MICURIN, IVAN VLADIMIROVIC. — Soviet biologist, born on 27 Oct. 1855, died on 7 June 1936, author of a doctrine of heredity further developed 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 bearers of the hereditary characteristics of organisms and affirms the heredity of characteristics acquired by the individual during life.
In this way, man is, in principle, attributed the capacity to modify at will even the living nature. Since this corresponds perfectly to the system of dialectical materialism, “mi-
curinism” found the most active protection from the Party. In order to eliminate opposition, strong even among Soviet scholars, a grand meeting of the Lenin Academy for Agricultural Sciences was convened in Moscow from 31 July to 7 Aug. 1948, in which Lysenko delivered a lecture, evidently read and approved beforehand by the Central Committee of the Party, On the situation of the biological sciences, after which any further opposition became impossible. Prof. Zebrak, one of the principal representatives of classical genetics in the USSR, made the following declaration in a letter to the Pravda (15 Aug. 1948): “Having convinced myself that the fundamental theses of the school of M., in Soviet genetics, have been approved by the Central Committee of the Party of the KPDUS, as a member of the Party I no longer consider it possible to maintain views declared erroneous by the Central Committee of our Party.”