Nikolay Timofeeff-Ressovsky
Encyclopedia
Nikolaj Vladimirovich Timofeev-Resovskij was a Soviet
biologist
. He conducted research in radiation genetics, experimental population genetics, and microevolution. His work was of special importance to Soviet biology because it stood in direct opposition to the damage done by Lysenkoism
, while his life was highlighted by scientific achievements in the face of severe personal hardship.
His life was described by Daniil Granin
in the novel Zubr.
He was Director of the Genetics Division as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
for Brain Research in the 1930s, where he received direct funding for his research from the Third Reich, who praised him as one of the world's best geneticists and trusted him because he was an opponent of Communism. His department of genetics in Nazi Berlin was also described in a novel by Elly Welt, Berlin Wild; although fictional names were used, the characters are recognizable.
.
The First World War and the consequences of the Russian Revolution of 1917 interrupted his education for periods of time. At the outbreak of the Russian Civil War
, Timofeev-Resovskij was a follower of the anarchist
Peter Kropotkin
. In 1918, he volunteered to serve in a small anarchist cavalry
unit, which was part of the Green army, i.e., they were neither supporters of the Bolshevik
Red army nor the White
army of General Anton Ivanovich Denikin
. Eventually, in 1919, the anarchists joined the Red army. As a private in the 12th Red Army, Timofeev-Resovskij took part in the last battle of the Civil War in the Crimea
on the Polish front.
A paper trail of his education was swept away in the chaos of war. Timofeev-Resovskij abandoned his education without a scientific degree; he left formal education with only a gold medal. Even though he eventually became a recognized world-class scientist, he would later, as a requirement for employment, be required to complete his doctorate. He defended his doctoral dissertation in 1963 in Sverdlovsk
, and he was awarded a Doctor of Science diploma in 1964.
in Moscow; Elena became not only Timofeev-Resovskij’s lifelong devoted companion but also his lifelong partner in research. Their eldest son, Dmitrij, was born on 11 September 1923.
From 1920 to 1925, Timofeev-Resovskij was a biology
instructor in the pre-Chekist
district primary school in Moscow
. From 1922 to 1925, he was a zoology
instructor on the biotechnical faculty of the Moscow Practical (Applied) Institute. From 1921 to 1925, he did research at the Institute of Experimental Biology, of the Gosudarstvennyj Institut Narodnogo Zdravookhraneniya (GINZ, State Institute of Public Health), under the directorship of N. K. Kol’tsov. Some of his research at the Institute involved Drosophila
. It was in a department headed by Sergei Sergeevich Chetverikov
, the founder of population genetics and a colleague of Kol’tsov, that Timofeev-Resovskij started his genetics experiments. From 1924 to 1925, he was a research assistant in Kol’tsov’s Department of Zoology at the Medical Pedagogical Institute in Moscow. In 1924, Timofeev-Resovskij began his publications in the field of phenogenetics.
During the period 1923 to 1925, Oskar Vogt
, an eminent psychiatrist
and neurophysiologist
, was a visiting scientist in Moscow; he was director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft’s Institut für Hirnforschung (KWIH, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research) in Berlin
. In part, he was looking to recruit researchers for the KWIH, especially in the relatively new field of genetics. In 1924, the Soviet government made an exchange agreement with Germany. The KWIH was invited to establish a laboratory for brain research in Moscow, which it did: Институт Мозга (Institut Mozga, Institute of the Brain). To reciprocate, the Soviets promised to help set up an experimental laboratory for genetics at the KWIH. Vogt had good relations with Nikolaj Aleksandrovich Semashko, People’s Commissioner (Minister) of Health. It was Semashko and Kol’tsov who suggested Timofeev-Resovskij to Vogt. Thus, in the summer of 1925, Timofeev-Resovskij, his wife Elena and his colleague Sergei Romanovich Tsarapkin (Zarapkin), left Russia for an unspecified period of time in Germany, which lasted 20 years.
. The KWIH, with its departments of Neuroanatomy
(Oskar and Cécile
Vogt), neurohistology (Alois Kronmüller), Neurochemistry
(Marthe Vogt), and genetics (Nikolaij and Elena Timofeev-Resovskij), and its hospital, the KWIH was one of the largest and most modern research facilities of its kind in the entire world. The research conducted in the genetics department, along with the permanent seminar on genetics organized by Timofeev-Resovskij, drew many young postdoctoral researchers who would ultimately become prominent scientists and the department gained the status of an institute; while Timofeev-Resovskij remained a citizen of the Soviet Union
for his entire stay in Germany, his status and that of his department were recognized by the fact that he was appointed, in 1938, to the position of scientific member of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft. Timofeev-Resovskij’s colleagues in his department included his wife Elena Aleksandrovana Timofeeva-Resovskaja, his Russian colleague Sergei Tsarapkin, the physician and radiation biologist Alexander Catsch
(Katsch), the radiochemist Hans-Joachim Born
, and the physicist and radiation biologist Karl Zimmer
; a technical assistant, Natasha (Natalie) Kromm, was from Russia. Timofeev-Resovskij also collaborated with other eminent scientists including the nuclear chemist Nikolaus Riehl
, who was the scientific director of the industrial corporation Auergesellschaft
and the biophysicist Max Delbrück
, who had studied physics under Niels Bohr
and Max Born
. Others drawn to Timofeev-Resovskij’s department who would go on to become prominent scientists included Hans Bauer and Andriano Buzzati-Traverso. Through 20 years of collaboration with these and many others, Timofeev-Resovskij authored or coauthored over 100 papers written in German, English, Russian, and French. In addition to those already mentioned, Timofeev-Resovskij’s scientific circle included the physicists William Astbury
, Niels Bohr
, P. A. M. Dirac
, Pascual Jordan
, and Erwin Schrödinger
, and the biologists Torbjörn Caspersson
, C. D. Darlington
, Theodosij Dobzhans’skij
, Boris Ephrussi
, Åke Gustafsson
, J. B. S. Haldane
, Hermann Joseph Muller
, Nikolai Vavilov
, and Vladimir Vernadsky
.
Timofeev-Resovskij’s second son was born on 9 April 1927.
Together with the French geneticist of Russian origin, Boris Ephrussi
, and with the generous support of the Rockefeller Foundation, Timofeev-Resovskij organized an annual conference on biophysics, genetics, and radiation biology. This even continued right up to the start of World War II in 1939.
In 1932, Timofeev-Resovskij attended the 6th International Congress of Genetics, which was held in Ithaca, New York
. While there, he formed a friendly relationship with the plant geneticist Nikolaj Vavilov
, who was President of the Soviet Adcademy of Agricultural Sciences.
Timofeev-Resovskij stayed in Germany even after Adolf Hitler
came to power in 1933. That the Gestapo
or the Schutzstaffel
(SS) did not give him trouble as a citizen of the Soviet Union is all the more remarkable since Vogt was harassed by the National Socialists
for reasons which could have translated into trouble for Timofeev-Resovskij. On the evening of 15–16 March 1933, members of the Sturmabteilung
(Storm Troopers) raided Vogt’s villa on the grounds of the KWIH. The action had been taken in response to a denunciation by M. H. Fischer, a physiologist at the Institute, who was seeking to rise in the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP, National Socialist Workers Party). The accusations against Vogt included making payments to the Communist Party, maintaining connections to Russia, tolerating Communist staff members, and dismissing National Socialist staff members. Not too many years later, Timofeev-Resovskij’s eldest son Dmitrij, a student at the Humboldt University of Berlin
, was arrested in the spring of 1943 for being a member of the Berlin Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and making contact with Russian prisoners of war during World War II
. He was sent to the German concentration camp in Mauthausen
and executed by the Gestapo on 1 May 1945.
In 1935, Timofeev-Resovskij published the major work, Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur, with Karl Zimmer
, and Max Delbrück
; it was considered to be a major advance in understanding the nature of gene mutation and gene structure. The work was a keystone in the formation of molecular genetics. It was also an inspirational starting point for Erwin Schrödinger’s
thinking, a course of lectures in 1943, and the eventual writing of the book What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell.
In 1937, Timofeev-Resovskij and Tsarapkin were ordered back to Russia by the Soviet government. Going back to Russia was deemed impossible, as they would have to abandon their equipment and work in progress, as well as their students. Also, once back in Russia and under the political distortions of science and agriculture due to Lysenkoism
, they would, at best, have to disparage the work they had accomplished in the preceding 15 years. At the worst, they could be subject to the same fate as many geneticists under Lysenkoism who had been arrested, sent to the Gulag
and eventually died or were executed. In 1929, for example, Timofeev-Resovskij’s former teacher Chetverikov had been arrested and exiled. In this light, they decided definitely not to return to Russia and they became non-returnees, but otherwise remained patriotic citizens of Russia.
Also in 1937, while Oskar Vogt had been director of the KWIH since 1919, he was dismissed from his position by the National Socialists
; he then became director of the Institut für Hirnforschung und allgemeine Biologie (Institute of Brain Research and General Biology) in Neustadt/Schwarzwald. That same year, the Rockefeller Foundation extended an invitation to Timofeev-Resovskij to become head of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
of the Carnegie Institution for Science
. Timofeev-Resovskij declined the offer, but he had used it to negotiate improved terms for himself and his department at the KWIH.
Starting in 1944, in order to minimize the possibility of casualties due to Allied air raids and to also avoid falling into the hands of the Russians, all departments at the KWIH, except for Timofeev-Resovskij’s were evacuated from Berlin-Buch to Dillenburg
, and later on to Giessen and Göttingen
. Timofeev-Resovskij chose to remain in Berlin and await the Russians. He, as well as other German scientists, speculated that the Russian need for scientists would make collaboration with them better than with the Americans, who had far less of a need.
was one of the last major engagements of World War II
. With a great majority of German scientific facilities in Berlin and its suburbs, this area was a major target of search teams (see Russian Alsos
) sent into Germany by Russia to requisition equipment, materiel, and scientific personnel to aid the Soviet atomic bomb project
. Haste was necessary, as the American military forces were rapidly approaching Berlin. Soviet troops broke the Berlin defense ring on 25 April 1945, and the Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin on 2 May. The main search team, headed by Colonel General A. P. Zavenyagin, arrived in Berlin on 3 May; it included Colonel General V. A. Makhnjov, and nuclear physicists Yulij Borisovich Khariton
, Isaak Konstantinovich Kikoin
, and Lev Andreevich Artsimovich
. Georgij Nikolaevich Flerov
had arrived earlier, although Kikoin did not recall a vanguard group. Even the scientists were attired in the uniforms of NKVD
officers. Targets on the top of their list were the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für Physik (KWIP, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics), the University of Berlin, and the Technische Hochschule Berlin.
A search team soon rounded up Timofeev-Resovskij’s colleague Nikolaus Riehl
. In early July, Riehl was flown to Russia to head up a group at Plant No. 12 in Ehlektrostal’
(Электросталь) for the production of metallic uranium within the Soviet atomic bomb project. Other colleagues of Timofeev-Resovskij, namely Born, Catsch, and Zimmer
, were also sent to Russia to work with Riehl.
After the fall of Berlin, Timofeev-Resovskij was arrested by the Russians. However, Colonel General Zavenyagin recognized that Timofeev-Resovskij’s experience in radiobiology and genetic effects of radiation would be useful to the Soviet atomic bomb project and ordered his release. Timofeev-Resovskij became director of the KWIH facility in Berlin-Buch and was visited by Zavenyagin, and also by Igor’ Vasil’evich Kurchatov
, chief scientist of the Soviet atomic bomb project. However, after being denounced by a visiting scientist in an Academy of Sciences delegation from Moscow, Timofeev-Resovskij was secretly re-arrested on 14 September by an element of the NKVD different from that under Zavenyagin.
Timofeev-Resovskij and Tsarapkin were sent back to Russia; both were incarcerated in the gulag – Timofeev-Resovskij received a ten-year sentence. On his way to the prison camp in Karaganda
in northern Kazakhstan
, one of the most terrible camps in the GULAG, Timofeev-Resovskij went through the Butyrskaya
prison, the central transit prison in Moscow. It was there that he met Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
. Even in prison, Solzhenitsyn noted, Timofeev-Resovskij organized a scientific seminar. The harsh conditions of his transportation and incarceration in the labor camp contributed to a significant decline in Timofeev-Resovskij’s health, including the degradation of his vision brought on by malnutrition.
Frédéric Joliot-Curie
, a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and a leader in the French Resistance
during the war, visited Moscow and pleaded with Lavrentij Beria
, the head of the NKVD, that Timofeev-Resovskij should be found and given meaningful work. The argument did not fall on deaf ears, as Beria was also in charge of the Soviet atomic bomb project, and this was a top priority for Joseph Stalin
. Eventually, Timofeev-Resovskij was found, treated for his ill health brought on by his incarceration in the GULAG, and was sent, in 1947, to work at Laboratory B
in Sungul', which was a ShARAShKA
. While he was still a prisoner, he headed up the biological division at the institute and was allowed to apply his prodigious scientific skills to the problems of the day. His wife Elena, after receipt of a letter in Timofeev-Resovskij’s hand, left Berlin in 1948, with their son Andrew, to join him in Sungul'. The house occupied by the three Timofeev-Resovskijs was every bit as nice as that planned for the German scientists working at the Sungul' institute.
Nikolaus Riehl, while in Ehlektrostal’, found out that Timofeev-Resovskij was in Sungul' and had vision problems brought on by the malnutrition he suffered in the GULAG. Riehl studied the effects of vitamins on vision and determined a course of treatment. He acquired the necessary vitamins and had Zavenyagin send them on to Timofeev-Resovskij, but the actions were to no avail, as the condition was not reversible.
After the detonation of the Russian uranium bomb, uranium production was going smoothly and Riehl’s oversight was no longer necessary at Plant No. 12. Riehl then went, in 1950, to head "Laboratory B", where he stayed until 1952. Laboratory B was responsible for the handling, treatment, and use of radioactive products generated in reactors, as well as radiation biology, dosimetry, and radiochemistry. Laboratory B, as a Sharashka
and a facility in the Soviet atomic bomb project, was overseen by the 9th Chief Directorate of the NKVD
(MVD after 1946).
Laboratory B was known under another cover name as Объект 0211 (Ob’ekt 0211, Object 0211), as well as Object B. (In 1955, Laboratory B was closed. Some of its personnel were transferred elsewhere, but most of them were assimilated into a new, second nuclear weapons institute, Scientific Research Institute-1011 (NII-1011), today known as the Russian Federal Nuclear Center All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics, RFYaTs–VNIITF.)
Timofeev-Resovskij headed the radiobiology department at Laboratory B, and another political prisoner from the Gulag, S. A. Voznesenskij, headed the radiochemistry department. In Timofeev-Resovskij’s department, Born, Catsch, and Zimmer were able to conduct work similar to that which they had done in Germany, and all three became section heads in the department. Tsarapkin, Timofeev-Resovskij’s long-time colleague was also at Laboratory B.
Before being rejoined in the Soviet Union, Zimmer, Timofeev-Resovskij, and Riehl had collaborated on the biological effects of ionizing radiation. Also, Zimmer and Timofeev-Resovskij had put together a manuscript which was a comprehensive summary of their work and that of others on radiation-induced gene mutation and related areas; the book, Das Trefferprinzip in der Biologie, was published in Germany while they were in the Soviet Union. In 1948, due to Lysenkoism
, there were grave consequences for the institute in Sungul' in general and for Zimmer and Timofeev-Resovskij in particular. The book was put on a forbidden list and the laboratory was not allowed to conduct research on its topics.
In 1955, Laboratory B was merged into the newly created second nuclear weapons design institute Nauchno-Issledovatel’skij Institut-1011 (NII-1011). During the merger, the radiopathology section of S. A. Voznesenskij’s radiochemistry department was transferred to Combine No. 817 (Ozersk), and Timofeev-Resovskij and 16 members of his department were transferred to the Ural Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences
, in Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg
). After discharge from the Sharashka, Timofeev-Resovskij visited Moscow
, Leningrad
, and Kiev
. In these locations, he was able to visit physicists Peter Kapitsa
, Lev Landau
, and Igor’ Tamm
, the biologist M. V. Volkenstein, and the mathematician A. A. Lapunov
. In Sverdlovsk, Timofeev-Resovskij organized and became the head of the Department of Radiobiology of the Ural Branch of the Academy of Sciences. He also founded an experimental station and summer school at the nearby Lake Miassovo. The experimental station conducted radiological research on radiation and population genetics. This summer school contributed to keeping classical genetics alive during the period of Lysenkoism
, which officially ended in 1964.
In 1964, Timofeev-Resovskij organized and became the head of the Department of Radiobiology and Genetics, at the Institute of Medical Radiology of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, in Obninsk
, Kaluga District
. In the department, Timofeev-Resovskij supervised and headed the Laboratory of Radiation Genetics and the Laboratory of Radiation Ecology. There were two other laboratories in the department, the Laboratory of Cellular Radiobiology, headed by V. I. Korogodin, and the Laboratory of Molecular Radiobiology, headed by Zhores Medvedev
. The first group in the USSR to study Arabidopsis thaliana
was established by Timofeev-Resovskij during his time in Obninsk. Two well known figures in genetics started their research and received their degrees at Obninsk under Timofeev-Resovskij. One was Nikolai Bochkov, director of the Institute of Medical Genetics, in Moscow; the other was Vladimir Ivanov, head of the Laboratory of Experimental Genetics at the same institute. While in Obninsk, Timofeev-Resovskij wrote two books (published in 1968 and 1969 – see the book list below) and more than 60 papers on population genetics, radiation biology, and evolution. His wife Helena assisted him by providing her eyes to compensate for his lost vision, taking dictation, and editing his papers.
In 1968, even though Lysenkoism was officially over, its supporters were able to block Timofeev-Resovskij’s nomination to the Soviet Academy of Sciences. In 1969, they used their influence to pressure him into retirement from Institute of Medical Radiaology, whereupon Timofeev-Resovskij became a consultant to the Institute of Medical-Biological Problems and of Developmental Biology, in Moscow. As a consultant for the institute, he studied space medicine and continued his research on genetics. He also served as a consultant to the Institute of Developmental Problems, in Moscow, as well as Moscow State University
. With several of his students, he also wrote his last book, Introduction to Molecular Radiobiology: Physico-Chemical Foundations [in Russian], which was published in 1981.
Timofeev-Resovskij was a non-rehabilitated ex-prisoner and was therefore not allowed to leave the Soviet Union. He was, however, able to meet foreign colleagues who came to Russia. In 1969, a short time before receipt of his Nobel Prize
, Max Delbrück traveled to the Soviet Union and unofficially met with Timofeev-Resovskij. In addition to once again seeing his colleague Timofeev-Resovskij, Delbrück hoped to appeal to the Soviet authorities to mitigate his colleague’s harsh living conditions; however, he was not given an opportunity to bring his request to the attention of the authorities. Timofeev-Resovskij, also met with foreign colleagues attending conferences, such as at the Second Meeting of the Vavilov Society of Genetics and Selection (Moscow, 1972) and at the 14th International Congress of Genetics (Moscow, 1978).
Timofeev-Resovskij’s lifelong companion and scientific research partner, Helena, died on 29 April 1973 At this time, their son, Andrew, was a physics professor at the University of Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg
).
Timofeev-Resovskij died in Moscow on 28 March 1981.
A minor planet
3238 Timresovia
discovered by Soviet
astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh
in 1975 is named after him.
novel Зубр (Zubr, Bison) appeared in Russia in 1987, during the dawn of glasnost’
and perestrojka
. The book depicted the life of Timofeev-Resovskij and the impact of Joseph Stalin
on biology. The West German
edition, Der Genetiker (The Geneticist), published in Köln
, appeared in 1988. The East German edition was published under the title Sie nannten ihn Ur (They Called Him Ur).
On 16 October 1991, the prosecutor general of the USSR stated that the charge of treason against Timofeev-Resovskij in 1946 had no legal basis. The next year, Timofeev-Resovskij was rehabilitated, 11 years after his death!
On the Campus Berlin-Buch, a modern science, health and biotechnology park focused on biomedicine, commemoration of Timofeev-Resovskij took several forms; a new medical Genomics
building was named after him, a memorial plaque was dedicated in 1992 on the gatehouse where he lived, and a sculpture of him, created by Stevan Kaehne in 2006, stands in front of the Timofeev-Resovskij Research Building.
A centennial anniversary celebration was held in both Dubna
and on the Berlin-Buch Campus in September 2000. Timofeev-Resovskij’s son, Andrew, a physicist, took part in both centennial conferences. In 2005, the 70th anniversary of the publishing of the “green paper”, "Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur", by Timofeev-Ressovkij, Zimmer, and Delbrück, was celebrated by a jointly sponsord symposium in Yerevan
; the sponsors were the Yerevan Physics Institute
and Armenia
n, Russian, and U.S. genetics associations.
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....
biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
. He conducted research in radiation genetics, experimental population genetics, and microevolution. His work was of special importance to Soviet biology because it stood in direct opposition to the damage done by Lysenkoism
Lysenkoism
Lysenkoism, or Lysenko-Michurinism, also denotes the biological inheritance principle which Trofim Lysenko subscribed to and which derive from theories of the heritability of acquired characteristics, a body of biological inheritance theory which departs from Mendelism and that Lysenko named...
, while his life was highlighted by scientific achievements in the face of severe personal hardship.
His life was described by Daniil Granin
Daniil Granin
Daniil Alexandrovich Granin is an author born in the former Soviet Union. He started writing in the 1930s when he was still an engineering student at the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute...
in the novel Zubr.
He was Director of the Genetics Division as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science was a German scientific institution established in 1911. It was implicated in Nazi science, and after the Second World War was wound up and its functions replaced by the Max Planck Society...
for Brain Research in the 1930s, where he received direct funding for his research from the Third Reich, who praised him as one of the world's best geneticists and trusted him because he was an opponent of Communism. His department of genetics in Nazi Berlin was also described in a novel by Elly Welt, Berlin Wild; although fictional names were used, the characters are recognizable.
Education
Nikolaj Vladimirovich Timofeev-Resovski, began his university education from 1916 to 1917 at the Moscow City People’s University named after A. L. Shanyavskij. From 1917 to 1922, he studied at the First Moscow State UniversityMoscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
.
The First World War and the consequences of the Russian Revolution of 1917 interrupted his education for periods of time. At the outbreak of the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
, Timofeev-Resovskij was a follower of the anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...
. In 1918, he volunteered to serve in a small anarchist cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
unit, which was part of the Green army, i.e., they were neither supporters of the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
Red army nor the White
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
army of General Anton Ivanovich Denikin
Anton Ivanovich Denikin
Anton Ivanovich Denikin was Lieutenant General of the Imperial Russian Army and one of the foremost generals of the White movement in the Russian Civil War.- Childhood :...
. Eventually, in 1919, the anarchists joined the Red army. As a private in the 12th Red Army, Timofeev-Resovskij took part in the last battle of the Civil War in the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
on the Polish front.
A paper trail of his education was swept away in the chaos of war. Timofeev-Resovskij abandoned his education without a scientific degree; he left formal education with only a gold medal. Even though he eventually became a recognized world-class scientist, he would later, as a requirement for employment, be required to complete his doctorate. He defended his doctoral dissertation in 1963 in Sverdlovsk
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
, and he was awarded a Doctor of Science diploma in 1964.
In Russia
During the period 1920 to 1925, Timofeev-Resovskij was an instructor and researcher in Moscow. It was in this period that he met and married Elena Aleksandrovana Fidler (1898 – 1973), who was a student of the cytologist and biologist Nikolaj Konstantinovich Kol’tsovNikolai Koltsov
Nikolai Konstantinovich Koltsov was a Russian biologist. He was one of the creators of modern genetics. Nikolai Koltsov was a teacher of Nikolay Timofeeff-Ressovsky.-Scientific career:...
in Moscow; Elena became not only Timofeev-Resovskij’s lifelong devoted companion but also his lifelong partner in research. Their eldest son, Dmitrij, was born on 11 September 1923.
From 1920 to 1925, Timofeev-Resovskij was a biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
instructor in the pre-Chekist
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
district primary school in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. From 1922 to 1925, he was a zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
instructor on the biotechnical faculty of the Moscow Practical (Applied) Institute. From 1921 to 1925, he did research at the Institute of Experimental Biology, of the Gosudarstvennyj Institut Narodnogo Zdravookhraneniya (GINZ, State Institute of Public Health), under the directorship of N. K. Kol’tsov. Some of his research at the Institute involved Drosophila
Drosophila
Drosophila is a genus of small flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "fruit flies" or more appropriately pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species to linger around overripe or rotting fruit...
. It was in a department headed by Sergei Sergeevich Chetverikov
Sergei Chetverikov
Sergei Sergeevich Chetverikov was one of the early contributors to the development of the field of genetics...
, the founder of population genetics and a colleague of Kol’tsov, that Timofeev-Resovskij started his genetics experiments. From 1924 to 1925, he was a research assistant in Kol’tsov’s Department of Zoology at the Medical Pedagogical Institute in Moscow. In 1924, Timofeev-Resovskij began his publications in the field of phenogenetics.
During the period 1923 to 1925, Oskar Vogt
Oskar Vogt
Oskar Vogt was a German physician and neurologist. He was born in Husum - Schleswig-Holstein...
, an eminent psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
and neurophysiologist
Neurophysiology
Neurophysiology is a part of physiology. Neurophysiology is the study of nervous system function...
, was a visiting scientist in Moscow; he was director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft’s Institut für Hirnforschung (KWIH, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research) in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. In part, he was looking to recruit researchers for the KWIH, especially in the relatively new field of genetics. In 1924, the Soviet government made an exchange agreement with Germany. The KWIH was invited to establish a laboratory for brain research in Moscow, which it did: Институт Мозга (Institut Mozga, Institute of the Brain). To reciprocate, the Soviets promised to help set up an experimental laboratory for genetics at the KWIH. Vogt had good relations with Nikolaj Aleksandrovich Semashko, People’s Commissioner (Minister) of Health. It was Semashko and Kol’tsov who suggested Timofeev-Resovskij to Vogt. Thus, in the summer of 1925, Timofeev-Resovskij, his wife Elena and his colleague Sergei Romanovich Tsarapkin (Zarapkin), left Russia for an unspecified period of time in Germany, which lasted 20 years.
In Germany
Once at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Hirnforschung (KWIH Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research ), Vogt and Timofeev-Resovskij began implementing the other half of the scientific agreement with Russia. In 1929 Timofeev-Resovskij became director of the Abteilung für Experimentelle Genetik (Department of Experimental Genetics). In 1930, the KWIH moved to its new facility in Berlin-Buch, which was partly financed by a grant from the Rockefeller FoundationRockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
. The KWIH, with its departments of Neuroanatomy
Neuroanatomy
Neuroanatomy is the study of the anatomy and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defined nervous systems, and thus we can begin to speak of...
(Oskar and Cécile
Cécile Vogt-Mugnier
Cecile Vogt-Mugnier was a French neurologist from Haute-Savoie.-Family:She obtained her medical doctorate in Paris and was the student of Pierre Marie. There she met her future husband, Oskar Vogt, when he came to Paris to work with Joseph Jules Déjérine...
Vogt), neurohistology (Alois Kronmüller), Neurochemistry
Neurochemistry
Neurochemistry is the specific study of neurochemicals, which include neurotransmitters and other molecules such as neuro-active drugs that influence neuron function. This principle closely examines the manner in which these neurochemicals influence the network of neural operation...
(Marthe Vogt), and genetics (Nikolaij and Elena Timofeev-Resovskij), and its hospital, the KWIH was one of the largest and most modern research facilities of its kind in the entire world. The research conducted in the genetics department, along with the permanent seminar on genetics organized by Timofeev-Resovskij, drew many young postdoctoral researchers who would ultimately become prominent scientists and the department gained the status of an institute; while Timofeev-Resovskij remained a citizen of the Soviet Union
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....
for his entire stay in Germany, his status and that of his department were recognized by the fact that he was appointed, in 1938, to the position of scientific member of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft. Timofeev-Resovskij’s colleagues in his department included his wife Elena Aleksandrovana Timofeeva-Resovskaja, his Russian colleague Sergei Tsarapkin, the physician and radiation biologist Alexander Catsch
Alexander Catsch
Alexander Catsch was a German-Russian medical doctor and radiation biologist. Up to the end of World War II, he worked in Nikolaj Vladimirovich Timefeev-Resovskij’s Abteilung für Experimentelle Genetik at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Hirnforschung...
(Katsch), the radiochemist Hans-Joachim Born
Hans-Joachim Born
Hans-Joachim Born was a German radiochemist trained and educated at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Chemie. Up to the end of World War II, he worked in Nikolaj Vladimirovich Timofeev-Resovskij’s Abteilung für Experimentelle Genetik, at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Hirnforschung. He was taken...
, and the physicist and radiation biologist Karl Zimmer
Karl Zimmer
Karl Günter Zimmer was a German physicist and radiation biologist, known for his work on the effects of ionizing radiation on DNA. In 1935, he published the major work, Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur, with N. V...
; a technical assistant, Natasha (Natalie) Kromm, was from Russia. Timofeev-Resovskij also collaborated with other eminent scientists including the nuclear chemist Nikolaus Riehl
Nikolaus Riehl
Nikolaus Riehl was a German industrial nuclear chemist. He was head of the scientific headquarters of Auergesellschaft. When the Russians entered Berlin near the end of World War II, he was invited to the Soviet Union, where he stayed for 10 years...
, who was the scientific director of the industrial corporation Auergesellschaft
Auergesellschaft
The industrial firm Auergesellschaft was founded in 1892 with headquarters in Berlin. Up to the end of World War II, Auergesellschaft had research activities in the areas of gas mantles, luminescence, rare earths, radioactivity, and uranium and thorium compounds. In 1934, the corporation was...
and the biophysicist Max Delbrück
Max Delbrück
Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück was a German-American biophysicist and Nobel laureate.-Biography:Delbrück was born in Berlin, German Empire...
, who had studied physics under Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in...
and Max Born
Max Born
Max Born was a German-born physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 30s...
. Others drawn to Timofeev-Resovskij’s department who would go on to become prominent scientists included Hans Bauer and Andriano Buzzati-Traverso. Through 20 years of collaboration with these and many others, Timofeev-Resovskij authored or coauthored over 100 papers written in German, English, Russian, and French. In addition to those already mentioned, Timofeev-Resovskij’s scientific circle included the physicists William Astbury
William Astbury
William Thomas Astbury FRS was an English physicist and molecular biologist who made pioneering X-ray diffraction studies of biological molecules. His work on keratin provided the foundation for Linus Pauling's discovery of the alpha helix...
, Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in...
, P. A. M. Dirac
Paul Dirac
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, OM, FRS was an English theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics...
, Pascual Jordan
Pascual Jordan
-Further reading:...
, and Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist who was one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, and is famed for a number of important contributions to physics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933...
, and the biologists Torbjörn Caspersson
Torbjörn Caspersson
Professor Torbjörn Oskar Caspersson was a Swedish cytologist and geneticist. He was born in Motala and attended the University of Stockholm, where he studied medicine and biophysics....
, C. D. Darlington
C. D. Darlington
Cyril Dean Darlington FRS was an English biologist, geneticist and eugenicist, who discovered the mechanics of chromosomal crossover, its role in inheritance, and therefore its importance to evolution.-Early life:...
, Theodosij Dobzhans’skij
Theodosius Dobzhansky
Theodosius Grygorovych Dobzhansky ForMemRS was a prominent geneticist and evolutionary biologist, and a central figure in the field of evolutionary biology for his work in shaping the unifying modern evolutionary synthesis...
, Boris Ephrussi
Boris Ephrussi
Boris Ephrussi , Professor of Genetics at the University of Paris, was a Russo-French geneticist from the Ephrussi family.His father, Samuil Osipovich Ephrussi, was a chemical engineer; his grandfather, Joseph Ephrusi , was the founder of a banking dynasty in Kishinev. He published two papers in...
, Åke Gustafsson
Åke Gustafsson
Karl Åke Torsten Gustafsson was a Swedish botanist and geneticist, who was also known as an essayist and poet. He was professor at the Statens Skogsforskningsinstitut 1947-1968 and at Lund University 1968-1974.In 1949 he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and in 1966...
, J. B. S. Haldane
J. B. S. Haldane
John Burdon Sanderson Haldane FRS , known as Jack , was a British-born geneticist and evolutionary biologist. A staunch Marxist, he was critical of Britain's role in the Suez Crisis, and chose to leave Oxford and moved to India and became an Indian citizen...
, Hermann Joseph Muller
Hermann Joseph Muller
Hermann Joseph Muller was an American geneticist, educator, and Nobel laureate best known for his work on the physiological and genetic effects of radiation as well as his outspoken political beliefs...
, Nikolai Vavilov
Nikolai Vavilov
Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov was a prominent Russian and Soviet botanist and geneticist best known for having identified the centres of origin of cultivated plants...
, and Vladimir Vernadsky
Vladimir Vernadsky
Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky was a Russian/Ukrainian and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and of radiogeology. His ideas of noosphere were an important contribution to Russian cosmism. He also worked in Ukraine where he...
.
Timofeev-Resovskij’s second son was born on 9 April 1927.
Together with the French geneticist of Russian origin, Boris Ephrussi
Boris Ephrussi
Boris Ephrussi , Professor of Genetics at the University of Paris, was a Russo-French geneticist from the Ephrussi family.His father, Samuil Osipovich Ephrussi, was a chemical engineer; his grandfather, Joseph Ephrusi , was the founder of a banking dynasty in Kishinev. He published two papers in...
, and with the generous support of the Rockefeller Foundation, Timofeev-Resovskij organized an annual conference on biophysics, genetics, and radiation biology. This even continued right up to the start of World War II in 1939.
In 1932, Timofeev-Resovskij attended the 6th International Congress of Genetics, which was held in Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
. While there, he formed a friendly relationship with the plant geneticist Nikolaj Vavilov
Nikolai Vavilov
Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov was a prominent Russian and Soviet botanist and geneticist best known for having identified the centres of origin of cultivated plants...
, who was President of the Soviet Adcademy of Agricultural Sciences.
Timofeev-Resovskij stayed in Germany even after Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
came to power in 1933. That the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
or the Schutzstaffel
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
(SS) did not give him trouble as a citizen of the Soviet Union is all the more remarkable since Vogt was harassed by the National Socialists
National Socialist Party
Parties in various contexts have referred to themselves as National Socialist parties. Because there is no clear definition of national socialism, the term has been used to mean very different things...
for reasons which could have translated into trouble for Timofeev-Resovskij. On the evening of 15–16 March 1933, members of the Sturmabteilung
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
(Storm Troopers) raided Vogt’s villa on the grounds of the KWIH. The action had been taken in response to a denunciation by M. H. Fischer, a physiologist at the Institute, who was seeking to rise in the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP, National Socialist Workers Party). The accusations against Vogt included making payments to the Communist Party, maintaining connections to Russia, tolerating Communist staff members, and dismissing National Socialist staff members. Not too many years later, Timofeev-Resovskij’s eldest son Dmitrij, a student at the Humboldt University of Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
, was arrested in the spring of 1943 for being a member of the Berlin Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and making contact with Russian prisoners of war during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He was sent to the German concentration camp in Mauthausen
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
Mauthausen Concentration Camp grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly east of the city of Linz.Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940, the...
and executed by the Gestapo on 1 May 1945.
In 1935, Timofeev-Resovskij published the major work, Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur, with Karl Zimmer
Karl Zimmer
Karl Günter Zimmer was a German physicist and radiation biologist, known for his work on the effects of ionizing radiation on DNA. In 1935, he published the major work, Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur, with N. V...
, and Max Delbrück
Max Delbrück
Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück was a German-American biophysicist and Nobel laureate.-Biography:Delbrück was born in Berlin, German Empire...
; it was considered to be a major advance in understanding the nature of gene mutation and gene structure. The work was a keystone in the formation of molecular genetics. It was also an inspirational starting point for Erwin Schrödinger’s
Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist who was one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, and is famed for a number of important contributions to physics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933...
thinking, a course of lectures in 1943, and the eventual writing of the book What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell.
In 1937, Timofeev-Resovskij and Tsarapkin were ordered back to Russia by the Soviet government. Going back to Russia was deemed impossible, as they would have to abandon their equipment and work in progress, as well as their students. Also, once back in Russia and under the political distortions of science and agriculture due to Lysenkoism
Lysenkoism
Lysenkoism, or Lysenko-Michurinism, also denotes the biological inheritance principle which Trofim Lysenko subscribed to and which derive from theories of the heritability of acquired characteristics, a body of biological inheritance theory which departs from Mendelism and that Lysenko named...
, they would, at best, have to disparage the work they had accomplished in the preceding 15 years. At the worst, they could be subject to the same fate as many geneticists under Lysenkoism who had been arrested, sent to the 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...
and eventually died or were executed. In 1929, for example, Timofeev-Resovskij’s former teacher Chetverikov had been arrested and exiled. In this light, they decided definitely not to return to Russia and they became non-returnees, but otherwise remained patriotic citizens of Russia.
Also in 1937, while Oskar Vogt had been director of the KWIH since 1919, he was dismissed from his position by the National Socialists
National Socialist Party
Parties in various contexts have referred to themselves as National Socialist parties. Because there is no clear definition of national socialism, the term has been used to mean very different things...
; he then became director of the Institut für Hirnforschung und allgemeine Biologie (Institute of Brain Research and General Biology) in Neustadt/Schwarzwald. That same year, the Rockefeller Foundation extended an invitation to Timofeev-Resovskij to become head of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, genomics and bioinformatics. The Laboratory has a broad educational mission, including the recently established Watson School of Biological Sciences. It...
of the Carnegie Institution for Science
Carnegie Institution for Science
The Carnegie Institution for Science is an organization in the United States established to support scientific research....
. Timofeev-Resovskij declined the offer, but he had used it to negotiate improved terms for himself and his department at the KWIH.
Starting in 1944, in order to minimize the possibility of casualties due to Allied air raids and to also avoid falling into the hands of the Russians, all departments at the KWIH, except for Timofeev-Resovskij’s were evacuated from Berlin-Buch to Dillenburg
Dillenburg
Dillenburg is a town in Hesse's Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis....
, and later on to Giessen and Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
. Timofeev-Resovskij chose to remain in Berlin and await the Russians. He, as well as other German scientists, speculated that the Russian need for scientists would make collaboration with them better than with the Americans, who had far less of a need.
In the USSR again
The Battle of BerlinBattle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin, designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, was the final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II....
was one of the last major engagements of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. With a great majority of German scientific facilities in Berlin and its suburbs, this area was a major target of search teams (see Russian Alsos
Russian Alsos
The Russian Alsos was an operation which took place in early 1945 in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, and whose objectives were the exploitation of German atomic related facilities, intellectual materials, materiel resources, and scientific personnel for the benefit of the Soviet atomic bomb...
) sent into Germany by Russia to requisition equipment, materiel, and scientific personnel to aid the Soviet atomic bomb project
Soviet atomic bomb project
The Soviet project to develop an atomic bomb , was a clandestine research and development program began during and post-World War II, in the wake of the Soviet Union's discovery of the United States' nuclear project...
. Haste was necessary, as the American military forces were rapidly approaching Berlin. Soviet troops broke the Berlin defense ring on 25 April 1945, and the Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin on 2 May. The main search team, headed by Colonel General A. P. Zavenyagin, arrived in Berlin on 3 May; it included Colonel General V. A. Makhnjov, and nuclear physicists Yulij Borisovich Khariton
Yulii Borisovich Khariton
Yulii Borisovich Khariton was a Soviet physicist working in the field of nuclear power...
, Isaak Konstantinovich Kikoin
Isaak Kikoin
Isaak Konstantinovich Kikoin was a Soviet physicist and academic. He was awarded the Stalin/Lenin Prize six times , named a Hero of Socialist Labor , and was a recipient of the Kurchatov Medal .Kikoin was with Igor Kurchatov as one of the founders of the Kurchatov...
, and Lev Andreevich Artsimovich
Lev Artsimovich
Lev Andreevich Artsimovich was a Soviet physicist, academician of the Soviet Academy of Sciences , member of the Presidium of the Soviet Academy of Sciences , and Hero of Socialist Labor .- Academic research :Artsimovich worked on the...
. Georgij Nikolaevich Flerov
Georgy Flyorov
Georgy Nikolayevich Flyorov was a prominent Soviet nuclear physicist.-Biography:Flyorov was born in Rostov-on-Don and attended the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute Georgy Nikolayevich Flyorov (March 2, 1913 – November 19, 1990) was a prominent Soviet nuclear physicist.-Biography:Flyorov was born...
had arrived earlier, although Kikoin did not recall a vanguard group. Even the scientists were attired in the uniforms of NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
officers. Targets on the top of their list were the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für Physik (KWIP, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics), the University of Berlin, and the Technische Hochschule Berlin.
A search team soon rounded up Timofeev-Resovskij’s colleague Nikolaus Riehl
Nikolaus Riehl
Nikolaus Riehl was a German industrial nuclear chemist. He was head of the scientific headquarters of Auergesellschaft. When the Russians entered Berlin near the end of World War II, he was invited to the Soviet Union, where he stayed for 10 years...
. In early July, Riehl was flown to Russia to head up a group at Plant No. 12 in Ehlektrostal’
Elektrostal
Elektrostal , known as Zatishye until 1938, is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located east of Moscow. Population: 135,000 ; 123,000 ; 97,000 ; 43,000 . Town status was granted to it in 1938.-Industry:...
(Электросталь) for the production of metallic uranium within the Soviet atomic bomb project. Other colleagues of Timofeev-Resovskij, namely Born, Catsch, and Zimmer
Karl Zimmer
Karl Günter Zimmer was a German physicist and radiation biologist, known for his work on the effects of ionizing radiation on DNA. In 1935, he published the major work, Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur, with N. V...
, were also sent to Russia to work with Riehl.
After the fall of Berlin, Timofeev-Resovskij was arrested by the Russians. However, Colonel General Zavenyagin recognized that Timofeev-Resovskij’s experience in radiobiology and genetic effects of radiation would be useful to the Soviet atomic bomb project and ordered his release. Timofeev-Resovskij became director of the KWIH facility in Berlin-Buch and was visited by Zavenyagin, and also by Igor’ Vasil’evich Kurchatov
Igor Kurchatov
Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov , was a Soviet nuclear physicist who is widely known as the director of the Soviet atomic bomb project. Along with Georgy Flyorov and Andrei Sakharov, Kurchatov is widely remembered and dubbed as the "father of the Soviet atomic bomb" for his directorial role in the...
, chief scientist of the Soviet atomic bomb project. However, after being denounced by a visiting scientist in an Academy of Sciences delegation from Moscow, Timofeev-Resovskij was secretly re-arrested on 14 September by an element of the NKVD different from that under Zavenyagin.
Timofeev-Resovskij and Tsarapkin were sent back to Russia; both were incarcerated in the gulag – Timofeev-Resovskij received a ten-year sentence. On his way to the prison camp 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 northern 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...
, one of the most terrible camps in the GULAG, Timofeev-Resovskij went through the Butyrskaya
Butyrka prison
Butyrka prison was the central transit prison in pre-Revolutionary Russia, located in Moscow.The first references to Butyrka prison may be traced back to the 17th century. The present prison building was erected in 1879 near the Butyrsk gate on the site of a prison-fortress which had been built...
prison, the central transit prison in Moscow. It was there that he met Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was aRussian and Soviet novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his often-suppressed writings, he helped to raise global awareness of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly in The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of...
. Even in prison, Solzhenitsyn noted, Timofeev-Resovskij organized a scientific seminar. The harsh conditions of his transportation and incarceration in the labor camp contributed to a significant decline in Timofeev-Resovskij’s health, including the degradation of his vision brought on by malnutrition.
Frédéric Joliot-Curie
Frédéric Joliot-Curie
Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie , born Jean Frédéric Joliot, was a French physicist and Nobel laureate.-Early years:...
, a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and a leader in the French Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
during the war, visited Moscow and pleaded with Lavrentij Beria
Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....
, the head of the NKVD, that Timofeev-Resovskij should be found and given meaningful work. The argument did not fall on deaf ears, as Beria was also in charge of the Soviet atomic bomb project, and this was a top priority for 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...
. Eventually, Timofeev-Resovskij was found, treated for his ill health brought on by his incarceration in the GULAG, and was sent, in 1947, to work at Laboratory B
Laboratory B in Sungul’
Laboratory B in Sungul’ was one of the laboratories under the 9th Chief Directorate of the NKVD that contributed to the Soviet atomic bomb project. It was created in 1946 and closed in 1955, when some of its personnel were merged with the second Soviet nuclear design and assembly facility. It was...
in Sungul', which was a ShARAShKA
Sharashka
Sharashka was an informal name for secret research and development laboratories in the Soviet Gulag labor camp system...
. While he was still a prisoner, he headed up the biological division at the institute and was allowed to apply his prodigious scientific skills to the problems of the day. His wife Elena, after receipt of a letter in Timofeev-Resovskij’s hand, left Berlin in 1948, with their son Andrew, to join him in Sungul'. The house occupied by the three Timofeev-Resovskijs was every bit as nice as that planned for the German scientists working at the Sungul' institute.
Nikolaus Riehl, while in Ehlektrostal’, found out that Timofeev-Resovskij was in Sungul' and had vision problems brought on by the malnutrition he suffered in the GULAG. Riehl studied the effects of vitamins on vision and determined a course of treatment. He acquired the necessary vitamins and had Zavenyagin send them on to Timofeev-Resovskij, but the actions were to no avail, as the condition was not reversible.
After the detonation of the Russian uranium bomb, uranium production was going smoothly and Riehl’s oversight was no longer necessary at Plant No. 12. Riehl then went, in 1950, to head "Laboratory B", where he stayed until 1952. Laboratory B was responsible for the handling, treatment, and use of radioactive products generated in reactors, as well as radiation biology, dosimetry, and radiochemistry. Laboratory B, as a Sharashka
Sharashka
Sharashka was an informal name for secret research and development laboratories in the Soviet Gulag labor camp system...
and a facility in the Soviet atomic bomb project, was overseen by the 9th Chief Directorate of the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
(MVD after 1946).
Laboratory B was known under another cover name as Объект 0211 (Ob’ekt 0211, Object 0211), as well as Object B. (In 1955, Laboratory B was closed. Some of its personnel were transferred elsewhere, but most of them were assimilated into a new, second nuclear weapons institute, Scientific Research Institute-1011 (NII-1011), today known as the Russian Federal Nuclear Center All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics, RFYaTs–VNIITF.)
Timofeev-Resovskij headed the radiobiology department at Laboratory B, and another political prisoner from the Gulag, S. A. Voznesenskij, headed the radiochemistry department. In Timofeev-Resovskij’s department, Born, Catsch, and Zimmer were able to conduct work similar to that which they had done in Germany, and all three became section heads in the department. Tsarapkin, Timofeev-Resovskij’s long-time colleague was also at Laboratory B.
Before being rejoined in the Soviet Union, Zimmer, Timofeev-Resovskij, and Riehl had collaborated on the biological effects of ionizing radiation. Also, Zimmer and Timofeev-Resovskij had put together a manuscript which was a comprehensive summary of their work and that of others on radiation-induced gene mutation and related areas; the book, Das Trefferprinzip in der Biologie, was published in Germany while they were in the Soviet Union. In 1948, due to Lysenkoism
Lysenkoism
Lysenkoism, or Lysenko-Michurinism, also denotes the biological inheritance principle which Trofim Lysenko subscribed to and which derive from theories of the heritability of acquired characteristics, a body of biological inheritance theory which departs from Mendelism and that Lysenko named...
, there were grave consequences for the institute in Sungul' in general and for Zimmer and Timofeev-Resovskij in particular. The book was put on a forbidden list and the laboratory was not allowed to conduct research on its topics.
In 1955, Laboratory B was merged into the newly created second nuclear weapons design institute Nauchno-Issledovatel’skij Institut-1011 (NII-1011). During the merger, the radiopathology section of S. A. Voznesenskij’s radiochemistry department was transferred to Combine No. 817 (Ozersk), and Timofeev-Resovskij and 16 members of his department were transferred to the Ural Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
, in Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
). After discharge from the Sharashka, Timofeev-Resovskij visited Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
, and Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
. In these locations, he was able to visit physicists Peter Kapitsa
Pyotr Kapitsa
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was a prominent Soviet/Russian physicist and Nobel laureate.-Biography:Kapitsa was born in the city of Kronstadt and graduated from the Petrograd Polytechnical Institute in 1918. He worked for over ten years with Ernest Rutherford in the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge...
, Lev Landau
Lev Landau
Lev Davidovich Landau was a prominent Soviet physicist who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics...
, and Igor’ Tamm
Igor Tamm
Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm was a Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate who received most prestigious Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov and Ilya Frank, for the discovery of Cherenkov radiation, made in 1934.-Biography:Tamm was born in Vladivostok, Russian Empire , in a...
, the biologist M. V. Volkenstein, and the mathematician A. A. Lapunov
Alexey Lyapunov
Alexey Andreevich Lyapunov was a Soviet mathematician and early pioneer of computer science. One of the founders of cybernetics, Lyapunov was member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and a specialist in the fields of real variable function theory, mathematical problems of cybernetics, set theory,...
. In Sverdlovsk, Timofeev-Resovskij organized and became the head of the Department of Radiobiology of the Ural Branch of the Academy of Sciences. He also founded an experimental station and summer school at the nearby Lake Miassovo. The experimental station conducted radiological research on radiation and population genetics. This summer school contributed to keeping classical genetics alive during the period of Lysenkoism
Lysenkoism
Lysenkoism, or Lysenko-Michurinism, also denotes the biological inheritance principle which Trofim Lysenko subscribed to and which derive from theories of the heritability of acquired characteristics, a body of biological inheritance theory which departs from Mendelism and that Lysenko named...
, which officially ended in 1964.
In 1964, Timofeev-Resovskij organized and became the head of the Department of Radiobiology and Genetics, at the Institute of Medical Radiology of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, in Obninsk
Obninsk
Obninsk is a city in Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located southwest of Moscow. Population: Obninsk is one of the major Russian science cities. The first nuclear power plant in the world for the large-scale production of electricity opened here on June 27, 1954, and it also doubled as a training...
, Kaluga District
Kaluga Oblast
Kaluga Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kaluga.-Geography:Kaluga Oblast is located in the central part of the East European Plain. The Smolensk Highland lays in the western and north-western part of the oblast, while the Central Russian Highland -...
. In the department, Timofeev-Resovskij supervised and headed the Laboratory of Radiation Genetics and the Laboratory of Radiation Ecology. There were two other laboratories in the department, the Laboratory of Cellular Radiobiology, headed by V. I. Korogodin, and the Laboratory of Molecular Radiobiology, headed by Zhores Medvedev
Zhores Medvedev
Zhores Aleksandrovich Medvedev is a Russian biologist, historian and dissident. His twin brother is the historian Roy Medvedev.-Biography:Zhores Medvedev and his twin brother Roy Medvedev were born on 14 November 1925 in Tbilisi, Georgia, USSR....
. The first group in the USSR to study Arabidopsis thaliana
Arabidopsis thaliana
Arabidopsis thaliana is a small flowering plant native to Europe, Asia, and northwestern Africa. A spring annual with a relatively short life cycle, arabidopsis is popular as a model organism in plant biology and genetics...
was established by Timofeev-Resovskij during his time in Obninsk. Two well known figures in genetics started their research and received their degrees at Obninsk under Timofeev-Resovskij. One was Nikolai Bochkov, director of the Institute of Medical Genetics, in Moscow; the other was Vladimir Ivanov, head of the Laboratory of Experimental Genetics at the same institute. While in Obninsk, Timofeev-Resovskij wrote two books (published in 1968 and 1969 – see the book list below) and more than 60 papers on population genetics, radiation biology, and evolution. His wife Helena assisted him by providing her eyes to compensate for his lost vision, taking dictation, and editing his papers.
In 1968, even though Lysenkoism was officially over, its supporters were able to block Timofeev-Resovskij’s nomination to the Soviet Academy of Sciences. In 1969, they used their influence to pressure him into retirement from Institute of Medical Radiaology, whereupon Timofeev-Resovskij became a consultant to the Institute of Medical-Biological Problems and of Developmental Biology, in Moscow. As a consultant for the institute, he studied space medicine and continued his research on genetics. He also served as a consultant to the Institute of Developmental Problems, in Moscow, as well as Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
. With several of his students, he also wrote his last book, Introduction to Molecular Radiobiology: Physico-Chemical Foundations [in Russian], which was published in 1981.
Timofeev-Resovskij was a non-rehabilitated ex-prisoner and was therefore not allowed to leave the Soviet Union. He was, however, able to meet foreign colleagues who came to Russia. In 1969, a short time before receipt of his Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
, Max Delbrück traveled to the Soviet Union and unofficially met with Timofeev-Resovskij. In addition to once again seeing his colleague Timofeev-Resovskij, Delbrück hoped to appeal to the Soviet authorities to mitigate his colleague’s harsh living conditions; however, he was not given an opportunity to bring his request to the attention of the authorities. Timofeev-Resovskij, also met with foreign colleagues attending conferences, such as at the Second Meeting of the Vavilov Society of Genetics and Selection (Moscow, 1972) and at the 14th International Congress of Genetics (Moscow, 1978).
Timofeev-Resovskij’s lifelong companion and scientific research partner, Helena, died on 29 April 1973 At this time, their son, Andrew, was a physics professor at the University of Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
).
Timofeev-Resovskij died in Moscow on 28 March 1981.
A 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...
3238 Timresovia
3238 Timresovia
3238 Timresovia is a main-belt asteroid discovered on November 8, 1975 by N. Chernykh at Nauchnyj. It is named after Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky.- External links :*...
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 1975 is named after him.
Postscript
Daniil Aleksandrovich Granin’sDaniil Granin
Daniil Alexandrovich Granin is an author born in the former Soviet Union. He started writing in the 1930s when he was still an engineering student at the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute...
novel Зубр (Zubr, Bison) appeared in Russia in 1987, during the dawn of glasnost’
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
and perestrojka
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
. The book depicted the life of Timofeev-Resovskij and the impact of 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...
on biology. The West German
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
edition, Der Genetiker (The Geneticist), published in Köln
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, appeared in 1988. The East German edition was published under the title Sie nannten ihn Ur (They Called Him Ur).
On 16 October 1991, the prosecutor general of the USSR stated that the charge of treason against Timofeev-Resovskij in 1946 had no legal basis. The next year, Timofeev-Resovskij was rehabilitated, 11 years after his death!
On the Campus Berlin-Buch, a modern science, health and biotechnology park focused on biomedicine, commemoration of Timofeev-Resovskij took several forms; a new medical Genomics
Genomics
Genomics is a discipline in genetics concerning the study of the genomes of organisms. The field includes intensive efforts to determine the entire DNA sequence of organisms and fine-scale genetic mapping efforts. The field also includes studies of intragenomic phenomena such as heterosis,...
building was named after him, a memorial plaque was dedicated in 1992 on the gatehouse where he lived, and a sculpture of him, created by Stevan Kaehne in 2006, stands in front of the Timofeev-Resovskij Research Building.
A centennial anniversary celebration was held in both Dubna
Dubna
Dubna is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It has a status of naukograd , being home to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, an international nuclear physics research centre and one of the largest scientific foundations in the country. It is also home to MKB Raduga, a defence aerospace company...
and on the Berlin-Buch Campus in September 2000. Timofeev-Resovskij’s son, Andrew, a physicist, took part in both centennial conferences. In 2005, the 70th anniversary of the publishing of the “green paper”, "Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur", by Timofeev-Ressovkij, Zimmer, and Delbrück, was celebrated by a jointly sponsord symposium in Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
; the sponsors were the Yerevan Physics Institute
Yerevan Physics Institute
Yerevan Physics Institute is a research and development institute, located in Yerevan, Armenia. It was founded in 1942 as a branch of Yerevan State University by brothers, Abraham Alikhanov and Artem Alikhanian. It is often referred to by the acronym YerPhI .-External links:*...
and Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
n, Russian, and U.S. genetics associations.
Scientific associations
Timofeev-Resovskij was a member of the following organizations and societies:- Academician (active member) in the Deutsche Akademie der Leopoldina (German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina) in HalleHalle, Saxony-AnhaltHalle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
from 1940
- Fellow of the Moskovskoe Obshchestvo Isp’itatelej Prirody (MOIP) (Moscow Society of NaturalistsMoscow Society of NaturalistsThe Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow is one of Russia's oldest learned societies....
)
- Fellow of the Vsesoyuznovo Geograficheskogo Obshchestva SSSR (All-union Geographical Society USSR)
- Fellow of the Vsesoyuznogo Botanicheskogo Obshchestva SSSR (All-union Botanical Society USSR)
- Founding member of the German Biophysical Society
- Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, Boston, USA
- Honorary member of the Italian Society of Experimental Biology
- Honorary member of the Genetics Society, Leeds, Great Britain
- Honorary member of the Mendeleev Society in LundLund-Main sights:During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the town was the seat of the archbishop, many churches and monasteries were built. At its peak, Lund had 27 churches, but most of them were demolished as result of the Reformation in 1536. Several medieval buildings remain, including Lund...
, Sweden
- Honorary member and founding member of the Vavilovskoe Obshchestvo Genetikov i Selektsionerov (VOGiS) imeni N. I. Vavilov (Vavilov Society of Genetics and Selection in the name of N. I. VavilovNikolai VavilovNikolai Ivanovich Vavilov was a prominent Russian and Soviet botanist and geneticist best known for having identified the centres of origin of cultivated plants...
), USSR
- Scientific member of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der WissenschaftenKaiser Wilhelm InstituteThe Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science was a German scientific institution established in 1911. It was implicated in Nazi science, and after the Second World War was wound up and its functions replaced by the Max Planck Society...
(Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of the Sciences) from 1938. [After World War II, the Society was renamed the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften.]
Selected literature
- N. W. Timoféeff-Ressovsky and O. Vogt Über idiosomatische Variationsgruppen und ihre Bedeutung für die Klassifikation der Krankheiten, Die Naturwissenschaften Volume 14, Issue 50-51, 1188-1190 (1926).
- N. W. Timofeff-Ressovsky Studies on the phenotype manifestation of hereditary factors. I. On the phenotypic manifestation of the genovariation radius incompletus in Drosophila funebris., Genetics 128-198 (1927). The author was identified as being at the Institute of Experimental Biology, Moscow, Russia. The article was received on 21 August 1926.
- H. A. Timoféeff-Ressovsky and N. W. Timoféeff-Ressovsky Genetische Analyse einer freilebenden Drosophila melanogaster-Population, Development Genes and Evolution Volume 109, Number 1, 70-109 (1927). The authors were identified as being at the Genetischen Abteilung des Kaiser Wilhelm-Instituts für Hirnforschung, Berlin, Germany. The article was submitted on 18 October 1926.
- N. W. Timofeeff-Ressovsky The Effect of X-Rays in Producing Somatic Genovariations of a Definite Locus in Different Directions in Drosophila melanogaster, The American Naturalist, Volume 63, Number 685, 118-124 (1929)
- Timofeeff-Ressovky, N. W., K. G. ZimmerKarl ZimmerKarl Günter Zimmer was a German physicist and radiation biologist, known for his work on the effects of ionizing radiation on DNA. In 1935, he published the major work, Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur, with N. V...
, and M. DelbrückMax DelbrückMax Ludwig Henning Delbrück was a German-American biophysicist and Nobel laureate.-Biography:Delbrück was born in Berlin, German Empire...
Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur, Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen: Mathematische-Physikalische Klasse, Fachgruppe VI, Biologie Bd. 1, Nr. 13, 189-245 (1935). Timofeeff-Ressovsky was identified as being from the Genetische Abteilung des Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituts für Hirnforschung in Berlin-Buch. Zimmer was identified as being from the Strahlenabteilung des Cecilienhauses in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Delbrück was identified as being from the Physikalische-Radioaktive Abteilung des Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituts für Chemie in Berlin-Dahlem. This paper, from the color of the journal’s cover, has become known as the “Green Pamphlet” and sometimes as the Dreimännerarbeit (Three-Man Paper) of genetics, to distinguish it from the historical Dreimännerarbeit by Max BornMax BornMax Born was a German-born physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 30s...
, Werner HeisenbergWerner HeisenbergWerner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory...
, and Pascual JordanPascual Jordan-Further reading:...
, which launched quantum Matrix mechanicsMatrix mechanicsMatrix mechanics is a formulation of quantum mechanics created by Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Pascual Jordan in 1925.Matrix mechanics was the first conceptually autonomous and logically consistent formulation of quantum mechanics. It extended the Bohr Model by describing how the quantum jumps...
in 1925.
- Timoféeff-Ressovsky, N. W. Genetik und Evolution (Bericht eines Zoologen), Journal Molecular and General Genetics Volume 76, Number 1, 158-219 (1939). The author was identified as being at the Genetische Abteilung des Kaiser Wilhelm-Instituts, Berlin-Buch, Germany. The article is from an address given at the Versammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Vererbungswissenschaft in Würzburg on 25 September 1938.
- N. RiehlNikolaus RiehlNikolaus Riehl was a German industrial nuclear chemist. He was head of the scientific headquarters of Auergesellschaft. When the Russians entered Berlin near the end of World War II, he was invited to the Soviet Union, where he stayed for 10 years...
, N. V. Timofeev-Resovskij, and K. G. Zimmer Mechanismus der Wirkung ionisierender Strahlen auf biologische Elementareinheiten, Die NaturwissenschaftenDie NaturwissenschaftenNaturwissenschaften is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer on behalf of several learned societies.- History :...
Volume 29, Numbers 42-43, 625-639 (1941). Riehl was identified as being in Berlin, and the other two were identified as being in Berlin-Buch.
- H. J. Born, N. W. Timoféeff-Ressovsky and K. G. Zimmer Biologische Anwendungen des Zählrohres, Naturwissenschaften Volume 30, Number 40, 600-603 (1942). The authors were identified as being in the Genetics Department of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin-Buch.
- N. Riehl, R. Rompe, N. W. Timoféeff-Ressovsky und K. G. Zimmer Über Energiewanderungsvorgänge und Ihre Bedeutung Für Einige Biologische Prozesse, Protoplasma Volume 38, Number 1, 105-126 (1943). The article was received on 19 April 1943.
Books
- N. W. Timofeeff-Ressovsky, Experimentelle Mutationsforschung in der Vererbungslehre. Beeinflussung der erbanlagen durch strahlung und andere faktoren. (Theodor Steinkopff, 1937)
- Nikolaj V. Timofeev-Ressovskij and Karl Günter Zimmer Biophysik. Bd. 1. Das Trefferprinzip in der Biologie (Hirzel, 1947)
- N. V. Timofeeff-Ressovsky, V. I. Ivanov, and V. I. Korogodin Application of the “Hit” Principle in Radiobiology [In Russian] (Atomisdat, 1968)
- N. W. Timofeeff-Ressovsky, N. N. Vorontsov, and A. V. Jablokov A Brief Review of the Theory of Evolution [In Russian] (Nauka, 1969)
- N. W. Timofeeff-Ressovsky, A. V. Jablokov, and N. V. Glotov A Review of the Theory of Populations [In Russian] (Nauka, 1973)
- N. W. Timofeeff-Ressovsky, N. N. Voroncov, and A. N. Jablokov Kurzer Grundriß der Evolutionstheorie (Fischer Verlag, 1975)
- N. W. Timofeeff-Ressovsky, A. N. Jablokov, and N. V. Glotov, Grundriß der Populationslehre (Fischer Verlag, 1977)
- N. W. Timofeeff-Ressovsky, A. V. Savich, and M. I. Shal'nov Introduction to Molecular Radiobiology: Physico-Chemical Foundations [In Russian] (Medicina, 1981)
- N. V. Timofeeff-Ressovsky The Stories Told by Himself with Letters, Photos and Documents [In Russian] (Soglasie, 2000)
Honors
Timofeev-Resovskij was not allowed to personally accept the honors bestowed upon him after 1945. From 1945 he was a prisoner and from 1955 he was a non-rehabilitated ex-prisoner and was therefore not allowed to leave the Soviet Union. The following honors were awarded to him:- Darwin Medal, Deutsche Akademie der Leopoldina (German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina) – 1959
- MendelGregor MendelGregor Johann Mendel was an Austrian scientist and Augustinian friar who gained posthumous fame as the founder of the new science of genetics. Mendel demonstrated that the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants follows particular patterns, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance...
Medal, Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences – 1965
- Kimber Genetics Award, U.S. National Academy of Sciences – 1966
- Gregor MendelGregor MendelGregor Johann Mendel was an Austrian scientist and Augustinian friar who gained posthumous fame as the founder of the new science of genetics. Mendel demonstrated that the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants follows particular patterns, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance...
Medal, Deutsche Akademie der Leopoldina (German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina) – 1970
- Lazzaro SpallanzaniLazzaro SpallanzaniLazzaro Spallanzani was an Italian Catholic priest, biologist and physiologist who made important contributions to the experimental study of bodily functions, animal reproduction, and essentially discovered echolocation...
Medal, Italy
External links
- Daniil Granin Zubr
- MDC – Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin, Berlin-Buch (In English: MDC, English)
- MPIH – Max-Planck Institut für Hirnforschung (Formerly the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für Hirnforschung)
- Nachrichten Göttingen - "Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur" (1935)
- RFYaTS-VNIITF Creators – See the entry for ТИМОФЕЕВ-РЕСОВСКИЙ Николай Владимирович (TIMOFEEV-RESOVSKIJ Nikolaj Vladimorovich) [In Russian]
- Timofeev-Resovskij - Bibliography of N.W. Timofeeff-Ressovsky
- Timofeev-Resovskij – An Essay - Laboratory of Radiation Biology, Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, Dubna
- Timofeev-Resovskij Memorial – Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, Laboratory of Radiation Biology
- Timofeev-Resovskij – "Max-Delbrück-Zentrum: Wowereit bei Eröffnung des neuen Labors"
- Timofeev-Resovskij – MDC for Molecular Medicine: "Background Information Nikolai Wladimirovich Timoféeff-Ressovsky"
- Timofeev-Resovskij Obituary - Zhores A. Medvedev, National Institute of Medical Research
- Timoféeff-Ressovsky - Onmedia
- Timofeev-Resovskij - Selected publications about N.W.Timofeeff-Ressovsky
- Timofeev-Resovskij – Vestnik VOGiS, No. 15 (2000) [In Russian]
- “Я ПРОЖИЛ СЧАСТЛИВУЮ ЖИЗНЬ” К 90-летию со дня рождения Н. В. Тимофеева-Ресовского (“I Lived a Happy Life” – In Honor of the 90th Anniversary of the Birth of Timofeev-Resovskij, ИСТОРИЯ НАУКИ. БИОЛОГИЯ (History of Science – Biology), 1990, № 9, 68-104 (1990). This commemorative has many photographs of Timofeev-Resovskij.