A "second front" in soviet genetics: The international dimension of the Lysenko controversy, 1944-1947

Journal of the History of Biology

Volumn 29, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 229-250

  Krementsov, Nikolai ^a  

^a S I VAVILOV INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY   (Russian Federation)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; GENETICS; HISTORY; INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION; POLITICS; USSR;

GENETICS; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION; POLITICS; USSR;

EID: 0030158540     PISSN: 00225010     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/BF00571083     Document Type: Review

References (91)

1. For detailed accounts of the Lysenko controversy see Zhores Medvedev, The Rise and Fall of T. D. Lysenko (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969);
2. David Joravsky, The Lysenko Affair (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970);
3. Dominique Lecourt, Proletarian Science? A Case of Lysenko (London: NBL, 1977);
4. Valerii Soifer, Vlast' i Nauka (Ann Arbor: Hermitage, 1988);
5. Valery Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1994).
6. For a careful analysis of the early history of Soviet genetics see Mark B. Adams, "Science, Ideology, and Structure: The Kol'tsov Institute, 1900-1970," in The Social Context of Soviet Science, ed. Linda Lubrano and Susan Solomon (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1980), pp. 173-204;
7. Mark B. Adams, "Eugenics in Russia," in The Well-born Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil, and Russia, ed. idem (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 153-216.
8. For an account of the institutional dimension of the controversy see Nikolai Krementsov, Stalinist Science.
9. See, for instance, N. G. Levitskaia and T. K. Lassan, "Grigorii Andreevich Levitskii: Materialy k Biografii," Tsitologiia, 34: 8 (1992), 102-125.
10. German-Soviet relations in genetics have been partly explored in Paul Weindling, "German-Soviet Cooperation and the Institute for Racial Research, 1927-c. 1935," Germ. Hist., 10: 2 (1992), 177-206.
11. See Mark B. Adams, ed., The Evolution of Theodosius Dobzhansky (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
12. See Diane B. Paul and Kostas B. Crimbas, "Nikolai V. Timofeeff-Ressovsky," Sci. Amer., 266: 2 (1992), 86-92.
13. See "Abandonment of the Moscow Meeting of the International Congress of Genetics," Science, 84 (1936), 553-554.
14. In the personal archives of Western geneticists there is an obvious lapse in the correspondence with Russian colleagues from 1939 to 1944-45. See, for example, L. C. Dunn Papers or Th. Dobzhansky Papers, manuscript collections of the American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia, Pa (hereafter cited as APS).
15. For example, in 1940 Paul Mangelsdorf organized a special seminar on Russian genetics at Harvard University.
16. See J. B. S. Haldane, "Lysenko and Genetics," Sci. Soc., 4 (1940), 433-437;
17. K. Mather, "Genetics and the Russian Controversy," Nature, 149 (1942), 427-430.
18. See the wartime issues of Science, Nature, and Vestnik Akademii Nauk SSSR.
19. On the use of science as a tool for strengthening the Anti-Fascist Coalition see, for example, the recollections of the Soviet ambassador in Britain regarding his activities during the first months of the war: I. M. Maiskii, Vospominaniia Sovetskogo Posla (Moscow: Nauka, 1965), pp. 192-195.
20. See Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (State Archive of Russian Federation; hereafter cited as GARF), fond r5283, opis' 14, delo 7, 130 listov. Such archival references will subsequently be given in the following form: GARF, f. r5283, op. 14, d. 7, l. 130.
21. See GARF, f. r5283, op. 14, dd. 175, 183, 193, 195, 199, 200, 201, 207, 208, 209, 210, 214, 216, 217, 219, 223.
22. For example, on November 6-8, 1943, the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship held a large congress in New York, and scientists played an important role in organizing and conducting the congress. See "3-Day Congress to Honor Soviet," N.Y. Times, November 6, 1943, p. 21;
23. "Aid to World Seen in Pact of Moscow," N.Y. Times, November 7, 1943, p. 47.
24. See Rossiiskii Tsentr Khraneniia i Izucheniia Dokumnetov Noveishei Istorii (Russian Center for the Storage and Study of the Documents of Recent History; hereafter cited as RTsKhIDNI), f. 17, op. 125, d. 449, ll. 188-199.
25. One of the most active organizers of the society was its business manager Robert L. Leslie; see American-Soviet Medical Society Papers, MS C 470, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Md.
26. "American-Soviet Science Society," K. Stern Papers, APS.
27. V. M. Molotov, "Doklad 6 Noiabria 1945," Vestnik AN SSSR, 15 (October-November 1945), 15.
28. See Vestnik AN SSSR, 16 (February 1946), 11.
29. Th. Dobzhansky to L. C. Dunn, July 4, 1945, Dunn Papers, APS.
30. E. Ashby to S. Wright, July 22, 1945, Wright Papers, APS.
31. Eríc Ashby, Scientist in Russia (New York: Penguin Books, 1947), pp. 105-117.
32. Scientist in Russia Ibid., p. 114.
33. See RTsKhIDNI, f. 17, op. 121, d. 331, l. 54.
34. See impressions of American participants in the jubilee: "Impressions of Soviet Science," Amer, Rev. Sov. Union, 7: 1 (1945), 32-43.
35. For a colorful description of the jubilee, and particularly the banquet, see chap. 6, "Science on Show," in Ashby, Scientist in Russia (above, n. 24), pp. 126-145.
36. See Vestnik AN SSSR, 16 (July-August 1946), 51.
37. For a detailed account of the international dimension of Soviet science policy in the 1930s see A. P. Iushkevich, "D̀elo' Akademika N. N. Luzina," in Repressirovannaia Nauka (Leningrad: Nauka, 1991), pp. 377-394;
38. Alex E. Levin, "Anatomy of a Public Campaign: 'Academician Luzin's Case' in Soviet Political History," Slav. Rev., 49: 1 (1990), 90-108.
39. M. Demerec to P. S. Koller, August 1945, Demerec Papers, APS.
40. For his recollections of the visit see Julian Huxley, Memories (New York: Harper and Row, 1970), pp. 281-287.
41. J. S. Huxley, "Science in the USSR: Evolutionary Biology and Related Subjects," Nature, 156 (1945), 254-256.
42. E. Babcock to M. Deutch, June 6, 1945, the Bancroft Library, University of California Archives, Berkeley.
43. Michael Lerner was a Russian émigré and, of course, spoke Russian perfectly.
44. M. Lerner to H. J. Muller, June 29, 1945, Lerner Papers, APS.
45. See P. S. Koller to M. Demerec, July 27, 1945, Demerec Papers, APS.
46. Th. Dobzhansky to L. C. Dunn, July 4, 1945, Dunn Papers, APS.
47. M. Lerner to L. C. Dunn, June 27, 1945, Lerner Papers, APS.
48. Th. Dobzhansky to L. C. Dunn, July 4, 1945, Dunn Papers, APS (emphasis in original).
49. There was an attempt to organize a special committee to aid Russian geneticists, but this project failed; see M. Lerner to L. C. Dunn, July 23, 1945; M. Lerner to B. McClintock, June 27, 1945, Dunn Papers, APS.
50. He left the editorial board in May 1946.
51. A. R. Zhebrak, "Soviet Biology," Science, 102 (1945), 357-358;
52. N. P. Dubinin, "Works of Soviet Biologists: Theoretical Genetics," Science, 105 (1947), 109-112.
53. P. S. Hudson and R. H. Richens, The New Genetics in the Soviet Union (Cambridge: Heffer, 1946).
54. T. D. Lysenko, Heredity and Its Variability, trans. Th. Dobzhansky (New York: King's Crown Press, 1946).
55. L. C. Dunn to W. Bara, May 26, 1945, Dunn Papers, APS.
56. L. C. Dunn to M. Lerner, June 29, 1945, Dunn Papers, APS.
57. Professor of botany at the University of California, Los Angeles.
58. L. C. Dunn to H. Silver, August 17, 1945, Dunn Papers, APS.
59. L. C. Dunn to H. Wallace, January 30, 1946, Dunn Papers, APS.
60. H. J. Muller to K. Stern, February 11, 1946, Stern Papers, APS.
61. In 1946-47 a number of articles about the Soviet science system were published in Western periodicals in relation to the discussion of the possible future organization of Western science after the war. The most important subject of this discussion was the so-called freedom of science- a system of interrelations between science and the state. Many disputants referred to the Lysenko controversy and the fate of executed Soviet geneticists as an example of the danger presented by state control over science. See, for instance, R. Simpson, "Science, Totalitarian Model," Sat. Rev. Lit. March 9, 1946, pp. 28-32. In their critique of Lysenko's doctrine, however, Western geneticists carefully avoided any political connotations.
62. K. Stern and others to J. B. S. Haldane, April 17, 1946, Stern Papers, APS.
63. J. B. S. Haldane to H. J. Muller, May 15, 1946, Demerec Papers, APS.
64. K. Stern to H. J. Muller, June 12, 1946, Stern Papers, APS.
65. J. H. Muller to M. Demerec, June 5, 1946, Demerec Papers, APS.
66. J. S. Huxley to M. Demerec, December 31, 1945, Demerec Papers, APS.
67. Ibid.
68. M. Demerec to O. Mohr, November 28, 1945, Demerec Papers, APS.
69. F. R. A. Crew to M. Demerec, January 15, 1946, Demerec Papers, APS.
70. Before the war the Russian representative to the committee was N. Vavilov.
71. F. R. A. Crew to M. Demerec, January 15, 1946, Demerec Papers, APS.
72. Ibid.
73. F. R. A. Crew to the Soviet Ambassador, February 11, 1946, Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk (Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences; hereafter cited as ARAN), f. 2, op. 1-1945, d. 401, ll. 18-20. A copy of this letter is also in Demerec Papers, APS.
74. See RTsKhIDNI, f. 17, op. 121, d. 537, l. 26 reverse.
75. M. Demerec to J. S. Huxley, February 18, 1946, Demerec Papers, APS.
76. M. Demerec to all members of the Permanent Committee, August 9, 1945, Demerec Papers, APS.
77. A. Zhebrak to G. Malenkov, December 1944, RTsKhIDNI, f. 17, op. 125, d. 360, 1. 9.
78. A. Zhebrak to V. Molotov, November 3, 1945, ARAN, f. 2, op. 1-1945, d. 450, 1. 4.
79. M. Lerner to L. C. Dunn, June 27, 1945, Lemer Papers, APS.
80. A. Zhebrak to V. Molotov, November 3, 1945, ARAN, f. 2, op. 1-1945, d. 450, ll. 1-6.
81. Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Ekonomiki (Russian State Archive of Economics), f. 8390, op. 1, d. 1997, ll. 18-19.
82. A. Zhebrak to G. Malenkov, April 1, 1946, RTsKhIDNI, f. 17, op. 125, d. 449, ll. 108-111.
83. And, as it later turned out, the last until 1965.
84. GARF, f. 5446, op. 85, d. 12, l. 75.
85. RTsKhIDNI, f. 17, op. 125, d. 451, ll. 1-2.
86. Ibid., ll. 4-102.
87. Ibid., l. 103.
88. Ibid., ll. 105-140.
89. ARAN, f. 1657, op. l, d. 154, ll. 36-37.
90. Dubinin, "Works of Soviet Biologists" (above, n. 43), p. 112.
91. Th. Dobzhansky to L. C. Dunn, [between November 25 and December 5], 1946, Dunn Papers, APS.