In Pursuit of the Gene

TRIUMPH OF THE MODERN GENE © 255
fulfillment of Lenin’s ambition to build a national Soviet academy of agricultural
sciences modeled on the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 33 With
his legendary capacity for work, remarkable organizational abilities, and
working knowledge of twenty-two languages and dialects, 34 Vavilov had
overseen a remarkable expansion of the government agriculture program
that now constituted one of the greatest research organizations in the
world. 35 From the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany, which itself employed
1,500 people, Vavilov had built a network of experimental stations
extending the length and width of the country, from the extreme north region
of Murmansk on the Arctic sea down to the southern Caucasus and
from the western regions all the way across the vast expanse of Siberia. At
the height of his reach in 1932–33, Vavilov oversaw the federation of more
than 1,300 research institutes that employed over 26,000 people. 36 His plant
collection consisted of over 150,000 plant varieties collected from every corner
of the Soviet Union and more than sixty-five countries. 37
Vavilov, who viewed Muller’s participation as a key element in the successful
modernization of Soviet biology, held nothing back. Muller would
be put in charge of the twenty researchers and technicians who worked at
an institute for pure genetics research in Leningrad that operated under the
auspices of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. 38 The official invitation for a
one-year stay in Leningrad, which would follow shortly after Vavilov’s return
to Russia, would grant Muller the highly prestigious title “Corresponding
Member of the Academy of Science.” In time, he would probably
be given a Russian position as well, with the title “Chief Geneticist of
U.S.S.R.” In addition to his responsibilities as head of his own institute in
Leningrad, Muller would make regular trips to Moscow, where he would
consult with various other institutes, including those of Serebrovsky and
Levit. Furthermore, Vavilov offered to arrange a one-month tour of the
country in which he and Muller would travel by automobile and plane
south over the Caucasus into Armenia and across the Caspian Sea, along
the border of Persia into Central Asia, northward into Siberia, then west
over the Urals and back to Moscow. In the process Muller would be able to
view firsthand the progress that had been made in modernizing and collectivizing
the peasant farms. Muller would speak at various places on the