Now the third generation of the Pozharsky dynasty of chemists has been conducting its multifaceted activities at the Southern Federal University. SFU professor, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation Alexander Fedorovich Pozharsky spoke about the history of his family.

Founder of the dynasty

The founder of the university dynasty was Fyodor Tikhonovich Pozharsky (1914-1976). Coming from a large proletarian family, in his youth he worked with his father and brothers as a turner at the steam locomotive repair plant. Lenin, graduated from the factory school.

His nature and the skills acquired from childhood and youth attracted him to technical and natural science knowledge. It is not surprising that in 1932 he entered the chemistry department of Rostov State University.

Fyodor Tikhonovich Pozharsky in the laboratory, ca. 1950 Fyodor Tikhonovich Pozharsky in the laboratory, ca. 1950

Fyodor Tikhonovich was a multi-talented person and a jack of all trades. He drew beautifully, had already mastered glassblowing at the chemical department, and knew the secrets of many crafts made from all kinds of materials, from paper to plastic. For example, he made wooden models of molecules, which are still used in lecture demonstrations at the SFU Chemistry Department.

“He was probably the first in the world to invent and begin to produce for employees a chemical ruler made of celluloid, which is extremely necessary for chemists to write complex molecules and reaction schemes when preparing articles, books, theses and dissertations. Similar lines and models appeared on sale abroad many years later, already in the computer era,” says Alexander Pozharsky .

After graduating from university, he served in the army, participating in the Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars, commanding a mortar platoon. He was wounded and awarded military medals. For almost ten years he taught chemistry at the Air Force school to future military pilots, and was a company commander there. In 1948, Fedor Tikhonovich returned to his alma mater: he entered graduate school at the Department of Organic Chemistry of the Russian State University. In 1952, he defended his Ph.D. thesis under the guidance of the head of the department of organic chemistry, Dmitry Emelyanovich Dionisyev .

The Soviet government drew attention to the merits and successes of Fyodor Tikhonovich, and in 1952 he was offered to become a scientific adviser in the young German Democratic Republic. In 1954, he returned to Rostov and until his retirement in 1974, he worked as an associate professor at the Department of Organic Chemistry, actively engaged not only in teaching and research in the field of organic synthesis, but also in social and party work on the scale of both the faculty and the entire university.

One of the best laboratory chemists

The position of a laboratory assistant in chemical departments is one of the key ones and requires high qualifications. One of the most outstanding laboratory assistants in the history of the Faculty of Chemistry of the Russian State University was the younger sister of Fyodor Tikhonovich Pozharsky, Elena Tikhonovna (1920-1988). In 1937-1941, under the influence of her brother, she studied at the Faculty of Chemistry, without completing the fifth year due to the outbreak of the war. From 1955 to 1980 she was a senior laboratory assistant at the Department of Organic Chemistry.

Elena Tikhonovna Kruzhilina (Pozharskaya) Elena Tikhonovna Kruzhilina (Pozharskaya)

“He was the best laboratory technician I have ever known in my life. In organic chemistry, the main thing is to obtain a new substance, separate it from impurities, purify it and finally identify it. Elena Tikhonovna performed this difficult work with brilliance and skill. It is not surprising that the head of the department constantly instructed her to check each new synthesis or to obtain a compound that was currently missing for the needs of the department. Often this substance was silver nitrate. To synthesize it, Elena Tikhonovna brought a silver ruble issued in the early 1920s by the Lenin government from family reserves, dissolved it in nitric acid and isolated colorless AgNO3 crystals, so needed in scientific work,” recalls Alexander Pozharsky .

“I am happy that I became a chemist”

In terms of the duration of study and work at the university (from 1956 to the present), as well as the successes achieved, the central figure in the Pozharsky dynasty can be considered the eldest son of Fyodor Tikhonovich, Alexander Fedorovich Pozharsky . He was born on December 8, 1938. As a schoolboy, he was interested in mathematics and literature, and studied well. By his own admission, he was not interested in chemistry.

Alexander Fedorovich Pozharsky in the center with his parents, 1941 Alexander Fedorovich Pozharsky in the center with his parents, 1941

However, Fyodor Tikhonovich gradually tried to instill in him a love for this discipline. From time to time he took his son to the laboratory, showed him beautiful experiments, and often talked about the affairs of the department and faculty. At home there was a rich library on chemistry, and my mother Irina Konstantinovna, who graduated with honors from the Faculty of Biology of the Russian State University, was more involved in chemistry in her life, working in factory laboratories and as a chemistry teacher at school. In the spring of 1956, the family moved from Rostov Mountain (as Komsomolskaya Square was called in previous years) to Chekhov Street, their house was a five-minute walk from the university and the chemistry department.

All this led Sasha at the end of 9th grade to the idea of ​​​​entering the chemistry department of the Russian State University. The competition for admission to the faculty was high at that time (5-6 people per place), but with a gold medal it was possible to enter without competition.

Alexander Fedorovich now recalls : “I decided to achieve a gold medal. It was not easy to do this, since in the 8th and 9th grades, due to a serious passion for chess, annual grades in Russian language and literature decreased. In addition, medals in those years were given out sparingly – from my class of 1956, only two received a gold medal in five graduating classes. To achieve my goal, I developed a whole program, the main points of which were stopping chess and music, high-quality physical training and tutoring. There is no need to say that the task was solved. I only deviated from the program once, when in January 1956 I competed for the school in the city team chess championship and secured first place for it.”

A.F. Pozharsky and E.T. Kruzhilina, class of 1961 A.F. Pozharsky and E.T. Kruzhilina, class of 1961

He created a similar program for himself, only designed for 5 years, when he became a student. In general terms, it included mastering the technique of experimental work in a chemical laboratory, specializing in organic chemistry, and starting scientific work in the 3rd year. He was very lucky that in 1957, a prominent Moscow scientist, Professor Andrei Mikhailovich Simonov , became the head of the Department of Organic Chemistry.whose student he became.Alexander Pozharsky graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry of the Russian State University with honors, and therefore was recommended for graduate school and completed it ahead of schedule, defending his Ph.D. thesis in 1963.

In 1968-1969 he trained at the University of East Anglia in physical research methods. Its leader was the famous British scientist, Professor Alan Katritsky . Their creative collaboration later resulted in the publication of three monographs on the chemistry of heterocyclic compounds, published in the world’s leading publishing houses.

In 1972, Alexander Fedorovich defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Research in the field of N-heteroaromatic amines,” and two years later he was confirmed with the rank of professor. In 1981, he headed the Department of Organic Chemistry and headed it for almost 40 years, until 2019. Now the department is headed by Pozharsky’s student, Professor Anna Vasilyevna Gulevskaya.

Under his leadership, 36 candidate and 4 doctoral dissertations were defended. Today Pozharsky is known as one of the outstanding Russian organic chemists, whose work in the field of organic and heterocyclic chemistry has received wide international recognition. He is included in the list of the most cited Russian chemists in the world and among the most cited scientists at SFU.

Alexander Fedorovich Pozharsky Alexander Fedorovich Pozharsky

Remembering the story of his life, Alexander Fedorovich likes to say how happy he is that he chose chemistry as his life’s work. It helps us better understand the world around us, especially the mysteries of living matter formed as a result of the continuously ongoing process of chemical evolution.

The dynasty continues

Following in the footsteps of her grandfather, father and mother, who also graduated from the Department of Analytical Chemistry of the Russian State University and later taught chemistry at the VTUZE plant (now a department of the DSTU), the daughter of Alexander Fedorovich Ekaterina Filatova (born in 1973) became the fourth member of the dynasty. She graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry of the Russian State University in 1996, and in 2001 successfully defended her PhD thesis at the Department of Organic Chemistry.

Ekaterina Filatova in the laboratory Ekaterina Filatova in the laboratory

After her defense, Ekaterina Aleksandrovna remained working at the department and went from junior researcher to associate professor. She, according to her father, is an excellent synthetic chemist who works hard and loves experiments. She discovered several previously unknown chemical transformations and synthesized many new compounds with a beautiful molecular structure.