ABSTRACT
Lysenko's doctrines and claims and similar phenomena in the Soviet Union stemmed entirely from the bolshevik dictatorship. Stalin considered himself competent in biology (after all, he was declared 'the chief expert on all the sciences') and simply gave Lysenko and his vassals free rein to impose their unscientific assertions and take full control of the biological sciences in the country. Those who disagreed (the majority of scientists) were fired and often arrested (among the latter the most prominent one was Nikolai I Vavilov, who perished in prison). Incidentally, Khrushchev also supported Lysenko: it was only after Khrushchev was ousted from power at the end of 1964 that scientific biology was again able to develop freely. The losses that the Soviet Union incurred in connection with Lysenko's doings were enormous. However, so much has been written and said about this that there is no need to dwell on this topic any further. The point I would like to stress here is that something similar to Lysenko's doings would be possible in Russia only under a dictatorship.
