Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin

Ivan Michurin

Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin ( Russian Иван Владимирович Мичурин ., Scientific transliteration Ivan Vladimirovič Micurin * October 15 ^{. Jul} / 27. October  1855 ^greg. In Dolgoje, Ryazan Governorate , today Mitschurowka, Ryazan , †  7. June  1935 in Michurinsk ) was a Russian botanist and plant breeder . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Miciurin ".

Live and act

He succeeded in growing frost-resistant types of fruit for the continental climate of Russia , which made fruit growing possible for large areas of Russia with their low winter temperatures. His first research was unsupported by the Imperial Department of Agriculture, but soon after the October Revolution it led to success with the now new competent Soviet organs : He received the necessary funds and support and was able to create over 300 new varieties for Russia's climate.

Because of these successes, his place of birth, the nearby city of Novomitschurinsk and the city of Michurinsk , the former Koslow, and at times the Bulgarian city of Tsarevo were named after him. Michurin was enthusiastic about the new political power and used it to support his academic work. In old Russia he was, in his own words, “an insignificant loner” of experimental horticulture. But only the “great Lenin ” understood his work and smoothed the way into socialist life, and Comrade Stalin continued to support him.

Michurin was of the opinion that fruit seedlings are influenced by upbringing and suitable grafting partners (mentor) and not according to Mendel's rules ( mentor method ). Michurin mistakenly considered the changes thus achieved to be hereditary . His views became the basis of the official party teaching and became binding for the country. Based on Michurin ideas arose throughout the Soviet Union and after the Second World War in most Eastern Bloc countries schools and scientific institutions who are not genetics of Brno Augustinian monk Gregor Mendel should continue to develop, but the methods of the Soviet citizen Mitschurin and teach. The Botany became a party matter and ideology .

A pupil and colleague of Michurin's, Trofim Lysenko , later made a name for himself in spreading the new "Michurin's science", which was based on Darwin , Lamarck and Marx and was supposed to prove to the world the superiority of Soviet science . As head of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences , Lyssenko was for 16 years, from 1948 to 1964, the " dictator of Soviet biology " (see Lyssenkoism ).

The main concern of Michurin, however, was the school gardens and the inclusion of the natural sciences, botany and especially gardening in education and school ; he saw in the teacher the gardener and in the student the young tree that had to be raised and shaped so that one day it could bear the best fruit.

See also

• List of pomologists

literature

• Martin Schmidt: Mitschurin. Life and work. Methods, views, successes of the great Russian plant breeder . Deutscher Bauernverlag, Berlin 1949 (with picture).
• E. Sankewitsch: The working methods of Michurin's plant breeding. A critical presentation of the methods and views of IW Michurin and TD Lyssenko . Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1950
• Arnold Buchholz: IWM: The biological science in the Soviet Union. In: Researchers and Scientists in Europe Today. 2. Physicians, biologists, anthropologists. Ed. Hans Schwerte & Wilhelm Spengler . Series: Gestalter Our Zeit Vol. 4. Stalling, Oldenburg 1955, pp. 203-210.

Web links

Commons : Iwan Wladimirowitsch Michurin  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Iwan Wladimirowitsch Michurin in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Iwan Wladimirowitsch Michurin in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Author entry and list of the described plant names for Iwan Vladimirovich Michurin at the IPNI