Nikolái Ivánovich Vavílov

 

 

"Truth never succeeds, simply your opponents are dying"

 

Max Planck.

 

Currently there are in Russia institutes N. I. Vavilov where the seeds of a large part of the varieties of edible plants are preserved, which today provide the food of humanity. For decades, Nikolái Vavílov dedicated himself to traveling the world to find the seeds of the plants from which species such as corn, wheat, rice and many others emerged. In order to do genetic research to make existing plants more productive.

   Vavílov was born in Moscow on November 25, 1887, into a family of merchants. He spent most of his childhood in a village, where he could understand the mismanagement of agriculture at that time, and aroused in him an interest in botany. In that village, he also understood that this neglect in the countryside had a terrible consequence for the villagers: hunger, not only in the village, but in Russia and therefore in the world.

   Those first experiences in the field led him to study Agriculture in Moscow. He obtained his doctorate in 1910. He worked in the Office of Applied Botany, and visited other research centers in Europe, especially in England, and collaborated with William Bateson in the development of genetics. He was in charge, from 1921 to 1940, of the Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Saint Petersburg (Formerly Leningrad). He organized, from his leadership in the Academy, more than 400 agricultural stations throughout Russia. They experimented with crop improvement and provided selected seeds to farmers. The Academy had, at its peak, up to 20,000 workers.

   Vavílov was a scientist, who followed the ideas that most of his colleagues supported around the world. He considered Mendel's Laws to be the way inheritance was governed in all living things. And these laws did not admit that the environment managed to alter these beings in such a way that it could modify the genetic heritage of a species to transmit it to the new generations. The works of those times indicated that all the genetic information of an individual was in the nucleus of each one of their cells, that this material underwent changes, mutations, that occurred in the DNA sequence, which in a specific way and in the course of from a long time, they could be added to produce new characteristics in individuals and thus create new species.

  From Leningrad he led botanical expeditions, collected seeds and plants around the world, and created the largest collection of edible seeds on the planet. This would allow him to have a greater gene pool of each of the plants that are currently cultivated. His first expedition took him to Persia in 1916, on the second trip he went to the United States between May 1921 and January 1922. In 1924 he was in Afghanistan and, in the following years, in the Middle East, North Africa, the Mediterranean, in Ethiopia, China and several other countries. Achieving an impressive collection of seeds with which to experiment to improve their own crops.

  They were the best moments of his career. But as in any totalitarian system, there is always the possibility of falling out of favor, regardless of its achievements. When Stalin came to power, in 1927, he imposed an oppressive system where any known fault or complaint could be a reason for punishment.

   One of Vavilov's collaborators, Trofim Lysenko, a hypocritical being, began to rise to power, using the Russian newspapers themselves to declare achievements in science that only existed in his imagination. In fact, he began his ascent in 1927, at the age of 29, while working at an experimental station in what is now the desert of Azerbaijan, the Soviet daily Pravda reported that Lysenko had discovered a method of fertilizing the land without using fertilizers. or minerals; It would also have shown that a winter pea crop could grow in Azerbaijan, "greening the barren fields of the Transcaucasus in the winter so that livestock would not die for lack of food and that Turkish peasants would live through the winter without fear of the future. ». With that publicity he was promoted to other more important positions. But with the passage of time the deserts of Azerbaijan remained sterile, and when the truth was coming to light, Lysenko released another new piece of news that was also false, praising his achievements and continued to rise from positions based on lies.

   Of course, the achievements he claimed to have achieved had to be verified by his colleagues. When Russian scientists could not repeat the experiments of this sad character, they protested. Lysenko, to counter the criticism, released another spectacular news in the official newspaper and the process was repeated again. It was natural that this pseudoscientist felt attacked and with the passage of time decided to end Mendelian genetics throughout Russia.

   He publicly stated that bringing seeds from other parts of the world to improve Soviet plants was expensive and useless, that Soviet seed had all the potential to improve themselves. With intelligence Lysenko, in every opportunity he had to speak publicly and privately with Stalin, made references to the fact that agricultural plants were like the socialist people, and that if they were provided with the right conditions they could develop to their full capacity. Stalin spoke to Lysenko on several occasions and the rogue agronomist began to sow intrigues against Vavilov in the mind of the genocidal tyrant.

   Stalin, from before assuming power, had decided to do Social Engineering, to eliminate, systematically and quickly, all the people who could be a danger to the socialist system. Among these were all those who have lived or visited any other country, considering that they already had ideas against socialism. The case of the Gulag is already well known, and although they also housed criminals, most of them were political prisoners. In fact, these centers were created since Stalin's rise to power, and were only recognized in 1930.

  At the time Vavílov was supported by Lenin, which allowed him to carry out all his projects. But when Stalin came to power, everything changed. At a public conference Trofim Lysenko, supported by the new socialist leader, declared that the acquired characteristics could be inherited from one generation to the next. This annoyed Vavilov, who openly claimed him, declaring that, even if it cost him his life, he would still believe in Mendel's laws. Lysenko defended his concepts of genetics, stating that they were attached to Marxist-Leninist doctrine.

   For a century, there was a theory of evolution created by Lamarck. This theory held that animals underwent changes in their bodies with the use and disuse of their parts. These characteristics, such as the arm of a blacksmith, when used very frequently to take the hammer, developed a lot, and their children had the possibility of being born with a strong arm like their father. Lamarck clarified in his theory that the acquired characteristics could be inheritable, which served very well for the socialist political doctrine. Instead, concepts like chromosomes, genes, and nuclei seemed to be guided by chance and those ideas had no political application.

   Perhaps the key to Lyzenko's success was to promise Stalin good results quickly, which Vavilov could not promise. Sure, Lyzencko never kept his promise, but after Vavilov fell, Lyzencko took his place.

   After that, and almost immediately, a fierce campaign against Mendelian genetics and its supporters began, the chief of which was Vavilov. Lysenko literally called Mendel one of the founders of reactionary genetics. Vavilov's science was bourgeois, counterrevolutionary, expensive, of useless results for the Revolution, it was, in short, reactionary genetics following Mendel.

   Vavílov was arrested by the NKVD in 1940. In less than a year he was subjected to severe interrogations for about 400 sessions. In the end Vavílov was broken recognizing crimes to ridiculous treasons. He was tried and sentenced to death in 1941. His research group, and genetics in general, were being destroyed by the government, instigated by Lysenko. Between 1934 and 1940, 18 of the researchers in Vavilov's laboratory had already been detained.

    The sentence was commuted to 20 years of forced labor, and he was held in Saratov prison, a city located southeast of Moscow, halfway to the Caucasus. Coincidentally, his first university teaching position was in Saratov, between 1917 and 1921. Vavilov died in January 1943 of starvation, causing dystrophy, which left him paralyzed in bed until his death.