STALINIST GENETICS: THE CONSTITUTIONAL RHETORIC OF T. D. LYSENKO by DMITRI STANCHEVICI, B.A. A DISSERTATION In TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION AND RHETORIC Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved Ken Baake Sam Dragga Kirk St. Amant Fred Hartmeister Dean of the Graduate School December, 2007 Copyright 2007, Dmitri Stanchevici Texas Tech University, Dmitri Stanchevici, December 2007 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I wish to thank my dissertation committee. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Ken Baake, my chairperson, for his intellectual and personal generosity and unflagging interest in my work. His inspired ideas and suggestions have to a great extent shaped this dissertation. I am also thankful to Dr. Sam Dragga, whose scrupulous editing has contributed to a tighter organization and smoother style of this lengthy piece. His acute sense for stylistic elegance and argumentative structure has made my dissertation more robust and persuasive. Finally, I am grateful to Dr. Kirk St. Amant for his encouragement and valuable suggestions about adapting my writing for various academic audiences, thus preparing me for my future career. I would also like to thank the faculty, staff, and my fellow graduate students of the Texas Tech Department of English. They created a congenial and intellectually stimulating environment in which this dissertation could develop into a mature academic work. My department has also consistently helped me cope with financial, social, and other difficulties besetting an international student. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the help I have received from a number of the TTU departments and programs. I thank the Graduate School for a Summer Dissertation Research Award, the Study Abroad program for several scholarships, and the TEACH program for an opportunity to improve my teaching skills and better my career opportunities. ii Texas Tech University, Dmitri Stanchevici, December 2007 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................ ii ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION......................................................................................... 1 Lysenkoist Science in a Nutshell .............................................................................................................2 Roots of the Lysenkoist Opposition to Genetics ......................................................................................6 Lysenkoism as a Symbol of Political Dictatorship in Science .................................................................8 Importance of Studying Lysenkoism .....................................................................................................12 Why Rhetorical Reading of Lysenkoism ...............................................................................................22 Summary of the Chapters.......................................................................................................................26 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW: CONTRADICTIONS IN LYSENKOISM ..... 30 The Relation of Lysenkoism to Dialectical Materialism........................................................................31 The Relation of Lysenkoism to Stalinist Ideology.................................................................................38 Correspondence of Lysenkoism with Stalinist Political Realism......................................................39 Correspondence of Lysenkoism with Stalinist Evolutionism and Technicism..................................43 Contradictions to Lysenkoism’s Dependence on Stalinist Ideology .................................................47 Stalin’s Personal Support of Lysenko ....................................................................................................50 Further Problematizing the Sources of Lysenkoism’s Success ..............................................................54 Practical or Economic Value of Lysenkoism .........................................................................................55 CHAPTER III CRITICAL METHODOLOGY................................................................ 66 Rhetorical Criticism as My Primary Research Method..........................................................................66 Burke’s Dialectic of Constitutions .........................................................................................................72 Burke’s Rhetoric of Identification and Division ....................................................................................76 Rhetoric of the Subject...........................................................................................................................78 iii Texas Tech University, Dmitri Stanchevici, December 2007 CHAPTER IV CONTEXT OF LYSENKO’S 1936 AND 1948 VASKHNIL SPEECHES ........................................................................................................................................... 88 Beginning of Lysenko’s Career: Coming into Conflict with the Scientific Establishment....................90 The Ideology of Willfulness in Soviet Agricultural Science and Practice in the 1920s and 1930s........96 Collectivization as a Reason for Failing Agriculture .............................................................................99 Gap between Science and Farming ......................................................................................................101 Unity of Theory and Practice ...............................................................................................................105 Summarizing the Historical Context of Lysenko’s Scientific Career ..................................................106 Old versus New Science.......................................................................................................................109 CHAPTER V CONSTITUTIONAL RHETORIC IN LYSENKO’S 1936 VASKHNIL SPEECH: CALLING FOR THE ENEMY ..................................................................... 113 The Context of the December 1936 VASKhNIL Session....................................................................114 Commentary on the 1936 Congress .....................................................................................................118 Identification of the Enemy in Lysenko’s Scientific Work..................................................................122 Identification and Division in Lysenko’s speech “Two Trends in Genetics”.......................................126 Rhetorical Reading of Lysenko’s Speech at the December 1936 Congress.........................................127 Stating the Existence of Controversy: Calling (for) an Enemy ............................................................128 Historical Placement of Michurinist Agrobiology ...............................................................................137 Historical Placement of Classical Genetics..........................................................................................144 CHAPTER VI CONSTITUTIONAL RHETORIC IN LYSENKO’S 1936 VASKHNIL SPEECH: DANCE OF AMBIGUITY............................................................................ 153 “Two Trends”: From Myth to Reality..................................................................................................154 Division as a Major Motive in “Two Trends in Genetics”...................................................................156 Ambiguity as a Rhetorical Resource for Achieving Identification ......................................................161 Lysenko’s Rhetorical Ambiguity .........................................................................................................163 Ambiguous Treatment of Lamarckism in “Two Trends in Genetics”..................................................166 iv Texas Tech University, Dmitri Stanchevici, December 2007 Appropriation of Classical Genetic Terms in “Two Trends in Genetics” ............................................170 More Instances of Rhetorical Translation in “Two Trends in Genetics ” ............................................174 Instances of Rhetorical Translation in the Geneticists .........................................................................176 Two Contradicting Tendencies in Lysenkoist Constitutional Discourse..............................................179 Rhetorical Ambiguity as an Ideologically Acceptable Strategy of the Time .......................................181 Ambiguity in Stalinist Ideology ...........................................................................................................182 In Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................190 CHAPTER VII CONSTITUTIONAL RHETORIC IN LYSENKO’S 1948 ADDRESS TO VASKHNIL: LAYING COMMON GROUNDS FOR THE DEBATE WITH THE GENETICISTS ............................................................................................................... 193 Context of the August Session .............................................................................................................194 Role of Political Terror in the Genetic Conflict ...................................................................................195 Ideological and Political Explanations