But yes, Lysenko was the RFK Jr of the early USSR. A reactionary who was far better at playing to the egos of national leadership than engaging in novel or useful biological research. The end result set the country back decades - arguably indefinitely, given the modern state of Russian science and technology.
It also involved significant suppression of biologists.
A staunch critic of Lysenkoism, Vladimir Nikolayevich Sukachev was a Russian geobotanist, engineer, geographer, and corresponding member (1920) and full member (1943) of the USSR Academy of Sciences. And he lead an enormous faction of like-minded scientists in objecting to Lysenko’s pseudo-scientific theories.
But yes, Lysenko was the RFK Jr of the early USSR. A reactionary who was far better at playing to the egos of national leadership than engaging in novel or useful biological research. The end result set the country back decades - arguably indefinitely, given the modern state of Russian science and technology.
RFK wishes he worked in a system that lets him shoot actual scientists in the head