Nikolay Koltsov

KOLTSOV, Nikolay Konstantinovich (born 1872), an eminent biologist. He graduated from Moscow University in 1894 from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, at which he was retained to prepare for a professorial title. In 1897, he was sent abroad on a scientific mission, working under Flemming, O. Hertwig, O. Bütschli, and other major biologists. In 1903, Koltsov was invited as a privatdozent at Moscow University and professor at the Moscow Higher Women's Courses, where he lectured on biology, zoology, and cytology. In 1908, upon the organization of the Shanyavsky University, he was invited to the chair of zoology. In 1911, during the rout of Moscow University, he resigned. In 1915, the Physics and Mathematics Department of the Academy of Sciences put him forward as a candidate for the position of ordinary academician, but, not wishing to leave Moscow, he withdrew his candidacy and received the title of corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1918, he was enrolled as a professor at the 1st Moscow State University in the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. He took an active part in the organization of the Institute of Comparative Anatomy at Moscow University, founded the zoological laboratory at the Moscow Higher Women's Courses, and the biological laboratory of experimental zoology at the 1st Moscow State University. In 1917, he founded the Research Institute for Experimental Biology at the Moscow Scientific Institute. In 1920, this institute was adopted by the People's Commissariat of Health and, under Koltsov's directorship, became part of the State Institute of Experimental Medicine (GINZ). In 1918, he founded a poultry breeding experimental station near Zvenigorod, which was reorganized in 1925 into the Central Station for the Genetics of Agricultural Animals of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, where he serves as director.

Koltsov's first works belong to comparative anatomy ("Development of the Lamprey Head", Uch. zap. Imp. mosk. un-ta, issue 16, pp. 1–395, M., 1901), after which he moved on to cytology ("Studies on the Sperms of Decapod Crustaceans", ibid., issue 20, pp. 1–200, M., 1905). In a series of works under the general title "Studien über die Gestalt der Zelle" (T. 1—Arch. f. mikr. Anatomie, B. LXVII, 1906; T. 2—Arch. f. Zellforschung, B. II, 1908; T. 3—ibid., B. VI, 1912), Koltsov developed the idea that under the liquid aggregate state of protoplasm, the external shape of the cell or certain constituent parts is determined by solid skeletal formations—membranes, threads, spirals, as in Plateau's well-known experiments. This principle received in science (R. Goldschmidt, M. Hartmann) the name of the Koltsov principle. Then Koltsov moved on to applying physico-chemical methods in the study of the cell and published a number of works on the influence of ions on life processes ("Über die Wirkung der H-Ionen auf die Phagocytose von Carchesium lachmanni", Zeitschrift f. phys.-chem. Biol., B. 1, 1914, etc.). In this field, Koltsov created a school of disciples who were physical chemists (Skadovsky and others). Next come Koltsov's works in the field of studying the biological action of hormones, and in this field Koltsov also created a group of disciples (M. M. Zavadovsky and others). Upon the founding of the Institute of Experimental Biology, attention was drawn to the development of genetic research, which up to that time had almost nowhere been established in the USSR. Here, too, the Moscow school of genetics arose from Koltsov's disciples and collaborators (S. S. Chetverikov, A. S. Serebrovsky). Koltsov was the first in the USSR to draw attention to the problem of human genetics and eugenics. Koltsov's latest experimental works belong to the field of studying the physico-chemical foundations of the excitability of effector organs (pigment cells, muscles, glands) on isolated organs. A major researcher, Koltsov also pays attention to natural philosophical problems, while occupying positions of simplified, mechanistic materialism. Koltsov himself calls his views on living nature "machinistic". Partly connected with this are his idealistic views in the field of eugenics and, in particular, the tendency to reduce social phenomena to biological regularities (the struggle for existence, natural selection). According to Koltsov, the state should pay special attention to the higher "intelligent" strata of society, which should be placed in particularly favorable conditions. In this sense, Koltsov is not original, repeating the views of Western bourgeois eugenicists. Recently, Koltsov has apparently been moving away from these positions (see his article Euphenics in the Great Medical Encyclopedia).

Koltsov is a member of various biological societies in the USSR and abroad. He is the founder of the Russian Eugenic Society, the Society of Racial Pathology, took a close part in the organization of the Russian Protistological Society, and served (and serves) as an editor of the journals: "Transactions of the Shanyavsky University", "Priroda", "Uspekhi eksperimentalnoy biologii", "Russkiy evgenicheskiy zhurnal", "Zhurnal eksperimentalnoy biologii", "Nauchnoe slovo", and "Nashi dostizheniya". Koltsov is the editor of the biological section of the Great Medical Encyclopedia. In addition to the enumerated works of Koltsov, mention should be made of: "Studies on the Chemical Hereditary Properties of Blood" (Usp. eksp. biol., vol. 1, 1923); "Physico-Chemical Foundations of Morphology" (M.-L., 1929).