And the The Welcome to Russian History Retold episode 175,

Charlatan, con man and murderer Trophim Lysenko.

Last time I finished up the era of Leonid Brezhnev.

Today we'll cover the life and impact of Trophim de Nisovich Lysenko.

Whoa, wait a minute.

This Lysenko guy wasn't a Soviet or Russian ruler, was he?

What gives? Well, like Senko, in my humble opinion, is one of the great

charlatans of the Soviet era and was a favorite of the next two leaders I will be covering again,

Nikita Khrushchev and Joseph Stalin.

He is also the cause of millions of deaths in the USSR

and the hoax he perpetrated set Soviet biology back for decades.

Lysenko and a pseudo-science gives us a great insight into some of the many reasons for the downfall of the Soviet Union.

It should also serve as a warning to us, and those who would follow similar forms of pseudoscience.

History does not look back favorably at those espousing their opinions of science based on emotional, political, or economic expediency, and self-interest. Hopefully in this

podcast you will see this unfold in how it correlates to a number of issues of

science and I dare say issues that humanity is facing today.

Trophine Lysenko was born in September 29,

1898 and the town of Carlofka, Ukraine to Denise and Oxana Lysenko, a peasant family.

Not a whole lot has known about his early upbringing, but for him to have attended the Kiev Agricultural

Institute from such humble beginnings meant that he must have shown some talent in intelligence.

His client to fame began with an article published

in the newspaper Pravda in 1927, with claims that he discovered a method of fertilization of crops that could be done without fertilizers or minerals.

...