Knorre, Alexey Georgievich

Born in 1914 in St. Petersburg in the family of Georgy Fedorovich Knorre (1891-1962), an engineer, writer, and memoirist. Brothers: Dmitry Knorre, biochemist, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences , and Vadim Sabinin-Knorre, physicist.

He graduated from the Faculty of Biology of Leningrad State University in 1937 , then graduated from the Laboratory of Embryology of the Department of General and Comparative Morphology of the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine under the direction of P.P. Ivanov . In 1940 he defended his thesis for the degree of candidate of biological sciences "Differentiation of endoderm in birds."

From the autumn of 1945 to 1955 he worked at the Department of Histology and Embryology of the Military Medical Academy , defended his doctoral dissertation "Differentiation of the cellular material of embryonic primordia."

From September 1955 until the end of his life, he was the head of the Department of Histology and Embryology of the Leningrad Pediatric Medical Institute . The department bears his name.

For several years he was the editor-in-chief of the journal “Archive of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology”.

Possessed of outstanding personal qualities, encyclopedic knowledge of the history and architecture of his native city, literature. He was a brilliant expert on the poems of A. A. Blok , V. V. Mayakovsky , A. K. Tolstoy , N. S. Gumilev , N. A. Nekrasov . He remembered by heart whole poems, as well as dramatic works (for example, fragments from the trilogy of A. K. Tolstoy) ^[1] . He wrote poetry, his “Histological alphabet” ^{[2] was} published in the collection “Asclepius and Muses” (St. Petersburg, 2000).

Died suddenly while working. After cremation, the ashes are buried in the Theological Cemetery .

The author of more than 140 scientific papers devoted not only to purely histology and embryology, but also to problems of methodology, philosophical aspects of biology.

Prepared 10 candidates of science.

A. G. Knorre attached paramount importance to concrete data.

No need to invent anything while describing the drug. It should be affirmed only that which is visible on the preparation, that which can definitely be proved. Everything else is speculation.

- A. G. Knorre (cited from: ^[3] )

He was fluent in all forms of the educational process: he read a full lecture course and taught practical classes with students. Changed the structure of teaching the subject: transferred the study of embryology to the final part of the course, after the section of private histology; doubled the volume of the course of embryology. He changed the structure of the lecture course: instead of lectures in all sections of private histology, he gave lectures on the most complex or controversial issues in the form of review and problem lectures (for example, “Interaction of embryonic primordia”, “Cambiality and tissue regeneration”, “Determination and differentiation of cells and tissues” , “The Origin of Multicellular Animals and the Evolution of Tissues”, “Development Anomalies in Human Embryogenesis”).

The experience of teaching embryology was summarized in the textbook “A Brief Outline of Human Embryology with Elements of General, Comparative and Experimental Embryology” (1959; 2nd ed. - 1967).

Since 1968, he led associate and professor cycles at the faculty of advanced training for teachers of histology.

• Honorary Member of the Czechoslovak Medical Society. J. E. Purkine (1965), Bulgarian Society of Anatomists (1975);
• Corresponding Member of the Society of Anatomists of Great Britain and Ireland (1972)
• corresponding member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1967).

• Ginzburg V.V., Knorre A.G., Kupriyanov V.V. Anatomy, histology, embryology in St. Petersburg — Petrograd — Leningrad: Short essay / Ed. V.P. Mikhailov. - L .: Medgiz, 1957.
• Knorre A. G. Differentiation of the cellular material of embryonic primordia: Ref. dis. ... Dr. Biol. sciences. - L. , 1949. - 19 p.
• Knorre A.G. A brief outline of human embryology with elements of general, comparative, and experimental embryology. - L .: Medgiz, 1959.- 223 p. - 6000 copies. || A brief outline of human embryology with elements of comparative, experimental, and pathological embryology. - 2nd ed. - L .: Medicine, 1967 .-- 268 p. - 5,000 copies.
• Knorre A.G. Embryonic histogenesis: (Morphol. Essays). - L .: Medicine, 1971. - 432 p. - 3000 copies.
• Knorre A.G., Kupriyanov V.V., Mikhailov V.P. Morphology in St. Petersburg - Leningrad. - M .: Medicine, 1970. - 92 p. - 3000 copies.
• Knorre A.G., Leo I.D. Vegetative Nervous System: Morphol. feature article. - L .: Military-medical. Acad, 1958.- 74 s. || . - L .: Medgiz, 1963 .-- 88 p. - 5,000 copies. || Autonomic nervous system. - 2nd ed., Revised. and add. - L .: Medicine, 1977 .-- 119 p. - 3000 copies.
• Knorre A.G., Molchanova V.V., Semenova-Tyan-Shanskaya A.G. Differentiation processes of germ layers and some embryonic primordia. - M .: VINITI, 1980 .-- 128 p. - (Morphology of humans and animals. Anthropology / USSR Academy of Sciences. VINITI; T. 9).
• Knorre A.G., Suvorova L.V. Development of the autonomic nervous system in embryogenesis of vertebrates and humans. - M .: Medicine, 1984. - 272 p. - 1288 copies.

• Mikhailov V.P. In memory of Alexei Georgievich Knorre // Archive of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology. - 1982. - T. 82 , No. 2 . - S. 5-16 .

• Kozhukhar V.G. Alexey Georgievich Knorre at the Department of Histology and Embryology of the Leningrad Pediatric Medical Institute (1955-1981) (neopr.) . Department of Histology and Embryology, SPbGPMA. Date of treatment May 10, 2012. Archived May 27, 2012.