Editing Trofim Lysenko (section)

==Lysenko's theories==
{{main|Lysenkoism}}
[[File:Darwin's Pangenesis.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|left|Lysenko proposed an influence of the body on inheritance similar to Darwin's [[pangenesis]] theory, that every part of the body emits tiny gemmules which migrate to the [[gonad]]s and are transferred to offspring. Gemmules were thought to develop into their associated body parts as offspring matures. The theory implied that changes to the body during an organism's life would be inherited, as proposed in [[Lamarckism]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Holterhoff |first=Kate |date=2014 |title=The History and Reception of Charles Darwin's Hypothesis of Pangenesis |journal=Journal of the History of Biology |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=661–695 |doi=10.1007/s10739-014-9377-0|pmid=24570302 |s2cid=207150548}}</ref>]]

Lysenko rejected [[Mendelian inheritance|Mendelian genetic inheritance]] theory in favour of his own logic, which he termed "Michurinist genetics". He believed [[Gregor Mendel]]'s theory to be too reactionary or idealist. Lysenko's ideas were a mixture of his own, those of Russian agronomist [[Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin|Ivan Michurin]], and of other Soviet scientists.<ref name=":1a">{{Cite journal|last=Liu|first=Yongsheng|date=2004|title=Lysenko's contributions to biology and his tragedies|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15754596/|journal=[[Theoretical Biology Forum]]|volume=97|issue=3|pages=483–498|issn=0035-6050|pmid=15754596}}</ref> Through this mixture of ideas, Lysenko founded the "Michurinist doctrine".<ref name=":1a" /> The core ideas are that body cells (the soma) determine the quality of an organism's offspring; every part of the body contributes to the germ cells, in the manner of Darwin's theory of [[pangenesis]], though Lysenko denied any such connection.<ref name="Leone 1952"/>

These ideas were not directly derived from established biological theories such as Mendelian genetics, [[Lamarckism]] or [[Darwinism]]. He shaped his genetic concepts to support the simple practical purpose of breeding and improving crops. His ideas were also shaped to disprove other claims made by his fellow geneticists. His ideas and genetic claims later began to be termed "Lysenkoism". He claimed that his ideas were not associated with Lamarckism, but there are similarities between the two ideas, such as a belief in the [[inheritance of acquired characteristics]].<ref name="Leone 1952"/> Some of Lysenko's ideas can also seem to be [[vitalism|vitalistic]]. He claimed that plants are self-sacrificing—they do not die due to a lack of sunlight or moisture but so that healthy ones may live and when they die they deposit themselves over the growing roots to help the new generation survive.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}}

[[File:Lysenkoist Vegetative Hybridisation.svg|thumb|upright|One of several<!--at least six--> unsubstantiated [[Lysenkoism|Lysenkoist]] claims: vegetative hybridisation. The mechanism would imply an unobserved Lamarckian effect of scion on stock when a fruit tree is grafted.<ref name="Leone 1952">{{cite journal |last1=Leone |first1=Charles A. |title=Genetics: Lysenko versus Mendel |journal=Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science |volume=55 |issue=4 |year=1952 |pages=369–380 |issn=0022-8443 |doi=10.2307/3625986 |jstor=3625986}}</ref>]]

Lysenko believed that in one generation of a [[hybridisation (biology)|hybridized]] crop, the desired individual could be selected, mated again and continue to produce the same desired product, not worrying about separation/segregation in future breeds. For that to work, he had to assume that after a lifetime of developing (acquiring) the best set of traits to survive, those were passed down to the next generation.<ref name="LA"/> That assumption disregarded the potential for variation or mutation.

Lysenko did not believe in [[gene]]s and only spoke about them to say that they did not exist. He instead believed that any body, once alive, obtained heredity. That meant that the entirety of the body was able to pass on the hereditary information of that organism, and was not entirely dependent on a special element such as DNA or genes.<ref name="LA"/> That puzzled biologists at that time because it went against established notions of heredity and inheritance. It also contradicted the Mendelian principles that most biologists had been using to base their ideas on.<ref name="Graham, Loren 1998">Graham, Loren (1998). ''What Have We Learned About Science and Technology from the Russian Experience?'', Palo Alto: [[Stanford University Press]].</ref> Most scientists believed that Lysenko's ideas were not credible, because they did not truly explain the mechanisms of inheritance. Biologists now consider that his beliefs are pseudo-scientific, with little relationship to genetics.<ref name="LA"/>

Lysenko argued that there is not only [[Competition (biology)|competition]], but also [[Mutualism (biology)|mutual assistance]] among individuals within a species, and that mutual assistance also exists between different species.

According to Lysenko,
{{blockquote|The organism and the conditions required for its life are an inseparable unity. Different living bodies require different environmental conditions for their development. By studying these requirements we come to know the qualitative features of the nature of organisms, the qualitative features of heredity. Heredity is the property of a living body to require definite conditions for its life and development and to respond in a definite way to various conditions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/lysenko/works/1940s/report.htm |title=Soviet Biology<!-- Bot generated title --> |work=marxists.org}}</ref>}}

Another of Lysenko's theories was that obtaining more milk from cows did not depend on their genetics but on how they were treated. The better they were handled and taken care of, the more milk would be obtained; Lysenko and his followers were well known for taking very good care of their livestock.<ref>{{cite book |last=Graham |first=Loren |title=Moscow Stories |date=2006 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington, Indiana |isbn=0-253-34716-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/moscowstories00grah/page/120 120–26]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/moscowstories00grah/page/120}}</ref> Lysenko claimed that the [[cuckoo]] was born when young birds such as warblers were fed hairy caterpillars by the parent (rather than host) birds; this claim failed to recognise that the cuckoos he described were [[brood parasites]].{{sfn|Joravsky|1986|p=398}} Lysenkoites believed that fertilization was not random, but that there was specific selection of the best mate. For reasons like these, Lysenkoism can be viewed as pseudo-scientific.

After [[World War II]] ended, Lysenko took an interest in the works of [[Olga Lepeshinskaya (biologist)|Olga Lepeshinskaya]], an older [[feldsher]] and biologist, who claimed to be able to create cells from egg yolk and non-cellular matter. Lepeshinskaya recognized common ground between her ideas and Lysenko's. By combining both of their ideas it was possible to proclaim that cells could grow from non-cellular material and that the predicted ratios of Mendelian genetics and [[meiosis]] were incorrect, thus undermining the basis of modern [[cytology]], as well as genetics.<ref name="LA"/>

==="The influence of the thermal factor on the duration of plant development phases"===
In Ganja, Lysenko began work on studying the [[growing season]] of agricultural plants ([[Gossypium|cotton]], [[wheat]], [[rye]], [[Avena|oats]], and [[Hordeum|barley]]). For two years, Lysenko experimented with the timing of sowing grain, cotton and other plants, sowing plants at intervals of 10 days. Based on the results of these studies, in 1928, he published a large work, "The influence of the thermal factor on the duration of plant development phases."<ref name="Voinov"/> Of the 169 pages of the work, 110 contained tables with primary data. The mathematical processing of the data was carried out by Nikolai Derevitsky and I. Yu. Staroselsky.<ref name="Soifer"/>

In this work, Lysenko came to the conclusion that each phase of plants ("the following phases were recorded: sowing-watering, germination, [[Tiller (botany)|tillering]], booting, heading, [[Anthesis|flowering]], wax ripeness and harvesting time") begins its development "at a strictly defined intensity of thermal energy, that is, at a certain, always constant degree Celsius, and requires a certain amount of [[degree days]]." Carrying out mathematical processing of the initial data using the [[least squares]] method, Lysenko determined the values of the constants A and B - "the starting point at which processes begin" and "the sum of degrees required to complete the phase."<ref name="Soifer"/>

In 1927, the main provisions of this work were reported by Lysenko at the "congress convened by the [[People's Commissariat for Agriculture]] of the Azerbaijan SSR at the Ganja station," and then, in December 1928, at the All-Union Meeting of Sugar Trust in Kiev. In this book, Lysenko thrice cited the work of {{ill|Gavriil Zaitsev|ru|Зайцев, Гавриил Семёнович}}, dedicated to the same issues.<ref name="Soifer"/>

===Vernalization===
{{main|Vernalization}}
The issue of the effect of low temperatures on plant development was touched upon by such famous physiologists as [[Georg Klebs]] and [[Gustav Gassner]]. For example, Gassner, based on his experiments, established that if sprouted seeds of [[winter cereal|winter crops]] are exposed to low temperatures, then the plants grown from them during spring sowing will split.<ref name="Heredity">{{cite web | title=11 Онтогенез растений | website=afonin-59-bio.narod.ru | date=2012-02-03 | url=http://afonin-59-bio.narod.ru/2_heredity/2_heredity_individual/her_ind_11.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306071106/http://afonin-59-bio.narod.ru/2_heredity/2_heredity_individual/her_ind_11.htm | archive-date=2012-03-06 | url-status=dead | access-date=2024-05-11}}</ref>

Working at the Ganja breeding station, Lysenko was also able to accelerate the development of plants. Based on his experiments, he developed a technique for germinating seeds before sowing at low positive temperatures, which he termed vernalization.<ref name="Heredity"/>

This technique was supported by a number of prominent scientists in the early 1930s. For example, Nikolai Vavilov saw the main advantage of vernalization in the possible simplification of breeding work, as well as in the ability to control the length of the growing season of plants. In addition, he believed that vernalization could help preserve winter crops from freezing during harsh winters. Vavilov wrote:<ref name="Heredity"/>
{{blockquote|It can definitely be argued that vernalization is the greatest achievement in breeding, because it has made available for use the entire world variety of varieties, which were still inaccessible for practical use due to the usual inconsistency of the growing season and the low winter hardiness of southern winter forms.}}

The main reason Vavilov initially supported Lysenko's work on vernalization was his interest in the potential use of vernalization as a means of synchronizing the flowering of various plant species in the Institute of Plant Industry collection, since Vavilov's team had encountered problems in cross-species experiments that required such synchronization. Vavilov, however, eventually stopped supporting the use of vernalization because the method did not produce the expected results.<ref name="Soifer"/>

Crops with vernalized seeds increased on USSR farms every year. In particular, in 1935, experimental vernalized crops of spring grain were carried out by more than 40,000 collective and state farms on an area of 2.1 million hectares;<ref name="Heredity"/> in 1937, 8.9 million hectares.<ref name="Agrobiology">{{cite web | title=Т. Д. Лысенко «Агробиология» | website=Теоретические основы яровизации (1935) | date=2016-09-16 | url=https://imichurin.narod.ru/lysenko/agrobiology_02.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120100609/http://imichurin.narod.ru/lysenko/agrobiology_02.html | archive-date=2012-11-20 | url-status=live | language=ru | access-date=2024-05-11}}</ref>

However, the mass introduction of vernalization into USSR agriculture ended in failure.<ref name="Soifer"/> Critics of vernalization explained this failure, among other things, by the lack of experimental data on varieties and regions of the Soviet Union. To collect data, questionnaires were sent to collective and state farms. The questionnaire method made it possible to fabricate data, suppress negative results, and was convenient for promoting vernalization.<ref name="Soifer"/> The data obtained by Lysenko and his supporters was published mainly in the journal ''Byulleten yarovizatsii'', published under the editorship of Lysenko, or in the Soviet press. However, these publications were not published in any independent scientific journals.<ref name="Soifer"/>

The agricultural method of vernalization has been criticized by experts for reasons such as the possibility of damage to seeds during the process of soaking, germination and sowing, the labor intensity of this operation, and the greater vulnerability of vernalized plants to [[Smut (fungus)|smut]]. Critics of vernalization in the 1930s included {{ill|Pyotr Konstantinov|ru|Константинов, Пётр Никифорович}}, S. Levitsky (Poland),<ref name="Heredity"/> {{ill|Pyotr Lisitsyn|ru|Лисицын, Пётр Иванович}}, and {{ill|Doncho Kostov|ru|Костов, Дончо}}.<ref name="Soifer"/>

Vernalization of grain crops during [[World War II]] (spring of 1942-1945) and the post-war period did not receive widespread industrial use. ''Pravda'', in an editorial dated 14 December 1958, argued that after the massive introduction of technology on Soviet farms, which made it possible to sow in a shorter time, vernalization of seeds "was not always necessary." However, vernalization, according to the newspaper, continued to produce "remarkable results" in the cultivation of [[Panicum|millet]] and [[potato]]es.<ref name="Soifer"/>

===Theory of stage development of plants===
To substantiate his developments in the field of plant growing, Lysenko put forward a theory of staged development of plants. The essence of the theory was that higher plants must go through several stages during their lives before producing seeds. To move to the next stage, certain specific conditions are required.

In 1935, Lysenko wrote:<ref name="Agrobiology"/>
{{blockquote|This theory proceeds from the fact that everything in a plant, each of its properties, characteristics, etc., is the result of the development of a hereditary basis in specific environmental conditions. The hereditary basis is the result of the entire previous phylogenetic history. The result of this biological history, which was created through the selection of adaptations to certain conditions of existence, are the demands that a plant organism throughout its individual history, starting from the zygote, makes for certain conditions of its development. These requirements are the reverse side of the adaptations developed in the historical process.}}

Based on this theory, Lysenko proposed vernalization of winter and spring grains, potatoes and other crops.<ref>{{cite web | title=Лысенко Трофим Денисович | website=Биографии выдающихся личностей  | url=https://www.biografija.ru/biography/lysenko-trofim-denisovich.htm | language=ru | access-date=2024-05-13}}</ref><ref name="washniil">{{cite web | title=Сессия ВАСХНИЛ-1948. О положении в биологической науке (стенографический отчeт) | website=Lib.Ru | date=2004-07-22 | url=http://www.lib.ru/DIALEKTIKA/washniil.txt | language=ru | access-date=2024-05-13}}</ref>

The provisions of Lysenko's theory on the staged development of plants, according to critics, were to some extent consistent with the level of knowledge of the 1930s, but not all of them were confirmed experimentally.<ref name="Heredity"/> The shortcomings of the theory of stage development were pointed out by [[Mikhail Chailakhyan]] among others.<ref name="Heredity"/> In particular, critics argued that even without preliminary vernalization, various plant varieties have a photoperiodic reaction and are delayed in development when the length of daylight hours is reduced.<ref name="Heredity"/>

===Summer potato planting===
In the southern regions of the Soviet Union, vegetatively propagated potatoes gradually produced increasingly smaller tubers, which, in addition, were subject to severe rotting. To combat this, Lysenko proposed summer planting of potatoes, arguing that the "deterioration of the breed" of potatoes can be stopped by planting them not in warm, but in cool soil, at the end of summer.<ref name="Soifer"/><ref name="washniil"/>

On 11 January 1941, in a lecture given at the [[Polytechnic Museum]], Lysenko stated:<ref>{{cite web | title=Т. Д. Лысенко «Агробиология» | website=Организм и среда (1943) | url=https://imichurin.narod.ru/lysenko/agrobiology_19.html | language=ru | access-date=2024-05-13}}</ref>
{{blockquote|Previously, it was common knowledge that if, under comparable conditions, planting material of at least the Early Rose variety, obtained from the harvest of the Moscow region, and planting material of the same variety, but obtained from the harvest of the Odessa region, are planted, then almost without exception, the yield of planting material from the Moscow region will always be significantly greater than the yield of planting material from the Odessa region. Now we can cite a lot of experimental data of the opposite order. And in the past, 1940, in the experiments of {{ill|Ivan Glushchenko|ru|Глущенко, Иван Евдокимович}} (research associate at the Institute of Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences) on a site near Moscow, a crop of potatoes of the Early Rose variety was obtained from tubers of summer southern reproduction (Breeding and Genetics Institute, Odessa) 480.5 centners per hectare, and under the same conditions the same variety of local origin (Moscow region, Institute of Potato Farming) yielded a yield of 219.5 centners per hectare. All this suggests that summer planting potatoes in the south is not a way to stop the degeneration of the potato breed, but a way to improve the potato breed.}}

However, as with vernalization, data was collected using questionnaires, making the results easy to falsify, and any scientific data obtained was never published. When summer planting did not produce any positive results, Lysenko suggested burying the harvested potatoes in trenches, spreading a layer of soil over a layer of potatoes, arguing that this would reduce losses from rotting tubers. However, burying tubers in trenches led to huge crop losses, as the rotting of the tubers only intensified.<ref name="Soifer"/>

Lysenko ignored the real reason for the degeneration of potato plantings - potato viruses (a particularly large role in the degeneration is played by the [[potato leafroll virus]] - PLRV, [[potato virus X]] - PVX, and [[potato virus Y]] - PVY), replacing it with abstract ideas about the "deterioration of the potato breed".<ref name="Soifer"/> Ignoring the role of viruses in the degeneration of potato plantings and the subsequent ban on research into plant viruses led to a significant delay in the development of methods for detecting plant viruses in the Soviet Union, the spread of viruses not only in the south, but also in other regions of the Soviet Union, and, as a result, to a sharp drop in potato yields.<ref name="Soifer"/>

===Sowing over stover===
Soviet literature of the 1940s-50s and Lysenko's supporters credit him with a number of achievements, including the idea of sowing over [[stover]] to protect winter crops from frost.<ref name="washniil"/><ref>{{cite web | title=газета "Дуэль" : политика экономика Россия поединок история цензура демократия борьба общество идея | website=duel.ru | date=2007-03-21 | url=http://www.duel.ru/199832/?32_6_1 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080502172932/http://www.duel.ru/199832/?32_6_1 | archive-date=2008-05-02 | url-status=dead | access-date=2024-05-13}}</ref>

In 1943, Lysenko stated:<ref>{{cite web | title=Т.Д.Лысенко «Ближайшие задачи советской сельскохозяйственной науки», 1942 г. | website=Лысенкоизм.Народ.Ру | url=https://lysenkoism.narod.ru/lysenko_timiryazev_1943.htm | language=ru | access-date=2024-05-13}}</ref>
{{blockquote|Stover 25-30 cm in height protects the above-ground parts of plants from the destructive mechanical action of the wind. The stubble retains snow, which also protects plants not only from frost, but also from the action of winds. Unplowed, unloosened soil has almost no large voids. Therefore, on stover crops, large ice crystals are not observed in the soil, which have a detrimental effect, damaging the roots and tillering nodes of winter plants.}}

Sowing over stover, despite the advantages of the method (snow retention and better temperature conditions for wintering plant seeds in Siberian conditions), was criticized for clogging fields with weeds, since this excludes conventional agricultural technology - surface plowing, which provokes the germination of weeds, and subsequent spring plowing. In the absence of herbicides at that time, this led to clogging of fields.<ref>{{cite web | last=Shkrob | first=A.M. | title=VIVOS VOCO: Ю.Н. Вавилов, "Август 1948. Предыстория" | website=VIVOS VOCO! | date=2016-01-01 | url=http://vivovoco.astronet.ru/VV/PAPERS/MEN/LYSENKO.HTM | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020053107/http://vivovoco.astronet.ru/VV/PAPERS/MEN/LYSENKO.HTM | archive-date=2012-10-20 | url-status=live | language=ru | access-date=2024-05-13}}</ref>

{{ill|Nikolai Tsitsin|ru|Цицин, Николай Васильевич}}, in a letter to Stalin dated 2 February 1948, noted the low grain yield in stubble crops:<ref name="vestnik">{{cite web | title=Вестник Российской Академии наук том 68, № 12 | website=ras.ru | date=2015-09-24 | url=http://www.ras.ru/FStorage/download.aspx?Id=3c0f914b-aec5-4100-9cf7-1289687b7d3f | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110190345/http://www.ras.ru/FStorage/download.aspx?Id=3c0f914b-aec5-4100-9cf7-1289687b7d3f | archive-date=2014-01-10 | url-status=dead | access-date=2024-05-13}}</ref>
{{blockquote|In 1944, in seven registered districts of the Novosibirsk region, the average yield of winter rye stubble was 3.6 c/ha. In the same year in the Chelyabinsk region, the average rye yield was equal to very poor fallows - 4.3 c/ha; for fresh September plowing - 2.6 c/ha; for stover - 1.8 c/ha. In the same year, for all state farms of the Omsk Grain Trust of the Ministry of State Farms, the stover yield was also very low; — it was equal to 11.1 c/ha for fallows and 5.1 c/ha for stover. ... In 1945, in one of the best state farms in the Omsk region, “Lesnoy”, from an area of winter wheat crops of 91 hectares, sown according to all the rules recommended by Academician Lysenko, only 6 centners of grain were collected, that is, an average of 7 kg per hectare, as well as several huge stacks of weeds, which, by the way, had become seeded in their mass by the time of harvesting. In the same year, on the neighboring state farm “Boevoy”, all 67 hectares of stover crops of winter wheat were completely destroyed. Finally, last year, 1946, at the same Siberian Research Institute, headed by Academician Lysenko, out of 150 [ha] of stover crops, 112 hectares were plowed, since only one weed was born on them.}}

Citing negative examples of stover crops, Tsitsin explained positive examples by the fact that "in the harsh conditions of Siberia, there are occasionally exceptionally favorable years." In general, he considered work on stover unpromising, considering instead that work to increase the winter hardiness of grains with wheatgrass-wheat hybrids, distant hybridization with wild plants, and the use of fallows and semi-cultivated fallows were more justified.<ref name="vestnik"/>

===Inheritance of acquired traits===
{{main|Lamarckism}}
Fundamental disagreements between Mendelian geneticists and Lysenko concerned the possibility of inheritance of traits that arise during the individual development of organisms, for example, under the influence of environmental factors or during grafting (vegetative hybridization). The idea that such characteristics cannot be inherited is associated with a distorted understanding of the principle formulated by August Weismann, according to which somatic cells cannot transmit information to germ cells. In fact, Weismann admitted the possibility of environmental influence on the substance of heredity.{{sfn|Graham|2016|p=20}}

Lysenko himself, at the August 1948 VASKhNIL session, argued the following regarding the inheritance of acquired characteristics:<ref name="washniil"/>
{{blockquote|Thus, the position about the possibility of inheritance of acquired deviations - this is the largest acquisition in the history of biological science, the foundation of which was laid by [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck|Lamarck]] and organically mastered later in the teachings of Darwin - was thrown overboard by the Mendelian-Morganists.}}