Academician Nikolai Morozov born in 1854. Nikolai Aleksandrovich Morozov biography

Born on June 25 (July 7), 1854 in the family estate of Borok, Yaroslavl region, he was a Russian revolutionary populist.

Member of the Chaikovsky circle, Land and Freedom, and the executive committee of Narodnaya Volya. He was a participant in the assassination attempts on Alexander II. In 1882 he was sentenced to eternal hard labor, and until 1905 he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul and Shlisselburg fortresses. Mason. Honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1918 - Director of the Natural Science Institute named after. P. F. Lesgaft.

He left a large number of works in various fields of natural and social sciences. Also known as a writer, poet and author of literature on historical topics. Awarded two Orders of Lenin (1944, 1945) and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1939)

Biography

Father - Mologa landowner, nobleman Pyotr Alekseevich Shchepochkin (1832-1886). Mother - Novgorod peasant woman, former serf P. A. Shchepochkina Anna Vasilyevna Morozova (1834-1919). All their children together (two sons and five daughters) bore the surname of their mother, and the patronymic of their godfather, landowner Alexander Ivanovich Radozhitsky. Nikolai received mostly home education, but in 1869 he entered the 2nd Moscow Gymnasium, where, according to his own recollections, he studied poorly and was expelled. In 1871-1872 he was a volunteer student at Moscow University.

In 1874, he joined the populist circle of the “Chaikovites,” participated in “going to the people,” and conducted propaganda among the peasants of the Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Voronezh and Kursk provinces. In the same year, he went abroad, was a representative of the “Chaikovites” in Switzerland, collaborated with the newspaper “Rabotnik” and the magazine “Forward”, and became a member of the International. Upon returning to Russia in 1875, he was arrested. In 1878, he was convicted in the trial of 193 and, taking into account the preliminary detention, was released at the end of the trial. He continued his revolutionary activities, conducted propaganda in the Saratov province, and went underground to avoid arrest.

He became one of the leaders of the “Land and Freedom” organization, and was the secretary of the editorial office of the “Land and Freedom” newspaper. In 1879, he took part in the creation of Narodnaya Volya and joined its Executive Committee.

He participated in the preparation of assassination attempts on Alexander II, and was a member of the editorial board of the newspaper Narodnaya Volya. In January 1880, due to theoretical differences with the majority of the leadership of Narodnaya Volya, he withdrew from practical work and, together with his common-law wife Olga Lyubatovich, went abroad, where he published a brochure “The Terrorist Struggle” outlining his views. If the Narodnaya Volya program considered terror as an exclusive method of struggle and subsequently provided for its abandonment, then Morozov proposed using terror constantly as a regulator of political life in Russia. The theory developed by Morozov was called “tellism” (from William Tell). In December 1880, Morozov met in London with Karl Marx, who gave him several works for translation into Russian, including the “Manifesto of the Communist Party”

On January 28, 1881, even before the assassination of Emperor Alexander II by the Narodnaya Volya, Morozov was arrested at the border while illegally returning to Russia. In 1882, in the trial of 20, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Until 1884 he was kept in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and since 1884 - in cells 2, 13, 15, 28, 29, 33 and 37 of the Shlisselburg Fortress. In the Shlisselburg convict prison he wrote 26 volumes of various manuscripts, which he managed to save and take out upon his release from prison in 1905.

In November 1905, during the revolutionary events, under the amnesty of October 28, 1905, N. A. Morozov was released after 25 years of imprisonment. During his imprisonment, he learned eleven languages, wrote many scientific papers on chemistry, physics, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, aviation, political economy and, completely devoting himself to science, began preparing his works for publication. He was arrested in 1911 and spent almost the entire year in prison. He was last arrested in 1912 in Crimea and imprisoned in the Dvina Fortress, released at the beginning of 1913 under an amnesty in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. As a result, with interruptions, he spent about 30 years in prison.

At the beginning of 1907, in the church of the village of Kopan near Bork, Nikolai Alexandrovich married Ksenia Alekseevna Borislavskaya (1880-1948), a famous pianist, writer and translator. They lived a long life together, but they had no children.

In 1908 he joined the Polar Star Masonic Lodge.

On January 31, 1909, N. A. Morozov was invited by S. V. Muratov on behalf of the Council of the Russian Society of Lovers of World Studies (ROLM) to the post of Chairman of the Council and remained its only chairman until its closure in 1932. Members of the Council were then repressed and some of them were amnestied only half a century later. Morozov, despite his critical position, was only forced to leave for his Borok estate, where he continued his scientific work, including in the astronomical observatory built for him by the Society.

In 1939, on his initiative, a scientific center was created in Bork; now the Institute of Inland Water Biology and the Borok Geophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences work there

In 1939, Morozov, at the age of 85, graduated from Osoaviakhim sniper courses and three years later he personally took part in hostilities on the Volkhov Front. In July 1944 he was awarded the Order of Lenin.

He was buried in Borka Park on one of the lawns. In the year of the 100th anniversary of his birth, a bronze monument made by sculptor G. Motovilov was erected on his grave.

Political Views

Morozov did not share Bolshevik views. For him, socialism was the ideal of social organization, but he perceived this ideal as a distant goal, the achievement of which is associated with the worldwide development of science, technology and education. He considered capitalism to be the driving force behind the latter. He defended the position that a gradual, well-prepared nationalization of industry was needed, and not its forced expropriation. In his articles he proved the inconsistency of the socialist revolution in peasant Russia. On the issue of the socialist revolution he opposed Lenin. Here his position was closer to Plekhanov’s.

Morozov participated in the elections to the Constituent Assembly on the lists of the Kadet Party, being in the same ranks with V.I. Vernadsky. On August 12, 1917, in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theater, on the initiative of the head of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky, a State Meeting was held, in which figures of the revolutionary movement were involved: Prince P.A. Kropotkin, E.K. Breshko-Breshkovskaya, G.A. Lopatin, G. V. Plekhanov and N. A. Morozov. In his speech at this meeting, Morozov argued that the proletariat cannot currently survive without the bourgeoisie.

On the eve of the October Revolution, N. A. Morozov took a conciliatory position, joining the Cadet Party, he was offered the post of Comrade Minister of Education, which he refused. N. A. Morozov was respected by all revolutionary parties as one of the few living Narodnaya Volya members.

Biography

Life events ON THE. Morozova replete with twists of fate and unusual richness of content. His active scientific and social life in the 20th century was preceded by no less active revolutionary activity in the 19th century, for which he was convicted three times by the tsarist government, spending a total of about 29 years in prison. But even these years he did not spend in vain. In the House of Pre-trial Detention, he took a university course in history, learned several foreign languages, and wrote outlines of two works: "Natural history of human labor and its professions" And "Natural History of Gods and Spirits". He left the Shlisselburg fortress with 26 volumes of works on mathematics, physics, chemistry and history. In the Dvina Fortress he wrote "Tales of my life" and learned Hebrew, wrote a book "Prophets". For his chemical discoveries, soon after leaving the Shlisselburg imprisonment, Morozov received the degree of Doctor of Science, and with the recommendation of himself DI. Mendeleev. ON THE. Morozov was an aeronautics enthusiast - he flew the first balloons and airplanes. Member of several scientific communities. He was a delegate of the Zemstvo Union on the Western Front during World War I. He was a member of the Provisional Council of the Republic of the Democratic Conference (September), founder and director of the Leningrad Scientific Institute. P.F. Lesgafta(from April 26 to a year), an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (March 29), received two Orders of Lenin (July 5 and June 12) and one Order of the Red Banner of Labor (July 29) from the Soviet government. In the year name Morozova was assigned to an urban-type settlement in the Vsevolozhsk district of the Leningrad region and the Shlisselburg gunpowder plant located there. In honor of ON THE. Morozova named in the year Morozovia asteroid no. 1210 , open G.N. Neuymin year at the Crimean Observatory, and later a crater with a diameter 42 km on the far side of the Moon (5.0°N 127.4°E).

All this would be enough to take an honorable place in encyclopedias, but Morozov accomplished much more - a revolution in historical science, proving the fallacy of traditional chronology and constructing the first scientific reconstruction of world history. This discovery was more than half a century ahead of its time, and only today is it beginning to be recognized by the scientific world.

Childhood

ON THE. Morozov- high school student

ON THE. Morozov born on June 25 (July 7, Gregorian style) in the Borok estate, Mologsky district, Yaroslavl province. He was the son of a rich landowner Peter Alekseevich Shchepochkin and his common-law wife, a former serf, Anna Vasilievna Morozova. Anna Vasilievna belonged to a peasant family Plaksins, A Morozova I wrote it down Pyotr Alekseevich when transferred to the bourgeois state.

U Nikolai Alexandrovich there were a younger brother and five sisters. Having received a good education at home, he entered the 2nd Moscow Gymnasium, where he became interested in natural sciences and founded a circle of natural history lovers among the schoolchildren. Success Nikolai Alexandrovich in the humanities were less significant, although, having an excellent memory, he knew the classical languages ​​perfectly - Greek and Latin. But the school “Peredonovs” bullied him for his free mentality and penchant for the exact sciences. In – years ON THE. Morozov was among the volunteer students of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Moscow University. His scientific studies were supervised by a professor of geology and mineralogy at Moscow University Grigory Efimovich Shchurovsky ( -). ON THE. Morozov He independently participated in paleontological expeditions throughout the Moscow province and collected a significant collection of fossils. One of the found bones of a prehistoric animal went to the university museum, and the discovery was published in the university scientific journal.

Revolution

Scientific career Morozova was interrupted in the year when, in connection with his “illegal” natural science activities, he became acquainted with the Tchaikovsky circle. Revolutionary mentor and senior friend Morozova became Sergei Mikhailovich Stepnyak–Kravchinsky. At that time, the populists nurtured a utopian idea of ​​enlightening the Russian people, which, in their opinion, should also lead to a change in the life of Russia towards socialism. Understanding the real situation of the peasantry, Morozov did not share the hopes of his new friends, but devoted himself to this cause, not seeing any other ways to combat the anti-scientific obscurantism reigning in Russia. The idea of ​​social justice was close to him also because of his dual social status: after all, Nikolai Alexandrovich, being the son of a millionaire landowner, was also the son of a former serf peasant woman. In addition, his father, although he did not approve of the activities of the “nihilists,” was himself a freethinker, an Anglomaniac - an atmosphere of respect for science and enlightenment always reigned in Shchepochkin’s house. Nikolai Alexandrovich participated in several trips to the people under the guise of a traveling blacksmith, sawyer and shoemaker, having studied their craft: in the Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kursk and Voronezh provinces. He went into hiding, and when the full force of the state fell on the new educators, on the instructions of the populist organization, in December of the year he emigrated to free Switzerland to publish a revolutionary magazine for the people. Here Morozov becomes one of the editors of the magazine “Rabotnik”, as well as an employee of the Lavrov magazine “Forward”, he is elected a member of the First International.

ON THE. Morozov- revolutionary, late 70s

January 20 (7) ON THE. Morozov got married to Ksenia Alekseevna Borislavskaya(-), daughter Elizaveta Valentinovna de Roberti and Colonel Alexey Borislavsky, niece of the positivist philosopher Evgeniy Valentinovich de Roberti ( -). Ksenia Alekseevna was a talented pianist who graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, translator K. Hamsuna And G. Wells. Ksana, as he called her ON THE. Morozov, - became his muse and guardian angel. Without her care, recently released from prison, seriously ill Morozov I doubt I could have lived such a long and fruitful life.

They report () that in May of the year, at the invitation of the prince BEFORE. Bebutova ON THE. Morozov, as a founding member joined the St. Petersburg Masonic Lodge “Polar Star”. Masons ON THE. Morozov was needed as a very popular figure to attract new members, and he was interested in Masonic documents, in particular those of a revolutionary political nature, which they possessed. Masons introduced ON THE. Morozova with a collected dossier on the provocateur Yevno Azef And N.P. Starodvorsky, a Shlisselburger who, at the end of his imprisonment, cooperated with the police. This lodge was closed in the year, and according to some reports ON THE. Morozov became the venerable master of the newly created lodge “Dawn of Petersburg”, from which he left in February of the year. Independence and a skeptical mind ON THE. Morozova went against the rules of Masonic discipline, and he was soon withdrawn from active collaboration with other Masons. After this short episode ON THE. Morozov I lost interest in Freemasonry forever.

On the eve of the October Revolution ON THE. Morozov took a conciliatory position, joined the Cadet Party, and was offered the post of Comrade Minister of Education, which he refused. ON THE. Morozov enjoyed great respect among all revolutionary parties, as one of the few living Narodnaya Volya members. The Bolshevik government created acceptable conditions for him to work at the Institute named after P.F. Lesgafta, Where ON THE. Morozov becomes director. In the city by order F.E. Dzerzhinsky The first volumes are starting to be printed "History of Human Culture... Christ"(By the end of the year there were 7 of them, and then production was stopped). On the initiative IN AND. Lenin the Borok family estate was transferred to him for lifelong use, and later the House of Labor and Rest of the USSR Academy of Sciences was created there. March 29 ON THE. Morozov elected an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences as “a chemist, astronomer, cultural historian, writer, figure in the Russian revolutionary movement.” Honorary academician is a rare title, which before the revolution was awarded only to members of the imperial family and their most faithful servants ( Benkendorf A.H., Pobedonostsev K.P. etc.), under Soviet rule it was assigned 10 once. In honor of the year ON THE. Morozova were established 7 scholarships in astronomy, chemistry and physics at Moscow University, at the Academy of Sciences and at the institute Lesgafta.

In the years ON THE. Morozov conducted a series of unsuccessful experiments in an attempt to disprove the Special Theory of Relativity A. Einstein, which I categorically did not accept. To today's schoolchildren and pseudo-scientific scholars this position seems absurd, but they, mocking the great scientist, are not able to comprehend the weakness of the experiments that allegedly confirmed the SRT at that time, and ON THE. Morozov He felt this falsehood subtly and did not succumb to pseudoscientific hypnosis. In the last years of life ON THE. Morozov worked in geophysics and meteorology (the book has not been published), was interested in nuclear physics (about the possibility of decomposition of atoms ON THE. Morozov guessed back at the end of the 19th century. based on the study of the periodic law DI. Mendeleev). Apparently, from the mid-s he no longer returned to the problems of chronology, since his works on this issue were no longer published, and in the press he was accused of being preoccupied with religious issues. In addition, the ossifying socialist ideology, based on traditional historical views K. Marx And F. Engels, began to be sensitive to attempts to revise ancient history, seeing in this an attempt on the Marxist-Leninist theory of class struggle (it is not without reason that Kommunist was the first magazine to declare war on New Chronology). In fact ON THE. Morozov encroached on the caste interests of unprincipled dogmatists and ideological shifters. They also make up the external camarilla of critics Morozova and his theories. In response to pressure Morozov said:

ON THE. Morozov died in Bork on July 30. His work began to be republished in the city through the efforts of the curators of the memorial museum in Bork, A.T. Fomenko , S.I. Valyansky and Kraft+Lean publishing houses. Latest volumes "Christ" were lost and partially restored from the remaining drafts. RAS began posting documents related to ON THE. Morozov on your website to 60 -th anniversary of his death.

News

• In the book of Doctor of Philology, corresponding member. National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, professor at Odessa National University Yuri Alexandrovich Karpenko“Names of the starry sky” (1st edition “Science”, 184 pp.; 2nd edition “Science”, 184 pp.; 3rd edition “Librocom”, 180 pp.) name ON THE. Morozova and his books “Christ, vols. 1.4", "Tales of My Life, Vol. 3", "Universe" are mentioned more 20 once

Jokes

• “At the famous Shlisselburger N. Morozova A search was carried out yesterday. According to the assistant bailiff, they were looking for bombs, weapons and illegal literature. They didn’t find any of this, but they took away some of his papers and, by the way, material for the lecture, which Morozov I planned to read tomorrow - “About Mendeleev and the periodic system.” // “Russian Word”, April 06 (March 24), Police measures

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Morozov was born on June 25, 1854 on the Borok estate in the Yaroslavl province. His mother was the serf peasant woman A.V. Morozova; the father is a young rich landowner Shchepochkin, who fell in love with his serf, gave her her freedom and married her. The son from this marriage (not sanctified by the church) received his mother's surname.

Nikolai Morozov was brought up in his father's house, distinguished from childhood by great curiosity and a special passion for natural sciences: he collected herbariums and mineral collections, read books from the home library, climbed onto the roof of the house at night and spent hours studying the starry sky. Morozov's stay at the Moscow classical gymnasium, where he entered in 1869, was short-lived. For his active participation in the organization of the “secret society of natural scientists of high school students” and the publication of a handwritten illegal high school journal, which, along with scientific articles, also contained notes on political topics, Morozov was expelled from the 6th grade.

In the early 1870s, Morozov met prominent revolutionary populists S. M. Kravchinsky, D. A. Klemenets and others and soon took part in the propaganda of liberation ideas among the peasantry. In this work, dressing up and posing as either a blacksmith or a shoemaker, Morozov spends the summer of 1874, moving from village to village, talking with peasants, reading and distributing forbidden literature among them. When mass arrests began among the populists, Morozov returned to Moscow, where he was persecuted by the police.

Soon, in the same 1874, he was forced to go abroad. In Geneva, Morozov established connections with Russian emigrants, became the editor of Bakunin's magazine "Rabotnik", and collaborated with the London newspaper "Forward!", published by P. L. Lavrov. Here he was accepted as a member of the International. In 1875, he tries to return to Russia illegally, but he is detained at the border by gendarmes as one of the “most dangerous Russian conspirators.” (Under this definition, Morozov’s name appears on the list of persons that was secretly distributed by the government to all police agencies of the empire for an enhanced search and transfer to prison.)

From 1875 to 1878, Morozov spent time in the St. Petersburg house of preliminary detention. Without wasting time, trying, if possible, to study mathematics, physics, and astronomy, he studied foreign languages ​​in prison, preparing to become a professional revolutionary. His first poems were written there. During his imprisonment, Morozov was put on trial in the “trial of the 193s,” which lasted almost three months. As a result, he was again sentenced to prison, but he received credit for three years of his time in prison.

Upon leaving prison, Morozov, having learned that his sentence was subject to review as “too lenient,” immediately went into illegal status. By this time, he joined the organization of revolutionary populists "Land and Freedom", where he soon became one of the leading figures. Together with G. V. Plekhanov, he edits the magazine "Land and Freedom". In view of the emerging disagreements with Plekhanov, who denied individual terror as a method of political struggle, Morozov created a special body - “Land and Freedom”, dedicated to the propaganda of terror, and, finally, in 1879, became part of a terrorist group with the motto “Freedom or Death” ", which secretly arose inside "Land and Freedom". After the final split of Earth and Waves, Morozov was a member of the Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya (it also included A.I. Zhelyabov, S.L. Perovskaya, A.D. Mikhailov, V.N. Figner and others) and editor its press organ.

Attempts on the life of Alexander II followed one after another, in the preparation of which Morozov took an active part. In 1880 he again had to emigrate abroad. During his trip to London, he meets and talks with K. Marx.

Informed by a letter from Sofia Perovskaya about the need for his return to his homeland, Morozov in 1881 makes a second attempt to cross the Russian border and again falls into the hands of the gendarmes. In 1882, in the “trial of 20,” Morozov was sentenced to life imprisonment, which he served first in the Alekseevskaya ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress (4 years), and then, from 1834, in the Shlisselburg Fortress (21 years). He was released under an amnesty only in the fall of 1905, after 25 years of solitary confinement.

Morozov devoted all the years of his stay in the Shlisselburg fortress to the development of scientific issues that occupied him, mainly in the field of chemistry and astronomy. With an incredible effort of will, he forced himself to work, write, do calculations, make tables. This allowed him, immediately after leaving prison, to publish his works one after another: “Periodic systems of the structure of matter” (1907), “D. I. Mendeleev and the significance of his periodic system for the chemistry of the future” (1908). At the same time, during his imprisonment, most of his poems were created, which he published in the book “Star Songs”. The publication of this book in 1910 led to prosecution and a new one-year sentence, which Morozov served in the Dvina Fortress. Morozov used his year in prison to write his memoirs. ("Tales of My Life", vols. 1-4, Pg., 1916-1918 (3rd ed. - vols. 1-2, M., 1965).)

After the October Revolution, Morozov devoted himself entirely to scientific, pedagogical and social activities. He was elected director of the Natural Science Institute named after P. F. Lesgaft, an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Morozov is the author of the books “Revelations in a Thunderstorm and a Storm” (1907) and “Christ” (a seven-volume work of 1924-1932), in which, based on data from astronomy and geophysics, he tried to substantiate a completely new concept of world history, which has no scientific value, but remarkable in its own way.

In recent years, Morozov lived in his homeland, on the Borok estate in the Yaroslavl region, which was assigned to him on the personal instructions of V.I. Lenin.

Morozov's poems of the 1870-1880s were published in collections and periodicals of the free Russian press abroad; The first collection of poems by N. A. Morozov, “Poems 1875-1880” (Geneva, 1880), was also published abroad. The revolutionary events of 1905 and Morozov’s subsequent amnesty made it possible to publish the first legal collections of his poems: “From the Walls of Captivity. Shlisselburg Motifs” (Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, 1906) and “Star Songs” (M., 1910) . Only after the October Revolution was an almost exhaustive collection of Morozov's poetic works published: "Star Songs. The first complete edition of all poems before 1919." (book 1-2, M., 1920-1921).

Books

In the brilliant book of a Russian scientist who spent 27 years in prison, you will get an answer to the question: is the ancient dream of alchemists about the convertibility of simple substances into each other close to fulfillment? This book shows how, throughout the long period of its existence, chemistry, with the exception of its temporary disappointment in the 19th century, set as its ultimate goal to prove the transformability of metals and metalloids and establish the laws of their natural evolution from the all-pervading world ether, and at the same time to give us ways, imitating nature, to actually transform them into each other in our earthly laboratories.

St. Petersburg, 1909

Memoirs of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Morozov - an honorary academician, an outstanding scientist in the field of natural science, the oldest revolutionary, covering his childhood, revolutionary activities, 25-year imprisonment in the Shlisselburg fortress and some period after liberation. In addition, the publication includes some of his letters. Morozov's memoirs are in the nature of a fiction story. L.N. Tolstoy gave a high assessment to their artistic side.

The work “Periodic systems of the structure of matter” was written by him while serving a sentence in the Shlisselburg fortress for participation in revolutionary activities. In his book, Morozov develops the idea of ​​the complex structure of atoms and thereby substantiates the essence of the periodic law of chemical elements. He defends the theoretical possibility of atomic decomposition, which at that time seemed unconvincing to most physicists and chemists, because there was not yet sufficient experimental evidence for this statement. N.A. Morozov also expresses the idea that the main task of the chemistry of the future will be the synthesis of elements. Developing the idea of ​​J. Dumas, N.A. Morozov proposed a periodic system of hydrocarbons - “carbohydrides”, by analogy with the periodic table - “in increasing order of their share weight”, and constructed tables reflecting the periodic dependence of a number of properties of aliphatic and cyclic radicals on the molecular weight. N.A. Morozov suggested that chemically neutral elements should exist among atoms. A number of atomic weights of elements of the zero and first groups calculated by N.A. Morozov coincided with the atomic weights of the corresponding isotopes determined many years later. A deep analysis of the properties of the elements of the zero and eighth groups of the periodic system of Mendeleev led N.A. Morozov to the idea of ​​​​the need to combine them into one zero type, which was also justified by subsequent works. “Thus,” wrote the famous chemist Professor L.A. Chugaev, “N.A. Morozov could predict the existence of the zero group 10 years before it was actually discovered. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond his control, this prediction was not could have been published then and appeared in print much later." It is striking and indisputable that more than 100 years ago N.A. Morozov boldly and confidently accepted the point of view of the complex structure of atoms and the convertibility of elements, allowing for the possibility of artificial production of radioactive elements, recognizing the extraordinary reserves of intra-atomic energy. According to Academician I.V. Kurchatov, “modern physics has fully confirmed the statement about the complex structure of atoms and the interconvertibility of all chemical elements, which was once discussed by N.A. Morozov in the monograph “Periodic Systems of the Structure of Matter.”

MOROZOV, NIKOLAY ALEXANDROVICH(1854–1946) - Russian public figure, populist revolutionary, thinker, scientist, honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, writer, poet.

Party and literary pseudonyms - “Sparrow”, “Zodiac”.

Born on June 25, 1854 in the village of Borok, Nekouzsky district, Yaroslavl province. The illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner and a freed peasant serf, he received a good education at home, completing it at the 2nd Moscow Classical Gymnasium. There, fascinated by the natural sciences, he founded the “Secret Society of Naturalists-Gymnasium Students.” Starting from the 5th grade of the gymnasium, he attended lectures at Moscow University, dressed in a student uniform, and thoroughly studied the university museum collections.

In 1874, carried away by populist ideas, he joined the Moscow circle of N.V. Tchaikovsky (“Tchaikovsky”), together with his comrades he “went among the people” - he conducted propaganda among the peasants of the Moscow, Kursk and Voronezh provinces. Police persecution forced him to return to Moscow, from where he went to St. Petersburg, and by the end of 1874 to Geneva. There he collaborated in P.L. Lavrov’s magazine “Forward” and joined the International Workers’ Association (I International).

In January 1875 he tried to return to Russia, but was arrested at the border and allowed into the country under the guarantee of his father. Leaning towards the bourgeois-liberal idea of ​​progress through the dissemination of natural science and exact knowledge among the people, Morozov devoted himself to the revolutionary struggle, not so much for the sake of “peasant socialism”, but in the name of the program of civil liberties. Having gone illegal, he again began propaganda among peasants - this time in the Saratov province.

In 1878, having returned to St. Petersburg, he joined the organization “Land and Freedom” and became one of the editors of its underground publication of the same name.

In 1879, with the split of “Land and Freedom” into “Black Redistribution” and “People’s Will”, he joined the Narodnaya Volya organization and edited their printed organ. In 1880 he emigrated to Geneva, where he wrote the brochure “The Terrorist Struggle,” theoretically substantiating the tactics of the Narodnaya Volya. According to his comrades, he became “one of the first ardent heralds of the Narodnaya Volya trend” (V.N. Figner). At the same time he published his first collection of poems - Poems. 1875–1880(It is no coincidence that Russian Marxists called Morozov a liberal with a bomb).

Having moved from Geneva to London, he met K. Marx.

While trying to return to Russia on January 28, 1881, he was again arrested at the border near Verzhbolov. After the assassination of Alexander II on March 1, 1881, he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress and in 1882 tried in the “Trial of 20” and sentenced to life hard labor. The court report preserved his verbal portrait: “more than average height, very thin, dark blond, long face, small facial features, large silky beard and mustache, wearing glasses, very handsome, speaks quietly, slowly.” During the investigation, he openly stated: “By my convictions, I am a terrorist.”

After the trial he was imprisoned in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

A long imprisonment in a ravelin without the right to use printed materials, with constant “torture of insufficient food and lack of air” did not break his will. Having received permission to use theological literature after some time, he mastered the Hebrew language (Morozov knew 11 foreign languages ​​in total). In prison, he began an in-depth study of biblical history, as well as the chronology of celestial events during the life of Christ. His meticulous work led him to a new understanding of the chronology of world history. Having been transferred to the casemate of the Shlisselburg fortress and given the opportunity to use scientific books, throughout the entire period of his 25-year imprisonment he persistently engaged in “the work of thought” (creative scientific activity), creating works on chemistry, physics, astronomy, mathematics, and history. The books he wrote in prison were published after his release in November 1905 (among them - Periodic system of the structure of matter: theory of the formation of chemical elements. M., 1907; Revelations in thunder and storm: the history of the Apocalypse. M. - St. Petersburg, 1907; Fundamentals of qualitative physical and mathematical analysis and new physical factors discovered by it in various natural phenomena. M., 1908; D.I.Mendeleev and the significance of his periodic system for the chemistry of the future. M., 1908, etc.).

Enthusiastic revolutionary youth perceived him as the personification of the coming democratic revolution. Soon after his release, Morozov's scientific merits were noticed in society, he was awarded the title of professor of physical chemistry at the Higher Free School of P.F. Lesgaft. Soon he was appointed director, first of the biological laboratory, and then of the entire Natural Science Institute. P.F. Lesgaft. It was at this institute, on the initiative of Morozov, that the development of a number of problems related to space exploration began.

Often giving public scientific lectures, he traveled to many cities in Russia, speaking in Siberia and the Far East. Interesting are Morozov’s attempts to publish “scientific poetry” on astronomical topics, theoretically conceptualized by him in the article Poetry in science and science in poetry(“Russian Gazette”. 1912, No. 1).

For the publication of a collection of poems Star Songs(M., 1910) was put on trial and spent the entire year of 1911 in the Dvina Fortress. I used my conclusion to write a multi-volume Stories of my life; the memories in it are brought to the foundation of “Narodnaya Volya”. L.N. Tolstoy highly appreciated his gift as a writer: “I read it with the greatest interest and pleasure. I really regret that there is no continuation of them... Talentedly written!

Morozov’s poems contained calls for social heroism (comparable to the poetry of N.A. Nekrasov and V.S. Kurochkin), for the glorification of the revolutionary struggle, and the glorification of sacrificial heroism.

In the 1910s, having become interested in aeronautics, as a researcher, he flew the first airplanes, including over the Shlisselburg fortress 10 years after his liberation from it (he was already about 60 years old). Having been elected after returning from a long imprisonment to honorary members of many scientific societies, he taught at the Higher Women's Courses of P.F. Lesgaft, and taught a course on “World Chemistry” at the Psychoneurological Institute.

Lev Pushkarev, Natalya Pushkareva