Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Ernst Haeckel’s “ecology” in Russia of the first half of the twentieth century

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Theory in Biosciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The vast scientific heritage of Ernst Haeckel, evolutionist and thinker, comprises ecology as well. It is well known that it was he in 1866 introduced the term “ecology” for the science on interaction of the organisms and the environment. Haeckel built his system of the biological science (to be more precise, of the zoological science), including ecology, on the basis of Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory (the theory of natural selection). Traditionally, it is supposed that Haeckel’s merit in world ecology is just the introduction of its name. However, there are few works devoting to development of Russian ecology. Actually, analysis of the impact of Haeckel’s ecological views on Russian biologists and development of ecology in the first half of the last century demonstrates that widely used opinion should be corrected. I hypothesise that Haeckel’s influence on Russian biologists was somewhat more than commonly thought. In spite of a rather long oblivion of the term “ecology” in the Russian literature followed by confusion of ecology and some other sciences (physiology, biogeography), some biologists saw in the Haeckel’s understanding of ecology the base for synthesis of ecology and the evolutionary theory. There are some specific traits of Haeckel’s influence on Russian biologists. At first, some of them accepted his evolutionary approach. Secondly, they highly appreciated his definition of ecology. Biologists defended such understanding of ecology even in the period of Lysenkoism pressure. At the same time, it is evident that Haeckel’s influence on development of ecology was somewhat limited.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. This is an usual abbreviation for the V.I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

References

  • Alimov AF (2002) Ob ekologii vser’ez [Seriously on ecology]. Vestnik RAN 72:1075–1080 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Alpatov VV (1923) Ekologiya, kak napravlenie kraevedcheskoy raboty v oblasti zoologii [Ecology as a direction of the regional study in zoology]. Kraevedenie 1:26–31 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Alpatov VV (1939) Rabota laboratorii ekologii NIIZ v 1933-1937 gg. [The work of the laboratory of ecology of the research institute of zoology]. Voprosy ekologii i biocenologii 4:322–326 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Alpatov VV (1940) Laboratoriya ekologii [The laboratory of ecology]. Uchenye zapiski Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta LIV:51–59 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Alpatov VV (1957) N.P. Naumov. Ekologiya zhivotnykh. Recenziya [N.P. Naumov. “Animal ecology”. A review]. Byulleten’ Moskovskogo obshchestva ispytatelej prirody. Otdel biologicheskij LXII:64–67 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonym (1935) Ot redakcii [Editors’s note]. Voprosy ekologii i biocenologii 2:3–6 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhmetiev PI (1900) Vital’nyj temperaturnyj minimum zhivotnykh s peremennoj temperaturoj krovi [The vital temperature minimum in the animals with inconstant blood temperature]. Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogdanov AP (1883) Medicinskaya zoologiya. Obshchie vstupitelnye zoologicheskie dannye i vozzreniya [Medical zoology. General introductory data and views]. A.A. Karzev’s Printing House, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Borzenkov Ya (1881) Istoricheskij ocherk napravlenij, sushchestvovavshikh v zoologicheskikh naukakh v XIX stoletii [Historical outline of the trends in zoological sciences of the XIX century]. University Printing House, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Colwell RK (1985) The evolution of ecology. Am Zool 25:771–777

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowdy JM (2011) Economy, ecology and sustainability. In: Schwarz A, Jax K (eds) Ecology revisited: reflecting on concepts, advancing science. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 404–411

    Google Scholar 

  • Dementiev GP (1970) Russkie osnovopolozhniki ekologii [Russian founders of ecology]. In: Ocherki po istorii ekologii [Essays on the history of ecology]. “Nauka”, Moscow, pp 77–88 (in Russian)

  • Di Gregorio MA (2005) From here to eternity. Ernst Haeckel and scientific faith. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Gottingen

    Google Scholar 

  • Diskussiya “Osnovnye ustanovki i puti razvitiya sovetskoj ekologii” [The Discussion “The main positions and pathways of development of Soviet Ecology”] (1934). Sovetskaya botanika 3:3–68 (in Russian)

  • Egerton F (2007) Understanding food chains and food webs, 1700-1970. Bull Ecol Soc Am 88:50–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egerton F (2013) History of ecological sciences, part 47: Ernst Haeckel’s ecology. Bull Ecol Soc Am 94:222–244

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egerton F (2015) History of ecological sciences, part 55: animal population ecology. Bull Ecol Soc Am 96:560–626

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egerton F (2016) History of ecological sciences, part 57: aspects of limnology in America, 1930s to about 1990, Led by Hutchinson and Hasler. Bull Ecol Soc Am 97:228–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egerton F (2017) History of ecological sciences, part 59: niches, biomes, ecosystems, and systems. Bull Ecol Soc Am 98:298–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elton Ch (1927) Animal ecology. Macmillan, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fedorov MP, Chusov AN, Shilin MB (2017) Ekologiya dlya tekhnicheskikh universitetov: ot “ekonomii prirody” k “ekologicheskoj ekonomike” za 150 let (1866-2016) [Ecology for the technical universities: from the “economy of nature” to the “ecological economics” for 150 years (1866–2016)]. St. Petersburg Polytechnic University Publishing House, St. Petersburg (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gause G (1934) The struggle for existence. The Williams and Wilkins Company, Baltimore

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Geptner VG (1936) Obshchaya zoogeografiya [General zoogeography]. State Publishing House of Biological and Medical Literature, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghilarov AM (1992) Sto dvadtsat pyat let “ekologii” Ernsta Gekkelya [One hundred and twenty five years of Ernst Haeckel’s “ecology”]. Zhurnal obshchej biologii 53:5–17 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghilarov AM (2003) The changing place of theory in 20th century ecology: from universal laws to array of methodologies. Oikos 92:357–362

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghilarov AM (2013) Sovremennaya ekologiya pod gruzom estestvennoj istorii [Contemporary ecology under pressure of natural history]. Zhurnal obshchey bioloogii 74:243–252 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Haeckel E (1866) Generelle Morphologie der Organismen. Georg Reimer, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Haeckel E (1909) Estestvennaya istoriya mirotvoreniya [Natural history of the world creation]. Nauchnaya mysl, St. Petersburg (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Haeckel E (1935) Mirovye zagadki [World riddles]. OGIZ, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopwood N (2015) Haeckel’s Embryos: images, evolution and fraud. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hossfeld U (2010) Absolute Ernst Haeckel. Orange Press, Freiburg

    Google Scholar 

  • Hossfeld U, Levit G (2015) Yubilej Ernsta Gekkelya v 1934 godu [The Ernst Haeckel anniversary in 1934]. Istoriko-biologicheskie issledovaniya [Studies in the History of Biology] 7:53–66 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hossfeld U, Olsson L, Levit GS (2017) The 150th anniversary of Ernst Haeckel‘s “Biogenetic law”. Proc Russ State Hydrometeorol Univ 47:167–176

    Google Scholar 

  • Jax K, Schwarz A (2011a) Competing terms. In: Schwarz A, Jax K (eds) Ecology revisited: reflecting on concepts, advancing science. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 155–159

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jax K, Schwarz A (2011b) The early period of word and concept formation. In: Schwarz A, Jax K (eds) Ecology revisited: reflecting on concepts, advancing science. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 149–153

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kalabukhov NI (1956) N.P. Naumov. Ekologiya zhivotnykh [N.P. Naumov “Animal ecology”]. Uspekhi sovremennoj biologii XLII:259–264 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kashkarov DN (1933) Sreda i soobshchestvo (osnovy sinekologii) [Environment and community (the basic principles of synecology)]. State Medical Publishing House, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kholodkovsky NA (1893) Konspekt lekcij medicinskoj zoologii, chitannykh v Imperatorskoj Voenno-medicinskoj akademii v 1892-93 uchebnom godu professorom N.A. Kholodkovskim [Synopsis of the lectures on medical zoology read in the Imperial Military Medical Academy in 1892–93 academic year by professor N.A. Kholodkovsky]. Ya. Trey’s Printing House, St. Petersburg (in Russian)

  • Kholodkovsky NA (1898) Rabota mysli v novejshej zoologii [The work of thinking in modern zoology]. Mir Bozhij 5:37–44 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kholodkovsky NA (1918) Uchebnik zoologii dlya vysshikh uchebnykh zavedenij, preimushchestvenno dlya medikov [Handbook of zoology for higher educational institutions, mainly for physicians]. A.F. Devrien’s Publishing House, Petrograd (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleynenberg SE (1951) Sergej Alekseevich Severtsov [Sergey Alekseevich Severtsov]. In: Severtsov SA (ed) Problemy ekologii zhivotnykh: neopublikovannye raboty [The problems of animals ecology: unpublished works]. Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow, pp 5–10 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Knipovich NM (1909) Kurs obshchej zoologii dlya vysshikh uchebnykh zavedenij i samoobrazovaniya [Course of general zoology for higher educational institutions and self-education]. A.F. Devrien’s Publishing House, St. Petersburg (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kolchinsky EI (1999) V poiskakh sovetskogo “soyuza” filosofii i biologii (diskussii i repressii v 20-kh—nachale 30-kh gg.) [In search of the Soviet “union” between philosophy and biology (the discussions and the repressions in the 1920s—the early 1930s)]. “Dmitriy Bulanin”, St. Petersburg (in Russian)

  • Kolchinsky EI (2014) Edinstvo evolyutsionnoj teorii v razdelennom mire XX veka [The unity of evolutionary theory in divided world of the XX century]. Nestor-Historia, St. Petersburg (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Krausse E (1987) Ernst Haeckel. BSB B.G. Teubner Verlagsgesselschaft, Leipzig

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kulagin NM (1937) Zoologiya [Zoology]. SelKhozGIS, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lekevicius E (2006) The Russian paradigm in ecology and evolutionary biology: pro et Contra. Acta Zoologica Lituanica 16:3–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levit GS (2011) Looking at Russian ecology through the biosphere theory. In: Schwarz A, Jax K (eds) Ecology revisited: reflecting on concepts, advancing science. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 333–347

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Levit GS, Hossfeld U, Olsson L (2004) The integration of Darwinism and evolutionary morphology: Alexej Nikolajevich Sewertzoff (1866–1936), and the developmental basis of evolutionary change. J Exp Zool 302B:343–354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menzbir MA (1887) Vvedenie v izuchenie zoologii [Introduction to zoology study]. Bookseller A.L. Vasiliev’s edition, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Mirzoyan EN (2013) Stanovlenie ekologicheskikh koncepcij v SSSR: sem vydayushchikhsya teorij (D.N. Kashkarov, V.V. Stanchinsky, S.A. Severtsov, V.N. Beklemishev, L.G. Ramensky, R.F. Gekker, L.S. Berg) [The formation of ecological concepts in the USSR: seven outstanding theories (D.N. Kashkarov, V.V. Stanchinsky, S.A. Severtsov, V.N. Beklemishev, L.G. Ramensky, R.F. Gekker, L.S. Berg)]. Book House “Librokom”, Moscow (in Russian)

  • Morozov GF (1912) Uchenie o lese [The science of the forest]. Printing House of St. Petersburg City Administration, St. Petersburg (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Naumov NP (1955) Ekologiya zhivotnykh [Animal ecology]. Sovetskaya Nauka, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nikolsky AM (1909) Geografiya zhivotnykh [Animal geography]. Russian Printing House, Kharkov (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nikolsky GV (1955) O soderzhanii, teoreticheskikh osnovakh i osnovnykh zadachakh ekologii zhivotnykh [On the content, theoretical basis, and principal tasks of animal ecology]. Zoologicheskij zhurnal 34:68–79 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Novikov GA (1970) Sto let ekologii Ernsta Gekkelya [One hundred years of the ecology of Ernst Haeckel]. In: Ocherki po istorii ekologii [Essays on the history of ecology]. Nauka, pp 22–76 (in Russian)

  • Novikov GA (1980) Ocherk istorii ekologii zhivotnykh [An essay on the history of animal ecology]. Nauka, Leningrad (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ochser PH (1959) The word “ecology”. Science 129:992

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ozernyuk ND (2012) Nauchnaya shkola N.K. Koltsova: ucheniki i soratniki [N.K. Koltsov’s scientific school: disciples and fellows]. KMK, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Puzanov II (1938) Zoogeografiya [Zoogeography]. State Educational and Pedagogical Publishing House of the People Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Reiss C, Springer S, Hossfeld U, Olsson L, Levit G (2007) Introduction to the autobiography of Julius Schaxel. Theory Biosci 126:165–175

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Richards RJ (2008) The tragic sense of life: Ernst Haeckel and the struggle over evolutionary thought. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rivera AC (2003) Trends in the evolution of ecology: “Spain is different”. Web Ecol 4:14–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roll-Hansen N (2008) Wishful science: the persistence of T.D. Lysenko’s agrobiology in the politics of science. Osiris 23:166–188

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schmalhausen II (1939) Darvinizm i teorii napravlennoj evolyutsii [Darwinism and the theories of directed evolution]. Zoologicheskij zhurnal 8:544–556 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt PYu (1925) Organizm i sreda. O sootnosheniyakh organizma s mekhanicheskimi, fizicheskimi i khimicheskimi usloviyami sredy [Organism and environment. On the interrelations of the organism with mechanical, physical and chemical conditions of the environment]. State Publishing House, Leningrad (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt PYu (1927) Organizm sredi organizmov [Organism among organisms]. State Publishing House, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz A, Jax K (2011) Etymology and original sources of the term “ecology”. In: Schwarz A, Jax K (eds) Ecology revisited: reflecting on concepts, advancing science. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 145–146

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Serebrovsky PV (1925) Rol’ klimata v evolyutsii ptic [The role of climate in the evolution of birds]. Byulleten’ Moskovskogo obshchestva ispytatelej prirody. Novaya seriya, otdelenie biologii 34:375–415 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Severtsov SA (1937) Darvinizm i ekologiya [Darwinism and ecology]. Zoologicheskij zhurnal 16:591–613 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Severtsov SA (1941) Dinamika naseleniya i prisposobitelnaya evolyutsiya zhivotnykh [The population dynamics and the adaptive evolution of animals]. Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Severtsov SA (1948) Morfo-biologicheskaya teoriya i nekotorye problemy evolyutsionnoj ekologii [The morpho-biological theory and some problems of evolutionary ecology]. Izvestiya Akademii nauk SSSR, seriya biologicheskaya 3:357–363 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Severtsov SA (1951) Problemy ekologii zhivotnykh: neopublikovannye raboty [The Problems of Animal Ecology: unpublished works]. Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimkevich VM (1901) Biologicheskie osnovy zoologii [The biological foundations of zoology]. Partnership M.O. Volf, St. Petersburg (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimkevich VM (1904) Ekologiya [Ecology]. In: Andreevsky (ed) Enciklopedicheskij Slovar’ Brokgauza i Efrona, vol. 79. F.A. Brokgaus and I.A. Efron, Moscow, p 256 (in Russian)

  • Shimkevich VM (1907) K russkomu izdaniyu [On the Russian Edition]. In: Haeckel E (ed) Mirovye zagadki [World Riddles]. I.D. Ivanov’s Book-Publishing House, Moscow, pp I–VII (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Simberloff D (1980) A succession of paradigms in ecology: essentialism to materialism and probabilism. Synthese 43:3–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stanchinsky VV (1923) Ekologicheskoe napravlenie v zoogeografii: zadachi i metody ekologo-geograficheskikh issledovanij ornitofauny [Ecological direction in zoogeography: tasks and methods of ecologo-geographic research of the ornitofauna]. In: Derjugin KM (ed) Proceedings of the first congress of the Russian zoologists, anatomists and histologists in petrograd 15-21/XII 1922. Russian Hydrological Institute’s Printing House, Petrograd, pp 29–30 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanchinsky VV (1931) Sukhoputnye soobshchestva zhivotnykh i metody ikh izucheniya [Terrestrial communities of the animals and methods of their research]. In: Schmalhausen II (ed) Proceedings of the fourth congress of zoologists, anatomists and histologists of the Union of S.S.R. Gosmedizdat of Ukrainian SSR, Kiev, pp 64–66 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Stauffer R (1957) Haeckel, Darwin and ecology. Q Rev Biol 32:138–144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taliev VI (1926) Organizm, sreda i prisposoblenie [The organism, the environment, and the adaptation]. State Publishing House, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Tansley A (1987) What is ecology? Biol J Lin Soc 32:5–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Timiryazev KA (1907) Osnovnye cherty istorii razvitiya biologii v XIX stoletii [The main traits of the history of the development of biology in the XIX century]. Comradeship “Brothers A. and I. Granat and Ko”, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Timiryazev KA (1922) Istoricheskij metod v biologii [The historical method in biology]. Russian Bibliographical Institute of the brothers A. and I. Granat and Ko, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Uschmann G (1967) 100 Jahre “Generelle Morphologie”. Biologische Rundschau 5:241–252

    Google Scholar 

  • Uschmann G (1970) Opredelenie Ernstom Gekkelem ponyatiya “ekologiya” [The definition by Ernst Haeckel of the notion “ecology”]. In: Ocherki po istorii ekologii [Essays on the history of ecology]. Nauka, Moscow, pp 10–21 (in Russian)

  • Vasnetsov VV (1938) Ekologicheskie korrelyatsii [The ecological correlations]. Zoologicheskij zhurnal 17:561–578 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Vorontsov NN (2004) Razvitie evolyutsionnykh idej v biologii [Development of evolutionary ideas in biology]. КMК, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Vulf EV (1932) Vvedenie v istoricheskuyu geografiyu rastenij [An introduction to historical geography of plants]. VASKhNIL’s Publishing House, Leningrad (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zernov SA (1934) Obshchaya gidrobiologiya [General hydrobiology]. Biomedgis, Moscow (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Prof. Eduard I. Kolchinsky for translation (from German into Russian) for my work the chapter on ecology and some other texts from “General Morphology of Organisms” and for discussion of some issues of the topic of this manuscript. I also bring my sincere gratitude to Dr. Georgy S. Levit for his comments on draft version of the manuscript and to Prof. Alexey S. Severtsov (Moscow State University) for provision of the portrait of his father. I am deeply grateful to the staff of the Scientific Library of Zoological Institute of the RAS (especially to the head of the Library Dr. Evgenia S. Labina and to librarians Svetlana M. Pulkkinen, Anna A. Khalina, Yulia A. Dunaeva, Daria A. Gudkova). I address my special appreciation to anonymous reviewer of the manuscript. The work is supported by Russian Fund of Basic Research (Project No. 18-011-00733).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. St. Petersburg Branch of the S.I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, University Embankment 5/2, St. Petersburg, Russia, 199034

    Alexandra L. Rizhinashvili

Authors
  1. Alexandra L. Rizhinashvili
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandra L. Rizhinashvili.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This article is a contribution to the Special Issue Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919): The German Darwin and his impact on modern biology. Guest Editors: U. Hossfeld, G. S. Levit, U. Kutschera.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rizhinashvili, A.L. Ernst Haeckel’s “ecology” in Russia of the first half of the twentieth century. Theory Biosci. 138, 89–103 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-019-00281-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-019-00281-7

Keywords