Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov - Russian and Soviet geneticist, botanist, breeder, geographer. Organizer and participant of botanical and agronomic expeditions that covered most of the continents (except Australia and Antarctica), during which he discovered the ancient centers of the formation of cultivated plants. He created the doctrine of the world centers of origin of cultivated plants. He substantiated the doctrine of plant immunity, discovered the law of homological series in the hereditary variability of organisms. He made a significant contribution to the development of the doctrine of the biological species. Under the leadership of Vavilov, the world's largest collection of seeds of cultivated plants was created. He laid the foundations for the system of state testing of varieties of field crops. He formulated the principles of activity of the main scientific center of the country in agricultural sciences, created a network of scientific institutions in this area.
He died during the Stalinist repressions. Based on trumped-up charges, he was arrested in 1940, in 1941 he was convicted and sentenced to death, which was later commuted to a 20-year prison term. In 1943 he died in prison. In 1955 he was posthumously rehabilitated.
Childhood and youth
Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov was born on November 25 (November 13 according to the old style) in 1887 on the Middle Presnya in Moscow.
Father Ivan Ilyich Vavilov (1863-1928) - a merchant of the second guild and a public figure, was from a peasant family of the Volokolamsk district. Before the revolution, he was the director of the Udalov and Vavilov manufacturing campaign, which also had a branch in Rostov-on-Don.
Mother Alexandra Mikhailovna Vavilova (1868-1938), nee Postnikova, daughter of a carver who worked in the Prokhorovskaya manufactory. In his autobiography, Sergei Vavilov writes about her:
In total, the family had seven children, but three of them died in infancy. Nikolai Vavilov had a younger brother Sergei Vavilov (1891-1951) and two sisters, Alexandra and Lydia. Sergei Vavilov was educated as a physicist in 1914 at Moscow University, in the same year he was drafted into the army, and participated in the First World War. In 1932, Sergei Vavilov became an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in the same year he headed the State Optical Institute, and is the founder of the scientific school of physical optics in the USSR. He headed the Academy of Sciences of the USSR from 1945 to 1951. He died in 1951 from a heart attack. The elder sister Alexandra (1886-1940) received a medical education, was a public figure, organized sanitary and hygienic networks in Moscow. The younger sister Lydia (1891-1914) graduated as a microbiologist. She died of smallpox while caring for the sick during an epidemic.
From early childhood, Nikolai Vavilov was predisposed to the natural sciences. Among his childhood hobbies were observations of flora and fauna. My father had a large library, which contained rare books, geographical maps, herbariums. This played a significant role in shaping Vavilov's personality.
Education
By the will of his father, Nikolai entered the Moscow Commercial School. After graduating from college, he wanted to enter the Imperial Moscow University, but, not wanting to waste a year preparing for exams in Latin, knowledge of which was at that time required for admission to the university, in 1906 he entered the Moscow Agricultural Institute at the Faculty of Agronomy. He studied with such scientists as N. N. Khudyakov and D. N. Pryanishnikov. In 1908, he participated in a student expedition to the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, and in the summer of 1910 he underwent agronomic practice at the Poltava Experimental Station, having received, by his own admission, "an impulse for all further work." At meetings of the institute's circle of lovers of natural science, Vavilov made presentations on "Genealogy of the plant kingdom", "Darwinism and experimental morphology." During his studies at the institute, Vavilov's propensity for research activities manifested itself repeatedly, the result of the training was a thesis on naked slugs damaging fields and gardens in the Moscow province. He graduated from the institute in 1911.
Family status
Nikolai Vavilov was married twice. First wife - Ekaterina Nikolaevna Sakharova-Vavilova (1886-1964). The second - Elena Ivanovna Vavilova-Barulina, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences. The marriage was officially registered in 1926. Children - Oleg (1918-1946, from his first marriage) and Yuri (from his second).
Scientific activity and further life path
1911-1918
For the purpose of a wider acquaintance with the systematics and geography of cultivated cereals and their diseases, during 1911-1912, Nikolai Vavilov underwent an internship in St. Petersburg, at the Bureau of Applied Botany and Breeding (headed by R. E. Regel), as well as at the Bureau of Mycology and Phytopathology (supervisor A. A. Yachevsky).
In 1913 Vavilov was sent abroad to complete his education.
In 1915, Nikolai Vavilov began to study plant immunity. The first experiments were carried out in nurseries, deployed together with Professor S.I. Zhegalov.
During 1915 and early 1916 he passed the examinations for his master's degree. Thus, the preparation for professorship at the department of D. N. Pryanishnikov was completed. Vavilov's doctoral dissertation was devoted to plant immunity. This problem formed the basis of his first scientific monograph "Plant Immunity to Infectious Diseases", which contained a critical analysis of the world literature and the results of his own research, published in 1919.
Due to a defect in vision (he injured his eye as a child), Vavilov was released from military service, but in 1916 he was recruited as a consultant on the mass disease of soldiers of the Russian army in Persia. He found out the cause of the disease, pointing out that particles of the seeds of the intoxicating chaff get into the local flour ( Lolium temulentum), and with it the fungus Stromantinia temulenta, which produces the alkaloid temulin, a substance that can cause serious poisoning in humans (dizziness, drowsiness, loss of consciousness, convulsions) with a possible fatal outcome. The solution to the problem was a ban on the use of local products, provisions began to be imported from Russia, as a result of which the issue of the disease was settled.
Vavilov, having received permission from the military leadership to conduct an expedition, went deep into Iran, where he was engaged in research and collecting samples of cereals. During the expedition, he, in particular, took samples of Persian wheat. Sowing it later in England, Vavilov tried in various ways to infect it with powdery mildew (up to the use of nitrogen fertilizer, which promotes the development of the disease), but all attempts were unsuccessful. The scientist came to the conclusion that the immunity of plants depends on the environmental conditions in which this species was originally formed. During the Iranian expedition, Vavilov had thoughts about the patterns of hereditary variability. Vavilov traced the changes in the types of rye and wheat from Iran to the Pamirs. He noticed characteristic similar changes in species of both genera, which prompted him to think about the existence of a pattern in the variability of related species. While in the Pamirs, Vavilov concluded that mountain "isolators" like the Pamirs serve as centers for the emergence of cultivated plants.
In 1917, Vavilov was elected assistant head of the Department (former Bureau) of Applied Botany R. E. Regel. Regel himself gave the recommendation: “Over the past 20 years, very many and outstanding scientists from almost all countries of the world have worked on the issues of [plant] immunity, but we can safely say that no one has yet approached the resolution of these complex issues with the breadth of views, with a comprehensive coverage of the issue, with which to him Vavilov.<…>In the person of Vavilov, we will attract a young talented scientist to the Department of Applied Botany, who will still be proud of Russian science. .
In the same year, Vavilov was invited to head the Department of Genetics, Breeding and Private Farming at the Saratov Higher Agricultural Courses and moved to Saratov in July. In this city, in 1917-1921, Vavilov was a professor at the agronomic faculty of Saratov University. Along with lecturing, he launched an experimental study of the immunity of various agricultural plants, primarily cereals. He studied 650 varieties of wheat and 350 varieties of oats, as well as other non-cereal crops; a hybridological analysis of immune and affected varieties was carried out, their anatomical and physiological features were revealed. Vavilov began to summarize the data accumulated during expeditions and research. The result of these studies was the monograph "Plant Immunity to Infectious Diseases", published in 1919.
1918-1930
In 1919, Vavilov created the doctrine of plant immunity.
In 1920, he, heading the organizing committee of the III All-Russian Congress on Breeding and Seed Production in Saratov, delivered a report "The law of homologous series in hereditary variability" at it. The report was perceived by the audience as the largest event in the world biological science and caused positive feedback in the scientific community.
Vavilov Nikolai Ivanovich (1887-1943), Russian botanist, plant breeder, geneticist, geographer and organizer of science. Born in Moscow on November 13 (25), 1887.
The elder brother of the famous physicist S.I. Vavilov. He graduated from the Moscow Commercial School (1906) and the Moscow Agricultural Institute (former Petrovsky Academy, 1910), was left at the Department of Private Agriculture, which was headed by D.N. Pryanishnikov, to prepare for a professorship, and then seconded to a breeding station.
Let's go to the fire, we'll burn, but we won't give up our convictions!
Vavilov Nikolay Ivanovich
He trained in St. Petersburg at the Bureau of Applied Botany under the direction of R.E. Regel and in the laboratory of mycology and phytopathology under the direction of A.A. Yachevsky. In 1913-1914 he worked at the Horticultural Institute with one of the founders of genetics, W. Batson, whom Vavilov later called his teacher and "the first apostle of the new teaching", and then in France, in the largest seed-growing company of the Vilmorins, and in Germany with E. Haeckel. After the outbreak of World War I, Vavilov barely managed to get out of Germany and returned to Russia. In 1916 he went on an expedition to Iran, then to the Pamirs.
Returning to Moscow, he taught, sorted out the brought materials, conducted experiments with early-ripening Pamir wheat, continued experiments on immunity in experimental plots at the Petrovsky Academy. From September 1917 to 1921 he taught at the Saratov Higher Agricultural Courses, where in 1918, with the transformation of courses into an institute, he was elected professor and headed the department of genetics, breeding and private farming. At local stations, together with students, he conducted research on selection. In June 1920 he made a presentation on homologous series at the III All-Russian Congress of Breeders in Saratov.
In March 1921, after the death of Regel, together with a group of employees, he moved to Petrograd, headed the Department of Applied Botany and Breeding (the former Bureau of Applied Botany of the Agricultural Scientific Committee). In the same 1921 he visited the United States, where he spoke at the International Congress on Agriculture, got acquainted with the work of the Plant Industry Bureau in Washington and the work of T. G. Morgan's Columbia Laboratory. He organized a branch of the Department of Applied Botany and Breeding in Washington, headed by D.N. Borodin, who over the next two years managed to purchase seeds, books, and equipment for the Department. On the way back through Europe, G. de Vries visited.
In 1922, Vavilov was appointed director of the State Institute of Experimental Agronomy, which united various departments of the Agricultural Scientific Committee. In 1924 he became director of the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Cultures, in 1930 - director of his successor, the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing with a wide network of departments, experimental stations and strongholds. In 1927 he participated in the work of the V International Genetic Congress in Berlin. He was president, and in 1935-1940 - vice-president of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences. V.I. Lenin (VASKhNIL) (since 1938, T.D. Lysenko became president, who remained in office until 1956).
At the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing, Vavilov created a department of genetics, and in 1930 he headed the successor to the Bureau of Genetics (which Yu.A. Filipchenko headed until his death) - the Laboratory of Genetics. Three years later, the Laboratory of Genetics was transformed into the Institute of Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, in 1934, together with the entire Academy, it was transferred from Leningrad to Moscow. To work at the Institute, Vavilov attracted not only Filipchenko's students, but also geneticists and breeders A.A. Sapegin, G.A. Levitsky, D. Kostov, K. Bridges, G. Möller and other prominent scientists. In 1923 the scientist was elected a corresponding member, and in 1929 an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1931-1940 he was president of the All-Union Geographical Society. In 1942 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society of London.
Vavilov is the founder of the doctrine of plant immunity to infectious diseases, who continued the general doctrine of immunity developed by I.I. Mechnikov. In 1920, the scientist formulated the law of homological series in hereditary variability, according to which “species and genera that are genetically close to each other are characterized by identical series of hereditary variability with such correctness that, knowing the series of forms for one species, one can predict the finding of identical forms of other species and genera .
Soviet plant botanist and geneticist, academician (since 1929, corresponding member since 1923), full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, full member of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (1929). Brother of the famous physicist S. I. Vavilov. In 1911 he graduated from the Moscow Agricultural Institute and was left to prepare for a professorship. In 1917-21. - professor at Saratov University. In 1921 he moved to Petrograd (Leningrad), where in 1923-29. was director of the State Institute of Experimental Agronomy, in 1924-40. - Director of the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Crops (later the All-Union Institute of Plant Industry). In 1930-40s. Director of the Institute of Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1929-35. - President, in 1935-37. - Vice-President of VASKhNIL.
In order to study the plant-growing resources of the globe, on the initiative of N. I. Vavilov, numerous expeditions were organized, in most of which he personally took part. In addition to various regions of the USSR, N. I. Vavilov traveled to Iran, Afghanistan, the countries of the Mediterranean, Ethiopia, Xinjiang, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the countries of North, Central and South America. The world's richest collection of cultivated plants collected (as a result of expeditions) at the All-Union Institute of Plant Industry was widely used for their comprehensive and systematic study and served as the starting material for selection and introduction. N. I. Vavilov was a major connoisseur of cultural flora (especially cereals). Vavilov's work on the origin of cultivated plants became widely known. He established the main centers of origin of cultivated plants.
Being engaged in the study of variability, he observed in various species and even genera of plants the existence of repeating similar, parallel series of forms (i.e., forms similar in their morphological and physiological characteristics), which he gave the name "homological series" ("The law of homological series in hereditary variability", 1920). N. I. Vavilov owns work on plant immunity to infectious diseases. He proposed his own classification of the phenomena of immunity (mechanical and physiological immunity). For his work on the origin of cultivated plants and plant immunity, N.I. V. I. Lenin (1926); for geographical research in Afghanistan, the All-Union Geographical Society awarded Vavilov a gold medal to them. Przhevalsky.
In August 1940 Vavilov was arrested. He was falsely accused of espionage, sabotage, leadership of the never-existing Labor Peasant Party. July 9, 1941 Vavilov was sentenced to death. Until January 1943 he was in prisons, including on death row, in Moscow and Saratov, where he died in a prison hospital.
Bibliography
- Biographical dictionary of figures of natural science and technology. T. 1. - Moscow: State. scientific publishing house "Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 1958. - 548 p.
Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov as a geographer and traveler
The circle of scientific interests of N. I. Vavilov was very extensive. Vavilov belonged to the now almost extinct type of encyclopedic scientists who successfully developed simultaneously a number of branches of science. The most important of the sciences in which Vavilov left bright traces are botany, scientific agronomy and geography. Of the more private sections of knowledge - plant growing with genetics and plant breeding, phytopathology and, finally, the geography of cultivated plants, the founder of which he was along with the 19th-century Swiss botanist Alphonse Decandol.
Cultivated plants, their origin, role and significance in the life and development of mankind have always been at the center of Vavilov's work. Having begun to study the nature of the immunity of cultivated plants to infectious diseases and, in connection with this, the varietal diversity of these plants, he realized the need to clarify not only purely genetic, but also geographical patterns of variability. So the phytopathologist became both a geneticist and a geographer. A deep study of the geography of the cultivated plants of the globe aroused in Vavilov a natural interest in the problems of the history of agriculture, and then in the history of the material culture of mankind in general.
As a true patriot and progressive thinker, Vavilov strove all his life to closely unite theory with the needs of practice. The scientific generalizations he created were supposed to serve as a theoretical justification for the mobilization of the world's plant resources for the needs of agriculture and industry. That is why he acted as the largest organizer of Soviet agricultural science.
In this essay, we will focus on only one of the aspects of Vavilov's multifaceted activities - in the most general terms, we will characterize him as a geographer and traveler. Recognition of Vavilov's merits in this area was expressed in his election as president of the All-Union Geographical Society. He held this responsible and honorary post in 1931-1940.
Vavilov was born in Moscow on November 26, 1887. He received his secondary education at the Moscow Commercial School, from which he graduated in 1906, and his higher education at the Moscow Agricultural Institute (MSHI), the former Petrovsky Agricultural Academy [Moscow Agricultural Academy named after K. A. Timiryazev] , which he graduated in 1911. The departments of the institute at that time were well equipped and headed by a number of prominent professors and teachers. A significant influence on the formation of Vavilov as a scientist was exerted by his teachers: D. N. Pryanishnikov (agrochemistry and plant growing), D. L. Rudzinsky (plant breeding), S. I. Rostovtsev (botany and phytopathology), (soil science), Kulagin (zoology), S. I. Zhegalov (genetics and breeding), N. N. Khudyakov (microbiology), etc.
The young scientist received a great scientific charge from attending meetings of our oldest natural history societies (the Moscow Society of Naturalists and especially the Society of Lovers of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography), where the geographical meetings were usually chaired by a venerable scientist.
After graduating from the institute, Vavilov was left at the department of prof. D. N. Pryanishnikov to prepare for a professorship. In 1913 the Institute sent him abroad to complete his education. The young scientist worked in a number of well-known biological and agronomic laboratories and institutes in England, France and Germany with famous representatives of world science, with whom he established close friendly relations. Vavilov conquered many of these scientists with his bright individuality, original generalizations, breadth of interests and depth of knowledge of the material.
Upon his return from abroad, in 1914, Vavilov continued his scientific work at the Moscow Agricultural Institute and began teaching. He became a teacher at the Golitsyn agricultural courses in Moscow, and from 1917 to 1921 he was a professor at Saratov University in the department of private farming and selection.
In 1921, Vavilov was elected head of the Department of Applied Botany and Breeding of the Agricultural Scientific Committee. In 1921-1922. Vavilov was on a business trip to the United States and Western Europe. He got acquainted with the way things were done in the biological, agronomic, and some geographical institutes in the USA, Canada, England, France, Germany, Sweden, and Holland. As a result of this trip, scientific ties between Russia and a number of foreign countries were restored, valuable foreign literature was received, and a number of reviews of the achievements of world science were made.
In 1923, Vavilov was elected director of the State Institute of Experimental Agronomy, which he remained until the middle of 1929. In 1924-1940. he was the director of the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Cultures, which he created, later renamed the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing (VIR). Since the establishment of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences named after V. I. Lenin, Vavilov took an active part in its work: he was (1929-1935) its president, and later (1935-1940) - vice-president. In 1930-1940. Vavilov was director of the Institute of Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was repressed and died on August 2, 1942 in a Saratov prison.
Vavilov's merits were noted by numerous Soviet and foreign academies and scientific societies: the USSR Academy of Sciences (academician since 1929), the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences (academician), the V. I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences (academician), the Moscow Society of Naturalists (honorary member), Royal Society of London (member), Scottish Academy of Sciences (member), Leopoldine Academy of Sciences in Halle (corresponding member), Indian Academy of Sciences (honorary member), New York Geographical Society (full member), Linnean Society in London (honorary member), Horticultural Society in London (honorary member).
Vavilov was repeatedly elected a deputy of the Leningrad City Council, and in 1925-1936. he was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR.
At the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Cultures, Vavilov succeeded in rallying around himself a large friendly team (with good reason called "Vavilov's school"). All work at the institute was carried out on the basis of the theory developed by Vavilov of the origin of cultivated plants and was aimed at using an assortment of useful plants (wild and cultivated) for the needs and improving human life.
Vavilov never considered the theory he developed as something unshakable, not requiring new confirmations and protected from criticism. The works of Vavilov himself, his students and like-minded people constantly deepened the theory of the origin of cultivated plants.
The institute headed by Vavilov became a universally recognized world research center, which also played a large role in the development of the geography of cultivated plants, and in the geographical knowledge of a number of interesting, little-studied territories of the Earth (both flat and mountainous). The Institute had a network of peripheral departments, experimental stations, a valuable herbarium of cultivated plants and a unique so-called "world collection of seeds" (it was collected by Vavilov, his staff and correspondents from samples of useful plants growing in the wild and cultivated all over the world; by 1940 . it numbered up to 200,000 samples).
Working literally tirelessly, Vavilov, together with his employees, organized, according to a specific, strictly verified and methodologically uniform program, extensive sowing of various varieties of cultivated plants in zones with different natural conditions. These first organized geographical experiments in the world to study the individual variability of cultivated plants, begun in 1923, were carried out first at 25 and then at 115 points in the Soviet Union. Already preliminary processing of the materials of these experiments helped to identify a number of patterns in relation to changes in the duration of the growing season for certain groups of plants, to establish constant characters that should be the basis for the classification of cultivated plants, to outline recommendations for the placement of their crops, etc.
Based on the richest stock of facts, Vavilov made a number of major generalizations and introduced fundamentally new points of view into science. For genetics and taxonomy, Vavilov's "law of homological series in hereditary variability" is of particular importance, which makes it possible to predict the discovery of new organic forms, for phytopathology - the classification of immunity types, for geography - the clarification of the centers of origin of cultivated plants.
It should be added that Vavilov developed and published interesting ideas about the Linnean species in plants (Linneon). He considered the latter "as an isolated complex mobile morphological and physiological system, associated in its genesis with a certain environment and area." According to Vavilov, plant species are natural, really existing real complexes, mobile systems, covering categories of different volume and subordination.
The creation of a theory of the origin and geographical distribution of cultivated plants, the mobilization of the plant resources of the Earth and the collection of a world collection of seeds and samples of useful plants could not have been carried out without the systematic organization of expeditions and excursions both within the country and abroad. Vavilov himself participated in numerous expeditions, a simple list of which once again confirms the wide range of geographic interests of this scientist. Vavilov explored the most diverse territories of the globe. and the famous English scientist E. D. Russell characterized Vavilov as the most outstanding world traveler of our time.
While still a student, Vavilov made his first expedition, visiting the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia in 1908.
In 1916, he traveled through Northern Iran, Ferghana and the Pamirs and found the original so-called non-ligul forms of cereals.
In 1919-1920. Vavilov explored the south-east of the European part of the USSR and in the book "Field Cultures of the South-East" gave a summary of all cultivated plants of the Volga and Trans-Volga regions, the issues of the origin of which he considered against the background of physical-geographical and historical conditions.
In 1921-1922. Vavilov traveled to many regions of Canada and the USA and, in particular, studied the agricultural culture in the Indian villages (reserves) of the northern states of the USA.
In 1924, one of the most remarkable and productive expeditions, according to published materials, was carried out to Afghanistan, including geographically almost uncovered regions of Kafiristan. The expedition traveled about 5,000 km by caravan route. Its fruit was a large book (written jointly with D. D. Bukinich) - "Agricultural Afghanistan". It is truly a geographical work. In addition to a detailed description of all cultivated and wild-growing useful plants, the work contains the first such detailed and comprehensive geographical and economic description of Afghanistan in world literature. We find in this monograph a physical-geographical, hydrogeological and soil-botanical overview of the country, a description of its geographical and agricultural landscapes, an overview of the ethnic composition of the agricultural population, information on the types of agricultural culture in Afghanistan (including a special section "Mountain zones of culture and the limits of cultivation of individual plants ”), chapters on cotton growing and viticulture.
As a result of the geographical and ethnic study of Kafiristan, Vavilov came to an important geographical conclusion about the need to clarify the very concept of Kafiristan. By Kafiristan, he understood the area enclosed between the main massif of the Hindu Kush from the north and its southern spurs to the Gussalik parallel from the south, i.e., half as long from north to south as previously thought. The author is inclined to believe that the population of Kafiristan - kafirs - "in the initial basis ... constitute a close ethnic group with the Tajiks." Geographical isolation, a peculiar local landscape, the preservation of idolatry until the end of the 19th century characterize the originality and originality of Kafiristan.
For the Afghan expedition, Vavilov was awarded the gold medal named after N. M. Przhevalsky by the Geographical Society.
In 1925, Vavilov worked in Central Asia, he explored the Khiva oasis and visited Bukhara. In the work Cultivated Plants of the Khiva Oasis, along with a botanical and agronomic essay, some geographical information is also reported.
In 1926-1927. Vavilov covers with his research a complex of countries located in the Mediterranean basin. He visited Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Transjordan, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, including the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus and Crete. In 1927, Vavilov entered Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and Eritrea through French Somalia.
Unfortunately, apart from brief articles describing observations made in some of the countries mentioned above (Spain, Egypt, Abyssinia, etc.), as well as some special publications (Abyssinian wheat, etc.), Vavilov was unable to publish complete reports. monographic character summarizing the results of these heroic studies. In all his expeditions and excursions, Vavilov carefully kept diaries, which he considered as preparatory materials for future reports.
Until his arrest in 1940, Vavilov continued his travels with the same energy and perseverance. So, in 1929 he visited Western China (Xinjiang), Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and in the fall - a number of countries in the Far East: Japan, Korea and the island of Taiwan. He described his impressions of these trips in two articles: "Western China, Korea, Japan, the island of Formosa" and "Science in Japan."
In 1930 he made a trip to the USA (Florida, Louisiana, Arizona, Texas, California), Mexico, Guatemala and the tropical part of Honduras. In 1932-1933. Vavilov made a personal acquaintance with the countries of South America: Cuba, Mexico (Yucatan), Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Trinidad, Puerto Rico.
Of the generalizing articles relating to Central Asia, the “Role of Central Asia in the origin of cultivated plants” stands out, and among the articles interpreting the ancient agricultural cultures of America, “The great agricultural cultures of pre-Columbian America and their relationship” and “Mexico and Central America as main center of origin of cultivated plants of the New World.
The ancient Mexican agricultural culture, associated with the Mayan people and those close to it, differs from the agricultural cultures of the Old World in the absence of farm animals, and before the introduction of Europeans into this culture, it was carried out with the help of manual labor. A number of cultivated endemic species that have not gone beyond the boundaries of this territory have been preserved here. The author gives a description of these endems. Maize has played the main role since the beginning of agriculture. Vavilov believed that "the very development of agriculture, and indeed of the entire sedentary culture of southern Mexico and the adjacent regions of Central America, was associated with the presence of the original wild forms of corn, which, unfortunately, no longer exist or have not yet been found."
In the highland regions of Peru and Bolivia, in the region of the highland Peruvian-Bolivian steppes (punas), a special pre-Inca, otherwise megalithic, culture of the Indians was concentrated. In the mountainous regions of the Andes, in contrast to Mexico and Central America, along with agriculture (a special Andean agricultural culture), original animal husbandry (breeding of llamas, alpacas, etc.) is developed. On the basis of botanical-geographical and climatological facts, Vavilov sharply distinguishes the ancient alpine, as a rule, non-irrigated agriculture of the puna, i.e., the mountain steppes of Peru and Bolivia, from the later irrigated agriculture associated with the desert and semi-desert regions of the western slopes of the Andes.
In addition to the main expeditions mentioned by Vavilov, he studied in detail the plant resources of the following countries in the genetic aspect: the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Sweden.
Along with the study of foreign countries, Vavilov systematically continued to study various regions of the USSR, paying special attention to the Caucasus and Central Asia. In 1934-1940. he almost annually traveled to the Caucasus, covering the most inaccessible corners of this region for a naturalist and geographer. The last in his expeditionary activity was the complex expedition of 1940, which he led, sent to the western regions of the Byelorussian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR (including the Carpathians).
According to the range of his travels, Vavilov can be put on a par with the most outstanding travelers of all times and peoples, for example, F. Richthofen, and others. Vavilov continued the glorious traditions of domestic travelers. This powerful expeditionary activity of Vavilov alone gives him the full right to inscribe his name in golden letters among the luminaries of Russian geography.
Vavilov's most important research, as has already been said, relates to questions of the origin of cultivated plants in connection with their geography. It was for these works that Vavilov, one of the first Soviet scientists, was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1926. These works should be considered in more detail.
Vavilov repeatedly emphasized "the need for a broad geographical approach to the study of the evolution of species from the initial homeland, where the plant was taken into cultivation, to the final links of modern evolution." In one of his last works, Vavilov wrote: “Translated into the language of modern biogeography, Darwin’s geographical idea of evolution is that each species is localized in its initial origin, evolution is historical, and therefore knowledge of the origins of a species, the ways of its geographical distribution is of decisive importance in understanding ways of evolution, in mastering its stages, in tracing the dynamics of the evolutionary process.
Like Darwin, Vavilov went from the question of the evolution of species from a geographical point of view to the recognition of the connection between the emergence of species and a certain single area. In order to establish the centers of origin of cultivated plants, he applied the differential botanical-geographical method.
According to Vavilov, the homeland of a cultivated plant is determined by: 1) the greatest morphological and physiological diversity of the characteristics of a given plant, the diversity that manifests itself in a certain territory of its distribution (range), 2) the mountainous nature of the foci (centers) of origin, usually lying in the tropics or subtropics, 3) antiquity or primitiveness of agriculture of the given hearth.
Vavilov and his collaborators found out that many types of cultivated plants, such as rye, oats, are by their genesis field weeds, which in their homeland littered primary crops, like wheat and barley. Thus, back in 1917, Vavilov proved that cultivated rye originated from wild rye, which littered wheat and barley crops in Southwest Asia.
In the large work "Centers of Origin of Cultivated Plants" published in 1926, Vavilov identified five main world centers of origin of cultivated plants. Subsequently, Vavilov significantly detailed and refined this initial list of centers of origin of cultivated plants; some of them received new names; others, small ones, under the name of foci are subordinate to larger ones.
1) The South Asian tropical center (the territories of tropical India, Indochina, South tropical China and the islands of Southeast Asia) gave rise to about 33% of all types of cultivated plants, including: rice, sugar cane, lemon, orange. It consists of three centers: Indian, Indochinese (including South China) and Island (this includes the Sunda Islands, Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, the Philippines, etc.).
2) The East Asian center (temperate and subtropical regions of Central and East China, Korea, Japan, part of the island of Taiwan) gave up to 20% of all types of cultivated plants (excluding ornamental plants). In this center, the main Chinese and secondary Japanese centers are noted.
3) South-West Asian center (inner upland Asia Minor, Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia and North-West India) with foci: Caucasian, Western Asian and northwestern Indian. The total species composition of cultivated plants associated by origin with this center is equal to about 14% of the entire world cultural flora, including a number of wheat species, rye, grapes, walnuts, figs, and alfalfa.
4) Mediterranean center. Covers a number of countries located along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Approximately 11% of cultivated plant species are genetically associated with this center, including olive, carob, and a number of vegetables (for example, beets).
5) The Abyssinian center (Ethiopia and Eritrea) gave the world cultural flora only 4% of species, including barley, cereal - teff, oil plant - nougat. The mountain-Arabian (Yemeni) center adjoins it.
6) The Central American center, which includes southern Mexico, is divided into three centers: Mountainous South Mexican, Central American and West Indian islands. This center produced such plants as corn and teosinte, American pumpkins, peppers, upland cotton, cocoa.
7) Andean center (in South America), divided into centers: Proper Andean (mountainous regions of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador), Chiloan (Araucan) in southern Chile and on the island of Chiloe and Bogotansky in Eastern Colombia. Here, in particular, is the birthplace of potatoes, many peculiar tubers (oka, anyu, ulyuho).
The identified seven main geographical centers of cultivated plants are associated both with the richest floristic complexes of the Earth and with the most ancient civilizations.
All Vavilov's works are distinguished by an exceptional wealth of factual material; they are illustrated with numerous photographs (most of them are unique, taken in nature personally by Vavilov, who was an outstanding photographer), drawings and maps. Of great interest are maps of the distribution of important cultivated plants, as well as the areas of agricultural crops, the boundaries of agriculture, etc.
In conclusion, it should be noted that Vavilov was a major plant introducer. On his initiative, new valuable crops were introduced into the crop production of the Soviet Union, such as rubber - guayule, cinchona, jute, tung tree, a number of citrus fruits, some varieties of the tea bush, new essential oil, tanning, medicinal plants and others.
A great worker, a great thinker, a brilliant scientific organizer, a patriot, a public figure, a humanist, and at the same time a simple, accessible person - this is how he went down in history, and will remain in it for many centuries, a vivid image of the tester of nature and geographer Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov.
Bibliography
- Lipshits S. Yu. Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov as a geographer and traveler / S. Yu. Lipshits, DV Lebedev // Domestic physical geographers and travelers. - Moscow: State Educational and Pedagogical Publishing House of the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR, 1959. - S. 537-547.
(1887-1943 y.y.)
Vavilov Nikolai Ivanovich (November 25, 1887, Moscow - January 26, 1943, Saratov), Soviet geneticist, plant breeder, 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 organizers and leaders of the biologist. and agricultural science in the USSR, public figure. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1929, Corresponding Member 1923), Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1929). President (1929-1935) and Vice-President of VASKhNIL (1935-1940). In 1926-1935. member Central Executive Committee of the USSR, in 1927-1929. member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. In 1931-1940. President of the All-Union Geographical Society.
Born into a businessman's family. In 1911 graduated from the Moscow Agricultural Institute (now the Moscow Agricultural Academy named after K.A. Timiryazev), where he was left at the department of private agriculture, headed by D.N. Pryanishnikov, to prepare for scientific and pedagogical activities.
In 1917 was elected a professor at the Saratov University. Since 1921 headed the Department of Applied Botany and Breeding (Petrograd), which in 1924. was reorganized into the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Cultures, and in 1930. - to the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing (VIR), headed by N.I. Vavilov remained until August 1940. Since 1930 Vavilov is the director of the genetic laboratory, which was later transformed into the Institute of Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1919-20. Vavilov explored the South-East of the European part of the USSR and in the book "Field cultures of the South-East" (1922) he gave a summary of all cultivated plants of the Volga and Trans-Volga regions. In 1925 made an expedition to the Khiva oasis (Central Asia).
Since 1920 to 1940 led numerous botanical and agronomic expeditions. He organized scientific expeditions to study the plant resources of the Mediterranean (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, the territories of Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Transjordan), Ethiopia, Iran, Afghanistan, Japan, Western China, Korea, the countries of North, Central and South America and was the leader of many of them.
Versatile research was carried out by Vavilov in Afghanistan (1924), the expedition visited the hard-to-reach and unexplored western part of Kafirstan (modern Nuristan), studied cultivated plants in detail and collected extensive general geographical material. The results of this expedition are summarized in the work "Agricultural Afghanistan" (1929).
Of particular interest was the expedition to Ethiopia (1926-1927): Vavilov established that the center of origin of durum wheat was located there.
During a trip to North, Central and South America (1930, 1932-33) N.I. Vavilov visited Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina, where he conducted valuable historical and agronomic research. Expeditions under his leadership discovered new types of wild and cultivated potatoes, taken as the basis for practical selection. As a result of studying various species and varieties of plants collected in the countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, he established the centers of morphogenesis, or centers of origin of cultivated plants.
The laws he discovered for the geographical distribution of the species and varietal composition in the primary foci and the dispersal of plants from these foci facilitate the search for the necessary plant material for breeding and experimental botany.
In some areas, plants with signs of precocity are concentrated, in others - drought resistance, etc. The materials and collections of the expeditions made it possible for the first time in the USSR (1923) to carry out experimental geographical sowing of cultivated plants in different zones of the country in order to study their variability and give them an evolutionary and selection assessment. Thus, the foundation was laid for the organization in the USSR of state variety testing of field crops.
Under the leadership and with the participation of Vavilov in the USSR, a world collection of cultivated plants, stored in the VIR, was created, numbering more than 300 thousand items. samples. Many varieties of various agricultural crops common in the USSR are the result of selection work with the corresponding samples from the VIR collection.
N.I. Vavilov paid much attention to the promotion of agriculture in the undeveloped regions of the North, semi-deserts and highlands. The problem of the introduction of new crops turned out to be largely resolved for the wet and dry subtropics of the USSR.
At the initiative of Vavilov, new valuable crops began to be grown in the country: jute, tung tree, perennial essential oil, medicinal, tanning, fodder and other plants. In 1919 substantiated the doctrine of plant immunity to infectious diseases, showing breeders the possibility of breeding immune varieties, among which varieties that are simultaneously immune to several diseases and resistant to pests are of particular importance.
In 1920 formulated the law of homologous series of hereditary variability in closely related species, genera, and even families. This law shows one of the most important laws of evolution, which consists in the fact that similar hereditary changes occur in closely related species and genera. Using this law, according to a number of morphological characters and properties of one species or genus, it is possible to foresee the existence of corresponding forms in another species or genus. The law makes it easier for breeders to find new initial forms for crossing and selection.
Vavilov defined the Linnean species as an isolated complex mobile morpho-physiological system associated in its genesis with a certain environment and area (1930). Vavilov substantiated the ecological and geographical principles of breeding and the principles of creating the source material for breeding.
At the initiative of Vavilov, a number of new research institutions were organized. So, in the VASKHNIL system were created; Institute of Grain Economy of the South-East of the European Part of the USSR; Institute of Food, Vegetable and Subtropical Crops; institutes for fodder, corn, potatoes, cotton, flax, hemp, oilseeds, soybeans, viticulture and tea. Vavilov created a school of plant growers, geneticists and breeders.
For research work in the field of immunity, the origin of cultivated plants and the discovery of the law of homological series, Vavilov was awarded the Prize. IN AND. Lenin (1926), for research in Afghanistan - a gold medal to them. N.M. Przhevalsky; for work in the field of breeding and seed production - the Big Gold Medal of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (1940).
Vavilov was a true tribune of science. His struggle against pseudoscientific concepts in biology and for the development of genetics in the USSR, the theoretical basis of crop and animal husbandry, is widely known. He represented Soviet science at many congresses and international congresses.
N.I. Vavilov was a member and an honorary member of many foreign academies, including the English (Royal Society of London), Indian, Argentine, Scottish; corresponding member was elected. Academy of Sciences in Halle (Germany) and the Czechoslovak Academy, an honorary member of the American Botanical Society, the Linnean Society in London, the Horticultural Society of England, etc.
Vavilov's scientific activity was interrupted in 1940. In 1965 the Vavilov Prize was established. In 1967 Vavilov's name was assigned to VIR. In 1968 The Vavilov Gold Medal was established, which is awarded for outstanding scientific work and discoveries in the field of agriculture.
Cit.: Centers of the origin of cultivated plants, "Proceedings on Applied Botany and Breeding", 1925, volume 16, v.2; Problems of new cultures, M.-L., 1932; Scientific foundations of wheat breeding, M.-L., 1935; The doctrine of plant immunity to infectious diseases, M.-L., 1935; Linnean view as a system, M.-L., 1931; Selection as a science, M.-L., 1934; Botanical and geographical bases of selection, M.-L., 1935; The law of homological series in hereditary variability, 2nd ed., M.-L., 1935; The doctrine of the origin of cultivated plants after Darwin, "Soviet Science", 1940, No. 2; World resources of varieties of cereals ... Experience of agroecological review of the most important field crops, M.-L., 1957; World resources of varieties of cereals ... Wheat, M.-L., 1959-65 (volume 1 contains a bibliography of Vavilov's works); Selected works, volume 1-2, L., 1967
References: Bakhteev F.Kh., Academician Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov, "Bulletin of the Moscow Society of Naturalists. Biological Department", 1958, volume 63, c. 3; Questions of geography of cultivated plants and N.I. Vavilov, M.-L., 1966; Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov, M., 1967 (Materials for the bibliography of scientists of the USSR. Series of biological sciences Genetics, v. 1); Reznik S., Nikolai Vavilov, Moscow, 1968; N.I. Vavilov and agricultural science. Dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the birth ..., M., 1969.
F.H. Bakhteev
GREAT SOVIET ENCYCLOPEDIA
THIRD EDITION
MOSCOW. PUBLISHING HOUSE "SOVIET ENCYCLOPEDIA" 1971
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