Editing Trofim Lysenko (section)

==Politics==
During the early and mid twentieth century the Soviet Union went through war and revolution. Political strife caused tension within the state but also promoted the flourishing of science: this was possible due to the flow of resources and demand for results. Lysenko aimed to manipulate various plants such as wheat and peas to increase their production, quality, and quantity, while he impressed political officials with his success in motivating peasants to return to farming.<ref name="LR">{{cite book |last=Graham |first=Loren R. |author-link=Loren Graham |title=Science and Philosophy in the Soviet Union |publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]] |year=1972 |page=208}}</ref>

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">{{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.