Ivan michurin short biography. Michurin ivan vladimirovich - short biography Who is Michurin

Michurin Ivan Vladimirovich - a famous biologist - breeder, creator of many modern varieties of fruit and berry crops. Born on October 28, 1855 in Vershina estate, near the village of Dolgoe (now Michurovka) of the Pronsky district of the Ryazan province. He studied first at home, and then at the Pronsk district school of the Ryazan province, devoting all his free time to work in the garden. On June 19, 1872, he graduated from the Pronsk district school, after which his father prepared his son at the gymnasium course for admission to the St. Petersburg Lyceum. But his father suddenly falls ill. To pay off debts, you have to sell the estate. Deprived of the opportunity to receive higher education, Michurin entered the Ryazan gymnasium. But after a few months he was expelled from it.

At the end of 1872, IV Michurin received a job as a commercial clerk in a commodity office at Kozlov station (Ryazan-Ural railway, later Michurinsk station, Moscow-Ryazan railway). Two years later, Michurin took the position of assistant chief, but not for long, a quarrel with the station chief disrupted plans. Michurin changed jobs and began to repair watches and signaling devices.

Soon he managed to rent an abandoned estate in the Kozlov area, with an area of \u200b\u200b130 hectares, with a small plot of land, on which Michurin began to conduct breeding experiments with more than 600 plant species. Having moved to the city estate of his acquaintances, Michurin bred the first varieties of plants: raspberry Commerce, cherry Griot, cherry Krasa Severa, etc. But after a few years this estate also turned out to be overflowing with plants.

Michurin moved the nursery several times, acquiring plots of land with a larger area. This was achieved through exhausting work and austerity. Long years of work in the field of hybridization have brought results - Michurin created valuable apple varieties: Antonovka one and a half pounds, Kandil-Kitayka, Renet bergamotny, Slavyanka; pears: Bere winter Michurina, Bergamot Novik; plums: Ranclaud golden, Rhinclode reform, Thorn sweet and other crops. For the first time in the history of fruit growing, he created winter-hardy varieties of cherries, almonds, grapes, papyrus tobacco, oil roses, etc. in the middle zone. Michurin is convinced of the failure of the method of acclimatization by grafting, and concludes that the soil of the nursery - a powerful black soil - is fat and “ spoils "hybrids, making them less resistant to the devastating" Russian winter "for thermophilic varieties.

After the October Revolution, Michurin continued his work and finally received state support. In 1918, at his request, the nursery was nationalized, and Ivan Vladimirovich was appointed its director. In 1921 and 1923. the local authorities allocated additional land for the nursery. By 1922, Michurin produced over 150 new varieties of fruit trees and shrubs: 45 varieties of apple, 20 varieties of pears, 13 varieties of cherries, 6 varieties of sweet cherries, 3 varieties of mountain ash, etc.

In 1923, the first All-Union Agricultural Exhibition was opened in Moscow, at which Michurin's achievements were also presented. The expert commission of the exhibition awarded Michurin the highest award - a diploma from the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. November 20, 1923 the nursery named after I.V. Michurin was recognized as a nationwide institution and was named the Experimental Nursery. I.V. Michurin. Further, in 1928, it was renamed into the State Breeding and Genetic Station. I.V. Michurin, and in 1934 the station was transformed into the Central Genetic Laboratory. I.V. Michurin.

In 1925, the USSR government celebrated the 50th anniversary of Michurin's activity with greetings and awarded him the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. On June 7, 1931, he was awarded the Order of Lenin. On the eve of his 80th birthday, Michurin was awarded many honorary titles: Honored Worker of Science and Technology (1934), Doctor of Biological and Agricultural Sciences. sciences (1934), academician of VASKhNIL (1935), honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1935), honorary member of the Czechoslovak Agricultural Academy (1935).

The most important questions developed by Michurin: intervarietal and distant hybridization, methods of raising hybrids in connection with the laws of ontogeny, dominance management, mentor, methodological assessment and selection of seedlings, acceleration of the selection process using physical and chemical factors. Michurin created the theory of selection of the initial forms for crossing. He found that "the farther the distance between the pairs of crossed plants - producers in the place of their homeland and the conditions of their environment, the easier it is for the hybrid seedlings to adapt to environmental conditions in the new locality." Crossing of geographically distant forms was widely used after Michurin and many other breeders. Michurin developed theoretical foundations and some practical methods of distant hybridization. He proposed methods for overcoming the genetic barrier of incompatibility during distant hybridization: pollination of young hybrids during their first flowering, preliminary vegetative convergence, the use of an intermediary, pollination with a mixture of pollen, etc.

In addition, Michurin was a good mechanic-inventor. He designed and manufactured a tobacco cutting machine, a distillation apparatus for determining the percentage of rose oil, tools for pollination and grafting, and developed a unique method of air-rooting cuttings.

Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin is a famous biologist and breeder, creator of many modern varieties of fruit and berry crops. Since 1935 Michurin has been an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Orders of St. Anna (1913), the Order of Lenin (1931) and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. Michurin republished collections of works on various methods of plant breeding three times. Of particular interest are his unique methods of hybridization of fruit and vegetable crops: the author selected parental pairs, overcoming their non-breeding.

The ancestors of Ivan Vladimirovich and their family tradition of hobby for gardening could not but affect the fate of Michurin. Michurin was born in the village of Vershina, Pronsky District, Ryazan Region. He was the seventh child in a poor peasant family. His brothers and sisters died at an early age, and his mother died in the thirty-fourth year of life. Ivan was then four years old. From an early age, Michurin began to show an interest in plants: he was fond of gardening, collecting fruit trees, replenishing the library with agricultural literature.

At first Michurin studied at home, then went to the Pronskoe district school. After graduating from college Michurin was preparing to enter the St. Petersburg Lyceum. Due to the unexpected illness of his father, Ivan Vladimirovich was forced to enter the Ryazan gymnasium instead of the Petersburg Lyceum, so as not to leave far from his parent. Father soon died, the estate went bankrupt, and his aunt took care of Ivan Vladimirovich. In 1872 Michurin was expelled from the gymnasium for "disrespect to the authorities", which in fact was due to the lack of bribe delivery to his superiors.

In the same year Michurin left Ryazan and went to the city of Kozlov, in which he spent the subsequent years of his life. It was necessary to somehow earn a living, so Michurin got a job as a commercial clerk in one of the commodity offices with a 16-hour working day and 12 rubles a month. Two years later, Michurin took the position of assistant chief, but not for long, a quarrel with the station chief disrupted plans. Michurin changed jobs and began to repair watches and signaling devices.

Then he opened his own watch workshop. However, he still wanted to study plants and their species. Soon he managed to rent an abandoned estate in the Kozlov area, with an area of \u200b\u200b130 hectares, with a small plot of land, on which Michurin began to conduct breeding experiments with more than 600 plant species. Having moved to the city estate of his acquaintances, Michurin bred the first varieties of plants: raspberry Commerce, Griot cherry, Krasa Sever cherry, etc. But soon this estate was also planted with plants.

Michurin's attention was attracted by the estate sold by priest Yastrebov, with a plot of land of 12.5 acres. Although half of the site was under the river, under bushes and a ravine, Michurin was still pleased with the acquired estate. Years later, this nursery estate became one of the first breeding centers in Russia, and a few years later - the central estate of the state farm. I.V. Michurin. In the period from 1893 to 1896 hybrids of plum, sweet cherry, apricot and grapes were bred in the nursery. But all these seedlings could not pass acclimatization by the grafting method, since the powerful black soil fed them all the time. Then Michurin transplanted the plants into more scarce soils to acquire Spartan hardening.

In 1906, the first scientific publications of IV Michurin saw the light of day, touching upon the problem of new breeding of varieties of fruit trees. Already in 1912 Michurin was awarded the Order of Anna of the third degree for his achievements. In 1913, the Americans offered Michurin to sell the collection of varieties, to which the breeder refused. In 1915, as a result of a spring flood, the nursery was flooded: many of the hybrids died. In the same year, Michurin's wife dies due to a cholera epidemic.

At this time, Michurin finds confirmation of his assumptions about the law of inheritance of traits in plants. Going headlong into work, Michurin slowly forgets about the tragedies that have happened. Now each issue of "Progressive Gardening and Horticulture" begins with Michurin's articles. In 1917, with the beginning of the February revolution, Michurin announced that he wanted to cooperate with the new government. The answer came immediately. On November 22, 1918, the People's Commissariat signed a decree on accepting Michurin's nursery into its department, and Michurin himself was appointed head of this nursery with the right to invite workers to further expand production.

By 1922, Michurin produced over 150 new varieties of fruit trees and shrubs: 45 varieties of apple, 20 varieties of pears, 13 varieties of cherries, 6 varieties of sweet cherries, 3 varieties of mountain ash, etc.

In 1934, on the basis of the nursery, a genetic laboratory was created. I.V. Michurina, engaged in the development of new varieties and species of plants, which exists to this day. The Research Institute of Fruit Growing named after V.I. Michurin and Michurinsk State Agrarian University. The contribution of I.V. Michurin in the development of science and the state as a whole was so great that the city of Kozlov during Michurin's life in 1932 was renamed into

The great-grandfather of IV Michurin, Ivan Naumovich, and the grandfather of Ivan Ivanovich Michurin, were small-land nobles and participants in the Patriotic War of 1812. IV Michurin continued the family tradition, since not only his father, Vladimir Ivanovich, but also his grandfather, Ivan Ivanovich, as well as his great-grandfather, Ivan Naumovich, were keenly interested in gardening and collected a rich collection of fruit trees and a library of agricultural literature.

“Is it due to hereditary transmission from my grandfather (Ivan Ivanovich), who put a lot of personal work in the cultivation of a large garden ...: in the Ryazan province, or perhaps from my great-grandfather (Ivan Naumovich), also a famous gardener who lived in the Kaluga province, where before there are still several varieties of pears called Michurinsky, and it is possible that the personal example of my father, who also worked a lot in cultivating his garden, greatly influenced me in my earliest childhood,

Michurin, 1914

IV Michurin's father, Vladimir Ivanovich, received a home education. He served at the Tula Arms Factory as a weapons receiver. He retired with the rank of provincial secretary, and settled in his estate "Vershina", where he was engaged in gardening and beekeeping. He was associated with the Free Economic Society, from which he received literature and agricultural seeds. In winter and autumn, Vladimir Ivanovich taught peasant children to read and write at home.

Mother Maria Petrovna, who was in poor health, fell ill with a fever and died at the age of thirty-three, when IV Michurin was four years old.

VB Govorukhina and LP Peregudova argue that Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin was born the seventh child, and his brothers and sisters died as children.

The boy worked with his father in the garden, apiary, planting and vaccinations. At the age of eight, he perfectly knew how to make budding, copulating, ablating plants.

He studied first at home, and then at the Pronsk district school of the Ryazan province, devoting his free and vacation time to work in the garden. On June 19, 1872, he graduated from the Pronskoye district school, after which his father prepared his son at the gymnasium course for admission to the St. Petersburg Lyceum.

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At this time, my father suddenly fell ill. N.A. Makarova claims that he was damaged by reason and was being treated in Ryazan.

The estate was mortgaged and paid for debts. His uncle, Lev Ivanovich, helped Michurin decide on the Ryazan provincial gymnasium. An aunt experiencing financial difficulties, Tatyana Ivanovna, who was also enthusiastically engaged in gardening, took care of Ivan Vladimirovich.

Michurin was expelled from the gymnasium in 1872 for "disrespect to his superiors." A. N. Bakharev, in his biographical note in Michurin's book, claims that the reason for the expulsion was the case when, while greeting the headmaster of the gymnasium, the gymnasium student Michurin “due to severe frost and ear disease did not manage to take off his hats in front of him,” The real reason, he says, is the refusal of his uncle, Lev Ivanovich, to bribe the headmaster of the Orange school.

In 1872 Michurin moved to the town of Kozlov (later Michurinsk), whose neighborhood he did not leave for a long time almost until the end of his life.

At the end of 1872, IV Michurin got a job as a commercial clerk in a commodity office at Kozlov station (Ryazan-Uralskaya railway, later - Michurinsk station, Moscow-Ryazan railway), with a salary of 12 rubles a month and a 16-hour working day.

In 1874 Michurin took the position of a commodity cashier, and then one of the assistants to the head of the same station. According to the biographer A. Bakharev, Michurin lost the post of assistant to the station chief due to a conflict ("caustic mockery") with the station chief Everling.

From 1876 to 1889 Michurin was a clock and signaling apparatus fitter on the section of the Kozlov-Lebedyan railway.

In 1874 he married Alexandra Vasilievna Petrushina, the daughter of a distillery worker.

“Married on August 28, 1874 to the petty bourgeoisie of the town of Kozlov, Alexandra Vasilievna Petrushina, who was born in 1858. From this marriage I have two children: a son, Nikolai, born in 1876, and a daughter, Maria, born in 1877. "

Having a lack of funds, Michurin opened a watch workshop in the city, at his apartment. According to A. Bakharev, “upon returning from duty Michurin had to sit well after midnight, fixing watches and repairing various devices”.

IV Michurin devoted his free time to work on the creation of new varieties of fruit and berry crops.

In 1875, he rented for 3 rubles a month an empty town estate in the vicinity of Kozlov with an area of \u200b\u200b130 square meters. fathoms (about 500 square meters) "with a small part of the neglected garden", where he began to conduct experiments on plant breeding. There he collected a collection of fruit and berry plants in more than 600 species. "Soon the estate I rented," he wrote, "was so overflowing with plants that there was no further possibility of doing business on it."

“For 5 years there is nothing to think about acquiring land. And costs should be reduced to the extreme limits as much as possible. And after the sale of some of the vaccinations and wild animals, on the sixth (i.e., in 1893) about 5,000 pcs., In the amount of 1,000 rubles (i.e., 20 kopecks each), you can buy land, fence it off and plant it. .. Plant between trees and over a fence. Counting 4 vershoks for each plant, you can hold out for three years. "

I. V. Michurin, in his diary for 1887.

In early autumn Michurin moved to an apartment in the Lebedevs' house, on Moskovskaya Street, with a manor and a garden. According to a contemporary of Michurin, I.A.Gorbunov, two years later Michurin acquired this house with a manor with the help of a bank, which he immediately mortgaged due to lack of funds and large debts for 18 years. On this estate Michurin bred the first varieties: raspberry Commerce (a seedling of Colossal Schaefer), Griot pear-shaped cherries, Small-leaved semi-dwarf, Fertile and interspecific hybrid cherry variety Krasa Severa (Vladimir early cherry × Winkler white cherry). Here he transferred the entire collection of garden plants from the Gorbunov estate. But after a few years this estate also turned out to be overflowing with plants.

In the early autumn of 1887 Michurin learned that the priest of the suburban settlement of Panskoye, Yastrebov, was selling a plot of land seven kilometers from the city near the settlement of Turmasovo, near the Kruch, on the banks of the Lesnoy Voronezh River. Of the 12 1/2 dessiatines (about 13.15 hectares) of the plot, only half could go into business, since the other half was under the river, a cliff, bushes and other inconveniences, however Michurin was very pleased with the plot. Due to a lack of funds, the deal was delayed until February 1888. A. Bakharev claims that “All autumn and most of the winter of 1887-1888. went to feverish raising money with backbreaking, reaching exhaustion, work. " On May 26, 1888, the purchase of land took place, after which Michurin had 7 rubles and large debts under the mortgage of half of the land. Due to a lack of funds, the Michurin family members carried plants from the city plot 7 km away on their shoulders. Since there was no home on the new site, they walked 14 km, and lived in a hut for two seasons. Michurin was forced to continue working as a fitter for another year. Since 1888, this site near the Turmasovo settlement has become one of the first breeding nurseries in Russia. Subsequently, this is the central estate of the state farm-garden named after IV Michurin, with an area of \u200b\u200b2500 hectares of gardens with Michurin assortments.

In 1893-1896, when the nursery in Turmasovo already had thousands of hybrid seedlings of plum, cherry, apricot and grape, Michurin became convinced of the failure of the method of acclimatization by grafting, and concludes that the soil of the nursery - a powerful black soil - is fat and “ spoils "hybrids, making them less resistant to the devastating" Russian winter "for thermophilic varieties.

In 1900 Michurin transferred the plantings to a plot with poorer soils "to ensure the 'Spartan' education of hybrids."

In 1906, the first scientific works of IV Michurin, devoted to the problems of breeding new varieties of fruit trees, were published.

In 1912 he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree.

In 1913 he refused an offer from the US Department of Agriculture to move to America or sell his plant collection.

In 1915, his wife died of cholera.

In 1934, a genetic laboratory was created on the basis of Michurin's nursery, at present - the Central Genetic Laboratory named after V.I. I. V. Michurina (TsGL RAAS), is engaged in the development of methods for breeding new varieties of fruit crops, selection work. As a result of the fruitful activity of the scientist, the city of Michurinsk turned into an all-Russian center of horticulture; later, the N. Michurin, Michurin State Agrarian University. Michurinsky district has large fruit nurseries and fruit growing farms.

Contribution to science

He developed methods of breeding fruit and berry plants, mainly the method of distant hybridization (selection of parental pairs, overcoming non-breeding, etc.).

Michurin, Ivan Vladimirovich

Sov. biologist, great transformer of nature, whose works marked the beginning of a new stage in the development of Darwinism; honorary member Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1935), valid. member VASKHNIL (1935). Honored. active n. etc. RSFSR (1934).

Was born in the village. Long Pronsk. Ryazan county. lips. After the end of the prism. district school (1869) entered Ryazan. gymnasium, from a cut was soon expelled "for disrespect to the authorities." In 1872 he began working as a clerk at the freight station Kozlov (now Michurinsk). At this time, despite the difficult working conditions and paltry earnings, M. began to realize his dream - to devote his life to gardening. On a small plot of land behind the outbuildings of the house where he lived, M. began to grow plants from the seeds of the selected fruits of apples, pears, plums and cherries; at the same time studied Russian. and the world assortment of fruit and berry plants. In 1875 he moved to the city of Ryazhsk, where he began to work as a senior clerk in the railway commodity office. station. In 1877 he returned to the town of Kozlov; his new job (master of clocks and signaling devices on the section of the Kozlov-Lebedyan railway) allowed him to get acquainted with the gardening of the central part of Europe during his trips around the section. Russia.

Back in 1875 (in Kozlov), M. rented a small (130 sq. Soot.) Empty city manor, where he began his wonderful experiments. But very soon the experimental site became too small for work (by this time M. had already a collection containing more than 600 species of fruit trees and shrubs), and in 1882 he rented a new, somewhat larger plot, where he transferred all his plants ... On this site he developed the first varieties of raspberries ("commerce"), cherries ("griot pear-shaped", "small-leaved semi-dwarf", "fertile", interspecific hybrid variety "beauty of the north"). In 1888 M. acquired at 7 km from the city, near the settlement of Turmasovo, plot approx. 12 dessiatines, on which he was able to expand his research.

Already in 1875-77, M. began to work on improving and replenishing the assortment of fruit plants in central and sowing. parts of Russia. Being carried away by the ideas of acclimatization, in his initial experiments he used the methods propagandized at that time by Moscow. gardener A.K. Grell, and sought to change the heredity of the south. varieties of fruit plants by grafting their cuttings into the crown of an adult tree of a local variety or on cold-resistant wilds. However, after a number of years of work M. came to the conclusion that this method of acclimatization of the south. varieties, since all plants grafted in this way died in severe winters. Later M. made an article "How is the acclimatization of plants possible?" (1905), in a cut revealed the erroneousness of Grelle's methods, pointing out that any thermophilic variety that did not have the ability to withstand low temperatures in its homeland cannot adapt to them in new climatic conditions. conditions if acclimatization is carried out by transferring plants, cuttings, cuttings, etc .; such plants die or degenerate. M. came to the conclusion that the acclimatization of plants is possible only if the sequential transfer of plants by seeds to the north through a number of geographic areas is carried out. areas. By this method (using connections with amateur gardeners in a number of provinces) he created the "northern apricot" and the cherry "first swallow".

However, this path of plant acclimatization turned out to be very long. Long-term searches better ways advancing fruit crops to the north led M. to the method of hybridization geographic. distant forms, to interspecific and intergeneric hybridization in combination with both the systematic education of parental forms before crossing, and the subsequent education of the best selected hybrid seedlings. M. formulated his views on distant hybridization in the article "Promoting hybridization gives a more reliable way of acclimatization" (1913) and developed them in a number of subsequent works. The more geographically distant forms of plants crossed, the more plasticity the hybrid organisms had and the easier they could adapt to the harsh conditions of central Russia. But new obstacles were encountered here. Hybrid seedlings obtained from crossing local varieties of plants with southern varieties, developing on rich chernozem soil, deviated due to winter hardiness towards southern varieties and died from frost.

In 1893-96, when the nursery already had thousands of hybrid seedlings, M. came to the conclusion that in order to breed more frost-resistant varieties, it was necessary to transfer the experiments to a plot with less rich soil. For this purpose, he acquired a plot in Donskoy Sloboda (near the town of Kozlov) with alluvial sandy loam soil, where he transferred (in 1899-1900) all the seedlings. On this site M. worked until the end of his life.

Under tsarism, M. did not find support from representatives of "government science." He repeatedly suggested that the Department of Agriculture take under the jurisdiction of the state its small experimental plot and pointed out the need to organize at least one state institution for the whole of Russia, where hybridization work could continue. All his attempts to arouse interest in his experiments ran into the ignorance and indifference of officials, and the reactionary representatives of the scientific world, to-rykh M. called "caste priests of boltology", openly despised him. But despite this, M., being an ardent patriot, flatly refused the insistent offers (1911, 1913) of the representative of the US Department of Agriculture to sell his collections.

After the Great Oct. socialist revolution, in the first days after the establishment of the Sov. authorities. M. came to the county land department and declared his desire to work for the new government.

V.I. Lenin drew attention to M.'s works, as having great state significance. In 1918 the Sov. the state took over the nursery handed over to M., appointed him the head and created favorable conditions for his creative work (funds, equipment, personnel were provided). Later (1928), on the basis of the nursery, a selection-genetic plant was created. station of fruit and berry crops. IV Michurin (now the Central Genetic Laboratory named after IV Michurin). In 1931, a decision was made to organize a production training and experimental plant, which included: a state farm-garden on an area of \u200b\u200bover 3,500 hectares, Centraln. in-t sowing. fruit growing (now N. and I. Institute of Fruit Growing named after I.V. Michurin), higher educational institution - Institute of selection of fruit and berry crops (later renamed into Fruit and Vegetable Institute named after I.V. Michurin), and others. The task of these institutions was the broad development of M.'s teachings, the introduction of his experience into practice, the creation of new varieties of fruit and berry plants, the development of issues related to the agricultural technology of horticulture, the training of qualified specialists in the field of fruit growing and vegetable growing, the management of numerous organized zonal stations and strong points, etc. Only under the Sov. authorities M.'s idea to promote fruit growing in sowing. parts of the country was able to turn into reality.

M. was associated with numerous gardening practitioners, scientists and collective farmers, conducted extensive correspondence with them, gave personal consultations, actively appeared in the press, etc. M. pointed out that only the Communist. party and Sov. the authorities turned him from an experienced loner into a leader and organizer of fruit growing in the country.

In 1932 Kozlov was renamed Michurinsk.

M. was buried on the square in Michurinsk.

Scientific and practical M.'s activity was devoted to solving the problem of replenishing the assortment of fruit and berry plants in central Russia and moving the border of growth of southern crops to the north. M. is deeply characteristic of dialectical. understanding of wildlife. He wrote: "Life goes on without stopping ... Everything that stops at one form and in one place is inevitably doomed to wither away. All forms of living organisms are a passing phenomenon and never completely repeat" (Works, vol. 4, 2 ed., 1948, p. 400). All M.'s activities were aimed at that. so that a person could, having learned the laws of the formation of species, force nature to produce those forms and with such properties that a person needs. "We cannot wait for favors from nature: it is our task to take them from her" - the principle by which M. was constantly guided in his work (see ibid., Vol. 1, p. 605).

M. obtained most of the standard varieties of fruit plants by the method of hybridization geographic. distant forms. Almost every variety he bred served as a new confirmation of the correctness of Charles Darwin's statements that even the slightest change in living conditions is often sufficient to cause variability in organisms. In his work "Breeding new cultivars of fruit trees and shrubs from seeds" (1911) M. outlined the main theoretical. questions of their teaching on the creation of new qualities. plant varieties. When developing new varieties, he attached great importance to the selection of producers and pointed out that the breeder was required to comprehensively study the properties and qualities of each variety or species of plants selected for the role of producer. He noted that even the age of parent plants of the same variety or species significantly affects the quality of hybrid offspring: older trees more fully convey hereditary traits than young ones.

To obtain hybrids between plants of distant species and genera, to overcome their non-interbreeding, M. developed a number of remarkable methods and techniques. All his research was a desire to know the nature of organisms, their heredity and variability and to substantiate the ways of managing plants in the right direction. Setting himself the task of creating a new variety, he carefully selected the initial forms, took into account the peculiarities of their individual development, the history of the development of not only direct parental couples, but also their distant ancestors. The main thing in M.'s work was hybridization in combination with the expedient education of hybrid seedlings as organisms most susceptible to the influence of the environment. He considered hybridization as a means for obtaining a new form combining the traits and properties of the parental pair, and at the same time as a means of loosening the plant's heredity (overcoming its conservatism). M. pointed out that with the receipt of hybrid seeds, the work of the breeder does not end, but only begins. In publ. In his 1923 article "A summary of the results of practical work of the originator of new varieties of fruit plants," he wrote that without the use of an appropriate regime for raising seedlings, only one selection, even when combined with all types of crosses, it is impossible to create completely resistant varieties of fruit trees. Environmental conditions are the main factor determining the hereditary qualities of the resulting plant. It is completely useless to carry out the strictest selection among breeding material in a number of generations in the hope of obtaining promising varieties from it, if these organisms are not provided with the appropriate soil. abundant nutrition, light, etc. However, the changes in the body that have arisen as a result of the impact of the external environment in the process of its individual development, cannot be considered in isolation from the heredity that has developed in the process of historical. development of this species. Heredity is persistent and difficult to change, but even the deepest hereditary properties of an organism can be shaken by hybridization and the influence of new environmental conditions. The young organism obtained as a result of crossing, due to shattered heredity, will have greater plasticity, and its development can be directed in the desired direction through the use of various methods of education.

One of the most effective ways of raising hybrids is the mentor-educator's method developed by M..

Having developed techniques for controlling the dominance of traits, M. in the articles "Concerning the Inapplicability of Mendel's Laws in Hybridization" (1915), "Seeds, Their Life and Preservation Before Sowing" (1915), etc., criticized Mendelian laws of inheritance of traits. Having thoroughly studied the nature of the interaction of the rootstock and the scion, he proved the effectiveness of vegetative hybridization using a huge amount of facts and thereby confirmed the correctness of the provisions of Charles Darwin, who believed that by grafting one plant to another, a vegetative hybrid is obtained - a form that combines the characteristics of grafted plants. In 1922, M. wrote the work "The Erroneous Judgment of Many Scientific Researchers on the Recognition of the Possibility of the Phenomenon of Vegetative Hybrids" (first published in the journal "Yarovization", 1936, No. 4). He showed the possibility of obtaining vegetative hybrids not only between varieties of the same plant species, but also between different kinds and even by their sorts, which in many cases is impossible to achieve by ordinary crossing; the new properties of the hybrid organism are transmitted to its descendants through the germ cells (seeds), which was confirmed by the vegetative hybrid created by M. between an apple tree and a pear ("bergamot rennet"). Research on vegetative hybridization M. showed the possibility of inheriting changes that arise in the process of individual life of the organism. M.'s doctrine, based on the disclosure of patterns in nature, indicates the ways and means that allow you to direct the development of the plant world.

M. was an innovative scientist who knew how to organically combine theory and practice and develop his research work in accordance with practical. tasks of socialist. construction. He bred more than 300 new varieties of fruit and berry plants (apple trees - "pepin saffron", "belfleur-kitaika", "slavianka", "antonovka six hundred grams", "saffron-kitaika"; pears - "take winter Michurina", "bergamot novik "; cherries -" fertile Michurina "," the beauty of the north "; plums -" reklode of thorns "," reklod kolkhoz "," reklod reform "; grapes -" northern white "," Russian concord "; mountain ash -" Michurin dessert "; blackberry raspberry - "Texas", and many others). M.'s numerous followers (scientists, collective farmers, as well as amateur fruit growers) are successfully developing the business he had begun.

A year before his death, M. wrote: "I have no other desires, how to continue, together with thousands of enthusiasts, the work of renewing the land, to which the great Lenin called us" (ibid., Vol. 1, p. 603).

Cit .: Works, vol. 1-4, 2nd ed., M., 1948.

Lit .: Lysenko T. D., Creator of Soviet agrobiology, in his book: Agrobiology. Works on genetics, selection and seed production, M., 1952; Bakharev A.N., Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin, M., 1949; Yakovlev P.N., Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin, M., 1951; Vasilchenko I., I. V. Michurin, M.-L., 1950; People of Russian Science, with a preface. and entered. article by Acad. S. I. Vavilov, t. 2, M.-L., 1948 (p. 763-71); Gennel P. A., On the centenary of the birth of I. V. Michurin, Scientific notes of the Moscow Regional Pedagogical Institute ", vol. 41. Proceedings of the Department of Botany, 1956, issue 1; Lysenko T. D., One hundred years from birthday of IV Michurin. Report ..., October 27, 1955, "Proceedings of the Institute of Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR", 1956. No. 23; Tsitsin NV, IV Michurin and the significance of his doctrine in modern Biology [Report ... Oct. 1955] Bulletin of the Main Botanical Garden, 1956, issue 25.

Meech atrin, Ivan Vladimirovich

Rod. 1855, d. 1935. Breeder, creator of new varieties of fruit and berry crops. Author of the method of distant hybridization. Chevalier of the Order of St. Anna of the third degree, honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1935), academician of VASKHNIL (1935).

Big biographical encyclopedia. 2009 .

The name of Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin - an outstanding naturalist, scientist - breeder who made a significant contribution to improving the nature of plants, developing breeding methods, creating new varieties of fruit crops and the development of domestic horticulture - is surrounded in our country with great love and deep respect.

I.V. Michurin was born on October 27, 1855 in the Vershina estate near the village of Dolgoe, Pronsk district, Ryazan province, now the village of Michurovka, Pronsk district, Ryazan region, in the family of a small nobleman. In the Michurins family, gardening was a family tradition, since not only his father, Vladimir Ivanovich, but also his grandfather, Ivan Ivanovich, as well as his great-grandfather, Ivan Naumovich, were interested in gardening and collected a rich collection of fruits.

The boy worked with his father in the garden, apiary, planting and vaccinations. At the age of eight, he was perfectly able to produce budding, copulating and ablating plants (Michurin I.V., T-1, p. 79).

Ivan Vladimirovich studied first at home, and then at the Pronsk district school of the Ryazan province, devoting his free and vacation time to work in the garden.

In 1869 I.V. Michurin graduated from the Pronskoe district school, his father and aunt began to prepare him for admission to a higher educational institution, but only through his uncle Ivan Vladimirovich was admitted to the Ryazan gymnasium, which I.V. Michurin did not finish because of disrespect for his superiors (in the December frost, when greeting his superiors, Ivan Vladimirovich did not take off his hat due to ear disease).

As a seventeen-year-old boy with an incomplete secondary education, Michurin left for ever a ruined small-scale noble estate for a working-class settlement. With the hard work of a small railway employee, and then a handicraft mechanic, he earns a livelihood. However, he is not attracted to a career as a railway official. He thirsts for knowledge, dreams of the activity of a breeder - a plant breeder (Bakharev A.N., p3).

In his autobiography I.V. Michurin says: “By virtue of hereditary transmission to me from my grandfather (Ivan Ivanovich), who put a lot of personal work in the cultivation of a large garden ...: in the Ryazan province, or perhaps also from my great-grandfather (Ivan Naumovich), ... the example of my father, who also worked a lot on the cultivation of his garden, greatly influenced me even in my earliest childhood (Michurin I.V., Works Vol. 1, p. 78).

Work at the station I.V. Michurin combined with a lot of experimental work in the garden and self-education. Such intense and systematic work on himself allowed him to become a highly educated person, without a document confirming graduation from a higher educational institution Ivan Vladimirovich knew the life of plants perfectly, and his qualifications as a gardener were at a very high level (Michurin I.V., Works T-1, from 80).

In 1874 I.V. Michurin holds the position of a commodity cashier, and then one of the assistants to the head of the same station. In 1874 he married Alexandra Vasilievna Petrushina, the daughter of a distillery worker.

Having a lack of funds, I.V. Michurin opened a watch workshop in the city, at his apartment. Since 1876 I.V. Michurin works as an installer of clocks and signaling devices on the section of the Kozlov - Lebedyan railway (Bakharev A.N., p. 10).

In 1875 I.V. Michurin rents a land plot of five hundredths of a hectare in the town of Kozlov and sets up a breeding nursery there. There he collected a collection of fruit and berry plants in more than 600 species. At that time, Ivan Vladimirovich dreamed of realizing his idea - to bring out new varieties with the desired properties and qualities through analytical breeding, that is, by massive sowing of seeds of the best southern and Central Russian varieties, raising seedlings in appropriate conditions and their subsequent strict selection (I.V. Michurin , T.-1, p. 81).

In early autumn, IV Michurin moved to an apartment in the Lebedevs' house, on Moskovskaya Street, with a manor house and a garden. Here he transferred the entire collection of garden plants from the Gorbunovs' estate. But after a few years this estate also turned out to be overflowing with plants. In 1888 I.V. Michurin bought a plot of land near the Turmasovo settlement. Due to a lack of funds, the plants from the urban area were worn by the Michurin family members over 7 km on their shoulders. Since there was no home on the new site, they walked for 14 km, and lived in a hut for two seasons. Since 1888, this site near the Turmasovo settlement became one of the first breeding nurseries in Russia. Subsequently, this is the central estate of the state farm-garden named after IV Michurin, with an area of \u200b\u200b2500 gassads with Michurin assortment. In1900 I.V. Michurin transferred the plantings to a site with poorer soils "to ensure the" Spartan "education of hybrids" (Bakharev AN, 1955, pp. 13-14).

In 1906 the first scientific works of IV Michurin, devoted to the problems of breeding new varieties of fruit trees, were published. In the autobiography of I.V. Michurin wrote: “I definitely do not have time to deal with these almost daily visits to different cities of inspectors, agricultural and garden instructors, foresters, etc. It is good for them to drive around - their time is paid by the 20th, and I have to work ... For me, every hour is precious; I’m in the nursery all day, and up to half the night you spend correspondence, which, by the way, is so massive from all over Russia, and in recent times and from abroad ”(Michurin IV, T-1 P. 93).

In the summer of 1915, during the First World War, an epidemic of cholera raged in Kozlov. That year, Michurin's wife, Alexandra Vasilievna, died.

In the same year, an abundant flood in early spring flooded the nursery, after which severe frosts and a decline in water destroyed the ice school of two-year-olds, intended for sale. This killed many hybrids. However, during the war, I.V. Michurin found confirmation of a number of his judgments and views on the law of inheritance in plants, the method of breeding varieties (Bakharev A.N., p15).

In 1916, a student circle of gardening amateurs at the Petrovsk Agricultural Academy asked Michurin if his major work on breeding new varieties of fruit plants had come out of print. Michurin, however, complained about the lack of funds and personnel for scientific processing of the accumulated material.

Conditions in which it proceeded scientific activity Michurin, were extremely unfavorable for the implementation of his wonderful ideas.

I.V. Michurin repeatedly noted in his writings that in tsarist Russia nothing was done for the development of horticulture for centuries. The theory and practice of horticulture was stagnant. There were very few domestic scientists, gardening specialists.

Getting acquainted with the state of gardening in tsarist Russia, I.V. Michurin was amazed at the backwardness of this industry, the poverty of the assortment. In this regard, he set himself two tasks: to move the border of growth of fruit plants far to the North and East; to replenish the assortment of fruit and berry crops in central Russia with new winter-hardy, highly productive varieties with high quality fruits. He devoted 60 years of his creative life to solving these problems (Bakharev A.N., p. 8).

Until 1915, there was not a single higher educational institution in Russia that would train personnel of qualified gardeners. The Department of Fruit Growing was first established at the Petrovsk Agricultural Academy.

The range of peasant gardens in the middle zone consisted of a large number of low-value low-yielding varieties. Michurin could not remain indifferent to the fate of domestic fruit growing. In 1875, a twenty-year-old boy Michurin, with scant personal funds, founded the first breeding nursery in Russia, with the goal of improving the varieties of fruit plants in the middle zone (Michurin I.V., T-1., P90).

I.V. Michurin was formed under the influence of the works of the greatest Russian scientists - biologists A.O. and V.O. Kovalevskikh, I.I. Mechnikov, I.M. Sechenov, K.A. Timiryazev, as well as materialist philosophers and revolutionary democrats A.N. Radishcheva, A.I. Herzen, V.G. Belinsky, N.G. Chernyshevsky.

A modest gardener completely unknown in the scientific world - breeder I.V. Michurin on the pages of the magazines "Progressive gardening and horticulture", "Bulletin of gardening", "Russian garden and vegetable garden", "Gardener", in the catalogs of his breeding nursery, starting from 1895, month after month, year after year, stubbornly, persistently , passionately, with amazing depth and consistency sets out a fundamentally new, progressive doctrine that affirms the power of man over living nature (Bakharev A.N., p. 5).

In its creative activity I.V. Michurin did not immediately reach such a deep understanding of plant life that would allow him to create the foundations of the science of the management of heredity. In the works of I.V. Michurin, as he himself writes in his writings, three main stages should be distinguished: the stage of acclimatization, the stage of mass selection and the stage of hybridization (Feiginson N.I., p. 11).

The first stage of I.V. Michurin is associated with the acclimatization of southern fruit plants, which he carried out following the methods proposed by A.K. Grell. A.K. Grell argued that if southern good varieties are properly grown in the north, in particular, by grafting them on cold-resistant rootstocks, then these varieties will change, gradually adapt to new conditions (Senchenkova E.M., p. 30).

In general, the first stage of his work I.V. Michurin assessed him as erroneous and bitterly complained about the lost time and work. However, one should not forget that this stage also had its positive aspects. The researcher was convinced that the path proposed by A.K. Grell, cannot lead to the desired goal and therefore not only left him himself, but called others to do away with mistakes, published articles in the gardening press outlining his work experience. It was during this stage of the work of I.V. Michurin accumulated the first observations on the life and development of plants, made a number of major scientific discoveries, among which the most important regularity belongs - the strong formative influence of living conditions on young organisms.

With the help of new developed breeding methods I.V. Michurin in the period 1884-1916 created 154 new high-value varieties of apple, pear, cherry, plum, sweet cherry, apricot, almond, walnut and various berry plants.

The life and scientific activity of I.V. Michurina was an amazing example of tireless work, struggle and great passion of a man-creator who boldly overcame all obstacles and obstacles on the way to the realization of his cherished goal - the creation of new high-yielding and high-quality forms of various agricultural plants (Bakharev A.N., 1955, p3) ...

Thus, all the work of I.V. Michurina in the pre-revolutionary period was aimed at getting to know the problems of domestic gardening, at understanding the life of plants, as well as overcoming constant financial difficulties.

IV Michurin made an invaluable contribution to the development of domestic gardening. For 17 years of creative work in the Soviet period I.V. Michurin achieved incomparably more than in 42 years of activity under tsarism.

From 1917 to 1935 I.V. Michurin created about 200 new varieties of fruit and berry plants, completed the development of his general biological doctrine and published a significant part of his works (Bakharev A.N., p. 6).

Love for the chosen grandfather, devotion to him, deep knowledge of nature, obtained by continuous observation and constant work on oneself, the strictest self-discipline, the greatest diligence - these are the wonderful qualities that I.V. Michurin will overcome all hardships and difficulties.

Michurin's great industriousness and love for his chosen work manifested itself primarily in the tireless search for new plants for breeding and culture.

Numerous diaries, notebooks, notebooks, catalogs of fruit, ornamental, forest nurseries and botanical gardens are dotted with entries, notes, postscripts containing names, descriptions of economic, medicinal or decorative qualities of plants.

As a true patriot and innovator striving to enrich the Motherland with the best varieties of fruit plants, for decades he patiently, persistently collects, scattered all over the world, often disappearing without a trace valuable varieties and forms of fruit plants (Bakharev A.N., p. 62) ...

It was not always easy to get the right plants. On the contrary, in most cases the scientist had to face insurmountable obstacles, and it was impossible to build selection work on a large scale on the basis of accidentally obtained initial plant forms. The Department of Agriculture rarely equipped expeditions to search for new plants and almost did not send botanists and taxonomists to other countries. Expeditions organized on the initiative of individual scientists to collect plants with a narrowly scientific purpose, unfortunately, could not meet the needs of breeding practice.

The Soviet government made the dreams of I.V. Michurin about special state expeditions to collect new forms of plants in poorly explored areas and especially in the Far East (Bakharev A.N., pp. 66-67). “Having received unlimited and rich opportunities,” wrote Ivan Vladimirovich in his address to the Komsomol member in 1932, “the breeding idea must now work persistently in the creation of high-yielding, excellent quality varieties of fruit and berry plants that begin to bear fruit early and are resistant to adversity” (Michurin I.V., Works, T-4 p. 240-242).

The entire creative life of I.V. Michurina is a wonderful example of patriotic service to the Motherland (Bakharev A.N., p. 76). At the very beginning of his work, I.V. Michurin set himself the task of "moving south to north" and did not retreat from solving this problem until last days life. He strove to ensure that in the relatively harsh conditions of central Russia it was possible to cultivate high-quality varieties and breeds of fruit trees and shrubs that were grown only in the south, in milder climatic conditions (Feyginson N.I., p. 11).

In the history of selection and genetic science, there are no examples of such a deep understanding of the life of plant development, which I.V. Michurin.

In the works of Michurin, and especially in the book "The Results of Sixty Years of Work", all that he has learned as a result of the deepest knowledge of life is summarized. The special value of the book by I.V. Michurin lies in the fact that all the provisions set forth in it are the result of numerous experiments conducted by I.V. Michurin. The experiments themselves, he conducted not just for experiments, not to satisfy idle curiosity, but always to overcome the obstacles standing in the way of creating the necessary varieties and forms of plants, unprecedented in nature, (I.V. Michurin Results of sixty years of work, p. 10) ...

Outstanding achievements of I.V. Michurin have received wide recognition in our country and abroad. He was awarded the highest government awards of the USSR - the Orders of Lenin (1931) and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1926). In 1934 I.V. Michurin was awarded the title of "Honored Worker of Science and Technology". In 1935 he was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of VASKhNIL, the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Czechoslovakia.

The new approaches to the selection of parental pairs for hybridization and the selection of valuable seedlings, developed by IV Michurin, greatly influenced the development of breeding work for fruit and other agricultural crops. Wide application in practical selection was first proposed by I.V. Michurin method of hybridization of ecologically-geographically distant forms, as well as the method of backcrossing. He improved the method of selecting "cultivated" seedlings in young age based on the correlation between features. I.V. Michurin made a great contribution to improving the assortment of fruit and berry crops in our country (Senchenkova E.M., p. 30).

Academician P.P. Lukyanenko believed that hybridization of geographically distant forms is the most effective breeding method, allowing the creation of wheat varieties with a high adaptive potential and a wide distribution area in production. A classic and world-famous example of this was the Bezostaya 1 variety. Characteristic features of Michurin's creative activity were the constant evolution of his views, a self-critical and cautious attitude towards the results obtained, and exceptional persistence in solving tasks.
Michurin never claimed to be unconditional in his conclusions, realizing that his judgments could be wrong. And this was quite natural, since at that time, according to N.I. Vavilov (1990, p. 91), “... the methods of fruit selection were not developed and Michurin himself had to pave new ways. The theory of selection of fruit trees was still in the dark of controversy. "

IV Michurin was also characterized by an adamant character, the rarest persistence in achieving goals, moral endurance. For example, he blessed the harsh winter as the strictest and most impartial of the culprit. Hundreds of his seedlings were frozen, and he said: "So you have to work better." It is about this character trait of I.V. Michurina is especially vividly evidenced by the decision he made in 1900 to transfer his entire nursery from a black-earth plot of land to a new place with "the most lean sandy soil." The reason for this was the conviction of the need for Spartan education of hybrids in the first period of their development - before fruiting, only after which the transition to enhanced nutrition follows. "... Otherwise, I would never have achieved success in breeding new varieties of fruit plants ..." (Zhuchenko A.A., p. 2).

The teachings of I.V. Michurin on the adaptability of hybrid forms of plants is associated with the peculiarities of the manifestation of dominance traits, which plays an important role in breeding and agricultural technology. At the same time, the combination of Spartan and favorable environmental conditions at different stages of ontogenesis acts both as a background for selection, which makes it possible to more reliably recognize the desired genotype behind the phenotype facade, and to control the factors controlling the dominance of economically valuable plant traits (high ecological stability at the first stage and potential productivity in the second). This, respectively, is the features and advantages of the management of "floating dominance" in perennial plants (Zhuchenko A.A., p. 2). Thanks to deep insight into the essence of the phenomenon of dominance, I.V. Michurin, according to academician N.P. Dubinin (1966), for the first time in the history of world science and practice (and long before the works of well-known geneticists in this field), "... develops the problem of identifying heredity in development in connection with the laws of ontogenesis, ... raises the problem of the relationship between the environment and heredity ..." specific ways of practical management of the manifestation of dominant and recessive economically valuable traits. It is noteworthy that back in 1911 I.V. Michurin considered the property of dominance in connection with the history of the form, i.e. from the evolutionary standpoint of the emergence of phenomena of heredity. Fischer and other geneticists came to this evolutionary approach, but much later. The works of I.V. Michurin on controlling the dominance of traits in hybrids led him to understand the enormous importance of the selection of pairs for crossing, as well as the crucial role of crossing geographically distant forms (Saveliev N.I., p. 66).

Hybridization, especially distant, (or, in modern terms, recombinogenesis) I.V. Michurin considered the "cornerstone" of his theory of breeding new varieties. Assuming a primary role to the method of hybridization, especially distant, I.V. Michurin inevitably intruded into the main problem of genetics that was emerging at that time, i.e. the science of variability and inheritance of traits. In this regard, it is important to trace the evolution of the views of I.V. Michurin on the laws of splitting hybrids, first discovered by Gregor Mendel in 1865, and widely known after their re-discovery in 1900. Based on a huge number of his own experimental data, I.V. Michurin at the first stages of his work denied not only the quantitative laws of splitting established by G. Mendel, but also Mendelism as such, calling it a "pea law" (Zhuchenko A.A., p. 7) ..

However, this is what the greatness, sagacity and civic courage of I.V. Michurin as a scientist, that he was able to admit the erroneousness of one or another of his judgments, and openly declare this. In 1929 I.V. Michurin writes: “In Mendel's law, I do not in the least reject its merits…. In hybrids of pure types of rye, wheat, oats, peas, millet, etc. I think the phenomenon of splitting into producers is quite possible. Here, of course, Mendel's laws apply in all their details. " In an earlier article published in 1923, I.V. Michurin emphasized that "... all the inconsistency of Mendel's laws and the doctrine of the number of cell chromosomes with the conclusions from my observations is obtained only from the difference in the objects taken for observation." Consequently, unlike most of his contemporaries, incl. many geneticists, he completely correctly interpreted the basic principle of Mendel's law (Molchan I.M., p. 12). Outstanding geneticist academician N.P. Dubinin (1966) said: "IV Michurin's instructions that simple numerical ratios according to Mendel are inapplicable to many cases of hybridization of apple trees and other fruit trees ... are completely fair and justified." It is now generally accepted that the complexity of the inheritance of traits in an apple tree is mainly due to the hybridity of its origin and a complex polyploid composition.

As a result of the discovery of complex heredity in the apple tree, N.I. Dubinin (1966), I.V. Michurin “… himself made a number of ingenious guesses about the existence of polyploidy. These include statements that “genes inherited to a weaker degree ... partly completely disappear, and partly remain in a latent state, and sometimes can subsequently be passed on to offspring in other later generations. From the interconnection of some genes and under the influence of extraneous factors, sometimes completely new unprecedented properties and qualities appear in hybrids. Among the "brilliant guesses" I.V. Michurin can also be attributed to his position that different plant traits in their manifestation depend to varying degrees on environmental conditions and heredity, that the degree of dominance of a trait can change when a hybrid is transferred from one geographic area to another, as well as in cases of a sharp change in conditions cultivation. It is these features of the manifestation of traits in heterozygotes that underlie modern hypotheses about the ecological nature of the manifestation of the "heterotic effect", as well as "ecological heterosis".

In his last works I.V. Michurin has repeatedly emphasized the importance of studying and developing Mendelism, as well as the need to teach it in all agricultural universities.

Among other major scientific achievements of I.V. Michurin should also be noted:

Works on the use of somatic (kidney) mutations in the selection of vegetatively propagated plants, as well as methods of experimental mutagenesis (radiation selection) (NP Dubinin, 1966);

At the end of the nineteenth century, i.e. one of the first, I.V. Michurin appreciated the advantages of dim trees. He wrote: “Before, they tried to breed powerful, tall fruit plants. And practice has shown that early maturing dwarfs are needed, suitable for mechanization and harvesting ”;

Scientific basis for the selection of rootstocks for various crops. Rootstock I.V. Michurin called "the foundation of the fruit tree." Moreover, if at the beginning (before 1916) he recognized the possibility of obtaining "vegetative hybrids", then later "he departs from such a one-sided and exaggerated assessment of the role of the rootstock ..." (NP Dubinin, 1966);

I.V. Michurin was one of the first to draw attention to the existence of the juvenile period (the period of "youth") in fruits as one of the stages of ontogenesis. At present, the phenomenon of a brief repetition of phylogeny in ontogeny not only in animals, but also in plants is an integral part of the biogenetic law;

The greatest merit of I.V. Michurin is the introduction into breeding practice of methods to overcome non-breeding and sterility of species during distant hybridization (preliminary "vegetative convergence", etc.), pollination with a mixture of pollen (selectivity of fertilization), the use of a vegetative mentor (Zhuchenko A.A., p. 6).

The life and work of I.V. Michurin was a feat in the name of humanity, aimed at mobilizing plant resources, as well as managing plant heredity and variability. The assessment of the activities of I.V. Michurin is most clearly expressed in the words of N.I. Vavilova: “Endless labor, constant dissatisfaction, eternal search for something new, eternal striving to go forward - this is the usual lot of a seeker, a researcher. A moment of satisfaction gives way to days, years of hard work and perseverance. "

For the first time in our country I.V. Michurin embarked on bold experiments in the use of interspecies hybridization in fruit growing. While usually breeders abroad, to improve their varieties, were content with crossing closely related forms that give quick results, Ivan Vladimirovich puts forward a method of distant hybridization, in which winter hardiness, disease resistance and quality of varieties change dramatically. This decisive method required hard work, multiple repetitions of crossing, skillful selection of initial forms, and many years of persistent work. He went against the prevailing views at that time (Vavilov N.I., 1990 p. 329).

As Academician N.I. Vavilov, “Michurin's greatest merit is that he, like no one in our country, put forward the idea of \u200b\u200bdistant hybridization in fruit growing, bold alteration of plant species by crossing them with other species, and scientifically and practically proved the correctness of this path” (Vavilov N.I. , 1990 with 330).

According to N.I. Vavilova, Ivan Vladimirovich, for the first time in fruit growing, put forward the idea of \u200b\u200bwidespread attraction of the original species and varietal material for crossing.

A great contribution to science is the teaching of I.V. Michurin on the management of heredity and the education of hybrids. The methodology developed by him for raising hybrid seedlings is an important stage in the selection process (Agricultural Encyclopedia, 1972, p1145).

The idea of \u200b\u200bmobilizing the world and varietal fruit resources in order to improve our varieties turned out to be extremely fruitful and is now the basis of scientific fruit growing. The systematic use of wild and cultivated plant resources of East Asia, the Caucasus, Central Asia is still the primary task of fruit growing. For the promotion of fruit growing in the northern regions, for the radical improvement of our Soviet assortment, such use of East Asian wild and cultivated forms is of decisive importance.

The great merit of I.V. Michurin lies in the fact that he embodied his ideas in reality, creating many new, essentially plant forms. Talent, perseverance in work and iron will combined amazingly in this scientist-nugget.

Seeking and ingenuity are characteristic of Michurin. His versatile talent is striking, manifested in the design of various tools for fruit growing, various devices, in the ability to approach everything in a new way, including the treatment of diseases. The harsh conditions of reality forced thought to work in search of overcoming difficulties. (Vavilov N.I., 1990)

Thus, in the post-revolutionary period I.V. Michurin achieved greater results than during the period of work before 1917. He made a great contribution to improving the assortment of fruit and berry crops in the USSR. I.V. Michurin created many new plant forms that had not previously existed in Nature. His achievements have received wide recognition not only in our country, but also abroad, the theoretical principles developed by him have found wide application in practical selection.

The material was prepared by PhD student Sayapina A.G.