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The Botanist Who Defied Stalin

19 points by dnetesn 5y ago

sorokod 5y ago
But Lysenko argued that the inheritance of acquired characteristics was more philosophically akin to Marxist philosophy than was the Mendelian genetics championed by Europeans and Americans, as well as the vast majority of Soviet geneticists. Stalin, who was promoting the idea that if the economy was transformed, everything would change for all and the generations to come, was enamored with Lysenko’s idea that manipulating the conditions of the environment changed not only the genetics of the organisms in that environment, but their descendants as well A dictator and a sycophantic scientific advisor is a poisonous mix.
mitchbob 5y ago
Archived: https://archive.ph/d0mB2 https://archive.ph/d0mB2
999900000999 5y ago
I don't think I could of starved to death while staring at seeds. I'm a bit uneducated on the topic, but wouldn't it be possible to actually use the seeds to make a small green house.
- tharkun__ 5y ago
  I suppose they could've used some of the seeds to sow something. For that you do need the space to do so though and the materials. This is Stalingrad during the siege. I doubt it would've been easy to procure the materials needed to create the greenhouse and also hide it from the general population as well. They were trying not to draw attention to themselves from their fellow Stalingrad citizens, who were also starving. There were apparently 16 scientists in the building guarding these. For argument's sake, let's consider an easy find on Google: https://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/1433/how-large-a-cultivation-area-to-feed-one-person https://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/1433/how-large... and let's assume the first area cited there as it seems to be a "conservative"-ish estimate, which is 4000 sqft of garden per person per year. Which I guess is actually rather small considering Stalingrad's location, probable (based on a wild guess that the city doesn't have the greatest) soil conditions within city limits and the weather in that region, they need to use their own labour to farm this (using horses would draw even more attention, provided you could get horses in the first place and working the land requires more calories, which in turn you need to grow first. So 64000 sqft or 1.4 acres or about 6000m^2. I think that our ancestors weren't stupid, so they would've considered this and they seem to have come to the conclusion that starving themselves was the better option.
- sparky_z 5y ago
  Unlikely. Seeds aren't transparent, which is one of the most important qualities necessary for a functional greenhouse.
  - 999900000999 5y ago
    I meant plant the seeds ?

19 points by dnetesn 5y ago

But Lysenko argued that the inheritance of acquired characteristics was more philosophically akin to Marxist philosophy than was the Mendelian genetics championed by Europeans and Americans, as well as the vast majority of Soviet geneticists. Stalin, who was promoting the idea that if the economy was transformed, everything would change for all and the generations to come, was enamored with Lysenko’s idea that manipulating the conditions of the environment changed not only the genetics of the organisms in that environment, but their descendants as well A dictator and a sycophantic scientific advisor is a poisonous mix.

mitchbob 5y ago

Archived: https://archive.ph/d0mB2 https://archive.ph/d0mB2

999900000999 5y ago

I don't think I could of starved to death while staring at seeds. I'm a bit uneducated on the topic, but wouldn't it be possible to actually use the seeds to make a small green house.

tharkun__ 5y ago
I suppose they could've used some of the seeds to sow something. For that you do need the space to do so though and the materials. This is Stalingrad during the siege. I doubt it would've been easy to procure the materials needed to create the greenhouse and also hide it from the general population as well. They were trying not to draw attention to themselves from their fellow Stalingrad citizens, who were also starving. There were apparently 16 scientists in the building guarding these. For argument's sake, let's consider an easy find on Google: https://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/1433/how-large-a-cultivation-area-to-feed-one-person https://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/1433/how-large... and let's assume the first area cited there as it seems to be a "conservative"-ish estimate, which is 4000 sqft of garden per person per year. Which I guess is actually rather small considering Stalingrad's location, probable (based on a wild guess that the city doesn't have the greatest) soil conditions within city limits and the weather in that region, they need to use their own labour to farm this (using horses would draw even more attention, provided you could get horses in the first place and working the land requires more calories, which in turn you need to grow first. So 64000 sqft or 1.4 acres or about 6000m^2. I think that our ancestors weren't stupid, so they would've considered this and they seem to have come to the conclusion that starving themselves was the better option.
sparky_z 5y ago
Unlikely. Seeds aren't transparent, which is one of the most important qualities necessary for a functional greenhouse.
- 999900000999 5y ago
  I meant plant the seeds ?