VASKhNIL


VASKhNIL was the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the Soviet Union. Built upon the model of the Academy of Sciences of USSR, VASKhNIL included not only a body of academicians but a vast network of research institutions scattered all over the country with thousands of researchers, plant and cattle breeders.
It operated from 1929 to 1992. In the 1930s - 1940s, meetings of the academy members 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" organised under control of the Communist party led to a formal ban on teaching "Mendelist-Weismannist-Morganist" genetics, which was effective until the early 1960s.

VASKhNIL Presidents

On February 4, 1992 the Academy ceased to exist. Its successor institution is the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences.