Failed revival: some results of the development of Russian evolutionary theory in the second half of the XX century
How to Cite
Kolchinsky E.I. Failed revival: some results of the development of Russian evolutionary theory in the second half of the XX century. Science Management: Theory and Practice. 2020. Vol. 2. No. 1. P. 117-151. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/smtp.2020.2.1.6 (in Russ.).
Abstract
The historical and scientific narrative about the August 1948 session of Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, portrayed for more than half a century in historiography as a triumph of pseudoscience, has undergone significant changes in recent decades. People who participated in those events are increasingly envisioned as representatives of various scientific clans competing for the authorities’ protection, finances, materials and human resources. The confrontations among biologists of those years are also explained by the interference of ideologists from the US state Department and the Central Committee of the CPSU in the clash two scientific concepts. Based on the analysis of August session’s causes and consequences, the author considers its role in the development of Russian evolutionary theory in the second half of the XXth – early XXI centuries. In those years the state became the sole customer of scientific research and tried to use it effectively to raise economic andmilitary power, to justify its ideological policy and increase its international status. The confrontation between supporters of Michurin’s biology (lysenkoists) and their opponents on both sides involved scientists who already shared the morals, plans, and worldview of the party and government apparatus. Realizing that only the state can provide funds for their research projects, they sought to reach an understanding with the authorities, emphasizing the “ideological correctness” of their research and its great ideological significance. But at the same time, Lysenko’s opponents sought to stay in the mainstream of world science, follow its standards, and therefore were sensitive to the interference of the authorities in determining the strategy of scientific search. As a result, ethical and political compromises were inevitable. Scientists engaged in a dialogue with the authorities in a language they understood, using ideologies they understood, demonstrating loyalty to the party’s policy and official philosophy, but at the same time demanding not only financial and material resources, but also non-interference in science itself. As a result, even after the official collapse of Lysenko’s dominance, the evolutionary theory in the Russian-speaking regions could not regain its leading position in the knowledge of the evolution’s laws and ways.
Keywords:
evolutionary theory, synthetic theory of evolution of STE, Soviet creative Darwinism, August session of VASHNIL, T. D. Lysenko, I. I. Schmalhausen
References
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Kunin E. V. (2014). Logika sluchaya. O prirode i proiskhozhdenii biologicheskoi ehvolyutsii [Logic of the case. On the nature and origin of biological evolution]. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf. 760 p. (In Russ.).
Kolchinsky, E. I., Kutschera, U., Hossfeld, U. and Levit, G. S. (2017). Russia’s new Lysenkoism. Сurrent Biology. 2017. Vol. 27. No. 19. P. R1042–R1047.
Kolchinsky, E. I. (2017). Nikolai I. Vavilov in the Realm of Historical and Scientific Discussions. Almagest. 2017. Vol. 8. No. 1. P. 4–37.
Krementsov, N. L. (1997). Stalinist Science. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. 371 p.
Kolchinsky, E. I. (2014). Ehvolyutsionnaya teoriya v razdelennom mire [Evolutionary theory in a divided world]. St-Petersburg: Nestor history. 823 p. (In Russ.).
The Evolutionary Synthesis. Perspectives on the Unification of Biologу. (1980). Ed. by E. Mayr and W. Provine. London: Harvard Univ. Press. 487 p.
Razvitie ehvolyutsionnoi teorii v SSSR: 1917–1970 y. [Development of evolutionary theory in the USSR: 1917–1970 y.] (1983). Ed. by E. I. Kolchinsky. Leningrad: Nauka. 614 p. (In Russ.).
Evolutionary biology from Darwin to today (2000). Ed. by R. Brömer, U. Hossfeld and N. A. Rupke. Berlin: VWB. 425 p.
Sozdateli sovremennogo ehvolyutsionnogo sinteza [The architects of modern Evolutionary Synthesis]. (2012). Ed. by E. I. Kolchinsky. St-Petersburg: Nestor history. 996 p. (In Russ.).
Vavilov N. I. (1940). The New Systematics of Cultivated Plants. In: The New Systematics. Ed. by Ju. Huxley. London. Oxford: Clarendon Press. P. 549–566.
Trapezov, O. V. (2009). Darvinizm i uroki rossiiskoi prakticheskoi selektsii [Darwinism and the lessons of the Russian breeding practice]. Vestnik VOGiS. Vol. 13. No. 2. С. 249–297 (In Russ.).
Kolchinsky, E. I. and Ermolaev, A. I. (2018). Razgromnyi avgust 1948 g.: kak vlast’ borolas’ s biologiei [The August 1948 debacle: how the government fought biology]. The Political Conceptology. No. 3. P. 89–112. DOI: 10.23683/2218-5518.2018.3.89112 (In Russ.).
Borinskaya, S. A., Ermolaev, A. I. and Kolchinsky, E. I. (2019). Lysenkoism against genetics: the meeting of the Lenin all-union academy of agricultural sciences of august 1948, its background, causes, and aftermath. Genetics. Vol. 212. No. 1. P. 1–12. DOI: 10.1534/genetics.118.301413
Strunnikov, V. A. (2004). Shelkovyi put’ [Silk road] Moscow: Nauka. 276 p. (In Russ.).
Fujioka Tsuyoshi (2013). The Japanese Lysenkoism and the historical backgrounds. Studies in the history of biology. Vol. 5. No. 1. P. 7–15.
Hampl, P. (2016). The Evolution of Theoretical Views of Vladimír Novák: from Lysenkoism to Epigenetics. Studies in the history of biology. 2016. Vol. 8. No. 2. P. 11–24.
Repressirovannaya nauka [Repressed science] (1994). Ed. by M. G. Yaroshevskii. Vol. 2. St-Petersburg: Nauka. 319 p. (In Russ.).
Zakharov, I. A. (2013). Kak ya stal genetikom [How I became a geneticist]. Studies in the history of biology. Vol. 5. No. 1. P. 110–117. (In Russ.).
Kolchinsky, E. I., Shalimov, S. V. (2017). “Ottepel’” i genetika: iz istorii publikatsii pervogo otechestvennogo uchebnika po genetike [“Thaw” and genetics: from the history of publishing the first Russian textbook on genetics]. Russian history. No. 4. P. 75–83. (In Russ.).
Kunin E. V. (2014). Logika sluchaya. O prirode i proiskhozhdenii biologicheskoi ehvolyutsii [Logic of the case. On the nature and origin of biological evolution]. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf. 760 p. (In Russ.).
Article
Received: 16.01.2020
Accepted: 25.03.2020
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APA
Kolchinsky, E. I. (2020). Failed revival: some results of the development of Russian evolutionary theory in the second half of the XX century. Science Management: Theory and Practice, 2(1), 117-151. https://doi.org/10.19181/smtp.2020.2.1.6
Section
Historical Experience
