VASKhNIL

VASKhNIL (Russian: ВАСХНИЛ), the acronym for the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences or the V.I. Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Всесоюзная академия сельскохозяйственных наук имени В. И. Ленина), was the Soviet Union's academy dedicated to agricultural sciences, operating from 1929 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1992.

Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Всесоюзная академия сельскохозяйственных наук имени В. И. Ленина
The logo of VASKhNIL
Other name
VASKhNIL (ВАСХНИЛ)
Active1929–1992
AffiliationSoviet Union
Location
Moscow

Built upon the model of the Academy of Sciences of USSR, VASKhNIL included not only a body of academicians but also a vast network of research institutions scattered all over the Union, with thousands of researchers and plant and cattle breeders.

History

The Academy operated from 1929 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1992.

In the 1930s–40s, meetings of the academy members ('sessions' of VASKhNIL) provided the floor for debates between Lysenkoists and geneticists. After Trofim Lysenko had taken control over the Academy, it became for about thirty years a stronghold of Lysenkoism. The proverbial among Russian biologists "August session of VASKhNIL" (July 31–August 7, 1948) organised under control of the Communist Party (Joseph Stalin personally corrected the drafts of the Lysenko's opening address "On the Situation in Biological Science") led to a formal ban on teaching "Mendelist-Weismannist-Morganist" genetics (a pejorative label based on the names of Gregor Mendel, August Weismann, and Thomas Hunt Morgan), which was effective until the early 1960s.

On 4 February 1992, the VASKhNIL ceased to exist and was succeeded by the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Russian: Российская академия сельскохозяйственных наук, РАСН). On 28 June 2013, the Russian Government suddenly announced draft legislation enacting the dissolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and the creation of a new "public-governmental" organization with the same name. The buildings and other property of the Academy were supposed to be taken under control of a government-established Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (FASO Russia).

Also according to the law, the two other Russian national academies—the РАСН and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences—became incorporated into the RAS as its new specialized scientific divisions.[1][2][3]

VASKhNIL Presidents
Period President
1929 – 1935 Nikolai Vavilov
1935 – 1937 Alexander Muralov
1938 – 1956 Trofim Lysenko
1959 – 1961 Pavel Lobanov
1961 – 1962 Trofim Lysenko (second term)
1962 – 1965 Mikhail Olshanskiy
1965 – 1978 Pavel Lobanov, second term
1978 – 1983 Petr Vavilov
1984 – 1992 Alexander Nikonov

See also

References
  1. "Выборы в Российскую академию наук – 2019 [Elections to the Russian academy of sciences - 2019] (in Russian)." RAS website. 2019-11-15.
  2. "Russian roulette. Reforms without consultation will destroy the Russian Academy of Sciences." Nature. 2013 July 3.
  3. Pribylovsky, Vladimir, and Yuri Felshtinsky. 2004 June 27. "Владимир Прибыловский, Юрий Фельштинский. Операция 'Наследник'. Главы из книги". Retrieved 12 June 2015.


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