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Bauer theoretical biology. E.S. Bauer. "Theoretical Biology"

Origin. Brother of the writer Bela Balazs.

Erwin Simonovich Bauer

Name at birth	Ervin Bauer
Date of Birth	October 19(1890-10-19 )
Place of Birth	Levice, Nitra Region, Slovakia
Date of death	January 11(1938-01-11 ) (47 years old)
A place of death	Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR
Country
Alma mater	University of Göttingen

Biography

In 1925, at the invitation of the director of the Institute of Occupational Diseases. Butt in Moscow Bauer moves to the USSR and works in the laboratory of general biology. In 1931, he organized a laboratory of general biology at the newly created Biological Institute. K. A. Timiryazev. In 1934 he moved with his family to Leningrad, where he was invited to the newly created department of general biology with laboratories: general biology, cancer, metabolism, biological and physical chemistry, electrobiological, biophysical. Under the auspices of VIEM, Bauer's main work "Theoretical Biology" was published. Bauer and his wife were arrested on the same day, August 3, 1937, their children, young sons Mikhail (b. 1925) and Karl (b. 1934), were sent to orphanages.

Erwin and Stefania Bauer were sentenced to death by firing squad and died on the same day on January 3, 1938.

The principle of stable non-equilibrium of living systems

Bauer did not deal specifically with questions of space and time, but his specific studies of problems in theoretical biology are directly related to them and provide important guidance for them. In his main book, Bauer formulated the principle of sustainable non-equilibrium of living systems:

“All and only living systems are never in equilibrium and perform, due to their free energy, constantly work against the equilibrium required by the laws of physics and chemistry under existing external conditions.”

(Theoretical biology, p. 43).

This principle serves to fundamentally distinguish between a working living system and a working mechanical system or machine.

Disequilibrium means, says Bauer, that all the structures of living cells at the molecular level are pre-charged with "extra", excess energy compared to the same non-living molecule, which is expressed in the inequality of potentials, in the created chemical or electrical gradient, while in a non-living closed system any the gradients are distributed uniformly according to the entropy rule. This "extra" energy that exists in non-living cells at any level, Bauer calls "structural energy" and understands it as deformation, disequilibrium in the structure of a living molecule.

The meaning of the principle of stable disequilibrium lies in the biophysical aspects of the direction of energy movement in living systems. B. argues that the work produced by a given structure of a living cell is performed only due to disequilibrium, and not due to energy coming from outside, while in a machine work is performed directly from an external source of energy. The body uses the energy coming from outside not to work, but only to maintain these non-equilibrium structures.

“Consequently, in order to preserve them, that is, the conditions of the system, it is necessary to constantly renew them, that is, to constantly expend work. Thus, the chemical energy of food is consumed in the body to create the free energy of the structure, to build, renew, maintain this structure, and is not directly converted into work.

(Ibid., p. 55). The work required by the function of this structure is performed automatically, due to spontaneous straightening of the structural deformation.

Thus, the body is engaged only in the creation of non-equilibrium, or non-equilibrium molecular structures, and each given function is performed due to their striving for equilibrium.

In this central theoretical construction of B. lies the possibility of finding a certain biological rhythm, inextricably linked with the spatial structure of living cells. The non-equilibrium structure of living matter does not remain inert and constant, it is rhythmically charged and spontaneously discharged in accordance with the function performed. Bauer cites the empirical data that he was able to identify to characterize or evaluate the duration of charging, which is not instantaneous, just as there is no instantaneous relaxation of a living molecule, which occurs regardless of whether work is done or not. This is the time the molecule stays in a charged state and can be considered an indicator of the biological rhythm, as well as the main process, since it is revealed at the biophysical level and, possibly, is common to any structures in the body of any evolutionary level. Summarizing the research of that time, Bauer comes to the conclusion that in a free, incoherent state, outside the body, the equalization of the potential of a charged molecule occurs in 10-8 - 10-7 seconds. “If the molecules are associated, or even more so included in the crystal lattice, so that it is no longer possible to talk about individual molecules, then the alignment of the excited deformed state will last much longer.” (Ibid., pp. 191-192). How much longer, there is no such data in Bauer's field of vision, so only the most general assumption remains. These data appeared after Bauer's death in the works of other scientists.

E.S. Bauer. "Theoretical Biology"

Erwin Bauer will remain in the history of science as the author of a book, even the title of which "Theoretical Biology" attracts attention with its unusualness. This book is wonderful in many ways. It presents a coherent concept based on the postulate of a special physical state of "living matter". This postulate corresponded to the "scientific worldview" of that time. Few people accept this postulate now that we have learned so much about the physical properties of biologically important molecules. We know that there are no physical properties peculiar only to biological objects; in essence there is no BIOphysics. Bauer thought otherwise. But his book is remarkable for its logical construction and clarity of posing questions. In addition, Bauer's book is also interesting to us as a historical document - evidence of the scientific views of the 1920-1930s.

Bauer was born in 1890 and was shot in 1937. I learned this name from my teacher Sergei Evgenievich Severin.

After a long and very important conversation for me about the general problems of biology, about the possibility of deriving the basic biological patterns from a few general propositions, Sergei Evgenievich was silent for a long time, with a characteristic movement taking his gracefully trimmed beard into his fist, and then, lowering his voice (although we were alone in his office), said: “You know, you are talking now, but I hear a different voice ... It was a long time ago, and it was poorly understood. Please don't link to me, but try to find Erwin Bauer's Theoretical Biology.

I found this book quickly - it was in the library of our friend A. Neifakh, an outstanding embryologist. He gave it to me easily - all this is too speculative. This book made a huge impression on me.

This was in the early 1950s. Molecular biology has not yet formed. The grandiose upsurge of research was just beginning, putting biology in first place among other sciences of our time. About forty years have passed since then. I, "obedient to the general law", have lost the sharpness of the feelings of youth, but I am sorry that Bauer did not live up to our time and did not have time to learn a new picture of biology. However, his book has not lost its value and it should be known to professionals, those who are interested not only in the quick news of specific achievements, but also in the slow movements of general ideas.

Formation of modern physics and chemistry in the XIX century. led to the most general conclusion: special substances correspond to every natural phenomenon. Or stronger: natural phenomena are a manifestation (consequence) of the physical properties of certain substances. This means that Life is a manifestation of the physical properties of a special “living substance”. Accordingly, the task was formulated to isolate this living substance and study its (physical) properties.

Living matter was "found" rather quickly - under a microscope, it looked like a slimy jelly-like mass. It was found in all cells of all living beings, it seemed to be the same everywhere, therefore, it was the bearer of the "life" property. And as the universal primary carrier of life, this substance was called "protoplasm". This purely philosophical, or rather natural-philosophical, term corresponded to the general worldview of that time.

This wonderful substance, endowed with the property of life, in its properties, especially in coagulation when heated, was very similar to the long-known proteins of bird eggs, milk or blood. And, in order not to confuse it with this "ordinary protein", the main component of the protoplasm began to be denoted by the term "protein", i.e. also a purely philosophical term. In German, this distinction between the terms "protein" and "protein" was preserved, in English only protein remained. This semantic inaccuracy was costly to science - the "property of life" began to be attributed not to the generalized concept of "protein", but to a chemically individual substance - protein.

The most complete chapter of theoretical physics of the XIX century. is thermodynamics. The thermodynamic approach, the thermodynamic analysis of natural phenomena, has become generally accepted. Therefore, it was natural to look for special thermodynamic properties in "living matter" and in biological processes.

Erwin Bauer directed his efforts to the study of the thermodynamic properties of "living matter". He considered protein molecules in a special "non-equilibrium" state to be this substance. At the same time, Bauer believed that this is not just a non-equilibrium state, but a self-sustaining non-equilibrium state, or, in his words, a “stably non-equilibrium” state. Indeed, life is sustained by a constant supply of energy (food, light). Energy is spent in the processes of vital activity and the energy of food is released in them to maintain this special state of living matter. It's hard to argue with this. But Bauer believed that in fact we are talking about a special, supported by the flow of energy and therefore "stable" state of the protein molecules. He formulated this idea in the form of the Principle of stable non-equilibrium: “All and only living systems are never in equilibrium and, due to their free energy, constantly perform work against the equilibrium required by the laws of physics and chemistry under existing external conditions.”

Based on this principle, he, as a consequence, derives all the basic properties of biological systems - metabolism, cell division, reproduction, aging.

It turns out a very slender picture. One principle, characteristic of living and only living, and all other properties and manifestations of life are derived from it by deduction, as a consequence. Bauer stresses the need for just such an approach. He says that in a strange way, insurmountable difficulties usually arise in the definition of the concepts of "life" and "living". Biology textbooks list signs of life instead of a strict definition of this concept. Moreover, in such lists, none of the signs is absolutely specific for the living state (crystals also multiply, complex chemical reactions are catalyzed in non-living systems, etc.). Biology, according to Bauer, is the only science whose subject matter is indefinite.

Bauer believed that a stable non-equilibrium state is realized in a special "stressed", "deformed" configuration (conformation) of protein molecules. Such a state of these molecules, their "structural energy" determines their catalytic (enzymatic) activity and, consequently, all metabolic processes, biological mobility phenomena, asymmetric distribution of ions in the cell-extracellular environment system and, consequently, irritability (excitability). Bauer wrote: "... the source of work produced by living systems is, ultimately, the free energy inherent in this molecular structure, this state of molecules", "... this is a non-equilibrium state, this deformed molecular structure ... is maintained or is constantly restored due to the energy of continuous alignment processes occurring in living tissue ... ".

Much of Bauer's ideas are fruitful. In particular, from them follows the idea of a protein molecule as a machine that performs its functions - energy conversion - due to the "purposeful" movements of its parts. Much is fruitful and the results are beautiful. And the very existence in a stable non-equilibrium state of protein molecules, i.e. non-equilibrium conformation of polypeptide chains, unconfirmed hypothesis. Molecules of protein, nucleic acids and other biologically important compounds and in the cell are in thermodynamic equilibrium with the environment. Free energy is stored in cells in the form of free energy of the processes of catabolism of food molecules or, in the end, in the form of macroergic phosphates. It can be objected that this does not contradict Bauer's basic principle - the Principle of stable non-equilibrium: a certain concentration of high-energy compounds is continuously maintained as a specific property of life. Perhaps Bauer would agree with this. But he was killed a few years before Lipmann created the concept of macroergy. And besides, high-energy compounds, such as pyrophosphates, are not at all biologically specific ...

Similar ideas about the nonequilibrium state of molecules in a cell were developed in the same years by Bauer's famous contemporary A.G. Gurvich, who explained the radiation of living cells, discovered and called by him mitogenetic, by the decay of "non-equilibrium constellations" of molecules.

Unfortunately, these romantic concepts did not materialize: squirrels in vivo the same as in vitro. There is no special physics of macromolecules, peculiar only to the living state.

There is no special physics, but such an approach, such a formulation of questions about the essence of life, about the thermodynamic features of life processes and, moreover, the desire to deduce deductively "from general principles" all the basic properties of the object under study is the ideal of science. In those years, physicists were actively striving for such an ideal, and physics was an example for biology. It seemed that it was possible to create theoretical biology in a similar way to theoretical physics. And Bauer made an attempt. I have already said that the attempt was a success - a coherent concept, a general principle and consequences from it - were implemented. At the same time, it is remarkable and paradoxical that the logical construction of Bauer's "Theoretical Biology" is preserved in the case of a different physical interpretation of the original Principle of Stable Disequilibrium.

What physical meaning can the principle of stable disequilibrium have 70 years after the appearance of Theoretical Biology? Bauer's thermodynamic principle is undoubtedly correct in the probabilistic-informational sense.

The probabilistic interpretation of Boltzmann's thermodynamics was probably widely known in Bauer's time. This interpretation proved to be particularly fruitful in the creation of Information Theory. One can only try to imagine the excitement that Bauer would have experienced when reading books and articles by Szilard, Brillouin, A. and I. Yaglomov, devoted to the relationship of the amount of information with probability, entropy (free energy), the ordering of letters in texts, the transition from disorder to order .

In the "molecular biological" interpretation, Darwin's Theoretical Biology, The Theory of Biological Evolution looks like this.

As a result of natural selection, polymer molecules of nucleic acids (and, according to them, proteins) are created, the sequence of monomers in which, in the course of evolution, becomes less and less chaotic, more and more complex, more and more ordered. The corresponding inheritance texts become unique. In probabilistic thermodynamic language, this means an ever greater distance from equilibrium, an ever greater disequilibrium. This stable non-equilibrium state is a necessary condition for life. Continuous work to maintain, preserve this disequilibrium, the uniqueness of hereditary texts is a condition for the well-being of individual life and the content of the process of "stabilizing selection". The increase in “non-equilibrium”, the creation of new unique texts is the informational and thermodynamic content of divergent evolution.

In connection with what has been said, the Bauer Principle turns out to be true and looks like this.

Everything and only the living– objects and results of biological evolution never In this sense are not in balance, life is impossible without hereditary texts unique for each type - and perform at the expense of their free energy– through the repair of somatic mutations, immunological control in ontogeny and natural selection in a number of generations – constantly working against the equilibrium required by the laws of physics and chemistry under existing external conditions.

Here Bauer's text is italicized and the molecular biological content of his statements is given in regular type.

The content of the book does not end there. Its first part, which is called "The General Theory of Living Matter", consists of an introduction - "The Subject and Method of Theoretical Biology" - and four chapters: "The Principle of Stable Non-Equilibrium", "Free Energy of Living Systems and the Principle of System Forces", "Contradiction between external and internal work in living systems. The principle of increasing external work as a historical pattern” and “The problem of living protein”.

The second part - "The Theory of Life Phenomena" - with chapters: "Metabolism and the limit of assimilation", "Reproduction", "Adaptation", "Irritability", "Evolution", where the logical consequences of the original principle are shown. These chapters are remarkable in style and logic, and demonstrate the fruitfulness of the deductive method.

The “information-evolutionary” interpretation of the main principle makes these logical constructions quite modern, showing how far ahead of E.S. Bauer his time. Indeed, Theoretical Biology anticipates many ideas of later developed thermodynamics of irreversible processes, information theory, bioenergetics, physics and physical chemistry of biologically important macromolecules.

Even before the publication of individual chapters of Bauer's book became the subject of discussion. In May 1935, a very interesting conference was held under the chairmanship of I.P. Razenkov (her transcript has been preserved), where many leading biologists, biochemists, and biophysicists spoke. There were both opponents and supporters.

In general, many biologists of those years were impressed by Bauer's ideas. But they really understood him with difficulty - a Hungarian by birth, he spoke Russian poorly. Probably, S.E. remembered all this. Severin, calling me Bauer's name.

After his arrest, his works were, according to accepted rules, removed from libraries and destroyed. Only in personal libraries have a few copies of Theoretical Biology been preserved, one of which I got.

After the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Bauer was posthumously rehabilitated.

Erwin Bauer was born on October 19, 1890 in the city of Lech, which at that time belonged to Hungary (now it is Levoča in Slovakia). Father, Simon Bauer, was a teacher of French and German in a real school in the city of Szeged. Mother also taught foreign languages, French and English, at the Szeged Women's Gymnasium. My father died at 47 from cancer. There were three children left in the family: Herbert 13 years old, Hilda 9 years old and Erwin 6 years old, and the mother had a very difficult time. Erwin graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Göttingen in Germany, where he studied, in particular, histology and pathological anatomy, deciding to pursue oncology (apparently, his choice was influenced by the death of his father).

In 1914, Bauer passed his medical exams, but World War I broke out and he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army. In 1915-1918. worked in the garrison hospital, where he began to engage in research work.

Generations change quickly. The most recent past for us today seems to young people a distant antiquity. For children, the youth of their parents is sometimes still interesting - they compare it with their own. But the youth of grandfathers is no longer very real. What are my grandchildren to Stalin, Beria or Yezhov, even to the recent Brezhnev or only yesterday's Gorbachev?

They, the grandchildren, today know that “communism” is bad, and cannot understand why so many people were passionate about this idea, and so passionate that they gave their priceless lives for it. They know that the first communist idealists almost all perished, and that other communists killed them. At the same time, the killers spoke high words, and the crowds of "workers" roared: "Death to the enemies of the people!"

There is no other example in history of such an unthinkable discrepancy between ideas and reality, or, as they say in science, theory and experiment. The experiment was terrible... But what about the theory? What are they, intellectuals, thinkers, the flower of humanity? After all, Erwin Bauer was a Hungarian communist.

Erwin Bauer became interested in Marxism in his youth, and, apparently, took an active part in the Hungarian Revolution of 1919. So active that after the defeat of the revolution and the fall of the Republic in the fall of that year, together with his second wife Stephanie Szilard, he had to emigrate first to Vienna and then to Göttingen. (Bauer's first wife, the famous Hungarian writer Margit Kafka, and their young son died of influenza in 1918.)

In 1921, the Bauers arrived in Prague, where Erwin became an assistant to Professor Ruzicka in the Department of General Biology and Experimental Morphology at Charles University. During this period, he was particularly interested in the reactions of cells to various environmental factors in connection with the general theory of vital phenomena.

In 1920, Bauer published his first book on general problems of biology (“Grundprinzipien der rein naturwissenschaftlichen Biologie”, Berlin, J.Springer, 1920)

In 1925, at the invitation of the Obukh Institute of Occupational Diseases, the Bauers arrived in Moscow, and Erwin began working in the laboratory of general biology. In 1930, he published in Russian the book "Physical Foundations in Biology" (Published by the Moscow Regional Executive Committee, Moscow, 1930), a further step in the development of his theoretical ideas. In 1931 B.P. Tokin, who was then director of the Timiryazev Biological Institute, invited him to organize and head a laboratory of general biology at the institute. At that time, prominent scientists worked at this institute: S.M. Gershenzon, M.M. Kamshilov, M.S. Mitskevich, A.S. Serebrovsky, H.S. Koshtoyants.

Protistologist A.M. worked directly with Bauer. Lunts, zoologist A.M. Granovskaya, physiologist V.A. Muzheev, biochemist S.D. Borzdyko, immunologist A.G. Filatov.

In 1934, the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine (VIEM) was created in Leningrad. Bauer was invited there to organize a department of general biology. There were laboratories in his department: electrobiological (headed by V.A. Muzheev), metabolism (V.S. Brandgendler), cancer (L.M. Shabad), general biology (G.G. Vinberg), biological and physical chemistry ( consultant S.E. Severin), biophysical (G.Yu. Grinberg).

E.S. Bauer establishes a close relationship with the outstanding physicists of that time A.F. Ioffe, N.N. Semenov,
ME AND. Frenkel.

Joint seminars of physicists and biologists are organized at the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology of the Academy of Sciences, for example, Ya.I. Frenkel made a report on malignant tumors and the effect of ionizing radiation on tissues.

In 1935, Bauer's main work, Theoretical Biology, was published.

Stefania Szilard-Bauer was a talented mathematician who worked with O.Yu. Schmidt and A.N. Kolmogorov, but managed to publish only one article in co-authorship with Kolmogorov. In the preface to Theoretical Biology, Bauer thanks Stephanie for her help with mathematical questions.

“... Friends in science gathered at the Bauers' apartment during rare hours of rest. They played music. ME AND. Frenkel and St. Bauer played the violin. E. Bauer accompanied the piano or also played the violin.” This idyllic painting from the memories of B.P. Bauer Tokina, of course, does not reflect the tragic content of those days.

Erwin and Stefania Bauer arrived in the Soviet Union at a time of amazing, paradoxical flourishing in the country of the natural sciences. The heyday was very short: from 1925 to 1929. At this time, the scientific schools of physicists A.F. Ioffe, N.N. Semenova, L.I. Mandelshtam, D.S. Rozhdestvensky, chemists A.E. Chichibabina, V.N. Ipatieva, N.D. Zelinsky, mathematician N.N. Luzin, biologists N.K. Koltsova, Yu.A. Filippchenko, N.I. Vavilov, A.A. Ukhtomsky, I.P. Pavlova. Creates his own school V.I. Vernadsky...

After the difficult years of the world and civil wars, after the revolution, the transition to peaceful life and NEP began. The bearers of the spirit of science and enlightenment - the progressive intellectuals of the pre-revolutionary period and their young students - with great energy and passion rushed to the interrupted studies.

One can imagine how this spirit of enthusiasm was perceived by the communist émigré E.S. Bauer. But the "prose of life" and all its complexities are not visible for a long time in a foreign country... Meanwhile, the party leadership of science became stronger and more burdensome. The first wave of persecution of scientists came in 1929.

The second, more severe, began after the murder of S.M. Kirov on December 1, 1934. It was especially difficult in Leningrad.

But the hard work continued. "Theoretical Biology" has been submitted for publication, discussions are underway at conferences and seminars. However, every day brings news of more and more arrests.

True terror began in 1937. Erwin and Stephanie Bauer were arrested during the day at work. They never saw each other or their children again. It is possible that they were arrested precisely as Hungarian communists, Stalin then carried out the destruction of the members of the 3rd International who had found refuge in the USSR - Germans, Poles, Hungarians and all others. The destruction of the best people of the country, as expected in a socialist state, was planned. The "control figures" of the number of people to be destroyed in a given region, city, republic were determined. Over-fulfillment of these plans was encouraged.

As executioners who shot the convicts, many policemen, security guards, and NKVD officers had to be involved.

Among the tens of thousands of victims of this horror were Erwin Bauer and Stephanie Szilard-Bauer.

The fate of the Bauer children, Mikhail and Karl, born in 1925 and 1934, is also typical of that time of terror and genocide. Then there were special brigades of Komsomol activists who caught the children who remained after the arrests and placed them in the "NKVD Orphanage". Misha was 12 years old, Karl 3 years old. When they came for them, Misha took his brother in his arms. After a month of detention in an orphanage, they were taken under guard to special orphanages in the Ivanovo region. Children, according to accepted rules, were separated and placed in different orphanages in different cities. The system has been thought through. And inhuman. And it seemed irresistible. How did Misha manage to get his younger brother transferred to an orphanage in the town of Shuya, where his orphanage was? He wrote letters to various places and his request was granted. He says there were good people everywhere. Misha began to visit his younger brother, consoled and warmed him as best he could. (How could he comfort, inconsolable himself?)

From the beginning of the war, Misha asked to go to the front, but in the spring of 1942 he was sent to a concentration camp ... Karl Bauer at that time was already 8 years old. Without the support of his brother, with a German surname in an orphanage, it was extremely difficult for him to live. He ran away from the orphanage several times. They caught him. He was called by a different name in a different orphanage. So he changed several names. From the orphanage he was “brought out” to a vocational school, and from there he was taken into the army, where he received the “final” name: Vasily Vasilyevich Bychkov. Traces of him were lost for many years.

Mikhail Ervinovich Bauer, after the 20th Congress of the CPSU and the rehabilitation of his parents, returned to Leningrad. There was no information about Karl. M. Bauer in the early 1950s managed to get an education as an engineer, but worked as a worker at a factory, he had to feed his family.

Compensation was supposed to be paid for the murdered parents. In fact, the money was paid for the property seized during the arrest. But it was necessary to give information about this former property, confirmed by witnesses. Witnesses are friends of the house who were there before the arrest. The memories of terror were still strong and not everyone agreed to give such confirmation. The more valuable is the readiness and sincere participation in children Bauerov B.P. Tokin and A.D. Speransky. And most of all, one of the few surviving employees and friends of Father V.A. Muzheeva.

At that time, my mother's brother and his wife lived in Moscow. Uncle - an aircraft designer from the team of A.N. Tupolev was also arrested before the war and spent 10 years in prison. He was released after Tupolev's release and at his request. Uncle and aunt gave all their spiritual strength to the search for Karl. There was no information about Karl Bauer in the country's orphanage system. By age, Karl could already be in the army. And once, in response to a request, the commander of one of the military units replied that they had Karl Bauer. I can only imagine the intensity of feelings and the meeting of Karl with his uncle and aunt. But Misha did not recognize his brother, there was nothing left of the boy he remembered. The coldness of the elder brother angered the relatives. Conflicts began ... The younger brother was entitled to his share of compensation for his parents. Money had to be earned, the money that had been given out had long been spent. And somehow, by chance, a conversation between Karl and his wife was heard. He is not Karl, but the namesake of Viktor Bauer. But the commander said: "What difference does it make, you feel good and they are consoled." Uncle could not bear the shock and died.

And Karl Bauer was found. Vasily Bychkov remembered that he had a brother Misha, that he was Bauer, and was convinced of this almost by accident, after reading a brief article in the 3rd edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia “E.S. Bauer, an outstanding Soviet and Hungarian scientist biologist. And he wrote a letter to the author of the article, B.P. Tokin...

It was also difficult for Vasily Vasilyevich Bychkov to get an education. What forces, besides almost unconscious memories of childhood, supported him? After the army, he graduated from the evening department of the Pedagogical Institute at the Faculty of Foreign Languages. Now he lives in Penza and teaches foreign languages at school. And the brothers did not have a “recognition problem”, they remembered each other. And the elder remained the main authority for the younger, and the youngest turned 60 in 1994 ...

That's almost all. 100th anniversary of E.S. Bauer was celebrated in the fall of 1990. The All-Union Symposium dedicated to his work was held in Pushchino. The proceedings of the symposium have been published. They are in the libraries. The memory of the remarkable thinker and his tragic fate, so characteristic of our cruel time, does not disappear. And the country to which he once came with such enthusiasm and confidence, the country that killed him and supposed to exist forever, no longer exists.

Literature:

1.Bauer E.S. Theoretical biology. – M.: Ed. VIEM. 1935.

2. Tokin B.P. Theoretical biology and creativity of E.S. Bauer. – Ed. Leningrad University, 1963.

3. "Erwin Bauer and Theoretical Biology" (To the 100th anniversary of his birth) / Collection of scientific papers. – Pushchino, 1993.

4. History of Russia, 1917-1940. Reader. - Yekaterinburg, 1993.

"Theoretical Biology" Erwin Bauer will remain in the history of science as the author of a book, even the title of which - "Theoretical Biology" - attracts attention with its unusualness (see). This book is wonderful in many ways. It presents a coherent concept based on the postulate of a special physical state of "living matter". This postulate corresponded to the "scientific worldview" of that time. Few people accept this postulate now that we have learned so much about the physical properties of biologically important molecules - we know that there are no physical properties inherent only to biological objects, i.e., in essence, there is no BIOphysics. Bauer thought otherwise. But his book is remarkable for its logical construction and clarity of posing questions. Moreover, we will try to show that, while incorrect in a concrete sense, his original postulate is correct in a statistical-informational sense. In addition, Bauer's book is also interesting to us as a historical document - evidence of the scientific views of the 20-30s. Bauer was born in 1890 and was shot in 1937. I learned this name from my teacher Sergei Evgenievich Severin. After a long and very important conversation for me about the general problems of biology, about the possibility of deriving the basic biological patterns from a few general propositions, Sergei Evgenievich was silent for a long time, with a characteristic movement taking his gracefully trimmed beard into his fist, and then, lowering his voice (although we were alone in his office), said: “You know, you are talking now, but I hear a different voice ... It was a long time ago, and it was poorly understood. Please do not refer to me, but try to find Erwin Bauer's book "Theoretical Biology"". I found this book quickly - it was in the library of our friend A. Neifakh - an outstanding embryologist. He gave it to me easily - all this is too speculative. And this book made an extraordinary impression on me. It was in the early 50s. Molecular biology had not yet formed. The grandiose upsurge of research was just beginning, putting Biology in first place among other sciences of our time. More than fifty years have passed since then. I, "obedient to the general law", has lost the sharpness of the feelings of youth, but I'm sorry that Bauer did not live up to our time and did not have time to learn a new picture of biology. However, his book has not lost its value, and it should be known to professionals, to those who are interested not only fast news of specific achievements, but also slow movements of general ideas... The formation of modern physics and chemistry in the 19th century led to the most general conclusion - any natural special substances correspond to the phenomenon. Or stronger - natural phenomena - a manifestation (consequence) of the physical properties of certain substances. This means that Life is a manifestation of the physical properties of a special "living" substance. Accordingly, the task was formulated - to isolate this living substance and study its (physical) properties. Living matter was "found" rather quickly - under a microscope, it looked like a slimy jelly-like mass. It was found in all cells of all living beings, it seemed to be the same everywhere, therefore, it was the bearer of the "life" property. And as such a universal primary carrier of life, this substance was called "protoplasm". This purely philosophical, or rather natural-philosophical, term corresponded to the general worldview of that time. This wonderful substance, endowed with the property of life, in its properties - especially in coagulation when heated - was very similar to the long-known proteins of bird eggs, milk or blood. And, in order not to confuse it with this "ordinary protein", the main component of the protoplasm began to be denoted by the term "protein", i.e. also a purely philosophical term. In German, this distinction between the terms "protein" and "protein" (Eiweiss) was preserved, in English only protein remained. This semantic inaccuracy cost science dearly - the "property of life" began to be attributed not to the philosophical concept of protein, but to a chemically individual substance - protein. The most complete chapter of theoretical physics in the 19th century is thermodynamics. The thermodynamic approach, the thermodynamic analysis of natural phenomena, has become generally accepted. It was therefore natural to look for special thermodynamic properties in "living matter" and in biological processes. Erwin Bauer directed his efforts to the study of the thermodynamic properties of "living matter". He considered protein molecules in a special "non-equilibrium" state to be this substance. At the same time, Bauer believed that this is not just a non-equilibrium state, but a self-sustaining non-equilibrium state, or, in his words, a “stably non-equilibrium” state. And in fact - life is supported by a constant influx of energy (food, light). Energy is spent in the processes of vital activity and the energy of food is released in them to maintain this special state of living matter. It's hard to argue with this. But Bauer believed that in fact we are talking about a special energy flow supported and therefore "stable", a special state of protein molecules. He formulated this idea in the form of the Principle of Stable Non-Equilibrium: All and only living systems are never in equilibrium and, due to their free energy, constantly perform work against the equilibrium required by the laws of physics and chemistry under existing external conditions. (Theor. Biol. S. 43) Based on this principle, he, as a consequence, derives all the basic properties of biological systems - metabolism, cell division, reproduction, aging. It turns out a very slender picture. One characteristic of living and only living principle - and all other properties and manifestations of life are derived from it by deduction, as its consequences. Bauer stresses the need for just such an approach. He says that in a strange way, insurmountable difficulties usually arise in the definition of the concepts of "life" and "living". Biology textbooks list signs of life instead of a strict definition of this concept. Moreover, in such lists, none of the signs is absolutely specific for the living state (crystals also multiply, complex chemical reactions are catalyzed in non-living systems, etc.). Biology, according to Bauer, is the only science whose subject matter is not defined. Bauer believed that a stable non-equilibrium state is realized in a special "stressed", "deformed" configuration (conformation) of protein molecules. This state of these molecules - their "structural energy" - determines their catalytic (enzymatic) activity (and, consequently, all metabolic processes, biological mobility phenomena, asymmetric distribution of ions in the cell-extracellular environment system and, consequently, irritability (excitability)). Bauer wrote: “... the source of work produced by living systems is, ultimately, the free energy inherent in this molecular structure, this state of molecules” (T. B. p. 93) “... this is a non-equilibrium state, this deformed molecular structure ... is maintained or constantly restored by the energy of the continuous alignment processes that take place in living tissue. ” (T.B.S. 99). Much of Bauer's ideas are fruitful. In particular, from them follows the idea of a protein molecule as a machine that performs its functions - the conversion of energy - due to the "expedient" movements of its parts. Much is fruitful and the results are beautiful. And the very existence of protein molecules in a stable non-equilibrium state, i.e., the non-equilibrium conformation of polypeptide chains, is not a confirmed hypothesis. Protein molecules, nucleic acids, and other biologically important compounds are also in thermodynamic equilibrium with the environment in the cell (see, however,). Unfortunately, these romantic concepts were not confirmed - proteins in vivo are the same as in vitro. There is no special physics of macromolecules, peculiar only to the living state. There is no special physics, but such an approach, such a formulation of questions about the essence of life, about the thermodynamic features of life processes and, moreover, the desire to deduce deductively "from general principles" all the basic properties of the object under study is the ideal of science. In those years, physicists were actively striving for such an ideal, and physics was an example for biology. It seemed that it was possible, analogously to theoretical physics, to create a theoretical biology. And Bauer made an attempt. I have already said that the attempt was successful: a coherent concept - a general principle and consequences from it - was realized. At the same time, it is remarkable and paradoxical that the logical construction of Bauer's Theoretical Biology is preserved in the case of a different physical interpretation of the original Principle of Stable Disequilibrium. What physical meaning can the principle of stable disequilibrium have 60 years after the appearance of Theoretical Biology? Bauer's thermodynamic principle is undoubtedly correct in the probabilistic-informational sense. The probabilistic interpretation of Boltzmann's thermodynamics was probably widely known in Bauer's time. This interpretation proved to be particularly fruitful in the creation of Information Theory. One can only try to imagine the excitement that Bauer would have experienced when reading books and articles by Szilard, Brillouin, A. and I. Yaglomov, devoted to the relationship of the amount of information with probability, entropy (free energy), the orderliness of letters in texts, the transition from disorder to order . In essence, in the most general sense, the only biological theory proper is the Theory of Evolution. All properties of living beings are a consequence of the process of evolution. The basis of Theoretical Biology is Darwinism. In the "molecular biological" interpretation, Darwin's Theoretical Biology - The Theory of Biological Evolution - is as follows: more complex, more and more ordered. The corresponding inheritance texts become unique. In probabilistic thermodynamic language, this means an ever greater distance from equilibrium, an ever greater disequilibrium. This stable non-equilibrium state is a necessary condition for life. Continuous work to maintain - preserve this disequilibrium, the uniqueness of hereditary texts - is a condition for the well-being of individual life and the content of the process of "stabilizing selection". The increase in “disequilibrium”, the creation of new unique texts is the informational and thermodynamic content of divergent evolution. In connection with what has been said, the Bauer Principle turns out to be true and looks like this: All and only living systems - that is, objects and results of biological evolution - are never in balance - life is impossible without hereditary texts unique for each type - and they perform at the expense of its free energy - through the repair of somatic mutations and immunological control in ontogeny and natural selection in a number of generations - is constantly working against the balance required by the laws of physics and chemistry under existing external conditions. Here Bauer's text is highlighted in bold type and the molecular biological content of his statements is given in regular type. The content of the book does not end there. Its first part, which is called "The General Theory of Living Matter", consists of the introduction "The Subject and Method of Theoretical Biology" and four chapters: "The Principle of Stable Non-Equilibrium", "Free Energy of Living Systems and the Principle of System Forces", "Contradiction between external and inner workings in living systems. The principle of increasing external work as a historical pattern” and “The problem of living protein”. The second part is "The Theory of Life Phenomena" with the chapters: "Metabolism and the limit of assimilation", "Reproduction", "Adaptation", "Irritability", "Evolution", where the logical consequences of the original principle are shown. These chapters are remarkable in style and logic, and demonstrate the fruitfulness of the deductive method. The "information-evolutionary" interpretation of the main principle makes these logical constructions quite modern, showing how far ahead of E. S. Bauer his time. Indeed, Theoretical Biology anticipates many ideas of later developed thermodynamics of irreversible processes, information theory, bioenergetics, physics and physical chemistry of biologically important macromolecules. Even before the publication of individual chapters of Bauer's book became the subject of discussion. In May 1935, a very interesting conference was held under the chairmanship of I.P. Razenkov (its transcript has been preserved), where many leading biologists, biochemists, and biophysicists spoke. There were both opponents and supporters. In general, many biologists of those years were impressed by Bauer's ideas. But they really understood him with difficulty - a Hungarian by birth, he spoke Russian poorly. Probably, S. E. Severin remembered all this when he called me Bauer's name. After his arrest, his works were, according to accepted rules, removed from libraries and destroyed. Only in personal libraries have a few copies of Theoretical Biology been preserved, one of which I got. After the XX Congress of the CPSU, Bauer was rehabilitated posthumously. In the very beginning of the 1960s I made several attempts to republish Theoretical Biology. Despite the active support of Academician Gleb Mikhailovich Frank, Director of the Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, they failed. The brief summary of the book in English, which we made specially, did not help either. The obstacles were invisible and insurmountable. Nevertheless, Bauer's work attracted the attention of philosophers, in 1963-1964. B. P. Tokin, who worked with him in the 1930s, wrote about Bauer and his book. But the book still failed to be published. The way out, as it seemed, was found thanks to "political literacy." G. M. Frank and I, through Academician of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences J. Tidyy, addressed the Hungarian Academy with a proposal: to jointly publish a book by an outstanding Hungarian and Soviet scientist as a sign of friendship and cooperation between the two academies. The offer was accepted. I will not tell you how many more delays there were and how many years passed until this edition - facsimile in Russian and English abstract - was carried out in Hungary (in 1982). But it never arrived in the Soviet Union! The competent organization "International Book" showed vigilance - and the "illegal" circulation, all (!), remained in Hungary. "The restless enemy does not sleep!" - as Blok said on a completely different occasion.

Erwin Bauer was born on October 19, 1890 in the city of Lec, which at that time belonged to Hungary (now it is Levoča in Slovakia). Father, Simon Bauer, was a teacher of French and German in a real school in the city of Szeged. Mother also taught foreign languages, French and English, at the Szeged Women's Gymnasium. My father died at 47 from cancer. There were three children left in the family: Herbert - 13 years old, Hilda - 9 years old and Erwin - 6 years old, and the mother had a very difficult time. Erwin graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Göttingen in Germany, where he studied, in particular, histology and pathological anatomy, deciding to pursue oncology (apparently, his choice was influenced by the death of his father).

In 1914, Bauer passed his medical exams, but the First World War broke out and he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army. In 1915-1918. worked in the garrison hospital, where he began to engage in research work. Generations change quickly. The most recent past for us today seems to young people a distant antiquity. For children, the youth of their parents is sometimes still interesting - they compare it with their own. But the youth of grandfathers is no longer very real. What are my grandchildren to Stalin, Beria or Yezhov, even to the recent Brezhnev or only yesterday's Gorbachev? They, the grandchildren, today know that “communism” is bad, and cannot understand why so many people were passionate about this idea, and so passionate that they gave their priceless lives for it. They know that the first communist idealists almost all perished, and that other communists killed them. At the same time, the killers spoke lofty words, and the crowds of "workers" roared "death to the enemies of the people!" There is no other example in history of such an unthinkable discrepancy between ideas and reality, or, as they say in science, theory and experiment. The experiment was terrible... Well, what about the theory? Why are they - intellectuals, thinkers - the color of humanity? After all, Erwin Bauer was a Hungarian communist. What can you say? In the 18th and 19th centuries, the development of science was fully combined with revolutionary sentiments. The great French revolution was prepared by the Encyclopedists, together with Voltaire and Rousseau. The formation of modern natural sciences, the generalization of their successes by philosophers at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century is closely connected with the turbulent events of the “epoch of wars and revolutions”. The ideas of freedom, equality, fraternity, social justice brought up selfless and disinterested "fighters for the people's cause." At that time, it seemed to many that the achievement of universal prosperity and justice depended on the enlightenment of the people and on the development of science. It's hard to argue with this. And communist ideas presuppose high moral ideals for all members of society. Under communism everyone must become altruists. And since this is impossible, as biologists know for sure, the original altruists are reborn as Jacobins, who are then also killed in a bloody selection. Many scientists, not realizing the tragic prospect, considered the revolution a boon. In addition to the moral feeling, the desire to overcome social injustice, here, apparently, the special, romantic character of Marxism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and, most importantly, its “scientific nature” played its role. Marxism seemed to be a coherent theory requiring only experimental confirmation. How did the theorists write? It is a pity that few now enjoy the literary merit, the vivacity and brilliance of language, the persuasiveness of logic, what is called "style", the first volume of Marx's Capital and Engels' Antidühring or Dialectic of Nature. No, no, it is no coincidence that the enthusiasm for Marxism was universal. Another thing is that even then Marxism did not mean "Bolshevism". Erwin Bauer became interested in Marxism in his youth, and, apparently, took an active part in the Hungarian Revolution of 1919. So active that after the defeat of the revolution and the fall of the Republic in the autumn of 1919, together with his second wife Stephanie Szilard, he had to emigrate first to Vienna and then to Göttingen. (Bauer's first wife, the famous Hungarian writer Margit Kafka, and their little son died of influenza in 1918.) In 1921, the Bauers arrived in Prague, where Erwin became an assistant to Professor Ruzicka in the department of general biology and experimental morphology at Charles University. During this period, he was particularly interested in the reactions of cells to various environmental factors in connection with the general theory of vital phenomena. In the 20th, Bauer published his first book on general problems of biology ("Grundprinzipien der rein naturwissenschaftlichen Biologie", Berlin, J. Springer, 1920). In 1925, at the invitation of the Institute of Occupational Diseases. Butt Bauers arrived in Moscow, and Erwin began working in the laboratory of general biology. In the 1930s, he published in Russian the book Physical Foundations in Biology (Moscow: Izd. Mosoblspolkom, 1930), a further step in the development of his theoretical ideas. In the 31st, B.P. Tokin, who was then director of the Timiryazev Biological Institute, invited him to organize and head a laboratory of general biology at the institute. At that time, prominent scientists worked at this institute: S. M. Gershenzon, M. M. Kamshilov, M. S. Mitskevich, A. S. Serebrovsky, Kh. S. Koshtoyants. The protistologist A. M. Lunts, the zoologist A. M. Granovskaya, the physiologist V. A. Muzheev, the biochemist S. D. Borzdyko, and the immunologist A. G. Filatova worked directly with Bauer. In 1934, the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine (VIEM) was created in Leningrad. Bauer is invited there to organize a department of general biology. In his department there were laboratories: electrobiological (headed by V. A. Muzheev), metabolism (V. S. Brandgendler), cancer (L. M. Shabad), general biology (G. G. Vinberg), biological and physical chemistry ( consultant S.E. Severin (!)), biophysical (G.Yu. Grinberg). E. S. Bauer establishes a close relationship with the outstanding physicists of that time A. F. Ioffe, N. N. Semenov, Ya. I. Frenkel. Joint seminars of physicists and biologists are organized at the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology of the Academy of Sciences, for example, Ya. I. Frenkel gave a report on malignant tumors and the effect of ionizing radiation on tissues. In 1935, Bauer's main work, Theoretical Biology, was published. Stefania Szilard-Bauer was a talented mathematician, she worked together with O. Yu. Schmidt and A. N. Kolmogorov, but managed to publish only one article in collaboration with Kolmogorov. In the preface to Theoretical Biology, Bauer thanks Stephanie for her help with mathematical questions. “... Friends in science gathered at the Bauers' apartment during rare hours of rest. They played music. Ya. I. Frenkel and St. Bauer played the violin. E. Bauer accompanied the piano or also played the violin.” This idyllic picture from the memoirs of Bauer by B.P. Tokin, of course, does not reflect the tragic content of those days. Erwin and Stefania Bauer came to the Soviet Union at a time of amazing, paradoxical flowering of the natural sciences in our country. The heyday was very short: from the 25th to the 29th year. At this time, the scientific schools of physicists A.F. Ioffe, N.N. Semenov, L.I. Mandelstamm, D.S. Rozhdestvensky, chemists A.E. Chichibabin, V.N. Ipatiev, N.D. Zelinsky mathematician N. N. Luzin, biologists N. K. Koltsov, Yu. A. Filipchenko, N. I. Vavilov, A. A. Ukhtomsky, I. P. Pavlov. V. I. Vernadsky creates his own school... After the difficult years of the world and civil wars, after the revolution, the transition to peaceful life and the New Economic Policy began. The bearers of the spirit of science and enlightenment - the progressive intellectuals of the pre-revolutionary period - and their young students, with great energy and passion, rushed to the interrupted studies. One can imagine how the emigrant communist E. S. Bauer perceived this spirit of enthusiasm. And the "prose of life" and all its complexities are not visible for a long time in a foreign country... Meanwhile, the party leadership of science became stronger and more burdensome. The first wave of persecution of scientists came in the 29th year. The second, more difficult, began after the assassination of S. M. Kirov on December 1, 1934. It was especially difficult in Leningrad. But the hard work continued. "Theoretical Biology" has been submitted for publication, discussions are underway at conferences and seminars. However, every day brings news of more and more arrests. True terror (terror, in Greek, horror!) began in 1937. Erwin and Stephanie Bauer were arrested during the day at work. They never saw each other or their children again. It is possible that they were arrested precisely as Hungarian communists - Stalin then carried out the destruction of the members of the 3rd International who had found refuge in the USSR - Germans, Poles, Hungarians and all others. The destruction of the best people of the country, as expected in a socialist state, was planned. "Control figures" were determined - the number of people to be destroyed in a given region, city, republic. Over-fulfillment of these plans was encouraged - this terribly corresponded to the enthusiasm of the masses for over-fulfillment of the plans of the next Stalinist five-year plan - for the production of machine tools, steel smelting, coal mining. So, on July 31, 1937, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks approved the project submitted by the NKVD (Yezhov and Frinovsky) on repressions, starting from August 5, 1937, including the order to shoot 1500 people in the Azerbaijan SSR, 500 in the Armenian SSR, 500 in the Belorussian - 2000, and so on alphabetically 65 lines. In the Moscow region, they planned to shoot 5000, in the Leningrad region 4000... Families of the repressed, "whose members are capable of active anti-Soviet actions... are to be placed in camps or work settlements... Families of the repressed in the first category (executed)... living in Moscow , Leningrad, Kyiv, Tbilisi, Baku, Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog and in the region of Sochi, Gagra, Sukhumi are subject to eviction from these points ... The Politburo decided "to release the NKVD from the reserve fund of the Council of People's Commissars for the operational costs associated with the operation, 75 million rubles ... To offer the regional committees and regional committees of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League of those regions where camps are organized, to allocate at the disposal of the NKVD the necessary number of communists and Komsomol members to staff the administrative apparatus and guard the camps (at the request of the NKVD). "" ... And the signature - Secretary of the Central Committee I. V. Stalin, (cited by: Newspaper "Trud" June 4, 1992) These plans were overfulfilled - they turned to the Politburo with a request to increase the "norms" and received permission.

So on January 31, 1938, the Politburo increased the planned number of executions for Armenia by 1,000, Belarus by 1,500, Ukraine by 6,000, the Leningrad region by 3,000, the Moscow region by 4,000, etc. of the first category” (i.e., executions) As executioners who shot the convicts, many people had to be involved - policemen, security guards, and NKVD officers. Bands played at night to drown out the sounds of gunshots and the screams of those being killed. Blood flowed in torrents throughout the country, from the cellars of the Lubyanka in Moscow and the "Big House" in Leningrad. And the sentences were handed down by "troikas" - the secretary of the Regional Committee (district committee) of the CPSU (b), the prosecutor, the local head of the NKVD. At the same time, after December 1, 1934: “... Hear the case without the participation of the parties ... The cassation appeal, as well as the filing of petitions for pardon, should not be allowed ... The sentence to capital punishment should be carried out immediately after the verdict is passed .. .” (Decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, signed by M. I. Kalinin and P. A. Yenukidze, cited in). By a special resolution of the Politburo, torture - "physical influences" was allowed. Among the tens of thousands of victims of this horror were E. Bauer and Stephanie Szilard-Bauer. The fate of the Bauer children, Mikhail and Karl, born in 1925 and 1934, is also typical of that time of terror and genocide. Then there were special brigades of Komsomol activists who caught the children who remained after the arrests and placed them in the NKVD Orphanage. Misha was 12 years old, Karl - 3 years old. When they came for them, Misha took his brother in his arms. After a month of detention in an orphanage, they were taken under guard to special orphanages in the Ivanovo region. Children, according to accepted rules, were separated and placed in different orphanages in different cities. The system has been thought through. And inhuman. And it seemed irresistible. How did Misha manage to get his younger brother transferred to an orphanage in the town of Shuya, where his orphanage was? He wrote letters to various places and his request was granted. He says there were good people everywhere. Misha began to visit his younger brother as best he could, consoled and warmed him. (How could he console himself, inconsolable himself?) From the beginning of the war, in 1941, Misha asked to go to the front, but in the spring of 1942 he was sent to a concentration camp ... Karl Bauer at that time was already 8 years old. Without the support of his brother, with a German surname in an orphanage, it was extremely difficult for him to live. He ran away from the orphanage several times. They caught him. He was called by a different name in a different orphanage. So he changed several names. From the orphanage he was “brought out” to a vocational school, and from there he was taken into the army, where he received the “final” name: Vasily Vasilyevich Bychkov. Traces of him were lost for many years. “The ashes of Claes knock in my heart” - this poetic formula of Til Ulenspiegel (more precisely, Charles de Coster) became the content of the life of many, many children of murdered parents. No, Stalin and his “colleagues” cannot be denied an understanding of human nature - in those years they adopted a special secret decree on the possibility of the death penalty for children over 12 years old. They were afraid of the avengers. But they publicly proclaimed: "The son is not responsible for the father!" Misha, Mikhail Ervinovich Bauer, returned to Leningrad after the 20th Congress of the CPSU and the rehabilitation of his parents. There was no information about Karl. M. Bauer in the early 50s managed to get an education as an engineer, but he worked as a worker at a factory - he had to feed his family. Compensation was supposed to be paid for the murdered parents. In fact, the money was paid for the property seized during the arrest. But it was necessary to give information about this former property, confirmed by witnesses. Witnesses are friends of the house who were there before the arrest. The memories of terror were still strong - not everyone agreed to give such confirmation. The more valuable is the willingness and sincere participation in the children of the Bauers B.P. Tokin and A.D. Speransky. And most of all, V. A. Muzheev, one of the few surviving employees and friends of E. S. Bauer. At that time, my mother's brother lived in Moscow - an uncle and his wife. Uncle - an aircraft designer from the team of A. N. Tupolev - was also arrested before the war and spent 10 years in prison. He was released after Tupolev's release and at his request. Uncle and aunt gave all their spiritual strength to the search for Karl. There was no information about Karl Bauer in the country's orphanage system. By age, Karl could already be in the army. And once, in response to a request, the commander of one of the military units replied that they had Karl Bauer. I can only imagine the intensity of feelings and the meeting of Karl with his uncle and aunt. But Misha did not recognize his brother - nothing was left of the boy he remembered. The coldness of the elder brother angered the relatives. Difficult conflicts began ... The younger brother was entitled to his share of compensation for his parents. I had to earn money - the money that had been given out had long been spent. And somehow, by chance, a conversation between Karl and his wife was heard. He is not Karl - but the namesake - Viktor Bauer. But the commander said: "What difference does it make, you feel good and they are consoled." ... Uncle could not bear the shock and died. And Karl Bauer was found. Vasily Bychkov remembered that he had a brother Misha, that he was Bauer, and was convinced of this almost by accident, after reading a brief article in the 3rd edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia "E. S. Bauer is an outstanding Soviet and Hungarian biologist, written by Daniil Vladimirovich Lebedev. It was also difficult for Vasily Vasilyevich Bychkov to get an education. What forces, besides almost unconscious memories of childhood, supported him? After the army, he graduated from the evening department of the Pedagogical Institute at the Faculty of Foreign Languages. Now he lives in Penza and teaches foreign languages at school. And the brothers did not have a “recognition problem” - they remembered each other. And the elder remained the main authority for the younger - and the youngest turned 60 in 1994 ... As I noted in the essay about Shanyavsky, I am concerned about the topic of “family imprinting” the image of the parents. I mean non-molecular heredity - the transmission of one's traits to offspring with the help of upbringing and training, lullabies and personal example. Here we are talking about the continuation of the life of Erwin and Stephanie Bauer. In the second generation, F2 according to Mendel, the genes of grandparents are more clearly manifested. Daughter of M. E. Bauer, granddaughter of E. Bauer and S. Szilard, Svetlana Mikhailovna Bauer is a mathematician, teacher at St. Petersburg University. She looked very similar to her grandmother in appearance. That's almost all. The 100th anniversary of E.S. Bauer was celebrated in the autumn of 1990. The All-Union Symposium dedicated to his work was held in Pushchino. The proceedings of the symposium have been published. They are in the libraries. The remainder of the print run is stored in our laboratory. The memory of the remarkable thinker and his tragic fate, so characteristic of our cruel time, does not disappear. And the country to which he once came with such enthusiasm and confidence, the country that killed him and supposed to exist forever, no longer exists. Supplement to the 3rd edition: In 2002, the Commission on the History of Medicine and Biology of the North-Western Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences published E. S. Bauer’s “Theoretical Biology” with a Foreword by the compiler Yu. P. Golikov, an introductory article by M. E. Bauer and Yu. P. Golikov and several articles devoted to the biography and works of E. S. Bauer. The book published by T. I. Grekova documents from the investigation file from the FSB archive. E. S. and S. S. Bauer were arrested on August 1, 1937. On August 4, 1937, the interrogation was conducted by detective Ivanov. E. S. Bauer denied the accusations of counter-revolutionary activities. On November 21, 1937, E. S. and S. S. were interrogated by NKVD sergeant F. M. Rakhmilevich. The protocol notes that the defendants admit belonging to a counter-revolutionary organization... On January 11, 1938, they were shot. Executioner - commandant of the UNKVD LO Art. Lieutenant Polikarpov L. R. drew up Act No. 450148 about the execution ... (pay attention to this number!). M. E. Bauer sent an application for the rehabilitation of parents to the USSR Prosecutor's Office, registered No. 23419-1954. Academician A. D. Speransky sent a letter to the Prosecutor General of the USSR R. A. Rudenko on September 4, 1954 in support of the statement of M. E. Bauer. “In order to review the case” - 24 people were interviewed. Among them was F. M. Rakhmilevich (born 1909) ... Head. warehouse "Metalloprom". Secondary education. In the party since 1929. Dropped out due to being captured by the Germans. He was not subjected to repressions, no convictions. From April 1933 to 1940 in the NKVD bodies - assistant operatives, operatives deputy head of department IV department. He does not remember anything about the Bauerov case, although they showed the protocol of interrogation. Apparently, they were interrogated more than once. But the protocols were not kept. Since they did not give evidence. did not use prohibited methods of influence". This does not need a comment. Let's declare a "Minute of Silence" ... In 2003, Mikhail Ervinovich Bauer published the book "Memoirs of an Ordinary Man" (St. Petersburg: ASSPIN Peterhof, 2003), dedicated to the blessed eternal memory of killed father and mother Erwin and Stephanie Bauer. These are not only memories. It is also a monument to many and many children and parents of that time. It is difficult to read this book. It is difficult to experience the arrest of parents, forcible placement in an orphanage together with the author. KVD. Separation from younger brother. Work at a military factory as a turner ... In March 1942 - drafted into the army. And instead of the army, they were sent to a concentration camp - to the "Zheldorlager". They were building a road to Vorkuta... “When, after the shift, we trudged along the sleepers to the zone, many fell down and never got up. In the morning, when we went to work, freezing corpses lay on both sides of the road ... Many on the bunk very often had to wake up next to the dead. Of the brigade of eighteen people, six survived ... There was death, coffins, burial in piles without coffins and a struggle for life around. And then - Special settlement. Altai steppe. At the end of December 1943 - again mobilization to the Labor Army. They sent me to Barnaul to a military factory. Admission to the evening institute. Marriage. Birth of a daughter. 1956 Parent rehabilitation. Return to Leningrad. A difficult life with constant memory of parents. The outstanding steadfastness and intelligence of the author, who gratefully remembers everyone who treated him kindly in his life. All his life he strove for scientific activity - a clear result of childhood imprinting. It would be in the scientific literature the name of ME Bauer... Notes 1. Bauer ES Theoretical biology. M.: Ed. VIEM, 1935. 2. Tokin B. P. Theoretical biology and creativity of E. S. Bauer. Ed. Leningrad University, 1963. 3. Erwin Bauer and Theoretical Biology (To the 100th anniversary of his birth): Collection of scientific papers. Pushchino, 1993. 4. History of Russia 1917-1940. Reader. Ekaterinburg, 1993. 5. Against mechanical materialism and Menshevik idealism in biology / Sat. ed. P. P. Bondarenko, V. S. Brandgendler, M. S. Mitskevich, B. P. Tokin; Edition of the Communist Academy; Association of Natural History Institutes; Society of Marxist Biologists and the Biological Institute. K. A. Timiryazev. M.; L.: Mrs. Honey. Ed., 1931. 6. Soifer VN Power and Science. The history of the defeat of genetics in the USSR. Ed. Hermitage, 1989. 7. This overly categorical statement needs to be clarified (and refuted?). It is based on the fact that the three-dimensional configuration of the polypeptide chain in protein molecules is determined by the sequence of amino acid residues. The chain itself rolls up and "fits", forming an equilibrium structure according to the arrangement along the chain of positively and negatively charged, polar (hydrophilic) and non-polar (hydrophobic) amino acid radicals, depending on the properties of the environment. However, Valery Ivanovich Ivanov drew my attention to the deliberately tense, non-equilibrium configuration of the supercoiled DNA structure, which is a necessary condition for the life of a cell. It would be important to consider to what extent this "sustainable disequilibrium" of DNA is consistent with Bauer's principle. (Note to 2nd edition). 8. Free energy is stored in cells in the form of free energy of the processes of catabolism of food molecules or, in the end, in the form of macroergic phosphates. It can be objected that this does not contradict Bauer's basic principle - the Principle of Stable Non-Equilibrium - a certain concentration of high-energy compounds is continuously maintained as a specific property of life. Perhaps Bauer would agree with this. But he was killed a few years before Lipmann created the concept of macroergy. And, besides, high-energy compounds, for example, pyrophosphates, are not at all biologically specific ... Similar ideas about the non-equilibrium state of molecules in a cell were developed in the same years by the famous contemporary of Bauer, A. G. Gurvich, who explained the radiation of living cells that he discovered and called mitogenetic the decay of "non-equilibrium constellations" of molecules (see chapter 12).

I am grateful to Irina Nikolaevna Vishnyakova and Liya Grigorievna Okhnyanskaya for providing me with the transcript of the conference discussing E.S. Bauer's Theoretical Biology in 1935. 10. Boris Petrovich Tokin was one of the most active destroyers of free nautsch in the early 1930s. However, he highly appreciated the work of E.S. Bauer and helped M.E. Bauer, who returned to Leningrad. 11. In the history of the uncompromising struggle for the preservation of domestic biology, DV Lebedev has a place of honor. I am extremely grateful to him for the memories of E. S. Bauer - he listened to his lectures and reports and kept their notes. 12. Many employees of the laboratory (department) of E.S. Bauer became victims of terror. Zoologist-protistologist Anna Mikhailovna Granovskaya was arrested in 1937 as the wife of an "enemy of the people". Her husband Ernest Matveyevich Gursky, a member of the Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party, was shot. Their little son Bronislaw, like the children of the Bauers, was placed in a special orphanage. In 1942, she was released from the camp and sent into exile in the region of the Usa River (a tributary of the Pechora). Bronislav was released into exile with his mother in 1944. They were released in 1956. 13. I am grateful to Yu.P. Golikov, who sent me the book “Days of Medicine and Biology in St. Petersburg” published under his editorship. SPb.: 1998. Two articles in this book are devoted to E. S. Bauer: I. B. Ptitsyna, S. Yu. Nazarov P.G. “Details of liquidation in VIEM of the Department of General Biology of E.S. Bauer” P.62-70

Erwin Simonovich Bauer(Hungarian Bauer Ervin; October 19, 1890, Lech, Austria-Hungary - January 11, 1938) - Hungarian Soviet theoretical biologist. Brother of Bela Balazs.

Biography

Born in the family of Simon Bauer, a teacher of French and German in a real school. He graduated from the medical faculty in Göttingen in Germany, where he studied histology and pathological anatomy. In 1914, he passed the exam for a doctor and was mobilized into the Austro-Hungarian army. In 1915-1918 he worked in the garrison hospital.

His first wife, the famous Hungarian writer Margit Kaffka, and their young son died in 1918 from influenza. Fascinated by socialist ideas, Bauer became a communist and took part in the Hungarian revolution of 1919. After its suppression in the fall of 1919, together with his second wife, Stephanie Szilard, he emigrated to Vienna, then to Göttingen. In 1921 they arrived in Prague, where Bauer became an assistant to Professor Ruzczka in the Department of General Biology and Experimental Morphology at Charles University.

In 1925, at the invitation of the director of the Institute of Occupational Diseases. Butt in Moscow Bauer moves to the USSR and works in the laboratory of general biology. In 1931, he organized a laboratory of general biology at the newly created Biological Institute. K. A. Timiryazev. In 1934 he moved with his family to Leningrad, where he was invited to the newly created All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine (VIEM) to organize a department of general biology with laboratories: general biology, cancer, metabolism, biological and physical chemistry, electrobiological, biophysical. Under the auspices of VIEM, Bauer's main work "Theoretical Biology" was published. Bauer and his wife were arrested on the same day, August 3, 1937, their children, young sons Mikhail and Karl, were sent to orphanages.

The principle of stable non-equilibrium of living systems

“All and only living systems are never in equilibrium and perform, due to their free energy, constantly work against the equilibrium required by the laws of physics and chemistry under existing external conditions.”

(Theoretical biology, p. 43).

This principle serves to fundamentally distinguish between a working living system and a working mechanical system or machine.

“Consequently, in order to preserve them, that is, the conditions of the system, it is necessary to constantly renew them, that is, to constantly expend work. Thus, the chemical energy of food is consumed in the body to create the free energy of the structure, to build, renew, maintain this structure, and is not directly converted into work.

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Bauer theoretical biology. E.S. Bauer. "Theoretical Biology"

Biography

The principle of stable non-equilibrium of living systems

E.S. Bauer. "Theoretical Biology"

Literature:

Biography

The principle of stable non-equilibrium of living systems