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actual journals kept throughout his travels.
but on the declaration of war a few days later, he returned
to Russia. I also left about the same time. The whole of my
material, representing experiments of great interest, was lost
in the "Runo" which struck a mine on the voyage to Russia.
expression, of "sculpting organic forms at will". In the near
future man will be able, by means of crossing, to synthesize
forms such as are absolutely unknown to nature.
pocket are no less than the visas to Syria, Algiers, Tunis, and Morocco as well as Spain, and even in the end, and most
important, Abyssinia and Somalia.
1930: (In response to an order from the Soviet Embassy to interupt his work for a state dinner in Washington) This wire is from a man who is not above me. If I were a communist, I would have to obey. In that case I could not use my own judgement. I am employed by the Communists to work for the people of the USSR, but am still free to judge what is best. I will answer the wire, it is more important for the future of the people of the USSR that I visit the centers of origin of cultivated plants in Central America than that I attend any state dinner that can be arranged.
Below are the Newspaper Articles:
Vavilov Journeys to the States:
By: Vadim Gordin
In May 1921, we were proud to accept into America one
of the leading biologists in the world. This biologist is not
only a representative of a new breed of thinking in the field
of genetics, but also a representative from the newly formed
Soviet Union (Formerly Russian Federation). Nickolai Vavilov
traveled our great continent this month collecting seed samples
from all over the continent for a seed bank which he is building
back in the Soviet Union.Professor Vavilov traveled through 20
states.
Vavilov Arrested:
By: Vadim Gordin
There has been a wild political and scientific battle
raging for the past several years throught the biological and
genetic societies of Russia. The question being debated happens
to be the a theory for the development of species, and their
organization and importance. On one side are the Lysenko
supporters. These are the good communists, the acceptable
members of society, the cultured respectable people that we
have come to accept the scientists of our country to be. All
that they are proposing is that the environment a creature is
raised in dictates that particular creature’s characteristics.
We normal people can understand this principle without any
scientific proof. Even Marx taught us that we are products of
our environment, not birth-lines.
But for the sake of argument, a group of scoundrels that
make themselves out to be scientists has imposed onto the
psyche of our nation’s scientific establishments the tarnished
theories of genetics. Even our leaders have accepted genetics
as a prostitute of imperial ideals, and a tool of racism and
fascism. We know now that geneticists are nothing more than
saboteurs of our nation scientific institutions, spies,
bandits, and representatives of the powers of darkness
that plague the world today.
Taken from an actual Article in the Pravda (a Moscow newspaper)
circa 1940, translated by Vadim Gordin:
… many of the Genetics Camp discover such self glorifying
garbage. They employ a blatant disregard for what is best
for our country, its people, and practical thinking in general.
These people show such a thick sculled and self-isolated
demeanor that they leave no choice than to deal with them in
the most decisive manner. …