OUTSIDE Russia the debate on the personality and theories of
Lysenko has been carried on to some extent in the dark, because it was difficult to know at first hand what exactly was being done and said in Moscow. The darkness was deepened by the repro- duction of the conflict in its ideological aspects in this country: a famous debate on the Third Programme revealed the same opposition between orthodox and party-line genetics as had marked the historic session of the Lenin Academy of Agricultural Science in July, 1948. At last it seems that the full material needed for an independent judgement has now been assembled by Professor Zirkle. He gives the full texts of all the important speeches made at the session of the Academy, together with a selection of other relevant papers published in various countries from 1939 onwards. It might be expected that the crux of the controversy would at last be clear, that the exposure of Lysenko would be complete, and that the paradox of his success would be explained. Yet it is not so, perhaps because Professor Zirkle's own editorial contributions are so rhetorically extravagant and so polemical ; the title of the book itself is a case in point. Only the calmest and most objective treatment can be effective in debate with Russian Marxists, and in this respect, Professor Zirkle falls short of the standards set, for instance, by Dr. Huxley and Professor Ashby. , But his collection of debating material seems exhaustive and most certainly be valuable.
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