Darwin’s theory of Evolution by Natural Selection was widely embraced by Russian scientists by the end of the 19th and into the 20th century, and his theory had a profound impact on Russian science and social policies. The impact of Darwin’s theory on Russia is interesting from a modern perspective because it spawned some of the most well known biologists, as well as some unfortunate policies.
Kliment Timiryazev was a Russian biologist and botanist who strongly supported Darwin’s theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. He was among the first biologists to suggest that chlorophyll takes part in photosynthesis chemically as well as physically, where the old thought was that it was purely a physical process. He also observed that plants don’t grow any faster even if the light is more intense. This would later be described as the “Light Saturation Curve of Photosynthesis.” Timiryazev was a strong proponent of Darwin’s theories and prepared his own translation of On the Origin of Species. His lectures on Darwinism influenced Alexander Oparin, a Russian scientist who proposed the “primordial soup” theory on the origin of life.
Yuri Filipchenko was a Russian biologist that is highly influential in his ideas of Micro- and Macro-evolution, which state that evolution can occur at different organizational levels. Though he identified as a Darwinist, he did not believe that Darwin’s natural selection was key to the process of evolution, rather, he thought that evolution was an intrinsic developmental process, rather than a generational process. However, he was also a large proponent of eugenics in the early years of the Soviet regime, using his biological background to support his claims. Filipchenko was a leader in the Russian eugenics movement and founded the Russian Eugenics Society in 1920 and the Bureau of Eugenics in 1921. He, like many of the early Bolsheviks, was fascinated by eugenics and proposed it as a “civic religion” for the Soviets, though he opposed the Bolshevik idea of sterilization of ‘undesirables,’ and thought that eugenic progress was achieved through education, not legislative methods. His work in eugenics would be what lead to his ‘exile’ from St. Petersburg during the rise of Stalin.
Theodosius Dobzhansky was a Russian-born American evolutionary biologist influential in his work on the Modern Synthesis of biology. Dobzhansky studied under Yuri Filipchenko for three years before moving to the United States in 1927. Dobzhansky was one of several biologists that offered an explanation on how various fields of genetics and evolution come together to make life on Earth, combining Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection with Mendelian genetic inheritance and genetic variation. Dobzhansky’s own work Genetics and the Origin of Species was massively influential on 20th century biology and he revised the book three times over thirteen years to reflect new and up-to-date topics, while retracting outdated information; his book included quantitative research and ample citations to back up his claims, and yet the book’s writing made it easy for even non-scientists to understand, sparking interest in the field of genetic research.