Letter of Three Hundred

Background

From the late 1940s into the early 1950s, with the backing of the Communist Party and Soviet state leadership, Trofim Lysenko expanded and promoted his doctrines through ideological and pseudoscientific rhetoric, advanced his supporters, and moved against his opponents, some of whom were physically repressed. Scientific debate in biology was effectively prohibited and classical geneticists were isolated.[P3][P16]

By the mid-1950s many Soviet scientists had come to believe that decades of Lysenko's monopoly had done severe damage not only to biological science but also to the country's international prestige. At a time when radiation biology, the structure of DNA, and the mechanisms of genetic replication and information transfer were driving major advances in genetics and molecular biology worldwide, the repeated promises of "Michurinist biology" increasingly appeared sterile.[P4][P17]

Opposition in Soviet biology revived after Stalin's death. Biologists committed to classical genetics had already sent many private letters to the party Central Committee, the Council of Ministers, and even the Soviet procuracy, describing the harm caused by Lysenko and his associates; when these drew no response, the idea of a collective appeal emerged.[P5][P18]

The letter and its consequences

The first and most important of the letters was a 21-page memorandum signed by a large group of Soviet scientists and sent to the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee on 11 October 1955. It assessed the state of Soviet biology in the mid-1950s and sharply criticized Lysenko's scientific views and practical activities.[P1][P14]

Khrushchev, who personally sympathized with Lysenko, reportedly called the letter "outrageous" on learning of it. Vsevolod Stoletov, then first deputy minister of higher education of the USSR, instead proposed that Khrushchev organize a broad scientific discussion in which the supporters of the officially approved doctrine would supposedly prevail; the discussion broadened support for the letter's authors and contributed to Lysenko's near-total isolation.[P7][P20]

The letter contributed to Lysenko's resignation as president of VASKhNIL in 1956, although he later regained influence under Khrushchev. After Khrushchev's fall from power in 1964, Lysenko's position weakened decisively and in 1965 he was removed from the Institute of Genetics.[P8]

Signatories and standing

Signatories included biologists such as Boris Astaurov, Nikolai Dubinin, Vladimir Sukachev, Nikolai Timofeev-Ressovsky, Nikolai Nasonov, and Mikhail Navashin, alongside prominent figures from physics, mathematics, and chemistry including Lev Landau, Igor Tamm, Vitaly Ginzburg, Yakov Zeldovich, Pyotr Kapitsa, Andrei Sakharov, Mstislav Keldysh, Sergei Sobolev, Pavel Alexandrov, and Alexander Frumkin.[P11]

A further letter was sent to the Central Committee on 21 December 1955, and a separate letter signed by 26 well-known soil scientists and agrochemists exposed Lysenko's negative role in agricultural science and the sterility of his system of organo-mineral fertilizers.[P25][P29]

The text of the letter, with some cuts, was first openly published in Pravda on 13 January 1989. It remains a landmark of collective resistance for scientific freedom in Soviet history.[P1][P33]