ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the constitutional features of Lysenko’s address to the 1948 August Session of VASKhNIL, which re-created the conflict with Lysenko’s opponents among the Soviet Mendelian geneticists. First, I explore the historical factors that bear on this session and argue against the common view according to which the repressive apparatus of the Stalinist regime unconditionally supported Lysenko in his fight with the geneticists. I also argue that Lysenko was not the sole abuser of political power in the conflict over genetics, which again is the popular vision of his case. My review of literature on Lysenkoism shows that its opponents resorted to arbitration by the political authorities as often as the Lysenkoists. Second, I study the commentary of Lysenkoism for the ideological and political explanations of the outcomes of the August Session. In light of these explanations, I propose to study the discourse of the session from the point of view of constitutional rhetoric. In contrast to most commentators, who believe that the session itself was a culmination of a well-prepared campaign against the geneticists and therefore the participants’ speeches could not change the outcome of the session, I argue that a constitutional analysis reveals the value of the rhetorics used at the session. Finally, this chapter scrutinizes Lysenko’s address to the August Session to reveal its constitutional features. I show how Lysenko employs the paradox of substance to promote his constitutional coordinates.
