Olga Lepeshinskaya (biologist)
Olga Borisovna Lepeshinskaya (Russian Ольга Борисовна Лепешинская, scientific transliteration Olga Borisovna Lepešinskaja; * 6 Augustjul / August 18 1871greg in Perm, .. † October 2, 1963 in Moscow), born Protopopowa (Russian Протопопова ), was a Russian Bolshevik, revolutionary and biologist. Their supporters were among Stalin, Trofim Lysenko and Alexander Oparin. Among other things, she was a supporter of the theory of spontaneous generation of cells from one of her so-called "living material ". Through the mediation of their supporters this doctrine was adopted in the 50s of the twentieth century in textbooks and plans, both in the Soviet Union and in other socialist states.
Life
Olga Protopopowa was the daughter of a math teacher who died when Olga was three years old. As a result, she was raised by her mother, who was a successful entrepreneur. She had steamboats on the Kama and mines and factories in the Urals. Olga Protopopowa went to St. Petersburg to attend medical courses for women and joined there the revolutionary movement. In 1895, a group of revolutionaries was arrested by Lenin. One of the prisoners, her future husband Panteleimon Lepeschinski Nikolayevich (1868-1944), was henceforth looked after by her. She followed him into exile to Siberia 1897-1900 and 1902-1903, where she continued her revolutionary activities further reinforced while Lenin came to know personally. During the second exile Olga helped her husband to flee to Switzerland. In Geneva exile were both to excel among Lenin's Bolshevik influence.
At the age of 45 years Olga Lepeshinskaya completed the Higher Medical courses for women starting in Moscow. Only after the October Revolution, they could conduct independent, first from 1920 in the histological laboratory of the Moscow University, since 1924 at the newly founded Timiryazev Institute of Science and propaganda of the scientific principles of dialectical materialism.
Work
Olga Lepeshinskaya made a mental note to refute Rudolf Virchow's hypothesis that cells always emerge from cells. The biogenetic rule Ernst Haeckel, she expanded on cells and found alleged evidence that cells from so-called "living substance" of her might arise. While daughter and son-in their research also actively supported later, her husband was not convinced of the developed her theories. Also a large part of the Soviet biologists found their methods and results to be questionable. In the 1950s, however, Olga Lepeshinskaya found prominent supporters, particularly in Stalin and Lysenko. The latter hoped to include support for his theories on the transmutation of species by their theory of " living material ".
As Lepeshinskaya announced that soda baths would have a rejuvenating effect, this led briefly to a shortage of soda. While this claim was refuted quickly, held the theory of "living substance " until her death. Daughter and son, who were meanwhile dismissed by the director of the Institute for Experimental Medicine, undertook in 1969 a last attempt to rehabilitate the theory by a new release. At that time there were already numerous articles and books that criticized their results and methods.