Soviet Genetics : The Real Issue

Abstract

NOW that the long-drawn out dispute over genetics in the U.S.S.R. has come to a close, with the complete defeat of the neo-Mendelians at the hands of Lysenko. It is time for men of science outside the U.S.S.R. to take stock of the situation and to see what implications and consequences it has for them. I believe that the situation is very grave. There is now a party line in genetics, which means that the basic scientific principle of the appeal to fact has been overridden by ideological considerations. A scientific nation has repudiated certain basic elements of scientific method, and in so doing has repudiated the universal and supranational character of science.