Page "Trofim Lysenko" Paragraph 6

Praise for Lysenko's work included such items as credit from the Soviet newspaper Pravda for having discovered a method to fertilize fields without using fertilizers or minerals, and for having proven that a winter crop of peas could be grown in Azerbaijan, " turning the barren fields of the Transcaucasus green in winter, so that cattle will not perish from poor feeding, and the peasant Turk will live through the winter without trembling for tomorrow.

" In succeeding years, however, further attempts to grow the peas were unsuccessful.

Similar Soviet media reports heralding Lysenko's further discoveries in agriculture continued from 1927 until 1964 ; reports of amazing ( and seemingly impossible ) successes, each one replaced with new success claims as earlier ones failed.

Few of the successes attributed to Lysenko could be duplicated.

Nevertheless, with the media's help, Lysenko enjoyed the popular image of the " barefoot scientist "— the embodiment of the mythic Soviet peasant genius.