Trofim Lysenko is a Soviet agronomist and biologist. He became the founder of the pseudoscientific direction - Michurin agrobiology, as well as the owner of a large number of prestigious awards.
Childhood, adolescence
Trofim Denisovich Lysenko was born on September 17, 1898 in the village of Karlovka, Poltava province. His parents were simple peasants and he learned to read and write at the age of 13, but this did not prevent him from continuing his education. After graduating from a rural school, he entered a gardening school in Poltava.
In 1917 Lysenko entered the secondary horticultural school in the city of Uman. The period of study fell on the years of the First World War and the Civil War. In 1921, Trofim Denisovich was sent to Kiev for breeding courses. Later he decided to stay there and entered the Kiev Agricultural Institute.
Career
Already during the training period, Trofim Denisovich began to work in his specialty and the craving for new knowledge forced him to make important discoveries. During his work at the station, he wrote several works:
- "Technique and method of tomato selection";
- "Sugar beet grafting";
- "Winter cultivation of peas".
In 1925, Trofim Denisovich was sent to Azerbaijan to the city of Ganja. His task was to develop a plan for growing legumes in the local climate. Lysenko was noticed and even wrote about him in the newspaper. The Pravda journalist slightly exaggerated his merits. But the article was noticed by the big bosses. They began to invite Trofim Denisovich to various conferences and this was the reason that he abandoned work on legumes and began to study the vernalization of winter crops. This project is considered one of the most important in a biologist's career, but this method of seed preparation has raised many questions.
Lysenko suggested keeping the seeds of winter crops in the cold until planting. He believed that this makes it possible to get a crop 2-3 times more than usual. For several years in a row such an experiment was carried out on collective farms. The chairpersons filled out special questionnaires. Indeed, the yield was higher than in previous years, but not more than 10%. As a result, this experiment was called controversial, since the curing of the seeds required a lot of labor.
Lysenko's contemporaries, who were close to science, had a double impression of him. Some scholars believed that most of his achievements could be challenged, but at the same time Trofim Denisovich was well versed in the art of self-promotion. In the process of work, the well-known breeder managed to bring out several new varieties of vegetables, but later they did not pass all the necessary tests and they did not begin to grow on an industrial scale.
But Lysenko's achievements in the development of agriculture in the USSR cannot be denied. In addition to vernalization of cereals, he was offered other innovations:
- minting of cotton (the method is still used and allows to increase cotton harvests by 10-20%);
- nesting plantings;
- planting potatoes with the tops of tubers;
- planting winter crops on stubble to protect them from frost.
Confrontation with geneticists
After the end of the war, Lysenko was already heading a whole scientific direction. It was during these years that a confrontation began with those who studied classical genetics. His comrades-in-arms called themselves Michurin or modern geneticists, and the usual school was considered a pseudoscience.
"Michurinians" rejected the chromosomal theory of heredity and argued that any cell can be a carrier of hereditary information. They also believed that by placing an organism in a different environment, it is possible to achieve a change in hereditary factors. The confrontation between the two movements led to the fact that Lysenko turned to Stalin for help and asked for support, complaining of harassment by geneticists. With the support of Stalin, a session was organized, which took place in the format of a discussion, in which the supporters of Trofim Denisovich won. A number of famous geneticists at that time lost their posts, and Michurin agrobiology began to dominate.
Last years
5 years after the devastating session, the structure of DNA was deciphered and all the provisions of Lysenko's theory were refuted by scientists. Stalin died, but Khrushchev came to power, who also treated Trofim Denisovich well and even honored him with several awards.
In 1955, attacks on Lysenko were renewed. The so-called "letter of three hundred" was sent to the Presidium of the Central Committee. Major biologists and outstanding physicists turned to Khrushchev with a demand to remove Lysenko from the post of president of VASKhNIL. Khrushchev met the requirements, but a few years later he returned the biologist to this position. Finally, Trofim Denisovich was removed from his post already under Brezhnev.
In the last few years of his life, Lysenko worked in his own laboratory and continued to defend his theory. He passed away in 1976. During his life, he was awarded a large number of awards, among which are especially distinguished:
- Stalin Prize of the first degree (1941, 1943, 1949);
- 8 Orders of Lenin;
- medal "For Labor Valor";
- gold medal named after I. I. Mechnikov.
After the death of the biologist, his activities became the subject of discussion at various scientific conferences and meetings. There were attempts to rehabilitate Lysenko's name. But most scientists are inclined to believe that Trofim Denisovich was a very good breeder. Contemporaries spoke of him as a man of exceptional honesty. He did not claim to be co-authors when the students managed to develop a new variety, although large prizes were awarded for this. But the confrontation with the geneticists was his big mistake.
