Table of contents:
- The undermined psyche and the fix idea about the perfect food
- Collaboration with British scientists
- Oil-free pasta and no cholesterol
- Conflict with Khrushchev and the collapse of the idea
Video: As a scientist, Nesmeyanov wanted to feed Soviet citizens with oil, but Khrushchev's corn won
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Black caviar has always been a symbol of Russia, along with fur, nesting dolls and a bear with a balalaika. It turns out that there was a scientist who dreamed of creating synthetic caviar from oil and feeding it to the entire population of the country. We are talking about Alexander Nesmeyanov, who headed the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in the fifties of the 20th century. Read in the article why he was preoccupied with creating artificial food, what were the pasta created from petroleum products, and why Nesmeyanov's idea failed.
The undermined psyche and the fix idea about the perfect food
Alexander was born in 1899. The parents were teachers. They lived not too richly, but not poorly either. After the October Revolution, Nesmeyanov took the side of the Bolsheviks and decided to work for the good of the Soviet Union. The hungry years of the 1920s became an event that had a huge impact on the psyche of the future scientist. During this period, Alexander worked in food detachments, that is, together with his associates, he traveled around some regions of the country in order to take away the grain from the peasants, hidden for a rainy day.
According to Soviet propaganda, a real Soviet person should not have hidden bread. Such actions were attributed only to fists, greedy and unprincipled. In reality, everything was completely different, as Nesmeyanov soon became convinced. He was struck by the nightmarish poverty and hunger that made people scared, ready to do anything for food, animals.
The villagers were at that moment not up to the building of communism. It was about survival. Some areas were entirely inhabited by emaciated, starving people. Peasants left for another world with whole families, there were even cases of cannibalism. These terrible events, which Nesmeyanov could observe personally, caused severe trauma to the psyche of the scientist. Alexander made an oath to himself that Soviet people should not experience hunger, and that he personally must contribute to solving this problem.
Collaboration with British scientists
In 1922 Nesmeyanov graduated from Moscow State University. After that, he decided to continue working at the department, which was headed by the chemist Zelinsky. Nesmeyanov himself was a strong scientist. For twenty years he has made his way from an assistant to an academician respected by everyone, and in 1951 he took a high post - the president of the Academy of Sciences. From that moment, Nesmeyanov had the opportunity to realize his old dream - to feed the people, so much so that no one would ever remember about hunger. For these purposes, the academician wanted to use food made from hydrocarbons. After all, he devoted a lot of time to this, and had a large group of associates.
By the way, the idea to produce food from petroleum products came up not only to the academician from the USSR. In 1955 Nesmeyanov met with chemist Todd from Great Britain. He was a Nobel laureate who was very interested in the issue of synthesizing protein food from hydrocarbons. Todd has had some success in this direction.
The conversation between the two scientists was long. After that, Todd received an offer to send 2 Soviet scientists to Cambridge for an internship. Two chemists were selected - Nikolai Kochetkov and Eduard Mistryukov. They diligently absorbed foreign experience, and the knowledge gained became the basis of the method of Academician Nesmeyanov. Several Soviet universities in the late 50s began to work closely on the synthesis of food from products of inorganic origin.
Oil-free pasta and no cholesterol
The fifties in the USSR were marked by the collapse of agriculture and the food industry. People had to be fed with something. They tried to raise agriculture, of course, but it took time. The idea of Alexander Nesmeyanov was to make artificial products from oil and other inedible materials. Interestingly, the scientist himself adhered to (and followed) the theory of vegetarianism, calling the killing of living beings for the purpose of eating them unacceptable.
For the first time synthesized black caviar, for the production of which they took dairy waste, appeared in 1964. At the same time, tests of another project were carried out, namely pasta, yeast, and other food from oil.
Nesmeyanov not only worked on a new type of food, he brought moral and ideological bases under his development. As soon as synthetic food appears, the citizens of the USSR can forget about the fear of crop failures, the academician argued. He said that meat contains cholesterol, hormones, bacteria, but artificial food from carbohydrates does not, because it is useful. Such products do not grow moldy, they are not afraid of mice and rats. When food becomes fully synthetic, many agricultural workers will be freed up for labors in other areas.
Conflict with Khrushchev and the collapse of the idea
In 1969, Nesmeyanov's book about artificial and synthetic food was published. It contained the moral and practical thoughts of the scientist. However, during this period, the academician no longer held a post at the Academy of Sciences, which means that the possibilities for introducing the invention were not very wide. The fact is that in 1961 Nesmeyanov had a quarrel with the head of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev. The latter did not want to "swallow" the scientist's antics and simply deprived him of the post of President of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Nesmeyanov failed to prove the effectiveness and practical usefulness of the theory of artificial food. The country's leadership did not appreciate the attempt to treat people with oil, even carefully processed, believing that this would not be a victory for Soviet science, but a defeat. In addition, Khrushchev had his own plans to resolve the food crisis. He liked the idea of planting all the fields with corn. Cheap, nutritious and delicious.
Fortunately, Russia is famous not only for its insane scientists. There is many talented inventors who changed the world forever.
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