Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov
Encyclopedia
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...
n revolutionary
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
who spent about 25 years in prison before turning his attention to various fields of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
.
Revolutionary activities
The son of a landowner by a serf woman, Morozov was born in the village of Borok in the Yaroslavl OblastYaroslavl Oblast
Yaroslavl Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , which is located in the Central Federal District, surrounded by Tver, Moscow, Ivanovo, Vladimir, Kostroma, and Vologda Oblasts. This geographic location affords the oblast the advantages of proximity to Moscow and St. Petersburg...
of 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...
. He early became interested in politics and was expelled from secondary school when he was accused of subversive activity (His distribution of a scientific magazine was considered subversive because Russian schools did not teach science
). He joined the Circle of Tchaikovsky
Circle of Tchaikovsky
The Circle of Tchaikovsky, also known as Tchaikovtsy, Chaikovtsy, or the Grand Propaganda Society was a Russian literary society for self-education and a revolutionary organization of the Narodniks in the early 1870s.- Background and origin :The intelligentsia of mid-nineteenth century Tsarist...
before departing for Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
in 1874. He later was a member of Zemlya i volya (co-editing their mouthpiece, Land and Liberty, with Sergei Kravchinsky) and one of the leaders of another revolutionist group, Narodnaya Volya, starting in 1879.
In 1880 Olga Liubatovich
Olga Liubatovich
Olga Spiridonovna Lyubatovich was a Russian revolutionary and member of Narodnaya Volya.-Early life:Lyubatovich was the daughter of political a refugee from Montenegro, born 1854. She wanted to study medicine in order to become a doctor, which was impossible for a woman to do in Russia...
and Morozov left Narodnaya Volya and went to live in Geneva and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he was introduced to Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
. While in exile Morozov wrote The Terrorist Struggle, a pamphlet that explained his views how to achieve a democratic society in Russia. He advocated large numbers of small independent terrorist groups and argued that this approach would make it difficult for the police to apprehend the terrorists. It would also help to prevent a small group of leaders gaining power, forming dictatorships after the overthrow of the Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
.
Morozov returned to Russia in order to distribute The Terrorist Struggle. This led to his arrest soon after arriving. He was then imprisoned in Suvalki. Liubatovich only just having gone through child birth decided to attempt to rescue Morozov, though her plan did not go well, ending in her arrest leading to Liubatovich being sent to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
in November, 1882.
Later life and ideas
Between 1882–1905 Morozov was imprisoned in Peter and Paul fortressPeter and Paul Fortress
The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706-1740.-History:...
and in Shlisselburg
Shlisselburg
Shlisselburg is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated at the head of the Neva River on Lake Ladoga, east of St. Petersburg. From 1944 to 1992, it was known as Petrokrepost...
for his political activities. At that period he wrote political verse and began intense studies in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
and history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
. After being released in 1906, he started to teach chemistry and astronomy at the university of Petrograd. In 1907 he was elected into the Duma
Duma
A Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament. Simply it is a form of Russian governmental institution, that was formed during the reign of the...
, but as a former prisoner he was not allowed to take the office. He became a member of many associations for science, including the Russian Aero-club. For the publication of his book Songs of the Stars in 1910, he became imprisoned for another year.
Many of his ideas were unorthodox and daring. He conjectured that atoms have complicated level structure and may be transformed. In his treatise on the periodic table
Periodic table
The periodic table of the chemical elements is a tabular display of the 118 known chemical elements organized by selected properties of their atomic structures. Elements are presented by increasing atomic number, the number of protons in an atom's atomic nucleus...
, Morozov predicted the discovery of inert elements.
In 1907 Morozow published "The Revelation in Storm and Thunder" where he produced evidence for his hypotheses
- The Revelation to John can be dated astronomicallyApocalypse of John - dated astronomicallyDie Offenbarung Johannis – Eine astronomisch-historische Untersuchung is the title of the German edition of the 1905 book by the Russian astronomer Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov....
to September 30, 395. - The author of the Revelation is identical with John of AntiochJohn of AntiochJohn of Antioch was Patriarch of Antioch and led a group of moderate Eastern bishops during the Nestorian controversy. He is sometimes confused with John Chrysostom, who is occasionally also referred to as John of Antioch. John gave active support to his friend Nestorius in the latter's dispute...
, called Chysostomus.
After the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, Morozov took little interest in politics and continued to run the P. S. Lesgaft Institute of Natural Sciences in Petrograd (Leningrad) until his death at the age of 92. Based on the astronomical records (such as the Almagest
Almagest
The Almagest is a 2nd-century mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths. Written in Greek by Claudius Ptolemy, a Roman era scholar of Egypt,...
) he speculated that much of human history has been falsified. His theories about the chronology of the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
before the first century BC later attracted the attention of Anatoly Fomenko, who based his own New Chronology
New Chronology (Fomenko)
The New Chronology is a fringe theory in history, which argues that the conventional chronology is fundamentally flawed, that events attributed to antiquity such as the histories of Rome, Greece and Egypt actually occurred during the Middle Ages, more than a thousand years after the time to which...
upon them.
In his declining years, Morozov established a laboratory in his native Borok, north of Uglich
Uglich
Uglich is a historic town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, which stands on the Volga River. Population: A local tradition dates the town's origins to 937. It was first documented in 1148 as Ugliche Pole...
, to monitor and study "inland waters". In 1932 he was named an Honorary Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. His memorial house in Borok is open to the public. Morozov's grave is close by. The 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...
1210 Morosovia
1210 Morosovia
1210 Morosovia is a main-belt asteroid discovered on June 6, 1931 by G. Neujmin at Simeis.- External links :*...
is named in his honour.