Izrail Iossofovich Agol (Russian: Израиль Иосифович Агол; November 20, 1891 – March 8, 1937) was a Soviet geneticist and philosopher. He was a member of the USSR Academy of Science, worked briefly in the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

, and took an interest in radiation induced mutagenesis. As a

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

philosopher, he also studied

vitalist Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...

and

mechanist A mechanician is an engineer or a scientist working in the field of mechanics, or in a related or sub-field: engineering or computational mechanics, applied mechanics, geomechanics, biomechanics, and mechanics of materials. Names other than mechan ...

views in biology and their relation to Marxism. He was killed in the aftermath of Trofim Lysenko's rise in the Stalin regime.

Education and revolutionary activities

Agol was born in Babruysk,

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

to a poor Jewish family. He graduated from high school in

Vilna Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...

. He was drafted during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and was part of a local self-defence group against a pogrom in which a friend and his first love were shot dead. Agol took part in the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

, becoming a member of the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

wing of the

Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...

("RSDLP(b)") in October 1917. In 1919 he was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the RSDLP(b) of Belarus while fighting in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

from 1919 to 1921. In 1920 he lived for a time in the

Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty, Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of th ...

, where his wife worked in

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 ...

's office. Beginning in 1921, he worked in the editorial offices of the newspapers ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the co ...

'' and '' Trud''.

Academic career

At this same time he studied at the medical faculty of Moscow State University, conducting research there under A.S. Serebrovsky and graduating from it in 1923. After graduation he worked as a psychiatrist. He joined the

Institute of Red Professors An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

in 1925 and graduated from the institute in 1928. From 1926 he worked at the Moscow Zootechnical Institute and from 1928 he headed the Biological Institute named after

Kliment Timiryazev Kliment Arkadievich Timiryazev (russian: Климент Аркадьевич Тимирязев, surname sometimes transliterated as Timiriazev; – 28 April 1920) was a Russian Imperial botanist and physiologist and a major proponent of the ...

of the

Communist Academy The Communist Academy (Russian: Коммунистическая академия, transliterated ''Kommunisticheskaya akademiya'') was a higher educational establishment and research institute based in Moscow. It included scientific institutes of ...

. He received a Rockefeller Scholarship to study genetics under

Hermann Joseph Muller Hermann Joseph Muller (December 21, 1890 – April 5, 1967) was an American geneticist, educator, and Nobel laureate best known for his work on the physiological and genetic effects of radiation (mutagenesis), as well as his outspoken political ...

at the University of Texas from 1930 to 1932 along with

Solomon Levit Solomon Grigorievich Levit (Russian: Соломон Григорьевич Левит; 6 July 1894 – 29 May 1938) was a Soviet physician, and human geneticist who was executed during the Stalinist purges along with other geneticists who opposed T ...

Downfall and rehabilitation

Agol and Levit returned to the Soviet Union and found themselves in opposition to Trofim Lysenko. Agol was arrested on May 27, 1936 on charges of sabotage. The American scientist C. B. Davenport addressed a letter to the US Secretary of State in December 1936 concerning the arrest of Agol, Nikolai Vavilov, and Levit, in which he wrote:

As a geneticist, I strongly protest against the actions of the Soviet government against my colleagues Levit, Agol and Vavilov. These scientists own research of the highest level, and it is thanks to their scientific activity that the world community of geneticists informs them about their achievements in genetics. The three scientists in question have significantly increased our knowledge of genetics, while bringing great benefits to the USSR.

— Legacy: documents, publications. Yu.I. Vavilov, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. Agol was shot as a

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

on March 10, 1937. The Supreme Court of the USSR rehabilitated him on May 25, 1957. A son,

Vadim Vadim ( Cyrillic: Вадим) is a Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Slovene masculine given name derived either from the Persian ''badian'' (anise or aniseed), or from the Ruthenian word ''volod'' (russian: волод), meaning ''to rule'' or ''vadit ...

, became a molecular biologist and virologist.

Works

Agol was a staunch Marxist and wrote a book on biology, vitalism and mechanistic views and their relation to Marxism 'Витализм, механистический материализм и марксизм'' (1929) He also published on his experiments in mutation induction through X-rays in ''

Drosophila ''Drosophila'' () is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or (less frequently) pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species ...

''. An autobiographical manuscript was published posthumously by his son.

References

External links

I Want To Live: The memoir of Izrail Agol (review)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agol, Izrail Iossofovich Stalinism-era scholars and writers Soviet geneticists 1891 births 1937 deaths People from Babruysk People from Bobruysky Uyezd Russian military personnel of World War I Belarusian people of World War I Great Purge victims from Belarus Soviet rehabilitations Institute of Red Professors alumni Moscow State University alumni Soviet philosophers Executed communists