Abstract
IN the U.S.S.R., a convergent attack on the evolution problem is being made from many angles simultaneously—from that of genetics, of taxonomy, of ecology, of cytology, of field studies and behaviour, of mathematical analysis, of comparative anatomy, of palæontology. In this, the U.S.S.R. resembles Britain, the United States and other countries, though it is interesting to find that during the War a good deal of the work has been carried on independently, in total or partial ignorance of research elsewhere. The approach has in general been along the same neo-Darwinian lines, involving acceptance of neo-Mendelism, as in Britain and the United States, though perhaps with even greater emphasis on strict selectionist principles. This is all the more interesting, since in the U.S.S.R. neo-Darwinism is in sharp contrast with the revolutionary views of the botanist and agriculturist Lysenko. Lysenko's conclusions and theories demand an article to themselves. Here we can only say that though Lysenko claims to be a true Darwinian, his contentions involve a sweeping form of Lamarekian inheritance, as well as remarkable effects of scion on stock in grafting, and their hereditary transmission. Further, he expressly states his disbelief in Mendelism or any other particulate principle of heredity. Lysenko is in a powerful position, both scientifically, as president of the Lenin All Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and politically, as vice-chairman of the Supreme Soviet. However, in spite of this, the neo-Mendelian and neo-Darwinian selectionists continue to turn out large quantities of excellent work (thus disproving the contention sometimes advanced by non-Russian men of science, that scientific theory in the U.S.S.R. is always subject to political considerations). Indeed, in Lysenko's own Institute are to be found research workers on Drosophila genetics and cytology, and a former member of the staff of Vavilov, the eminent plant geneticist (now dead), who was Lysenko's most prominent antagonist before the War.
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08 September 1945
An Erratum to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/156293e0
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HUXLEY, J. Evolutionary Biology and Related Subjects. Nature 156, 254–256 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/156254a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/156254a0
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