Lysenko’s name caught my attention: I don’t remember the context where I came
across his name and it’s not important.
Lysenko personifies Science Serving Ideology. For a great measure. His claim
to fame? A “peasant” agronomist in proletariat Russia (USSR). His methods:
devious and fraudulent to say the least. He was the perfect tool for Stalin, an
excellent one-man forum to evolve his Red Theories.
Born Trofim Denisovich Lysenko, he was pretty obscure till he came to
limelight following an experiment in the winter of peas to precede the cotton
crop, which was hyped in the Pravda. This article turned
him into a hero of sorts: the peasant scientist, close to his proletarian
roots. His claim to the success of this experiment was false as it had already
been demonstrated by another scientist named Maksimov. When Maksimov questioned
him, he angrily shouted him down and organized protests against him.
If I can say so loosely, he was a follower of the Lamarckian school,
staunchly refuting the Mendellian theory of genetics-based evolution. Lysenko
believed in “immediate results,” and achieved them on occasions. However, he
propounded extremely vague theories that failed to pass the rigours that
scientific discipline demands. Lysenko believed that the critical factor that
determines the length of the vegetation period in a plant was not its
genetic makeup, but its interaction with the environment.
He then turned his wrath in the direction of geneticists and branded them as
menshevising idealists, causing them to loose their positions
in the Communist Academy. His tactic was to emphasize only on results, and
indulging in vicious sledging. For example, he says
In order to obtain a certain result, You must want to obtain precisely that
result; if you want to obtain a certain result, you will obtain it …. I need
only such people as will obtain the results I need.
Lysenko knew how to obtain support for his wild propositions by stirring up
the masses with fiery speeches, by tarnishing respected and genuine
scientists, and by toeing the party line very well. He spoke of a “class
struggle” in science in these terms:
A class enemy is always an enemy whether he is a scientist or not…
Fortunately for him, Comrade Stalin was present at this speech, applauded him
and then went on to recruit him. His rising prominence led him to propound one
atrocious theory after the other: he put forth a theory of heredity that
rejected the existence of genes, and therefore it followed that the subject of
Genetics was without a basis, and therefore not to be studied. It was held to be
bourgeoisie, and contrary to Marxism. Lysenko went on to become the Director of
the Institute of Genetics of the Academy of Sciences.
With newly-found power, he began a systematic purge of all who stood in his
way. People were shot, sent to prison and concentration camps, books were
rewritten and pulled off from libraries. Science began to serve Ideology and
consequently, Ideology defined/dictated what could be deemed a science. A
classic case of the effects of bureaucratic/political interference in
a neutral discipline such as science.
Here is what a Russian writes about Lysenkoism:
Trofim Denisovich Lysenko as a scientist was worse than you can imagine. One
of his ideas: if you feed a calf from birth with bran, it will become a pig. I
understand that it’s nonsense but it’s our history (I’m Russian).
My ramble about Lysenko is somewhat loose and unconnected at times. Here are
some resources where you can learn more about Lysenko and Lysenkoism:
Web Resources:
Extract from Marxism and the Philosophy of Science- A Critical History
Books:
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