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@sally_hines rather pompously suggests shes saddened that I'm on the wrong side of history.
Our history isn't written yet. Neither Sally nor I know how it will unfold.
But I do like to learn from history, like the history of Trofim Lysenko, a Soviet biologist.
Our history isn't written yet. Neither Sally nor I know how it will unfold.
But I do like to learn from history, like the history of Trofim Lysenko, a Soviet biologist.
Lysenko espoused pseudoscientific ideas which became known as Lysenkoism, rejecting Mendelian genetics and embracing the theories of soft inheritance.
In 1940 he became Director of Genetics in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
In 1940 he became Director of Genetics in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
His noble aim was to transform Soviet agriculture, to ensure a well fed proletariat.
Using his influence as Director in the Academy he elevated what he thought were his progressive theories to the level of a state-sanctioned doctrine.
He suppressed dissenting opinions..
Using his influence as Director in the Academy he elevated what he thought were his progressive theories to the level of a state-sanctioned doctrine.
He suppressed dissenting opinions..
He used his political capital to discredit and marginalise his academic critics, to the point of imprisonment in many cases.
Thousands of scientists who refused to renounce genetics were dismissed from their posts and left destitute.
This was, after all, in Stalin's Russia.
Thousands of scientists who refused to renounce genetics were dismissed from their posts and left destitute.
This was, after all, in Stalin's Russia.
Viktor Vavilov, an eminent botanist and persistent critic of Lysenko's pseudoscience, was declared an enemy of the State and sentenced to death.
In 1948 all opposition to Lynsenko's theories of environmentally acquired inheritance was made illegal, across the Soviet Union.
In 1948 all opposition to Lynsenko's theories of environmentally acquired inheritance was made illegal, across the Soviet Union.
In 1996 and 1997 I visited the still extant Soviet museum of agriculture in Tselinograd, once the heart of the folly that was the Virgin Lands Scheme by which the southern Siberian steppe would be transformed in a Soviet bread basket. I've a photo of me by the giant tractor.
You can't visit anymore.
The museum, the whole town, has been totally submerged by the construction of Nur-Sultan, the glittering new Kazakh capital built from oil and gas revenues, a modern folly on the Steppe.
But they had a room dedicated to Lysenko's victims.
The museum, the whole town, has been totally submerged by the construction of Nur-Sultan, the glittering new Kazakh capital built from oil and gas revenues, a modern folly on the Steppe.
But they had a room dedicated to Lysenko's victims.
Not only the thousands of scientists but the estimated 15 million people who starved to death in the famines which followed the failure of his pseudo scientific, dogmatic, politically endorsed agricultural experiments.
Lysenko was wrong.
Disastrously wrong.
Lysenko was wrong.
Disastrously wrong.
Sally Hines is a Professor of Gender Studies.
And she is wrong.
And she is wrong.
