Zalensky, Vladimir Vladimirovich

He studied at the Kharkov gymnasium, then entered the Department of Natural Sciences of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kharkov University , which he graduated in 1867, passing the exam for a candidate , and went abroad, where he worked at the Leikart laboratory. He defended his master's thesis ("On the history of the development of ticks", Kharkov, 1869) and in 1870 became a privat-docent of Novorossiysk University . In 1871 he defended his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Zoology ("History of the Development of Aranein" - "Proceedings of Kiev. General. Natural.", 1870). In the same year he was elected an extraordinary professor at Kazan University , since 1882 - an ordinary professor at Novorossiysk University.

Since 1897 - Director of the Zoological Museum of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and at the same time (since 1901) Director of the Sevastopol Biological Station. Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (since 1897, corresponding member since 1893).

In his writings, he developed a comparative embryological direction created by the works of I.I. Mechnikov and A.O. Kovalevsky . His main studies are devoted to the embryology of some groups of vertebrates (Volga sterlet , etc.) and many representatives of invertebrates. He showed that the development of the cerebral nerve ganglion in annelids and the brain in vertebrates does not occur in the same way, thereby demonstrating the inconsistency of the notion common at that time of the homology of these formations. He described the phenomenon of follicular budding in salps , in which the germ layers and organs in the first stages are supposedly formed not from the blastomeres of the fertilized egg, but from the derivatives of the follicular cells surrounding the egg; at later stages, the cells formed as a result of fragmentation of the blastomeres completely replace the formation arising from follicular cells.

In 1902, he first suggested that Przewalski’s horse is a separate biological species , the one closest to the common ancestor of all the living representatives of the horse genus . ^[one]

• Responding to the accusation of receiving official maintenance "from the reproved government", Academician V.V. Zalensky in his letter of February 23, 1905 emphasized that the people give money, and the government only distributes it, and he never received money for special services to the government ^[2] .

• Zalensky, Vladimir Vladimirovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Profile of Vladimir Vladimirovich Zalensky on the official website of the RAS