Федотова Анастасия Алексеевна
Санкт-Петербургский филиал Института истории естествознания и техники им. С.И. Вавилова РАН
DOI: —
Генетик, эволюционист и селекционер Н.И. Вавилов находился в центре научных и политических дебатов в самый бурный период советской истории, а влияние его фигуры сказывается и много десятилетий после его смерти. На основе архивных документов и опубликованных работ проанализированы юбилеи Н.И. Вавилова разных лет (1957-2012) в связи с отношением к Т.Д. Лысенко и лысенкоизму, а также в целом к давлению государственной идеологии на науку. В сталинское время даже попытка упоминания имени Н.И. Вавилова в печати была рискованной. Вскоре после смерти Сталина коллеги добились реабилитации Вавилова, научные общества и институты отмечали юбилеи учёного, однако в печати обстоятельства гибели Вавилова замалчивались как в хрущёвское, так и в брежневское время. Открытое обсуждение гибели Вавилова в научной и широкой печати началось только в перестроечный 1987 г., благодаря чему Вавилов стал хорошо известен общественности не только как великий учёный, но и как жертва сталинского режима. В последние годы, вероятно в связи с усилившим административным давлением на науку и новым всплеском лысенкоистких настроений, лишь немногие учёные говорили о противостоянии Вавилова и Лысенко.
Remembering Nikolai Vavilov under Changing Political Contexts
Anastasia A. Fedotova
St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology named after S.I. Vavilov
DOI: —
Russian plant breeder and geneticist Nikolai Vavilov was at the center of science and politics during the most tumultuous period in Soviet history and his impact continued long after his death. His memory was celebrated in a series of jubilees (1957-2012) following the downfall of Trofim Lysenko. This paper analise them in more broad context to ideological pressure of the State upon the science. The first posthumous jubilee officially celebrated by Russian biologists was his 75-year anniversary in 1962. Vavilov’s surviving colleagues used this date to rehabilitate the scientist’s reputation after being purged by Lysenko and his followers. For several years following this jubilee the name of Vavilov became a flag for fighters against Lysenkoism. However, during the Brezhnev era all discussion of Lysenkoism, as well as other crimes of Stalinism, was avoided. The 100-year anniversary was in the perestroika years and Vavilov was celebrated not only as a great scientist but also as fighter against Stalin’s regime. Again biologists used the memory of Vavilov against those Lysenkoists who in the “stagnation” years of Brezhnev gained power in agricultural research institutions. Finally, the 125-year anniversary in 2012 was celebrated among Russian biologists and plant breeders quite widely. However, because of increased administrative burden in the agricultural sciences only a few researchers spoke of Lysenkoism. The most active defenders of Vavilov and prosecutors of Lysenkoism were historians of science. A number of journalists have been eager to reconsider Lysenko as a precursor of some modern concepts in science (such as prions, for example), which, as an agronomist who was entirely uneducated about molecular biology, he could not have imagined.