first posted 981221
latest minor change 2009/0922

	Lysenko Trofim Denisovich 29 Sep 1898 - 20 Nov 1976 Agronomist, biologist, Party worker.
Click here to see larger photos of T.D. Lysenko.

T.D. Lysenko's career -- unfavorable views

An encyclopedia summary

The following reflects the view of much of the world scientific community

translated from Jeanne Vronskaya and Vladimir Chuguev, "Kto Est' Kto v Rossii i Byvshem SSSR," ("Who's Who in Russia and the Former USSR") "Terra," Moskva, 1994.
Copyright © 1992 Jeanne Vronskaya and Vladimir Chuguev

"Born in Karlovka near Poltava. Graduated from Kiev agricultural institute in 1925.

"In practical plant-raising, followed [Ivan Vladimirovich] Michurin. Rejected the chromosome theory of heredity generally accepted by geneticists. Postulated that hereditary changes to plants could be induced by environmental influences, eg. subjecting grain to extreme temperatures or injections.

Insisting that this theory corresponded to Marxism, he successfully attracted official support of the Party to his side. He was named president of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1938e1. He began a persecution of those colleagues who did not agree with his theories, notably the founder of the Academy, Vavilov^e2 (who was deprived of work, arrested, and died in the GULag).

Became dictator in biological sciences under Stalin, whose cult he supported. In effect, he became a Stalinist deputy for science, like Zhdanov for culture, Voroshilov for the army, Beria for everything in the country. [Lysenko] was personally responsible for the exile, torture, and death of many talented scientists, and for an environment of oppression and backwardness in Soviet science.

After World War II, in the fever of Stalinism, there arose a scandal in the world scientific community over his reliance on Party authority in scientific discussions.

After the death of Stalin, TDL was personally criticized by Khrushchov in March 1953. He was relieved of his post as president of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1954, after 16 years of terror against scientists. Nevertheless, he retained a position as personal advisor to Khrushchov on agriculture.

In following years, it was shown that he had sometimes falsifiede3 experimental results to support his theories."

Notes (Not by original authors)
Note e1--Academy of Agricultural Sciences--
Full title: "Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences" ("Vsesoyuznaya Akademiya Sel'sko-Xozyajstvennyx Nauk imeni Lenina"-- VASXNiL).
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Note e2--Vavilov--
Nikolaj Ivanovich Vavilov (1887-1943), biologist, botanist, and geneticist. First president of VASXNiL 1929-1935. Director of the Genetics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1930-1940. Arrested 1940.
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Note e3--falsification--
eg. inflated claims for "vernalization" (Russian term "yarovizaciya," from "yarovye [zlaki]," "spring-planted [grasses, herbs]"). Vernalization meant encouraging seeds to begin germinating in storage, so that, supposedly, they would finish growing more rapidly once planted.
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Some milder views

Author David Joravsky was not quite as sharply condemnatory as the "Who's Who" authors. For example, he suggests on behalf of
Stalin and his henchmen--

They were not really committed to micromanaging scientific research. Given his naturally suspicious nature, Stalin was not totally impervious to the possibility that Lysenko had promised more than he could deliver. After World War II, Stalin evaded Lysenko's request for a formal ideological embrace of his theories. Indeed, Stalin's famous 1950 statement "Marxism and Problems of Linguistics" denied the existence of Party dogma on linguistic science (pp. 29-30), and could be read as an invitation to disagree with Lysenko as well (but no one dared take him up on it).

Lysenko--
Lysenko did not go out of his way looking for opponents to destroy. Those who challenged him publicly, however, would attract attention from the NKVD.

Valerii N. Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science, Rutgers University Press, 1994.
"Valerij" is a man's name in Russian, unlike in English.
An up-to-date account of the Lysenko movement's effect on Soviet science in general and genetics in particular; includes Russian sources not available to Joravsky in 1970. Embraces liberal critique of politicians' involvement in science.

David Joravsky, The Lysenko Affair, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1970

TL has made a longer list.

"Stalin as Lysenko's editor"
by Kirill O. Rossianov
http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/configurations/1.3rossianov.html

Professor Robert M. Young, "Getting Started on Lysenkoism"
Paper is heavily philosophical, from a Marxist viewpoint. Though accepting the consensus about Lysenkoism's scientific flaws, Prof. Young contests the "liberal" view that the "Lysenko Affair" is a universally-compelling argument that Marxist (or other political) theory can never be applied to good science.

The web site "Marxism and Natural Science"
http://www.marxists.org/subject/science/index.htm
contains writings by Lysenko, as well as Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin.

Contemporary

T.D. Lysenko's parents thank Comrade Stalin for their son's Order of Lenin (1936).
Prof. I. E. Slushchenko.(1949)

Comrade TL defends Lysenko's work today from a strongly progressive viewpoint.

TL's Chronology of Lysenko's career.
removed 990712 at TL's request. It is part of a work by Phil Marsh, which may be published later.
TL's unfavorable review of Lysenko's Mendelian critics
TL's summary of the scientific controversy between Lysenko and Mendelian geneticists

A favorable take in Spanish:
http://www.ucm.es/info/nomadas/trip/lysenko.html
Lysenko: La teoría materialista de la evolución en la URSS
Juan Manuel Olarieta Alberdi

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