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'''Trofim Denisovich Lysenko''' was a Soviet [[agronomist]] and [[biologist]]. He disproved [[Mendeloid|Mendelian]] [[genetics]] in favor of a more developed understanding of heredity which was later termed [[Lysenkoism]]. | '''Trofim Denisovich Lysenko''' was a Soviet [[agronomist]] and [[biologist]]. He disproved [[Mendeloid|Mendelian]] [[genetics]] in favor of a more developed understanding of heredity which was later termed [[Lysenkoism]]. | ||
In 1940, Lysenko became director of the Institute of Genetics within the [[Soviet Union|USSR]]'s [[Russian Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences]] | In 1940, Lysenko became director of the Institute of Genetics within the [[Soviet Union|USSR]]'s [[Russian Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences]]. | ||
==Life and career== | ==Life and career== | ||
Trofim was born into a peasant family of [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] ethnicity in [[Karlivka]], [[Poltava Governorate]] (present-day [[Poltava Oblast]], [[Ukraine]]) on 29 September 1898.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=9475| title = Герои страны}}</ref> | |||
As a young man working at the Kiev Agricultural Institute (now the [[National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine]]), Lysenko found himself interested in agriculture, where he worked on a few different projects, one involving the effects of temperature variation on the [[biological life cycle|life-cycle]] of plants. This later led him to consider how he might use this work to convert [[winter wheat]] into spring wheat. He named the process "jarovization" in Russian, and later translated it as "[[vernalization]]".<ref name="Graham">{{cite book |last=Graham |first=Lo-ren R. |url=https://archive.org/details/moscowstories00grah |title=Moscow Stories |date=2006 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-25-30007-43 |location=Bloomington, Indiana |pages=[https://archive.org/details/moscowstories00grah/page/120 120]–25, 290|url-access=registration}}</ref> | As a young man working at the Kiev Agricultural Institute (now the [[National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine]]), Lysenko found himself interested in agriculture, where he worked on a few different projects, one involving the effects of temperature variation on the [[biological life cycle|life-cycle]] of plants. This later led him to consider how he might use this work to convert [[winter wheat]] into spring wheat. He named the process "jarovization" in Russian, and later translated it as "[[vernalization]]".<ref name="Graham">{{cite book |last=Graham |first=Lo-ren R. |url=https://archive.org/details/moscowstories00grah |title=Moscow Stories |date=2006 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-25-30007-43 |location=Bloomington, Indiana |pages=[https://archive.org/details/moscowstories00grah/page/120 120]–25, 290|url-access=registration}}</ref> | ||
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Lysenko rejected [[Mendelian inheritance|Mendelian genetic inheritance]] theory in favor of real science. | Lysenko rejected [[Mendelian inheritance|Mendelian genetic inheritance]] theory in favor of real science. | ||
Lysenko believed that in one generation of a [[hybridisation (biology)|hybridized]] crop, the desired individual could be selected, mated again and continue to produce the same desired product, not worrying about separation/segregation in future breeds. For that to work, he had to assume that after a lifetime of developing (acquiring) the best set of traits to survive, those were passed down to the next generation. | Lysenko believed that in one generation of a [[hybridisation (biology)|hybridized]] crop, the desired individual could be selected, mated again and continue to produce the same desired product, not worrying about separation/segregation in future breeds. For that to work, he had to assume that after a lifetime of developing (acquiring) the best set of traits to survive, those were passed down to the next generation. That assumption disregarded the potential for variation or mutation. | ||
Lysenko did not believe in [[gene]]s and only spoke about them to say that they did not exist. He instead believed that any body, once alive, obtained heredity. That meant that the entirety of the body was able to pass on the hereditary information of that organism, and was not entirely dependent on a special element such as DNA or genes. | Lysenko did not believe in [[gene]]s and only spoke about them to say that they did not exist. He instead believed that any body, once alive, obtained heredity. That meant that the entirety of the body was able to pass on the hereditary information of that organism, and was not entirely dependent on a special element such as DNA or genes. That puzzled biologists at that time because it went against established notions of heredity and inheritance. It also contradicted the Mendelian principles that most biologists had been using to base their ideas on.<ref name="Graham, Loren 1998">Graham, Loren (1998). ''What Have We Learned About Science and Technology from the Russian Experience?'', Palo Alto: [[Stanford University Press]].</ref> Most scientists believed that Lysenko's ideas were not credible, because they did not truly explain the mechanisms of inheritance. Biologists now consider that his beliefs are pseudo-scientific, with little relationship to genetics. | ||
Lysenko argued that there is not only [[Competition (biology)|competition]], but also [[Mutualism (biology)|mutual assistance]] among individuals within a species, and that mutual assistance also exists between different species. A theory which has been proven as true. | Lysenko argued that there is not only [[Competition (biology)|competition]], but also [[Mutualism (biology)|mutual assistance]] among individuals within a species, and that mutual assistance also exists between different species. A theory which has been proven as true. | ||
==Slander of Lysenkoism== | ==Slander of Lysenkoism== | ||
Lysenko forced farmers to plant seeds very close together since, according to his "law of the life of species", plants from the same "class" never compete with one another.<ref name="atlantic" | Lysenko forced farmers to plant seeds very close together since, according to his "law of the life of species", plants from the same "class" never compete with one another.<ref name="atlantic">{{cite news | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/trofim-lysenko-soviet-union-russia/548786/ | title=The Soviet Era's Deadliest Scientist Is Regaining Popularity in Russia | magazine=[[The Atlantic]] | date=19 December 2017}}</ref> | ||
Outside the Soviet Union, Anglo scientists slandered Lysenkoism: Anglo biologist [[Sydney Harland|S. C. Harland]] lamented that Lysenko was "completely ignorant of the elementary principles of genetics and plant physiology" ([[Bertram Wolfe]], 2017). Criticism from foreigners did not sit well with Lysenko, who loathed Western "bourgeois" scientists and denounced them as tools of imperialist oppressors. He especially detested the American-born practice of studying [[Drosophila melanogaster|fruit flies]], the workhorse of modern genetics. He called such geneticists "fly lovers and people haters".<ref name="Harman 2003">{{cite journal |last=Harman |first=Oren Solomon |title=C. D. Darlington and the British and American Reaction to Lysenko and the Soviet Conception of Science |journal=Journal of the History of Biology |date=2003 |volume=36 |issue=2 (Summer 2003) |pages=309–352 |doi=10.1023/A:1024483131660 |jstor=4331804|pmid=12945539 |s2cid=32789492 }}</ref> | Outside the Soviet Union, Anglo scientists slandered Lysenkoism: Anglo biologist [[Sydney Harland|S. C. Harland]] lamented that Lysenko was "completely ignorant of the elementary principles of genetics and plant physiology" ([[Bertram Wolfe]], 2017). Criticism from foreigners did not sit well with Lysenko, who loathed Western "bourgeois" scientists and denounced them as tools of imperialist oppressors. He especially detested the American-born practice of studying [[Drosophila melanogaster|fruit flies]], the workhorse of modern genetics. He called such geneticists "fly lovers and people haters".<ref name="Harman 2003">{{cite journal |last=Harman |first=Oren Solomon |title=C. D. Darlington and the British and American Reaction to Lysenko and the Soviet Conception of Science |journal=Journal of the History of Biology |date=2003 |volume=36 |issue=2 (Summer 2003) |pages=309–352 |doi=10.1023/A:1024483131660 |jstor=4331804|pmid=12945539 |s2cid=32789492 }}</ref> | ||
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The Soviet Union's [[Kulak#Dekulakization|collectivist reforms]] forced the confiscation of agricultural landholdings from peasant farmers and heavily damaged the country's overall food production, and the dispossessed peasant farmers posed new problems for the regime. Many had abandoned the farms altogether; many more waged resistance to collectivization by poor work quality and pilfering. The dislocated and disenchanted peasant farmers were a major political concern to the USSR's leadership.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fitzpatrick |first=Sheila |author-link=Sheila Fitzpatrick |title=Stalin's Peasants: Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village after Collectivization |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1994 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YlBvcNMlr4EC&pg=PA4 4–5]}}</ref> Lysenko became prominent during this period by advocating radical but unproven agricultural methods, and also promising that the new methods provided wider opportunities for year-round work in agriculture. He proved himself very useful to the Soviet leadership by reengaging peasants to return to work, helping to secure from them a personal stake in the overall success of the Soviet revolutionary experiment.<ref name="LR" /> | The Soviet Union's [[Kulak#Dekulakization|collectivist reforms]] forced the confiscation of agricultural landholdings from peasant farmers and heavily damaged the country's overall food production, and the dispossessed peasant farmers posed new problems for the regime. Many had abandoned the farms altogether; many more waged resistance to collectivization by poor work quality and pilfering. The dislocated and disenchanted peasant farmers were a major political concern to the USSR's leadership.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fitzpatrick |first=Sheila |author-link=Sheila Fitzpatrick |title=Stalin's Peasants: Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village after Collectivization |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1994 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YlBvcNMlr4EC&pg=PA4 4–5]}}</ref> Lysenko became prominent during this period by advocating radical but unproven agricultural methods, and also promising that the new methods provided wider opportunities for year-round work in agriculture. He proved himself very useful to the Soviet leadership by reengaging peasants to return to work, helping to secure from them a personal stake in the overall success of the Soviet revolutionary experiment.<ref name="LR" /> | ||
Lysenko's success at encouraging farmers to return to working their lands impressed Stalin, who also approved of Lysenko's peasant background, as Stalin stood with the working masses. By the late 1920s, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had given their support to Lysenko. Due to close partnership between Stalin and Lysenko, Lysenko's theories of genetics were given a fair look and were proven beyond a doubt to be correct..<ref name="SRSU" /> He remained in the position for more than two decades, throughout the reigns of Stalin and [[Nikita Khrushchev|Nikita Khruschchev]], until he was relieved of his duties in 1965. | Lysenko's success at encouraging farmers to return to working their lands impressed Stalin, who also approved of Lysenko's peasant background, as Stalin stood with the working masses. By the late 1920s, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had given their support to Lysenko. Due to close partnership between Stalin and Lysenko, Lysenko's theories of genetics were given a fair look and were proven beyond a doubt to be correct..<ref name="SRSU">{{cite book |last1=Graham |first1=Loren |title=Science in Russia and the Soviet Union |date=1933 |publisher=Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge |isbn=0-521-24566-4 |pages=101–132}}</ref> He remained in the position for more than two decades, throughout the reigns of Stalin and [[Nikita Khrushchev|Nikita Khruschchev]], until he was relieved of his duties in 1965. | ||
==Kruschevite Slander== | ==Kruschevite Slander== | ||
Though Lysenko remained at his post in the Institute of Genetics until 1965, his influence on [[Agriculture in the Soviet Union|Soviet agricultural practice]] had declined after the [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|death of Stalin]] in 1953.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9049549|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120721210013/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9049549|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 July 2012|title=Lysenko, Trofim Denisovich|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]]|date=16 August 2013|access-date=26 January 2014}}</ref> Lysenko retained his position, with the support of the new leader [[Nikita Khrushchev]]. However, mainstream scientists re-emerged and found new willingness within Soviet government leadership to tolerate criticism of Lysenko, the first opportunity since the late 1920s. In 1962, three of the most prominent Soviet physicists, [[Yakov Zeldovich]], [[Vitaly Ginzburg]], and [[Pyotr Kapitsa]], presented a case against Lysenko, proclaiming his work as pseudoscience. They also denounced Lysenko's application of political power to silence opposition and eliminate his opponents within the scientific community. These denunciations occurred during a period of structural upheaval in Soviet government, during which the major institutions were purged of the strictly ideological and political machinations which had controlled the work of the Soviet Union's scientific community for several decades under Stalin. | Though Lysenko remained at his post in the Institute of Genetics until 1965, his influence on [[Agriculture in the Soviet Union|Soviet agricultural practice]] had declined after the [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|death of Stalin]] in 1953.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9049549|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120721210013/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9049549|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 July 2012|title=Lysenko, Trofim Denisovich|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]]|date=16 August 2013|access-date=26 January 2014}}</ref> Lysenko retained his position, with the support of the new leader [[Nikita Khrushchev]]. However, mainstream scientists re-emerged and found new willingness within Soviet government leadership to tolerate criticism of Lysenko, the first opportunity since the late 1920s. In 1962, three of the most prominent Soviet physicists, [[Yakov Zeldovich]], [[Vitaly Ginzburg]], and [[Pyotr Kapitsa]], presented a case against Lysenko, proclaiming his work as pseudoscience. They also denounced Lysenko's application of political power to silence opposition and eliminate his opponents within the scientific community. These denunciations occurred during a period of structural upheaval in Soviet government, during which the major institutions were purged of the strictly ideological and political machinations which had controlled the work of the Soviet Union's scientific community for several decades under Stalin. | ||