Charlene Steinberg
University of Wisconsin Sheboygan Center Sheboygan
Alexandr Abramovich Voskresenskii G r a n d f a t h e r of Russian chemists
W h i l e perhaps unknown to the majority of American chemists, the name of Aleksandr Abramovich Voskresenskii (Fig. 1) occupies a revered place in Russian history of chemistry. Although the fruits of his research were few (he published only about half a dozen papers), in his long career as a teacher he trained many Russian chemists who later established chemical schools of their own-thus earning the nickname, "Grandfather of Russian chemists." Most notable of these chemists trained by Voskresenskii is Dimitri Ivanovich Mendeleev. It is the intent of this article to present the life of Voskresenskii and to point out his influence on Mendeleev and Russian chemistry. Voskresenskii was born Nov. 25 (Dec. 7, by the new calendar), 1809, in Torzhok, Tver District, which is located about 150 miles northwest of Moscow (1). His father was deacon of the parish church in Torzhok but died when Aleksandr was only five years old, leaving the widow with three minor children and no clear means of support. The children were appointed on "Crown's Accouut" to Torzhkovskir Clerical School. Even in the early years of his schooling the unusual talents of Voskresenskii came to the attention of his teachers andin particular to the attention of his Uncle Kholshchevnikov, a former teacher. Thanks to the efforts of Kholshchevnikov, Voskresenskii, upon finishing Clerical School, was able to continue his education in the District Clerical Seminary. There, as before, he stood out in his studies and finished a t the head of his class. Naturally this training was directed to the study of philosophical and theological subjects, and upon finishing the Seminary an ecclesiastic career lay ahead of him. However this prospect did not appeal to the young Voskresenskil and taking the advice of friends, he went to St. Petersburg to continue his education. I n the fall of 1829 he enrolled in the Glavnyl Pedagogicheskii Institut, one of the best institutions of higher education in Russian at that time. I n the first months he received a meager aid from his Uncle, but soon he had to earn his own means of support by giving lessons, copying manuscripts, and doing other incidental work. Nevertheless, this did not prevent him from finishing the Pedagogical Institute in 1836 at the head of his class. While at the Institute, Voskresenskil chose chemistry as his specialty and studied under the outstanding scholar of thermodynamics, G. H. Hess. It was upon the recommendation of Hess that Voskresenskii was chosen together with a group of other young scholars to go abroad for further training in the sciences. Presented at the 149th National Meeting of the ACS, Detroit, Michigan, April, 1965.
Sending students abroad for study was not a common occurrence at that time in Russia. Deathly afraid after the Decembrist Revolt in 1825 and apprehensive of the revolutionary tendencies of Western Europe, Czar Nicholas I took severe measures against "freethinking." He reckoncd that "revolutionary contagion" would permeate into Russia from the West through foreign teachers working in Russian schools and through Russian students who studied abroad. I n fact, in 1827 he made an attempt to fence off the flow of teachers from the West by establishing a special "Professional Institute" to prepare professors "faithful to the Czar and the native land." However this school did not come up to his expectations and he was obliged to consent to sending the youth to "foreign countries" to further their education. As a result the students, including Voskresenskii, were under the strictest supervision of agents of the Czarist Government.
.Figure 1.
A. A. Vorkrerenrki?.
Voskrescnskii went ikst to Berlin where he studied chemistry under E. Mitscherlich and Heinrich Rose, and physics and technology under Gustav Magnus. However, because of his strong background in theoretical chemistry from his Russian Professor Hess, Voskresenskii did not remain long in Berlin. He needed to find a school offering training in practical chemistry. It is well known that chemical laboratories which were accessible to students for practical work did not exist at that time even a t the Universities of the West. Only Justus von Liebig at Giessen had such a laboratory. Volume 42, Number 12, December 1965
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And so Voskresenskii traveled to Giessen where he carried out several experimental studies under the guidance of Liebig. It was at Giessen that Voskresenskii felt the surveillance of the Czarist agents. Giessen had what was known as "an ugly reputation"; that is, a reputation of politically free-thinking students. Therefore Giessen was considered "off limits" to the Russian scholar and as soon as it was discovered that Voskresenskii was there, action was begun to force him to leave. Liebig himself intervened. The following is a portion of a letter from Liebig to an unknown addressee concerning the matter ($): I beg your pardon that I answer you with a request on a matter whieh concerns one of the young men, Mr. Voskresenskil, fmm St. Peteraburg. For completion of his education he was sent from the Pedagogical Institute in Peteraburg to Germany, having recently studied in Berlin; this semester he arrived in Gieasen in order to immove in oreanie chemistrv. But his Excellencv
study chemistry exclusively. Daily from morning m t i l evening he is in the laboratory and he hasn't any other acquaintances except other young chemists who do not understand anyt:hing in politics and do not occupy themselves with it. I would tntly be sorry for this diligent and talented ymng fellow if he would be eomoelled to leave here and seek another m a t for the studv of
continue his scientific learning here
Not only does this letter indicate the esteem that Liebig had for the talents of Voskresenskii but it shows the fascination that practical chemistry had for the young Russian. I n the brief period that Voskresenski? spent at Gies sen, actually less than two years, he carried out several investigations, all of which were published in Liehig's Annalen. He studied the action of sulfuric anhydride on ethylene (5) and conducted determinations of the composition of naphthalene (4). His major work during this period, which was begun with Liebig and completed in St. Petersburg, was the isolation of quinic acid from Cinchona bark and its transformation to quinone (5). After his return to Russia in 1838, Voskresenskii was named Adjunct of St. Petersburg University in the Department of Chemistry. He was also made Inspector of the Glavnyi Pedagogicheskii Institut where he himself had received his higher education. Indeed, the first years of his return to Russian were extremely busy and fruitful. He finished his dissertation on substances derived from Cinchona hark, for which he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1839. He lectured at several other schools in addition to the University and the Institute: the Engineering Academy, the Institute of Ways and Communications, and the School for Ensigns of the Guard among them. His principal experimental work a t this time (1841) was the isolation from cacao beans of a new alkaloid, which he called theobromine (6). However, his experimental activity was short-lived. Except for a brief study on the composition of iuulin (7), shortly after his return to Russia Voskresenskii devoted his entire time to his teaching activities. It would be natural to feel that the scientific world 676
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lost the services of an exceptionally talented experimenter, but Voskresenskii probably contributed a far greater service by persistently devoting his energies to the training of Russian scientific and technical personnel so vitally needed in the country a t that time. The best characterization of this side of the life of Voskresenskii appears in a biography written by his student, Mendeleev. The following is an exerpt of that biography (8): I vividly remember that fascination of unsffected simplicity of statement and that constant drive for the use of independent cultivation of scientific data by whieh VoskresenskiI recruited much fresh strength to the realm of chemistry. Others always talked about the great difficulty of scientific work, but with Voskresenskii, we in bhe laboratory more often heard his favorite saying, "gods do not hake pobs or make bricks," and therefore, in the laboratories which were managed by Voskresenskii we were not afraid to apply our hands to scientific work and tried to model and hake bricks out of which the foundation of chemical knowledge is composed. There is another important aspect to the pedagogical activity of Voskresenskil. He always clearly saw that true knowledge cannot limit itself by onesidedness and that is why, a t the very heginning, he forced us to compare the ideas and opinions of Berzelins and Liehig with the studies of Dumas, Laurent, and Gerhardt. Not only that, VoskresenskiI already saw the superiority of the ideas of the French School but foraaw that. it would also he necessary to understand the ideas of the D ~ ~ a l i swhieh ts were prevalent in the 1840's. However, he always regarded these ideas scepticillly, counting above all the fact that scientific work is only possible hy steadfast pursuit of the facts, whieh he instructed the masses of his students to obtain and investigate.
It is interesting to note that Mendeleev highly regarded the lectures in general chemistry read by Voskresenskii, and took notes on these lectures in a most extensive and accurate manner (Fig. 2). A document is preserved in the Scientific Archives of Mendeleev which testifies to the high quality of the contents of these lectures (9). I n 1843 Voskresenskii was made Extraordinary Professor and in 1848, Ordinary Professor of St. Petersburg University. The next 25 vears in the life of Voskresenskii in St. Petersburg were dedicated to tireless efforts directed toward the cultivation of a young generation of Russian chemists. For example, in 18.52 at his advice, the French textbook, "Elements of Chemistry," by H. V. Regnault, was translated into Russian (10). The book proved to be a great service not only to schools of higher education but to persons who without the aid of a teacher desired a knowledge of elementary chemistry. Voskresenskii constantly tried to ease the assimilation of chemistrv for the student. I n 1859 he sent a letter to the ~o;ncil of the University suggesting that the chemistry professor's apartment he located in the same building as the laboratory so that there could be continual contact between the professor and his students (11). During this time when the majority of Russian academic chemists devoted all their time to purely theoretical questions, Voskresenskii turned to technical problem. He showed by analysis of samples of coal from various parts of Russia that native coal could be used for all industrial purposes instead of importing coal as was the practice at that time. It is possible that this interest in the technical resources of Russia served as an example and a stimulus to his student, Mendeleev, who also devoted much of his energy to these problems later.
fonndation for them; it builds on the acquisition of intelligible knowledge and the expansion of the limits of our knowledge. If the latter ia lost from view, then we can hardly hope for successes in the former.
Figure 2. Cover of Mendeleev'r notebook containing Vorkre~enskii's lectures in chemistry.
Voskresenskii was constantly aware of the relatiouship of science to industry. He outlined a course in technology for the University which he patterned after those given in Western Universities. He also urged students to concern themselves with technical as well as theoretical problems but not to ignore the theoretical aspect. For instance, in a commencement address at St. Petersburg University on March 25, 1840, he indicated the need of Russian chemists to investigate the compounds of elements in the platinum f d y ; and then turning to technical considerations, he called to their attention the necessity to study the composition of hydraulic cements with the view of using Russian limestone in place of the expensive imported English limestone. A quotation from the same commencement address will illustrate his view (19) : Applics,tions of chemical knowledge to life in recent times has become so important that in many placw they have begun to pay all the more attention to the study of chemistry. This is very natural; hut in spite of such practical direction it is absolutely imuossihle to foreet the theoretical uart of science: we do not
cant; the most unimportant discovery has v&e which only in time will be shown; each new positive piece of knowledge, no matter how distant it appears from application to public life, leads to other, new ideas and to results whose importance it is impossible to guess in advance. I wanted only to show that sciences have a twofold goal; one consists in material benefits, the other, higher goal, to serve the
I n 1861 he was made Dean of the Physical-Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg University and 1863, in the period of the greatest growth of the University, he was elected Rector. He was presented to the staff of the St. Petersburg Academy of Science in 1864 and was elected its corresponding member. I n 1867 Voskresenskii was appointed Trustee of the Kharkov Teaching District. However, the official administrative duties of his new position involved teaching in secondary schools and included the education of what he termed dull officials, both of which were foreign to his realistic spirit. He, accustomed to educating specialists who went on to promote the growth of Russian industry, could not become reconciled with his new duties and after several collisions with the ministerial circles he resigned and returned neither to teaching nor to experimental work, but retired to his estate of Mozhaits near the place of his birth. Here he spent the last 11 years of his life. He died January 21 (Feb. 2, new calendar), 1880. If it is possible to regret that the unusual experimental talents of Voskresenskii did not receive full development, then it is enough to remember that his few accomplishments in research were significant. Even one of the discoveries of quiuone or theobromine would be enough to place the name of Voskresenskii in the history of chemistry. Perhaps far surpassing his research accomplishn~ents was his teaching activity. Many of his students made their names famous by their works in both research and technical fields. The Russian chemical schools of Mendeleev, Beketov, Menshutkin, and others have their source in the teaching efforts of Voskresenskii, and therefore the nickname, "Grandfather of Russian Chemists" seems a most fitting one. The author is indebted to Professor Henry M. Leicester, who suggested the study of Voskresenskii, furnished source materials for the study, and contributed much helpful assistance and encouragement; and to Professor Aaron J. Ihde for his valuable advice. Literature Cited (1) The majority of the biographical facts are taken from the following two references: F~ouaovsnri,N. A,, a m ELAGINA. K. Ts..TdvIn~titutaIstoriiE~teatvornani~~a i Tekhniki. 18,'213-35 ( 1 9 k ) ; and PORA?-KOBHITS, A. E., L ~ Z L ~ ~ RusskoZ Nauke, 1, 277-83 (1948). (2) F ~ o u ~ o v s KN. ~ iA,, , Uspekha Khimi, 23, 507-9 (1954). A. A,, Ann., 25, 113 (1838). (3) V~SKRESENSKI~, (4) VOSKRESENSKI~, A. A,, Ann., 26.66 (1838). (5) VOSKRESENSKI~, A. A,, Ann., 27,257 (1838). (6) VOSKRE~ENSKI~. A. A.. Bull de 1'Acad. d e ~ S e i de 81. Peters bum. 8. No. 13.206 (1841). (7) V O S ~ R ~ S E N B A.KA., I ~ ,BZLU de 1'~ead.des Sci. de st. Petersburg, 5, 36 (1847). (8) MENDELEEV, D. I., Eneyelopedie Dictionary Brokgau i Efion, 7 (13), 243 (1892). (9) NauchnyZ Arkhiv Mmdeleeaa, LGU 11-A-12-1-1. (10) F ~ ~ u ~ o v s n N.l iA,, , Z u ~ o v V. , P., AND MILULINBKI?, S. R., "Istorip Estestvoznaniya. v Rossii" tom 1, chast 2, Akademiya. Nauk S.S.S.R., Maskva 1957, p. 209. (11) GosudarstvennvZ IstoricheskiZ Arkhiv Lminoradskoi Oblasti.
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