View source for Nikolai Vavilov

{{short description|Russian botanist and geneticist (1887–1943)}}
{{good article}}
{{for|the 1990 biopic|Nikolai Vavilov (film)}}
{{family name hatnote|Ivanovich|Vavilov|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
|image            = Nikolai Vavilov NYWTS.jpg
|caption          = Vavilov in 1933
|birth_name       = Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov
|birth_date       = {{Birth date|1887|11|25|df=y}}<ref name=brit>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikolay-Ivanovich-Vavilov Nikolay Ivanovich Vavilov]. Encyclopaedia Britannica</ref><ref name=bse>[http://gatchina3000.ru/great-soviet-encyclopedia/bse/002/639.htm Вавилов Николай Иванович]. [[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]</ref>
|relatives        = [[Sergey Vavilov]] (brother)
|birth_place      = [[Moscow]], [[Russian Empire]]<ref name=brit/><ref name=bse/>
|death_date       = {{Death date and age|1943|01|26|1887|11|25|df=y}}<ref name=brit/><ref name=bse/>
|death_place      = [[Saratov]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]]<ref name=brit/><ref name=bse/>
|field            = {{ubl|[[Agronomy]]|[[Botany]]|[[Genetics]]}}
|work_institutions= {{ubl|Saratov Agricultural Institute|[[Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences]]}}
|alma_mater       = [[Moscow Agricultural Institute]]
|known_for        = [[Centers of origin]]
|author_abbrev_bot= '''Vavilov'''
|prizes           = {{ubl|[[Lenin Prize]]}}
}}
 
'''Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=[[Foreign Member of the Royal Society|ForMemRS]],<ref name="frs"/> [[HFRSE]]}} ({{lang-rus|Никола́й Ива́нович Вави́лов|p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ vɐˈvʲiləf|a=Ru-Nikolay_Ivanovich_Vavilov.ogg}}; {{OldStyleDate|25 November|1887|13 November}} – 26 January 1943) was a Russian and [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[agronomist]], [[botanist]] and [[geneticist]] who identified the [[Vavilov Center|centers of origin]] of [[Horticulture|cultivated]] plants. His research focused on [[plant breeding|improvement]] of [[wheat]], [[maize]] and other [[Cereal|cereal crops]].

Vavilov became the youngest member of the [[Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union]]. He was a member of the USSR [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|Central Executive Committee]], a recipient of the [[Lenin Prize]], and president of [[All-Union Geographical Society]]. He was a [[fellow of the Royal Society]] and of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]].

Vavilov's work was criticized by [[Trofim Lysenko]], whose anti-[[Mendelian inheritance|Mendelian]] concepts of plant biology had won favor with [[Joseph Stalin]]. As a result, Vavilov was arrested and subsequently sentenced to death in July 1941. Although his sentence was commuted to twenty years' imprisonment, he died in prison in 1943. In 1955, his death sentence was retroactively pardoned under [[Nikita Khrushchev]]. By the late 1950s, his reputation was publicly rehabilitated, and he began to be hailed as a hero of [[Soviet science]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hawkes |first=J. G. |date=1988 |title=N.I. Vavilov the man and his work |url=https://www.bioversityinternational.org/fileadmin/_migrated/uploads/tx_news/Plant_Genetic_Resources_Newsletter_No_72.pdf |journal=Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter |volume=72|pages=3–5 |via=IBPGR}}</ref>

== Early years and education ==

Nikolai Vavilov was born on 25 November 1887 into a merchant family in [[Moscow]], the older brother of physicist [[Sergey Vavilov|Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov]]. Despite his strict upbringing in the Orthodox Church, he was an atheist.<ref name="pringle">Pringle, Peter (2008). The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin's Persecution of One of the Great Scientists of the Twentieth Century. Simon and Schuster. p. 137. {{ISBN|978-0-7432-6498-3}}. "Despite his strict upbringing in the Orthodox Church, Vavilov had been an atheist from an early age. If he worshipped anything, it was science".</ref>

His father had grown up in poverty due to recurring crop failures and [[food security|food rationing]], and Vavilov became obsessed from an early age with ending [[famine]].<ref name="siebert">{{cite journal|author=Siebert, Charles|title=Food Ark|journal= [[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]]|volume =220 |issue=1|date= July 2011|pages =122–126}}</ref>

Vavilov entered the Petrovskaya Agricultural Academy (now the [[Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy]]) in 1906. During this time, he became known for carrying a pet lizard in his pocket wherever he went.<ref name="Pringle-2014">{{cite book |last=Pringle |first=Peter |title=The murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The story of Stalin's persecution of one of the great scientists of the twentieth century |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |publication-place=[[New York City]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4165-6602-1 |oclc=892938236 |pages=22–23}}</ref> He graduated from the Petrovka in 1910 with a dissertation on [[snail]]s as [[Pest (organism)|pests]]. From 1911 to 1912, he worked at the Bureau for Applied Botany and at the Bureau of [[Mycology]] and [[Plant pathology|Phytopathology]]. From 1913 to 1914, he travelled in Europe and studied plant [[Immunity (medicine)|immunity]], in collaboration with the British biologist [[William Bateson]], who helped establish the science of [[genetics]].<ref name=brit/>

== Academic career ==

{{further|Vavilov center}}

[[File:Vavilov-center.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Vavilov's 1924 scheme of [[Vavilov center|centers of origin]] suggested that plants were domesticated in China, Hindustan, Central Asia, Asia Minor, Mediterranean, Abyssinia, Central and South America.]]

Throughout his career, Vavilov went on a series of botanical-agronomic expeditions, collecting seeds from many parts of the world, and developing theories of their origins.<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010"/> The first expedition, in 1916, was to Iran, where he collected 171 samples of [[legume]] crop seeds new to Russia, including beans, chickpeas, clovers, everlasting peas, lentils, and peas. These finds suggested to him that many [[Domestication of plants|cultivated plants]] including legumes came from a [[Vavilov|center of origin]] in Southwest Asia.<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010"/> In 1917, Vavilov was a professor at the Faculty of Agronomy, [[Saratov State University|University of Saratov]].<ref name="Smith 2021"/> In 1920, he became Director of the Bureau of Applied Botany in Leningrad.<ref name="Smith 2021"/><ref>{{cite web |last=Kean |first=Sam |title=The Tragedy of the World's First Seed Bank |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-tragedy-of-the-worlds-first-seed-bank/ |publisher=Science History Institute |access-date=13 November 2024}}</ref> Later expeditions visited places including the high plains of Central Asia, Afghanistan, the Khoresm oasis, Japan, and Taiwan.<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010"/><ref name="Parkin 2024"/> The 1921 expedition visited Canada and the United States; Vavilov stated that North America was not a center of plant diversity, finding later that the centers of origin in the Americas were in Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America.<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010"/> On his way back from America he visited Western Europe, collecting seeds in Britain, France, Holland, Germany, Poland, and Sweden in 1922.<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010"/><ref name="Smith 2021"/>

From 1924 to 1935, he was the director of the [[Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences]] at Leningrad.<ref name="Smith 2021"/> He travelled the Mediterranean in 1926, visiting France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, North Africa and islands including Sardinia, Sicily, Crete, and Cyprus.<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010"/> He took special interest in legumes such as the chickpea, which he found contributed to soil fertility and added protein to the diets of people and their animals around the Mediterranean. Another expedition visited Jordan, Palestine, and Syria; he returned with seeds of a white lupin from Palestine; they became useful in plant breeding as they came to maturity early.<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010"/> Later expeditions went to Sudan and Ethiopia, where he identified a center of diversity in 1926.<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010"/>

[[File:Isaak square.jpg|thumb|left|Vavilov created the world's first seed bank in the [[Institute of Plant Industry]], [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]].<ref name="Smith 2021"/>]]

In 1927, Vavilov presented his theory of centers of origin to the public at the Fifth International Congress of Genetics in Berlin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vavilov |first=Nikolai |title=Geographische Zentren unserer Kulturpflanzen. In: Verhandlungen des V. Internationalen Kongresses für Vererbungswissenschaft Berlin 1927, Supplementband 1 |publisher=Zeitschrift für induktive Abstammungs- und Vererbungslehre |year=1928 |pages=342–369}}</ref> In [[Institute of Plant Industry|his institute]] at [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]], he created the world's largest collection of plant seeds;<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010">{{cite journal |last1=Kurlovich |first1=B. S. |last2=Rep'ev |first2=S.I. |last3=Petrova |first3=M.V. |display-authors=etal  |url=https://archive.today/20100903031501/http://www2.bioversityinternational.org/publications/pgrnewsletter/article.asp?id_article=6&id_issue=124 |title=The Significance of Vavilov's Scientific Expeditions |journal=PGR Newsletter |issue=124 |date=3 September 2010 |publisher=[[Bioversity International]] |pages=23–32}}</ref> by 1933, it contained over 148,000 specimens.<ref name="Parkin 2024"/> The collection became internationally famous, attracting praise from overseas but hostile attention from [[Joseph Stalin]].<ref name="Parkin 2024">{{cite news |last=Parkin |first=Simon |title= The inspiring scientists who saved the world's first seed bank |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/12/food-source-famine-leningrad-seed-bank-nikolai-vavilov |access-date=12 November 2024 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=12 November 2024}}</ref>

In 1929 he went to China, Japan, and Korea, locating another center of cultivated plants in Japan.<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010"/>

In 1932, on his last expedition, he travelled widely in Latin America, visiting Cuba, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay after attending the Sixth International Congress of Genetics in Uruguay.<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010"/>

[[File:Visita de Nikolái Ivánovich Vavílov.JPG|upright=1.25|thumb|Vavilov (fifth from left) alongside geneticist [[Alberto Boerger|Albert Boerger]] during his visit to [[Uruguay]] in 1932 ]]

Vavilov's work on the genetic diversity of crop plants across the world spanned the concept of centers of origin, the Darwinian problem of [[speciation]], plant breeding, and a geographical approach to studies of crops,<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010"/> as well as the law of homologous series in variation.<ref>[http://macroevolution.narod.ru/popov_eng.htm Popov I. Yu (2002). Periodical systems in biology] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070514194520/http://macroevolution.narod.ru/popov_eng.htm |date=14 May 2007 }}.</ref> 
He is remembered for his contributions to the [[plant breeding|improvement]] of varieties of [[wheat]], [[maize]] and other [[cereal crops]] that sustain the global population.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Shumnyĭ |first1=V. K. |title=Two brilliant generalizations of Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov (for the 120th anniversary) |journal=Genetika |volume=43 |issue=11 |pages=1447–1453 |year=2007 |pmid=18186182}}<br/>{{cite journal|last1=Zakharov |first1=I. A. |title=Nikolai I Vavilov (1887–1943) |doi=10.1007/BF02703666 |journal=Journal of Biosciences |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=299–301 |year=2005 |pmid= 16052067|s2cid=20870892 }}<br/>{{cite journal |last1=Crow |first1=J. F. |title=Plant breeding giants. Burbank, the artist; Vavilov, the scientist |journal=Genetics |volume=158 |issue=4 |pages=1391–1395 |year=2001 |doi=10.1093/genetics/158.4.1391 |pmid=11514434 |pmc=1461760}}<br/>{{cite journal |last1=Crow |first1=J. F. |title=N. I. Vavilov, martyr to genetic truth |journal=Genetics |volume=134 |issue=1 |pages=1–4 |year=1993 |doi=10.1093/genetics/134.1.1 |pmid=8514123 |pmc=1205417}}<br/>{{Cite journal |last1=Cohen |first1=B. M. |doi=10.1007/BF02860048 |title=Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov: The explorer and plant collector a |journal=Economic Botany |volume=45 |pages=38–46 |year=1991 |issue=1 |bibcode=1991EcBot..45...38C |s2cid=27563223 }}</ref> Vavilov was a man of enormous energy, described as having "a mind that never slept and a body which for its capacity for enduring physical hardships can seldom have been matched."<ref name="McElroy 2014 pp. 207–216"/> For example, he documented 3,000 types of ''[[Triticum vulgare]]'' wheat, calling them all "perfectly recognizable morphologically"; J. Scott McElroy comments that it is difficult to imagine the time, energy, and knowledge required to collect and describe so many types of one species.<ref name="McElroy 2014 pp. 207–216">{{cite journal |last=McElroy |first=J. Scott |title=Vavilovian Mimicry: Nikolai Vavilov and His Little-Known Impact on Weed Science |journal=Weed Science |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=62 |issue=2 |year=2014 |pages=207–216 |doi=10.1614/ws-d-13-00122.1 |s2cid=86549764 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2014WeedS..62..207M }}</ref>

== Eclipse ==

=== Genetics conference debacle ===

In 1932, during the sixth congress, Vavilov proposed holding the seventh [[International Congress of Genetics]] in the USSR in 1937. In 1935, Vavilov was elected chairman of the International Congress of Genetics for this purpose, but in 1936 the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union#Stalin years: 1934–1953|Politburo]] cancelled the event; the congress eventually took place in Edinburgh in 1939 instead. The Politburo further prohibited Vavilov from travelling abroad; during the Congress's opening ceremony an empty chair was placed on the stage as a symbolic reminder of Vavilov's involuntary absence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Soyfer |first=Valery N. |title=Tragic History of the VII International Congress of Genetics |year=2003 |url=http://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC1462743&blobtype=pdf |journal=Genetics|volume=165 |issue=1 |pages=1–9 |doi=10.1093/genetics/165.1.1 |pmid=14504213 |pmc=1462743 }}</ref><ref name="Smith 2021"/>

=== Lysenko's opposition ===

[[File:Lysenko with Stalin.gif|thumb|Lysenko speaking at the [[Kremlin]] in 1935. Behind him on the far right is [[Joseph Stalin]].]]

[[Trofim Lysenko]] joined the staff of the institute and began to oppose Vavilov, arguing that genetics was nonsense invented by the Roman Catholic monk [[Gregor Mendel]], and proposing his own [[Lamarckism|Lamarckian]] views of inheritance and evolution, and the idea of improving a crop variety by [[vernalization]].<ref name="Smith 2021"/> Lysenko had the ear of Stalin, who summoned Vavilov and mocked him in the Kremlin.<ref name="Smith 2021"/> In 1936, Lysenko arranged for Vavilov to be sacked from his post as head of the institute.<ref name="Cohen 2016">{{cite journal |last1=Cohen |first1=Joel I. |last2=Loskutov |first2=Igor G. |title=Exploring the nature of science through courage and purpose: a case study of Nikolai Vavilov and plant biodiversity |journal=SpringerPlus |volume=5 |issue=1 |date=2016 |page=1159 |pmid=27504257 |pmc=4958092 |doi=10.1186/s40064-016-2795-z  |doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Imprisonment and death ===

[[File:Vavilov in prison.jpg|thumb|Vavilov's mugshot, 1942]]

While collecting seeds in Ukraine in August 1940, Vavilov was arrested by the [[NKVD]] (the Soviet secret police) and imprisoned for his opposition to Lysenko;<ref name="Cohen 2016"/> he was accused of spying for the British and ruining Soviet agriculture.<ref name="Parkin 2024"/><ref name="Smith 2021"/> After undergoing interrogations, he made a false confession, was found guilty, and sentenced to death in <!--July--> 1941.<ref name="Parkin 2024"/><ref name="Smith 2021"/> In 1942, his sentence was commuted to twenty years imprisonment.<ref name="Smith 2021"/> In 1943, he died in prison in [[Saratov]] as a result of the harsh conditions.<ref name="old.ihst.ru"/> The prison's medical documentation indicates that he had been admitted into the prison hospital a few days prior to his death and mentions the diagnoses of [[pneumonia]], [[dystrophy]] and [[edema]] as well as general weakness as a complaint, but the death certificate only mentions "decline of cardiac activity".<ref name="old.ihst.ru">{{Cite web |url=http://old.ihst.ru/projects/sohist/document/vavilov/132.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190916134646/http://old.ihst.ru/projects/sohist/document/vavilov/132.htm |archive-date=16 September 2019 |language=ru |title=АКТ: о смерти заключенного |trans-title=ACT: on the death of a prisoner}}</ref><ref>[Шайкин В. Г. Николай Вавилов. — М.: Мол. гвардия, 2006. — 256 с.: ил. — (ЖЗЛ).]</ref> Some authors assert that the actual cause of death was starvation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.splendidtable.org/story/how-nikolay-vavilov-the-seed-collector-who-tried-to-end-famine-died-of-starvation |title=How Nikolay Vavilov, the seed collector who tried to end famine, died of starvation |publisher=[[NPR]] |last=Nabhan |first=Gary Paul |access-date=22 February 2014 |archive-date=22 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222202618/http://www.splendidtable.org/story/how-nikolay-vavilov-the-seed-collector-who-tried-to-end-famine-died-of-starvation |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author-link=Loren R. Graham |last=Graham |first=Loren R. |title=Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Short History |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-521-28789-0 |page=130}}</ref> <!--According to [[Lyubov Brezhneva]], he was thrown to his death into a pit of lime in the prison yard.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brezhneva |first=Lyubov |year=1995 |title=The World I Left Behind: Pieces of a Past |publisher=Random House |isbn=0-679-43911-0 |page= }}{{pn}}</ref>-->

== Personal life ==

Vavilov's son Oleg with his first wife Yekaterina Sakharova was born in 1918.<ref name="pringle"/> That marriage ended in divorce in 1926, after which he married geneticist [[Elena Barulina|Elena Ivanovna Barulina]], a specialist on lentils and assistant head of the institute's seed collection. Their son Yuri was born in 1928.<ref name="pringle"/>

== Honors and distinctions ==

Vavilov became the youngest member of the [[Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union]].<ref name="Smith 2021">{{cite web |last=Smith |first=James P. |title=Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov |url=https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1103&context=botany_jps |publisher=Humboldt State University |access-date=12 November 2024 |date=7 August 2021}}</ref> He was a member of the USSR [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|Central Executive Committee]],<ref name="Smith 2021"/> a recipient of the [[Lenin Prize]] in 1928,<ref name="Smith 2021"/> and president of [[All-Union Geographical Society]] in 1931.<ref name="Smith 2021"/> He was a [[fellow of the Royal Society]] (of London),<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal |last1=Harland |first1=S. C. |doi=10.1098/rsbm.1954.0017 |title=Nicolai Ivanovitch Vavilov. 1885-1942 |journal=[[Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society]] |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=259–264|year=1954 |jstor=769210|s2cid=86376257 }}</ref> and a fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 |date=July 2006 |publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh |isbn=0-902-198-84-X |url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf |access-date=4 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Legacy ==

=== Seedbank ===

[[File:Maize diversity in Vavilovs office (3421259242).jpg|thumb|[[Maize]] diversity in Vavilov's office]]

Vavilov realized that many useful plant varieties would be lost through human action unless specific steps were taken to save them. He was the first botanist to grasp the need for a seedbank, and he was an expert germplasm collector.<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010"/> The [[Institute of Plant Industry|Leningrad seedbank]] was preserved and protected through the 28-month long [[Siege of Leningrad]]. While the Soviets had ordered the evacuation of art from the [[Hermitage Museum]], they had not evacuated the 250,000 samples of seeds, roots, and fruits stored in what was then the world's largest seedbank. A group of scientists at the Vavilov Institute boxed up a cross section of seeds, moved them to the basement, and took shifts protecting them. Those guarding the seedbank refused to eat its contents, even though by the end of the siege in the spring of 1944, a number of them had died of starvation.<ref name="Parkin 2024"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-second-siege-saving-s_b_685867 |title=The Second Siege: Saving Seeds Revisited |work=HuffPost |first=Cary |last=Fowler |date=18 August 2010 |access-date=12 October 2024}}</ref><ref name="siebert"/>

In 1943, parts of Vavilov's collection, samples stored within the territories occupied by the German armies, mainly in [[Ukraine]] and [[Crimea]], were seized by a German unit headed by [[Heinz Brücher]]. Many of the samples were transferred to the [[Schutzstaffel]] (SS) Institute for Plant Genetics, which had been established at {{ill|Schloss Lannach|de}} near [[Graz]], Austria.<ref>[http://www.bioversityinternational.org/publications/pgrnewsletter/article.asp?lang=en&id_article=48&id_issue=129 Heinz Brücher and the SS botanical collecting command to Russia 1943] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929102654/http://www.bioversityinternational.org/publications/pgrnewsletter/article.asp?lang=en&id_article=48&id_issue=129 |date=29 September 2007 }}. ''PGR Newsletter 129''. Bioversity International.</ref>

=== Economic impact ===

Vavilov combined the skill of collecting distinct varieties of crop plants with theoretical understanding of their significance in botany and the ability to put this knowledge to practical use. In particular, he created the collection of germplasm of leguminous crop plants held at the [[Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry]] (renamed after him in 1967). In turn, this collection supplied the germplasm for more than three quarters of the legume varieties bred in the [[Soviet Union]]. By 2010, the institute held 43,000 legume samples, from 160 species in 15 genera. Vavilov's work has been continued by later botanists at the institute, for example breeding [[transgressive segregation|transgressive]] forms of [[Lupinus|lupin]] (a legume) resistant to the [[fusarium wilt]] fungus.<ref name="PGR Newsletter 2010"/>

=== Soviet rehabilitation ===

[[File:1987 CPA 5890.jpg|thumb|upright|Vavilov on a 1987 Soviet stamp]]

In 1955, Vavilov's life sentence was voided at a hearing of the [[Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union]], undertaken as part of a [[de-Stalinization]] effort to review Stalin-era death sentences in the time of [[Nikita Khrushchev]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Pringle |first=Peter |title=The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7432-6498-3 |page=300}}</ref> By the late 1950s, his reputation was publicly rehabilitated, and he began to be hailed as a hero of [[Science and technology in the Soviet Union|Soviet science]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Atz |first1=James W. |last2=Winter |first2=Robert J. |year=1968 |title=Further steps in the rehabilitation of N.I. Vavilov |journal=[[The Journal of Heredity]] |volume=59 |issue=5 |pages=274–275 |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a107716}}</ref>

=== Vavilovian mimicry ===

{{main|Vavilovian mimicry}}

While studying the origins and evolutionary history of crop plants including [[cereal]]s, Vavilov observed that weeds are inevitably included with crop seed by seed contamination. A consequence, he stated, was that the weed would evolve to appear progressively more like the crop: whenever a farmer, or a winnowing machine, removed as many weed seeds as possible, only the weed seeds that most closely resembled the crop would survive. Thus, selection would be applied unconsciously by the farmer (or by the [[winnowing machine]] used to separate the seeds). Vavilov described the cereal [[rye]], which he believed had evolved in this way, as secondary crops. In 1982, Georges Pasteur proposed the name 'Vavilovian mimicry' for this process.<ref name="McElroy 2014 pp. 207–216"/><ref name="Pasteur1982">{{cite journal |last=Pasteur |first=Georges |year=1982 |title=A classificatory review of mimicry systems |journal=[[Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics]] |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=169–199 |doi=10.1146/annurev.es.13.110182.001125 |jstor=2097066|bibcode=1982AnRES..13..169P }}</ref>

=== Namesakes ===

Today, a street in downtown Saratov bears Vavilov's name. Vavilov's monument in Saratov near the end of Vavilov Street was unveiled in 1997.<ref>{{cite web |title=Monument N. I. Vavilov |url=https://wanderlog.com/place/details/11184473/monument-n-i-vavilov |website=Wanderlog |access-date=15 November 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://saratov.bezformata.com/listnews/miting-10-marta-v-11-30-u-pamyatnika-n-vavilovu/65405823/ |language=ru |title=Все на митинг 10 марта в 11.30 у памятника Н.Вавилову ! (анонс) |trans-title=Everyone to the rally on March 10 at 11:30 at the monument to N. Vavilov! (announcement) |website=saratov.bezformata.com}}</ref> <!--Another monument to him is near the entrance to the [[Resurrection cemetery]] in Saratov, where Vavilov is buried.{{cn|date=November 2024}}--> The [[Russian Academy of Science|USSR Academy of Sciences]] established the Vavilov Award (1965) and the Vavilov Medal (1968).<ref name="Smith 2021"/> Today, the [[Institute of Plant Industry|N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry]] in St. Petersburg still maintains one of the world's largest collections of plant genetic material.<ref>[http://www.vir.nw.ru/ N.I.Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry] at www.vir.nw.ru</ref> In 1968, the institute was renamed after Vavilov in time for its 75th anniversary.<ref name="Smith 2021"/> A [[minor planet]], [[2862 Vavilov]], discovered in 1977 by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] astronomer [[Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh]] is named after him and his brother [[Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schmadel |first=Lutz D. |title=Dictionary of Minor Planet Names |pages=235 |edition=5th |year=2003 |publisher=[[Springer Verlag]] |location=New York |isbn=978-3-540-00238-3 }}</ref> The crater ''[[Vavilov (crater)|Vavilov]]'' on the [[far side of the Moon]] is named after him and his brother, a physicist.<ref>{{cite news |title=Moon Crater Named for Once-Disgraced Soviet Geneticist and Brother |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/12/03/archives/moon-crater-named-for-oncedisgraced-soviet-geneticist-and-brother.html |access-date=12 November 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=3 December 1968 |page=36}}</ref>
{{botanist|Vavilov|border=0}}

=== Media ===

The story of the researchers at the Vavilov Institute during the Siege of Leningrad was fictionalized by novelist [[Elise Blackwell]] in her 2003 novel ''Hunger''.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/elise-blackwell/hunger-3/ |title=Hunger: Kirkus Reviews}}</ref> That novel was the inspiration for [[the Decemberists]]' song "When The War Came" in the 2006 album ''[[The Crane Wife]]'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Decemberists |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/6471-the-decemberists/ |access-date=2022-11-03 |website=Pitchfork |date=30 October 2006}}</ref> which also depicts the Institute during the siege and mentions Vavilov by name.<ref>{{Cite web |title=When The War Came - The Decemberists |url=https://www.songlyrics.com/the-decemberists/when-the-war-came-lyrics/ |access-date=2022-11-03 |website=SongLyrics.com }}</ref>

In 1987, the [[Shevchenko National Prize]] was awarded to Anatoliy Borsyuk (film director), [[Serhiy Dyachenko]] (script writer), and Oleksandr Frolov (camera) for the film ''Star of Vavilov'' ([[Russian language|Russian]]: "Звезда Вавилова") about Vavilov's work.<ref>{{cite web |title=Фильм Звезда Вавилова |url=https://www.okino.ua/film/zvezda-vavilova-521019/ |language=ru |trans-title=Film 'Vavilov's Star' |access-date=2022-11-03}}</ref>

In 1990, a six part documentary entitled [[Nikolai Vavilov (film)|Nikolai Vavilov]] ([[Russian language|Russian]]: Николай Вавилов) was created as a joint production of the [[Soviet Union|USSR]] and [[East Germany]].<!--<ref>{{cite web |title=Nikolay Vavilov |date=1990-02-01 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098875/ |type=Biography, Drama |website=IMDB |access-date=2022-11-03}}</ref>--><ref name="sgau">[http://www.sgau.ru/aoh/sgau/vavilov/vav_dat.htm 120 лет со дня рождения Н. И. Вавилова] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008115332/http://www.sgau.ru/aoh/sgau/vavilov/vav_dat.htm |date=2007-10-08 }}</ref>

== Books ==

=== In Russian ===

* Земледельческий Афганистан. (1929)  (''Agricultural [[Afghanistan]]'')
* Селекция как наука. (1934) (''Breeding as science'')
* Закон гомологических рядов в наследственной изменчивости. (1935) (''The law of homology series in genetical mutability'')
* Учение о происхождении культурных растений после Дарвина. (1940) (''The theory of origins of cultivated plants after [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]'')
* Географическая локализация генов пшениц на земном шаре. (1929) (''The Geographical Localization of Wheat Genes on the Earth'')

=== In English ===

* ''The Origin, Variation, Immunity and Breeding of Cultivated Plants'' (translated by K. Starr Chester). 1951. Chronica Botanica 13:1–366, [http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160516104743/http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/bitstream/1/2037885/1/P2466.pdf link]
* ''Origin and Geography of Cultivated Plants'' (translated by [[Doris Löve]]). 1987. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 
* ''[https://alliancebioversityciat.org/publications-data/five-continents Five Continents]'' (translated by [[Doris Löve]]). 1997. IPGRI, Rome; VIR, St. Petersburg.

== See also ==

* [[VASKhNIL]] (the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the Soviet Union)
* [[Lysenkoism]]

== References ==

{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==

* {{Cite journal |last1=Bakhteev |first1=F. K. |last2=Dickson |first2=J. G. |doi=10.1086/403015 |title=To the History of Russian Science: Academician Nicholas IV an Vavilov on His 70th Anniversary (November 26, 1887 – August 2, 1942) |journal=The Quarterly Review of Biology |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=115–9 |year=1960 |pmid= 13686142|s2cid=225068057 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Barry Mendel |year=1980 |title=Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov: His Life and Work |publisher=[[University of Texas at Austin]] (PhD thesis) |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/ab678c9e2173770977dd5b9af280fe04/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y |ref=none}}
* {{Cite web |author=Kurlovich, B.S. |title=What is a species? |url=https://sites.google.com/site/biodiversityoflupins/15-objective-regularities-in-the-variability-of-chatacters/what-is-a-species |website=Biodiversity of lupins |ref=none}}
* Loskutov, Igor G. (1999). ''Vavilov and his Institute. A history of the world collection of plant genetic resources in Russia''. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy. {{ISBN|92-9043-412-0}}
* [[Gary Paul Nabhan|Nabhan, Gary Paul]] (2008). Where our Food Comes from: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine. {{ISBN|978-1-59726-399-3}}.
* {{cite book | last=Parkin | first=Simon | title=The Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice | publisher=Simon and Schuster | publication-place=New York | date=2024-10-15 | isbn=978-1-6680-0766-2 |ref=none}}
**{{cite news| last=Honigsbaum | first=Mark | title=The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad by Simon Parkin review – the lost heroes of Soviet horticulture |newspaper=The Observer | date=18 November 2024 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/nov/18/the-forbidden-garden-of-leningrad-by-simon-parkin-review-the-lost-heroes-of-soviet-horticulture |ref=none}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Vasina-Popova |first1=E. T. |title=The role of N. I. Vavilov in the development of Soviet genetics and animal selection |journal=Genetika |volume=23 |issue=11 |pages=2002–2006 |year=1987 |pmid=3322935 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Vavilov |first=N. I. |title=Correspondence legacy of N. I. Vavilov |journal=Genetika |volume=15 |issue=8 |pages=1525–1526 |year=1979 |pmid=383572 |ref=none}}

== External links ==

{{commons category|Nikolai Vavilov}}

* [http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/css/330/two/ Vavilov, Centers of Origin, Spread of Crops]
* [http://www.vir.nw.ru/ Vavilov Center for Plant Industry]
* [http://biodiversity.ucoz.ru/index/genetic_resources_of_leguminous_plants_in_the_n_i_vavilov_institute_of_plant_industry/0-10 Genetic Resources of Leguminous Plants in the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry]
* [https://www.marxists.org/subject/science/essays/vavilov.htm N. I. Vavilov, ''The Problem of the Origin of the World's Agriculture in the Light of the Latest Investigations'']
* [https://www.marxists.org/subject/science/essays/speeches.htm#vavilov Speech at the 1939 Conference on Genetics and Selection]
* [https://sites.google.com/site/biodiversityoflupins/18-conclusion/19a-theoretical-base-of-our-researches-and-their-results Theoretical base of our researches ]
* [https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1103&context=botany_jps Biography by James P. Smith] contains a full list of Vavilov's works, and a timeline of his life and posthumous rehabilitation.

{{Lysenkoism}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vavilov, Nikolai Ivanovich}}
[[Category:1887 births]]
[[Category:1943 deaths]]
[[Category:Scientists from Moscow]]
[[Category:People from Moskovsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:All-Russian Central Executive Committee members]]
[[Category:Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union members]]
[[Category:Russian atheists]]
[[Category:Russian agronomists]]
[[Category:Soviet botanists]]
[[Category:Soviet agronomists]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian botanists]]
[[Category:Botanists with author abbreviations]]
[[Category:Russian geneticists]]
[[Category:Soviet geneticists]]
[[Category:Russian geographers]]
[[Category:Soviet geographers]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian explorers]]
[[Category:20th-century geographers]]
[[Category:Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Full Members of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Academicians of the VASKhNIL]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Deaths by starvation]]
[[Category:Soviet people who died in prison custody]]
[[Category:Prisoners who died in Soviet detention]]
[[Category:Soviet rehabilitations]]
[[Category:Russian scientists]]
[[Category:Deputies of Lensovet]]