The short life of Nikolai Vavilov and a long memory of him

MOSCOW. The publishing house "Zakharov" published a book popularizing science Semyon Reznik about Nikolai Vavilov.

The writer and popularizer of science, Semyon Reznik, has repeatedly turned in his work to the personality of Nikolai Vavilov. His first book, published as part of the Life of Wonderful People series, of which he was the editor of 1961-1973, was dedicated to him. Scientific and artistic biography came out a quarter of a century after the tragic death of a scientist, in 1968. Many of those who wrote denunciations on him, tortured in the dungeons, at that time were no longer alive. But the system, as before, did not want to crash and allow the uncensored biography of Vavilov to be made public. An order was issued to arrest and destroy 100 thousand printed copies. A few months later, the book nevertheless saw the light of day, already without “ideologically harmful” fragments.

After Reznik emigrated from the USSR, his work on the biography of the outstanding geneticist and breeder, as well as representatives of his scientific school, was continued. The book “This Short Life. Nikolay Vavilov and his time ”was published in the publishing house“ Zakharov ”half a century after the story with ZhZL. The publication was dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the scientist. In work on it, Reznik used all currently available documents, diaries, and the scientific heritage.

The task of ridding mankind of hunger, which the geneticist worked on, could be solved, in his opinion, by means of breeding plants resistant to adverse conditions. This would provide food to the population even in the most problematic climatic zones. Vavilov was the first to propose the concept of the need to preserve the biodiversity of cultivated plants and created the first seed bank in the world in Leningrad in 1924. It stores about 300 thousand copies of various plants.

In order to collect planting material, the scientist organized an expedition to Persia, after which he visited six dozen countries. In communicating with the local population, he was helped by knowledge of 15 languages. Neither difficult conditions during exhausting campaigns, nor illness, nor accusations of espionage prevented the implementation of the plans.

During the expeditions, he identified the ancient centers of morphogenesis of cultivated plants. The collected information formed the basis for the theory of world centers of their origin, the law of homologous series, studies on the biological species and plant immunity, numerous scientific papers and articles on selection and genetics. Hundreds of experimental stations created by him and the Institute of Applied Botany he led were successfully operating. Vavilov repeatedly made reports on his discoveries at international congresses and conferences,

In the black line, which began in his life in the mid-30s, Trofim Lysenko, vested with power, an uncultured crook, is to blame. Cruel reprisals against ideologically alien elements and obscurantism were encouraged by a system indifferent to its citizens. The defeat of the domestic school of genetics, the arrest of Vavilov on trumped-up denunciation and subsequent bullying in places of detention were inevitable. The great scientist died as a result of the decline of cardiac activity in an extreme degree of exhaustion.

Svalbard Globale frøhvelv - The world seed store on the island of Svalbard, created by Norway in 2006 and designed for 4.5 million seeds - materialization of the great scientist’s dream. At a depth of 120 meters in numerous compartments allocated to each country, samples of planting materials are stored. They are protected from any cataclysms by permafrost, lock chambers, and explosion-proof doors.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru