In Pursuit of the Gene

258 ¨ TRIUMPH OF THE MODERN GENE
(sprouting seed in the fall and then freezing it for early spring planting)
that supposedly increased its yield and quickened its course of development.
48 Although vernalization, as Lysenko dubbed it, had not actually been
shown to be effective in increasing yields, and Lysenko was entirely lacking
in the skills or inclination necessary to do a scientific analysis of the effect, he
used his formidable skills as self-promoter and propagandist to sell the press
and government on its benefits. By 1930 the “peasant scholar,” as he had become
known, had moved from a position of junior associate at a small experimental
station in Azerbaijan to being the head of a large lab at the leading
research institute in the Ukraine. 49 Under the direction of Y. A. Yakovlev,
who was head of agriculture for the party, Lysenko was given his own journal,
the Bulletin of Vernalization, and other lavish support. In the following four
years vernalization first subsumed the entire field of plant physiology and
then began to expand into plant breeding and genetics. 50 Built on a collection
of meaningless but impressive scientific-sounding phrases and forged data
designed to win over the press, the entire Lysenko program was a fraud. 51
Lysenko’s big break came in a speech given in February 1935 to an agricultural
conference attended by Stalin, as well as Vavilov and other prominent
scientists. As had become his standard practice, Lysenko began his lecture
by invoking the treachery of kulaks, as the better-off peasants were
called, who he claimed tried to poison the minds of less educated peasants
by turning them against vernalization, but on this day Lysenko expanded
the circle of deceivers and betrayers. “You see, comrades,” he declared with
rising hysteria, “saboteur-kulaks are found not only in your kolkhoz life ...
they are no less dangerous, no less accursed in science ...Agreat deal of
mortification has had to be endured in defending vernalization in all kinds
of battles with so-called scientists ...Both within the scientific world and
outside, a class enemy is always an enemy, even if a scientist.” At this point
in his speech, Lysenko turned to the praise of the collective farms and the
teaching of Comrade Stalin, and Stalin stood up and shouted “Bravo, comrade
Lysenko, bravo!” The audience instantly sprung to its feet and broke
out into rapturous applause. A detailed account of Lysenko’s speech and
Stalin’s spontaneous interruption, accompanied by a portrait of Lysenko,
appeared in Pravda, certifying the fact that the peasant scholar had overnight
become one of the most powerful men in Soviet biology. 52