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Vavilov's life

Vavilov's life


Nikolai Vavilov (1887-1943).  Not a name familiar to many people. Vavilov is, however, one of my scientific Teacher and Heroes. He collected more seeds, tubers and fruits from around the world than any other person in history. Yet the plant explorer, who endeavored to end famine, starved to death in a gulag.

Vavilov is recognized as the foremost plant geographer of contemporary times. To explore the major agricultural centers in this country and abroad, Vavilov organized and took part in over 100 collecting missions. His major foreign expeditions included those to Iran (1916), the United States, Central and South America (1921, 1930, 1932), the Mediterranean and Ethiopia (1926-1927). For his expedition to Afghanistan in 1924 Vavilov was awarded the N.M. Przhevalskii Gold Medal of the Russian Geographic Society. From 1931 to 1940 Vavilov was its president.

These missions and the determined search for plants were based on the Vavilov's concepts in the sphere of evolutionary genetics, i.e. the Law of Homologous Series in Variation (1920) and the theory of the Centers of Origin of Cultivated Plants (1926).


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Major N.I.Vavilov's Expeditions

 

1916

Expedition to Iran (Hamadan and Khorasan) and Pamir (Shungan, Rushan and Khorog).

1921

Acquaintance trip to Canada (Ontario) and USA (New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, California, Oregon, Maine).

1924

Expedition to Afghanistan (Herat, Afghan Turkestan, Gaimag, Bamian, Hindu Kush, Badakhshan, Kafiristan, Jalalabad, Kabul, Herat, Kandahar, Baquia, Helmand, Farakh, Sehistan), accompanied by D.D. Bukinich and V.N. Lebedev.

1925

Expedition to Khoresm (Khiva, Novyi Urgench, Gurlen, Tashauz).

1926-1927

Expedition to Mediterranean countries (France, Syria, Palestine, Transjordan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus and Crete, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Egypt, where Gudzoni was explored by Vavilov's request) and to Abyssinia (Djibouti, Addis Ababa, banks of Nile, Tsana Lake), Eritrea (Massaua) and Yemen (Hodeida, Jidda, Hedjas).

1927

Exploration of mountainous regions in Wuertemberg (Bavaria, Germany).

1929

Expedition to China (Xinjiang - Kashgar, Uch-Turfan, Aksu, Kucha, Urumchi, Kulja, Yarkand, Hotan) together with M.G. Popov, then alone to Chine (Taiwan), Japan (Honshu, Kyushu and Hokkaido) and Korea.

1930

Expedition to USA (Florida, Louisiana, Arizona, Texas, California), Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.

1932-1933

Trip to Canada (Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia), USA (Washington, Colorado, Montana, Kansas, Idaho, Louisiana, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North and South Dakotas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah); 
Expedition to Cuba, Mexico (Yucatan), Ecuador (Cordilleras), Peru (Lake Titicaca, Puno Mt., Cordilleras), Bolivia (Cordilleras), Chile (Panama River). Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, Amazon), Argentina, Uruguay, Trinidad and Porto Rico.

1921-1940

Systematic explorations of the European part of Russia and the whole regions of the Caucasus and the Middle Asia.


In the stifling atmosphere of the totalitarian USSR, the institute headed by Vavilov turned into a resistance point to the pseudo-scientific concepts of Trofim D. Lysenko. As a result of this controversy, Vavilov was arrested in August 1940, and his closest associates were also sacked and imprisoned.


Please read and listen  opinions about life of Nikolai I. Vavilov on the following links:

  

http://www.splendidtable.org/story/how-nikolay-vavilov-the-seed-collector-who-tried-to-end-famine-died-of-starvation

 

http://mikejackson1948.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/standing-on-vavilovs-shoulders/

 

https://disk.yandex.com/public/?hash=tUoTyIZ7TRMFhFR5zqrqKCoCc6ZuLQCNuTcJ9pJXLvc%3D


Voice of N.I. Vavilov. This voice was recording  24 May I937,  and is considered the only surviving voice of N.I. Vavilov.


A short film about the great scientist