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The Institute of Plant Industry, Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry or All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Industry (in russian: Всероссийский институт растениеводства им. Н. И. Вавилова), as it is officially called, is a research institute of plant genetics, located in
Official site
Genetic Resources of Leguminous Plants in the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry
{{authority control Research institutes in Russia Research institutes in the Soviet Union Science and technology in Russia Russian Academy of Agriculture Sciences VASKhNIL Botanical research institutes
The Institute of Plant Industry, Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry or All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Industry (in russian: Всероссийский институт растениеводства им. Н. И. Вавилова), as it is officially called, is a research institute of plant genetics, located in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
.
History
The Institute of Plant Industry was established in 1921. Nikolai Vavilov was the head of this institute from 1924 to 1936 which had, and still has, the world's largest collection of plant seeds. During the early 1930s, he became the target of the Lysenkoist debate and was exiled. The institute's seedbank survived the 28-monthsiege of Leningrad
The siege of Leningrad (russian: links=no, translit=Blokada Leningrada, Блокада Ленинграда; german: links=no, Leningrader Blockade; ) was a prolonged military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the Soviet Union, So ...
in World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, where several botanists starved to death rather than eat the collected seeds. In 2010 the plant collection at the Pavlovsk Experimental Station was to be destroyed to make way for luxury housing. This was averted by order of President Dmitri Medvedev.
The story of the institute during the siege of Leningrad was dramatized in Jessica Oreck's 2019 feature film '' One Man Dies a Million Times''.
Siege of Leningrad
The institute's extensive seed collection was an important target during the siege of Leningrad, Soviet officials took the time to evacuate the art from the city but neglected, or forgot to remove the world's largest seed collection. The scientists of the institute protected the seeds from the threats of the cold, the hungry residents of the besieged city, rats, and their own hunger. Twenty-eight of the botanists died during the siege, protecting their collection.See also
* Plant genetics *Lysenkoism
Lysenkoism (russian: Лысенковщина, Lysenkovshchina, ; uk, лисенківщина, lysenkivščyna, ) was a political campaign led by Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko against genetics and science-based agriculture in the mid-20th ce ...
* VASKhNIL (the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the Soviet Union)
* Pavlovsk Experimental Station
References
External links
Official site
Genetic Resources of Leguminous Plants in the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry
{{authority control Research institutes in Russia Research institutes in the Soviet Union Science and technology in Russia Russian Academy of Agriculture Sciences VASKhNIL Botanical research institutes