GENETICS IN THE U.S.S.R

Abstract

AN opportunity to see old problems in new circumstances and discussed by new–comers is rare enough to be usually worth taking. Interest is added when the problem is the central one of biology and the speakers are Russians engaged in trying to build a society about which there may be as many opinions as observers, but which at any rate can be said to contain some novelties of a far–reaching character. Such an opportunity is provided by the report of a Conference on Genetics and Selection held in the U.S.S.R. in 1939. The proceedings¹ have been translated for the Society for Cultural Relations with the U.S.S.R. by Mrs. Beatrice King. The material thus made available was discussed at a meeting at the Caxton Hall on October 5, 1940. While the original Conference and the Caxton Hall meeting were noticed to some extent at the time, and rumours of genetic controversy o occasionally reached Great Britain², it seems proper now to make some attempt to evaluate any contributions to genetic thought which may have been made in connexion with them.