Zoology professor Nikolai Wagner was a famous children's writer. His "Tales of the Cat-Murlyki" were published during the Soviet era. However, Nikolai Petrovich left an equally bright trace in the history of spiritualism.
An important discovery
Wagner was born on July 18, 1829 in the Perm province. Later the family moved to Kazan. Nikolai said that in the last grades of the gymnasium he "began to be carried away by passion, It was a passion for collecting insects."
In 1845, Wagner entered the Kazan University, the department of natural sciences. There he met Alexander Butlerov, the future famous chemist and no less famous spiritualist. Their friendship lasted a lifetime.
After graduating from university with a gold medal, Wagner's career took off. At 22, he received a master's degree, and in 1860 became a professor of zoology at Kazan University.
For the first time, fame touched the scientist at the age of 33, when he discovered the fact of reproduction of some insects in the larval state, when the same larvae develop inside the larvae, but of a smaller size. The scientist received a number of prestigious awards for this discovery, including an award from the Paris Academy of Sciences.
And at his leisure, Nikolai Petrovich composed fairy tales for his two sons. Friends, who knew about the professor's literary talent, persuaded him to publish a collection of fairy tales under the pseudonym Cat-Murlyka. Wagner soon realized that writing made more money than zoology.
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In 1870, Nikolai Petrovich went to work at St. Petersburg University and again found himself next to Butlerov. Alexander Mikhailovich introduced his old friend to spiritualism.
First session
The famous medium Daniel Hume was a relative of Butlerov. The fame of him thundered throughout St. Petersburg. Once he invited Wagner and two of his acquaintances to visit an apartment on the 8th line of Vasilievsky Island in house No. 17, where Hume lived then, in order to take part in a seance.
“Hume was ill, and I offered to make the experiment without his participation,” Nikolai Petrovich recalled. - I chose a table that has never been used in a seance. Five of us sat down: I, my acquaintances, who also had never seen spiritualistic phenomena, Butlerov, and one of my old acquaintances, a very respectable lady, who was extremely afraid of these phenomena as undoubted devilry. The table did not move. Suddenly the door opens and Hume enters, wrapped in a blanket.
- And what are you doing ?! Let me sit down too.
- No! No! - we say. “We don’t need you.
“Excuse me, I’m just for one minute! - and sits down next to him.
Less than five minutes later, the table began to move towards me.
“Put all your hands, palms up,” says Hume, and does the same himself. The table continues to move.
- Where are your legs? I ask.
- Here! - and he put his legs, wrapped in a blanket, on mine. The table continues to move and pushes me against the back of the chair.
This was my first acquaintance with spiritualistic phenomena. The result of the experiment was sharp, astounding. The table moved without the participation of any of those present, because they had no purpose or benefit to mystify me. The only exception was Hume, but his arms and legs were under the control of my eyes."
Fight for the truth
Wagner studied spiritualistic phenomena. Not trusting professional mediums, he gathered his own circle, where no one had any reason to deceive the others. After making sure that mysterious phenomena exist, the professor decided to appeal to the people. His "Letter to the Editor on Spiritualism" in Vestnik Evropy, April 1875, gave the impression of a bomb. For the first time in Russia, a famous scientist admitted that he did not doubt the authenticity of the studied phenomena.
“Many could not immediately understand how to relate to his letter,” recalled Viktor Pribytkov, editor of the Rebus magazine 25 years later. "If it had not been written by a professor, it would undoubtedly have been taken for a Christmas story, for a duck, for anything but a fact."
Despite the professor's signature, some decided that it was an April Fool's joke, since the issue of the "Vestnik Evropy" was published on April 1. When the first impression passed, a noise arose in the public, and streams of mockery, ridicule and mockery poured from the pages of newspapers and magazines at the participants of the sessions described by N. P. Wagner. Most of them went to the author of the letter as the main culprit of the dangerous fermentation of minds. The agitated public demanded that a scientific investigation of spiritualism be carried out at St. Petersburg University. The commission under the leadership of the famous scientist Dmitry Mendeleev for several months studied mediums discharged from abroad. The results of the sessions exceeded all expectations: in front of the scientists, the table rose into the air, tapping out reasonable answers to questions. Mendeleev chose to hide the unpleasant facts and forge the session protocols,despite the protests of Wagner and Butlerov. The author of the table of chemical elements sincerely believed that the main task of the commission was to oppose "harmful superstitions."
After an unsuccessful struggle with Mendeleev, Nikolai Petrovich decided to organize a scientific group for the study of spiritualism, not associated with St. Petersburg University. The Ministry of Internal Affairs imposed a ban on its creation so as not to worry the people.
Family drama
In 1888, another scandal shook the Petersburg society. Vladimir Wagner, one of the sons of Nikolai Petrovich, shot his wife and was sent to Siberia. The professor's colleagues knew Vladimir well and considered him a "typical degenerate." The scientist brought his son to the Solovetsky Islands, where a biological station worked, hoping that his son would become a monk, but nothing came of it.
The trial broke the professor's psyche. Instead of fairy tales, he decided to write a novel about the worldwide Jewish-Masonic conspiracy. Spiritualists also began to notice something was wrong. Wagner himself began to hear the voices of the "spirits" and to commit insane acts on their orders.
In addition to the university, Wagner taught zoology at the Bestuzhev courses. Yulia Andrusova, a future teacher in the field of preschool and primary education, recalled:
“One day Wagner came to our lecture without a collar. Instead, a rather dirty handkerchief was tied around his neck, the tips of which protruded from one side, like two hare ears. We looked at him in surprise. “You are surprised, ladies,” Wagner said, interrupting the lecture. "This, of course, seems strange to you, but the spirits forbade me to wear a collar this morning."
Another time he came with one shaved mustache. Someone chuckled. Wagner looked at everyone, smiling through his glasses, and said: “What can I do, ladies, I look funny, but it's not my fault. I began to shave in the morning, shaved off one mustache, and the perfume said: "Enough." Wagner came to the next lecture clean-shaven. The spirits must have allowed it."
Once, by order of the spirits, Nikolai Petrovich interrupted the lecture and, without even going home, went to Leo Tolstoy. The writers did not find a common language, but the visit to Yasnaya Polyana was not in vain. Lev Nikolaevich used everything that Wagner said when writing the satirical play The Fruits of Enlightenment.
Scientific society
In 1881, the Russian Society of Experimental Psychology was created, and N. P. Wagner became its president. His efforts over the years have been crowned with success. Now he could officially study the mysterious phenomena of the psyche and print the minutes of the meetings. Only scientists and doctors were accepted as members of the society.
The first year of the society's activity was mainly devoted to the study of telepathy and reading minds from involuntary muscle movements - a skill that Wolf Messing skillfully mastered. Only in 1893, scientists began experiments with the cadet V. V. Nikolaev, an amateur medium. The room was thoroughly examined in advance, and the cadet was searched and dressed in a special suit with no pockets. Scientists have seen a strange light. It went out, flared up and concentrated, turning into glowing hands that have nothing to do with the clearly visible hands of the medium himself. The commission almost unanimously came to the conclusion that the phenomena taking place in the presence of Nikolaev are genuine.
Unfortunately, Wagner's disease continued to progress. In 1894, he could no longer lecture and deal with public affairs. The scientist went deeper and deeper into himself, breaking friendly ties. “For the last 10-12 years, Wagner retired from everything and slowly but gradually faded away,” recalled the zoologist Vladimir Shimkevich. - Two or three times I had to be with him. It was only a shadow of the former Nikolai Petrovich. His death was purely external. For science, for social activities and literature, he died long ago."
Wagner died on March 21, 1907 and was buried in the Smolensk cemetery. The tombstone has not survived to this day.
Mikhail Gershtein