The trials that began in the USSR in the mid-1930s did not concern only political opponents of Stalin. In his working papers there is a note with the following content: "As for the theoretical principles in biology, I believe that the Michurin's attitude is the only scientific one." This outwardly harmless remark had tragic consequences.
Having recognized the "Michurinist" attitude in biology as the only correct one, in the USSR, with the ferocity of the medieval Inquisition, they began to persecute genetics as a science in general, and its followers in particular.
The confrontation begins
The history of the tragic watershed in Soviet science began with an ordinary scientific dispute between botanical scientists - Lysenko and Vavilov.
The first, Trofim Denisovich, the son of a peasant, behind his shoulders, unlike his opponent who graduated from the institute, had only a three-year agricultural school and five years of work at the Belotserkovskaya selection station. But he had more than enough ambitions. Lysenko as a scientist declared himself in the late 1920s, telling about a new method of increasing yields, which would later be called "vernalization". According to the official version, he asked his father to bury seed winter wheat in the snow, and in the spring to sow seeds with sprouted sprouts. According to another, Lysenko Sr. hid the grain from the food detachments in a damp basement, and then, in order not to throw it away, decided to sow it. But one way or another, as a result, as indicated in a scientific report made by a young agronomist in 1929, it was possible to harvest 15-20% higher. This was very important for that time, since the previous two years in a row were bad harvests. And Stalin's intention to achieve concrete results in each case, without looking at the possibilities, led to the fact that Lysenko was noticed in the highest echelons of power and provided the opportunity to continue experiments as a researcher at the Odessa Genetic Breeding Institute.
At first, the then already eminent academician Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov, who headed the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences named after I. IN AND. Lenin (VASKHNIL) and the Institute of Plant Industry (VIR), supported the young colleague. However, very soon he realized that something was wrong. The yield of grain processed according to Lysenko's method did not differ in stability, preliminary studies and further analysis were not carried out. But it was too late. Apparently, Trofim Denisovich also guessed about his failure, but was not going to give up. Ignorant of science, by that time, apparently, he had a good understanding of political intrigues and, among other things, enjoyed the patronage of those in power. This is what he decided to use - fortunately, the situation was favorable.
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Intensity of emotions
And the situation was as follows. By the mid-1930s, genetics had split into two opposing camps. The so-called “Michurinists” were headed by Lysenko and his right hand, biologist Isai Present. Their interpretation of genetics and selection was that it was enough to expose the seed to external influences (for example, using a low above zero temperature), and the problem with yield would be solved by itself. Representatives of another trend, the "Weismann-Morganists" (so named after the scientists Weismann and Morgan), approached this issue with more caution. They assumed (and, as it turned out, were right) that the success of selection lies in the identification of "bad" chromosomes that can mutate and show their negative character even after several generations. Lysenko ridiculed this hypothesis and said that “chromosomes cannot be seen,not a tooth to try. " It was this thesis that he based on his speech at the Second Congress of Collective Farmers in 1935, for which he, by that time awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, was the only one whom Stalin honored with the reply: "Bravo, comrade Lysenko, bravo!" Yes, based on the note given at the beginning of the article, the "leader of all nations" by that time had decided in which direction to develop science. Of course, as a biologist or botanist, Stalin was an ignorant person. But at that moment he was more worried about ideological principles. On the one hand, there is a peasant's son defending the "Michurin line," on the other, the son of a merchant who promotes the dubious achievements of capitalist science.by that time, awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, was the only one whom Stalin honored with the reply: "Bravo, comrade Lysenko, bravo!" Yes, based on the note given at the beginning of the article, the "leader of all nations" by that time had decided in which direction to develop science. Of course, as a biologist or botanist, Stalin was an ignorant person. But at that moment he was more worried about ideological principles. On the one hand, there is a peasant's son defending the "Michurin line," on the other, the son of a merchant who promotes the dubious achievements of capitalist science.by that time, awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, was the only one whom Stalin honored with the reply: "Bravo, comrade Lysenko, bravo!" Yes, based on the note given at the beginning of the article, the "leader of all nations" by that time had decided in which direction to develop science. Of course, as a biologist or botanist, Stalin was an ignorant person. But at that moment he was more worried about ideological principles. On the one hand, there is a peasant's son defending the "Michurin line," on the other, the son of a merchant who promotes the dubious achievements of capitalist science.as a biologist or botanist, Stalin was an ignorant person. But at that moment he was more worried about ideological principles. On the one hand, there is a peasant's son defending the "Michurin line," on the other, the son of a merchant who promotes the dubious achievements of capitalist science.as a biologist or botanist, Stalin was an ignorant person. But at that moment, he was more worried about ideological principles. On the one hand, there is a peasant son defending the "Michurin line," on the other, the son of a merchant who promotes the dubious achievements of capitalist science.
The reprisal against the "bourgeois" geneticists began with the fact that Vavilov was transferred to the post of vice-president of VASKhNIL, and Lysenko took his chair, who immediately declared genetics a "fascist science." But Stalin was in no hurry. Indeed, dealing with your political opponents is a domestic problem. But to touch a world-renowned scientist who is a member of 18 foreign academies, associations and societies is quite another. The country of the Soviets does not need international scandals. And besides, Comrade Vavilov is a proven Bolshevik: after all, he and others signed an angry letter denouncing the "counter-revolutionary Bukharin-Rykov clique"! Therefore, Stalin instructed the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yezhov to collect political dirt on Vavilov.
According to the memoirs of the biologist Efrem Yakushevsky, who was one of Vavilov's closest students and associates, Stalin's last meeting with the leader of Soviet geneticists took place on the night of November 20-21, 1939. And she was very tense.
Yakushevsky describes the events as follows: “Instead of greeting, Stalin said:“Well, citizen Vavilov, will you continue to work on flowers, petals, washi-lechki and other botanical fintiflyushki? And who will be involved in increasing the productivity of agricultural crops? " At first, Vavilov was taken aback, but then, gathering his courage, he began to talk about the essence of the research carried out at the institute and about their significance for agriculture. Since Stalin did not invite him to sit down, Vavilov gave an oral lecture on Virov's research while standing. During the lecture, Stalin continued to walk with a pipe in his hand, and it was clear that he was not at all interested in all this. At the end, Stalin asked: “Is everything there, citizen Vavilov? Go on. You are free".
Apparently, it was then that Stalin's unfriendliness towards Vavilov reached its climax and he decided that it was time to make tough decisions.
Scientists to the slaughter
The dossier on Nikolai Ivanovich has existed since the end of the 1920s, when the first trials were held in the USSR in the fabricated cases of the "Industrial Party" and "Shakhty saboteurs". Even then, envious people and secret informants from among the unlucky luminaries of science wrote denunciations against Vavilov.
And so in 1940, the substantially enlarged dossier turned into a criminal case on charges of the academician not only in anti-Soviet agitation, but also in the leadership of the mythical “Labor Peasant Party”. At the same time, many of his “comrades-in-arms in the underground organization”, more precisely, genetic scientists, were sent to the GULAG, and two - Leviticus and Agol - were shot. Vavilov was also sentenced to capital punishment. But Stalin replaced the execution with 20 years in prison. However, this "mercy" turned out to be a death sentence with delayed action - on January 26, 1943, Nikolai Ivanovich died in a Saratov prison.
While the Great Patriotic War was going on, Stalin was not up to the organization of new political processes in relation to "enemies of the people." Therefore, at the very least, certain scientific work was carried out at the Institute of Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. However, the outbreak of the cold war forced the leader to turn his splendid gaze again to the supporters of "bourgeois science."
In May 1947, he sent Lysenko another thesis: "The prohibition of genetics is an important part of the policy of isolating the country from the rest of the world." And the "Michurinists" clothed it in a more concrete formulation: "Decaying capitalism at the imperialist stage of its development gave birth to a stillborn bastard of biological science, a thoroughly metaphysical, anti-historical teaching of formal genetics." This was an unambiguous hint, as a result of which some "Vavilovites" announced their transfer to the camp of the "Michurinists". The rest faced an unenviable fate.
Departments of institutes and scientific laboratories dealing with the study of genetics were closed everywhere. More than three thousand of their employees were fired, almost half of them were convicted under the article "anti-Soviet agitation" and sent to Siberian camps, from where many were not destined to return. Without waiting for arrest, the scientists Sabinin, Promptov and Ferry committed suicide.
After Stalin's death, the repressions stopped, but even the posthumous rehabilitation of Vavilov and his associates did not contribute to the development of genetics. Although scientists tried to fight. In 1955, the so-called "three hundred letter" appeared, signed by prominent researchers. Moreover, the biologists were supported by colleagues working in related fields of knowledge.
The letter said: “Modern genetics is based on a huge amount of precisely established facts. She revealed a number of laws of heredity and variability, genetics is closely related to other biological sciences, with the practice of agriculture and medicine. Modern genetics, like any other science, is constantly developing, old ideas are replaced by new, more perfect, deep, accurate ones. It is going through crises, different points of view are fighting in it, but this living science is necessary for the Soviet people."
But for some reason, Nikita Khrushchev turned out to be nice to Lysenko. Only in 1964 was Trofim Denisovich retired. He died in 1976, remaining an ardent opponent of "bourgeois pseudoscience."
The harassment of geneticists had serious consequences for the country. Science suffered not only heavy personnel losses - the scientific base was destroyed, the network of selection stations and the system of variety testing were destroyed, as a result, the country made up for the grain shortage by export for a long time. But that's not all: following the example of genetics, the ideologization of physics and chemistry began, and cybernetics was generally declared a pseudoscience. As a result, we are at least two decades behind Western countries in matters of computing technology.
Mysteries of history №13 / С, Sergey Uranov
