Aleksei Nikolayevich Bach or Bakh (; – 13 May 1946) was a Russian and Soviet

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

and revolutionary. A prominent

populist Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...

in the late 1870s and early 1880s, Bach left Russia before returning after the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

in 1917. He was a member of the

Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...

and senior member of the

Supreme Soviet The Supreme Soviet () was the common name for the legislative bodies (parliaments) of the Soviet socialist republics (SSR) in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). These soviets were modeled after the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, establ ...

Early life and education

Bach grew up in

Boryspil Boryspil (, ) is a city and the administrative center of Boryspil Raion in Kyiv Oblast (region) in northern and central Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Boryspil urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. The population was estimate ...

Poltava Governorate Poltava Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire. It was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Little Russia Governorate (1796–1802), Little Russia Governorate and had its capital in Polt ...

, to a wine distillery technician's family of Jewish origin as Abel (Abram) Lipmanovich Bak. After converting to Orthodox Christianity, he was baptised as Aleksei Nikolayevich Bach. In 1875, he graduated from a high school in

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. After that, he joined the Physico-Mathematical Department of at the

University of Kiev The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

. After various revolutionary efforts, he emigrated to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in 1885 and later to

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. However, in 1878 he was expelled for taking part in student disturbances, and he joined the ''

Narodnaya Volya Narodnaya Volya () was a late 19th-century revolutionary socialist political organization operating in the Russian Empire, which conducted assassinations of government officials in an attempt to overthrow the autocratic Tsarist system. The org ...

'' ("People's Freedom") revolutionary party, which was active against the tsarist regime. He was arrested and exiled to

Belozersk Belozersk (), known as Beloozero () until 1777, is a town and the administrative center of Belozersky District in Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the southern bank of Lake Beloye, from which it takes the name, northwest of Vologda, the admi ...

, from where he returned to Kiev in December 1881 to continue his revolutionary activity. From 1883, Bach went underground to live in Kharkov, Yaroslavl, Kazan and Rostov. During that period, he wrote his celebrated revolutionary book ''Tsar Hunger'', which played an important role in spreading the ideas of scientific socialism in Russia.

Research

In 1885, after Narodnaya Volya was crushed, Bach emigrated to Paris to engage in scientific and literary work in the ''Montieur Scientifique'' journal. In 1890, he started experimental studies in the laboratory of Professor

Paul Schützenberger Paul Schützenberger (23 December 1829 – 26 June 1897) was a French chemist. He was born in Strasbourg, where his father Georges Frédéric Schützenberger (1779–1859) was professor of law, and his uncle Charles Schützenberger (1809–1881) ...

, a well-known chemist at the

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, which he followed in 1891 to a research trip in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In 1894, Bach moved to

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, where he worked in his private chemical laboratory and did joint research with Professor R. Chodat of Geneva University, a well-known Swiss scientist. It was precisely during the Geneva period of his life that Bach developed his peroxide theory of respiratory processes and took active part in Swiss scientific activities. Swiss scientists showed respect for Bach: the Geneva Society of Physical and Natural Sciences elected him its chairman for the year 1916. He built up an international reputation in

medical Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

and

agricultural chemistry Agricultural chemistry is the chemistry, especially organic chemistry and biochemistry, as they relate to agriculture. Agricultural chemistry embraces the structures and chemical reactions relevant in the production, protection, and use of Crop, ...

for his research on catalysis and photosynthesis. Bach's scientific focus was the study of the assimilation of carbon dioxide as well as the mechanism of oxidation to

peroxides In chemistry, peroxides are a group of compounds with the structure , where the R's represent a radical (a portion of a complete molecule; not necessarily a free radical) and O's are single oxygen atoms. Oxygen atoms are joined to each other and ...

. Engler-Bach peroxide theory was named after him. Bach's initial works in the 1890s were devoted to the chemical mechanism of assimilation of carbon dioxide by green plants. At that time, Baeyer's concept was already prevalent in science. Proceeding from Butlerov's discovery that sugars form from formaldehyde under the effect of alkalis, Baeyer suggested that formaldehyde, which in condensing yields sugar, was the primary product of photosynthesis. In his works devoted to the biochemistry of photosynthesis, Bach, while agreeing with Baeyer in regard to the role of formaldehyde in the forming of sugar, gave a somewhat different interpretation of the mechanism itself.

Political and public career

He was appointed its first director and the institute, where outstanding Soviet biochemists W.A. Engelgardt, A. E. Braunstein, B.I. Zbarsky, D.M. Mikhlin, A. I. Oparin, and others initially worked, played a major role in the development of biochemistry in the USSR. In 1929, Bach was elected full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1935, together with Oparin, he organized in Moscow the Institute of Biochemistry, Soviet Academy of Sciences, of which he was director to the last days of his life; the institute is now named after Bach. Also in 1935, Bach founded the Soviet scientific journal Biochemistry and was elected President of the D.I. Mendeleev All-Union Chemical Society. In 1939, he was elected Academician-Secretary, Division of Chemical Sciences, Soviet Academy of Sciences. In addition to being active in research and scientific organization, Bach was very active in public affairs: he was a member of the USSR Central Executive Committee and Deputy of the USSR Supreme Soviet. A

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

sympathizer, he moved back to Russia in 1917, and founded the Central Chemical Laboratory (the Karpov Physical Chemistry Institute from 1922), and remained there until his death. He undertook important research during the 1920s and advanced the use of chemicals in the food industry. He joined the Communist Party, 1927, and was made a member of the Soviet Central Executive Committee (VTslK), 1927. He was elected to the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1929, and president of the All-Union Chemistry Society, 1932. He founded the Biochemistry Institute,

, 1935, and also edited a biochemistry journal. As such he can be regarded as the father of Soviet biochemistry. He was elected a people's deputy, USSR Supreme Soviet, 1937, and became director of the department of chemical sciences, USSR Academy of Sciences, 1939. In the same year, as the oldest member of the Academy of Sciences, he proposed the academy to elect Joseph Stalin as an honorary member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1941 and

Hero of Socialist Labor The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievements in Soviet ...

in 1945. Bach was elected a member of the Party Central Committee, 1945. In 1928 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina. His grave is located in the

Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. History The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated ...

(Plot 4, Row 24, No. 7) in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

References

Sources

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bach, Alexei Nikolaevich 1857 births 1946 deaths 20th-century Russian chemists Chemists from the Russian Empire Russian revolutionaries Soviet chemists People from Zolotonosha All-Russian Central Executive Committee members First convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Socialist Revolutionary Party politicians Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Stalin Prize Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Narodnaya Volya Soviet biochemists Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery