Lyaskovsky, Nikolai Erastovich

Came from Polish nobles. The name at baptism is Nikolai Julius Wilhelm. Until 1828, he lived in the village of Krasnye Khutor, Borisoglebsky district, Tambov province, where his father was the manager of the estate of Prince Gagarin, and there he received initial education. Since 1829 - in Moscow; began to work in the Big Tver pharmacy, where he began to study medicine under the guidance of the pharmacy manager Fluhrat. In 1832, having passed the exam at Moscow University and received a diploma of the 1st pharmaceutical degree - assistant pharmacist ^[1] , worked for three years in Arbat ^[2] , Novo-Polyansk and Lubyanka pharmacies. Since 1836 he studied (among his own students ) at the medical faculty of Moscow University , where he graduated with a diploma as a doctor of the 1st department in 1841. In 1842, he passed an exam for the degree of candidate of verbal sciences to receive a scholarship from Baronet Villiers for a trip abroad, but the trip that year did not take place, since the lot of two candidates, Lyaskovsky and Kabanov, fell on H.V. Since 1836, he was the home teacher of the children of Senator P. S. Poludensky , in whose house (on Volkhonka ) he lived (except for his time abroad) until his marriage in 1848.

In 1843, Lyaskovsky accepted the offer to occupy the Department of Veterinary Medicine at Moscow University and was sent abroad to study the “cattle-medical science”. At the same time, in February 1844, he received permission through the trustee of the Moscow school district, Count Stroganov, to study his favorite sciences - pharmacy and chemistry, first in Berlin with Heinrich Rosa and Mikerlich , and then in Giessen under the guidance of Liebig ^[3] and in Paris with Dumas and Arago. In Giessen, he first introduced the margarine formula and Liebig suggested he stay to work in Germany.

In 1846, upon his return to Russia, he was appointed to the post of “scientific pharmacist” at Moscow University , where he taught a course of pharmacognosy and pharmacy , and from the beginning of 1847 he began to read a public course in organic chemistry. In the same year, he became a full member of the Moscow Society of Naturalists , and next year he became a member of the Medical Office for the Pharmaceuticals as a visitor to pharmacies.

In 1848, N.E. Lyaskovsky married Maria Ivanovna Vargina. In 1849, Lyaskovsky defended his dissertation in Latin "De cholere epidemici nonnullis causis atmosphericis" ("On some atmospheric causes of the cholera epidemic") and received a doctorate in medicine. In 1850, he was elected a full member of the Moscow Physico-Medical Society, and in 1852 a full member of the Moscow Society of Agriculture . Despite all this, he remained in the position of a learned pharmacist with an insignificant salary. Finally, with the resignation of Professor Gaiman in 1854, after many troubles, he was approved, first correcting the post of adjunct , and then, in 1858, as an extraordinary professor of chemistry and took up the department of pure chemistry for the rest of his life. In 1859, he was appointed an ordinary professor of chemistry at Moscow University ^{[4] [5]} .

According to the recollections of one of his students, Professor N. E. Lyaskovsky “never missed a chance to compare theoretical views on the same question in their historical sequence with an indication of the influence of this or that view on the course and development of modern science” ^[6] .

Having occupied the Department of Chemistry at Moscow University, from the very first years of his activity, Nikolai Erastovich managed to attract listeners to his audience, which every year became more crowded and crowded and at the end of his life was barely able to accommodate the whole only university youth, but also the mass of outside students who visited it, sometimes far from elderly ...

Especially instructive and full of deep interest were Lyaskovsky's lectures on organic chemistry, which he gave to students who had already prepared a course preceding him ...

Those grandiose pictures of substance metamorphosis that the late professor created and in strict sequence carried out before the mental eyes of his audience will never be erased from the memory of his former listeners. - S.A. Rachinsky ^[6]

N. E. Lyaskovsky possessed an undeniable gift of providence.

For example, he argued that hydrogen is a metal, almost 40 years before it was proved experimentally. He also said that organic chemistry is not the chemistry of substances found in organisms, but the chemistry of carbon compounds, which later became the dominant view in science. ^[6]

Contemporaries highly appreciated N.E. Lyaskovsky as a lecturer.

Professor N. E. Lyaskovsky, who read pharmacy and pharmacognosy, enjoyed great love among students, although these subjects are not of primary importance in the medical sciences, he possessed solid knowledge and passionately cared for their planting in his students, as well as distinguished by unusual softness of character and rare accessibility, students often turned to him with explanations of various misunderstandings sown in them by unsatisfactory teaching of chemistry, and he always willingly and with great patience satisfied their requests. Seeing our ignorance and helplessness, he once suggested that those who wish to do practical chemistry and come to the laboratory during free hours and holidays, where he will give us reagents, will introduce elementary analysis and then open up the possibility of independent work even in the field of organic chemistry.

- White - headed N. N. From my recollections of Sergey Petrovich Botkin .

Since 1858 N.E. Lyaskovsky headed the chemical laboratory of Moscow University. Under him, the laboratory underwent a major conversion. In 1863-1870 he also taught at the Alexander Military School , in 1865-1869 he taught courses of inorganic and organic chemistry at the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy ; wrote one of the best textbooks of the time, “Chemical Technology Course” ^[7] .

In 1862, he defended his dissertation under the title "Formulas of Proteinides", which represents a continuation and generalization of his work abroad, and received a doctorate in chemistry and physics. In the same year he was appointed an ordinary professor of the Department of Chemistry of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty. For several years he combined this work with work at the Department of Medical Chemistry, Pharmacy and Pharmacognosy. ^[4] Finally, in 1871, Lyaskovsky became an honorary member of the Imperial Society of Natural History, Anthropology and Ethnography .

He was buried at Vvedensky cemetery (5th section) ^[8] .

Wife Maria Ivanovna Lyaskovskaya (1828–1910), nee Vargina ^[9] , was the rich heiress of the legendary merchant Vasily Vasilievich Vargin (2nd) and the godmother of the poet Andrei Bely ^[10] .

Sons: Vsevolod Nikolaevich Lyaskovsky (1851–1880s), Valery Nikolaevich Lyaskovsky (1858–1938).

After Lyaskovsky’s death, a scholarship was instituted for him who was left to prepare for a professorship at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics in the Department of Chemistry, with funds provided by the widow of the scientist M. I. Lyaskovsky (1904).

• V. Lyaskovsky . Nikolai Erastovich Lyaskovsky . - M .: University printing house (M. Katkov), 1884. - 40 p.
• Lyaskovsky, Nikolai Erastovich // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• Lyaskovsky, Nikolai Erastovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Imperial Moscow University: 1755-1917: Encyclopedic Dictionary / Andreev A. Yu., Tsygankov D. A. .. - M .: Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 2010. - P. 408-409. - 894 p. - 2,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-8243-1429-8 .

• Lyaskovsky Nikolay Erastovich (neopr.) . Chronicle of Moscow University . Date of appeal February 15, 2017.