Vavilov Nikolai Ivanovich short biography for children. Life and scientific activity of Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov

Nikolay Vavilov was born in the family of Ivan Ilyich and Alexandra Mikhailovna Vavilov.
Father, Ivan Ilyich, was born in 1863 in the village of Ivashkovo, Volokolamsk district, Moscow province, into a peasant family and, thanks to his outstanding abilities, became a major businessman. In 1918 he emigrated to Bulgaria, in 1928, with the help of his eldest son Nikolai, he returned to Russia, and soon died.
Mother, Alexandra Mikhailovna, nee Postnikova, was the daughter of an engraver at the Prokhorovskaya manufactory.
In 1906, after graduating from the Moscow Commercial School, Vavilov entered the Moscow Agricultural Institute (the former Petrovskaya, now the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy), from which he graduated in 1911.

The beginning of Vavilov's scientific activity. Business trip abroad

Nikolay Vavilov While still a student, he began to engage in scientific work. In 1908 he carried out geographic and botanical research in the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Darwin, he made a report “Darwinism and experimental morphology” (1909), and in 1910 he published his thesis “Naked slugs (snails) damaging fields and gardens in the Moscow province”, for which he received the award of the Moscow Polytechnic Museum. After graduating from the institute, he was left by D.N. Pryanishnikov at the Department of Private Agriculture to prepare for the title of professor. In 1911-1912 Vavilov taught at the Golitsyn Women's Higher Agricultural Courses (Moscow). In 1912 he published a work on the connection between agronomy and genetics, where he was one of the first in the world to propose a program for using the achievements of genetics to improve cultivated plants. In the same years, Vavilov took up the problem of the resistance of wheat species and varieties to diseases.
In 1913 he was sent to England, France and Germany to complete his education. Most of the business trip, interrupted in 1914 by the outbreak of the First World War, Vavilov spent in England, listening to lectures at the University of Cambridge and conducting experimental work on plant immunity in Merton, near London, under the guidance of William Batson, one of the founders of genetics. Vavilov considered Batson his teacher. In England, he also spent several months in genetic laboratories, in particular, with the famous geneticist R. Punnett. Returning to Moscow, he continued his work on plant immunity at the breeding station of the Moscow Agricultural Institute.

Vavilov in Saratov. The law of homologous series in hereditary variability

In 1917 Vavilov was elected professor of the agronomic faculty of Saratov University, which soon separated into the Saratov Agricultural Institute, where Nikolai Ivanovich became head of the department of private farming and selection. In Saratov, Vavilov launched field research on a number of agricultural crops and completed work on the monograph Plant Immunity to Infectious Diseases, published in 1919, in which he summarized his research previously carried out in Moscow and England.
In Saratov, the Vavilov school of researchers, botanists, plant growers, geneticists and breeders began to be created. In the same place, Vavilov organized and conducted an expedition to survey the species and varietal composition of field crops in the South-East of the European part of the RSFSR - the Volga and Trans-Volga regions. The results of the expedition were outlined in the monograph Field Cultures of the Southeast, published in 1922.
At the All-Russian Breeding Congress in Saratov (1920), Vavilov made a presentation "The law of homologous series in hereditary variability." According to this law, genetically close plant species are characterized by parallel and identical rows of characters; similar genera and even families also show identity in the series of hereditary variability. The law revealed an important pattern of evolution: similar hereditary changes occur in closely related species and genera. Using this law, according to a number of features and properties of one species or genus, it is possible to foresee the presence of similar forms in another species or genus. The law of homologous series makes it easier for breeders to find new initial forms for crossing and selection.

Botanical and agronomic expeditions of Vavilov. Theory of centers of origin and diversity of cultivated plants

First expeditions Vavilov organized and led to Persia (Iran) and Turkestan, Mountainous Tajikistan (Pamir), where, risking his life many times, he collected previously unknown forms of wheat, barley, and rye in hard-to-reach places (1916). Here he first became interested in the problem of the origin of cultivated plants.
In 1921-1922 Vavilov got acquainted with the agriculture of vast areas of the USA and Canada. In 1924, Vavilov made the most difficult expedition to Afghanistan, which lasted five months, having studied cultivated plants in detail and collecting a large general geographical material.
For this expedition, the Geographical Society of the USSR awarded Vavilov a gold medal. Przhevalsky (“for a geographical feat”). The results of the expedition are summarized in the book "Agricultural Afghanistan" (1929).
In 1926-1927 Vavilov organized and conducted a long expedition to the Mediterranean countries: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Transjordan, Greece, Crete and Cyprus, Italy (including Sicily and Sardinia), Spain and Portugal, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
In 1929 Vavilov made an expedition to Western China (Xinjiang), Japan, Korea, Formosa Island (Taiwan).
In 1930 - to North America (USA) and Canada, Central America, Mexico.
In 1932-1933 - to Guatemala, Cuba, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, Trinidad, Puerto Rico.
Soviet expeditions with his participation and / or leadership discovered new types of wild and cultivated potatoes that are resistant to diseases, which was effectively used by breeders in the USSR and other countries. In these countries, Vavilov also conducted important research on the history of world agriculture.
As a result of studying the species and varieties of plants collected in the countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, North, Central and South America, Vavilov established the centers of formation, or centers of origin and diversity of cultivated plants. These centers are often referred to as genetic diversity centers or Vavilov centers. The work "Centers of Origin of Cultivated Plants" was first published in 1926.
According to Vavilov, the cultural flora arose and developed in relatively few centers, usually located in mountainous areas. Vavilov identified seven primary centers:
1. The South Asian tropical center (tropical India, Indochina, South China and the islands of Southeast Asia), which gave mankind rice, sugar cane, Asian varieties of cotton, cucumbers, lemon, orange, a large number of other tropical fruit and vegetable crops.
2. East Asian Center (Central and East China, Taiwan Island, Korea, Japan). Homeland of soybean, millet, tea bush, many vegetable and fruit crops.
3. Southwest Asian center (Asia Minor, Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Northwest India), where soft wheat, rye, legumes, melon, apple, pomegranate, fig, grape, and many other fruits originated.
4. The Mediterranean center is the birthplace of several types of wheat, oats, olives, many vegetable and fodder crops such as cabbage, beets, carrots, garlic and onions, and radishes.
5. Abyssinian, or Ethiopian, center - stands out for the variety of forms of wheat and barley, the birthplace of the coffee tree, sorghum, etc.
6. Central American Center (Southern Mexico, Central America, the West Indies), which gave corn, beans, upland cotton (long-staple), vegetable pepper, cocoa, etc.
7. Andean center (mountainous regions of South America) - the birthplace of potatoes, tobacco, tomato, rubber tree and others.
The theory of the centers of origin of cultivated plants helped Vavilov and his collaborators to assemble the world's largest collection of seeds of cultivated plants, numbering 250,000 samples by 1940 (36,000 samples of wheat, 10,022 samples of corn, 23,636 samples of legumes, etc.). With the use of the collection, breeders have bred over 450 varieties of agricultural plants. The world collection of seeds of cultivated plants, collected by Vavilov, his collaborators and followers, serves the cause of preserving the genetic resources of useful plants on the globe.

Scientific, organizational and social activities of N. I. Vavilov

Vavilov was a major organizer of Soviet science. Under his leadership (since 1920) a relatively small scientific institution - the Bureau of Applied Botany - was transformed in 1924 into the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Cultures, and in 1930 into a large scientific center - the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing (VIR), which consisted of thirteen large departments and experimental stations in different parts of the USSR. VIR, which Vavilov directed until August 1940, was a scientific center for the development of the theory of plant breeding of world importance.
On the initiative of Vavilov, as the first president of VASKhNIL (from 1929 to 1935, and then vice-president until his arrest), a number of research institutions were organized: the Institute of Grain Farming of the South-East of the European Part of the USSR, institutes of fruit growing, vegetable growing, subtropical crops , corn, potatoes, cotton, flax, oilseeds and others. On the basis of the genetic laboratory, which he directed from 1930, Vavilov organized the Institute of Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and was its director (until 1940).
Vavilov from 1926 to 1935 was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (All-Russian Executive Committee). He took an active part in organizing the All-Union Agricultural Exhibitions of 1923 and 1939. From 1931 to 1940 (before his arrest) Vavilov was president of the All-Union Geographical Society.
Vavilov was elected vice-president of the 6th International Genetic Congress in the USA in 1932 and honorary president of the 7th International Genetic Congress in Great Britain in 1939.

The appearance of a scientist and a person

According to many scholars who Vavilov, the most characteristic, most memorable in his appearance was a huge charm. Nobel laureate, geneticist G. Meller recalled: “Everyone who knew Nikolai Ivanovich was inspired by his inexhaustible cheerfulness, generosity and charming nature, versatility of interests and energy. This bright, attractive and sociable personality, as it were, poured into those around him his passion for tireless work, for accomplishments and joyful cooperation. I did not know anyone else who would design events of such a gigantic scale, develop them further and further, and at the same time delve into all the details so carefully.
Vavilov had a phenomenal capacity for work and memory, the ability to work in any conditions, usually slept no more than 4-5 hours a day. Vavilov never went on vacation. Rest for him was a change of occupation. "We must hurry," he said. As a scientist, he had an innate ability for theoretical thinking, for broad generalizations.
Vavilov possessed rare organizational skills, strong will, endurance and courage, which were clearly manifested in his travels through hard-to-reach regions of the globe. He was a well-educated man, spoke several European languages ​​and some Asian ones. During his travels, he was interested not only in the agricultural culture of the peoples, but also in their way of life, customs and art.
Being a patriot and in a high sense a citizen of his country, Vavilov was a staunch supporter and active propagandist of international scientific cooperation, joint work of scientists from all countries of the world for the benefit of mankind.

Vavilov and Lysenko

Early thirties Vavilov warmly supported the work of a young agronomist T. D. Lysenko according to the so-called vernalization: the transformation of winter crops into spring crops by pre-sowing exposure to low positive temperatures on seeds. Vavilov hoped that the method of vernalization could be effectively applied in breeding, which would make it possible to make fuller use of the world collection of useful plants of VIR for breeding highly productive cultivated plants resistant to diseases, drought and cold through hybridization.
In 1934 Vavilov recommended Lysenko as a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Lysenko impressed the Soviet leaders, headed by Stalin, with his “people's” origin, his promise to increase the yield of grain crops as soon as possible, and also by the fact that he declared at the congress of collective farmers-shock workers in 1935 that there are pests in science.
In 1936 and 1939 there were discussions on issues of genetics and selection, in which Lysenko and his supporters attacked scientists led by Vavilov and Koltsov, who shared the main provisions of classical genetics. Lysenko's group rejected genetics as a science and denied the existence of genes as material carriers of heredity. At the end of the thirties, Lysenkoites, relying on the support of Stalin, Molotov and other Soviet leaders, began reprisals against their ideological opponents, against Vavilov and his associates who worked at the VIR and the Institute of Genetics in Moscow.
A stream of slander falls upon Vavilov, his main achievements are slandered. In 1938, becoming president of VASKhNIL, Lysenko interfered with the normal work of VIR - he sought to cut its budget, replace members of the academic council with his supporters, and change the leadership of the institute. In 1938, under the influence of Lysenko, the Soviet government canceled the holding of the International Genetic Congress in the USSR, of which Vavilov was to become president.
Vavilov, right up to his arrest, continued to courageously defend his scientific views and the work program of the institutes he headed.
In 1939, he sharply criticized Lysenko's anti-scientific views at a meeting of the Leningrad Regional Bureau of the Scientific Workers' Section. At the end of his speech, Vavilov said: "Let's go to the fire, we will burn, but we will not give up our convictions."

The arrest of Vavilov. Consequence. Execution sentence. Death in Saratov prison

In 1940 Vavilov was appointed head of the Comprehensive (agrobotanical) expedition of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the USSR to the western regions of the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSR. On August 6, 1940, Vavilov was arrested in the foothills of the Carpathians, near the city of Chernivtsi. The sanction for arrest was signed "retroactively", on August 7 he was imprisoned in the inner prison of the NKVD in Moscow (on the Lubyanka). In the arrest warrant, Vavilov was accused as one of the leaders of the counter-revolutionary Labor Peasant Party<никогда не существовавшей - Ю. В.>, sabotage in the VIR system, espionage, "the fight against the theories and works of Lysenko, Tsitsin and Michurin."
During the investigation, which lasted 11 months, Vavilov endured at least 236 interrogations, which often took place at night and often lasted for seven or more hours.
July 9, 1941 Vavilov at the "trial" of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, which took place within a few minutes, was sentenced to death. At the trial, he was told that "the accusation is based on fables, false facts and slander, which have not been confirmed in any way by the investigation." His petition for pardon to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was rejected. On July 26, he was transferred to the Butyrka prison for the execution of the sentence. On the morning of October 15, an employee of Beria visited him and promised that Vavilov would be left to live and given a job in his specialty. In connection with the German offensive on Moscow, he was transferred to Saratov on October 16-29, placed in the 3rd building of the prison N 1 in Saratov, where he spent a year and 3 months in the most difficult conditions (death row).
By decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on June 23, 1942, execution by way of pardon was replaced by 20 years of imprisonment in labor camps. From hunger, Sergei Ivanovich fell ill with dystrophy and died, extremely exhausted in the prison hospital on January 26, 1943. He was buried, apparently, in a common grave in the Saratov cemetery.
During the investigation, in the internal prison of the NKVD, when Vavilov had the opportunity to receive paper and pencil, he wrote a large book "The History of World Agriculture", the manuscript of which was destroyed "as of no value" along with a large number of other scientific materials seized during searches at the apartment and in the institutes where he worked.

Scientific merits of Vavilov

August 20, 1955 Vavilov was posthumously rehabilitated. In 1965, a prize was established to them. N. I. Vavilov, in 1967 VIR was named after him, in 1968 the gold medal named after Vavilov was established, awarded for outstanding scientific work and discoveries in the field of agriculture.
During his lifetime, Nikolai Ivanovich was elected a member and honorary member of many foreign academies, including the Royal Society of London (1942), Scottish (1937), Indian (1937), Argentine Academies, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of Halle (1929; Germany) and the Czechoslovak Academy (1936), honorary member of the American Botanical Society. Linnean Society in London, the English Horticultural Society, etc.

Vavilov Nikolay Ivanovich(1887-1943) - a geneticist, breeder, botanist-geographer, who visited many countries and continents, considered his scientific goal to renew the earth with the help of the best cultivated plants that meet the requirements of all geographical zones. N.I. Vavilov was the creator of the doctrine of the centers of origin of cultivated plants and their geographical distribution.

While still a student at the Moscow Institute (now the Moscow Agricultural Academy named after K.A. Timiryazev), in the summer of 1908 he made his first journey, passing by caravan route through the Transcaucasus. From there he brought his first collections. In 1916, N.I. Vavilov, already a well-known specialist, was sent by the military department to find out the reasons for the mass poisoning of bread in the Russian troops. This trip allows him to begin to study the centers of origin of cereals. In 1921-1922, he surveyed vast grain regions and, and in 1924 -. These expeditions provided rich material for the development of the science of the centers of cultivated plants. For the research carried out, the Geographical Society awarded Vavilov N.I. gold medal to them. N.M. .

In 1925-1939. the scientist traveled a lot: he studied the Northwest, Korea; visited countries , Central and . The intensity of his work in the field is striking. Vavilov conducted research in the fields, searched for cultivated and wild varieties of plants, at the same time gave lectures and reports, and kept field diaries. They were distinguished by scrupulous thoroughness and testified to the creative activity of the scientist. In them, he noted everything that he managed to observe. In the field diaries of the scientist there was a lot of information about the population of those he visited, their customs and way of life, features of management, trade. Unfortunately, many of the diaries have disappeared.

The study of vast territories of the globe allowed the scientist to establish seven centers, centers of cultivated plants: South Asian (the birthplace of rice, sugar cane, many tropical and vegetable crops);

East Asian (soybean, millet, some vegetable and fruit crops);

Southwest Asian (cereals, legumes, grapes, fruit crops);

(olives, fodder and vegetable crops);

(coffee tree, banana);

Central American (corn, cotton, beans, cocoa, pumpkin);

Indian (cultivated types of potatoes).

N.I. Vavilov described the results of his many years of travel in the book “Five Continents”. The scientist wrote that in these studies he himself tried to combine astronomy, botany, cultural history. He learned the agricultural culture of many countries, penetrated into their philosophy, studied the plant resources of the Earth in their evolution, tracing the paths and stages of the settlement of cultivated plants from the centers of initial speciation.

In 1940 N.I. Vavilov began a comprehensive study of the western regions and. This was his last expedition. He was arrested. The monstrous "baldness" of science, which took place at that time, destroyed this genius as well. N.I. Vavilov, the objectionable favorite of I.V. Stalin, the “People's Academician” T.D. Lysenko, was declared an enemy of the people. In 1943 he died in a Saratov prison.

Vavilov Nikolay Ivanovich Vavilov Nikolay Ivanovich

(1887-1943), biologist, geneticist, founder of the modern doctrine of the biological foundations of breeding and the doctrine of the centers of origin of cultivated plants, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1929), academician (1929) and the first president (1929-1935) of VASKhNIL, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR ( 1929). Brother of S. I. Vavilov. He organized botanical and agronomic expeditions to the countries of the Mediterranean, North Africa, North and South America, established on their territory ancient centers of the formation of cultivated plants. Gathered the world's largest collection of seeds of cultivated plants, laid the foundations for state variety testing of field crops. He substantiated the doctrine of plant immunity (1919), discovered the law of homological series in the hereditary variability of organisms (1920). Initiator of the creation of a number of research institutions. Courageously defended genetics in the fight against the "teachings" of T. D. Lysenko. Member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Central Executive Committee of the USSR. President of the All-Union Geographical Society (1931-1940). Prize to them. V. I. Lenin (1926). Unreasonably repressed (1940), died in a prison hospital.

VAVILOV Nikolai Ivanovich (1887-1943), Russian geneticist, plant breeder, geographer, creator of the theory of the biological foundations of selection and centers of origin and diversity of cultivated plants, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1929), academician and first president (1929-1935) of VASKhNIL . Brother of S. I. Vavilov (cm. VAVILOV Sergey Ivanovich). He organized botanical and agronomic expeditions to the countries of the Mediterranean, North Africa, North and South America, established ancient centers of origin and diversity of cultivated plants on their territory. Gathered the world's largest collection of seeds of cultivated plants, laid the foundations for state variety testing of field crops. Substantiated the doctrine of plant immunity, discovered the law of homologous series (cm. HOMOLOGICAL SERIES LAW) in the hereditary variability of organisms (1920). Author of the concept of the Linnaean view as a system (1930). The initiator of the creation of many research institutions. Member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (1926-1935), President of the All-Union Geographical Society (1931-1940). Prize to them. V. I. Lenin (1926). In August 1940 he was arrested, charged with counterrevolutionary sabotage, and in July 1941 sentenced to death, which was replaced in 1942 with 20 years' imprisonment. He died in a hospital in the Saratov prison, posthumously rehabilitated in 1955.
* * *
VAVILOV Nikolai Ivanovich, Russian geneticist, plant breeder, geographer. The author of the law of homological series in the hereditary variability of organisms, the doctrine of the biological foundations of selection and the centers of origin and diversity of cultivated plants.
A family. Years of study
Father, Ivan Ilyich (cm. VAVILOV Ivan Ilyich), was born in 1863 in the village of Ivashkovo, Volokolamsk district of the Moscow province in a peasant family and, thanks to his outstanding abilities, became a major businessman. In 1918 he emigrated to Bulgaria, in 1928, with the help of his eldest son Nikolai, he returned to Russia, and soon died.
Mother, Alexandra Mikhailovna, nee Postnikova, was the daughter of an engraver at the Prokhorovskaya manufactory.
In 1906, after graduating from the Moscow Commercial School, Vavilov entered the Moscow Agricultural Institute (the former Petrovskaya, now the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy), from which he graduated in 1911.
Beginning of scientific activity. Business trip abroad
Vavilov, while still a student, began to engage in scientific work. In 1908 he carried out geographic and botanical research in the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Darwin, he made a report “Darwinism and experimental morphology” (1909), and in 1910 he published his thesis “Naked slugs (snails) damaging fields and gardens in the Moscow province”, for which he received the award of the Moscow Polytechnic Museum. After graduation, he was left by D. N. Pryanishnikov (cm. PRIANISHNIKOV Dmitry Nikolaevich) at the Department of Private Agriculture to prepare for the title of professor. In 1911-1912 Vavilov taught at the Golitsyn Women's Higher Agricultural Courses (Moscow). In 1912 he published a work on the connection between agronomy and genetics, where he was one of the first in the world to propose a program for using the achievements of genetics to improve cultivated plants. In the same years, Vavilov took up the problem of the resistance of wheat species and varieties to diseases.
In 1913 he was sent to England, France and Germany to complete his education. Most of the business trip, interrupted in 1914 by the outbreak of the First World War, Vavilov spent in England, listening to lectures at the University of Cambridge and conducting experimental work on plant immunity in Merton, near London, under the direction of William Batson. (cm. BATSON William) one of the founders of genetics. Vavilov considered Batson his teacher. In England, he also spent several months in genetic laboratories, in particular, with the famous geneticist R. Punnett. Returning to Moscow, he continued his work on plant immunity at the breeding station of the Moscow Agricultural Institute.
Vavilov in Saratov. The law of homologous series in hereditary variability
In 1917, Vavilov was elected professor of the agronomic faculty of Saratov University, which soon spun off into the Saratov Agricultural Institute, where Nikolai Ivanovich became head of the department of private farming and breeding. In Saratov, Vavilov launched field research on a number of agricultural crops and completed work on the monograph Plant Immunity to Infectious Diseases, published in 1919, in which he summarized his research previously carried out in Moscow and England.
In Saratov, the Vavilov school of researchers, botanists, plant growers, geneticists and breeders began to be created. In the same place, Vavilov organized and conducted an expedition to survey the species and varietal composition of field crops in the South-East of the European part of the RSFSR - the Volga and Trans-Volga regions. The results of the expedition were outlined in the monograph Field Cultures of the Southeast, published in 1922.
At the All-Russian Breeding Congress in Saratov (1920), Vavilov made a presentation "The law of homologous series in hereditary variability." According to this law, genetically close plant species are characterized by parallel and identical rows of characters; similar genera and even families also show identity in the series of hereditary variability. The law revealed an important pattern of evolution: similar hereditary changes occur in closely related species and genera. Using this law, according to a number of features and properties of one species or genus, it is possible to foresee the presence of similar forms in another species or genus. The law of homologous series makes it easier for breeders to find new initial forms for crossing and selection.
Botanical and agronomic expeditions of Vavilov. Theory of centers of origin and diversity of cultivated plants
Vavilov organized and led the first expeditions to Persia (Iran) and Turkestan, Mountainous Tajikistan (Pamir), where, risking his life many times, he collected previously unknown forms of wheat, barley, and rye in hard-to-reach places (1916). Here he first became interested in the problem of the origin of cultivated plants.
In 1921-1922 Vavilov got acquainted with the agriculture of vast areas of the USA and Canada. In 1924, Vavilov made the most difficult expedition to Afghanistan, which lasted five months, having studied cultivated plants in detail and collecting a large general geographical material.
For this expedition, the Geographical Society of the USSR awarded Vavilov a gold medal. Przhevalsky (“for a geographical feat”). The results of the expedition are summarized in the book "Agricultural Afghanistan" (1929).
In 1926-1927 Vavilov organized and conducted a long expedition to the Mediterranean countries: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Transjordan, Greece, Crete and Cyprus, Italy (including Sicily and Sardinia), Spain and Portugal, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
In 1929 Vavilov made an expedition to Western China (Xinjiang), Japan, Korea, Formosa Island (Taiwan).
In 1930 - to North America (USA) and Canada, Central America, Mexico.
In 1932-1933 - to Guatemala, Cuba, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, Trinidad, Puerto Rico.
Soviet expeditions with his participation and / or leadership discovered new types of wild and cultivated potatoes that are resistant to diseases, which was effectively used by breeders in the USSR and other countries. In these countries, Vavilov also conducted important research on the history of world agriculture.
As a result of studying the species and varieties of plants collected in the countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, North, Central and South America, Vavilov established the centers of formation, or centers of origin and diversity of cultivated plants. These centers are often referred to as genetic diversity centers or Vavilov centers. The work "Centers of Origin of Cultivated Plants" was first published in 1926.
According to Vavilov, the cultural flora arose and developed in relatively few centers, usually located in mountainous areas. Vavilov identified seven primary centers:
1. The South Asian tropical center (tropical India, Indochina, South China and the islands of Southeast Asia), which gave mankind rice, sugar cane, Asian varieties of cotton, cucumbers, lemon, orange, a large number of other tropical fruit and vegetable crops.
2. East Asian Center (Central and East China, Taiwan Island, Korea, Japan). Homeland of soybean, millet, tea bush, many vegetable and fruit crops.
3. Southwest Asian center (Asia Minor, Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Northwest India), where soft wheat, rye, legumes, melon, apple, pomegranate, fig, grape, and many other fruits originated.
4. The Mediterranean center is the birthplace of several types of wheat, oats, olives, many vegetable and fodder crops such as cabbage, beets, carrots, garlic and onions, and radishes.
5. Abyssinian, or Ethiopian, center - stands out for the variety of forms of wheat and barley, the birthplace of the coffee tree, sorghum, etc.
6. Central American Center (Southern Mexico, Central America, the West Indies), which gave corn, beans, upland cotton (long-staple), vegetable pepper, cocoa, etc.
7. Andean center (mountainous regions of South America) - the birthplace of potatoes, tobacco, tomato, rubber tree and others.
The theory of the centers of origin of cultivated plants helped Vavilov and his collaborators to assemble the world's largest collection of seeds of cultivated plants, numbering 250,000 samples by 1940 (36,000 samples of wheat, 10,022 of corn, 23,636 of legumes, etc.). With the use of the collection, breeders have bred over 450 varieties of agricultural plants. The world collection of seeds of cultivated plants, collected by Vavilov, his collaborators and followers, serves the cause of preserving the genetic resources of useful plants on the globe.
Scientific, organizational and social activities of N. I. Vavilov
Vavilov was a major organizer of Soviet science. Under his leadership (since 1920) a relatively small scientific institution - the Bureau of Applied Botany - was transformed in 1924 into the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Cultures, and in 1930 into a large scientific center - the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing (VIR), which consisted of thirteen large departments and experimental stations in different parts of the USSR. VIR, which Vavilov directed until August 1940, was a scientific center for the development of the theory of plant breeding of world importance.
On the initiative of Vavilov, as the first president of VASKhNIL (from 1929 to 1935, and then vice-president until his arrest), a number of research institutions were organized: the Institute of Grain Farming of the South-East of the European Part of the USSR, institutes of fruit growing, vegetable growing, subtropical crops , corn, potatoes, cotton, flax, oilseeds and others. On the basis of the genetic laboratory, which he directed from 1930, Vavilov organized the Institute of Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and was its director (until 1940).
Vavilov from 1926 to 1935 was a member of the Central Executive Committee (cm. CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE) USSR and All-Russian Central Executive Committee (cm. ALL-RUSSIAN CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE)(All-Russian Executive Committee). He took an active part in organizing the All-Union Agricultural Exhibitions of 1923 and 1939. From 1931 to 1940 (before his arrest) Vavilov was president of the All-Union Geographical Society.
Vavilov was elected vice-president of the 6th International Genetic Congress in the USA in 1932 and honorary president of the 7th International Genetic Congress in Great Britain in 1939.
The appearance of a scientist and a person
According to many scientists who knew Vavilov, the most characteristic, most memorable in his appearance was his great charm. Nobel laureate, geneticist G. Meller (cm. MELLER Herman Joseph) recalled: “Everyone who knew Nikolai Ivanovich was inspired by his inexhaustible cheerfulness, generosity and charming nature, versatility of interests and energy. This bright, attractive and sociable personality, as it were, poured into those around him his passion for tireless work, for accomplishments and joyful cooperation. I did not know anyone else who would design events of such a gigantic scale, develop them further and further, and at the same time delve into all the details so carefully.
Vavilov had a phenomenal capacity for work and memory, the ability to work in any conditions, usually slept no more than 4-5 hours a day. Vavilov never went on vacation. Rest for him was a change of occupation. “We must hurry,” he said. As a scientist, he had an innate ability for theoretical thinking, for broad generalizations.
Vavilov possessed rare organizational skills, strong will, endurance and courage, which were clearly manifested in his travels through hard-to-reach regions of the globe. He was a well-educated man, spoke several European languages ​​and some Asian ones. During his travels, he was interested not only in the agricultural culture of the peoples, but also in their way of life, customs and art.
Being a patriot and in a high sense a citizen of his country, Vavilov was a staunch supporter and active propagandist of international scientific cooperation, joint work of scientists from all countries of the world for the benefit of mankind.
Vavilov and Lysenko
In the early thirties, Vavilov warmly supported the work of the young agronomist T. D. Lysenko (cm. LYSENKO Trofim Denisovich) according to the so-called vernalization: the transformation of winter crops into spring crops by pre-sowing exposure to low positive temperatures on seeds. Vavilov hoped that the method of vernalization could be effectively applied in breeding, which would make it possible to make fuller use of the world collection of useful plants of VIR for breeding highly productive cultivated plants resistant to diseases, drought and cold through hybridization.
In 1934 Vavilov recommended Lysenko as a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Lysenko impressed the Soviet leaders, headed by Stalin, with his “people's” origin, his promise to increase the yield of grain crops as soon as possible, and also by the fact that he declared at the congress of collective farmers-shock workers in 1935 that there are pests in science.
In 1936 and 1939 there were discussions on issues of genetics and selection, in which Lysenko and his supporters attacked scientists led by Vavilov and Koltsov (cm. KOLTSOV Nikolai Konstantinovich) who shared the main provisions of classical genetics. Lysenko's group rejected genetics as a science and denied the existence of genes as material carriers of heredity. At the end of the thirties, Lysenkoites, relying on the support of Stalin, Molotov and other Soviet leaders, began reprisals against their ideological opponents, against Vavilov and his associates who worked at the VIR and the Institute of Genetics in Moscow.
A stream of slander falls upon Vavilov, his main achievements are discredited. In 1938, becoming president of VASKhNIL, Lysenko interfered with the normal work of VIR - he sought to cut its budget, replace members of the academic council with his supporters, and change the leadership of the institute. In 1938, under the influence of Lysenko, the Soviet government canceled the holding of the International Genetics Congress in the USSR, whose president was to be Vavilov.
Vavilov, right up to his arrest, continued to courageously defend his scientific views and the work program of the institutes he headed.
In 1939, he sharply criticized Lysenko's anti-scientific views at a meeting of the Leningrad Regional Bureau of the Scientific Workers' Section. At the end of his speech, Vavilov said: "Let's go to the fire, we will burn, but we will not give up our convictions."
Arrest. Consequence. Execution sentence. Death in Saratov prison
In 1940, Vavilov was appointed head of the Comprehensive (agrobotanical) expedition of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the USSR to the western regions of the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSR. August 6, 1940 Vavilov was arrested in the foothills of the Carpathians, near the city of Chernivtsi. The sanction for arrest was signed "retroactively", on August 7 he was imprisoned in the inner prison of the NKVD in Moscow (on the Lubyanka). In the arrest warrant, Vavilov was accused as one of the leaders of the counter-revolutionary Labor Peasant Party (which never existed in reality), wrecking in the VIR system, espionage, "fighting against the theories and works of Lysenko, Tsitsin (cm. Tsitsin Nikolay Vasilievich) and Michurin.
During the investigation, which lasted 11 months, Vavilov underwent 236 interrogations, which often took place at night and often lasted for seven or more hours.
July 9, 1941 Vavilov at the "trial" of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, which took place within a few minutes, was sentenced to death. At the trial, he was told that "the accusation is based on fables, false facts and slander, which have not been confirmed in any way by the investigation." His petition for pardon to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was rejected. On July 26, he was transferred to the Butyrka prison for the execution of the sentence. On the morning of October 15, an employee of Beria visited him and promised that Vavilov would be left to live and given a job in his specialty. In connection with the German offensive on Moscow, he was transferred to Saratov on October 16-29, placed in the 3rd building of the prison N 1 in Saratov, where he spent a year and 3 months in the most difficult conditions (death row).
By decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on June 23, 1942, execution by way of pardon was replaced by 20 years of imprisonment in labor camps. From hunger, Sergei Ivanovich fell ill with dystrophy and died, extremely exhausted in the prison hospital on January 26, 1943. He was buried, apparently, in a common grave in the Saratov cemetery.
During the investigation, in the internal prison of the NKVD, when Vavilov had the opportunity to receive paper and pencil, he wrote a large book "The History of World Agriculture", the manuscript of which was destroyed "as of no value" along with a large number of other scientific materials seized during searches at the apartment and in the institutes where he worked.
August 20, 1955 Vavilov was posthumously rehabilitated. In 1965, a prize was established to them. N. I. Vavilov, in 1967 VIR was named after him, in 1968 the gold medal named after Vavilov was established, awarded for outstanding scientific work and discoveries in the field of agriculture.
During his lifetime, Nikolai Ivanovich was elected a member and honorary member of many foreign academies, including the Royal Society of London (1942), Scottish (1937), Indian (1937), Argentine Academies, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of Halle (1929; Germany) and the Czechoslovak Academy (1936), honorary member of the American Botanical Society. Linnean Society in London, the English Horticultural Society, etc.

encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .

See what "Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov" is in other dictionaries:

Nikolai Vavilov in 1933. Date of birth: November 13 (25), 1887 (18871125) Place of birth ... Wikipedia

Soviet geneticist, plant grower, geographer, creator of the modern scientific foundations of breeding, the doctrine of the world centers of origin of cultivated plants, their geographical distribution; one of the first… … Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Vavilov Nikolay Ivanovich- (18871943), geneticist, plant grower, one of the organizers of biological and agricultural science in the USSR Compare public figure, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1929), academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1929), president (192935) and vice president (193540) )… … Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

- (1887 1943) Russian biologist, geneticist, founder of the modern doctrine of the biological foundations of breeding and the doctrine of the centers of origin of cultivated plants, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1929), Academician (1929) and the first President (1929 35) of VASKhNIL, ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1887 1943), geneticist, plant grower, one of the organizers of biological and agricultural science in the USSR, public figure, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1929), academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1929), president (1929 35) and vice president (1935 40) of VASKhNIL . Brother … St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Vavilov Nikolai Ivanovich, whose brief biography is studied by the school curriculum, is a famous plant breeder, geographer, founder of the theory of the origin of cultivated plants and the biological foundations of selection, initiator of the creation of many research institutions, was born in Moscow on November 25, 1887.

The Russian scientist made an invaluable contribution to science, which was recognized by biologists around the world.

Passion for plants comes from childhood

Nikolai's father, Ivan Ilyich, comes from a peasant family, was a merchant of the second guild and was engaged in social activities. Before the revolution, he headed the Udalov and Vavilov manufacturing factory. Mom - Alexandra Mikhailovna - was the daughter of an artist-carver of the Prokhovskaya manufactory. In total, there were seven children in the family, three of them died in childhood. The younger brother of the future scientist, Sergei Vavilov, devoted his life to physics, founded the scientific school of physical optics in the USSR, and in 1945-1951 headed the USSR Academy of Sciences. The elder sister Alexandra chose the medical path, becoming the organizer of sanitary and hygienic networks in Moscow. Lydia - the younger sister, trained as a microbiologist, during one of the expeditions she became infected and died.

Nikolai Vavilov, whose brief biography is interesting to admirers of his scientific work, unlike other children, was fond of flora and fauna from childhood and had a high predisposition to the natural sciences. This hobby was facilitated by rare books, herbaria and geographical maps, which were available in the large father's library and contributed to the formation of the personality of the future geneticist.

Vavilov Nikolai Ivanovich: a short biography for children

By the will of his father, Nikolai Vavilov entered a commercial school. Upon graduation, in 1906, he became a student at the Agricultural Institute (Faculty of Agronomy) in Moscow. The year 1908 was marked by a student expedition to the Transcaucasus and the North Caucasus, where Vavilov N.I., whose brief biography is compulsory studied by the school curriculum, conducted geographical and botanical research. In 1910, an agronomic practice took place at the Poltava experimental station, which charged Vavilov with further fruitful work.

From 1911 to 1912, he had an internship in St. Petersburg, the purpose of which was a more in-depth acquaintance with the geography of cultivated cereals, the study of their characteristics and diseases, and in 1913 a trip abroad to complete his education. In Germany, Nikolai Ivanovich worked for some time in the laboratory of a German philosopher and naturalist; in France, he got acquainted with the new achievements of selective seed production; in England, under the guidance of Professor William Bateson (one of the prominent geneticists of that time), whom Vavilov considered his teacher, studied disease resistance The World War caused the interruption of the business trip, and Nikolai Ivanovich was forced to return to Moscow, where he continued to work on the study of plant immunity, conducting experiments in the capital's nurseries in tandem with Professor Zhegalov S.I.

Why did Russian soldiers die in Persia?

In 1916, Nikolai Vavilov received his master's degree, successfully passing the exams; in the same period, he, released from military service due to a visual defect (he injured his eye in childhood), was attracted as a consultant on mass diseases in Persia, soldiers of the Russian army. Nikolay Ivanovich Vavilov managed to identify the cause of the disease. A brief biography for children in grade 2 describes that pieces of seeds with the fungus Stromantinia temulenta, which produces a substance that can cause poisoning in humans - the alkaloid temulin, fell into the flour. The result of his action was loss of consciousness, convulsions, drowsiness and dizziness; there was a possibility of death. The problem was solved by banning the consumption of local products; supplies of provisions began to be carried out from Russia.

Having received permission from the military leadership to conduct the expedition, Vavilov went deep into Iran, setting the goal of studying samples of local cereals. Having sowed the seeds of Persian wheat in England, Nikolai Ivanovich tried in various ways to infect it with powdery mildew, even using nitrogen fertilizer, which caused the development of the disease. All attempts were unsuccessful, on the basis of which the scientists concluded that plant immunity is directly dependent on the environmental conditions of the initial formation of this species. It was during this expedition that Nikolai Ivanovich came up with an assumption about the regularity of hereditary variability.

Career success

The year 1917 was marked for Vavilov by the election of assistants to the head of the Department of Applied Botany on the recommendation of R.E. A brief biography for children tells that in 1917 the scientist moved to Saratov, where at the Higher Courses of Agriculture he headed the department of breeding, genetics and private farming. As a professor at the Faculty of Agronomy from 1917 to 1921 at Saratov University, Vavilov, in parallel with lecturing, began an experimental study of the immunity of agricultural crops. The result of this huge work, including the study of several hundred varieties of wheat and oats, analysis of the immunity of varieties and their susceptibility to diseases, the identification of anatomical abilities, was the monograph “Plant Immunity to Infectious Diseases” published in 1919.

In 1920, he made a report on the law in the hereditary variability of homologous series at the III All-Russian Congress, the organizing committee of which he headed. The report became the largest event in the world biological science and was positively received by the scientific community.

Experiences, research, achievements

In 1920, having been elected head of the Department of Applied Botany and Breeding, Nikolai Vavilov, whose brief biography is described in many school textbooks, moved to Petrograd, where he began to conduct scientific work on a grand scale. Vavilov remained the head of this organization, which was later renamed the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing, until the end of 1940. Together with A. A. Yachevsky, Nikolai Ivanovich was sent to the USA, where he negotiated the supply of seeds, at the same time examining the grain regions of the American territories. On the way back, the scientist visited Belgium, Holland, France, Sweden, England, where he held a number of meetings with scientists, got acquainted with breeding stations and scientific laboratories, established new contacts and organized the purchase of scientific equipment, literature and varietal seed material.

The year 1923 was marked for Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov by his election to the post of director of the State Institute of Experimental Agronomy. At the initiative of the scientist in the 1920s, in various climatic and soil conditions of the USSR, a large number of scientific stations were created that studied and tested various forms of useful plants.

An invaluable contribution to science

The biography of Vavilov Nikolai Ivanovich is closely connected with scientific expeditions carried out from 1924 to 1929. These are Afghanistan, Africa, the Mediterranean, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, during which the scientists replenished the collection of seed material (numbering in the thousands of samples) and studied the centers of growth of cultivated plants.

In 1927, for the brilliant report "Geographical experiments on the study of the variability of cultivated plants in the USSR", with which Nikolai Ivanovich spoke in Rome at a conference of agricultural experts, the scientist was awarded the Gold Medal, and the conference decided to apply the system of geographical crops developed by Vavilov on a global scale.

Family of Nikolai Vavilov

Vavilov Nikolai Ivanovich, whose brief biography tells about his great achievements in the world of science, was married twice. The first wife of the scientist was Ekaterina Nikolaevna Sakharova, from whose marriage a son, Oleg, was born. He died at the age of 28 in the Caucasus while climbing. The second wife is Elena Barulina, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, biologist, whom Nikolai Ivanovich has known since her student days (1918); the young girl took part in many undertakings of her mentor (including an expedition to the southeastern part of Russia), wrote articles included in Vavilov's books on field crops. The family and Nikolai Ivanovich were created in 1926. From this marriage, Yuri Vavilov was born, who became a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, a nuclear physicist and did a lot to find information about his father and publish them.

On account of Vavilov, the creation of institutes for fruit growing, vegetable and potato farming, subtropical crops, viticulture, fodder, aromatic and medicinal plants - more than a hundred scientific institutions. In 1930, Nikolai Vavilov headed the genetic laboratory of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Leningrad, and in 1931, the All-Union Geographical Society.

Arrest and false accusation

A successful career, world recognition of Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov did not give rest to his envious people, who wrote a letter with political accusations to Stalin, in which they accused Vavilov of being isolated from the real needs of agriculture, political promiscuity, in which Vavilov did not distinguish between the true enemies of Soviet power. In parallel, public persecution was carried out in print periodicals. Since 1934, Nikolai Ivanovich was banned from traveling abroad, his work was recognized as unsatisfactory.

Vavilov was arrested in August 1940, charged with counter-revolutionary activities. In 1941, the scientist was sentenced to death; the sentence was commuted in 1942 to a 20-year sentence. Nikolai Ivanovich died in the hospital, having been ill during his imprisonment with pneumonia and dysentery; in the last year of his life he suffered from dystrophy. Death came from a decline in cardiac activity. The Russian scientist was posthumously rehabilitated in 1955: all the charges against him turned out to be fabricated and untrue. Vavilov Nikolai Ivanovich, whose brief biography is interesting to a large number of his admirers, was buried in a common grave with the rest of the prisoners.

N.I. Vavilov is a brilliant scientist of the 20th century. Vavilov distinguished himself as a geographer, evolutionist and plant protection specialist. It is noteworthy that all his scientific interests were interconnected. He was the first to see the opportunity and the vital need for the study of cultivated plants from the point of view of genetics, evolution and geography. He owns a number of discoveries, which to this day have not exhausted their relevance.

Vavilov dreamed eradicate food shortages in the world. His plan was to use the new science of genetics to propagate and increase the yield of cultivated plants that could grow anywhere, in any climate; in sandy deserts and freezing tundras. He called it "a mission for all mankind". Vavilov is recognized as the main geographer of the plant of our time. The scientist formulated very important postulates in the field of genetics, wrote more than ten books and did a gigantic job of organizing the system of agricultural institutions in the USSR.

Facts from the biography

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov was born on November 13, 1887 in Moscow into the family of a wealthy merchant Ivan Ilyich Vavilov and his wife Alexandra Mikhailovna Postnikova. I.I. Vavilov wanted his children to continue his work and become businessmen, but all the children became generally recognized specialists, each in his own field of activity.

The Vavilov family had seven children, but three of them passed away in childhood. N.I. Vavilov had two sisters and a brother. Nikolai Vavilov's sisters Alexandra and Lydia received medical education. Lydia died suddenly in 1913, having contracted smallpox during an expedition. His younger brother Sergei Ivanovich Vavilov became a famous physicist.

At the insistence of their father, the brothers Nikolai and Sergei were educated in Moscow commercial school. After studying at the school, he was going to enroll in the Imperial Moscow University, but, he did not want to spend a year studying the Latin language, which was mandatory for admission, in 1906 he was enrolled in the Moscow Agricultural Institute (MSHI). During his student years, he diligently studied the cycle of botanical and plant-growing disciplines, and established himself as an enterprising and diligent student.

Already after finishing the 2nd course, in 1908 Vavilov made his first trip to the Caucasus with a small group. From this trip he brought about 160 herbarium sheets.

In 1913-1914, N. I. Vavilov worked in the best laboratories in Great Britain, France and Germany. He also planned to visit North America, but in 1914 the First World War broke out, which prevented the planned plan. Particularly significant were his studies with William Betson at the John Innes Horticultural Institute. In 1922 a series of his papers were published in England, including The Law of Homological Series in Hereditary Variation.

N.I. Vavilov traveled to more than 64 foreign countries, learned about 15 languages, collected a collection of seeds, numbering 250,000 seed samples. He visited countries and was not afraid of the dangerous situations they found themselves in quite often. He made his first trip to Asia in 1916. In 1917, N.I. Vavilov was elected at the same time as a professor at the Department of Private Farming and Breeding of the Voronezh Agricultural Institute and at Saratov University at the Faculty of Agronomy. He made a choice in favor of Saratov, where he worked as a teacher at the university.

During the time spent in Saratov, he published three fundamental works, one of them is the theory of the centers of origin of cultivated plants.

Taking into account the significance and prospects of the research done, Nikolai Vavilov was appointed a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and director of the State Institute of Experimental Agronomy in 1923. In 1926 - he becomes the laureate of the V.I. Lenin Prize

In 1940, Vavilov was arrested for criticizing the concepts of the Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko, who enjoyed the support of Stalin. In 1941, Vavilov was sentenced to death, but in 1942 this was changed to twenty years of "correctional labor" in KGB camps. It seems that Vavilov never knew about the commutation of his sentence. On January 26, 1943, he died of starvation in prison and was buried in a common grave.

Facts from personal life

N.I. Vavilov was married twice. First wife, merchant's daughter Ekaterina Sakharova. She was not a beauty, but she had a brilliant mind, which attracted Nikolai Vavilov to her. Their marriage took place in 1912. Ekaterina was a caring and understanding wife, she helped Nikolai in every possible way: she supported him on a long trip abroad, she also knew several foreign languages ​​​​and helped him with translations. In 1918, their son Oleg was born in their family. But soon after the birth of their son, their family life collapsed, Nikolai Vavilov went to Saratov, and his wife remained in Moscow with her son.

A year later, her husband received an apartment, Ekaterina came to Samara. But by that time, Vavilov was infatuated with his student Elena Barulina. After that, Nikolai led a double life for some time, but in 1926 he officially divorced. Catherine later suffered a difficult fate, her son died in 1946 in Dombai. She never remarried, lived all alone until 1963.

The marriage with Elena Barulina took place shortly after his divorce from Katya. Two years later, their son Yuri was born.

1. N.I. Vavilov was an atheist
2. Since 1934, Stalin forbade Vavilov to travel abroad
3. During the investigation, Vavilov was summoned for interrogation about 400 times, the total time of interrogations was 1,700 hours. It is also known that monstrous torture was used against Vavilov.
4. While in prison, N. Vavilov wrote a book about agriculture, which, after his death, was burned with the rest of his things.
5. Sergei Vavilov every year on his brother's birthday received a note "incognito" with the words: "Cain, where is your brother Abel?" These notes brought indescribable mental suffering to Sergei Ivanovich: in those terrible years, he provided assistance not only to his brother's family, but also to other persecuted people.