Yuri Filipchenko

Yuri Aleksandrovich Filipchenko (russian: Юрий Александрович Филипченко; sometimes spelled Philipchenko) (1882 — 1930) was a Russian entomologist who coined the terms ''microevolution'' and ''macroevolution,'' as well as the mentor of geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky. Though he himself was an orthogeneticist, he was one of the first scientists to incorporate the laws of Mendel into evolutionary theory and thus had a great influence on The Modern Synthesis. He established a genetics laboratory in Leningrad undertaking experimental work with ''Drosophila melanogaster''. Theodosius Dobzhansky worked with him from 1924. Filipchenko is also known for his work in Soviet eugenics, though his work in the subject would later result in his public denunciation due to the rise of Stalinism and increased criticisms that eugenics represented bourgeois science.

Biography

Early life and education

Yuri Filipchenko was born on February 13, 1882 in Zlyn' in Bolkhovsky District of the Russian Empire. His father was Aleksandrovich Efimovich, a landowner and agriculturalist. Filipchenko also had a brother by the name of Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, who would later become a parasitologist and physician."Filipchenko hiliptschenko Iurii Aleksandrovich." In ''Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography'', 297-303. Vol. 17. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. ''Gale Virtual Reference Library''

He received his secondary education at the Second Saint Petersburg Classical Gymnasium. In 1897, Filipchenko read Darwin’s ''On the Origin of Species'' and ''Sexual Selection'' for the first time. Two years later, he would read Carl Nägeli’s ''Mechanisch-physiologische Theorie der Abstamungslehre''. These two works would later have a powerful formative influence on Filipchenko and helped to steer him towards a career in zoology.

Filipchenko graduated from Second Saint Petersburg in 1900, but due to a variety of financial difficulties that were further complicated by his father's death, he entered the Military Medical Academy. However, Filipchenko soon transferred to the natural science division at Saint Petersburg State University only a year after entering the academy.

Filipchenko was arrested in December 1905 due to being present at a meeting of the Soviet Workers' Deputies, but was released shortly afterwards. However, Filipchenko was arrested later the same month after helping to organize workers in the Nevsky District of Saint Petersburg, serving four months in prison during which he studied both philosophy and for government examinations. Though he would later join the Schlisselburg Committee, which assisted with the plight of political prisoners, and the Socialist Revolutionary Party, Filipchenko stepped away from politics after 1906 to focus his attention on scientific pursuits.

After graduating from Saint Petersburg State University's Zoology Department in 1906, Filipchenko was accepted to Saint Petersburg State University's Zoology and Comparative Anatomy Master's program in 1910. He pursued comparative embryology for his candidate's thesis due to his interest in the presentation and evolution of physical characteristics in animals. By engaging in a project that allowed him to compare the embryonic development in higher-level taxa (i.e. class, orders, etc.), Filipchenko gained a broader perspective on inheritance that would later inform his ideas on macroevolution.

Career

Filipchenko created the first department of genetics in Russia at Saint Petersburg State University in 1919, which would, by 1921, become the Bureau of Eugenics at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. In later years, the Bureau would be renamed the Bureau of Genetics and Eugenics in 1925 and finally the Laboratory of Genetics in 1930, but regardless of its name, the work of the institution would go on to form the foundation of the Institute of Genetics at the USSR Academy of Science.

However, in the wake of the first five-year plan, Filipchenko became publicly castigated for his work in orthogenesis and in eugenics and was relieved of his position at Saint Petersburg State University in 1930. His Laboratory of Genetics and Experimental Zoology was disbanded shortly afterward.

Personal life

Filipchenko was married to Nadezhda Pavlovna, with whom he had a son by the name of Gleb, who was a physicist. Both Nadezhda and Gleb were killed during the blockade of Leningrad in World War II.

Death

Filipchenko developed a severe headache whilst working at Peterhof, and concerned about his health, traveled to Leningrad to be taken care of by his brother Aleksandr. While in Leningrad, Filipchenko contracted streptococcal meningitis and later died at midnight between May 19 and May 20, 1930. His head was donated to Bekhterev’s Brain Institute for research, while the rest of his remains were buried in Smolensky Cemetery

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases