There are several “electrochemical places” in StPetersburg (SPb), which was a capital of Russia for a long time. Specialized Dept of Electrochemistry still exists at the Faculty of Chemistry, SPb University. There are also technical universities which host various branches of applied electrochemistry.
Mikhail Stepanovich Vrevskyi (1871-1929) was a key person of his period in solutions research in SPb University. In 1914, he founded the Dept of physical chemistry, which generated Historical webpage of the Dept (in Russian).
Boris Petrovich Nikolskyi (1900-1990) was supervised by M.S. Vrevskyi in his youth. His widely known early works on the glass electrode (Parts I – III) were mostly done in Saratov (Volga region), where Nikolsky was in exile after he was arrested in 1935. At the end of 1937, he was arrested again and sent to detention camp at the North. Fortunately, he was released in 1939 and returned to Leningrad. Part V appeared in Zhurnal Fizicheskoi Khimii 1953. V. 27. P. 724-743 (generalized theory, allowing for varios bonding energies of hydrogen ions). Part IX (co-authored by M.M. Shul’tz and N.V. Peshekhonova) appeared in 1959. V. 33. P. 1922-1927.
Ivan Ivanovich Zhukov (1880-1949) headed Vrevskyi’s Dept starting from 1929, transformed it into Dept of physical and colloid chemistry, and finally separated his Dept of colloid chemistry in 1939. He payed serious attention to teaching of colloid chemistry, and authored a fundamental textbook which was used for decades. Among his research areas, the most known is electrodyalisys (Zhukov’s 1943 review in Uspekhi Khimii, in Russian). Jointly with Nikol’skyi, he worked on applied problem of water purification.
1932: Dept of Electrochemistry in newly established Institute of Chemical physics, headed by S.A. Shchukarev, B.P. Nikolskyi, and R.L. Müller (see P. 448 of this text). However, this Institute was transferred to Moscow in few years, when electrochemical branch continued in various institutions in Leningrad.
Nikolsky B.P. Die Eigenschaften der doppelschicht und die Austauschadsorption von Ionen au Nichtmetal-Lischen Oberflachen // Phys. Z. Sowjetunion. 1933. Bd. 4. S. 266–281. Ions bonding and exchange at Al(OH)3 and kaolin surfaces is addressed.
1940: Specialized Dept of Electrochemistry is founded at the Faculty of Chemistry, StPb State University, headed first by Rudolf Lyudvigovich Müller (1899-1964), who was an expert in solid electrolytes with the accent on glass conductivity. However he was ungroundedly arrested in 1941, and found himself in the camp in Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia.