MIČURIN, IVAN VLADIMIROVICH. - Soviet biologist, b. 27 Oct. 1855, d. 7 June 1936, author of a doctrine of heredity, further elaborated after his death by T. D. Lysenko, which, in conscious and sharp contrast with the classical doctrine of heredity of G. Mendel-T. H. Morgan, denies the existence of genes as carriers of the hereditary characteristics of organisms and affirms the heredity of characteristics acquired by the individual during its lifetime.

In this way, in principle, man is attributed the capacity to modify living nature as well, at his pleasure. Since this corresponds perfectly

…in line with the system of dialectical materialism, "Michurinism" found its most active protection on the part of the Party. In order to eliminate the opposition, which was strong even among Soviet scholars, a grand meeting of the Lenin Academy for Agricultural Sciences was convened in Moscow from July 31 to August 7, 1948, at which Lysenko delivered a lecture, evidently read and approved beforehand by the Party's Central Committee, On the Situation in the Biological Sciences, after which any further opposition became impossible. Prof. Zhebrak, one of the principal representatives of classical genetics in the USSR, made the following declaration in a letter to Pravda (August 15, 1948): "After becoming convinced that the fundamental theses of M.'s school, in Soviet genetics, have been approved by the Central Committee of the Party of the CPSU, as a member of the Party I no longer consider it possible to persist in points of view declared erroneous by the Central Committee of our Party."

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: P. S. Hudson, R. H. Richens, The New genetics in the Soviet Union, Cambridge 1946; G. Bosio, Episodio quasi politico nello sviluppo della teoria genetica, in Civ. Catt., 1948, III, pp. 248-60; id., La nuova genetica in Russia, ibid., 1948, IV, pp. 48-58; id., La liquidazione della natura dei viventi e l'ereditarità dei caratteri acquisiti nelle nuove teorie genetiche russe, ibid., 1949, I, pp. 22-36; T. D. Lysenko, Nuove vie alla biologia, vers. it. (Roma) 1949; G. A. Wetter, La scienza nella cultura sovietica, in Doctor Commun. Acta et Comment. Pont. Acad. Rom. S. Thomas A., 1949, pp. 233-250.

Gustavo A. Wetter

@incollection{ec8_micurin_ivan_vladimirovic, author = {Wetter, Gustavo Andrea}, title = {MiČUrin, ivan vladimirovic}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {980--981}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/micurin-ivan-vladimirovic} }

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Mičurin, Ivan Vladimirovich

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