Home > Ladder > Vavilov is the scientist who discovered it. Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov. The triumph and death of the genius of world science. Yulia Pyatetskaya

Vavilov is the scientist who discovered it. Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov. The triumph and death of the genius of world science. Yulia Pyatetskaya

Vavilov Nikolai Ivanovich (1887-1943), Russian botanist, plant breeder, geneticist, geographer and organizer of science. Born in Moscow on November 13 (25), 1887.

The elder brother of the famous physicist S.I. Vavilov. He graduated from the Moscow Commercial School (1906) and the Moscow Agricultural Institute (formerly Petrovsky Academy, 1910), was left at the department of private agriculture, headed by D.N. Pryanishnikov, to prepare for the professorship, and then seconded to the breeding station.

Let's go to the stake, we'll burn, but we won't give up our convictions!

Vavilov Nikolay Ivanovich

He trained in St. Petersburg at the Bureau of Applied Botany under the leadership of R.E. Regel and in the laboratory of mycology and phytopathology under the leadership of A.A. Yachevsky. In 1913-1914 he worked at the Horticultural Institute with one of the founders of genetics, W. Bateson, whom Vavilov later called his teacher and “the first apostle of the new teaching,” and then in France, in the largest seed-growing company Vilmorins, and in Germany with E. Haeckel. After the outbreak of the First World War, Vavilov barely managed to get out of Germany and returned to Russia. In 1916 he went on an expedition to Iran, then to the Pamirs.

Returning to Moscow, he taught, sorted out the brought materials, conducted experiments with Pamir early-ripening wheat, and continued experiments on immunity on experimental plots at the Petrovsky Academy. From September 1917 to 1921 he taught at the Saratov Higher Agricultural Courses, where in 1918, with the transformation of the courses into an institute, he was elected professor and headed the department of genetics, selection and private agriculture. At local stations, together with students, he conducted research on selection. In June 1920 he gave a report on homological series at the III All-Russian Congress of Breeders in Saratov.

In March 1921, after the death of Regel, together with a group of employees, he moved to Petrograd and headed the Department of Applied Botany and Selection (formerly the Bureau of Applied Botany of the Agricultural Scientific Committee). Also in 1921, he visited the USA, where he spoke at the International Congress of Agriculture, became acquainted with the work of the Bureau of Plant Industry in Washington and the work of T. G. Morgan's Columbia Laboratory. He organized a branch of the Department of Applied Botany and Breeding in Washington, headed by D.N. Borodin, who over the next two years managed to purchase seeds, books, and equipment for the Department. On the way back through Europe I visited G. de Vries.

In 1922 Vavilov was appointed director State Institute experienced agronomy, which united various departments of the Agricultural Scientific Committee. In 1924 he became director of the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Crops, and in 1930 - director of its successor, the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing with a wide network of departments, experimental stations and strongholds. In 1927 he participated in the work of the V International Genetic Congress in Berlin. He was president, and in 1935-1940 - vice-president of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences named after. V.I. Lenin (VASKhNIL) (from 1938 T.D. Lysenko became president, remaining in office until 1956).

At the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing, Vavilov created a department of genetics, and in 1930 he headed the successor to the Bureau of Genetics (which was headed by Yu.A. Filipchenko until his death) - the Laboratory of Genetics. Three years later, the Laboratory of Genetics was transformed into the Institute of Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1934, together with the entire Academy, was transferred from Leningrad to Moscow. To work at the Institute, Vavilov attracted not only Filipchenko’s students, but also geneticists and breeders A.A. Sapegin, G.A. Levitsky, D. Kostov, K. Bridges, G. Möller and other prominent scientists. In 1923 the scientist was elected a corresponding member, and in 1929 an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1931-1940 he was president of the All-Union Geographical Society. In 1942 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society of London.

Vavilov is the founder of the doctrine of plant immunity to infectious diseases, which continued the general doctrine of immunity developed by I.I. Mechnikov. In 1920, the scientist formulated the law of homological series in hereditary variability, according to which “species and genera that are genetically close to each other are characterized by identical series of hereditary variability with such regularity that, knowing the series of forms for one species, one can predict the finding of identical forms of other species and genera .

Who is Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov, what contribution to the science of biology did he make, what did this outstanding naturalist become famous for?

Nikolai Vavilov - brief biography

N.I. Vavilov (1887-1943) - an outstanding Russian biologist, the founder of genetics, a famous plant breeder, one of the founders of Russian agricultural science.

The future great Soviet biologist was born into a very wealthy family for those times. His father was a fairly wealthy merchant, which provided Nikolai Ivanovich with an excellent education.

Having received a commercial education, the future outstanding biologist did not work in his specialty, since he did not feel the desire to become a merchant. The young man was more interested in the flora and living world of Russia, to the study of which he intended to devote his life.

Nikolai Ivanovich enters the Moscow Agricultural Institute, where he receives excellent knowledge that forms the “foundation” of his worldview. Having graduated from this higher education educational institution in 1911, he was left at the department of private agriculture, where Vavilov actively studied the flora, combining scientific and teaching activities.

The young scientist’s career is developing rapidly. Already in 1917, Vavilov became a professor at Saratov University. In 1921, he headed the department of applied botany in St. Petersburg. It is with this scientific institution that the entire subsequent life of the biologist will be connected.

Later, the department of applied botany was transformed into the All-Union Institute of Botany and New Crops, then into the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing, better known to a wide circle of gardening enthusiasts under the abbreviation VIR. Nikolai Ivanovich will lead this scientific society right up to his arrest in 1940.

For more than 20 years of practical activity, under the leadership of an outstanding scientist, several dozen scientific expeditions were carried out, the purpose of which was to study the rich flora of Russia and foreign countries, including: India, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Japan and so on.

The scientific expedition to Ethiopia carried out in 1927 brought particular value to science. During research activities Nikolai Ivanovich, it was established for certain that it was on these lands that the first varieties of wheat were first grown.

Last years of life

Talent is good for those who have it. Around such people there are always a lot of spiteful critics who consider it their duty to harm and deal with more gifted and capable people.
Noticing that Vavilov was bringing something new to science, such ignoramuses became jealous.

The outstanding abilities of brilliant people often brought only misfortune to their owners. Alas, history is replete with such examples. The difficult fate of Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov confirms this statement.

Already an authoritative scientist, Vavilov supported the scientific works of his younger colleague Trofim Denisovich Lysenko. After some time, this once simple agronomist, with the support of Soviet ideologists, would launch an ongoing persecution of the great scientist, accusing him of participating in an anti-Soviet organization and branding his work as pseudoscience.

By false accusation Nikolai Ivanovich was arrested in 1940 and thanks to the speedy justice of those difficult times, after a short time Vavilov was sentenced to death. Later, for outstanding services to science, the scientist’s sentence was commuted, and capital punishment was replaced by 20 years of hard labor.

The scientist will spend little time in prison. In 1942, the heart of the great biologist stopped from hard labor conditions and constant hunger. The camp doctor, examining the body of the deceased, will make a conclusion about death as a result of a decline in cardiac activity.

In 1955, after the death of Joseph Stalin, Nikolai Ivanovich was completely rehabilitated. All charges of treason against him were dropped. The bright name of the outstanding biologist was restored, albeit posthumously. The masses of people were told what Vavilov had done for science, and his contribution to the general treasury of human knowledge received official recognition.

What new did Vavilov bring to biology?

Vavilov’s contribution to biology is difficult to overestimate. While studying the plant world, the scientist revealed to the world several thousand new plants previously unknown to mankind. The VIR research institution has created a collection of more than 300,000 plant specimens.

The law of homological series, discovered by Vavilov, determines the characteristics of hereditary variability in closely related species. According to this doctrine, similar hereditary changes occur in related plants.

It was thanks to the works of Nikolai Ivanovich that the world learned about the existence of immunity in plants. Under the leadership of the scientist, several hundred new species of zoned plants were bred, capable of growing even in atypical areas and producing significant yields.

Conclusion

The scientist’s merits have been repeatedly noted with numerous medals and recognitions. For the discovery of immunity in plants, Vavilov received the Lenin Prize, and for research work in Afghanistan - the Przhevalsky Medal. After rehabilitation, he was reinstated in the list of academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1965, grateful descendants established gold medal, which bore the name of the great biologist. She was awarded for outstanding achievements in the field agriculture. In 1967, VIR, headed by the scientist for many years, began to bear his great name.

Nikolai Ivanovich is a genius,
and we are not aware of this only because
that he is our contemporary.

D.N. Pryanishnikov

N.I. Vavilov is a world-famous scientist who made a huge contribution to the development of genetics, agronomic science, taxonomy and geography cultivated plants, development of scientific foundations of selection. He created the theory of plant introduction, enriched the theory and methods of genetic breeding research. His works have been translated into many languages ​​and published in many countries.

Nikolai Ivanovich was born on November 25, 1887 in Moscow. His father, Ivan Ilyich, came from a peasant family. Assigned in early childhood to a Moscow merchant as an errand boy, he eventually became a clerk, and then one of the directors famous company"Trekhgornaya Manufactory" In 1884, Ivan Vavilov married the daughter of the artist-engraver of the manufactory Mikhail Asonovich Postnikov, Alexandra. The groom was 21 years old, the bride was 16. Alexandra graduated primary school and learned drawing from her father.

The Vavilovs had seven children, of whom four survived: Alexandra, Nikolai, Sergei and Lydia.

Nikolai grew up healthy, inventive, and could stand up not only for himself, but also for his little brother. Sergei Ivanovich wrote in his memoirs: “We lived amicably with my brother Kolya, but he was much older and had a different character than me: brave, decisive, a “fighter” who constantly got into street fights. From an early age, he enjoyed serving in Nikola Vagankov’s church. But this was “social” work, and not religiosity at all. Nikolai very early became both an atheist and a materialist.”

Nikolai received his secondary education at the Moscow Commercial School, where his father assigned him, apparently hoping that over time his eldest son would become his successor. This educational institution was one of the best for its time in Moscow. It thoroughly taught natural science, physics, chemistry, modern languages. Among the teachers were famous professors S.F. Nagibin, Ya.Ya. Nikitinsky, A.N. Reformatsky and others.

At school, Nikolai became interested in natural science. In the garden behind the house, together with his younger brother, he set up a laboratory where he tried to independently conduct experiments in chemistry and physics. He collected butterflies and plants for herbarium.

In 1906, after graduating from college, despite his father’s persuasion to become a businessman, Nikolai entered the Moscow Agricultural Institute, the former Petrovsky Agricultural Academy. But why Petrovka? “The ardent propaganda for the Petrine Academy,” Nikolai Ivanovich later recalled, “was carried out by Ya.Ya. Nikitinsky and S.F. Nagibin is our teacher in high school.” In addition, while studying in high school, Nikolai often came to the Lubyanka, to the Polytechnic Museum, where many famous scientists spoke to the general public. He especially liked the lectures of Professor N.N. Khudyakov, who taught in Petrovka. “The tasks of science, its goals, its content have rarely been expressed with such brilliance,” wrote Vavilov. – The fundamentals of bacteriology and plant physiology turned into a philosophy of existence. Brilliant experiments complemented the spell of words. Both old and young listened to these lectures.”

All attempts by Ivan Ilyich to somehow influence the choice of his eldest son were unsuccessful. On this occasion, Vavilov told his friends that one day his father, wanting to persuade his son, invited a former master’s student in history home, and for a whole week he lectured especially for him about the “respectability and necessity for society” of commerce and industry.

During his student years, Vavilov stood out among his comrades for his knowledge and ability to independently scientific thinking. As a 3rd year student, he spoke at a gala meeting of the academy dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin (1909), with a report “Darwinism and experimental morphology.” His first scientific work, “Naked slugs (snails) damaging fields and vegetable gardens in the Moscow region,” dedicated to the problems of plant pathology, was awarded a prize named after the founder of the Moscow Polytechnic Museum, Professor A.P. Bogdanov and published in 1910 as having great practical significance.

After graduating from the institute, Vavilov was left to prepare for a professorship at the department of private agriculture, which was headed by the leading physiologist and agrochemist D.N. Pryanishnikov. Nikolai Ivanovich retained respect and warm affection for his teacher throughout his life. Dmitry Nikolaevich also loved and valued his student very much. Subsequently, Pryanishnikov suffered painfully because he outlived his student, Nikolai Ivanovich. It is known that after the arrest of N.I. Vavilov, having overcome serious difficulties, he achieved a meeting with L.P. Beria, but he had to listen only to rude moral teachings.

In 1911–1912 Vavilov lived in St. Petersburg, where he worked as an intern at the Bureau of Applied Botany under R.E. Regel and in the Bureau of Mycology and Phytopathology with the famous mycologist A.A. Yachevsky. He worked with extraordinary intensity: during the day - studying extensive collections, in the evenings (and nights) - studying in the library. And so every day... And in the summer, in his words, “viewing hundreds of vessels and thousands of plots with descriptions and reflections.” Nikolai Ivanovich was lucky to meet with outstanding scientists. Communication with them had a huge impact on the formation of Vavilov’s personality as a scientist.

In 1913, he was sent abroad “to complete his education” and become acquainted with the latest achievements of world science. Having received such an opportunity, Vavilov went first of all to London to the well-known English geneticist V. Batson, the author of the book “Mendelian Foundations of Heredity” (1902), which, for the sake of fidelity, he subtitled “In Defense of Mendelism.” Nikolai Ivanovich went on a long and distant journey not alone, but with his young wife Ekaterina Nikolaevna Sakharova, whom he married in April 1912 (their life together did not last long - the characters turned out to be too dissimilar. Soon after the birth of their son Oleg, the family broke up).

Communication with Batson and his students was truly invaluable for Vavilov. In the “Mecca and Medina of the genetic world,” as he later called the Bateson Institute, there was a spirit of intense intelligent searches. Particular attention was paid to key issues in the science of heredity. Here he continued his research on the immunity of cereals.

Then Nikolai Ivanovich worked for several months in the laboratory of genetics at the University of Cambridge with professors Punnett and Beaven. During a trip to France, he got acquainted with the latest achievements in breeding in seed production at the famous breeding and seed production company Vilmorins. In Germany, Vavilov visited the laboratory of the famous evolutionary biologist E. Haeckel in Jena. Started First world war forced him to return home.

Due to a visual defect (he injured his eye as a child), Vavilov was exempt from military service and therefore did not take part in hostilities. During 1915 and at the beginning of 1916, Nikolai Ivanovich passed the master's exams, and his preparation for professorship at the department of D.N. Pryanishnikova was finished.

Vavilov's doctoral dissertation was devoted to plant immunity. The same problem formed the basis of his first scientific monograph, “Plant Immunity to Infectious Diseases,” which contained a critical analysis of world literature and the results of his own research. It was published in the Izvestia of the Petrovsk Agricultural Academy in 1919. This is a classic work, and is now of theoretical and practical interest. The study of immunity showed Vavilov how important it is to study the entire world diversity of cultivated plants in order to isolate from it and develop immune varieties of agricultural crops. This has led to an interest in collecting more and more more plants, their differentiation, intraspecific taxonomy.

In 1916, Nikolai Ivanovich made his first major trip to Asia, visiting Northern Iran, Fergana and the Pamirs. It gave him interesting material, which was later used to substantiate the law of homological series for cultivated rye.

In the fall of 1917, Vavilov received an invitation to head the department of genetics, selection and private agriculture of the agronomic faculty of Saratov University. At the same time, on the recommendation of R.E. Regel, head of the Department (formerly Bureau) of Applied Botany, he was elected to the post of his assistant.

Difficult years came: the devastation after the First World War, the October Revolution, civil war... But it was during the Saratov period, although it was short, that the star of Vavilov the scientist rose. There he gathered a team of young followers of his ideas, university students, and together with them he conducted research in the regions of the Middle and Lower Volga region. These works formed the basis of the work “Field Crops of the South-East”, which was published only in 1922. In the preface to it, Vavilov wrote: “Issues of choosing cultivated plants, varieties, changing some cultures by others, replacing old varieties with new ones, evaluating varieties - these are mainly the problems to which this essay gives a brief answer.” The book has become a study model plant resources. It was in Saratov that the scientist summarized the results of observations of many collection crops at the Moscow Breeding Station and during a visit to the Vilmorin company, studies of the world collection of wheat at Percival in England, and his own collections.

At the III All-Union Selection Congress (June, 1920), held in Saratov, Vavilov made a report “The Law of Homologous Series in Hereditary Variation,” which was perceived by the audience as a major event in world biological science. Thus, plant physiologist Professor V.R. Zalensky uttered the well-known words: “The congress has become historic. These are biologists greeting their Mendeleev.”

Having studied many species and varieties of plants, Vavilov for the first time established a pattern in the chaos of variability of the plant kingdom. He systematized all its diversity in the form of a table (really reminiscent of Mendeleev’s), with the help of which he was able to predict the existence of forms not yet discovered by science. Thanks to him, breeders could no longer blindly, as was the case before, but purposefully carry out breeding work. It really was a revolution in genetics, selection, and biology.

Today, Vavilov’s law, like the theory he created, plant immunity, belongs to the most fundamental discoveries of natural science. It no longer applies only to the plant world - homologous series are found in the animal kingdom and microorganisms. It serves as an important theoretical and methodological tool in constructing a model of hereditary changes.

The last 20 years of Nikolai Ivanovich’s short life are connected with St. Petersburg. In March 1921, he was elected head of the Department of Applied Botany and Selection. “I’m sitting in the office at Robert Eduardovich Regel’s desk, and sad thoughts rush by one after another. Life here is difficult, people are starving, you need to put your living soul into the business, because there is almost no life here... We need to rebuild everything. Only books and good traditions remained immortal...” – Vavilov wrote from Petrograd.

It was a very difficult time. The civil war was ending... Everything had to be obtained, knocked out, searched for: cars, horses for sowing, fuel, books, furniture, housing, rations. It's hard to tell when he ate and slept. One late evening he dropped in to see Professor V.E. Pisarev, his closest assistant, embarrassed, asked his wife to prepare dinner from her supplies: millet and a small piece of lard. They made porridge from the millet, and Vavilov admitted that he had not eaten hot food for a week. Nevertheless, the work continued.

Many of his Saratov colleagues moved to the city together with Nikolai Ivanovich, and he proudly said: “We are a united group that allows us to guide the ship to the goal.” In 1924, the department was transformed into the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Crops (since 1930 - the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing - VIR), and Vavilov was approved as its director. The institute became the basis for the formation of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences named after. V.I. Lenin (VASKhNIL), and Nikolai Ivanovich became its first president. A network of institutions throughout the country was created in the VASKhNIL system. Vavilov supervised numerous departments and experimental stations of VIR, as well as institutes of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, in the most direct manner.

He was an extraordinary person, and the usual standards of life, when applied to him, lose all meaning. According to the testimony of his closest collaborators, who communicated with the scientist for a long time, he had an absolutely phenomenal capacity for work. The working day, scheduled, as he put it, by half an hour, usually lasted 16–18 hours a day. When Nikolai Ivanovich was traveling, a few hours of travel or flight were enough to sleep, and already at 4 a.m. he began inspecting the crops, which often continued almost without interruption until late in the evening. And in the evenings - discussion and evaluation of what was seen, business meetings, viewing literature, new plans... And so every day, all my life...

Arriving at a selection station or laboratory, he set its employees such a pace that after his departure, it happened that some of them were given a week's leave, and Vavilov, as if nothing had happened, moved on to the next laboratory.

Despite this pace of life, Nikolai Ivanovich managed to follow not only scientific, but also cultural news, and was a friendly person, always ready to help. He often received scientists or production workers who came for consultations at home; conversations with them sometimes dragged on until the night. Academician E.I. Pavlovsky wrote: “Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov happily combined enormous talent, inexhaustible energy, exceptional ability to work, beautiful physical health and rare personal charm. Sometimes it seemed that he radiated some kind of creative energy that affected those around him, inspired them and awakened new thoughts.”

VIR was engaged in a comprehensive study, search and collection of seeds of cultivated plants and their wild relatives, clarification of the boundaries and characteristics of agriculture in various regions of the Earth for the use of plant resources and the experience of world agriculture in improving the agriculture of our country. It is important to emphasize that the search was not carried out blindly, but was based on a coherent theory of the centers of origin of cultivated plants developed by Vavilov (the book “Centers of Origin of Cultivated Plants” was published in 1926, and for this work N.I. Vavilov was awarded the Lenin Prize). Subsequently, not only domestic, but also numerous foreign expeditions set out along the routes outlined by Nikolai Ivanovich.

The importance of this teaching has especially increased at the present time, when there is a massive disappearance of natural landscapes and primitive farming systems. The attention of not only specialists, but also the general public is now drawn to the problem of preserving the gene pools of cultivated and wild flora: the impoverishment or loss of this hereditary potential will be an irreparable loss for humanity. Measures for the conservation of gene pools should be based on the study of regions where the diversity of cultivated plants and their wild relatives is greatest.

By 1940, the collection of plant samples collected by Vavilov and his colleagues was the largest in the world and consisted of 250 thousand items, of which 36 thousand were wheat, 10 thousand were corn, 23 thousand were fodder, etc. On its basis, many have been created and continue to be created. domestic varieties agricultural crops.

By the 1920s–early 1930s. include numerous expeditions by Vavilov and his collaborators to collect and study cultivated plants. “If you have ten rubles in your pocket, travel!” - Nikolai Ivanovich, who visited more than 30 countries, laughed. It is difficult to even imagine how one person could travel around so many countries and collect tens of thousands of samples of seeds and plants. “If you have taken the path of a scientist,” said Vavilov, “then remember that you have doomed yourself to an eternal search for something new, to a restless life until your death. Every scientist must have a powerful worry gene. He must be possessed." Obsession was one of the characteristic features Vavilova.

Many of his travels involved great risk. Back in 1923, he wrote: “...I don’t feel sorry for giving my life for the sake of the smallest thing in science... Wandering around the Pamirs and Bukhara, I had to be on the verge of death more than once, it was scary more than once... And somehow It was even, in general, pleasant to take risks.” The expeditions to Afghanistan (1924) and Ethiopia (1927) were especially difficult and dangerous. For the first, the scientist was awarded the gold medal of the Russian Geographical Society “For Geographical Feat.”

Vavilov's expeditions attracted the interest of scientists from many countries. They began to imitate him, realizing the enormous importance of collecting plant material. The name of Nikolai Ivanovich was mentioned along with the names of the most famous travelers in the world.

Vavilov’s activities have received wide recognition in our country and abroad. In 1923, he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1929, a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Nikolai Ivanovich was elected a member of the Royal Society of England, the Czechoslovak, Scottish, Indian, and German Academies of Sciences, the Linnean Society in London, the American Botanical Society and a number of other national and international organizations. The famous American geneticist G. Meller, more than 20 years after the death of Nikolai Ivanovich, wrote: “He was truly great in all respects - an outstanding scientist, a rare organizer and leader, unusually integral, open, mentally healthy... In work, in business, in solving all kinds of problems he was characterized by extraordinary insight and breadth of mind, and at the same time I have never met a person who loved life so much, spent himself so generously, created so generously and a lot.”

However, starting from the mid-1930s. Vavilov and his collaborators were involved in “discussions” on problems of genetics and selection, which quickly ceased to be scientific and came down to persecution of the scientist. The first open public confrontation imposed by T.D. Lysenko and his like-minded people, happened in 1936 at a session of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Here the Lysenkoites, having demonstrated their “achievements,” accused genetics of practical and theoretical worthlessness. It was a completely demagogic, but precisely calculated political provocation that had dire consequences (you can learn more about the development of genetics in Russia from the book: Dubinin N.I. History and tragedy of Soviet genetics - M.: Nauka, 1992.

T.D. Lysenko, Hero of Socialist Labor, holder of seven Orders of Lenin, was apparently the only scientist in history who earned the title “great” during his lifetime. His portraits hung in all scientific institutions, and busts of the “people's academician” were sold in art salons. The State Russian Choir sang the majestic “Glory to Academician Lysenko,” and the songbooks, published in 200,000 copies, included ditties:

Play more fun, accordion,
Me and my friend together
Academician Lysenko
Let's sing eternal glory!
He's on Michurin's road
He walks with a firm step,
Mendelists-Morganists
He won't let us be fooled!

Lysenko's theoretical platform was Lamarckism, the idea of ​​the inheritance of acquired characteristics. He used them to create a “teaching” about breeding the desired varieties and properties by “educating” plants and animals by changing conditions external environment and calling it “Michurin biology”. At the same time, the existence of genes, mutations, and chromosomes was denied. Soon, promising to quickly restore agriculture, Lysenko became a favorite of the head of state. And Stalin believed him, believed more than the greatest scientists.

Lysenko’s career was secured under those conditions. Soft, delicate, friendly, compliant, Nikolai Ivanovich showed great strength of spirit when he had to fight for scientific truth. “I am struggling, pressed against the wall, but I will never give up,” he wrote in 1938 to his friend, the American scientist Harland. And a year later he said from the podium: “We’ll go to the stake, we’ll burn, but we won’t give up our convictions.” These words of his turned out to be prophetic.

Beginning in 1930, a personal file was opened against Vavilov, which swelled with denunciations every year. Since 1934, he was not allowed to travel abroad on business trips; in 1935, the celebration of the anniversary of VIR and the 25th anniversary of his scientific activity were prohibited; since 1935, Nikolai Ivanovich, a recent member of the Central Executive Committee, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and the Leningrad City Council, was no longer elected anywhere. By 1939, many breeders, geneticists, and agronomists were arrested, and their place was taken by the Lysenkoites.

The most experienced employees of VASKhNIL and breeding stations became victims of mass repressions. Vavilov’s friends and associates, Academician N.P., died as enemies of the people. Gorbunov, one of the founders of VASKhNIL and VIR, President of VASKhNIL A.I. Muralov, vice-presidents N.M. Tulaikov, G.K. Meister and many other figures in agricultural science of the same caliber...

Vavilov’s fate was also decided. He was arrested on August 6, 1940 in Chernivtsi. Nikolai Ivanovich spent a whole year in solitary confinement, enduring endless interrogations. We do not know and are unlikely to find out what he was thinking and experiencing during these days. At the very beginning of the war, the case was transferred to the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, and on July 9, 1941, the trial took place.

Vavilov was judged by V.V. himself. Ulrich, chairman of the military board. What kind of trial it was can be understood at least from the protocol. The start and end times of the meeting are not marked, the text is two pages. Nikolai Ivanovich pleaded not guilty. The arrest warrant, in particular, stated that he was one of the leaders of the anti-Soviet, espionage, counter-revolutionary organization “Labor Peasant Party” and, on his instructions, VIR conducted special research that refuted the new theories of Michurin and Lysenko. Witnesses in the case were not questioned. The accused was sentenced to capital punishment.

Vavilov was sent to prison No. 1 in Saratov, the execution was replaced by pardon with 20 years of imprisonment. Witnesses of the last months of the scientist’s life said that Nikolai Ivanovich tried to raise the spirits of the prisoners, encouraged them, and gave them lectures on genetics. Those who survived remembered them for many years.

He died on January 26, 1943. Burial place of N.I. Vavilov is still unknown. In August 1955, the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR made a decision on the rehabilitation of the scientist. Soon after, the republication of his works began. In 1964, the attitude towards genetics finally changed in our country, which received the opportunity for further development.

The name of Nikolai Ivanovich was given to the All-Union Institute of Genetics (1967), the Institute of General Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1983), as well as the Saratov Agricultural Institute and the All-Union Society of Genetics and Breeders. His name adorns the first page of the largest international magazine “Heredity” along with the names of Charles Darwin, G. Mendel, C. Linnaeus, and other luminaries of science.

Nikolai Ivanovich was an encyclopedically educated person who knew about 20 languages ​​and corresponded with scientists from 93 countries! He received newly published scientific works from their authors - the world's leading scientists. Vavilov had a phenomenal memory: while looking at the crops in the field, he could immediately dictate entire chapters of his books to successive stenographers, with precise digital calculations and quotes... Numerous scientific, documentary and artistic publications are devoted to Vavilov’s activities, his scientific and human feats , movies. Professor P.A. was right. Baranov, a participant in several Vavilov expeditions, when he wrote: “Bright and wonderful life Nikolai Ivanovich will long attract the attention of researchers and inspire writers... Our youth should know this great life, which can rightfully be called a feat of a scientist, one must learn from it how one must work selflessly and how one must love one’s homeland and science.”

 Life and work of N.I. There are many books devoted to Vavilov, of which the following can be recommended to students.

Zigunenko S.N., Malov V.I. N.I. Vavilov: Book. for students in grades 9–10. Wed school – M.: Education, 1987. – 125 p. (People of science.)

A fascinating story about the short but colorful life of N.I. awaits the young reader. Vavilov: his childhood, years of study, teachers, development as a scientist. “Life is short, you have to hurry,” Nikolai Ivanovich liked to repeat. What he did alone would be enough for a dozen other researchers. All this is reflected on the pages of the book. And, of course, endless travels filled with risk and adventure, where he went to bring as much benefit as possible to his country in the business he was engaged in. Unfortunately, the authors practically omitted the last years of the scientist’s life, the dramatic history of the defeat of genetics in our country, the murder of many of the best representatives of Russian science, the tragic end of N.I. Vavilova...

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov: Essays, memoirs, materials / S.R. Mikulinsky. – M.: Nauka, 1987. – 487 p.

In essays and articles by employees and associates, students and foreign colleagues of N.I. Vavilov, in the most full meeting memoirs of contemporaries and archival materials published for the first time reveal almost all periods of the scientist’s life and work. They contain comprehensive information about the Vavilov family, childhood, student years, talk about the Saratov period, the organization of the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing, the Institute of Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and their leadership, about the activities as president and vice-president of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, president of the All-Union Geographical Society, talks about numerous expeditions, the appearance of this charming man is recreated. At the end, the necessary notes on articles, memoirs and materials, as well as information about the authors, are given.

Works of N.I. Vavilova

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov. Five continents. – L.: Nauka, 1987. – 213 p.: ill.

Vavilov N.I. Five continents // Vavilov N.I. Five continents; Krasnov A.N. Under the tropics of Asia. M., 1987. – p. 7–171.

Vavilov N.I. Genetics and agriculture: Sat. articles. – M.: Knowledge, 1968. – 60 p.

Vavilov N.I. Genetics and agriculture: Sat. articles. – M.: Knowledge, 1967. 60 p.

Vavilov N.I. The law of homological series in hereditary variability // Classics of Soviet genetics. – M., 1968. P. 9–57.

Vavilov N.I. The law of homological series in hereditary variability. – L: Nauka, 1987. – 259 p.

Vavilov N.I. Organization of agricultural science in the USSR. – M.: Agropromizdat, 1987. – 383 p.

Vavilov N.I. Ways of Soviet selection // Classics of Soviet genetics. – M., 1968. – 58–84 p.

Vavilov N.I.Theoretical foundations selection. – M.: Nauka, 1987. – 511 p.

Vavilov N.I. Plant immunity to infectious diseases. – M.: Nauka, 1986. 519 p.: ill.

Vavilov N.I. Selected works: In 2 volumes. in 2. L.: Nauka, 1967.

Vavilov N.I. Life is short, you have to hurry. – M.: Soviet Russia, 1990. – 702 p.

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov. From the epistolary heritage: 1911–1928. T. 5. – M.: Nauka, 1980. – 425 pp.: ill.

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov. From the epistolary heritage: 1929–1940. T. 10. – M.: Nauka, 1987. – 490 p.

 Literature about N.I. Vavilov

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov//Inspiration. – M., 1988. – S. 1941.

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov//People of Russian science. – M., 1963. – P. 434–447.

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov//Outstanding Soviet geneticists. – M., 1980. – P. 8–23.

Popovsky M.A. We must hurry! Travels of Academician N.I. Vavilova. – M.: Children's literature, 1968. – 221 p.: ill.

Golubev G.N. The Great Sower Nikolai Vavilov: Pages of the Life of a Scientist. – M.: Mol. Guard, 1979. – 173 p.

Reznik S.E. Nikolay Vavilov. – M.: Young Guard, 1968. – 332 p.//ZhZL.

Reznik S.E. The road to the scaffold. Paris–New York: “The Third Wave”, 1983. – 127 p.

Baldysh G.M., Panizovskaya G.I. Nikolai Vavilov in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad. L.: Lenizdat, 1987. – 287 p.

Ivin M.E. The fate of Nikolai Vavilov: Documentary story, essays. L.: Soviet writer, 1991. – 411 p.

Popovsky M.A. The case of Academician Vavilov. – M.: Book, 1991. – 303 p.

Bakhteev F.Kh. Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov: 1887–1943. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1987. – 269 p.

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov: to the 100th anniversary of his birth / V.I. Ivanov. – M.: Knowledge, 1987. – 63 p.

Boyko V.V., Vilensky E.R. Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov: Pages of life and activity. – M.: Agroproimzdat, 1987. – 187 p.

Revenkova A.I. Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov: 1887–1943. – M.: Selkhozizdat, 1962. – 271 p.

Next to N.I. Vavilov: Sat. memories. 2nd ed., add. / Yu.N. Vavilov. – M.: Sov. Russia, 1973. – 252 p.

Sinskaya E.N. Memories of N.I. Vavilov. – Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 1991. – 203 p.

Korotkova T.I. N.I. Vavilov in Saratov: 1917–1921. Documentary essays. – Saratov, 1978. – 118 p.

Korotkova T.I. Going ahead of life: Pages of the Saratov biography of N.I. Vavilova. 2nd ed., add. – Saratov, 1987. – 142 p.

"...from convictions We will not give up our own” N.I. Vavilov and scientists of the Kharkov region / B.P. Guryev et al. – Kharkov: “Prapor”, 1989. 123 p.

Companions Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov: Researchers of the plant gene pool / V.A. Dragavtsev et al. - St. Petersburg, 1994. - 615 p.: ill.

World ideas of Vavilov / A.V. Kantorovich. – M.: Knowledge, 1968. – 61 p.

Mednikov B.M. The law of homological variability: To the 60th anniversary of the discovery of N.I. Vavilov law. – M.: Knowledge, 1980. – 63 p.

Vavilovskoe heritage in modern biology /E.V. Levites, A.A. Homeland. – M.: Nauka, 1989. – 365 p.

Grumm-Grzhimailo A.G. In search of the world's plant resources: Some scientific results of the travels of Academician N.I. Vavilova. 2nd ed., add. – L.: Nauka, 1986. – 149 p.

Konarev V.G. N.I. Vavilov and species problems in applied botany, genetics and selection. – M.: Agropromizdat, 1991. – 46 p.

N.I. Vavilov and agricultural science: Dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the birth of Academician Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov / D.D. Brezhnev and others - M.: Kolos, 1969. - 423 p.

Questions geography of cultivated plants and N.I. Vavilov / L.E. Rodin. M. – L.: Nauka, 1966. – 132 p.

Dyachenko S.S. Vavilov's Star: Film script. – M.: Art, 1988. – 83 p.

Nikolay Ivanovich Vavilov: 1887–1943. 3rd ed., add. /R.I. Goryacheva, L.M. Zhukova, N.B. Polyakova. – M.: Nauka, 1987. – 165 p.

Nikolay Ivanovich Vavilov: On the centenary of his birth: 1887–1943 / A.M. Karpycheva, T.M. Sokolova. – M.: VASKHNIL, 1987. – 157 p.

Nikolay Ivanovich Vavilov / R.I. Goryacheva, L.M. Zhukova. – M.: 1967. – 130 p.

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov - Russian and Soviet geneticist, botanist, breeder, geographer. Organizer and participant of botanical and agronomic expeditions that covered most continents (except Australia and Antarctica), during which he identified ancient centers of the formation of cultivated plants. He created the doctrine of the world centers of origin of cultivated plants. He substantiated the doctrine of plant immunity and discovered the law of homological series in the hereditary variability of organisms. He made a significant contribution to the development of the doctrine of biological species. Under the leadership of Vavilov, the world's largest collection of seeds of cultivated plants was created. He laid the foundation for a system of state testing of field crop varieties. He formulated the principles of activity of the country's main scientific center in agricultural sciences and created a network of scientific institutions in this area.

Died in the years Stalin's repressions. On the basis of fabricated charges, he was arrested in 1940, in 1941 he was convicted and sentenced to death, which was later replaced by a 20-year prison term. In 1943 he died in prison. In 1955 he was posthumously rehabilitated.

Childhood and youth

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov was born on November 25 (November 13, old style) 1887 in Srednyaya Presnya in Moscow.

Father Ivan Ilyich Vavilov (1863-1928) - a merchant of the second guild and public figure, came from a peasant family in the Volokolamsk district. Before the revolution, he was the director of the Udalov and Vavilov manufacturing company, which also had a branch in Rostov-on-Don.

Mother Alexandra Mikhailovna Vavilova (1868-1938), née Postnikova, daughter of an artist-carver who worked in the Prokhorovsky manufactory. In his autobiography, Sergei Vavilov writes about her:

In total, there were seven children in the family, but three of them died in infancy. Nikolai Vavilov had a younger brother, Sergei Vavilov (1891-1951), and two sisters, Alexandra and Lydia. Sergei Vavilov was educated as a physicist in 1914 at Moscow University; in the same year he was drafted into the army and participated in the First World War. In 1932, Sergei Vavilov became an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in the same year he headed the State Optical Institute, and is the founder of the scientific school of physical optics in the USSR. He headed the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1945 to 1951. He died in 1951 from a heart attack. Elder sister Alexandra (1886-1940) received medical education, was a public figure, organized sanitary and hygiene networks in Moscow. The younger sister Lydia (1891-1914) received a specialty as a microbiologist. She died of smallpox while caring for the sick during an epidemic.

From early childhood, Nikolai Vavilov was predisposed to the natural sciences. Among his childhood hobbies were observing animals and flora. My father had large library, which contained rare books, geographical maps, herbariums. This played a significant role in the formation of Vavilov’s personality.

Education

By the will of his father, Nikolai entered the Moscow Commercial School. After graduating from college, he wanted to enter the Imperial Moscow University, but, not wanting to waste a year preparing for exams in Latin language, knowledge of which was at that time mandatory for admission to the university, in 1906 he entered the Moscow Agricultural Institute at the Faculty of Agronomy. He studied with such scientists as N. N. Khudyakov and D. N. Pryanishnikov. In 1908, he participated in a student expedition to the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, and in the summer of 1910 he completed agronomic practice at the Poltava Experimental Station, receiving, by his own admission, “the impetus for all further work.” At meetings of the institute's circle of natural history lovers, Vavilov made presentations on “Genealogy of the plant kingdom” and “Darwinism and experimental morphology.” During his studies at the institute, Vavilov’s penchant for research activities manifested itself more than once; the result of his training was thesis about naked slugs damaging fields and vegetable gardens in the Moscow province. He graduated from the institute in 1911.

Marital status

Nikolai Vavilov was married twice. First wife - Ekaterina Nikolaevna Sakharova-Vavilova (1886-1964). The second is Elena Ivanovna Vavilova-Barulina, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences. The marriage was officially registered in 1926. Children - Oleg (1918-1946, from his first marriage) and Yuri (from his second).

Scientific activity and future life path

1911-1918

In order to become more familiar with the taxonomy and geography of cultivated cereals and their diseases, during 1911-1912 Nikolai Vavilov completed an internship in St. Petersburg, at the Bureau of Applied Botany and Breeding (headed by R. E. Regel), as well as at the Bureau of Mycology and Phytopathology (supervisor A. A. Yachevsky).

In 1913, Vavilov was sent abroad to complete his education.

In 1915, Nikolai Vavilov began studying plant immunity. The first experiments were carried out in nurseries developed jointly with Professor S.I. Zhegalov.

During 1915 and early 1916 he took the examinations for his master's degree. Thus, preparation for professorship at the department of D.N. Pryanishnikov was completed. Vavilov's doctoral dissertation was devoted to plant immunity. This problem formed the basis of his first scientific monograph, “Plant Immunity to Infectious Diseases,” which contained a critical analysis of world literature and the results of his own research, published in 1919.

Due to a visual defect (he damaged his eye as a child), Vavilov was exempt from military service, but in 1916 he was brought in as a consultant on the issue of mass illness among Russian army soldiers in Persia. He found out the cause of the disease, pointing out that particles of intoxicating tares seeds got into the local flour ( Lolium temulentum), and with it the fungus Stromantinia temulenta, which produces the alkaloid temulin - a substance that can cause serious poisoning in people (dizziness, drowsiness, loss of consciousness, convulsions) with possible death. The solution to the problem was a ban on the consumption of local products; provisions began to be imported from Russia, as a result of which the issue with the disease was resolved.

Vavilov, having received permission from the military leadership to conduct an expedition, went deep into Iran, where he researched and collected samples of cereals. During the expedition, he, in particular, took samples of Persian wheat. Having sowed it later in England, Vavilov tried in various ways infect her powdery mildew(up to application nitrogen fertilizer, contributing to the development of the disease), but all attempts were unsuccessful. The scientist came to the conclusion that plant immunity depends on the environmental conditions in which it was originally formed. this type. During the Iranian expedition, Vavilov began to think about the pattern of hereditary variability. Vavilov traced changes in the types of rye and wheat from Iran to the Pamirs. He noticed characteristic similar changes in species of both genera, which prompted him to think about the existence of a pattern in the variability of related species. While in the Pamirs, Vavilov concluded that mountain “isolators” like the Pamirs serve as centers for the emergence of cultivated plants.

In 1917, Vavilov was elected assistant to the head of the Department (former Bureau) of applied botany R. E. Regel. Regel himself gave the recommendation: “Over the past 20 years, many outstanding scientists from almost all countries of the world have worked on issues of [plant] immunity, but we can safely say that no one has yet approached the resolution of these complex issues with the breadth of views and comprehensive coverage of the issue with which Vavilov to him.<…>In the person of Vavilov, we will attract a young talented scientist to the department of applied botany, of whom Russian science will still be proud.” .

In the same year, Vavilov was invited to head the department of genetics, selection and private agriculture at the Saratov Higher Agricultural Courses and in July he moved to Saratov. In this city in 1917-1921, Vavilov was a professor at the agronomic department of Saratov University. Along with lecturing, he launched an experimental study of the immunity of various agricultural plants, primarily cereals. He studied 650 varieties of wheat and 350 varieties of oats, as well as other non-cereal crops; A hybridological analysis of immune and susceptible varieties was carried out, their anatomical and physiological characteristics were identified. Vavilov began to summarize the data accumulated during expeditions and research. The result of these studies was the monograph “Plant Immunity to Infectious Diseases,” published in 1919.

1918-1930

In 1919, Vavilov created the doctrine of plant immunity.

In 1920, heading the organizing committee of the III All-Russian Congress on Selection and Seed Production in Saratov, he delivered a report on “The Law of Homologous Series in Hereditary Variation.” The report was perceived by the audience as the largest event in world biological science and caused positive reviews in the scientific community.

In 1920, the Agricultural Scientific Committee, headed by its chairman V.I. Kovalevsky, elected Nikolai Vavilov as head of the Department of Applied Botany and Selection in Petrograd, and in January 1921 he left Saratov with almost all his Saratov students. Scientific work in the new place began on a large scale.

From 1921, Vavilov headed the Department of Applied Botany and Selection in Petrograd, which in 1924 was reorganized into the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Crops, and in 1930 into the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing (VIR), the head of which he remained until August 1940.

The famine in the Volga region of 1921-1922 forced Russian scientists to change the direction of their research.

Having gone together with A. A. Yachevsky on behalf of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the RSFSR to the USA to participate in negotiations on the purchase of seeds, Vavilov simultaneously examined the vast grain growing regions of the USA and Canada and spoke at the International Congress on Agriculture with a report on the law of homologous series. The provisions of the law that developed evolutionary doctrine C. Darwin, were positively assessed by the world scientific community. A branch of the Department of Applied Botany was founded in New York.

On the way back, Vavilov visited a number of European countries(England, France, Belgium, Holland, Sweden), where he met with scientists, established new scientific connections, got acquainted with scientific laboratories and breeding stations, organized the purchase of varietal seed material, books, and scientific equipment.

For example, in 1922, Vavilov in Holland met with Hugo de Vries (the founder of mutation theory). Having become acquainted with the scientific research of the Dutchman, Vavilov, having returned to Russia, advocated the involvement of science in the creation of the country's varietal resources, continued to expand the Department of Applied Botany, trying to turn it into a major center of agricultural science, and invited scientists from other cities. The work was aimed at identifying the global diversity of cultivated plants with a view to further using it for the needs of the country. In 1923, Vavilov was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the department of physical and mathematical sciences (in the biological category).

In 1923, Vavilov was elected director of the State Institute of Experimental Agronomy.

In 1924, under the leadership of the scientist, a network of experimental stations for variety testing of agricultural crops was founded and began to grow throughout the USSR. In 115 departments and experimental stations, in various soil and climatic conditions of the USSR - from the subtropics to the tundra - various forms were studied and tested useful plants.

From 1924 to 1927, a number of intra-Union and foreign expeditions were carried out - Afghanistan (Vavilov, together with D. D. Bukinich, were the first Europeans to penetrate Nuristan - a high-mountainous province of Afghanistan, at that time closed to foreigners), the Mediterranean, Africa, during which Vavilov continued to expand the collection of specimens and study the origins of cultivated plants.

Vavilov wrote:

The journey was, perhaps, successful, they robbed all of Afghanistan, made their way to India, Baluchistan, and were beyond the Hindu Kush. Near India we reached date palms, found the original crop, saw wild watermelons, melons, hemp, barley, carrots. They crossed the Hindu Kush four times, once along the route of Alexander the Great.<…>Gathered the darkness medicinal plants <…>

The 610-page report on the expedition became the basis of the book “Agricultural Afghanistan,” written by Vavilov together with D. D. Bukinich. This book confirms Vavilov’s assumption that in Afghanistan there are centers of origin of some of the most important plants for humans.

For the expedition to Afghanistan, the Geographical Society of the USSR awarded Nikolai Vavilov a gold medal named after N. M. Przhevalsky - “for a geographical feat.”

In 1925, expeditions followed to the Khiva oasis and other agricultural areas of Uzbekistan.

In 1926-1927, Vavilov made an expedition to the Mediterranean countries. Research works they were carried out in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Transjordan, Greece, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Crete, Cyprus, southern France, Spain, Portugal, then in French Somalia, Abyssinia and Eritrea. On the way back, Vavilov became acquainted with agriculture in the mountainous regions of Württemberg (Germany). The caravan and foot routes in this expedition amounted to about 2 thousand km. The seed material collected by Vavilov amounted to thousands of samples.

In the mid-1920s, Vavilov formulated ideas about the geographic centers of origin of cultivated plants - in 1926 he published the work “Centers of Origin of Cultivated Plants,” for which he was awarded the V.I. Lenin Prize. The scientist’s theoretical work provided a scientific basis for a targeted search for useful plants and was used for practical purposes.

In 1927, Vavilov spoke at the V International Genetic Congress in Berlin with a report “On the world geographical centers of genes of cultivated plants”, at a conference of agricultural experts at the International Agrarian Institute in Rome - with a report “Geographical experiments on the study of variability of cultivated plants in the USSR” . The conference decided to award Vavilov a Gold Medal for his work on geographical crops and decided to introduce geographical crops according to the Vavilov system on a global scale.

In 1929, Vavilov, in order to study the characteristics of agriculture, made expeditions to the countries East Asia: together with M.G. Popov - to the northwestern part of China - Xinjiang, and alone - to Japan, Taiwan and Korea.

In 1929, Vavilov was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and at the same time an academician of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, appointed president of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences named after V.I. Lenin (VASKhNIL), organized on the basis of the State Institute of Experimental Agronomy, which Vavilov headed since 1923. Here he directed his energy towards organizing a system of agricultural scientific institutes. During the first three years of Vavilov’s work as president of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, grain farming institutes were created in the North Caucasus, Siberia, Ukraine and the south-east of the European part of the country; institutes of vegetable farming, fruit growing, spinning bast-fiber plants, potato farming, rice, viticulture, feed, subtropical crops, medicinal and aromatic plants and others - in total about 100 scientific institutions. The All-Union Institute of Plant Growing became one of the main institutes of the new academy.

1930-1939

At the V International Botanical Congress, held in 1930 in Cambridge, the scientist made a presentation “Linnaean species as a system.” He also spoke at the IX International Horticultural Congress in London.

A collection of corn cobs in Nikolai Vavilov’s office at the All-Russian Institute of Plant Growing.

In 1930, Vavilov created and headed the Genetic Laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow (in 1933 it was transformed into the Institute of Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which Vavilov headed until his arrest in 1940). In 1930, he organized the II International Congress of Soil Scientists in Moscow, participated (at the invitation of Cornell University, USA) in the International Conference on Agricultural Economics, and after it made an expedition across the American continent: he traveled all the southern states of the USA from California to Florida, crossing two routes mountainous and lowland regions of Mexico, Guatemala.

In 1931, Vavilov headed the All-Union Geographical Society and remained as its president until 1940.

In 1932, Vavilov was elected vice-president of the VI International Congress on Genetics, held in Ithaca. It presented the VIR collection collected during the last American expedition. After the congress, he traveled to a number of Canadian provinces and then spent six months exploring the agricultural regions of the countries of Central and South America: El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Trinidad, Cuba, Puerto Rico and others, 17 countries in total.

Vavilov took care of the timely publication of the research results of the teams he led. Under his editorship and with his participation, “Proceedings on Applied Botany, Genetics and Breeding” were published, multi-volume summaries “Cultural Flora of the USSR” and “Biochemistry of Cultivated Plants” began to be published, the manual “Theoretical Foundations of Plant Breeding” (1935), “Manual on approbation of agricultural crops”, a large number of collections and monographs. Vavilov created an entire school of researchers of cultivated plants, which has earned recognition in world science.

In the meantime, however, since 1934, Vavilov was prohibited from traveling abroad, the planned celebration of the 10th anniversary of the creation of VIR and the 25th anniversary of his own scientific and scientific research was canceled. social activities. At a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the work of the VASKhNIL was recognized as unsatisfactory; in January 1935, Vavilov's candidacy was not nominated to the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and in the same year he was relieved of the post of president of the VASKhNIL, which was preceded by a letter to Stalin with political accusations against Vavilov, signed by the vice-president. President of VASKhNIL A. S. Bondarenko and party organizer of the academy S. Klimov. In their letter, Bondarenko and Klimov blamed Vavilov not only for “academicism” and isolation from the practical needs of collective and state farm development of agriculture, but also for “political myopia”: “Vavilov always strongly supports pests... There was no case when Vavilov said about any of the identified pests... that they were criminals” .

In 1939, Vavilov headed the agricultural group of the North Caucasus Complex Expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Walking along the Ossetian Military Road, he visited and explored the Tseysky Glacier and the Mamison Pass.

Vavilov, as one of the key scientific leaders of the USSR, often attended receptions with Stalin. The last meeting between Vavilov and Stalin took place in November 1939. Vavilov’s comrade-in-arms, biologist E. S. Yakushevsky recalled this: “Instead of a greeting, Stalin said: “Well, citizen Vavilov, will you continue to deal with flowers, petals, cornflowers and other botanical trinkets?” And who will be involved in increasing the productivity of agricultural crops?” At first, Vavilov was taken aback, but then, gathering his courage, he began to talk about the essence of the research being carried out at the institute and about its significance for agriculture. Since Stalin did not invite him to sit down, Vavilov stood and gave an oral lecture on Virov’s research. During the lecture, Stalin continued to walk around with a pipe in his hand, and it was clear that he was completely uninterested in all this. At the end, Stalin asked: “Is everything all right with you, citizen Vavilov?” Go. You are free." In connection with this episode, Yu. N. Vavilov and Ya. G. Rokityansky concluded that by this moment the hostility of the leader of the USSR towards the scientist had “reached its apogee.”

Scientific achievements

Expeditions

110 botanical and agronomic expeditions around the world, which brought “world science results of paramount importance, and their author - well-deserved fame as one of the most outstanding travelers of our time.” The result of Vavilov's scientific expeditions was the creation of a unique collection of cultivated plants, numbering 250 thousand specimens in 1940.

Development of scientific theories

The doctrine of plant immunity

Main article : Plant immunity

Vavilov divided plant immunity into structural (mechanical) and chemical. Mechanical immunity of plants is determined by the morphological characteristics of the host plant, in particular, the presence of protective devices that prevent the penetration of pathogens into the plant body. Chemical immunity depends on chemical features plants.

The doctrine of the centers of origin of cultivated plants

Main article : Centers of origin of cultivated plants

The doctrine of the centers of origin of cultivated plants was formed on the basis of the ideas of Charles Darwin (see Origin of Species) about the existence of geographical centers of origin of biological species. In 1883, Alphonse Decandolle published a work in which he established the geographical areas of the initial origin of the main cultivated plants. However, these areas were confined to entire continents or other, also quite vast, territories. After the publication of Decandolle's book, knowledge in the field of the origin of cultivated plants expanded significantly; monographs devoted to cultivated plants were published various countries, as well as individual plants. This problem was most systematically developed by Nikolai Vavilov in 1926-1939. Based on materials about the world's plant resources, he identified 7 main geographic centers of origin of cultivated plants.
South Asian tropical center (about 33% of total number types of cultivated plants)

1. East Asian center (20% of cultivated plants)

2. South-West Asian center (4% of cultivated plants)

3. Mediterranean center (approximately 11% of cultivated plant species)

4. Ethiopian center (about 4% of cultivated plants)

5. Central American Center

6. Andean Center

Many researchers, including P. M. Zhukovsky, E. N. Sinskaya, A. I. Kuptsov, continuing the work of Vavilov, made their own adjustments to these ideas. Thus, tropical India and Indochina with Indonesia are considered as two independent centers, and the Southwestern Asian center is divided into Central Asian and Western Asian; the basis of the East Asian center is considered to be the Yellow River basin, and not the Yangtze, where the Chinese, as a farming people, penetrated later. Centers of ancient agriculture have also been identified in Western Sudan and New Guinea. Fruit crops (including berries and nuts), having wider distribution areas, go far beyond the centers of origin, more consistent with the ideas of De Candolle. The reason for this lies in their predominantly forest origin (and not in the foothills, as for vegetable and field crops), as well as in the peculiarities of selection. New centers have been identified: Australian, North American, European-Siberian.

Some plants have been introduced in the past into cultivation outside these main centers, but the number of such plants is small. If previously it was believed that the main centers of ancient agricultural crops were the wide valleys of the Tigris, Euphrates, Ganges, Nile and other large rivers, then Vavilov showed that almost all cultivated plants appeared in the mountainous regions of the tropics, subtropics and temperate zones.

The law of homological series in hereditary variability

Main article : Homologous series in hereditary variability

In the work “The Law of Homologous Series in Hereditary Variation,” presented in the form of a report at the III All-Russian Selection Congress in Saratov on June 4, 1920, Vavilov introduced the concept "Homologous series in hereditary variability". The concept was introduced in the study of parallelism in the phenomena of hereditary variability by analogy with homologous series of organic compounds.

The essence of the phenomenon is that when studying hereditary variability in close groups of plants, similar allelic forms were discovered, which were repeated in different types(for example, culm nodes of cereals with or without anthocyanin coloring, ears with or without awns, etc.). The presence of such repeatability made it possible to predict the presence of yet undiscovered alleles that are important from the point of view of breeding work. The search for plants with such alleles was carried out on expeditions to the supposed centers of origin of cultivated plants. It should be remembered that in those years the artificial induction of mutagenesis by chemicals or exposure to ionizing radiation was not yet known, and the search for the necessary alleles had to be done in natural populations.

The first (1920) formulation of the law included two principles:

The first pattern that catches the eye when studying in detail the forms of any linneon plants belonging to the same genus is the identity of the series of morphological and physiological properties, characterizing the varieties and races of close genetic linneons, the parallelism of the series of species genotypic variability... The closer the species are genetically, the more sharply and more accurately the identity of the series of morphological and physiological characteristics is manifested.

...The second regularity in polymorphism, which essentially follows from the first, is that not only genetically close species, but also genera exhibit identities in the series of genotypic variability.

Although the law was discovered as a result of the study of phenotypic variability, Vavilov extended its effect to genotypic variability: “Based on the striking similarity in the phenotypic variability of species within the same genus or related genera, due to the unity of the evolutionary process, it can be assumed that they have many common genes along with the specifics of species and genera.”

Vavilov believed that the law was valid not only in relation to morphological characters, foreseeing that the already established series “will not only be replenished with missing links in the corresponding cells, but will also develop, especially in relation to physiological, anatomical and biochemical characters.” In particular, Vavilov noted that related plant species are characterized by “similarity in chemical composition, the production of close or the same specific chemical compounds" As was shown by Vavilov, intraspecific variability in chemical composition (for example, essential oils and alkaloids) concerns mainly quantitative relationships at constant quality composition, whereas within the genus chemical composition individual species differ both quantitatively and qualitatively. Moreover, within the genus, “individual species are usually characterized by isomers or derivatives theoretically envisioned by chemists and are usually related to each other by mutual transitions.” Parallelism of variability characterizes closely related genera with such certainty that “it can be used in the search for corresponding chemical components,” and also “obtained synthetically within a given genus by crossing chemicals of a certain quality."

Vavilov found that the law manifests itself not only within kinship groups; parallelism of variability was discovered “in different families that are not genetically related, even in different classes", but in distant families the parallelism is not always homologous. “Similar organs and their very similarity are in this case not homologous, but only analogous.”

The law of homological series did not remove all difficulties, since it was clear that identical changes in phenotypic traits could be caused by different genes, and the level of knowledge that existed in those years did not allow directly linking a trait with a specific gene. With regard to species and genera, Vavilov noted that “we are still dealing mainly not with genes, about which we know very little, but with characteristics in a certain environment,” and on this basis he preferred to talk about homologous characters. “In the case of parallelism of distant families and classes, of course, there can be no question of identical genes even for externally similar characters.”

Despite the fact that the law was initially formulated on the basis of the study of mainly cultivated plants, later, having examined the phenomenon of variability in fungi, algae and animals, Vavilov came to the conclusion that the law is universal in nature and manifests itself “not only in higher, but also in lower plants as well as animals."

The progress of genetics had a significant impact on the further development of the formulation of the law. In 1936, Vavilov called the first formulation too categorical: “Such was the state of genetics at that time...”. While it was common to think that “genes are identical in closely related species,” biologists “represented the gene as more stable than at present.” Later it was found that “close species can, if they have similar external characteristics, be characterized by many different genes.” Vavilov noted that in 1920 he paid “little... attention to the role of selection,” focusing mainly on patterns of variability. This remark did not at all mean oblivion of the theory of evolution, for, as Vavilov himself emphasized, already in 1920 his law “first of all represented a formula of exact facts based entirely on the teaching of evolution.”

Vavilov considered the law he formulated as a contribution to the ideas popular at that time about the natural nature of variability underlying the evolutionary process (for example, the theory of nomogenesis by L. S. Berg). He believed that naturally recurring different groups hereditary variations underlie evolutionary parallelisms and the phenomenon of mimicry.

Recognition of foreign scientific organizations

In foreign countries N.I. Vavilov was elected:

  • honorary member :
    • Royal Horticultural Society of London (1931, UK)
    • English Society of Applied Botany
    • Spanish Society of Naturalists
    • American Botanical Society (1942)
    • National Academy of Sciences in Allahabad (1942, India)
    • Linnean Society of London (1942, UK)
    • British Association of Biologists
    • Mexican Agronomic Society
  • foreign member :
    • Royal Society of London (1942, UK)
  • honorary doctor :
    • Sofia State University named after K. Ohridski (1939, Bulgaria)
    • J. Purkinė University in Brno (1939, Czechoslovakia)
  • corresponding member :
    • German Academy of Sciences
    • Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Czechoslovakia (1923)
    • German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina" (1942)
  • member :
    • Royal Society of Edinburgh (1942, UK)
    • Argentine Academy
    • US National Geographic Society (1942)
    • Geographical Society of New York (1942, USA)
    • Royal Geographical Society (1942, UK)
    • International Council of Experts at the Rome International Agrarian Institute

Awards in honor of Vavilov

  • Russian Academy Sciences, the N. I. Vavilov Prize was established;
  • VASKHNIL established the Gold Medal named after N.I. Vavilov;
  • The USSR Academy of Sciences established a prize (1965) and a gold medal (1968) named after Vavilov.

Plants

The plant genus Vavilovia is named in honor of N.I. Vavilov ( Vavilovia) Fed. the legume family, as well as a whole series plant species:

  • Aegilops vavilovii(Zhuk.) Chennav. - Egilops Vavilova
  • Allium vavilovii Popov & Vved. - Luk Vavilova
  • Amygdalus vavilovii Popov - Almond Vavilova
  • Astragalus vavilovii Fed. & Tamamsch. - Astragal Vavilova
  • Avena vaviloviana(Malz.) Mordv. - Vavilova’s oats
  • Centaurea vavilovii Takht. & Gabrieljan - Vasilek Vavilova
  • Cousinia vavilovii Kult. - Kuziniya Vavilova
  • Gastropyrum vavilovii(Zhuk.) Á.Löve - Vavilov’s Gastropyrum
  • Oryzopsis vavilovii Roshev. - Rice plant Vavilova
  • Oxytropis vavilovii Vassilcz. - Vavilova’s hollyhock
  • Phlomis vavilovii Popov - Zopnik Vavilova
  • Phlomoides vavilovii(Popov) Adylov, Kamelin & Makhm. - Phlomoides Vavilova
  • Piptatherum vavilovii(Roshev.) Roshev. - Vavilov’s breaker
  • Prunus × vavilovii(Popov) A.E.Murray - Plum Vavilova
  • Pyrus vavilovii Popov - Grusha Vavilova
  • Scorzonera vavilovii Kult. - Kozelets Vavilova
  • Secale vavilovii Grossh. - Rye Vavilov
  • Solanum vavilovii Juz. & Bukasov - Paslen Vavilova
  • Thymus vavilovii Klokov - Thyme Vavilova
  • Trifolium vavilovii Eig - Clover Vavilova
  • Triticum vavilovii(Fog.) Jakubz. - Vavilova's wheat.

Vavilov's awards

  • 1925 - Large silver medal named after N. M. Przhevalsky of the Russian Geographical Society
  • 1926 - V.I. Lenin Prize - for the work “Centers of Origin of Cultivated Plants”
  • 1940 - Great gold medal of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition

Vavilov Nikolai Ivanovich (1887-1943), Russian biologist, geneticist, plant breeder, one of the organizers of agricultural science in the USSR.

Born on November 25, 1887 in Moscow in the family of a businessman. He received his primary education at the Moscow Commercial School, after which he entered the Moscow Agricultural Institute (now the Moscow Agricultural Academy named after K. A. Timiryazev).

After graduation (1911) he was left at the department of private agriculture. In 1917 he became a professor at Saratov University. From 1921, he headed the Department of Applied Botany and Selection (Petrograd), in 1924 reorganized into the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Crops, and in 1930 into the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing (VIR), the head of which Vavilov remained until August 1940 .

Since 1930, he was also the director of the genetic laboratory, which was later transformed into the Institute of Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Based on those carried out in 1919-1920. Research in the book “Field Crops of the South-East” (1922) Vavilov described all the cultivated plants of the Volga and Trans-Volga regions.

From 1920 to 1940, he led numerous botanical and agronomic expeditions to study the plant resources of Central Asia, the Mediterranean, etc. In 1924, the expedition visited Afghanistan. The collected material allowed the scientist to establish patterns in the origin and distribution of cultivated plant varieties, which greatly facilitated the work of botanists and breeders.

The collection of cultivated plants collected by Vavilov and stored at VIR includes more than 300 thousand specimens. The law of homological series of hereditary variability in closely related species, genera, and even families, which he discovered in 1920, acquired particular significance for theoretical genetics, according to which similar hereditary changes arise in related groups.

For research work in the field of immunity, the origin of cultivated plants and the discovery of the law of homological series, Vavilov received the V. I. Lenin Prize (1926). For research in Afghanistan he was awarded the gold medal named after N. M. Przhevalsky; for work in the field of selection and seed production - the Great Gold Medal of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (1940).

Since 1929, Vavilov was an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences and an academician of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences, and was elected president (1929-1935) and vice-president (1935-1940) of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

However, the campaign against genetics, launched by Vavilov’s student T.D. Lysenko and supported by party ideologists, led to the interruption of the scientist’s activities in 1940. Vavilov was arrested on charges of sabotage and died of starvation in a prison bed in Saratov on January 26, 1943.

In 1965, a prize was established in his name, and in 1968, a gold medal was awarded for outstanding scientific work and discoveries in the field of agriculture.
Since 1967, VIR bears the name of a major breeder.



 
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