The rise and fall of T. D. Lysenko / Zhores A. Medvedev ; translated by I. Michael Lerner, with the editorial assistance of Lucy G. Lawrence.

  • Zhores Medvedev
Date:
1969
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The rise and fall of T. D. Lysenko / Zhores A. Medvedev ; translated by I. Michael Lerner, with the editorial assistance of Lucy G. Lawrence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    vili Foreword current intellectual climate in the U.S.S.R., it became apparent to me that, if the book was to be banned in the Soviet Union, it is all the more important that it be published elsewhere. The decision to do so was not an easy one. Regardless of the route by which the manuscript reached me, the possibility of reprisals against its author exists. It appears, however, that Medvedev is willing, in the light of his circulation of the manuscript in the Soviet Union at the height of Lysenko's last surge of power (Chapter 9), to take whatever risks are in¬ volved in publishing the book here, for the good of his coun¬ try. (At this stage there is the problem of transmitting his share of royalties, which Columbia University Press, without having to do so, has agreed to hold for him in escrow.) Full exposure of what happened in the course of Lysenko's rise and fall can do nothing but good for Soviet science and the Soviet economy. Indeed, as Medvedev attributes patriotic mo¬ tives to Vavilov, Pryanishnikov, and others, so it is obvious that his own manuscript was written out of concern for the welfare of science and the national economy of his fatherland. The book is written in an uneven style. In my task of trans¬ lating and editing I wanted to preserve the tone of the original. The lapses into first person, and the personal reminiscences, although producing unexpected changes in key, reflect the author's approach. I have tried to preserve this tone at the risk of failure in uniformity of style. Unevenness in accuracy and in completeness of bibliographical citations is also to be ex¬ plained on these terms. To me Chapter 6 is one of the highlights of the book. It presents the terrifying picture of the methods of the Lysenko take-over and the consequences of it. The courageous story of the struggle waged by Vavilov, Pryanishnikov, Tulaikov, Sabinin, and others in the earlier phases, and by Medvedev himself, Sukachev, and still others in the last stages, represents as glorious a chapter in defense of scientific freedom and human dignity as can be found in the annals of civilization. But the
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