Lysenkoism

[li-seng-koh-iz-uhm]

noun

1. a genetic doctrine formulated by Lysenko and asserting that acquired characteristics are inheritable.

Lysenkoism

/ lɪˈsɛŋkəʊˌɪzəm /

noun

1. a form of Neo-Lamarckism advocated by Lysenko, emphasizing the importance of the inheritance of acquired characteristics

Word History and Origins

Origin of Lysenkoism¹

1945–50; named after T. D. Lysenko; -ism

Example Sentences

Lysenkoism was around long enough that, to his eternal disgrace, the proponent of the bizarre theory of plant heritability got his name attached to it.

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When Lysenkoism was applied to agricultural policy in Communist countries like the Soviet Union or China, the end result was invariably famine.

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Lysenkoism – despite being dead wrong – became the accepted orthodoxy in the academies and universities of communist Europe until the mid-1960s.

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Nazism and Lysenkoism were based on dramatically opposed conceptions of heredity—but the parallels between the two movements are striking.

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Although Nazi doctrine was unsurpassed in its virulence, both Nazism and Lysenkoism shared a common thread: in both cases, a theory of heredity was used to construct a notion of human identity that, in turn, was contorted to serve a political agenda.

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