Lysenkoism

Lysenkoism was a politically enforced Soviet doctrine that rejected Mendelian genetics and promoted Trofim Lysenko’s theories of heredity and agricultural improvement.

Vernalization: A plant’s flowering response to prolonged cold exposure. Lysenko promoted cold treatment of seeds as a way to alter development and improve harvests.
Trofim Lysenko: A Soviet agronomist who led a politically influential campaign against genetics. His theories and authority gave Lysenkoism its name and institutional force.
August 1948 VASKhNIL session: A Soviet agricultural academy meeting that formally endorsed Lysenko’s doctrine and attacked genetics. The session institutionalized Lysenkoism and led to the suppression of rival biology.
Population genetics: The study of genetic variation and allele frequencies in populations. Its mathematical account of heredity contradicted Lysenko’s rejection of Mendelian genetics.
Acquired characteristics: Traits developed during an organism’s life that may be transmitted to its offspring. Lysenko argued that environmental conditions could produce heritable changes without genes.
Ivan Michurin: A Russian plant breeder known for developing fruit varieties adapted to harsh climates. Lysenko presented Michurin’s practical breeding work as support for his theories.
Soviet genetics: The study of heredity in the Soviet Union, shaped by political repression under Lysenkoism. Genetics lost institutional support as Lysenko’s doctrine became official policy.
Chromosome theory of inheritance: The theory that genes occupy chromosomes and chromosomes transmit hereditary information. This experimentally supported theory conflicted with Lysenkoism’s denial of genes.
Mendelian inheritance: The inheritance of traits through discrete units passed from parents to offspring. Lysenkoism rejected the genetic framework that explains inheritance through discrete hereditary factors.
August Weismann: A German biologist who argued that hereditary information passes through germ cells, not ordinary body cells. Weismann’s distinction challenged the inheritance of acquired traits endorsed by Lysenkoism.

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