Genetics - Misuses

The Soviet Union under the guidance of Joseph Stalin adopted a viewpoint that genetics was not correct. In the process the great Nikolay Ivanovich Vavilov was banished to the steppes and the control of biology was given to Trofim D. Lysenko. This led to the suppression and ridicule of genetics.

The ideological debate was that of acquired characters. Marx proposed that if we live in a better environment we become better. The logical follow-up is that this rule applies to all organisms.

The era of Lysenkoism in the Soviet Union (1937-1964) was one of the dark eras of science and control of ideology.

It was very hard for Kruchev to visit the Midwest and see the results of hybrid corn. It is my personal opinion that his trip to the UN was greatly tempered by his trip to the Midwest and his introduction to hybrid corn and hybrid animals. These are just not explainable by a doctrine of acquired characters.

Text iGenetics by Peter J. Russell

This web site is provided for instruction in Botany and Zoology 342

by Kenneth G. Wilson,
Professor of Botany
Miami University
wilsonkg@muohio.edu