6.5 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 1948 Session of VASKhNIL | 2/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_1948_Session_of_VASKhNIL | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T16:12:02.430876+00:00 | kb-cron |
to issue Academician T. D. Lysenko's report "On the Situation in Biological Science" and his concluding remarks as a separate brochure in a print run of 300,000 copies within 3 days (signed for printing on August 12). the publishing house was obliged to release the verbatim transcript of the VASKhNIL session by August 29, with a print run of 200,000 copies. The Ministry of the Forest and Paper Industry was obliged to supply the publishing house with 200 tons of printing paper for the publication of the VASKhNIL session materials, at the expense of reduced deliveries to the state reserve under the 1948 plan.
== Consequences for science in the USSR ==
The August Session of VASKhNIL in 1948 became the darkest page in the history of biology in the USSR. Following a similar scenario, physiology, cytology, virology, and other sciences were soon crushed in the USSR. The session signaled the USSR's course towards a special path for the development of national science and its separation from the world community of scientists. The goal was to bring the research process itself under complete ideological and political control. To this end, a huge number of scientists were expelled from institutes and higher education institutions. In the newspaper Pravda, the geneticist A. R. Zhebrak published a letter of justification: "As long as both directions in Soviet genetics were recognized by our Party, I persistently defended my views, which on particular issues differed from the views of Academician Lysenko. But now, after it has become clear to me that the main tenets of the Michurinist direction in Soviet genetics have been approved by the Central Committee of the CPSU(b), I, as a Party member, do not consider it possible for myself to remain on those positions which have been recognized as erroneous by the Central Committee of our Party." On August 23, 1948, the Minister of Higher Education of the USSR, S. V. Kaftanov, issued Order No. 1208 "On the state of teaching biological disciplines in universities and on measures to strengthen the biological faculties with qualified personnel of Michurinist biologists." According to this order, commissions were established in higher education institutions to revise curricula for all academic disciplines, change the topics of postgraduate students' candidate dissertations, etc.
Widespread dismissals or transfers of geneticists to other fields were carried out. The number of geneticists subjected to administrative persecution at this time is estimated at 300 people. They were replaced by Lysenko's supporters. Particular attention was paid to the training of new "Michurinist" biologists: additional enrollments were announced for the biology faculties at Moscow and Leningrad Universities, and the teaching staff was almost completely replaced. "The Fundamentals of Darwinism" at both universities, trusting no one else, was taught by Lysenko's most loyal follower, I. I. Prezent (who had no biological education). After the VASKhNIL session in 1948, many foreign members resigned from the USSR Academy of Sciences in protest against the persecution, for example, the English physiologists Dale, Muller, and some others. For nearly twenty years, "Mendelism" became a derogatory term. The Lysenkoists made the name of the modest practitioner-horticulturist I. V. Michurin, who had little interest in theory and was interested in Mendel's work, their banner. In addition to the August session, which crushed genetics, the March session of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1950, under the pretext of developing the scientific legacy of I. P. Pavlov, saw the crushing of physiology and cytology. On August 24–26, 1948, an extended meeting of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences was held on the state and tasks of biological science in the institutes and institutions of the USSR Academy of Sciences, at which the decision of the VASKhNIL session was supported. The resolution pointed out the unfavorable situation of science from an ideological and practical point of view. The Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences proposed that all organizations of the AS USSR system hold a broad discussion on the ideological orientation of each institute's research topics and their practical significance in science and the national economy. Discussions on the ideological state in various sciences took place or were planned:
Geological Sciences – in November 1948, an extended session of the academic council of the Institute of Geological Sciences (IGN AS USSR) was held. Oil and gas industry – discussed in Leningrad; Gubkin's theory on the origin of oil was recognized as the only correct one. Physics – a meeting was planned to be held at the Moscow House of Scientists (600 delegates); the organizing committee worked from December 30, 1948, to March 16, 1949; the meeting was postponed several times and did not take place. Physiology and medicine – in 1950 (the Pavlov Session), Lysenko's teachings in biological and medical sciences were supported. Only by 1965 did the USSR receive an official conclusion from commissions of VASKhNIL and the USSR Academy of Sciences stating that T. D. Lysenko's scientific work had been conducted unreliably.
== See also == Lysenkoism, Lamarckism November 1948 Session of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences
== Notes ==
=== References ===
== Literature == Lysenko T. D. O polozhenii v biologicheskoy nauke: Doklad na sessii VASKhNIL 31 iyulya 1948 g. M.: Selkhozgiz, 1948. 64 p. Print run 300,000. (Signed for printing on August 12, 1948.) O polozhenii v biologicheskoy nauke: Stenograficheskiy otchyot sessii Vsesoyuznoy akademii selskokhozyaystvennykh nauk imeni V. I. Lenina, 31 iyulya – 7 avgusta 1948. Editorial board: V. N. Stoletov, A. M. Sirotin, G. K. Objedkov. Moscow: OGIZ-Selkhozgiz: August 21, 1948. 536 pages. (in Russian) Pringle, Peter (2008). The murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The story of Stalin's persecution of one of the great scientists of the twentieth century. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-6602-1. News and photo // Vechernyaya Moskva (newspaper of the MGK CPSU(b) and the Mossoviet). 1948. No. 185 (7467), August 6. p. 2.
== External links == Avgustovskaya sessiya: Pensionnyy vozrast // Troitsky variant, 2008, 9, P.10 (in Russian). Vasily Petrovich Leonov, "Dolgoe proshchanie s lysenkovshchinoy: Avgust 1948 goda" (in Russian)