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Nikolai Vavilov

Russian agronomist who identified centers of origin of cultivated plants.

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By 1933, the seed collection assembled by botanist and geneticist Nikolai Vavilov contained at least 148,000 live seeds and tubers.[1][2]

Life and work

He entered the Petrovskaya Agricultural Academy in 1906 and graduated in 1910.[3] His first expedition, in 1916, collected 171 legume seed samples in Iran.[4] By 1933 his institute held over 148,000 seed specimens.[1][2] Vavilov was arrested by the NKVD in Ukraine in August 1940.[5][2]

He died in prison in Saratov in 1943.[6][5] Nikolai Vavilov came into the world on 25 November 1887 in Moscow, where his family were merchants.[7] During 1913 and 1914, Vavilov investigated plant immunity across Europe, working alongside the British geneticist William Bateson.[8] At the Fifth International Congress of Genetics convened in Berlin during 1927, Vavilov publicly introduced his theory regarding the geographic centers where cultivated plants originated.[1]

A death sentence handed down in July 1941 was later reduced to a twenty-year prison term.[6]

What the cited sources add

A 2024 Guardian article notes that Vavilov's seed bank was established in a former palace in Leningrad's Herzen Street.[2] The same source states that Vavilov was elected a member of the Royal Society of London.[2] A HuffPost article from 2010 reports that Vavilov founded the Pavlovsk Station in 1926, which now houses Europe's largest fruit and berry collection.[9] The Guardian article describes how Vavilov was bundled into a black sedan by four NKVD agents during a seed-collecting expedition.[2]

It also records that British scientists Sydney Harland and Cyril Darlington co-wrote an obituary for Vavilov after the war.[2] A Wanderlog listing describes a monument dedicated to Nikolai Vavilov located in Saratov, Russia.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Nikolai Vavilov" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Vavilov, "Geographische Zentren unserer Kulturpflanzen. In: Verhandlungen des V. Internationalen Kongresses für Vererbungswissenschaft Berlin 1927, Supplementband 1", Zeitschrift für induktive Abstammungs- und Vererbungs; Kurlovich, "The Significance of Vavilov's Scientific Expeditions", PGR Newsletter, 3 September 2010, p. 23–32; Parkin, "The inspiring scientists who saved the world's first seed bank", The Guardian, 12 November 2024; Parkin, "The inspiring scientists who saved the world's first seed bank", The Guardian, 12 November 202 en.wikipedia.org
  2. Parkin, "The inspiring scientists who saved the world's first seed bank", The Guardian, 12 November 2024. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  3. Wikipedia, "Nikolai Vavilov" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pringle, "The murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The story of Stalin's persecution of one of the great scientists of the twentieth century", Simon & Schuster, 2014, p. 22–23 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Nikolai Vavilov" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kurlovich, "The Significance of Vavilov's Scientific Expeditions", PGR Newsletter, 3 September 2010, p. 23–32 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Nikolai Vavilov" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cohen, "Exploring the nature of science through courage and purpose: a case study of Nikolai Vavilov and plant biodiversity", SpringerPlus, 2016, p. 1159; Parkin, "The inspiring scientists who saved the world's first seed bank", The Guardian, 12 November 2024; Smith, "Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov", Humboldt State University, 7 August 2021; Parkin, "The inspiring scientists who saved the world's first seed bank", The Guardian, 12 November 2024; Smith, "Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov", Humboldt State University, 7 August 2021; Smith, "Nikolai Iva en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Nikolai Vavilov" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hawkes, "N.I. Vavilov the man and his work", Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter, 1988, p. 3–5 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Nikolai Vavilov" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: 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 Schus (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Nikolai Vavilov" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nikolay Ivanovich Vavilov. Encyclopaedia Britannica (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Fowler, "The Second Siege: Saving Seeds Revisited", HuffPost, 18 August 2010. facts only, no text reused. huffpost.com
  10. "Monument N. I. Vavilov", Wanderlog. facts only, no text reused. wanderlog.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Nikolai Vavilov (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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