REVIEW OF NEW EDITION OF USSR AGRICULTURAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600330326-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 26, 2011
• Sequence Number: 326
• Publication Date: July 28, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO 13ROADCASTS
CD NO.
COUNTRY
SUBJF)T
HOW
USSR
Economic - Agriculture
DATE OF
DATE DIST.
,21 Jul 1950
PUBLISHED
WHERE
Monthly periodical
PUBLISHED Moscow
DATE
PUBLISHED Apr 1950
LANGUAGE Russian
SUPPLEMENT
REPORT NO.
TO
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DU11NS8
OF THE UNITED STATES WITHIN THE SEAMIER OF OG-IONANS ACT DO
U. S. C.. 1 1 ANO 11. AS ASEMDSD. ITS TMAMSN NGION 00 FIN 10TSIATION
OF I. ml IT[DC NT TLAW 1 N[ENOOUC"ON OF THIS FORM /GI FMOII TED. IS -MO-
Sovetskaya Kniga, No 4, 1950?
REVIEW OF NEW EDITION
OF USSR AGRICULTURAL ENCYCLOPEDIA
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL
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The first volume of the new third edition of the agricultural encyclopedia
has been published. The third edition will include more than 2,000 articles as
compared to 1,200 articles in the previous edition. A considerable. number of
articles for the encyclopedia were rewritten following the decisions made by the
August 1948 session of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences imeni Lenin
and the adoption of the Stalin Plan for the Transformation of Nature.
The first volume, which includes the letters "a - ye," contains about 500
?.rticles. In comparison with the previous. edition, 35 articles have been omitted
and 202 rewritten.
In Soviet scientific literature, agronomy is usually understood not only as
a science dealing with laws concerning field cultivation and farming, but also
as a scientific basis for agricultural production. Consequently,' the core of
the agricultural encyclopedia. is agronomy.
The article "Genetics" by Lysenko, in the first volume, can serve as a pat-
tern for scientific articles published in the encyclopedia. .?t presents a short
definition of genetics as a branch of biological science dealing with the devel-'
opment of organisms. It also points out that genetics is also a branch of sci-
ence studying heredity and its variations.
At present, there are two sharply contrasting schools of genetics. Accord-
ing to, Lysenko, the first school of genetics is Mendelism-Morganism, which recog-
nizes in the organism a certain germ plasm which differs from the rest of the
body and is concerned only with heredity. Changes of the germ plasm (mutations)
occur as if they were completely independent of the body organism. Thus, changes
of germ plasm and hereditary variations do not depend on the surrounding environ-
ment. For this reason, no new qualities or characteristics are acquir.ti by the
organism due to its environment.
G i, k ii.TIAL
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CONFIDENTIAL
The new type of genetics begun by Michurin refutes this basic position of
Mendelism-Morganism genetics. Michurin's teaching does not accept the idea
that any hereditary qualities exist separately from the body of the organism,
but believes that the basic characteristic quality of a living body expresses
itself in the ability of the body to live, nourish itself, grow, and propagate
according to its nature. Hereditary changes of a given organism, or heredi
tary changes of a part of the body, always appear as a result of changes in
the body itself. Body changes are caused by changes in assimilation and dis-
similation and changes in metabolism. Changes of organisms or of their parts
and qualities are not always transmitted to offspring to a full degree.
Yet, changes of the embryo of new organisms are always the result of
changes of the parent organism and a result of direct or indirect action of
the environment upon the development of the organism or its separate parts.
Hereditary changes and the acquisition of qualities and their intensification
during the course of subsequent generations is always dependent upon environ-
mental conditions. Hence, only by directing life conditions and the develop-
ment of plants and animals is it possible to understand their nature more
fully and thus to find ways of changing them into the varieties needed for
agricultural practice. In this way, the basic positions of the old and new
genetics are in contrast:
Volume I contains a series of articles which expound the most important
biological and agricultural scientific theories. The articles concerning
agrobiology, agricultural practice, acclimatization of plants, botany, bio-
chemistry, veterinary science, and others show the outstanding achievements
made by Soviet agrobiological and agronomical sciences.
One of the articles, by V. N. Stoletova, is entitled "Agrobiology."
Pointing out that this science concerns general biological laws for farming,
the author writes: "In its investigations, agrobiology proceeds from Darwin-
ism as a general, natural, and historical theory concerning the development
of the organic world;, but it does confine itself to Darwin's teachings. Dar-
win did not concern himself with definite principles of the variability of
organisms; principles which are of primary concern for agrobiology since they
form its basis. Today agrobiology employs both the teachings of Darwin and
of Williams."
Merv articles in the voliflne show that only Michurin agronomy answers
questions on increasing the harvest of agricultural crops and the productivity
of livestock. They point out that the outstanding achievements of agricul-
tural sciences in the USSR are due to the fact that agronomy and biology are
now based on revolutionary theory.
Not all the data are on a sufficiently high level. A series of articles
have mistakes which indicate that they were hastily prepared. Other articles
contain more serious mistakes. Two articles, "Agrochemistry" and "Agricul-
tural Forest Conservation," are poor because of an unawareness of new tech-
niques.
The first article, by A. Shestakov, contains no open criticism of mis-
takes, such as the situation resulting from the so-called "law of diminish-
ing fertility," the misunderstanding of the role of granulated mineral fer-
tilizers, etc. Although the author undoubtedly attempted to correct old er-
rors of agrochemistry, he was not entirely successful. For example, he con-
siders agrochemistry a science studying nourishment and the application of
fertilizers and chemical resources for protecting plants with the aim of at-
taining higher and more stable harvests. The problem of food production, how-
ever, is left aside. The author states that one of the most important divi-
sions of agrochemistry is soil chemistry, but he does not define soil chem-
istry. The article does not explain the basis for the system of fertiliza-
tion in crop rotation, and there is no indication that this will be done in
C4~I1DEOTMAL.
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CeNEIDENVAL
later volumes. Furthermore, according to the author, degraded chernozem soil
is found north and not south of the chernozem zone, even though Williams long
ago found degraded chernozem south of the chernozem zone. The problems of im-
proving the quality of mineral fertilizers and of combining mineral fertilizer
with organic fertilizers are not properly explained. All these errors of omis-
sion or commission greatly lower the value of the article.
The second article, "Agricultural Forest Conservation" by P. Nikitin con-
tains several fallacious arguments. For example, the author recommends plant-
ing a mixture of tree varieties, but he does not even mention the Lysenko nest
method of tree planting. Furthermore, he states that the first attempts to
use trees as shelters in steppe areas were made in the first half of the 19th
Century, whereas actually they were made much earlier.
One of the most important tasks of the encyclopedia is to acquaint the
reader with the experimental method by disclosing all the shortcomings of meta-
physics in experimental work and showing the experience of agronomists in the
past. In this connection, a serious mistake has been found in the article "A
Growing Method." The author, A. Shestakov, maintains that experiments on grow-
ing have led to the conclusion that the factor, or gene, being studied changes
in relation to the objective of the experiment while at the same time all other
conditions are maintained unchanged and favorable to the normal growth and de-
velopment of plants. Williams showed that this approach was not correct since
it presupposes that the factors of life not only play equal roles, but also
act independently, which is contrary to the laws of nature.
Mistakes are also notices in the articles "Harrowing" and "Plowing."
The article "Agrarian Policy in the USSR," by I. Doroshev and M. Sulkov-
skiy, does not contrast Soviet agrarian policy with the agrarian policy of im-
perialistic states. The authors do not even criticize the agrarian program of
imperialisti^ states. Furthermore, no articles on geology are printed in the
volume and the book does not have any articles about V. I. Vernadskiy and other'
prominent scholars.
Several articles disagree in the definition of even the most basic ques-
tions. For example, the article "Genetics" defines that science as.a branch
of bimlogicalscience concerning the development of organisms, or as a science
studying heredity and its variations.' The article "Botany" defines genetics,
not as a branch of science studying heredity and its variations, but as a,whole
science. Another definition is "the study of variation and its heredity."
Such carelessness cannot be tolerated in an encyclopedia. How, for example,
can one explain Stalin's classical work, Anarchism or Socialism being called
Anarchism and Socialism?
Other articles show an inexcu:^'ble striving for academicism, which finds
expression in describing equipment that has no practical significance. This
is exemplified in the article "The Harrow," which not only described equip-
ment having no practical significance but even calls the equipment by the
wrong name.
These and other similar defects car. be and should be avoided in succeed-
ing volumes of the encyclopedia.
C0FIEDENimI
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