by Sergei FOKIN, Dr. Sc. (Biol.), Senior Research Fellow, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia

This department (academic chair) concerned with zoology of invertebrates is among the oldest at St. Petersburg University. Founded in 1871 by Karl Kessler, a lead zoologist of his day, it has been actively involved ever since in educational and research work. It is housed in the historic edifice of Duodecim (XII) Collegia erected on the right bank of the Neva in 1722 to 1742 to the design of Dominico Trezzini. The Russian research school of zoology of invertebrates owes a great deal to this institution.

Petersburg is a great national science center.* This is also true of biology born as a science soon after Peter the Great had founded an Academy of Sciences in our northern capital (1724). Biology received further impetus for research and as an academic discipline after the Chief Teaching College had been upgraded in its status to a university. Biologists, research scientists and teachers alike, were quite at home there.

* See: Zh. Alferov, E. Tropp, "St. Petersburg-Russia's Window on Science", Science in Russia, No. 3, 2003.-Ed.

At first the biological disciplines taught to students comprised zoology and botany studied at the Department of Physics and Mathematics (Department of Philosophy in 1836-1852). As to zoology proper, up until the early 1860s it had just one lecturer, a "professor of zoology and zootomy". This course had included two subjects, anatomy and physiology. In 1833 Stepan Kutorga came to head the Zoology Department. As a zoology professor he succeeded Andrei Rzhevsky (1786-1842) who began his course of lectures in 1820 and, late in

1822, was promoted in his academic status to an ordinary (staff) professor. Frail of health, he lacked both organizational and teaching talents, and failed to form zoological collections and set up a laboratory for undergraduates.

Unlike his predecessor, Stepan Kutorga was a vivacious, go-ahead personality endoughed with many talents both as a research scientist and as a teacher, too. Zoology was his forte. Kutorga was the actual founder of the Zoology Department (Chair). He reared a cohort of top-class zoologists, Karl Kessler among them, who succeeded Kutorga as department head upon his death in 1861. Kessler enlisted the best scientists to his fold. Such eminent biologists as Alexander Kovalevsky (elected to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1890) and Elie Metchnikoff (Nobel Prize in medicine, 1908) were among the lecturers there in the late 1860s.

Kessler was a born scientist. His dedication to science must have been behind the decision to cut his teaching activities by having zoology taught at two separate departments. The dean of the Department of Physics and Mathematics (1865-1867) and St. Petersburg University rector (1867-1873), Kessler was also a major ornithologist and ichthyologist who founded the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists and who split the Zoology Department into two laboratories, or cabinets: that of zoology he had been heading in person till his death in 1881 and that of zootomy (involved with anatomy of animals). He invited Professor Nikolai Wagner of Kazan University* to head the Zootomy Cabinet (Kessler got acquainted with Wagner in 1867 at the first congress of Russian naturalists).

This is how Kessler articulated his position in a letter of April 1970: "Since Mr. Metchnikoff is now a staff professor at New Russia University, our Department of Physics and Mathematics needs another zoology instructor. My duties of the rector taking so much of my time,

* See: S. Pisareva. "Dialog With the Time". Science in Russia, No. 5, 2012.-Ed.

I have trouble coping with a course in general zoology in an adequate scope, and I am unable to supervise practicals and lecture on zoology and comparative anatomy, the courses absolutely necessary to us in our natural sciences status... Accordingly 1 feel it in bounden duty to point to Professor Wagner of Kazan University... We can hardly find any other zoologist having as much versatile knowledge in the natural sciences."

As M.Sc. of Kazan University (1851) and Zoology Doctor of Moscow University (1855) Wagner first zeroed in on entomology, a discipline involved with insects. The climacteric point of his career in this field was the discovery of paedogenesis (asexual reproduction) of some dipterous insects (Diptera) having just one pair of wings-the gnat, mosquito and housefly. Caught by the embryology craze, in 1860 Wagner set out for the Mediterranean, but came back empty-handed. He was more fortunate, though, in morphology (the biological study of the structure of animals and plants), and in 1869 merited a prix of a La Paris Academie de Sciences for research in the anatomy of crustaceans of the genus Anceus that he made in Naples, Italy, in 1865 and 1866.* Employed as a lecturer at Kazan University for eight years, in 1870 Wagner moved to St. Petersburg as an associate professor of the Zoology

* See: S. Fokin, "Russian Zoologists in Naples", Science in Russia, No. 5, 2010- Ed.

Department headed by Kessler, where he studied the White Sea fauna. Since in 1871 the Zoology Department was about to be split into two laboratories (cabinets), the Zootomy Cabinet did not start from scratch.

Such "conservatives" (assistants) as Oscar Grimm, Vladimir Akenitsyn, Nikolai Vvedensky (a famous physiologist), Vladimir Kovalevsky (founder of evolutionary paleontology) and Konstantin Merezhkovsky (who organized practicals for students and published works on protozoa, sponges and coelenterates) did a lot to equip the new Cabinet and get it going. Merezhkovsky was actually Wagner's alter ego in many things. Yet in 1886 he retired and left for the Crimea to take up viticulture with elan proper to him.

Wagner had to find a worthy substitute-Vladimir Shimkevich, who defended a M.Sc. degree at Moscow University in the fall of 1886. In 1887 the young biologist became an assistant professor at the Zootomy Cabinet, actually its true head. "Wagner showed litte, if any, interest in the work of the laboratory, it was my line of responsibility," recalled Shimkevich, elected to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences as corresponding member and to the Russian Academy of Sciences as its full member.

Other assistant professors followed. Those were Nikolai Kholodkovsky (elected as corresponding member to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences) and Nikolai Polezhaev, both lecturing on zoology of invertebrates. In the early 1980s two other research scientists stepped into their shoes-Viktor Fausek (who came to head the Bestuzhev Women's Course) and Nikolai Knipovich (elected to the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1927 as corresponding member and full member honoris causa in 1935). Both were lecturing on different parts of the general course. Beginning in 1892 Wagner stopped lecturing, and the level of his teaching, as contemporaries recalled, declined.

Still, he did much to expand the laboratory collection of invertebrates founded by Stepan Kutorga. Yet most of the material was collected still under Karl Kessler in the 1860s-1870s by university teachers and students in the Mediterranean or else purchased from the Naples Zoological Station founded in Italy by the German zoologist A. Dohrn. Other collections were added when Wagner was still in charge-from the White, Barents, Baltic, Caspian, Black and Caspian Seas. As well as those of invertebrates brought from the Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and from fresh-water lakes and dry land in many parts of the Old and New World. For the most part they were presented as gifts by eminent scientists of the day, such as Benedict Dybovsky, Philip Ovsyannikov, Alexander Kovalevsky, Elie Metchnikoff, Feodor Jar-zinski, Iosif Porchinski, Mikhail Usov... In 1874 the museum received a welcome collection of more than two hundred species of tropical shells, bequeathed by Archbishop Nilos of Yaroslavl. There came other collections-one from North America (1879), those of invertebrates furnished by Alexei Korotnev (1887), Vladimir Wagner (1888) and Vladimir Shimkevich (1892).

The White Sea expeditions of 1876, 1877 and 1880 added much to the available stock. In 1881 Vladimir Wagner set up a biological station on the main island of the Solovki archipelago (Archangel Region); it was also a major giver of collectibles. Working over there, Kon-

stantin Merezhkovsky, Nikolai Knipovich and Dmitry Pedashenko sent more. In 1893 the White Sea collection comprised as many as 500 jars with conserved animals.

Insects were a separate part of the museum's collections. In 1892 an entomological closet was built for a collection of St. Petersburg beetles, and the following year, another one for St. Petersburg butterflies. The first specimens were collected still by Kessler. This work was carried on in the 1890s by Georgi Jacobson and Mikhail Rimsky-Korsakoff, who identified and sorted out the insects.

Professor Wagner stepped down in 1894; he was succeeded as head of the Zootomy Cabinet by Vladimir Shevyakov who graduated from Heidelsberg University in Germany after a course in St. Petersburg. Professors Alexander Kovalevsky and Vladimir Shimkevich were active in soliciting this appointment.

His sojourn in Germany was a good school. Shevyakov was in for cudos from the Baden government for reorganizing the Zoological Museum at das Polytechnische Institut of Karlsruhe and learned much working as assistant professor under Otto Butschli*. Making use of his on-hands experience in Germany, Shevyakov refurnished the St. Petersburg university laboratory. He and his assistants supplied the Cabinet with essential teaching aids. Thinking back to this period, Professor Yuri Filipchenko, a pupil of Shevyakov's and the founder of the Russian genetics school, wrote in his memo of 1918, "A large collection is being assembled anew of alcoholized and dry exhibits of various invertebrates, on their

* See: S. Fokin, "Otto Butschli and His Russian Students", Science in Russia, No. 2, 2012.-Ed.

morphology and their embryologic and post-embryolog-ic growth; this collection, its supplements including, is still the main teaching aid. A similar collection of microscopic preparations is also there, it is continually replenished and is the pride of the Zootomy Cabinet."

Shevyakov had reordered the museum collections and had them placed for better care in 15 closets and 3 spacious floor showcases set up in the first three rooms of the museum. Likewise, a suite of shelves was built to Shevyakov's drawings for microscopic preparations. He also expanded the collection of zoological tables and models, mostly acquired abroad.

So, Shevyakov had the Zootomy Cabinet of St. Petersburg University remodeled as a first-rate German laboratory. Contemporaries conceded it to be one of Russia's best. Shevyakov did not stop at that, he organized practical lessons on zoology of invertebrates for all natural science students. He and his aids made autopsies of the main representatives of invertebrates so as to get students to have a better knowledge of the anatomy of these animals. They, the students, also took part in such dissections and learned the nuts and bolts of zoological research techniques. Every year over 100 zoologists went through this course, quite an achievement for any university of the late eighteen-hundreds and early nineteen-hundreds.

The "Big Practicum" course instituted by Shevyakov for budding biologists was a great success. He imported such practicals from das Heidelberg Zoologische Institut as well. It was in fact the main part of the curriculum. The Practicum took a year and more; it provided for circumstantial independent studies of undergraduates

who were to familiarize themselves with various types of invertebrates and learn such essential techniques as an ability to make drawings and prepare specimens for experiments. Students were supposed to learn the art of making dissections and ultrathin sections, and peruse the literature on every group of invertebrates. Oh, wonder of wonders! This course kept up for more than ninety years!

Obviously, the Shevyakov methods gained recognition as an effective way of educating experts in the zoology of invertebrates. Meanwhile Shevyakov was elected in 1909 to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences as its corresponding member. He coached a galaxy of major scientists. Like Sergei Metalnikov, the founder of the Russian school of psychoneurology and one of the pioneers in biological defenses against agricultural pests; Mikhail Rimsky-Korsakoff pioneering in forest entomology; Nikolai Kuznetsov, researching in the physiology of insects. This list could be continued. We might as well name Konstantin Davydov, an eminent experimentalist in embryology and researcher of the animal kingdom of Indochina; Peter Ivanov, an outstanding embryologist; Sergei Averintsev, one of those who launched commercial fishing in Russia's North... Shevyakov's following included Valentin Doguel, the creator of the new discipline, ecological parasitology; one of Russia's first genet-

icists, Yuri Filipchenko; a foremost zoologist and entomologist Ivan Filipiev; Vladimir Beklemishev, a major expert in comparative anatomy and in parasitology; Boris Uvarov, a world famous authority in applied entomology; Ivan Sokolov, a geneticist and cell morphology researcher... So, Shevyakov formed a great constellation of biologists and zoologists.

In 1911 Shevyakov took a job at the Ministry of Public Education leaving Valentin Doguel in charge of the Zootomy Cabinet (much later, in 1939, Doguel was elected corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences). Shevyakov thought highly of Doguel, his best helpmate. "His works are very interesting and show him a concerned scientist eager to consider and generalize facts." That was his style. He kept on as head of the Cabinet (and subsequently, of the academic chair) for as long as 41 years up until his death in 1955. He died in his boots while still in charge. There was a break in his activities as laboratory head: as Leningrad University was evacuated from besieged Leningrad to Saratov (1942-1944) Doguel was sent away to Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, and had to work there.

Soon after the October Revolution of 1917 the Zootomy Cabinet branched out into yet another three chairs (departments) dealing with genetics, embryology, entomology and experimental zoology, with Filipchenko, Ivanov and Rimsky-Korsakoff being in charge.

The Zootomy Cabinet kept up in the lead as a zoology school. Up to the late 1920s protozoology (zoology of the protozoa) had been a research priority; thereafter the interest shifted to parasitology, and by the mid-1930s a new discipline, ecological parasitology, asserted itself. Simultaneously, comparative morphological studies were underway. Thereby a triune approach took body and form in research and education of specialists embracing protistology (study of protists, one-cell organisms), ecological parasitology and comparative anatomy. This approach still holds.

Doguelian lectures were published as manuals and monographs, such as Comparative Anatomy of Invertebrates (1925), Zoology of Invertebrates (1934), General Parasitology (1947), and General Protistology (1951). Doguel and his department reared major research schools of protozoologists, parasitologists and comparative anatomists. The names of his pupils are well known among the world scientific community: Yuri Balashov, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR; Professors Yuri Petrushevsky, Alexander Monchadsky, Maria Belopolskaya, Tatyana Ghinetsins-kaya, Solomon Schulmann, Yuri Strelkov (parasitologist). These are also Yuri Polyansky, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR; Professors Alexander Strelkov, Yevgeny Heissin, LevSeravin, Igor Raikov, Tamara Beyer (protozoology); academy members Yuri Orlov, Artemiy Ivanov, Orest Scarlato as well as Pavel Svetlov, corresponding member of the Academy of Medicine; Professors Sergei Guerd, Vladimir Vagin, Olga Ivanova-Kazas (comparative anatomy, general zoology and paleontology). So many celebrities indeed.

In 1955 Doguel was succeeded by Yuri Polyansky, who headed the Zoology Chair up until 1983. Today the Doguelian cause is carried on by the third and fourth generations of his followers. The Doguelian traditions live on.

This article was written within the theme supported by the RFFI grant 10-06-00124a.