Trofim Lysenko’s New Doctrine of the Species: An Attempt at Close Reading

Affiliation: St. Petersburg Branch of S. I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences
Address: St. Petersburg, Universitetskaia nab., 5, lit. B

Journal name

Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki

Edition

Volume 45 Issue 2

Pages

225-249

Abstract

One of the core themes in the Soviet Michurinist biology was pointing out Darwin’s “errors” and a plea for a revision of classical Darwinism, allegedly based on “flat evolutionism” (= gradualism) and misinterpretation of the dialectics of the organic evolution. The result was the so-called “Soviet creative Darwinism” that promoted fundamentally new concepts of the biological species and speciation, and was coined the “new doctrine of the species” (NDS) during the 1952–1955 discussion. Even though Lysenkoism has been thoroughly studied, the basic postulates of the NDS, its logical structure and genesis remained outside the scope of attention of the historians of science. Based on primary sources, principally on T. D. Lysenko’s own publications, this article is an attempt at presenting a holistic view of the NDS and identifying its conceptual origins. The content of the NDS is shown to be closely associated with the postulates of dialectical materialism used as the philosophical grounding for the new theory. Most of its biological content is not original and was borrowed by Lysenko from other sources. The more or less original elements of the “new doctrine” were the rejection of the intraspecific struggle for existence and the “physiological” concept of speciation, based on the belief that the most important mechanism of evolutionary transformations is changes in species-specific metabolism. Both of these elements were rejected by biology in the course of its further advancement while some others (inheritance of acquired traits, speciation by leaps) find their supporters today. However, modern ideas of saltational evolution have no continuity with the NDS, as they are based on the mutational paradigm rejected by Lysenko.

Keywords

Lysenkoism, “the Soviet creative Darwinism”, species, speciation, organism and environment, heredity, history of evolutionary biology

Received

03.03.2023

Publication date

28.06.2024

Number of characters

57593

Cite

GOST	Vinarskii M. Trofim Lysenko’s “New Doctrine of the Species”: An Attempt at Close Reading // Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki – 2024. – V. 45. – Issue 2 C. 225-249 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://vietmag.org/S020596060032357-4-1 (circulation date: 02.10.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S0205960624020012
MLA	Vinarskii, Maxim "Trofim Lysenko’s “New Doctrine of the Species”: An Attempt at Close Reading." Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki 45.2 (2024):225-249. DOI: 10.31857/S0205960624020012
APA	Vinarskii M. (2024). Trofim Lysenko’s “New Doctrine of the Species”: An Attempt at Close Reading. Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki 45(2), pp.225-249 DOI: 10.31857/S0205960624020012

100 rub.

When subscribing to an article or issue, the user can download PDF, evaluate the publication or contact the author. Need to register.

Number of purchasers: 0, views: 13

Readers community rating: votes 0

1. Alpatov, V. M. (2004) Istoriia odnogo mifa: Marr i marrizm [The History of a Myth: Marr and Marrism]. Moskva: Editorial URSS.

2. Astaurov, B. L. (1979) Problemy obshchei biologii i genetiki [Problems of General Biology and Genetics]. Moskva: Nauka.

3. Babkov, V. V. (2008) Zaria genetiki cheloveka [The Dawn of Human Genetics]. Moskva: Progress-Traditsiia.

4. Bobrov, E. P. (1958) Rossiiskie ucheniki i korrespondenty Karla Linneia [Russian Pupils and Correspondents of Carl Linnaeus], in: Shcherbakova, A. A. (ed.) Karl Linnei: sbornik statei [Carl Linnaeus: A Collection of Articles]. Moskva: Izdatelʼstvo AN SSSR, pp. 113–154.

5. Cook, R. C. (1949) Lysenko’s Marxist Genetics: Science or Religion? Journal of Heredity, vol. 40, no. 7, pp. 169–202.

6. Darevskii, I. S. (1997) Istoriia nesostoiavsheisia evoliutsionnoi teorii [The History of a Failed Evolutionary Theory], Priroda, no. 8, pp. 121–128.

7. Davitashvili, L. S. (1966) Sovremennoe sostoianie evoliutsionnogo ucheniia na Zapade [The Current State of the Evolutionary Doctrine in the West]. Moskva: Nauka.

8. Davitashvili, L. S. (1972) Uchenie ob evoliutsionnom progresse (teoriia aromorfoza) [The Doctrine of Evolutionary Progress (The Theory of Aromorphosis)]. Tbilisi: Metsniereba.

9. Dmitriev, V. S. (1952) Razvitie ucheniia Darvina o proiskhozhdenii vidov v rabotakh akademika T. D. Lysenko [The Development of Darwin’s Doctrine of the Origin of Species in the Works of Academician T. D. Lysenko], Izvestiia AN SSSR, seriia biologicheskaia, no. 3, pp. 30–49.

10. Dobrenko, E. (2020) Pozdnii stalinizm: estetika politiki [The Late Stalinism: the Aesthetics of Politics]. Moskva: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, vol. 1.

11. Dogiel, V. A. (1954) Oligomerizatsiia gomologichnykh organov kak odin iz glavnykh putei evoliutsii zhivotnykh [Oligomerization of Homologous Organs as One of the Main Pathways of Animal Evolution]. Leningrad: Izdatelʼstvo Leningradskogo universiteta.

12. Dubinin, N. P. (1955) Ob oshibkakh v voprose proiskhozhdeniia vidov [On Misinterpretations Regarding the Question of the Origin of Species], Biulleten’ Moskovskogo obshchestva ispytatelei prirody, otdel biologicheskii, vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 97–107.

13. Ellegård, A. (1990) Darwin and the General Reader. Chicago and London: The Chicago University Press.

14. Engels, F. (1952) Dialektika prirody [Dialectics of Nature]. Moskva: Gospolitizdat. Gaissinovitch, A. E. (1980) The Origins of Soviet Genetics and the Struggle with Lamarckism, 1922–1929, Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 1–51.

15. Gaissinovitch, A. E. (1988) Zarozhdenie i razvitie genetiki [The Dawn and Development of Genetics]. Moskva: Nauka.

16. Gall, Ia. M. (1976) Bor’ba za sushchestovanie kak faktor evoliutsii [The Struggle for Existence as an Evolutionary Factor]. Leningrad: Nauka.

17. Gnedenko, B. V. (1950) Teoriia veroiatnostei i poznanie real’nogo mira [The Theory of Probability and the Cognition of the Real World], Uspekhi matematicheskikh nauk, vol. 5, pp. 3–23.

18. Golubovskii, M. B. (2015) Prizrak Lysenko i ego sovremennaia reinkarnatsiia [Lysenko’s Ghost and His Modern Reincarnation], Istoriko-biologicheskie issledovaniia [Studies in the History of Biology], vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 115–130.

19. Gorin, A. P., and Shraiber, L. Ia. (1958) Trofim Denisovich Lysenko [Trofim Denisovich Lysenko]. Moskva: TSKhA.

20. Graham, L. (1991) Estestvoznanie, filosofiia i nauki o chelovecheskom povedenii v Sovetskom Soiuze [Science, Philosophy, and Human Behaviour in the Soviet Union]. Moskva: Izdatelʼstvo politicheskoi literatury.

21. Graham, L. (2016) Lysenko’s Ghost: Epigenetics and Russia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

22. Joravsky, D. (1986) The Lysenko Affair. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

23. Kalinichenko, L. A. (1953) Nekotorye problemy sovremennoi biologii v svete rabot O. B. Lepeshinskoi [Some Problems of Modern Biology in the Light of the Works of O. B. Lepeshinskaia], Voprosy michurinskoi biologii, vol. 3, pp. 259–286.

24. Karapetian, S. V. (1953) Novoe v nauke o biologicheskom vide – tvorcheskoe razvitie darvinizma [What’s New in the Science of Biological Species: Creative Development of the Darwinism], Zhurnal obschhei biologii, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 229–232.

25. Karpevich, A. F. (1955) Nekotorye dannye o formoobrazovanii u dvustvorchatykh molliuskov [Some Data on Morphogenesis in Bivalves], Zoologicheskii zhurnal, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 46–67.

26. Kolchinskii, E. I. (1999) V poiskakh sovetskogo “soiuza” filosofii i biologii (diskussii i repressii v 20-kh – nachale 30-kh gg.) [In Search of the Soviet “Union” of Philosophy and Biology (Discussions and Repressions of the 1920s – Early 1930s)]. Sankt-Peterburg: Dmitrii Bulanin.

27. Kolchinskii, E. I. (2002) Neokatastrofizm i selektsionizm: vechnaia dilemma ili vozmozhnost’ sinteza? [Neocatastrophism and Selectionism: Perpetual Dilemma or the Possible Synthesis?]. SanktPeterburg: Nauka.

28. Kolchinskii, E. I. (2017) “V boi idut odni stariki”, ili O perspektivakh vozrozhdeniia lysenkoizma v Rossii [“Only the Old Boys Will Go into Battle” or the Prospects for the Revival of Lysenkoism in Russia], Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 365–384.

29. Kolchinskii, E. I. (2018) N. I. Vavilov i T.D. Lysenko v prostranstve istoriko-nauchnykh diskussii [N. I. Vavilov and T. D. Lysenko in the Realm of Historico-Scientific Discussions], Priroda, no. 1, pp. 3–14.

30. Kolchinskii, E. I., and Konashev, M. B. (2003) Kak i pochemu “Pravda” uchila “Botanicheskii zhurnal”? [How and Why did Pravda Teach the Journal of Botany a Lesson?], Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki, no. 4, pp. 49–74.

31. Kolodiazhnyi, V. I. (1954) Filosofskie voprosy teorii vida i vidoobrazovaniia [Philosophical Aspects of the Theory of Species and Speciation], Vestnik LGU, no. 10, pp. 17–29.

32. Kouprianov, A. V. (2011) The “Soviet Creative Darwinism” (1930s – 1950s): From the Selective Reading of Darwinʼs Works to the Transmutation of Species, Istoriko-biologicheskie issledovaniia (Studies in the History of Biology), vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 8–31.

33. Krementsov, N. L. (1997) Printsip konkurentnogo iskliucheniia [The Principle of Competitive Exclusion], in: Kolchinskii, E. I. (ed.) Na perelome: sovetskaia biologiia v 20-30-kh godakh [On the Edge: Soviet Biology in the 1920s – 1930s]. Sankt-Peterburg: SPbF IIET RAN, vol. 1, pp. 107–164.

34. Krementsov, N. L. (1997) Stalinist Science. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.

35. Kuziakin, A. P. (1970) K teorii vida i vidoobrazovaniia [Towards the Theory of Species and Speciation], in: Anikin, V. I. (ed.) Materialy IV nauchnoi konferentsii zoologov pedagogicheskikh institutov [Materials of the Fourth Scientific Meeting of Zoologists from the Pedagogical Institutes]. Gorkii: Gorʼkovskii gosudarstvennyi pedagogicheskii institut, pp. 18–19.

36. Lebedev, D. V. (1997) Pomogaiut li opyty na prosteishikh poniat’ tragicheskie sobytiia v otechestvennoi biologii? (replika uchastnika tekh sobytii) [Do Experiments with Protozoans Help to Understand the Tragic Events in Russian Biology? (A Remark of a Participant in Those Events)], in: Kolchinskii, E. I. (ed.) Na perelome: sovetskaia biologiia v 20–30-kh godakh [On the Edge: Soviet Biology in the 1920s – 1930s]. Sankt-Peterburg: SPbF IIEN RAN vol. 1, pp. 165–170.

37. Lysenko, T. D. (1948) Doklad akademika T. D. Lysenko o polozhenii v biologicheskoi nauke [A Report by Academician T. D. Lysenko on the Situation in Biological Science], in: O polozhenii v biologicheskoi nauke. Stenograficheskii otchet sessii Vsesoiuznoi akademii sel’skokhoziaistvennykh nauk imeni V. I. Lenina, 31 iiulia – 7 avgusta 1948 g. [On the Situation in Biological Science. Verbatim Report of the Session of the V. I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, July 31 – August 7, 1948]. Moskva: Gosselkhoizdat, pp. 7–41.

38. Lysenko, T. D. (1951) Vid [Species], Bol’shaia sovetskaia entsiklopediia [Great Soviet Encyclopedia], vol. 8, pp. 14–19.

39. Lysenko, T. D. (1953) Izbrannye sochineniia [Selected Works]. Moskva: Moskovskii rabochii.

40. Lysenko, T. D. (1956) O biologicheskom vide i vidoobrazovanii [On Biological Species and Speciation], Agrobiologiia, no. 4, pp. 3–30.

41. Markov, G. S. (1953) Ob odnoi eklekticheskoi teorii v parazitologii [On an Eclectic Theory in Parasitology], Zhurnal obshchei biologii, vol. 14, pp. 247–251.

42. Medvedev, Zh. A. (1993) Vzliot i padenie Lysenko [The Rise and Fall of Lysenko]. Moskva: Kniga.

43. Nikolʼskii, G. V. (1955) Ob izmenchivosti organizmov [On Variability of Organisms], Zoologicheskii zhurnal, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 723–733.

44. Nosil, P., and Schluter, D. (2011) The Genes Underlying the Process of Speciation, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, vol. 26, pp. 160–167.

45. Nuzhdin, N. I. (1953) Retsidiv veismanizma pod flagom zashchity darvinizma [A Relapse of Weismanism under the Flag of the Defense of Darwinism], Zhurnal obshchei biologii, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 3–22.

46. Paramonov, A. A. (1945) Kurs darvinizma [A Textbook of Darwinism]. Moskva: Sovetskaia nauka.

47. Pilipenko, N. V. (1953) Nauka – vrag sluchainostei [Science as the Enemy of Fortuities], Voprosy filosofii, no. 3, pp. 20–33.

48. Shatalkin, A. I. (2015) Reliatsionnye kontseptsii nasledstvennosti i bor’ba vokrug nikh v XX stoletii [Relational Concepts of Heredity and the Struggle around Them in the 20th Century]. Moskva: Tovarishchestvo nauchnykh izdanii KMK.

49. Shatalkin, A. I. (2016) Politicheskie mify o sovetskikh biologakh. O. B. Lepeshinskaia, G. M. Boshian, konformisty, lamarkisty i drugie [Political Myths about Soviet Biologists. O. B. Lepeshinskaia, G. M. Boshian, Conformists, Lamarckians, and Others]. Moskva: Tovarishchestvo nauchnykh izdanii KMK.

50. Shmalʼgauzen I. I. (1940) Puti i zakonomernosti evoliutsionnogo protsessa [Pathways and Patterns of the Evolutionary Process]. Moskva and Leningrad: Izdatelʼstvo AN SSSR.

51. Shmidt, G. A. (1947) K probleme skachka v evoliutsii [On the Problem of Leap in the Evolution], Zhurnal obshchei biologii, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 83–100.

52. Skabichevskii, A. P. (1953) Problema vozniknoveniia zhizni na Zemle i teoriia akad. A. I. Oparina [The Problem of Origin of Life on Earth and Academician A. I. Oparin’s Theory], Voprosy filosofii, no. 2, pp. 150–155.

53. Soifer, V. N. (Soyfer, V. N.) (1993) Vlast’ i nauka: istoriia razgroma genetiki v SSSR [Power and Science: The History of the Defeat of Genetics in the USSR]. Moskva: Lazur’.

54. Studitskii, A. N. (1953) Za tvorcheskuiu razrabotku problemy vidoobrazovainia [Towards Creative Development of the Problem of Speciation], Uspekhi sovremennoi biologii, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 1–26.

55. Tikhodeyev, O. N. (2020) Heredity Determined by the Environment: Lamarckian Ideas in Modern Molecular Biology, Science of the Total Environment, vol. 710, no. 135521.

56. Todes, D. (1989) Darwin without Malthus: The Struggle for Existence in the Russian Evolutionary Thought. New York: Oxford University Press.

57. Turbin, N. V. (1952) Darwinizm i novoie uchenie o vide [Darwinism and the New Doctrine of Species], Botanicheskii zhurnal, vol. 37, iss. 6, pp. 798–818.

58. Turbin, N. V. (1953) O nekotorykh spornykh voprosakh vidoobrazovaniia [On Some Controversial Issues in Speciation], Vestnik LGU, no. 7, pp. 49–65.

59. Turbin, N. V. (1954) Za darvinizm v teorii vidoobrazovaniia [For Darwinism in the Theory of Speciation], Vestnik LGU, no. 10, pp. 31–42.

60. Zavadskii, K. M. (1968) Vid i vidoobrazovanie [Species and Speciation]. Leningrad: Nauka