Editing Trofim Lysenko (section)

===Work in Azerbaijan===
In October 1925, Lysenko was sent to [[Azerbaijan]], to a breeding station in the city of [[Ganja, Azerbaijan|Ganja]].<ref name="Voinov"/> The Ganja breeding station was part of the staff of the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Crops (now the [[Institute of Plant Industry]]), created in 1925, which was headed by [[Nikolai Vavilov]]. The director of the station at that time was Nikolai Derevitsky, a specialist in mathematical statistics in agronomy. Derevitsky set Lysenko the task of [[introduced species|introducing]] [[legume|legume crops]] ([[Lupinus|lupine]], [[clover]], [[Lathyrus|peavine]], [[Vicia|vetch]]) into Azerbaijan, which could solve the problem of starvation of livestock in early spring, as well as increasing soil fertility when plowing these crops in the spring.<ref name="Soifer"/> Vavilov had done experiments on converting winter wheat into spring wheat. It was Vavilov who initially supported Lysenko and encouraged him in his work.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=X. |last2=Liu |first2=Y. |title=The conversion of spring wheat into winter wheat and vice versa: False claim or Lamarckian inheritance? |journal=[[Journal of Biosciences]] |volume=35 |issue=2 |year=2010 |pages=321–325 |doi=10.1007/s12038-010-0035-1 |pmid=20689187 |s2cid=10527354}}</ref> In the article, ''Pravda'' correspondent Vitaly Fedorovich described his first impression of the meeting with Lysenko:<ref name="Soifer"/>
{{blockquote|If you judge a person by first impression, then this Lysenko will leave you with a feeling of toothache - God bless him, he is a sad-looking person. And he is stingy with his words, and insignificant in face - all I remember is his gloomy eye, crawling along the ground with such an air as if, at least, he was going to kill someone.}}

Lysenko had a difficult time trying to grow various crops (such as peas and wheat) through the harsh winters. However, when he announced success, he was praised in the Soviet newspaper ''[[Pravda]]'' for his claims to have discovered a method to fertilize fields without using fertilizers or minerals, and to have shown that a winter crop of [[pea]]s could be grown in [[Azerbaijan]], "turning the barren fields of the [[Transcaucasus]] green in winter, so that cattle will not perish from poor feeding, and the peasant Turk will live through the winter without trembling for tomorrow."<ref name="LA">{{harvnb|Joravsky|1986}}.</ref>

Soon, Lysenko married one of the interns who trained under him, Alexandra Baskova. During the same period, breeder {{ill|Donat Dolgushin|ru|Долгушин, Донат Александрович}}, a future academic and supporter of Lysenko, began working with Lysenko.<ref name="Soifer"/>

[[File:Lysenko with Stalin.gif|thumb|upright=1.4|right|Lysenko speaking at [[the Kremlin]] in 1935. Behind him are [[Stanislav Kosior]], [[Anastas Mikoyan]], [[Andrey Andreyevich Andreyev|Andrei Andreyev]] and [[Joseph Stalin]].]]
Lysenko worked with different wheat crops to try to convert them to grow in different seasons. Another area Lysenko found himself interested in was the effect of heat on plant growth. He believed that every plant needed a determinate amount of heat throughout its lifetime. He attempted to correlate the time and the amount of heat required by a particular plant to go through various phases of development. To get his data he looked at the amount of growth, how many days went by, and the temperature on those days, instead of measuring any actual [[heat]]. In trying to determine the effects, he was making mistakes in statistical analysis of data. He was confronted by [[Nikolai Maximov (physiologist)|Nikolai Maximov]], who was an expert on thermal plant development. Lysenko did not take well to this or any criticism. After this encounter, Lysenko boldly claimed that mathematics had no place in biology.<ref name="LA"/>

His experimental research in improved crop yields earned him the support of the Soviet leader [[Joseph Stalin]], especially following the [[Russian famine of 1921|famine]] and loss of productivity resulting from crop failures and [[Collectivisation in the USSR|forced collectivization]] in several regions of the Soviet Union in the early 1930s.

Lysenko considered how he might use his work to convert [[winter wheat]] into spring wheat. In 1927, Lysenko embarked on the research that would lead to his 1928 paper on vernalization, which drew wide attention because of its potential practical implications for [[Soviet agriculture]]. Severe cold and lack of winter snow had destroyed many early winter-wheat seedlings. By treating [[wheat]] seeds with moisture as well as cold, Lysenko induced them to bear a crop when planted in spring. Lysenko coined the term "Jarovization" (яровизация) to describe this chilling process, which he used to make the seeds of winter cereals behave like spring cereals. (Because spring cereals are called ''Jarovoe'' in Russian – from ''jarovój'', an archaic adjective meaning spring, especially in relation to crops). However, this method had already been known by farmers since the 1800s, and had been discussed in detail by [[Gustav Gassner]] in 1918. Lysenko himself translated Jarovization as "vernalization" (from the Latin ''vernum'' meaning Spring).<ref name="Graham">{{cite book |last=Graham |first=Lo-ren R. |url=https://archive.org/details/moscowstories00grah |title=Moscow Stories |date=2006 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-25-30007-43 |location=Bloomington, Indiana |pages=[https://archive.org/details/moscowstories00grah/page/120 120]–25, 290|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Chouard |first=P. |title=Vernalization and its relations to dormancy |journal=Annual Review of Plant Physiology |date=1960 |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=191–238 |doi=10.1146/annurev.pp.11.060160.001203}}</ref> Lysenko's claims for increased yields were based on plantings over a few hectares, and he believed that the vernalized transformation could be inherited, that the offspring of a vernalized plant would themselves possess the capabilities of the generation that preceded it{{snd}}that it too would be able to withstand harsh winters or imperfect weather conditions.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Amasino |first=R.|title=Vernalization, competence, and the epigenetic memory of winter |journal=The Plant Cell |date=2004 |volume=16 |issue=10 |pages=2553–2559 |doi=10.1105/tpc.104.161070 |pmid=15466409|pmc=520954|bibcode=2004PlanC..16.2553A }}</ref>