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Lysenko (1898-1976) was a Soviet biologist who had a disastrous effect upon Soviet biology for more than 20 years. He performed experiments by cold treating seeds to increase grain yields. He claimed that these benefits were inherited by future generations of the grain. This idea was an example of the long-discredited theory of Jean Baptiste Lamarck, called "inheritance of acquired characteristics." This is the idea that externally caused changes to an organism (like losing a finger) can affect future generations (by maybe causing a weak finger). By this theory, an antelope, stretching its neck to reach higher branches, had evolved into a giraffe. This sounds like a joke in light of Mendellian genetics and our current understanding of the DNA molecule. Many people found out that this was a cruel joke indeed.
Lysenko's theory fit well with Stalin's ideas, and he was promoted to the post of director of the Institute of Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The previous director, the respected biologist N. I. Vavilov, was fired, and eventually arrested and exiled to Siberia. Other biologists kept quiet about genetics, or suffered similar fates. And Soviet biology (and farming techniques) re-entered the dark ages. Stalin's exiling and killing of the successful farmers (kulaks) did not help matters, and the USSR suffered droughts in years of abundant rainfall. It was not until after Khruschchev's fall from power in 1964 that Lysenko was finally ousted from power, and Soviet biology was allowed to re-enter the 20th century.