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66/ ~r-I
:Beginning of my scientific vlork.
Students taking part in the '}-rotistological Irf3cticuml were expected,
sooner or later, to start on research projects. These were not necessa-
rily to be in the field of protistology. Vihen the time came for me to
get a research assignment, this was suggested to me by the Head of the
Department, professor Schmalhausen, and was to be in the field of
experimental embryology. For such an assignment I was already prepared
by ha/Ving given a talk on the specificity of germinal layers (based
on the experimental results of otto Mangold). Professor Schmalhausen I:suggested that I should follow up some experiments on the transplanta- :
tion of the ear vesicle in amphibian embryos. V{ork on this subject had
been done -by a Russian embryologist, Filatow, whom (and whose work)
professor Schmalhausen knew well from the time when he (Schmalhausen)
was working as lecturer in the University of Moskow. Filatow was then
also in 1v1oskow (and was still there at the time when I started my re-
search) Filatowremoved the rudiment of the inner ear, the ear vesicle,
in early frog embryos, and found that the cartilaginous ear capsule
does not develop in the absence of the labyrinth, the part that deve-
lops from the ear vesicle. If an additional ear vesicle, taken from
another embryo, WBS transplanted next to the host ear vesicle, the
labyrinth developing from the transplanted ear vesicle becomes surroun-
ded by a cartilaginous capsule of its own. The conclusion is that the
labyrinth, or the ear vesicle, exert an influence on the surrounding
tissues to cause them to produce a cartilaginous capsule. Frofessor
Schma"",lhausen suggested that I should repeat the experiment of trans-
planting the ear vesicle, and then see whether parts of the middle
ear would also develop in connection and under the influence of the
grafted ear vesicle. The middle ear contains some skeletal parts, the
ear ossicles. In amphibians there are two such ossicles (actually carti-
lages): the columella, and the operculum. While the columella is be-,l~ved to 'be of visceral origin (related to the gill apparatus),
being a transformed hyomandi -b~ar cartilage, the origin of the opercu-
lum was doubtful. Professor Schmalhausen was of the opinion that the
operculum might be a derivative of the ear capsule, and thus if the
ear capsule could be induced to develop by a transplanted ear vesicle,
the operculum might develop in connection with the transplanted ear
vesicle as well.For the ultima-te result of my work it ~~~ turned out to be
essential that I did not repeat Filatow's experiment exactly as he did
them, but modified them in two ~ important respects. Firstly, inst1&
of working with frog embryos, I undertook transplanta/tions on embryos
67/
of newts. This change of experimental animal was most definitely sug-
gested to me by professor Schmalhausen himself, who also told me where
to look for the eggs of the newts. The reason why he proposed that I ~~
work on newt and not frog embryos, was because of the spectucular re- ~
suIts that' had been achieved by the German school: Spemann and his II
pupils, on newts. Also Schm~hausen himself had been doing some tenta-
tive embryological experiments on newts, though his experiments did
not involv~ransPlantation of the ear vesicle. The second difference
-between my experiments and those of FilaAow, was that Filatow trp.I1S-planted the ear vesicle into the hea.d of the embryo, next to the host I s
own ear, whereas I attempted to transplant the ear vesicle into the
flank of the embryo. 1'ossibly this modification was also suggested by
professor Schmalhausen, because in this way any participation of the vis-
ceral (gill) elements in the formation of any middle ear ossicles, if
such would develop, was excluded.
As to techniques of operations on embryos, I was given to read
a paper by Spemann, in which his technique of microsurgic~ operationsi
was described, and for the rest I was left to my own devices. I was l,
given a 20x magnification lens on a stand to use during the operations.
This was a very primitive instrument for the kind of work I had to per-
form, as the m~gnification was only just enough to see the parts on;f
which I was to operate, and one could only peer at the embryo with one
eye (through the small-diameter lense} In later years I used a binocu-
lar microscope for the same kind of work, giving a magnification of
36x, and allowing to vie",: the site of the operation with both eyes.
I was alotted a table in the hall wrJ.ich was also used as accomodation
for the practicals of the non-specialist students.
With the advent of spring 1924 I started work. To get the eggs of
the newts I had to make excursions to the outskirts of the town. Newts
breed in pools left in the forests by the melting of the snow in spring,
or also in small permanent ponds and waterholes. The eggs are attached
singly to blades of submerged grass ,or to dry leaves trJ.at fa 11 into the
water. The -DIede of grass or leaf eJ4: folded over by the egg-laying
female, so that the egg becomes visible only after the blade of grass
or leaf are unfolded. Usually one fiad to wade into the water to collect
the eggs. The egg laying season continues from about mid I'ilarch to mid
It~, thus restricting the time wrJ.en experiments can be done. In later
years we used to catch female newts and bring them home to the laborato-
ry, put them in aquarium,s, and let them lay their eggs there. However,
in my first year, I was wholly dependent on eggs collected in the wild.
The early spring excursions, for the purpose of collecting newt eggsor ~6 ~Tn""~=~--~, were in themselves a pleasurable and memo-
68/
rable occupation.Somewhat later than myself, though in the same year, another student
started experimenting (making transplantations) on amphibian embryos.
This student was Nikolai (Kolya) Dra~irOV, who was destined to be my
close coll/eage for the next 12 years. Dragomirov is a well known
name in Kiev, as it was the name of a famous Governor General of my
town, somewhat of a personality, about whom circulated many funny
anecdotes. Kolya, however, denied any connection ~o the governor genera:
and I presume quite correctly. He was a peculiar young man, very
small in stature, dark, somewhat lliongoloid in type. His mother, wham I
met once or twice, was a very simple woman, not at all likely to have
been the wife of a general. Dragomirov did not participate in the
protistological practical, though he was a student of the University
like myself. He came to Professor Schmalhausen's department after
having worked, as an amateur, with Dobzhansky (who Vias at the time a
lecturer in the ~olytechnical Institute in Kiev, facul~ of Agronomy).
Vyorkinf with Do::;zhansky, Dragomirov had already pu-olished a short paper
on Neuroptera of the Kiev area. In experimental embryology Dragomirovworked on frog embryos, so that in this respect our work did not overlap!
Also he experimented on the eye rudiment, while I was experimenting on I
the ear rudiment.Ity own experiments went to a rather difficult start. Already the
removing of the membranes which surroung t~e egg proved to be a diffic~i
tE'~sk: tIle hydrostatid pressure inside the egg membranes is rather high,
and on puncturing the membranes the embryo is squirted out and in the
process torn to bits. Gradu2l1y I learned to overcome this difficulty.
Next, using glass needles, I learned to excise the fear vesicle -a
tin~morlel within the soft tissues of the embryo. Next this little
mor6el had to be pushed into the wound on the flank of arlother embryo.
~he healing of the wound in embryos fortunately proceeds very fast,without an..V sutures havinD to be applied. Having operated an embryo I
placed it into a small g];ass container, and left there to develop.
P..las! The next day, or the day after next, I usually found my operated-
embryo dead and disintergrated! p" few survived, however, though not
before I had done abou. t 30 unsuccessful operations. Survival for the
first several days was not enou~: to allow the cartilaginous ear cap-
sule to develop the operated embryos had to be raised till they were
advanced larvae. This involved feeding: them -on small 8.quatic crusta-
tians, Cyclops or Daphnia (water fleas), as soon as they were able to
take food. In all I performid in this first yeer a-bout 130 oper~_tions,
f>~nd of these only about ~:;:urvived long enough for my purpose.
69/
\'lhen the grafting is successful, the transplanted ear vesicle
increases in size and starts bulging out on the side of the operated
newt l~va. The bulge is more or less rounded, but in one of my
operated larvae I noticed that a conical projection was bei.ng formed
on the surface of the bulge. ~o my great astonishment, the conical
progection later developed fingers, and took the form of a somewha"t
abnormally shaped foot! I showed the larva to professor Schmalhausen,
who noted the unexpected result, and told me to preserve the larva
for further detailed study. The other' operated and surviving larvae
were also preserved, and stored in alcohol till next autumn, as
it was then the end of the academic year, with exams and vacations
approaching.With the new academic year, from the autumn of 1924, I was moved
with my v/ork from the hall used for general practicals, to a different,
separate room. The room, on a different floor of the University buil-
ding, was at one time professor Schmalhaysen's ov.'n study. It 'lias later
used by a senior student, Victor Brunst, who worked, under Schmalhau-
sell's supervision on leg regeneration in adult newts. Brunst, at the
time got a lecturer's post in the Pharmaceutical Techical School, and
moved out of the University, so I inherited the room. In the latter
half of 1924 I embedded my operated newt larvae in paraffin and cut
them in sections for microscopic study. The sections showed, without
any doubt, that the excrescence on the side of my operated newt was
a limb with~cartilaginous skeleton. Furthermore,in a couple other
larvae I found, in conjunction with the transplanted ear rudiment,
structures which could be interpreted as abortive attempts to form
a leg. The better developed leg was not quite normal in structure,
to unravel it's F..n at omy , I made, on professor Schmalhausen's advice,
a'wax plate reconstruction' of the skeleton of the leE. ~e reconst-wii~ )_R.o..t~NI'Jruction confirmed that the leg was partly deformed, ~'~n '-~~k~-~-~~e
proximal parts, the tarsus (or carpus?), and the digits were very dis-
tinct, however.
Professor Schmalhausen was very interested in my results, and as
there was a Zoological congress coming that year, he presented to the
congress a paper, under joint authorship, his and mine, reporting my
result, and giving it his interpretation. The interpretation was,
that the transplanted ear vesicle served as an unspecific stimulus,
which activated the lateral body wall tissues to produce something
tha t is in conformity with the side of the body, and this something
ha d t«> be an extra leg. l=xperiments which I performed in subsequent
years gave further confirmation to this interpretation. At the same
70/
time Scr~alhausen directed me to write up my experimental results for
publication in a journal. The journal was to be the "Archive fuermicroskopische Anatomie und Entviicklungsmechanik der Organismen" -
the German journal which was leading at the time in the field of experi-
mental 1mbryology. I wrote the paper, my German corrected and improved
~by ~flr. Stoyanovich, my German teacher, and the paper was duly published
next year, 1925. ;~
A further fa,..vour, that my success in experimental embryology
brought me, was the appointent, on professor Schmalhausen's presentationas an unpaid collaborator of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences -a
beginning of my work for this august Institution, with which I was ass 0-'I
ciated for the next 16 years.In spring 1925 I resumed operations on newt embryos in the separate
room, which wa s my study nowo The work of this year did not bring memuch further: these were the finalm?i~1 of my University undergraduate f ..
studies with the final exams approaching. I succeeded in producingIi
~nother very obvious' induced' leg by transplanting the ear vesicle. ,::
A s~rt paper was written and again published in the Archiv fuer
;~twicklungsmechanik. In cident~lly, my experiments did not give an
answer to the original problem set by professor Schmalhausen, as to the
origin of the ear ossicle: operculum. The capsules around the trans-
planted ear vesicles, if developed at all, were abnormal to such an
extent that one could not expect to XK! -be able to recognize any
accessory ~ skeletal elements.In collecting eggs for my experiments this spring I was sometimes
accompanied by a medical student, 1.Cr, George (Yura) Lu-oinsky, who
was, in addition to his medical studies, interested in histology and
em -bry 01 ogy.I did not stay in the separate room in the University for'long,
from the autumn of 1926 I, and also Kolya Dragomirov, were invited by
professor Schmalhausen to work in the "Omelchenko i:5iological Institute
which by that time had become professor Schmalhausen's headquarters.The "Biological Institute" was created in the early twenties, soon
after the end of the civil war, -by a medical doctor and pathologist,
Omelchenko. The "Institute" was organized by him in his own private
fla~ at Korolenko str. 37. To expand the "Institute" beyond his own
sphere of activities, Dr. Omelchenko invited, as collaborators of th~.
institute two scientists: a bacteriolo~3ist, Dr. Pravdich!Neminsky,
and a zoo-psycholo~:ist, Dr. Skovoroda-Zachinyayev. Kei ther of the two,
so far es I know ever actually worked on the premises of the Institute
71/
(that is in Dr. Omelchenko's flat). Neither were scientists of much
repute, Omelcrlenko himself was 8 P~cticing pathologist, with some in-
clination for research. With that cGmposition the Institute could not
claim to be an outstanding scientific institution, but the Ukrainian
Academy of Sciences was very much in a state of organization, and the
leaders of the Academy were ready to accept a research unit, and
recognized the "Institute" as part of the Academy.
Soon after the acceptance of the "Institute" as an Academy Institu-
tion, Dr. Omelchenko died, and the directorship of the "Institute" was
offered to professor Schmalhausen, who was at the time already a fellow
of the Academy ("Academic" in Russian-Ukrainian terms). The Institute
was duly named trle "Omelchenko Biological Institute" in ho:J\our of its
founder. The premises of the Institute (former flat) consisted of six
large rooms, to be used as the laboratory, and a small 3 roomed.. self
contained section, in which professor Schmalhausen could live with his
family.The Institute had very little scientific equipment -a couple of
old microscopes and microtomes, old embedding ovens, an autoclave -
aJ1,instruments used by Omelchenko in his practice. The furniture was
mainly of a private dwelling type. Vlith the instruments and furniture,
the institute inherited Dr. Omelchenko's common law wife: ~~exanda Niko-
lewevna Lapenyuk, an elderly lady, who i'n consideration to her diseased
husband, was appointed laboratory technician of the institute -in fact
rather as cleaner, for washing the laboratory glassware was as fer 8.S
she ever got in sci~ntific reearch at the Institute. Alexandra fiikola- II
evna was given a se~ate room in the same flat, where she lived with
her pet little mongrel dog'~mozka'.In summer of 1926 I graduated from trle University, with many otrleI
students, as our lot was quite a big one. The students which were in
any degree connected to the research in zoology selebrated the gradu-
ation v..ith a t~;eday outing to "Koncha -Zaspa" -two deep bays of the
Dniepr, several kilometers below Kiev, where there was a HydrobiologicaJ
Research Station. The days were spent picknicking and boating. For the
first time I lerned how to manage a 'native' canoe: the one-tree boat
used by Ukrainian peasants. The rower sits at the rear end of the
boa~, and propells it with one paddle, always dipping it at the same
(left) side of the boat. ~ giving the paddle a twist the rower preventf
the boat going round and round in circles, and directs it on an even
forward course. I spent the first night of this outing in the open,
on the river bank. There was not much sleep on account of the swarms of
mosquitoes. The second night I slept with the crowd of other students
72/
all lying next to one another, men and women, on the floor of a labora-
tory room. So far as mosquitoes go, this was not much better than
sleeping in the open. A window must have been left ajar, when we got
up in the morning one of the walls of the room appeared red, because of
the hundreds of mosquitoes, gorged with blood, sitting on that wall. IIn Soviet Russia at the time (for all I know now also) there exis-
ted a system of postgra.duate study, cal1e d the "aspiranture". Selected
student graduates, who were supposed to show abilities for research,
were attached to certain authorized Departments for a three year course.
Such students were called "aspirants", and on successful completion
of the three year course they were awarded the degree of "candidate" .
-something intermediate between an M.Sc. and a PH.D.. The authorized
institution in the case of Zoology was the "Scientific Research Institutf
of Zoology" which was attached to the University, and the leading perso-
nel were a number of professors, some being teaching professors of the
University, but could be p~lso connected to other educational institu-
tions. The director of the "Scientific Research Institute of Zoology" in!
Kiev was my teacher, professor Schm alhaus en , and other fellows of the
Institute were professor Voskoboinikov, professor of vertebrate zoology
and comparative anatomy at the University, and professor Lebedev, who
taught Zoology at the AbTonomical College of the poly technical Institute.
-Sefore my graduation the Institute already had three aspirants. These
v..ere JvIr. Alexenko, a middle aged man, Theodosius Dobzhansky, who by
the time ha-d emigrated to America, and later became a prominent
figure in Genetics, and the third -Victor 3runst, who graduated a year
before me. Viith my class graduating, the Institute appointed at once
8 new aspirants. Frofessor Schmalhausen appointed Dragomirov and myself,
professor Voskoboinikov appointed students from our class "Balabai and
Ta~tarko, and professor Lebedev appointed four gTaduates of the
poly technical Institute: Spett, levitt, Rudnev, and Ziopkalo (I am not
quite sure about tile latter two: perhaps they were appointed next year).
P~l these eight fully proved themselves as good candidates, all vlorked
\"-'e11 and became research scientists of merit. In later years the appoint-
ment of aspirants came under heavy pressure from the communist authori-
ties, and some of the appointees had more revolutionary virtues than
scinetific inclinations, and progressed accordingly.
The aspirants vlere supposed to be supported by the state, the sup~
port being in the form of bursp...ries. However, "Dursaries were only for
persons of proletarian descent, so I did not qUalif~ Consequently. in
my first year I was sti1 wholly dependent on my father's support. This
was, however, soon to end. After our lAst journey to the Caucasus, in
_.~Jj::ri~~. .--73/ ..
~~.,the autumn of 1926, my father fell seriously ill. The cause of his
illness was never fully clarified. It started with excruciating head-
aches, which did not diminish in spite of any medication. Stomach trou-ble was also in evidence, and an X-ray examination sho\,-'ed a suspicion
of a tumor, but not clearly enough to justify operation. A suggestionwas made of a stomac~tUmor which had metastasized into the brain, or
inversely, of a brain tumour metastasizing into the stomach. Throughthe winter father struggled with his pains, -out in spring he got sobad that he could not continue working, and vvas eventually put to bed. ~
Whatever the original cause of his illness, in trle last stages he I.'
had indubitable sYIn}Jtoms of meningitis. In his last days he was semi-
dilit'ious. He died on the 3rd of Iv~ay 1927. He was 48 years old.
Father's death had an immediate effect on my scientific career:
professor Scr~alhausen, on learning about my bereavement, errangedfor a bursary to%id to me, as I had as result of my father~s death,no means of subsistence.
r,~y father's illness and death, though weighing heavily orl my mind,did not prevent the continuation of my research work, which could now,
in the "Omelchenko Institute" proceed under much more favourable con-
ditions. The original equipment of the "Institute"was quickly supple-mented by new sets of instruments, ordered for the Institute by profes-sor Schmalhausen. For our operations Dragomirov and myself no\v had
Leitz -oinocular microscopes with 30x mB£nification. Sterilizationof instruments and solutions helped to keep down mortality of the
operated embrJos. In 1927 I spent much effort in trying to induce supplementary limbs by transplanting ear vesicles in frog embryos -withoutsuccess. On trle other hand work on newt embryos was rewarding, and lead
to the pu-olication of two more papers in the Roux' Archiv fuer Entwick-
lungsmechanik.That summer, 1927, professor Schmalhausen proposed to send me for
a month's work at the l':urman Biolo£icel Station, which is situated on
the Kola peninsula, right next to the North Folar Sea, well beyond theArctic Circle. I wa,s of course only too glad. The travel to the J\'~urman
Station was quite a long one -'by train, about three days if I remember
correctly. The distance from Kiev is about 3500 kIll. On the way I stoppedfor a couple of days in Leningrad -my first visit to that eity. I hadan introduction from tCelitta Flnilievna to her cousin, who lived in
J,enin{;ra d, and this cousin, a girl of about my age, showed me a-bout
the town (I st8¥ed in a hotel).
The I\~urman Biological Station was of profound interest to me, and
not only the Station itself, but the whole environment. Trle far North~
..,
11environnlent is so yrofoundly different from the region in the Ukr?.ine
where I grey,; up. The l\,~urman 'i3iological Station is bu_ilt on a rocky.";
shore of a bay. The shores here end flsewhere in the Kola peninsu_la ~:' are rocky, and the sea is rather deep. The tides are quite strong, and
at 10\\' tide reveal underwater rocks covered VJith brown seaweed.lt"tt.~It)),
Inland, there are very numerous small lakes and irl between -the tundra~
\'iith grass and stunted dwarf Dirchtrees. Among the grass, on inland
excursions I found berries of two kinds: chernika (blackoerries?) and
n'_oroshka, 8, pale yellovi Derry somevv'hat like rasberry, but with a rather
w:?tery tast~. In spite of the lack of flavour, tllis 'berry, I v{as told
is very much valued in the North, large amounts are ~reserved in barrels
f~d taken on ships at sea, to serve as a source of anti-scurvy vitamin.
l~t the station there were vv'orkers of two kinds: the staff of the
.station and the g~ests, like myself. The tvv'O groups were distinctly
apart, and the perma nent station personel regarded tlle guests with
a certain degree of disfavour. I became very friendly ",'ith several' of
the 'guests' -we lived in the station's dormitories, several men (orvv"omen) in a room1. There were three ~TOung postgraduates from the Crimea -
from the University of '~ymI)heropol: Gleb f,=ichailovich Frank, Semen
Yakovlevich Sr::lkind, and Olga Vitoldovna Chekanovskaya. The first I
Itwo were students of }rofessor Gurwitch, and were deeply involved in I:
that scientist's research into the 'mitogenetic rays', vlhich were suppo_f
sed to be emitted 'by some cells, and caused division in other cells."II'rank and Salkind used onion roots a,s detectors of the rays, and tested i
cleaving se~ urcllin eg~:s as a source of the rays. They worked diligently
and o-Dt?~ined good positive results durine; their stay. 1'here were ~JO
f~irls (also postgr!?~ds) froIJl r,loscou: p.riadna IvU1ovna Lu-bi¥kaya, and
!.~ilitza }'..:ichailovna Kurepina. There Vias 8 young palaeontologist from, -
LerJ.in{:)Tad, and a 'postgre.d from DnyeprOl)etrovsk (thus a second one
wth me from the Ukr~ine), vvhose speciality was vertebrate zoology.
Apart from the ~t.TO Gurwitch students, 2Dd myself, the other t~ests
were not so much occUIied vii th active researcll, but ratller with famili a-
rising themselves with the marine f §un a" which vias very abundant and
varied. lily o~:n work, the t~sk I \'J8.S given by lTofessor Schmalhausen,
consisted in studying the rhythm of cleavage of en ascidian egg, t~~en
as P..Il example of determinate cleavage. The species easily 8v6,ilable
at tIle station was Cion~ intestinalis. Observ~tions on cleaving eggs
had to be sometimes carried out tlirough the night hours, wrlich did
not seem out of place, as the sun at the time vv'as not setting rt all.
OUtings were sometimes undertaken in the middle of the rJ.ight, and I
remember on one occasion I went o08.ting v..itl-J. a staff merrlber, lev
in the middle of :he7~ ~lavlovich r.~inder, and VIe -both had a swim from the .boat in full viev..
of the midnight sun. rl'he water in the sea was very Viarm that year I
(on a la ter visit the water was so cold, tllat a short dip was all
one could manae:;e.
The procuring of material for research .oy the guests at the sta-
tion was left to the students themselves. Frank and Sr-c.lkind needed
sea urchins, and I needed tl;e p-scidi ens. \'\;e teemed together, And \vith .19~~the three girls, to men p~(ooa~, end \Vent out to sea, to dredge .~oth
the sea urchins and the ascidians had to be dr~ged from 2 depth of
some 10-20 meters. 1'he sea floor in the bay at t11at depth is covered
by 8, grij!: of a calcareous alga, c6l1ed Litllotamnium, eIld wrlen, after
some strenuous ro~ring we pulled up the dredge, it was full of blocks
of this sea weed. The ascidians were found to be attached to the Li-
thot~.niUH1, and the sea urchins (the species Strongylocentrotus droeba-
chiensis) were ~onb the Lithota"rlnium debris as well. Having filled a
big wooden tub with this material, we rovv'ed back to the station. At
tIle station the contents of the tub were sorted out, 2nd each took
the animals in v!hich they were interested in (there v:ere of course
2.1so other animals, apart froJ!l. E:.scidians and sea urchins} The outings
for Irlaterial were to all of us D:iOSt }Jleasurable and exciting: every
time a dredge was pulled up, we were agog witrl expectation: vI'hat
v.'ould corrie up from the invisible deapths of the sea?
It is a pity that there Wf~S en atmosphere of tension in and aro
the }.~urman Station; tr.i.e Station VJ8-S originally established under the
2.uspices of tr~e Leningrad Society of l~atura1ists, p~d the organizer of
trle Station, and le~der of tIle research there for a num-ber of years
VI'2S I'rofessor Deryugin, head of the Zoology Departmerlt in the Ienin-
grad lini versity. I,atsr, hoVl'ever, the stp~tion was emE'.!:!cipated from the
Societ;:y- of Naturalists, and ~s director was apliointed 2 man by the
!\~je of Kluge. There arose friction be~';een the original orgF~izer of
the Station and the new director. Vie, £~ests, Vfere deleg&ted to the
sts.tion by University professors, thus peers, and pcTtly friends of
I!rofessor Deryugin, and thus v~e vvere as it were depend2nts of tlle ~~ ifriends of tlle St~:tiou Director's enerr.y. l::1-uge himself did not rlavE
TIlucil to do witll us, infact he "las very rarely seen a.t all, out his
staff \','as ver~r much on his side. Kluge I s second in commF...nd r'(~r Tanasiy-
chuk, did not cOmffieIld very much respect from us, YOUTlg scientists.
On one occ.'::-sion he djisclosed !lis i[:norp..nce of an elemerltE"i.ry f2Ct
of embryology. Hf~ving seen ~~ dravling (frrnu. nature) of the 16 cell
stp[e of clee"yp",ce of the see. ur cl.: in , E egg, he criticised rile for crav~
"'16/
jng tIle blp~stomeres [::.S uneven. That there p..re r,B.cromeres Md micromeres
in sea urchin clea vs.ge is a fact to be found eVf.n in elementRry text-
books.During my stay, the research ship belonging to the Station, "Ale- '
xandr Kovvalevsky" went out on a routine trip into the Arctic Ocesn. Only IStation st8.ff WRS on -DoRrd. I ",Iould have dearly liked to go, but that I
was out of the question. ~:'hen the ship returned, the animals collected
on the trip (or some of them) were released into tIle aquaria p~ t the
Station. The most L"JllJressive of these were soDle very large deep \\'ater I
pycnogonids. J._s many other deep sea anim1:-J.1s they were a bright red
colour.
Tov.'ards the end of n~ (and the other visitors') stay at the stationKX~-n"J:W~~~ the "Alexandr Kowal eV'.' sky " sf~iled on another, shorter
trip (one day only) to tIle islf-Jld 'l:ildin' \~,'hich lies just outside of
trle l~ola Bay, off tfj,e open ocean coast. On the southern, near side of
the island there is a fishing villa@;e. Here we saw lots of split and
cleaned codfishes being dried suspended on sticY~. J~ftEr crossing the
island vre reached trle nortilern coa¥ne. ",YhilE tilE southern coast of
ttle island is low and flat, the northern edge ends in a shear precipice.
Sea .Dirds were nestin[~ on ledges on the facE of the precipice, and the
'~ve,ves were breaking on the rocks below. It is a V1E~ and magnificent
sifl,ht. It V/P.S awesometo realise trlRt from trlis coast there was nottling,
but open sea, not a -bit of land right to the ice shield at the I\iorth
lole and to the pole itself.
\'lhile I W!?vS on 2, journey to the I..;urman, my brother Ser[;ey vvent in
the opposite direction, to the South. He w~s doing an engineer student's
practice near Dniepropetrovs:t, v..here a .bridge vv'as to be -built E:.cross
the river Dn1epr. The work lle V!8.S iIIJJ!ledia-tely involved in was the
sinking of Kessons, enormous concrete boxes, under the protection of
v:hich ttle ground VI2.S exc8.vated for the Sul-Jports of the bridge. Sergey
served as shift boss, tc-kin~; his turn in the l:esson. He Vv'RS given living
qu:::..rters \'I'i th a peasant woman near-bY. l\=y rflother visi tid him there for 8.
v;eek or so.
In tlle autumn of 1921, after my return froI[; the JI.~urman Station,
l'rofessor SctJ.Inalhausen got an ol'portunity to reorganize the staff of
the "QnelchenkO 3iological Institute". Apart from ttle t\'IO original col-
la.oorators '. Dr. l'ravdic I\eminsky and Dr. Skovoroda-Sachiniaev, Vrho did
not pcctually conduct their viork on the premises of the Institute, Schmal-
hAusen had tV1O p,ctual assistants, two ladies: Julia Andreevna (~teyanova
?), and Nadejda letrovna .30rdzilovskaya. The latter vIas ms.rried, theformer -not. In the time I ~1 referring to, P- lonG: time suitor of
.f
-,
"':""" """ :'c'.":':':c'~~;':.:.:..':.;~"".'~':.'.. ':";':";'~',:':::'.'~..~'.';". .." .';--;::'.,
17/
Julia Andreevna came from Germany to claim her as his bride. In those
years travel bet\veen the Soviet Russia and the outside vv'orld was not
as rigidly controlled, as in later years. How Julia Andreevna and
her fiancee came to know each other, .1 never knew. Her departure
(and subs equent marriage) vacated a post on the staff of the Institute
At the same time, on insistense of Professor ScPJnalhausen, the Ace-demy
of Sciences founded a special post for Dr. Skovoroda-Sachinyaev. So
his ~ost was also vacated. Having: ttlese ~/O posts at his disposal,
.Schmf~lhausen appointed me and l:olia Dragmirov to the vacancies. For
both of us this was a ~Jery im~ortant move: instead of being dependent
on bursaries of a temlJorary nature, \A,'e v..ere -ooth noVl' stai'f merrlbers of
the Aca,demy of Sciences, vv'ittl practically what is called in J.nJerica
a 'tenure' (permanent appointment).
While continuing my scientific'work, I got involved also
in writing for the popularization of science. The OPportuni~
was provided through my mother's connections in the teaching
circles. She was offered to write little popular books on
science. Two of these she wrote herself. One was entitled:
"Bulbs and corms", the other -"Our spring flowers", both with
botanical contents. The third book was to be on "Instinct an-d
reason in animals". For the writing of this book she invited me
as a co-author. We both had to look up the relevant literature,
and produced a little boocklet, which I think was quite well
..wri tten an~ up to date. All. the- books were written iIi' Ukrainian.
They were duly published, the last book under joint authorship of
my mo'ther and myselt: E. (my mother-'s initial for Elizabeth) and
B. (for Boris, my first name) :Balins1ty.
Through the winter of 1921/28 I v,orked diligently on the material
lroduced -by operating: on am phi -bian embryos during the previous spring,
and on the material Drought from the 1,Jurman Station. In December 1927
e CongTess of Zoologists, Anatomists, and Histologists of the USSR
was held in Leningrad. ~oth Dragomirov and I attended the Congress,
as well as many professors from the University of Kiev, including
lrofessor Sc}1malhausen. I read a paper in one of the section meetings
of the Congress. r,.:y present~ion of the paper was not very good: the
slides wt~ich were to illustr&te my talk, were getting stuck in the pro-
jector, with the result that I co1J_ld not quite finish the tp~lk in the
allotted time. There were some social functions for members of the ,.
Congress, held in old palaces of the City. One of the functions was ~~a concert in the Yussupov ~alace, famous as the site of the murder of '
v- ~ ~ .&..&.vv..~ 1!V!"u..&.a.L- UVVA.~ on
science. Two of these she wrote herself. One was entitled:
"Bulbs and corms", the other -"Our spring flowers", both with
botanical contents. The third book was to be on "Instinct an-d
reason in animals". For the writing of this book she invited me
as a co-author. We both had to look up the relevant literature..
and produced a little boocklet, which I think was quite well
,wri tten an~ up to date. All ,the- books were written iri- Ukrainian.
They were duly published, the last book under joint authorship of
my mo'ther and Inyselt: E~ (my motfler-:s initial for Elizabeth) and
B. (for Boris, my first nmne) Balins'ky.
Through the winter of 1927/28 I v"orked diligently on the material
l:roduced -oy operating: on am phi -bien embryos during the previous spring,
and on the material Drought from the 1Turmen Station. In December 1927
a CongTess of Zoologists, An~tomists, and Histologists of the USSR
was held in Leningrad. 60th Dragomirov end I attended the Congress,
as well as many professors from the University of Kiev, including
lrofessor Sc}1malhausen. I read a paper in one of the section meetings
of the Congress. I\'~y presenta-tion of the :paper was not very good: the
slides wrLich were to illustr&te my talk, '.':ere getting stuck in the :pro-
j ector, vvith the result that I cou-ld not quite finish the t2~lk in the
allotted time. 'rhere were some social functions for members of the
Congress, held in old palaces of the City. One of the functions was
a concert in the Yussupov l-'alace, famous as the site of the murder of
the monk Re,sputin. rChe concert vias held in a kind of ~rivate theaterin the p~ace: quite a small room out equipped U in a way stmilar to
'real' big theaters, T,vith partere, rows of loges, 3nd of course a
Z3ga~Z~~~Z~ stage', com~lete ~lith curtain. There was, on another eve
a dinner and dance. Some of the older members of the congress 'Nere
shocked at trLe dancing: it ',vas the foxtrot, still very neW in the
USSR. I did not do much dc~ncing, infact I cannot remember da,ncing on
th~~t ev~ning at all: I drank too much wine, end had to retreat igno-
minously.'rhe spring of 1928 ',lIas devoted to experiment9~l work, 8,S usual.
For the SUJIUner vacation tIr. ':loskressensky, (Nikolai {;Tichailovich)
my sponsor in Scrmalhausen's University Depextment, invited me end ~-y
brother to come with £lim for a hike in the Crimea -a part of the co
v;hicrl he knew well and loved. Other members of th t 'e group were 0 De
,- ".-', ' .' ': " '-. # ':' , , '
';'-'::"'" ,:..~~:~.::.::,..:.". .':.:',';" '.'" ",'
," ...' .
78/
Kf..tie. Sheremetyeva, V..llO was later to -become the wife of Victor ~-3runst,
she wes 2 daughter of a technician in the PhYsics DepartM;ent of the
University, Natasha }Jondarovskaya, 6 daughter of friends of Nikolai
Micheilovich, and a young mE'.!l, younger than the rest of us celled
Vitia. Katia is about my age, Natasha was some\'.;IJ.at younger.
\~'e started by going by train toSirnpherolJol in the inland part of
Crimea, and from there went on foot, rucksacks on our backs, cross '
Icountry towards the soutrJ.ern coast and the sea. Our first stop was in
8~ small town, :rlaktlchisarai, v..ilich used to be the capital of the Tartar
kingdom in the Crimea (the tartars are still the netive population of
the .crimean peninsula.). The town llolds a few mosques, VJith very picture: ~
resque minarets, and the pe.J.ace of the Crimean tartar khans, or wI-let r"~
remains of it. The palace turned out to be a ra.ther misera-ble }T~ -
building, with walls whitewashed inside, with no tre.ce of any I:ind of ,
luxu_ry. Ferhaps the luxury was plundered long ago. ~here were also in
the streets one or two marole sculptured 'fountains' with running water.
From nakhcllisarai v..e went uphil and over the range of the Crimean
mountains, through a very beautiful pass, ~f;Zfi near the mountain of
Ai-l'etri, from where there was 2 m2gnificent view on to the coast and
the :Black Sea. ~-.ventua1ly we descended into the tovm of Yalt2.
In Yalta I collected at trle postoffice a letter for me from Katia
Syngeyevskaya. She was at the time staying with friends in leningred. II
She seemed to be' very unsettled. The letter upset me very much. I deci-
ded to quit the hike, even though tllis was not a nice thing to do.
I excused myself as -oest I could, and Volent off by bus to the nearest
railway station, and went first to Kiev, and then to Leningrad. l-Cy
-brother chose to go witrl me as well (e~s far as l~iev). The others staid
for a vlhile in the Crimea -it was not a very successful trip.
On the 16th of September 1928 I married Katia. She came to live
VI!ith me and my family in our flat at l,enin Street No 9.