The Rise and Fall of T. D. Lysenko
by Zhores A. Medvedev
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Presents the story of the Soviets from 1937-1964 in three ways; historically, by the author as a witness, and by the author as an active participant to the final stages of Lysenkoism, which he helped to topple.Tags
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Member Reviews
This grim little book documents the impact that pseudoscience can have on a profession when it has the backing of powerful politicians. When reading the opening chapters of the book one can’t help but notice the similarities between the initial Lysenko/Stalin efforts and the present-day Kennedy/Trump movement in the US.
Lysenko’s reign lasted from the mid 1930’s to the mid 1960’s. Along the way he oversaw the destruction of an entire field of Russian science (genetics). This included complete censorship of anything which countered the pseudoscience nonsense of Lysenkoism, the death and imprisonment of geneticists, the absolute perversion of the teaching of science in primary and secondary schools as well as all levels of show more college, and failures in agricultural output to the point where by the 1960’s Russia was forced to import huge quantities of grain from Europe and the West.
The book is an excellent study of the consequences which follow when politically supported ignorance is allowed free reign. show less
Lysenko’s reign lasted from the mid 1930’s to the mid 1960’s. Along the way he oversaw the destruction of an entire field of Russian science (genetics). This included complete censorship of anything which countered the pseudoscience nonsense of Lysenkoism, the death and imprisonment of geneticists, the absolute perversion of the teaching of science in primary and secondary schools as well as all levels of show more college, and failures in agricultural output to the point where by the 1960’s Russia was forced to import huge quantities of grain from Europe and the West.
The book is an excellent study of the consequences which follow when politically supported ignorance is allowed free reign. show less
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Author Information
17 Works 665 Members
Zhores Aleksandrovich Medvedev was born in Tbilisi, in Soviet Georgia on November 14, 1925. He received a bachelor's degree from the Timiriasev Academy of Agricultural Sciences, a master's degree from the Institute of Plant Physiology at the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and a doctorate in biochemistry from Timiriasev Academy of Agricultural show more Sciences in 1954. He worked at Timiriasev from 1954 until 1963 and with the Academy of Medical Sciences at Obninsk from 1963 until his dismissal in 1969 because he refused to limit his writings to scientific subjects. Medvedev played a role in discrediting the doctrines of Trofim D. Lysenko, gave the world accounts of the Soviet practice of committing political dissenters to mental institutions, campaigned for greater freedoms for Soviet scientists and writers to study and travel abroad, and exposed a 1957 nuclear disaster in the Urals. On May 29, 1970, he was arrested at his home and taken by doctors to a mental hospital. He was pronounced acutely ill and confined in a locked ward. He was released 19 days later because of written protests from both in the Soviet Union and abroad. In 1973, Medvedev was allowed to go to London to take a one-year job at the National Institute for Medical Research. While there, his Soviet citizenship was revoked. In England, he worked at the Department of Genetics of the National Institute for Medical Research. His Soviet citizenship was reinstated in 1990. He wrote numerous books including Protein Biosynthesis and Problems of Heredity, Development and Aging; Molecular-Genetic Mechanisms of Development; The Rise and Fall of T. D. Lysenko; A Question of Madness written with Roy Medvedev; Ten Years After One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; Nuclear Disaster in the Urals; Soviet Agriculture; and The Legacy of Chernobyl. He died of a heart attack on November 15, 2018 at the age of 93. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Rise and Fall of T. D. Lysenko
- Original title
- The Rise and Fall of T. D. Lysenko
- Original publication date
- 1969; 1971-03-17 (1e traduction de l'anglais et édition française ∙ Témoins ∙ Gallimard) (1e traduction de l'anglais et édition française ∙ Témoins ∙ Gallimard)
- People/Characters
- Trofim Lysenko
- Important places*
- U.R.S.S.
- Original language*
- Russe
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 65
- Popularity
- 477,266
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.88)
- Languages
- English, French, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 5
