Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin (russian: Иван Владимирович Мичурин) ( – June 7, 1935) was a Russian practitioner of

selection Selection may refer to: Science * Selection (biology), also called natural selection, selection in evolution ** Sex selection, in genetics ** Mate selection, in mating ** Sexual selection in humans, in human sexuality ** Human mating strategie ...

to produce new types of crop plants, Honorable Member of the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

, and

academician An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life. In syst ...

of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agriculture. Throughout all his life, Michurin worked to create new sorts of fruit plants. He introduced over 300 new varieties. He was awarded the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...

and

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени, translit=Orden Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to th ...

for his achievements. The town of

Michurinsk Michurinsk (russian: Мичу́ринск) is the second most populous town in Tambov Oblast, Russia. Population: History Originally known as Kozlov (), it was founded in 1635 at the northern end of the emerging Belgorod Line, a frontier defen ...

is named in his honor, as was the

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

n town of

Tsarevo Tsarevo ( bg, Царево, , also transliterated as Carevo or Tzarevo) is a town and seaside resort in the Municipality of Tsarevo, Burgas Province, Bulgaria. Etymology In the past, it was known as Vasiliko ( el, Βασιλικόν), and betwe ...

between 1950 and 1991.

Life and work

In 1875, Michurin leased a strip of land of about 500 square metres not far from

Tambov Tambov (, ; rus, Тамбов, p=tɐmˈbof) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, Central Federal District, central Russia, at the confluence of the Tsna River (Moksha basin), Tsna and ...

, began collecting

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

s, and started his research in

pomology Pomology (from Latin , “fruit,” + ) is a branch of botany that studies fruit and its cultivation. The term fruticulture—introduced from Romance languages (all of whose incarnations of the term descend from Latin and )—is also used. Pomol ...

and

. In 1899, he acquired a much bigger strip of land of about 130,000 square metres and moved all of his plants there. In 1920, right after the end of the

Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

ordered

People's Commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means 'commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and Eas ...

Agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

Semion Sereda to organize an analytic research project on Michurin's works and practical achievements. On September 11, 1922,

Mikhail Kalinin Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (russian: link=no, Михаи́л Ива́нович Кали́нин ; 3 June 1946), known familiarly by Soviet citizens as "Kalinych", was a Soviet politician and Old Bolshevik revolutionary. He served as head of s ...

visited Michurin at Lenin's personal request. On November 20, 1923, the

Council of People's Commissars The Councils of People's Commissars (SNK; russian: Совет народных комиссаров (СНК), ''Sovet narodnykh kommissarov''), commonly known as the ''Sovnarkom'' (Совнарком), were the highest executive authorities of ...

recognized Michurin's "fruit garden" as an institution of state importance. In 1928, the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

s established a selectionist genetic station on the basis of Michurin's garden, which would be re-organized into the

Michurin Central Genetic Laboratory Michurin (masculine) or Michurina (feminine) may refer to: ;People * Ivan Fyodorovich Michurin (1700–1763), Russian architect *Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin (1855–1935), Soviet plant breeder * Olga Michurina, Russian runner who set a world recor ...

in 1934.

Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin (full-length statue)

Michurin made a major contribution in the development of

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

, especially in the field of pomology. In his

cytogenetic Cytogenetics is essentially a branch of genetics, but is also a part of cell biology/cytology (a subdivision of human anatomy), that is concerned with how the chromosomes relate to cell behaviour, particularly to their behaviour during mitosis an ...

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...

, he researched

cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...

structure and experimented with artificial

polyploidy Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei ( eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contain ...

. Michurin studied the aspects of

heredity Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic inform ...

in connection with the natural course of

ontogenesis Ontogeny (also ontogenesis) is the origination and development of an organism (both physical and psychological, e.g., moral development), usually from the time of fertilization of the egg to adult. The term can also be used to refer to the st ...

and external influence, creating a whole new concept of predominance. He proved that predominance depends on heredity, ontogenesis, and

phylogenesis Phylogenesis (from Greek φῦλον ''phylon'' "tribe" + γένεσις ''genesis'' "origin") is the biological process by which a taxon (of any rank) appears. The science that studies these processes is called phylogenetics. These terms may be ...

of the initial cell structure and also on individual features of hybrids and conditions of cultivation. In his works, Michurin assumed a possibility of changing

genotype The genotype of an organism is its complete set of genetic material. Genotype can also be used to refer to the alleles or variants an individual carries in a particular gene or genetic location. The number of alleles an individual can have in a ...

under external influence. Michurin was one of the founding fathers of scientific agricultural selection. He worked on hybridization of plants of similar and different origins, cultivating methods in connection with the natural course of ontogenesis, directing the process of predominance, evaluation and selection of

seedling A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embry ...

s, and acceleration of the process of selection with the help of physical and chemical factors. Michurin's method of crossing of geographically distant plants would be widely used by other selectionists. He worked out theoretical basis and some practical means for hybridization of geographically distant plants. Michurin also proposed means for overcoming the genetic barrier of incompatibility during the process of hybridization, such as

pollination Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds ...

of the young hybrids during their first florescence, preliminary vegetative crossing, and use of a “mediator”, pollination with the mix of different kinds of

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

. The Soviets began to cultivate Michurin's hybrids of

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the p ...

cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus ''Sorbus'' is a genus of over 100 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family, Rosaceae. Species of ''Sorbus'' (''s.l.'') are commonly known as whitebeam, r ...

and others. The variety Antonovka is the most famous apple he developed. It is so popular in Russia that it was given the name The People's Apple. It is widely used in Russia and Poland for fresh eating and culinary purposes. In other parts of Europe and North America, it is principally used as a hardy

rootstock A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to a ...

. Michurin also cultivated hybrids of

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus ''Prunus''. Usually, an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are also ...

sweet cherry ''Prunus avium'', commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry, gean, or bird cherryWorld Economic Plants: A Standard Reference, Second Edition'. CRC Press; 19 April 2016. . p. 833–. is a species of cherry, a flowering plant in the rose family, ...

and other southern plants in the northern climates. Stamp of USSR 1897

One of the most highly cited phrases by Michurin was: ''"We cannot wait for favors from Nature. To take them from it – that is our task."'' After his death Michurin's work was distorted and misinterpreted during the '' Lysenkovshchina'', with

Trofim Lysenko Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (russian: Трофим Денисович Лысенко, uk, Трохи́м Дени́сович Лисе́нко, ; 20 November 1976) was a Soviet agronomist and Pseudoscience, pseudo-scientist.''An ill-educated agro ...

, a Ukrainian agronomist and biologist who rejected

Mendelian genetics Mendelian inheritance (also known as Mendelism) is a type of biology, biological Heredity, inheritance following the principles originally proposed by Gregor Mendel in 1865 and 1866, re-discovered in 1900 by Hugo de Vries and Carl Correns, an ...

in favour of

Lamarckism Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. It is also calle ...

, claiming to be following in Michurin's footsteps. Lysenko's unorthodox and pseudo-scientific arguments earned the support of the party hierarchy, including that of Stalin himself, and hundreds of his opponents were purged from state institutions, with some being imprisoned or executed. The application of his ideas played an important factor in the famines that affected the Soviet Union. Although his theories fell from favour already in the 1950s, it was not until the 1960s that Lysenko's ideas would be fully condemned as quackery.

References

* * * * * *

External links

''Selected Works''
in English, published in 1950.
''Some Problems of Method'' by I.V. Michurin

''Мичурин И. В.'' Итоги шестидесятилетних работ. Издание пятое. М.: ОГИЗ СЕЛЬХОЗГИЗ, 1949.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Michurin, Ivan 1855 births 1935 deaths People from Pronsky District People from Pronsky Uyezd Soviet botanists Russian inventors Pomologists 19th-century botanists from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian botanists Academicians of the VASKhNIL Honorary Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 3rd class Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour