, was the restoration of a person who was criminally prosecuted without due basis, to the state of acquittal...
where he conducted science work in coal mines of Karaganda. While he no longer wrote on solar cycle theory, he returned to Moscow and introduced aero-ionic therapy (similar to negative air ionization therapy
Negative air ionization therapy
Negative air ionization therapy is the use of air ionisers as an experimental non-pharmaceutical treatment for seasonal affective disorder and mild depression....
) into some medical establishments. He became a scientific consultant and ran an aero-ionification laboratory under the USSR State Planning Organisation.
Chizhevsky also was a painter of water colors shown in Soviet galleries and the composer of hundreds of poems. Chizhevsky died in Moscow in 1964 after a long illness. An "In memoriam" in the International Journal of Biometeorology
International Journal of Biometeorology
The International Journal of Biometeorology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal which publishes original research papers, review articles, and short communications on studies examining the interactions between living organisms and factors of the natural and artificial physical environment...
stated that he had "carved new paths and approaches to the vast expanse of unexplored fields." He is buried in Pyatnickoe cemetery in Moscow with a headstone featuring an engraved carving representing the sun.
Sunspots and mass excitability
Chizhevsky proposed that not only did geomagnetic storms resulting from sunspot-related solar flares affect electrical usage, plane crashes, epidemics and grasshopper infestations, but human mental life and activity. Increased negative ionization in the atmosphere increased human mass excitability. Chizhevsky proposed that human history is influenced by the eleven year peaks in sunspot activity, triggering humans en masse to act upon existing grievances and complaints through revolts, revolutions, civil wars and wars between nations.He analyzed sunspot records (and approximated records), comparing them to riots, revolutions, battles and war in Russia and seventy-one other countries for the period 500 BCE to 1922 CE. (A process known as historiometry
Historiometry
Historiometry is the historical study of human progress or individual personal characteristics, using statistics to analyze references to geniuses, their statements, behavior and discoveries in relatively neutral texts...
.) He found that a significant percent of what he classified as the most important historical events involving large numbers of people occurred around sunspot maximum. Edward R. Dewey
Edward R. Dewey
Edward Russel Dewey was an economist who studied cycles in economics and other fields.-Dewey's cycles work:Dewey first became interested in cycles while Chief Economic Analyst of the Department of Commerce in 1930 or 1931 because President Hoover wanted to know the cause of the Great Depression...
, founder of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles, analyzed and published his data in 1951 in the Foundation's publications. In a 1971 book Dewey described the "four components" of Chizhevsky's eleven year cycle and their approximate lengths: 1) a three year period of minimum activity characterized by passivity and autocratic rule; 2) a two year period during which masses begin to organize under new leaders and one theme; 3) a three year period of maximum excitability, revolution and war; 4) a three year period of gradual decrease in excitability until the masses are apathetic. Dewey questioned Chizhevsky's theory because in Chizhevsey's data, the sunspot cycle height lagged about a year behind his "mass excitability index."
In 1992 Arcady A. Putilov, a researcher in Animal and Human Physiology , published a paper empirically testing Chizhevsky hypothesis analyzing events described in Soviet historical handbooks. Putilov found that the frequency and "polarity" of events, including revolution, is the highest in the years of the solar cycle maximum and the lowest in the year before the minimum. In 1996 professor of psychology Suitbert Ertel (University of Goettingen) corroborated a "substantial" relationship between solar activity and revolutionary behavior through statistical analysis of a "Master Index of Violence from Below" (MIVE) for the period 1700-1985 CE.
Legacy
Chizhevsky is recognized as the founder of solar-earth research, having proved that the Sun's activity has an effect on many terrestrial phenomena. His works, mostly published in Russian, are more widely accepted there.In 1965 The Soviet Academy of Sciences formed a special commission to research his Chizhevsky’s archives. In 1998 a Novosti Russian News Agency press release described described his work and wrote that he had prospects of becoming the USSR’s first Nobel Prize winner until his sunspot cycle theory was branded as heresy and he was sentenced to a labour camp.
A main-belt
Asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...
asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
(or minor planet
Minor planet
An asteroid group or minor-planet group is a population of minor planets that have a share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid...
) discovered by Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh
Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh
Nikolay Stepanovich Chernykh was a Soviet and Russian astronomer.Chernykh was born in the city of Usman' in Voronezh Oblast...
in 1978 is named 3113 Chizhevskij
3113 Chizhevskij
3113 Chizhevskij is a main-belt asteroid discovered on September 1, 1978 by Chernykh, N. at Nauchnyj.- External links :*...
after Chizhevsky.
In 1996 a cycles conference attended by some 500 researchers was held in Stavropol
Stavropol
-International relations:-Twin towns/sister cities:Stavropol is twinned with: Des Moines, United States Béziers, France Pazardzhik, Bulgaria-External links:* **...
in Russia to honour the centenary of Chizhevsky's birth.
The Chizhevsky Science Center opened in Kaluga
Kaluga
Kaluga is a city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Population: It is served by Grabtsevo Airport.-History:...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in 2000 in the home where Chizhevsky lived and worked for a number of years. It is part of the Tsiolkovsky Museum. There Chizhevsky researched sun-earth relations and conducted experimental research on the effects of ionized air on a living organism, laying down basics of air-ionization. The center features exhibits, photographs and films, lectures and tours.
See also
- ChronobiologyChronobiologyChronobiology is a field of biology that examines periodic phenomena in living organisms and their adaptation to solar- and lunar-related rhythms. These cycles are known as biological rhythms. Chronobiology comes from the ancient Greek χρόνος , and biology, which pertains to the study, or science,...
- Solar variationSolar variationSolar variation is the change in the amount of radiation emitted by the Sun and in its spectral distribution over years to millennia. These variations have periodic components, the main one being the approximately 11-year solar cycle . The changes also have aperiodic fluctuations...
- War cyclesWar cyclesThe theory of war cycles holds that wars happen in cycles.-The cycles of war:The forerunner of the study of war cycles was Edward R Dewey, with Quincy Wright's monumental A Study of War adding impetus to the discipline...
- Revolutionary waveRevolutionary waveA revolutionary wave is a series of revolutions occurring in various locations in a similar time period. In many cases, an initial revolution inspires other "affiliate revolutions" with similar aims....
- List of astronomical cycles
- Edward R. DeweyEdward R. DeweyEdward Russel Dewey was an economist who studied cycles in economics and other fields.-Dewey's cycles work:Dewey first became interested in cycles while Chief Economic Analyst of the Department of Commerce in 1930 or 1931 because President Hoover wanted to know the cause of the Great Depression...
- Nikolai KondratievNikolai KondratievNikolai Dmitriyevich Kondratiev , Russian: Николай Дмитриевич Кондратьев , was a Russian economist, who was a proponent of the New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union....
- Konstantin TsiolkovskyKonstantin TsiolkovskyKonstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was an Imperial Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory. Along with his followers the German Hermann Oberth and the American Robert H. Goddard, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics...