When people think of biology in Russia, they immediately think of Lysenko, pseudo-science, and political prohibition on science.

First off, the explanations generally given of Lysenko are solely lacking. Almost all of them are idealist in character. These explanations presuppose that believing in Marxism necessarily leads to the position of Lysenko in biology, or at least to an intellectual intolerance and prohibition of the results of science.

Not only is this a sort of historical fallacy (one philosophy is mapped onto one position in science or politics independent of context), but there are many, many counter-examples in the history of biology and science in Russia and the USSR i.e. there were Marxist biologists who were neither intolerant nor prohibitive and who gave their life opposing Lysenko and his legacy.

There is a rich history of evolutionary theory from 1880-1930 in Russia and the USSR. Russian theorists were considered to be some of the most important scientists in achieving the Darwinian-Mendelian synthesis, and were at the forefront of scientific discovery. Scientists like Kowalevsky and Chetverikov were some of the “forefathers” of population genetics. Vavilov, a committed Marxist, was a world-leading scientist in population genetics and evolutionary theory. He is well known for studying the geographical distribution and origin of species of flora. This school of Russian population geneticists which included Vavilov, first trained by Chetverikov, and some of whom were Marxists, came to influence great scientists like J.B.S. Haldane and Joseph Needham. The term “gene pool’ (genofond) comes from this generation of Russian biologists and evolutionary theorists.

With the advent of Stalinism and the catastrophe of collectivization, this group was thoroughly suppressed and exterminated. Research in biology never recovered in quality and importance. Stalin wanted science that could be applied to agricultural production. The evolutionary geneticists were simply too “theoretical” to be of immediate practical value in increasing agricultural production. It was the class conflict and struggle set off by the collectivization of land that set the background for Lysenko to establish political hegemony over biology.

Lysenko was an uneducated agronomist of peasant origin. He promised incredible improvements in agricultural production, and in doing so won both the approval of Stalin and a political monopoly on theory. Lysenko developed a counter-theory , pitting “proletarian science” against the “bourgeois” genetics of the era. His “theory” is based on, but not reducible to, the inheritance of acquired characteristics. It is a completely false bit of ideology which CANNOT be confused with epigenetics (since epigenetics is an extension and qualification of Mendelian genetics). The theory proved utterly worthless in achieving any results, as is to be expected from falsity. Actually, in some instances the use of the theory caused much damage to the economy and society. Anyone who challenged his bunk gibberish could expect some kind of reprimand, even death. Documents show that Lysenko was vicious, denouncing colleagues. As a result of the witch-hunt, Vavilov , the most important biologist in Russia at the time, was sent to a labor-camp for his opposition. He died of starvation in 1943. For his failures and tyranny, Lysenko was humiliated and eventually “excommunicated” from the scientific community. Ya hamdouillah.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Kovalevsky_(paleontologist)

https://archive.org/details/philtrans07472506

First Russian biologist. Translated Darwin’s work, apparently he even translated a work of Darwin so fast that it was published in Russian before the original English . Married to the mathematician Sofia Kowalevskya. Is known for his very selective and careful analysis of the development of bone-structure in Hyopotamidae ( a kind of hourse). Apparently, the species used to have a many-towed hoof in its original habitat but with the translation to grass-land adapted by developing a one-toed hoof.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Vavilov

https://www.marxists.org/subject/science/essays/vavilov.htm

Nikolai Vavilov, the most important Russian population geneticist.