There were some attempts to establish classical University in Nizhnii Novgorod in the beginning of the XX century, but finally it was started in 1918, with involvement of professors from Warsaw University. After many reforms, more or less stable period started in 1931. Electrochemical life was located at the faculty of Chemistry, which was one of the first faculties. Very informative historical web collection (in Russian) is cited below.
A separate research unit, the Institute of Chemistry was started in NNov University in 1944.
Technical University in Nizhnii Novgorod results from the transfer of Warsaw Polytechnica in 1916. After numerous reforms and transfomations, it was partly stabilized in 1934 as Industrial (later Polytechnical) Institute.
Moisey Borisovich Neiman (1898-1967) was chemical physicist who served as a head of Dept of physical chemistry in NNov University in 1939-1949. He made a lot working in other locations, but we assign him to NNov here because it was “the most electrochemical” period. In StPeterburg University (graduated in 1922), he was diploma student of M.S. Vrevskyi. Then he teached in various institutes in StPeterburg, and worked (in 1930s) in Physico-Technical Institute, where he studied combustion processes. Just this reaserch attracted his attention to polarography as the technique to quantify combustion products to clarify the kinetic scheme. He developed this research in NNov, especially in the Institute of Chemistry, which he headed in 1944-1946. He moved to the Institute of Chemical Physics (Moscow) after NNov period. See the article dedicated to 125 years jubilee and the article Neiman’s work beyond polarography in NNov (in Russian, were available in July 2026).
Stepan Ivanovich Dyachkovskyi (1894-1949) was probably the first who started electrochemistry-related research in NNov (Gorky) University. Educated first in Tomsk, and then in Voronezh University (1924 graduate), he continued in Voronezh, and was invited in 1932 to head the Dept of inorganic chemistry in Nizhnii Novgorod. His invention was “electrocapillary analysis”, which has rather indirect relation to electrocapillary phenomena: this technique combines electrolysis with ions transport in soution along porous material (filter paper). See examples in Zhurnal Obshei Khimii. 1935. V. 5. P. 728-730 and 1940. V. 10. P. 82-96.
Izrail’ Mironovich Korenman (1904-1988) graduated from Odessa Chemical-Pharmaceutical Institute, and continued to work in this institute for decade. Starting from 1937, he headed the Dept of analytical chemistry in NNov (Gorky) University. … See the article dedicated to 120 years jubilee (in Russian, were available in July 2026).
Ilya Alekseyevich Korshunov (1911-1997) was a pupil of A.F. Kapustinskyi who was Neiman’s predecessor at the Dept of physical chemistry. ….. See the article about I.A. Korshunov (in Russian, were available in July 2026) and the links to other texts related to him at the end of this article.
Orlenko