Belief in progress or simple decency? Hermetic discoveries or the fate of people locked in a besieged city? These researchers did not hesitate to make a choice. If war broke out today, would it be similar?
The German blockade of Leningrad caused enormous famine in the city. In the most dramatic period, several thousand people a day were dying from malnutrition . Meanwhile, prominent Soviet academics barricaded themselves in the building of the Institute of Plant Cultivation to protect a unique collection of seeds from the desperate crowd.
Wrong place, wrong time
The brothers Sergei and Nikolai Wawiłow were geniuses. If they were born in a normal country and in normal time, their CVs would probably be classically boring. Half of the biographical note would probably cover achievements, orders, awards and distinctions. They would amaze humanity with their meaningful discoveries, they would die in glory and fame, and we would admire their monuments in many cities.
Several thousand people a day died of starvation in besieged Leningrad, and right next door scientists were protecting a huge collection of seeds ... (photo above:I, George Shuklin, license:CC BY 2.5).
However, Sergei and Nikolai did not live in a normal country. They lived in the totalitarian Soviet Union in difficult times - that is, the first half of the twentieth century. Because of this, their lives could not be peaceful.
Younger:physicist, organizer
Fate treated the two brothers extremely differently. Sergey, the younger of the Wawiłow brothers, was an extremely gifted physicist. However, his greatest asset was the perfect organization of work. He was an outstanding administrator - that's why he became a member of the Academy of Sciences at the age of forty-one.
The younger of the brothers, Sergey Wawiłow, was better at finding himself in the Soviet scientific community (public domain).
He focused on collectivity and cooperation, he had a great sense for people, he supported the most talented. His pupil was, for example, Pavel Cherenkov, who later became a Nobel Prize winner . It was to Sergei Wawiłow that he dedicated this most valuable distinction in the world of science. However, it was the elder of the Wawiłow family, Nikolai, who had gained recognition and well-deserved splendor earlier than his brother.
Elder:biologist, geneticist, visionary
Nikolai Vavilov was not only a biologist and geneticist. He was a visionary and a dreamer. Using his education and talent, he tried to create a world where no one would starve . Awards, titles and badges came very early. From 1933 he managed the Soviet Institute of Genetics.
The streak continued. Buoyed by his successes, he attempted a deed unprecedented in the history of mankind. - we read in the excellent book by Andrzej Goworski and Marta Panas-Goworska "Scientists from under the red star" - He decided to create a living bank of all plants grown in the world . The idea of such a collection was to preserve the exemplary, genetically most valuable seeds and, in the event of the extinction of a given crop, the possibility of its restoration.
The Leningrad All-Union Institute of Plant Cultivation was swelling from month to month.
Sudden loss of influence
Nikolai, a man of hundreds of talents and skills, did not possess one. In the Soviet reality - the most important. Unlike his younger brother Sergei, was unable to cleverly and painlessly drift across a deadly ocean of intrigue . In which one storm, triggered by the whim of a psychopathic despot, destroyed tens of thousands of people.
Sergei was also more fortunate. War broke out. Physicists were more important than biologists. A modern weapon more valuable than food. Sergey worked hard for the glory of his homeland, while his brother, to death in conflict with the influential pseudoscientist Trofim Łysenka , he was losing influence.
Lysenkism, based on antigenetic theories, triumphed. Two scientists with extremely different views stood on the scientific battlefield. In a country like the Soviet Union, that was one too many.
Seed bank
The seed bank contained an unprecedented and unique collection of over two hundred and fifty thousand different types of grain . There were also extinct species in it, so they were a model for a specific crop. The merit of Wawiłow is also the creation of a team of dedicated scientists who, in the dramatic time of a terrible famine in the city decided to live in the institute and look after the treasure personally .
Nikolai Vavilov did not understand one thing - no matter on whose side it was right. If you messed up with Trofim Łysenka, there could be only one effect (public domain).
They certainly faced a huge moral dilemma, but they chose to achieve scientific achievements that could save humanity from hunger in the future at the expense of the immediate rescue of hungry citizens.
At a time when food rations were up to 125 grams of bread per capita, were keeping an eye on seeds that could be used to make tons of bread . (...) Today, many scientists believe that the Vavilov collection is the most valuable property owned by the Russian Federation - we read in the aforementioned book "Scientists from under the red star".
Working in secret, scientists smuggled seed samples from Leningrad across a frozen lake to a depot in the Urals. In order to preserve the unique collection for future generations, they even sacrificed their own lives! In January 1942, Aleksander Szczukin, a nut specialist, died at his desk.
There were acts of cannibalism during the blockade of Leningrad. The bodies had to be buried as soon as possible ... In the photo, men burying corpses in the Wołkowski Cemetery (RIA Novosti archive, image # 216 / Boris Kudoyarov / CC-BY-SA 3.0).
Death by starvation also met Georgi Krijer, who was in charge of medicinal plants, and Dmitry Ivanov, who was in charge of the rice collection. After the latter died, workers discovered that he died of exhaustion, protecting several thousand packages of rice. They paid the highest price to study and defend the achievements of Nikolai Wawilov.
Spy and traitor
The achievements of his life could not be defended by Nikolai Wawilov himself. Lysenkism triumphed, and its creator gained such a position that he could gradually eliminate his competitors. As a result of denunciations, Nikolai Wavilov was arrested and accused of espionage and criticism of baldness.
His trial was classic for the criminal system created by Stalin. First the arrest, then the painstaking gathering of imaginary evidence of guilt. Torture, intimidation, extortion of denunciations.
One of the greatest visionaries of the twentieth century, Nikolai Vavilov, was sentenced to death. His companion of misery in that tragic time was Lieutenant Antoni Józef Zielicki, a friend of Józef Czapski, who mentioned in his memoirs about the scientist:
Nikolai went to prison, and Sergey - to the seat of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (public domain).
All over Russia, from the Arctic Circle to the borders of China, he had hundreds of experimental fields, 2,000 assistants worked under his leadership (...). He was convicted of denunciation (...) by Lysenko, who accused him of defending "bourgeois-clerical" science.
Honor and humiliation
Although the death penalty was finally changed to twenty years in labor camps, Nikolai Wawiłow did not survive the war - the creator of the largest seed bank died in a Saratov prison exhausted by starvation . Meanwhile, his brother Sergei was elected president of the USSR Academy of Sciences two years later.
The younger Wawiłow was more pragmatic than his brother. He perfectly understood the Soviet realities. Out of a sense of duty, he discreetly interceded for his brother, knowing at the same time that his fate was already sealed. As the president of the academy, he looked after his widowed sister-in-law and her son, and also fought for Nikolai's rehabilitation.
His life was not all roses at all. In Marta and Andrzej Goworski's book "Scientists from under the red star" we find a quote from a conversation between Sergei Wawiłow and a colleague: Every time they call me to the Kremlin - I don't know if I will come back home from there will they take me to Łubianka.
Sergey Vavilov could never be sure whether a denunciation or a whim of Stalin would lead him to Lubyanka (public domain).
Stalin, having anointed him president of the Academy, must have had a lot of fun knowing that Lysenko would now be Sergey Vavilov's closest associate. A man who directly or indirectly contributed to his brother's death.
Perhaps that is why Wawiłow survived eight heart attacks, the ninth one turned out to be fatal . The example of the brilliant brothers shows that the fate of scientists in a totalitarian state was no different from that of ordinary citizens. He was ruled by chance, the whims of power, and the eternal fear for his and his loved ones.