Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 222-225. (Budapest, 2013)
TANULMÁNYOK - Müller Miklós: Egy 1952-es Kossuth díj - A dialektikus szovjet sejtbiológia rövid regnálása Magyarországon
44 Comm, dc Hist. Artis Med. 222—225 (2013) monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (anon, 1952c). After briefly describing the experimental findings, the article states „This non-nuclear cell division [discovered by Törő - my addition] supports Lepeshinskaya’s studies. ” (anon, 1952c, 124.). These comments in the party newspaper suggest that the support given to the theories of a Soviet scientist, Olga Borisovna Lepeshinskaya,5 was decisive for awarding to Törő the Kossuth prize. It was undoubtedly important to both the government and the communist party that a Hungarian scientist could be put on pedestal for confirming a recent major „advance” in Soviet biology. This award played a major role in Törő’s stellar career in academic life, in his most significant contributions to biological affairs in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and in his role in politics. At this point we have to dwell briefly on the theories of Lepeshinskaya before recounting their appearanece in, and disappearance from, Hungary. Lepeshinskaya and her Theory Olga Borisovna Lepeshinskaya was an „old bolshevik” who turned to science at the age of 50. She infused her strong political convictions into all her scientific activities and regarded any criticism against these views as act of class warfare. Lepeshinskaya claimed that cells can arise from noncellular living substance, a view prevalent in the first half of the 19th century but thoroughly refuted by Rudolf Virchow, a German pathologist. In his work on cellular pathology Virchow (Virchow 1858) convincingly demonstrated that cells are the ultimate units of living organisms, and that they can arise only from preexisting cells („omnis cellula e cellula”). His ideas provided the foundations of modem cell biology and theoretical medicine, and soon were universally accepted. Although cell biologists later questioned certain aspects of the cell’s status as the fundamental unit of life (e.g. Katznelson 1939), Virchow’s rule „omnis cellula e cellula” remained a basic principle of cell biology. Lepeshinskaya, as many Soviet scientists, was a faithful disciple of Friedrich Engels who interpreted the material world from a Marxist dialectical and materialistic view (Engels 1962, 1973). Engels’ main tenet was that matter is in constant movement and evolution. Lepeshinskaya’s credo was: „I do stick to my evolutionist viewpoint. I do not deny the universal principle of evolution of matter. I do not regard the evolutionary process metaphysically but in a consistently dialectic way since l learned from the classics of 5 Lepeshinskaya, Ol’ga Borisovna (Ojibra EopncoBHa JlcnciUHHCKaa, 1871 - 1963). Soviet biololgist and revolutionary activist. Obtained her physician’s degree in Moscow in 1915. Started her research at age 50. Junior faculty member of Tomsk University and subsequently of Moscow University from 1919. Head of Histology division of the K.A. Timiryazev Institute of Biology from 1926. After the dismantling of this Institute in 1936 became head of the Cytology Laboratory of the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine and the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. Head of the Division of Development of Living Substance in the Institute of Experimental Biology of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR from 1949. Stalin prize 1950 (for 1949). Decorated with Order of Lenin and Order of Red Banner of Labor. Studied the cell membrane of animal cells and the development of cells from noncellular living substance. The latter work was subsequently discredited. Her Russian name is transliterated differently into different languages, in the present paper the English transliteration is used consistently.
