Plot synopsis

In the early thirties, Vavilov enthusiastically supported the work of the young agronomist T. D. Lysenko on the so-called vernalization: the transformation of winter crops into spring crops by pre-sowing exposure of seeds to low positive temperatures. Vavilov hoped that the vernalization method could be effectively applied in breeding, which would allow for a more complete use of the world collection of useful plants at VIR for the development of highly productive, disease-, drought-, and cold-resistant crops through hybridization.
In 1934, Vavilov recommended Lysenko as a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Lysenko impressed the Soviet leaders, led by Stalin, with his “popular” origins, his promise to increase grain yields in the shortest possible time, and also the fact that he declared at a congress of collective farm shock workers in 1935 that pests existed in science as well.
In 1936 and 1939, discussions on genetics and breeding took place, during which Lysenko and his supporters attacked scientists led by Vavilov and Koltsov, who shared the basic tenets of classical genetics. Lysenko's group rejected genetics as a science and denied the existence of genes as material carriers of heredity. In the late 1930s, the Lysenkoites, supported by Stalin, Molotov and other Soviet leaders, began to crack down on their ideological opponents, Vavilov and his associates who worked at VIR and the Institute of Genetics in Moscow.
Vavilov was subjected to a stream of slander, and his main achievements were discredited. Having become president of VASKhNIL in 1938, Lysenko obstructed the normal work of VIR - he sought to cut its budget, replace members of the academic council with his supporters, and change the leadership of the institute. In 1938, the Soviet government, under Lysenko's influence, cancelled the International Genetics Congress in the USSR, of which Vavilov was to become president.
Vavilov continued to courageously defend his scientific views and the work program of the institutes he headed until his arrest. In 1939, he sharply criticized Lysenko's anti-scientific views at a meeting of the Leningrad Regional Bureau of the Section of Scientific Workers. At the end of his speech, Vavilov said: "Let's go to the stake, we'll burn, but we won't renounce our convictions."

Commentaries

Сценарии телесериала «Исторические хроники с Николаем Сванидзе», с 1934го по 1953 год. [Scénarios de la série télévisée « Chroniques historiques avec Nikolaï Svanidzé », de 1934 à 1953], Marina ZHUKOVA, Амфора, 2014

- Screenplay

Selected in the following festivals or events :

- Historical Chronicles with Nikolay Svanidze, (kinoglaz.fr), 2026

Photos, videos, texts

Nikolaï VAVILOV (Николай Иванович ВАВИЛОВ) 1883-1954


Trofim LYSSENKO (Трофим Денисович ЛЫСЕНКО) 1883-1954