- PII
- S0205-96060000616-4-1
- DOI
- 10.31857/S60000616-4-1
- Publication type
- Article
- Status
- Published
- Authors
- Volume/ Edition
- Volume 37 / Issue 1
- Pages
- 110-135
- Abstract
- This essay discusses the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Daniil Vladimirovich Lebedev, an outstanding historian of science, bibliographer, and botanist. Trained professionally as a geneticist, Lebedev became involved in the Lysenko controversy. He refused to disavow his teachers in genetics who had been arrested - N. I. Vavilov, G. D. Karpechenko, and G. A. Levitsky - and in 1941 was expelled from the Komsomol (Young Communist League) and from the PhD program at Leningrad University where he studied at the time. He served on the front during the war and earned many military decorations. After the war Lebedev worked at the Library of the USSR Academy of Sciences and became its director by the early 1950s, only to fall victim to a new wave of political repression and arrests. He subsequently worked at the Botanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences (1953-1978) where he held the position of academic secretary, and at the Leningrad branch of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology (1978-1986). An ardent anti-Lysenkoist, in the 1950s and 1960s Lebedev authored several influential publications critical of Lysenko, in the Botanical Journal and the MOIP Bulletin. He also co-authored the famous 1955 “Letter of the Three Hundred” scientists protesting against the monopoly of Lysenko and his followers. In later years, Lebedev did much to restore historical truth about geneticists and rehabilitate their memory, in particular in his position as a member and the secretary of the Academy's Commission for the Preservation of N. I. Vavilov's Heritage (1966-1988). His views and advice influenced almost all of the authors who have written about the history of the struggle against Lysenko, including Zh. A. Medvedev, M. A. Popovsky, and V. N. Soyfer.
- Keywords
- D. V. Lebedev, N. I. Vavilov, G. D. Karpechenko, lysenkoism, history of science, bibliography, botanical institute, the Library of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Leningrad branch of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology
- Date of publication
- 01.01.2016
- Number of purchasers
- 1
- Views
- 1225
RAS PresidiumVoprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki
- ISSN (Print) 0205-9606
- ISSN (Online)2713-041X
A "GREAT ANTI-LYSENKOITE": THE CENTENARY OF DANIIL VLADIMIROVICH LEBEDEV
Индексирование
Scopus
Crossref
Higher Attestation Commission
At the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Scientific Electronic Library