The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin's Persecution of One of the Great Scientists of the Twentieth Century

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Critically acclaimed author Pringle pens an important account of the heroic early years of the Soviet genetic revolution, lead by the groundbreaking geneticists Nikolai Vavilov. b&w photos throughout.

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Publishers Weekly (03/31/2008)
Pringle ("Food, Inc."), former Moscow bureau chief for the "Independent", offers a well-researched and well-written study of the murder of an outstanding Soviet geneticist and the ideological perversion of science. Pringle details the life and career of Nikolai Vavilov (18871943) through his rise in the early Soviet scientific establishment and awarding of the Lenin Prize. Vavilov was a scientists scientist, traveling the world to collect seeds and plants unavailable in Russia in order to transform Soviet and even world agriculture, and ensure the survival of humanity through an adequate food supply. He was one of the U.S.S.R.s top scientists when Soviet authorities fell in love with the now-discredited notions of a rival scientist, Trofim Lysenko, who believed in the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Using recently opened archives, Pringle is able to detail Vavilovs arrest on trumped-up charges of sabotage and spying, his torture and death in prison. Pringle has added another page to the lengthy tale of the deadly workings of the Soviet bureaucracyand the toll of Stalins terror on the world by turning science into propaganda. "(May)" Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal (05/01/2008)
It seems incredible that millions of desperate or idealistic souls who believed in the revolution left the United States, fleeing the Depression, and flocked to the new Soviet state in hopes of starting life over. The fate of those who once had such faith in the Soviet experiment is tragically chronicled in these two works. Pringle ("Insight on the Middle East War") presents his work from the viewpoint of an insider, foremost Soviet biologist Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov, who ran afoul of the regime when Stalin championed Trofim Lysenko, whose views were eventually discredited. Vavilov amassed one of the largest seed collections in the world and hoped to prevent the famines that had plagued the USSR and other countries. As the terror of the 1930s mounted, Vavilov apparently continued to believe in the revolution until it was too late. Left to languish in the Gulag, this "eminent plant hunter who had a plan to feed the world died of starvation," concludes Pringle. Documentary filmmaker and television journalist Tzouliadis traces the lives of immigrants to the USSR and their fate in the land of the revolution. Most eventually perished once the Stalinist state declared them to be enemies. This is a collection of heartbreaking stories about people who were neglected or ignored by their own government. The author presents numerous instances in which official intervention might have saved thousands of lives, yet officials, from President Roosevelt on down, found it inconvenient or untimely to risk disrupting U.S.-Soviet relations by peering too closely into the cases of U.S. citizens stuck in the USSR. "The Forsaken" is actually a grim testament of Stalin's crimes against his own people as well as the immigrants. With copious notes, it is highly recommended for public and academic libraries. "Vavilov" is written in a popular style sometimes lacking nuance on a subject that should still be of interest to academics as well as informed readers. (Photos not seen for "Vavilov".)Edward Cone, New York Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

ISBN: 0743264983 | EAN: 9780743264983
Publisher: Simon & Schuster  | Publication Date: March, 2008

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