AND THERE WAS FAMINE IN THE LAND:  On this day in 1898, Soviet agronomist Trofim Denisovich Lysenko was born in what is now Ukraine.  During his lifetime, he was the recipient of numerous accolades, including the Hero of Socialist Labor award, the Stalin prize (three times), and the Order of Lenin (eight times).  In this respect, he was rather like America’s Green Revolution agronomist, Norman Borlaug, who received more than a few prestigious awards too.

The crucial difference between Borlaug and Lysenko was that Borlaug’s methods increased agricultural production worldwide, saving the lives of hundreds of millions, if not a billion, people.  Lysenko, on the other hand, was a nut case whose crackpot theories contributed to the slow, agonizing death by starvation of many of his countrymen.

Lysenko rejected Mendelian genetics, which he denounced as bourgeois.  British biologist S.C. Harland described him as “completely ignorant of the elementary principles of genetics and physiology.”  His pseudo-scientific theories included the belief that seeds should be planted as close together as possible because plants of like character will not compete with each other.

But Stalin liked him and that’s what counted.   Stalin really, really liked him, so farm workers were forced to do his bidding, no matter how much they realized it was folly.

Prior to Lysenko’s rise, the Soviet Union was home to some of the best geneticists in the world.  But if they criticized Lysenko, they were rounded up by the NKVD and imprisoned, sent to psychiatric hospitals, or (in several cases) executed as enemies of the state.  Hundreds, if not thousands, suffered this fate. It therefore took that much longer for his many errors to be corrected.

If you’re wondering why Stalin liked him so much, two things come to mind:  Lysenko was born to a peasant family and that sort of pedigree was important to getting ahead in the Soviet Union.  It was their version of affirmative action.  And he was a fervent communist, which was as necessary to getting ahead back then as being a fervent supporter of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” is today.   I suppose you can make of that what you will.