Russian botanist particularly interested in diatoms. Konstantin Mereschkowski (Merezhkowsky) was famous for pioneering the theory of symbiogenesis, particularly the idea that chloroplasts originated as Cyanophyceae. Forced to leave Russia twice, probably both times because of sexual scandals, he lived in several different countries throughout his life. Born in Warsaw, then under Russian rule, his father was a high official in the Tsar's court. Mereschkowski studied at the University of St. Petersburg, beginning in 1875, and during this time undertook an expedition to the White Sea in order to indulge his interest in marine invertebrates. On this trip he discovered a new genus of hydrozoa. In 1880, having graduated, he took some time to travel in Europe and visited well known naturalists in France and Germany. While in Paris he turned his attention briefly to anthropology and published some works on this subject, as well as on animal pigments.

Back in St. Petersburg Mereschkowski became a lecturer at the university in 1883 and in the same year married Olga Petrovna Sultanova. For unknown reasons they left Russia in 1886, although it may have been linked to the paedophilic acts he was tried for in later life. Settling for a while in Crimea he worked as a pomologist studying grape varieties before moving to the U.S.A. in 1898. He left his wife and son in Crimea, in considerable poverty, and while in America he went by the name of 'William Adler'. Here Mereschkowski worked in Los Angeles and at Berkeley University classifying his diatom collections from the Black Sea. He came up with a new method of diatom classification based on internal structures, not just external ones which had been used previously.

Back in Russia in 1902, he was named curator of zoology at Kazan University and started lecturing there two years later. It was during this period that most of his work on symbiogenesis was undertaken. Although the idea had been suggested by a large number of scientists previously, Mereschkowski did a lot to convert the ideas into a cohesive theory. In 1905 his most famous work was published: "On the Nature and Origin of Chromatophores in the Plant Kingdom". Later he also argued that the nucleus represented a colony of bacteria living in symbiosis with an organism made entirely of protoplasm. His ideas were largely ignored or ridiculed by most other biologists at the time, only to be resurrected in the 1970s when electron microscopy lent support to Mereschkowski's theory.

In 1914 a criminal case was opened against him for the rape of 26 different girls since his return to Russia, one of which had become his student at just six years old. He was discharged from his post and fled to France where he remained during the First World War. From 1918 he sought refuge in Geneva where he worked in the Conservatoire Botanique revising the lichen collection of Delessert and publishing some related works. Even before his arrival in Switzerland Mereschkowski's resources were running dangerously low and he began to suffer from depression, even contemplating suicide. By 1921 he was no longer able to pay the rent on his hotel room and on the 9th January he was found dead by police, having tied himself up elaborately in his bed. He had created an asphyxiating gas which he breathed in through a mask from a metal container fixed to the wall.

Mereschkowski's complicated suicide, as well as his paedophilic activities, seem to have links with his idiosyncratic spirituality and extreme ideologies. An atheist, he dreamt of a utopia based on scientific principles, particularly the perfection of the human race through the laws of evolution. While in the United States he published a book entitled The earthly paradise, or a winter night's dream. The fairytale of the twenty-seventh century: a utopia; in it he described a world in which different human castes live alongside each other, one being a selectively bred race of neotenised sexual beings (adults exhibiting child-like features). This group of people were killed when they reached the age of 35 by drinking 'Nirvana', because old age was incompatible with happiness. This perhaps provides a link to the reasons behind his strange suicide.

Later in life his ideologies became so strong that he believed himself the saviour of mankind, and that he would have twelve disciples to carry out his work after his death. Strongly anti-Semitic, his eugenic views extended to the castration of all Jews. What's more, in the real world he played an active role in the nationalistic 'Kazan Department of the Union of Russian People'. Also secretly involved with the ministry of internal affairs he was responsible for routing out Jews and other 'traitors'. Despite his turbulent political and social life, Mereschkowski made many important contributions to botany and published a great deal of papers on diatoms and lichens, including "Instructions pour les collections de Diatomés" (1897-1898) and studies of diatoms from Tibet, Polynesia, California and many regions of Europe.

Sources:
J. Briquet, 1940, "Biographies des Botanistes a Genève", Bulletin de la Société Botanique Suisse, 50a: 318-320
J. Sapp et al., 2002, "Simbiogenesis, the hidden face of Constantin Merezhkowski", History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 24: 412-440.