Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin (; – June 7, 1935) was a Russian practitioner of

selection Selection may refer to: Science * Selection (biology), also called natural selection, selection in evolution ** Sex selection, in genetics ** Mate selection, in mating ** Sexual selection in humans, in human sexuality ** Human mating strat ...

to produce new types of crop plants, Honorable Member of the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...

, and

academician An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life. Accor ...

of the

Lenin All-Union Academy of Agriculture VASKhNIL (), the acronym for the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences or the V.I. Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences (), was the Soviet Union's academy dedicated to agricultural sciences, operating from 1929 to the dissolution of ...

. Throughout all his life, Michurin worked to create new sorts of fruit plants. He introduced over 300 new varieties. He was awarded the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

and

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

for his achievements. The town of

Michurinsk Michurinsk () is the second most populous town in Tambov Oblast Tambov Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Tambov ...

is named in his honor, as was the

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n town of

Tsarevo Tsarevo (, , also transliterated as Carevo or Tzarevo) is a town and seaside resort in the Municipality of Tsarevo, Burgas Province, Bulgaria. Etymology In the past, it was known as Vasiliko (), and between 1950 and 1991 it was known as Michuri ...

between 1950 and 1991.

Life and work

In 1875, Michurin leased a strip of land of about 500 square metres not far from

Tambov Tambov ( , ; rus, Тамбов, p=tɐmˈbof) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, Central Federal District, central Russia, at the confluence of the Tsna River (Moksha basin), Tsna ...

, began collecting

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

s, and started his research in

pomology Pomology (from Latin , "fruit", + , "study") is a branch of botany that studies fruits and their cultivation. Someone who researches and practices the science of pomology is called a pomologist. The term fruticulture (from Latin , "fruit", + , "c ...

and

. In 1899, he acquired a much bigger strip of land of about 130,000 square metres and moved all of his plants there. In 1920, right after the end of the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

ordered

People's Commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English language, English transliteration of the Russian language, Russian (''komissar''), which means 'commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the pol ...

Agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

Semyon Sereda Semyon Pafnutyevich Sereda (; 1 February 1871 – 21 May 1933) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician. He was the son of a railway employee. From 1896 to 1917 he worked as a statistician. Sereda joined the Bolshevik wing of th ...

to organize an analytic research project on Michurin's works and practical achievements. On September 11, 1922,

Mikhail Kalinin Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (, ; 3 June 1946) was a Soviet politician and Russian Old Bolshevik revolutionary who served as the first chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 1938 until his resignation in 1946. From ...

visited Michurin at Lenin's personal request. On November 20, 1923, the

Council of People's Commissars The Council of People's Commissars (CPC) (), commonly known as the ''Sovnarkom'' (), were the highest executive (government), executive authorities of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the Soviet Union (USSR), and the Sovi ...

recognized Michurin's "fruit garden" as an institution of state importance. In 1928, the Soviets established a selectionist genetic station on the basis of Michurin's garden, which would be re-organized into the Michurin Central Genetic Laboratory in 1934. Michurin made a major contribution in the development of genetics, especially in the field of pomology. In his

cytogenetic Cytogenetics is essentially a branch of genetics, but is also a part of cell biology/cytology (a subdivision of human anatomy), that is concerned with how the chromosomes relate to cell behaviour, particularly to their behaviour during mitosis an ...

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratories are found in a variety of settings such as schools ...

, he researched

cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life * Cellphone, a phone connected to a cellular network * Clandestine cell, a penetration-resistant form of a secret or outlawed organization * Electrochemical cell, a de ...

structure and experimented with artificial

polyploidy Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than two paired sets of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two complete sets of chromosomes, one fro ...

. Michurin studied the aspects of

heredity Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic infor ...

in connection with the natural course of

ontogenesis Ontogeny (also ontogenesis) is the origination and development of an organism (both physical and psychological, e.g., moral development), usually from the time of fertilization of the egg to adult. The term can also be used to refer to the stu ...

and external influence, creating a whole new concept of predominance. He proved that predominance depends on heredity, ontogenesis, and

phylogenesis Phylogenesis (from Greek φῦλον ''phylon'' "tribe" + γένεσις ''genesis'' "origin") is the biological process by which a taxon (of any rank) appears. The science that studies these processes is called phylogenetics. These terms may ...

of the initial cell structure and also on individual features of hybrids and conditions of cultivation. In his works, Michurin assumed a possibility of changing

genotype The genotype of an organism is its complete set of genetic material. Genotype can also be used to refer to the alleles or variants an individual carries in a particular gene or genetic location. The number of alleles an individual can have in a ...

under external influence. Michurin was one of the founding fathers of scientific agricultural selection. He worked on

hybridization Hybridization (or hybridisation) may refer to: *Hybridization (biology), the process of combining different varieties of organisms to create a hybrid *Orbital hybridization, in chemistry, the mixing of atomic orbitals into new hybrid orbitals *Nu ...

of plants of similar and different origins, cultivating methods in connection with the natural course of ontogenesis, directing the process of predominance, evaluation and selection of

seedling A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embry ...

s, and acceleration of the process of selection with the help of physical and chemical factors. Michurin's method of crossing of geographically distant plants would be widely used by other selectionists. He worked out theoretical basis and some practical means for hybridization of geographically distant plants. Michurin also proposed means for overcoming the genetic barrier of incompatibility during the process of hybridization, such as

pollination Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma (botany), stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, for example bees, beetles or bu ...

of the young hybrids during their first florescence, preliminary vegetative crossing, and use of a “mediator”, pollination with the mix of different kinds of

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

. The Soviets began to cultivate Michurin's hybrids of

apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in late summer into mid-autumn. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the Family (biology), family Rosaceae, bearing the Pome, po ...

cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet '' Prunus avium'' and the sour '' Prunus cerasus''. The na ...

rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus'' of the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the Himalaya ...

and others. The variety

Antonovka Antonovka (, ) is a group of late-fall or early-winter apple cultivars with a strong acid flavor that have been popular in Russia, including during Tsarist and Soviet times, as well as in Poland and Belarus. The most popular Russian variety i ...

is the most famous apple he developed. It is so popular in Russia that it was given the name The People's Apple. It is widely used in Russia and Poland for fresh eating and culinary purposes. In other parts of Europe and North America, it is principally used as a hardy

rootstock A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to ...

. Michurin also cultivated hybrids of

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus ''Prunus''. Usually an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are also ...

sweet cherry ''Prunus avium'', commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry or gean is a species of cherry, a flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It is native to Eurasia and naturalized elsewhere. It is an ancestor of '' P. cerasus'' (sour cherry). ...

and other southern plants in the northern climates. Stamp of USSR 1897

References

* * * * *

External links

''Selected Works''
in English, published in 1950.
''Some Problems of Method'' by I.V. Michurin

''Мичурин И. В.'' Итоги шестидесятилетних работ. Издание пятое. М.: ОГИЗ СЕЛЬХОЗГИЗ, 1949.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Michurin, Ivan 1855 births 1935 deaths 19th-century botanists from the Russian Empire Soviet botanists People from Pronsky District People from Pronsky Uyezd Academicians of the VASKhNIL Honorary members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 3rd class Botanists with author abbreviations Pomologists Russian scientists