Lysenkoism is first of all a method of inserting ideology into scientific discussions

Russia’s new Lysenkoism

Edouard I. Kolchinsky, Ulrich Kutschera, Uwe Hossfeld, Georgy S. Levit

"...The re-emergence of Lysenkoism in Russia today is a disturbing phenomenon. There are many collections, research institutes, experimental stations, gardens and farms founded by Vavilov within the Academy of Science. A campaign for discrediting Vavilov and rehabilitating Lysenko could lead to a redistribution of these properties. Besides, a few modern Russian biologists received school education at Lysenko’s time and remember that he was considered a great scholar. Some of his pupils and the pupils of pupils along with relatives of Lysenko are contributing to the rehabilitation of their hero.

Another important factor is the rise of anti-scientific sentiment in Russia expressing itself in creationist and anti-GMO movements. A gap in science education, which appeared in the 1990s to early 2000s, is accompanied by the declining influence of professional historians of science in Russia. The new history of science is being written in blogs and non-peer-reviewed media. Professional criticism of these publications is usually overlooked by the general public. All this is accompanied by a general growth of sympathies towards the dictator Joseph Stalin.

Even the critics of historical and modern Lysenkoism often overlook that Lysenko’s theory is first of all an ideological construction. For example, in a paper on epigenetics, Heard and Martienssen [31] claim that “it is perhaps no accident that the inheritance of acquired traits was first proposed by botanists, most famously by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and most infamously by Trofim Denisovich Lysenko”.

Yet, Lysenkoism is first of all a method of inserting ideology into scientific discussions..."

Pages R1042-R1047 Current Biology Volume 27, Issue 19 Pages 2893-3068, R1037-R1088 (9 October 2017)