 |
Lysenko and Stalin's Genetics |
|
|
Submitted by Sanjuanita Hutto
| RSS Feed
| Add Comment
| Bookmark Me!
Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (1898-1976) was an agronomist. During the reign of Lenin and Stalin years in the Soviet Union, he became the chief proponent of the work of the self-taught plant breeder Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin (1855-1935) and his brand of Lamarckism - a pre-Darwinian theory of evolution of the species proposed in the French scientist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829). He was appointed as the president (1938-56) of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the director (1940-65) of the Institute of Genetics, USSR Academy of Sciences. The leadership of the USSR believed his promises to deliver rapid increases in crop yields.
Lamarck proposed that organisms can inherit traits acquired by their ancestors. The first giraffes stretched their necks to eat leaves on tall trees. Their offspring acquired this elongated neck and the desire to further stretch it. A species with long necks was born.
The Soviet leadership sought an indigenous theory to counter the "capitalistic" works of Mendel and Charles Darwin and to separate evolution from genetics.
Following a speech he gave at a conference in 1948 denouncing Mendelian genetics as "reactionary and decadent", Lysenko rose to prominence. Geneticists who opposed Lysenkoism were dispatched to the gulag as "enemies of the Soviet people". Most confessed to their "errors" in propounding Mendel's and Darwin's teachings - and, consequently, kept their jobs.
No one dared challenge Lysenko until 1964 - 9 years after Stalin died - even when he claimed, between 1948 and 1953, that wheat plants can produce seeds of rye. But, as the Encyclopedia Britannica observes, "he and his followers, however, long retained their degrees, their titles, and their academic positions and remained free to support their aberrant trend in biology."
|
|
|
|
|
LinkedIn Recommendation:
 Demetrius Reardon - Search Engine Optimization Manager at Blue Galaxy Marketing - I just attended Teo's LinkedIn workshop and am getting more information on how to use it. Great stuff. He told us everything there was to know about LinkedIn in one sentence. Then went into details, then added some optional ways to use it, just so much information so quickly... I had a little trouble keeping up, but he kept coming back to that one sentence to show how it all fits. It really is easy! Love Teo's style! He's got a lot of energy and would love to meet him in person someday! - March 17, 2012, Demetrius was Teo's client |
|
Featured [Conference] Articles:
|
|
