Abstract
THE next International Congress of Genetics was to have been held at Moscow in August next, the preparations for it being in the hands of Russian geneticists. A wireless message from Moscow to the New York Times, which was published in Science of December 18, stated that the Congress had been cancelled by the Soviet Government; that genetics had been attacked as of no practical value by T. D. Lysenko, who is known for his work in the vernalization of wheat and other crops; that Prof. N. I. Vavilov, the distinguished head of the plant-breeding services in the U.S.S.R., had been arrested; and that Prof. S. G. Levit, who is director of the Maxim Gorky Medico-Genetical Institute and was general secretary of the Organization Committee for the International Congress of Genetics, had been heavily attacked in the Communist party press for allowing a member of his staff to publish a paper in which it is concluded that the Buryats of Siberia have a mental age of twelve years. Prof. Vavilov has since sent to the New York Times a message, a copy of which has been sent to us by the Soviet Union Year Book Press Service, denying the story of his arrest and pointing out the large growth which has taken place in the Institute of Plant Breeding under his direction during the Soviet regime. According to a report circulated by Science Service, of Washington, D.C., Prof. H. B. Ward, permanent secretary of the American Association, has received a message from the U.S.S.R. indicating that the Congress of Genetics has been postponed but not cancelled. As the titles of papers for the Congress were to have been sent in soon, it is clear that a more definite announcement regarding the postponement is desirable, since many geneticists were already making arrangements to attend. These Congresses have been held every five years, the last being at Ithaca, New York, in 1932. No adequate grounds for a postponement have yet appeared.
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International Congress of Genetics and the U.S.S.R.. Nature 139, 142 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139142c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139142c0