Morozov N.A. (1854-1946), revolutionary, chemist, astronomer

Categories / Science. Education/Personalia
Categories / Social Life/Personalia
MOROZOV Nikolay Alexandrovich (1854-1946), revolutionary-narodnik, writer, scientist, author of memoirs, honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1932). He studied at the Second Moscow High School, which he left in 1874 without graduating. He was a member of the Moscow group of the Chaykovsky Circle, participant of the so called Walking among the People movement. In 1875, he was arrested and was sentenced to 18 months prison as part of the 193 Affair, in St. Petersburg (1877-78). He was released after preliminary detention. From 1878, he went to ground, becoming a member of the Land and Freedom organisation, was co-editor of the newspaper of the same name. In 1879, he became a member of fractional terrorist group Freedom or Death. After the split of Land and Liberty (August, 1879) he was one of the organisers of People's Will and a member of its Executive Committee, creator of secret party archive. In September - November 1880, he lived at a safe house at 124/5 (today 122/5) Nevsky Prospect, where the first issues of the Narodnaya Volya newspaper were prepared. In 1879-80, he was ideologist and defender of individual political terror. On account of disagreements with other members of the party he left the Executive Committee and went abroad. In January 1881, he was arrested while trying to return to Russia and within the Case of Twenty (1882) and was sentenced to penal servitude for life, initially being held in solitary confinement at the Alexeevsky Ravelin, and from 1884, at Shlisselburg Fortress. He received an amnesty in October 1905. He was named Doctor of Chemistry after recommendation of D.I. Mendeleev in 1907. Taught at the Lesgaft Courses and at the Psychoneurological Institute. From 1907 to 1941, he lived in St. Petersburg (Leningrad) at 25a Torgovaya Street (today Soyuza Pechatnikov Street). He welcomed the February Revolution of 1917, but following the Bolshevik Coup in October, withdrew from political activity. From 1918, he directed a biological laboratory, transformed it into the Lesgaft Leningrad Institute of Natural Sciences. He was an important figure of Russian cosmism, the author of an original development of society and culture. He wrote his memoirs Stories of My Life. Moscow, 1965, vol. 1-2).

References: Твардовская В. А. Н. А. Морозов в русском освободительном движении. М., 1983; Барабанова А. И., Ямщикова Е. А. Народовольцы в Петербурге. Л., 1984.

A. N. Svalov. Lesgaft Peter Franzevich
Mendeleev Dmitry Ivanovich
Morozov Nikolay Alexandrovich
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 122/5
Soyuza Pechatnikov St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 25, litera л. А
Твардовская В. А. Н. А. Морозов в русском освободительном движении. М., 1983
Барабанова А. И., Ямщикова Е. А. Народовольцы в Петербурге. Л., 1984 Russian Academy of Sciences
Zemlya i Volya (Land and Liberty) of 1870s
Narodnaya Volya
Alexeevsky Ravelin
Shlisselburg Fortress.
Lesgaft's Courses
Bekhterev Psycho-neurological Research Institute, The St. Petersburg
February Revolution of 1917