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.