Dialogue and Universalism

Volume 16, Issue 11/12, 2006

Universalism, Dialogue, Wisdom—For Pan-Human Civilization

The Role of Po Prostu in the Denouncement of T. D. Lysenko

This article describes the role of Po Prostu in the formal denouncement of Trofim D. Lysenko’s biological theories in Poland in 1956. Lysenko promulgated a theory of evolution, “Michurinism”, based upon the false notion that acquired characteristics can be inherited (“Lamarckism”). The outcome was a ban on genetic research that lasted in Poland from 1949 to 1956. The material for this article comes from the author dissertation, The New Biology: Lysenkoism in Poland (Columbia University, 2005).