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♪ ♪
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TYSON: To be human has been
to know the torment of hunger.
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There was once a man who
dreamed that through science,
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we could make a
world where no one would
ever perish from hunger.
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And famine would be no more.
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He gave us a treasure
to fulfil that promise,
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but he faced a terrible
choice at a moment of reckoning.
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To lie about science and live,
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or to tell the truth
and face certain death.
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(theme music plays)
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♪ ♪
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♪ ♪
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TYSON: For the first couple of
hundred thousand years that
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we were human,
we were wanderers living
beneath the stars.
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We gathered plant
life and hunted animals.
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Until about ten
or 12,000 years ago,
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when our ancestors
invented a new way to live.
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Think of those geniuses who
were the first to realize that
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inside the
plants they foraged,
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was a means to
make another plant.
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A seed.
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(thunder)
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(rain)
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That discovery led to the
single most fateful choice
our species ever made.
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They could continue
to wander in small bands,
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or they could settle down
to grow and raise their food.
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This required sacrifices
for rewards that would
not come until much later.
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For the first time, we were
thinking about the future.
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Of course, these decisions
weren't made in an instant.
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They unfolded
over generations.
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That seems like a long
time ago in human terms,
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but in the great
sweep of cosmic time,
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it was less than
a half a minute ago.
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This Cosmic Calendar
compresses all of the
last 13.8 billion years
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since the big bang into a
single calendar Earth year.
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Midnight on
December 31 is right now.
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Every month is a little
more than a billion years.
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Every day, a little
less than 40 million years.
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And all of humanity's
proudest achievements unfold
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in the last couple
of minutes of cosmic time.
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That's how new we
are to the universe.
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Our ancestors began to
domesticate animals and
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plants less than
30 seconds ago on
the Cosmic Calendar.
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For the first time, the
wanderers were settling down.
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And building things to last
for more than a single season.
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They dared to
touch the future.
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Their tower of
Jericho still stands.
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Was it a watchtower
for protecting
the city from invaders?
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Or just a way to get
closer to the stars?
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It took 11,000
work days to build.
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Something that could
only be possible with the
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food surpluses that
agriculture provided.
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This is the
world's oldest stairway.
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It was already 5,000 years
old before the first
Egyptian pyramid was built.
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To climb it is to
follow in the footsteps
of 300 generations.
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Isn't it astonishing
that people who had
barely ceased wandering,
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we're able to create
something of such permanence?
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The rich and varied
hunter-gatherer diet,
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of plants, insects, birds
and other animals, was replaced.
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City dwellers
largely subsisted on
a few carbohydrate crops.
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And when the rains didn't come
or a fungus afflicted the grain,
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there was hunger
on a massive scale.
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Famine.
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Famines caused by drought and
British colonial mismanagement
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in India in the 18th century
killed ten million people.
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In China, during the
famines of the 19th century,
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more than 100 million
people perished.
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The great hunger in Ireland,
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also a result of
British imperial policy,
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starved a million to death and
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forced another two million
to flee the country
in search of a living.
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The Brazilian drought
and pestilence of
1877 was comparable.
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In a single province,
more than half
died of starvation.
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The dead remain uncounted
from the famines that wracked
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Ethiopia, Rwanda
and the Sahel in Africa.
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For a couple
of thousand years,
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ever since records were kept,
somewhere on Earth,
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people in great
numbers have starved.
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Could agriculture become
a science with a predictive
theory as reliable as gravity?
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One that could consistently
produce breeds able to
stand up to drought and disease?
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Farmers and herders knew
the advantages of preferentially
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selecting the hardiest
specimens for crossbreeding,
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to produce a more
successful hybrid.
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This was known as
artificial selection.
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But the mechanism of how
those traits were passed on to
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succeeding generations
remained a complete mystery.
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This is Down House.
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Charles Darwin's home,
where he lived with his wife
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Emma and their ten children.
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He was hardly the
authoritarian
Victorian patriarch.
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But instead a tender,
loving father who delighted
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in his children's ridicule.
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This is the garden he planted.
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This place is a strangely
pastoral setting for the most
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influential revolutionary
in the history of thought.
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Even now, there are people
who are afraid of his idea.
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Charles Darwin discovered
that species, including ours,
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evolve over time through a
process of natural selection.
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The environment rewards those
best adapted to its changing
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realities with survival and with
new generations of offspring.
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Darwin demystified the
external reality of life,
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but no one had any idea
what the inner mechanisms
of evolution were.
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At that same moment, an
abbot at a rural monastery
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in what is now the
Czech Republic was trying to
become a science professor.
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Gregor Mendel flunked his
qualifying exam both times.
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The only career
path open to him was to
become a substitute teacher.
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So in his spare time,
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he took up the
study of pea plants.
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He bred tens of
thousands of them,
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carefully scrutinizing
their height and their shape
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and the color of their pods,
their seeds and flowers.
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Mendel was searching for a
predictive theory of breeding.
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So that you could know in
advance exactly what you would
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get when you crossed a
tall plant with a short one,
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and a green pea
with a yellow one.
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Mendel found that you would
get a yellow pea every time.
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We didn't have a word for
the power of the yellow over
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the green until
Mendel coined it.
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He called that
quality "dominant."
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And to his delight, he found
that he could predict what would
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happen in the next
generation of peas after that.
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One in four pea
plants would be green.
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Mendel named the hidden
trait that popped up in
the next crop, "recessive."
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There was something
he called "factors,"
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hidden inside
the plants that caused
particular characteristics.
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And they operated by a law
that Mendel could describe
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with a simple
equation, like gravity.
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Charles Darwin and
Gregor Mendel didn't know it,
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but the two scientists were
deciphering the mysterious
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workings of life at
the very same moment.
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(barking)
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Darwin presented the evidence
for a oneness with all life.
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That despite our pretensions
to a mystical higher birth,
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we were actually relatives to
the other beasts and vegetables.
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As much a part of the natural
world as any other living thing.
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Mendel discovered that
there were laws governing the
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way life's
messages were passed on.
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The substitute teacher
had invented a whole
new field of science.
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But nobody
noticed for 35 years.
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He died never knowing that
the world would come to see him
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as a giant in the
history of science.
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Mendel's work was
resurrected at the beginning of
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the 20th century and he
had no more vigorous defender
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than the British
zoologist William Bateson.
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It was Bateson who named the
new field of science devoted
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to studying these factors.
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Genetics.
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Bateson and his
colleagues worked on developing
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new breeds of
plants and animals.
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He believed that science
and freedom were indivisible
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and that's how
he ran his laboratory.
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(inaudible chatter)
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TYSON: Nikolai
Ivanovich Vavilov,
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a visiting
botanist from Russia,
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took Bateson's
credo deeply to heart.
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He wanted to use the
new field of genetics to learn
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how to feed the world.
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He was on his honeymoon
but science was his passion.
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Even as a child,
Vavilov had a sense of urgency.
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"Too little time,
too much to do,"
was his lifelong refrain.
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(panting)
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(grunts)
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TYSON: How could he have
known what was coming?
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TYSON: The idea that our
planet is a single organism,
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a unity, has a ring of hollow
sentimentality for many people.
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But it's just
a scientific fact.
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Something is
about to happen here,
in remote Southern Peru,
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in the year 1600 on
February 19 at 5:00 PM.
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Unsuspecting multitudes
and distant foreign capitals
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will never know how this
event reached around the world
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to torment and kill them.
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(explosion)
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This nasty mixture of
sulfuric acid and volcanic ash
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will block the sun's
rays from reaching Earth.
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Some of the sunlight
will be absorbed here
in the stratosphere.
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The eruption of Huaynaputina
volcano remains to this day
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the largest explosion
in South America in
recorded history.
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Winter is coming.
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Volcanic winter.
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For the people of Russia,
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it brought the worst
winter in six centuries.
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For two years, even the
summer temperatures would fall
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below freezing at night.
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Two million people, a
third of Russia's population,
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would die from
the resulting famine.
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It led to the downfall of
the Tsar Boris Godunov and
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all because of
a volcano that erupted
8,000 miles away in Peru.
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This was not the last
famine in Russian history.
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Drought and
famines occur frequently.
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But it wasn't until
nearly three centuries later,
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in 1891, that the magnitude of
suffering was again as ghastly.
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Winter came early that
year and the crops failed.
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Tsar Alexander III
was slow to respond.
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Wealthy Russian merchants
continued to export grain at
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a profit even as
millions went hungry.
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All the Tsar had to
offer his starving subjects
was "famine bread."
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A miserable mixture of
moss, weeds, bark and husks.
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Half a million
Russians perished,
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while the aristocracy and
the wealthy feasted on fresh
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strawberries from
the south of France and
clotted cream from England.
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The Russian Revolution
would not explode
for another 30 years,
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but many historians
believe that this famine
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was the spark that
ignited the long fuse.
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It was to make a lasting
impression on the hero of
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our story, Nikolai Vavilov.
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This is the Vavilov family.
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The parents were born into
poverty but had worked their
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way up into the
upper middle class.
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All four of the children would
grow up to become scientists.
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(gasping)
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TYSON: Sergey
became a physicist.
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Nikolai grew up
to be a botanist.
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(screams)
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NIKOLAI: Don't come near me.
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If you touch me, I'll jump.
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TYSON: Even as a boy, Vavilov
was never one to back down.
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In 1911, Russia was the
largest grain exporter on Earth,
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despite the fact that its
farming methods were antiquated.
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The Petrovsky Institute was
the only place in Russia where
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scientists could hope to
modernize food production
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through the new
science of genetics.
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But it was still a
matter of controversy.
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YELENA: Debate topic for today,
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is plant selection
a science or not?
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MAN: It is not a science.
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A farmer knows best.
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He's been sowing the
larger seeds and crossbreeding
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the fattest animals
for thousands of years.
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What do we scientists
have to offer them?
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Except fancy equations
to confuse the peasants.
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They don't want that.
They want bread.
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VAVILOV: The farmer has wisdom
and is worthy of our respect.
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But tragically, he lacks the
predictive powers of science.
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They cannot foretell
which traits will dominate
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or which will be recessive.
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The farmer plays roulette
and he's about as successful
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as the average gambler.
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00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:53,333
Gregor Mendel made it possible
for him to know the odds.
239
00:16:53,633 --> 00:16:56,567
To know what number
the ball will land on.
240
00:16:56,967 --> 00:16:59,900
The moment Mendel expressed
his ideas mathematically,
241
00:17:00,467 --> 00:17:03,600
agriculture became a
science and our only hope
242
00:17:03,734 --> 00:17:06,033
to efficiently
feed ourselves.
243
00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:08,367
And feed the world.
244
00:17:12,533 --> 00:17:15,033
TYSON: In 1914, during
the First World War,
245
00:17:16,100 --> 00:17:18,767
Vavilov began to wonder.
246
00:17:18,900 --> 00:17:21,100
Where did the domesticated
plants come from?
247
00:17:22,266 --> 00:17:24,767
Who were their ancestors?
248
00:17:25,467 --> 00:17:27,433
In a love letter he wrote...
249
00:17:27,567 --> 00:17:30,133
VAVILOV: I really
believe deeply in science.
250
00:17:30,433 --> 00:17:33,367
It is my life and
the purpose of my life.
251
00:17:34,333 --> 00:17:37,000
(gunfire and explosions)
252
00:17:37,834 --> 00:17:42,433
I do not hesitate to
give my life even for the
smallest bit of science.
253
00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:47,100
TYSON: The First World War
revealed the deep cracks in
254
00:17:47,233 --> 00:17:51,567
Russian society and
spurred the outbreak of
revolution and civil war.
255
00:17:53,033 --> 00:17:55,834
Vavilov established the
first of his 400 scientific
256
00:17:55,967 --> 00:17:58,400
institutes where
the children of peasants and
257
00:17:58,533 --> 00:18:00,667
laborers became scientists.
258
00:18:01,166 --> 00:18:05,000
All in the
service of Vavilov's
dream of ending famine.
259
00:18:05,967 --> 00:18:10,166
In 1920, Vavilov dared to
propose a new law of nature.
260
00:18:12,367 --> 00:18:15,300
VAVILOV: Comrades,
the same genes perform the
261
00:18:15,433 --> 00:18:18,467
same functions in
different species of plants.
262
00:18:19,166 --> 00:18:22,266
This is because they
share a common ancestor.
263
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:26,233
In order to understand
evolution and to guide our
264
00:18:26,367 --> 00:18:29,800
breeding work scientifically,
we must go to the oldest
265
00:18:29,934 --> 00:18:34,333
agricultural countries
where these common
ancestors may still live.
266
00:18:35,333 --> 00:18:37,166
KRIYER: Russia shall not
perish as long as there are
267
00:18:37,300 --> 00:18:39,300
people like Nikolai Vavilov!
268
00:18:39,433 --> 00:18:40,934
(cheering)
269
00:18:41,066 --> 00:18:43,066
TYSON: Vavilov was
now world famous.
270
00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:44,900
VAVILOV: Me,
I'm nothing special.
271
00:18:45,033 --> 00:18:47,400
It's my brother
Sergey, the physicist,
272
00:18:47,533 --> 00:18:49,800
who's the brilliant one.
273
00:18:50,100 --> 00:18:54,533
TYSON: Vavilov knew that
every seedling contains its
species' unique message.
274
00:18:55,500 --> 00:18:56,767
The content's different,
275
00:18:56,900 --> 00:18:59,600
but they were all written
in a mysterious language.
276
00:18:59,734 --> 00:19:02,633
One that would not
be deciphered for decades.
277
00:19:03,033 --> 00:19:07,033
Vavilov wanted to
preserve every phrase of
life's ancient scripture,
278
00:19:07,734 --> 00:19:10,300
to ensure its safe
passage to the future.
279
00:19:11,066 --> 00:19:14,800
He was among the
first to grasp the critical
importance of biodiversity.
280
00:19:16,066 --> 00:19:19,200
Vavilov came up with
an entirely new concept.
281
00:19:19,333 --> 00:19:22,433
A world seed bank that he
hoped would be impervious
282
00:19:22,567 --> 00:19:24,867
to war and
natural catastrophe.
283
00:19:25,633 --> 00:19:29,033
And there was
a scientific underpinning
to this humanitarian goal.
284
00:19:30,233 --> 00:19:33,800
If you could find the
earliest living specimens
of the plants we eat,
285
00:19:34,233 --> 00:19:38,133
you could parse its sentences
and decipher life's language.
286
00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:41,200
You could know how
it changed over time.
287
00:19:41,333 --> 00:19:45,233
This decryption would make it
possible to write new messages.
288
00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:47,433
To grow food
immune to disease,
289
00:19:47,567 --> 00:19:50,400
fungus and insects
and resistant to drought.
290
00:19:50,900 --> 00:19:54,934
Vavilov would become a hunter
of plants on five continents,
291
00:19:55,066 --> 00:19:58,900
venturing to places no
scientist dared go before him.
292
00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:06,800
Without maps or roads,
Vavilov was the first European
293
00:20:06,934 --> 00:20:10,166
in modern times to venture
into the mountainous
regions of Afghanistan.
294
00:20:11,734 --> 00:20:14,934
Riddled with tribal
clashes and other dangers,
295
00:20:15,066 --> 00:20:18,333
Vavilov was suspicious of
the prevalent hypothesis that
296
00:20:18,467 --> 00:20:21,233
humans invented
agriculture in the river deltas.
297
00:20:22,266 --> 00:20:25,033
He reasoned that remote
mountain strongholds would
298
00:20:25,166 --> 00:20:27,533
be a much
safer place to farm.
299
00:20:27,667 --> 00:20:30,567
Far from the casual
plundering of passersby.
300
00:20:31,066 --> 00:20:32,934
As Vavilov risked
life and limb,
301
00:20:33,066 --> 00:20:35,567
searching for seeds
on five continents,
302
00:20:35,700 --> 00:20:39,567
his legend as a daredevil
equalled his reputation
for scientific genius.
303
00:20:44,734 --> 00:20:48,734
In 1927, in what was then
Abyssinia, now Ethiopia,
304
00:20:49,767 --> 00:20:52,867
Vavilov discovered the
mother of all coffee.
305
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:54,433
It was a good thing too.
306
00:20:54,567 --> 00:20:57,633
Because he needed
to stay awake all night
guarding the camp.
307
00:21:07,533 --> 00:21:10,066
(yelling)
308
00:21:27,133 --> 00:21:30,800
TYSON: As Vavilov
waited for permission
to travel into the interior,
309
00:21:30,934 --> 00:21:33,166
he was surprised to
receive an invitation from
310
00:21:33,300 --> 00:21:37,700
the regent and future
emperor of Ethiopia, Rastafari.
311
00:21:38,433 --> 00:21:42,066
Or as the world would come
to know him, Haile Selassie.
312
00:21:42,967 --> 00:21:44,834
Vavilov later recalled...
313
00:21:44,967 --> 00:21:46,533
VAVILOV: It was
just the two of us.
314
00:21:46,667 --> 00:21:49,367
He questioned me with
great interest about my country
315
00:21:49,500 --> 00:21:51,300
and its revolution.
316
00:21:51,433 --> 00:21:54,900
I informed him that Lenin,
our founder, had died,
317
00:21:55,033 --> 00:21:57,200
and Joseph Stalin now ruled.
318
00:21:57,333 --> 00:22:01,500
I told Rastafari how Stalin's
armed robbery of a bank had
319
00:22:01,633 --> 00:22:04,533
raised $3 million for the
revolution and made him
320
00:22:04,667 --> 00:22:07,600
a folk hero in
Russia 20 years before.
321
00:22:09,066 --> 00:22:12,700
TYSON: As Vavilov
continued his global quest
for seeds and knowledge,
322
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:15,867
Trofim Lysenko,
one of Vavilov's numerous
323
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:18,967
protégé's was beginning
to make a name for himself.
324
00:22:21,433 --> 00:22:23,767
ANNOUNCER: Fresh green
peas in the wintertime?
325
00:22:24,166 --> 00:22:26,000
Sound too good to be true?
326
00:22:26,133 --> 00:22:30,000
Not if barefoot plant
expert Trofim Lysenko has
anything to say about it.
327
00:22:30,633 --> 00:22:35,333
No universities or
staring at the hairy legs of
flies in laboratories for him.
328
00:22:36,033 --> 00:22:39,500
No lavish trips to
foreign lands in pursuit
of ancient asparagus.
329
00:22:40,433 --> 00:22:43,567
He does it the peasant way
in the fields of Mother Russia.
330
00:22:44,166 --> 00:22:47,734
And there'll be green
peas on the table this
January thanks to him.
331
00:22:49,567 --> 00:22:51,834
TYSON: As Joseph Stalin
was having all his political
332
00:22:51,967 --> 00:22:54,166
rivals systematically murdered,
333
00:22:54,467 --> 00:22:57,467
he began to slash
away at the structure
of Russian agriculture.
334
00:22:58,266 --> 00:23:02,133
His stated goal was to
modernize Soviet agriculture.
335
00:23:02,266 --> 00:23:04,367
But the result
was catastrophic.
336
00:23:05,900 --> 00:23:07,600
Stalin ordered the Kulaks,
337
00:23:08,100 --> 00:23:09,967
as the more prosperous
peasants were known,
338
00:23:10,100 --> 00:23:12,266
to be liquidated as a class.
339
00:23:12,667 --> 00:23:15,567
Between five and ten million
people perished of famine.
340
00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:21,433
But to Trofim Lysenko,
this massive tragedy
was an opportunity.
341
00:23:22,133 --> 00:23:25,367
Lysenko hated Vavilov
for his knowledge and fame,
342
00:23:26,100 --> 00:23:27,967
and like the
snake that he was;
343
00:23:28,100 --> 00:23:30,200
he knew exactly
when to strike.
344
00:23:30,967 --> 00:23:33,934
And ultimately,
his venom would be fatal.
345
00:23:41,266 --> 00:23:44,100
VAVILOV: The Garden of Eden
must have been somewhere near
346
00:23:44,233 --> 00:23:48,467
here in central
Asia because this is where
the first apples grow.
347
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,033
TYSON: Vavilov traveled the
world identifying the first
348
00:23:53,166 --> 00:23:55,734
places on Earth
to bear these seeds.
349
00:23:56,433 --> 00:23:59,700
Collecting samples
of each for safekeeping.
350
00:23:59,834 --> 00:24:03,900
All in all, Vavilov
brought back a quarter of a
million varieties of seeds.
351
00:24:11,166 --> 00:24:14,533
The Russia Vavilov returned
to was a different country.
352
00:24:14,900 --> 00:24:17,667
One in the grip of
the most vicious famine
it had ever known.
353
00:24:19,066 --> 00:24:23,467
The heady optimism of the
revolution had been replaced
with dread and despair.
354
00:24:25,333 --> 00:24:27,667
Vavilov's institute
of plant industry,
355
00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:30,333
in the city that was
then called Leningrad,
356
00:24:30,467 --> 00:24:33,600
was now the largest collection
of genetic information on Earth.
357
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:39,767
His team began to sort and
catalogue every precious seed.
358
00:24:40,300 --> 00:24:41,934
They worked tirelessly,
359
00:24:42,066 --> 00:24:44,800
as if the life of every
hungry Russian depended on them.
360
00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:53,000
(inaudible chatter)
361
00:24:53,433 --> 00:24:55,266
LYSENKO: Comrade Stalin.
362
00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,533
I have something of vital
importance to our nation's
security to tell you.
363
00:25:04,700 --> 00:25:07,633
I know why the country starves
and I know how to turn famine
364
00:25:07,767 --> 00:25:10,567
into plenty so that you
may triumph over all those who
365
00:25:10,700 --> 00:25:12,834
seek to undermine you.
366
00:25:13,166 --> 00:25:14,900
STALIN: Well then,
Comrade Lysenko,
367
00:25:15,033 --> 00:25:17,233
you must be a
very powerful man.
368
00:25:17,367 --> 00:25:19,600
LYSENKO: The scientists
are lying to you.
369
00:25:19,734 --> 00:25:23,700
Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel,
Nikolai Vavilov, all liars.
370
00:25:25,500 --> 00:25:29,100
Comrade, why do you think
the giraffe has a long neck?
371
00:25:29,934 --> 00:25:31,133
STALIN: A giraffe?
372
00:25:31,266 --> 00:25:33,500
Why are you wasting my time?
373
00:25:33,633 --> 00:25:36,467
So it can nibble on leaves
at the top of the trees?
374
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:38,266
LYSENKO: Exactly.
375
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:40,433
But the scientists say no.
376
00:25:40,567 --> 00:25:43,133
They believe in imaginary,
invisible entities called
377
00:25:43,266 --> 00:25:47,467
genes that somehow get changed
by equally invisible forces
378
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:49,633
that tell the giraffe
to have a long neck
379
00:25:49,767 --> 00:25:52,333
and a chicken to
have a short one.
380
00:25:52,467 --> 00:25:55,300
I don't believe
in imaginary things.
381
00:25:55,667 --> 00:25:59,133
But Vavilov does and
that's why our people starve.
382
00:25:59,633 --> 00:26:02,333
While he's been off
collecting souvenirs,
383
00:26:02,667 --> 00:26:06,967
I've been devising a
way to give Mother Russia
the thing she needs most.
384
00:26:07,100 --> 00:26:09,800
A harvest of wheat
in the dead of winter.
385
00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:14,433
STALIN: If this is true,
if you really have this power...
386
00:26:14,734 --> 00:26:16,367
LYSENKO: I do, Comrade. I do.
387
00:26:16,500 --> 00:26:18,800
But I must have a free hand.
388
00:26:19,166 --> 00:26:22,300
No more interference from
the bourgeois geneticists.
389
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:24,967
They are agents of our enemies.
390
00:26:25,100 --> 00:26:29,266
They want to starve
Russia into submission.
391
00:26:32,333 --> 00:26:34,967
TYSON: That's not why
the giraffe's neck is long.
392
00:26:35,100 --> 00:26:37,633
How could Stalin have
fallen for that one?
393
00:26:37,767 --> 00:26:39,166
It was easy.
394
00:26:39,300 --> 00:26:41,967
He desperately
wanted to believe it.
395
00:26:42,500 --> 00:26:46,500
Lysenko was peddling the long
discredited theory of an early
396
00:26:46,633 --> 00:26:50,100
19th century naturalist
named Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
397
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:53,600
He believed that
acquired characteristics,
398
00:26:53,734 --> 00:26:56,200
let's say the length of a
giraffe's neck from straining
399
00:26:56,333 --> 00:26:58,066
to get at
those leaves up high,
400
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:01,533
could be inherited
by the next generation.
401
00:27:01,667 --> 00:27:04,700
He failed to grasp that
it took millions of years of
402
00:27:04,834 --> 00:27:08,633
evolution and higher survival
rates among the generations of
403
00:27:08,767 --> 00:27:12,400
giraffes with even
slightly longer necks to result
404
00:27:12,533 --> 00:27:15,233
in a tall modern giraffe.
405
00:27:15,367 --> 00:27:18,967
This increasingly long neck
of the giraffe was due to random
406
00:27:19,100 --> 00:27:22,900
mutations in the genes
that happened to lead to
a more successful giraffe.
407
00:27:24,033 --> 00:27:26,900
Not their neck
stretching exertions.
408
00:27:27,033 --> 00:27:30,834
This had been Charles Darwin's
revolutionary insight.
409
00:27:30,967 --> 00:27:33,700
Evolution by
natural selection.
410
00:27:35,066 --> 00:27:37,967
Lysenko whispered in Stalin's
ear that he could fulfill
411
00:27:38,100 --> 00:27:41,700
a centuries old Russian
dream and end the famine that
412
00:27:41,834 --> 00:27:44,266
threatened Stalin's
grip on the country.
413
00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:47,934
Lysenko would soak the
wheat seeds in ice water
414
00:27:48,066 --> 00:27:51,500
so that they could still
thrive in the ice and snow.
415
00:27:51,633 --> 00:27:54,767
A process he
called vernalization.
416
00:27:55,266 --> 00:27:58,233
Lysenko falsely claimed
that the plants offspring
417
00:27:58,367 --> 00:28:00,934
would inherit the
resistance to cold.
418
00:28:01,066 --> 00:28:05,200
No time-consuming painstaking
crossbreeding required.
419
00:28:05,333 --> 00:28:07,867
Only one thing
stood in his way.
420
00:28:08,367 --> 00:28:12,400
Vavilov and his stubborn
adherence to genetics.
421
00:28:13,767 --> 00:28:16,467
The bitter irony was that
while Lysenko was spinning
422
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:18,800
fantasies of
abundance for Stalin,
423
00:28:19,467 --> 00:28:22,300
Vavilov and his team were
crossing wheat species from
424
00:28:22,433 --> 00:28:25,233
higher altitudes that
actually would've resulted
425
00:28:25,367 --> 00:28:28,767
in heightened food
production in Russia.
426
00:28:29,367 --> 00:28:31,667
As Vavilov rushed
to the Kremlin,
427
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:35,033
all he could think about was
the work that needed to be done.
428
00:28:35,467 --> 00:28:38,266
He was on a collision
course that would doom him
429
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:40,300
and countless
others to starvation.
430
00:28:41,333 --> 00:28:45,133
(grunts)
431
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:52,567
TYSON: Vavilov knew
that no man could witness
432
00:28:52,700 --> 00:28:55,600
Stalin's fear and
expect to live long.
433
00:29:04,233 --> 00:29:06,433
LILIYA: Nikolai Ivanovich,
I tell you, we are in
434
00:29:06,567 --> 00:29:08,400
the gravest danger.
435
00:29:08,533 --> 00:29:12,166
Three days ago,
the secret police came
for Yevgeny and Leonid.
436
00:29:12,867 --> 00:29:15,133
They haven't
been heard from since.
437
00:29:15,266 --> 00:29:17,533
Their wives are frantic.
438
00:29:17,667 --> 00:29:19,934
Lysenko takes every
opportunity to blame you
439
00:29:20,066 --> 00:29:21,400
for the famine.
440
00:29:21,533 --> 00:29:24,734
I tell you, we must stop
the experiments in genetics.
441
00:29:27,266 --> 00:29:29,667
VAVILOV: Carry on
quietly with your work.
442
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:31,467
No matter what happens.
443
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:32,900
We must hurry.
444
00:29:33,033 --> 00:29:35,367
We must be like
Michael Faraday,
445
00:29:35,500 --> 00:29:38,166
working hard and keeping
accurate notes of the results.
446
00:29:39,533 --> 00:29:42,867
If I disappear,
then you must take my place.
447
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:46,200
The only thing that matters
is getting the science right.
448
00:29:46,333 --> 00:29:49,166
It is the only hope
of ending this famine
449
00:29:49,300 --> 00:29:51,367
and all the others to come.
450
00:29:51,500 --> 00:29:55,867
LILIYA: Comrade, they're going
to arrest you and all of us.
451
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:58,900
VAVILOV: Then we better
work that much faster.
452
00:30:00,133 --> 00:30:02,700
TYSON: Stalin's forced
collectivization of farms
453
00:30:02,834 --> 00:30:06,600
in the Ukraine led to one
of the darkest chapters
in human history.
454
00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:11,800
It was a famine so severe
and widespread that instead of
455
00:30:11,934 --> 00:30:14,433
being known by
a year and a place,
456
00:30:14,567 --> 00:30:16,967
it was given a
name all its own.
457
00:30:17,734 --> 00:30:21,867
Holodomor, meaning the
extermination by hunger.
458
00:30:24,633 --> 00:30:27,834
Stalin's zeal to push the
kulak peasants off their farms
459
00:30:27,967 --> 00:30:31,133
and into factories had
become a policy of genocide.
460
00:30:32,467 --> 00:30:36,066
LYSENKO: Vavilov and
his geneticists continue
to speak against you.
461
00:30:36,734 --> 00:30:38,166
I cannot bear it.
462
00:30:38,300 --> 00:30:41,467
TYSON: Stalin knew that getting
rid of Vavilov might be trouble.
463
00:30:41,967 --> 00:30:44,734
The global scientific
community admired Vavilov for
464
00:30:44,867 --> 00:30:47,166
his ideas and his courage.
465
00:30:47,300 --> 00:30:49,834
They had even been willing
to move their international
466
00:30:49,967 --> 00:30:54,033
genetics congress to Moscow
when Stalin wouldn't let him
travel outside the country.
467
00:30:55,266 --> 00:30:57,800
STALIN: Discredit Vavilov first,
468
00:30:57,934 --> 00:31:00,300
then you can do
with him as you wish.
469
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:04,667
VAVILOV: I regret to
report that the biochemists
470
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:07,767
are not yet able
to distinguish the
lentil from the pea by
471
00:31:07,900 --> 00:31:10,166
analyzing their proteins.
472
00:31:10,300 --> 00:31:13,100
LYSENKO: I reckon that anyone
who tries them on their tongue
473
00:31:13,233 --> 00:31:15,300
can tell a lentil from a pea.
474
00:31:16,066 --> 00:31:17,533
(laughter)
475
00:31:17,667 --> 00:31:20,734
VAVILOV: Comrade, we are unable
to distinguish them chemically.
476
00:31:20,867 --> 00:31:23,033
LYSENKO: What's the point of
being able to distinguish them
477
00:31:23,166 --> 00:31:25,500
chemically if you can
try them on your tongue?
478
00:31:25,834 --> 00:31:28,400
(laughter)
479
00:31:28,834 --> 00:31:31,600
TYSON: Lysenko now mounted
a relentless campaign against
480
00:31:31,734 --> 00:31:34,233
Vavilov and science.
481
00:31:34,734 --> 00:31:37,300
It came to a head
at a two-day conference.
482
00:31:37,667 --> 00:31:40,700
All the scientists and
enemies of science gathered to
483
00:31:40,834 --> 00:31:44,000
debate the future of
Soviet agricultural policy.
484
00:31:46,533 --> 00:31:49,300
LYSENKO (over PA):
And so we shall soon
see how my method of soaking
485
00:31:49,433 --> 00:31:55,367
seeds of all kinds
in ice water shall lead
to a better fed Motherland.
486
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:00,433
VAVILOV: What?
No experiments? No data?
487
00:32:01,066 --> 00:32:02,934
LYSENKO (over PA):
Perhaps you haven't noticed.
488
00:32:03,066 --> 00:32:04,600
Your ranks are thinning.
489
00:32:04,734 --> 00:32:08,367
Vernalization is going to
provide a huge winter harvest.
490
00:32:09,033 --> 00:32:10,433
You are either
with our plan or...
491
00:32:10,567 --> 00:32:12,300
VAVILOV: You can
take me to the stake.
492
00:32:12,433 --> 00:32:13,934
You can set me on fire.
493
00:32:14,066 --> 00:32:16,200
But you can't make
me lie about science!
494
00:32:16,900 --> 00:32:18,433
(gasps)
495
00:32:20,233 --> 00:32:23,000
MAN: We've just witnessed
a man committing suicide.
496
00:32:23,133 --> 00:32:24,600
He's going to be arrested.
497
00:32:24,900 --> 00:32:26,500
MAN 2: Arrested? For what?
498
00:32:26,633 --> 00:32:27,967
MAN: You just wait.
499
00:32:28,100 --> 00:32:30,600
That's the last you'll see
of this poor brilliant fool.
500
00:32:31,333 --> 00:32:33,500
TYSON: But Vavilov was no fool.
501
00:32:33,633 --> 00:32:35,400
In preparation
for what was coming,
502
00:32:35,533 --> 00:32:38,166
he had warned his
colleagues that they must ask
503
00:32:38,300 --> 00:32:41,400
for transfers to other
institutes to save themselves.
504
00:32:42,300 --> 00:32:44,967
His closest colleagues
valiantly refused to distance
505
00:32:45,100 --> 00:32:47,200
themselves from Vavilov.
506
00:32:49,533 --> 00:32:53,033
MAN: Comrade Vavilov,
you are needed back in Moscow.
507
00:32:53,333 --> 00:32:57,066
It seems you took some papers
that didn't belong to you.
508
00:32:57,200 --> 00:33:01,367
VAVILOV: Just let me
use the last of the light
to finish my work, please.
509
00:33:17,533 --> 00:33:21,000
KHVAT: This looks bad, Comrade.
Really bad.
510
00:33:22,133 --> 00:33:24,400
You've been up to
some serious mischief.
511
00:33:24,700 --> 00:33:27,000
You must've known you would
be found out soon or later.
512
00:33:27,333 --> 00:33:29,500
VAVILOV: What can you
possibly be talking about?
513
00:33:29,633 --> 00:33:30,734
KHVAT: Yes, yes.
514
00:33:30,867 --> 00:33:33,200
I'm sure you're
completely mystified.
515
00:33:33,333 --> 00:33:34,567
Don't be cute with me.
516
00:33:34,700 --> 00:33:35,967
You know why you are here.
517
00:33:36,100 --> 00:33:37,800
You have been arrested
as an active participant in
518
00:33:37,934 --> 00:33:41,500
a subversive anti-Soviet
organization and a spy for
519
00:33:41,633 --> 00:33:43,767
foreign intelligence services.
520
00:33:44,033 --> 00:33:45,000
Do you admit your guilt?
521
00:33:45,133 --> 00:33:47,166
VAVILOV: No. I do not.
522
00:33:47,300 --> 00:33:50,367
I declare categorically
that I have never engaged in
523
00:33:50,500 --> 00:33:53,700
espionage or any other
anti-Soviet activity.
524
00:33:54,700 --> 00:33:57,600
The testimony you cite are
of witnesses whom the state
525
00:33:57,734 --> 00:33:59,600
has already murdered.
526
00:33:59,734 --> 00:34:01,800
You know I am not a spy.
527
00:34:01,934 --> 00:34:04,333
You know I love my country.
528
00:34:04,633 --> 00:34:08,467
My real crime, my only
crime is a profound difference
529
00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:10,300
of scientific opinion.
530
00:34:14,667 --> 00:34:17,233
TYSON: Vavilov's tormentor
had plenty of experience
531
00:34:17,367 --> 00:34:19,967
softening up such
stubborn subjects.
532
00:34:20,500 --> 00:34:22,400
He started interrogating
Vavilov for ten,
533
00:34:22,533 --> 00:34:24,266
12 hours at a time.
534
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:27,533
Usually rousing him out of his
bed in the middle of the night.
535
00:34:28,734 --> 00:34:30,467
He must've been tortured,
536
00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:33,633
because his legs
were so swollen,
537
00:34:33,767 --> 00:34:35,533
he was unable to walk.
538
00:34:36,867 --> 00:34:39,400
Vavilov would be dragged
back to his cell and crawl to
539
00:34:39,533 --> 00:34:43,133
a place on the floor and
just lie there, unable to move.
540
00:34:43,900 --> 00:34:47,934
It kept on for 1,700 hours,
more than 400 sessions.
541
00:34:48,834 --> 00:34:51,467
Until Vavilov finally broke.
542
00:34:52,667 --> 00:34:56,100
A year after his arrest,
he was sentenced to be shot.
543
00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:00,100
He was taken to the
place of his execution where
544
00:35:00,233 --> 00:35:02,433
he languished for months.
545
00:35:06,767 --> 00:35:09,467
Just when things
couldn't get any darker,
546
00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:12,266
an even greater
darkness descended.
547
00:35:15,467 --> 00:35:17,867
Hitler had broken his
nonaggression pact with
548
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:21,367
Stalin, sending millions
of German troops and thousands
549
00:35:21,500 --> 00:35:23,233
of tanks to invade Russia.
550
00:35:24,633 --> 00:35:27,033
But the siege of Leningrad
was, by any metric,
551
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:29,867
the most ghastly of all.
552
00:35:36,967 --> 00:35:40,800
This was the world's
genetic inheritance.
553
00:35:40,934 --> 00:35:43,166
The seeds of the plants
that had sustained us since
554
00:35:43,300 --> 00:35:45,467
the invention of agriculture.
555
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:49,033
And Hitler, unlike Stalin,
knew that it was priceless.
556
00:35:55,333 --> 00:35:59,333
(explosions and
heavy artillery)
557
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:14,100
(explosions)
558
00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:33,100
DMITRI: We don't
even know if he's alive.
559
00:36:33,233 --> 00:36:37,100
LILIYA: Until we do, we must
find it within ourselves to
560
00:36:37,233 --> 00:36:40,033
do as Nikolai Ivanovich would.
561
00:36:40,834 --> 00:36:44,967
If the siege lasts, our fellow
citizens will get very hungry.
562
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:50,133
This building contains
several tons of edible material.
563
00:36:51,467 --> 00:36:55,133
We must figure out how
to protect every last seed
564
00:36:56,100 --> 00:36:59,433
for the time when the
world returns to its senses.
565
00:37:00,633 --> 00:37:05,533
TYSON: In all of history,
no team of scientists has ever
been tested so cruelly.
566
00:37:06,767 --> 00:37:11,834
They were pushed beyond
the breaking point and
yet they did not break.
567
00:37:17,066 --> 00:37:19,867
TYSON: On Christmas Day
alone in 1941,
568
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:23,133
4,000 people starved
to death in Leningrad.
569
00:37:24,100 --> 00:37:27,667
The city had been under
siege by Hitler's army
for more than 100 days.
570
00:37:28,967 --> 00:37:33,600
The temperature was -40
degrees and the city's entire
infrastructure had collapsed.
571
00:37:35,500 --> 00:37:38,567
It was only a matter of time,
Hitler thought to himself,
572
00:37:38,700 --> 00:37:41,867
before Leningrad
succumbed to his will.
573
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:46,367
No city could endure
such suffering for very long.
574
00:37:48,066 --> 00:37:49,934
TYSON: While Stalin fretted
over the safety of the
575
00:37:50,066 --> 00:37:52,300
artworks at the
Hermitage Museum,
576
00:37:52,433 --> 00:37:55,133
he never gave a single
thought to Vavilov's seed bank.
577
00:37:56,533 --> 00:38:00,300
But Hitler had already taken
the Louvre art museum of Paris.
578
00:38:00,433 --> 00:38:03,066
He coveted something
much more precious.
579
00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:04,934
Vavilov's treasure.
580
00:38:05,734 --> 00:38:08,800
Hitler had established a
special tactical unit of the SS,
581
00:38:08,934 --> 00:38:13,300
Russland-Sammelcommando,
the Russian collector commandos,
582
00:38:13,433 --> 00:38:15,533
to take control
of the seed bank and retrieve
583
00:38:15,667 --> 00:38:18,567
its living riches for
future use by the Third Reich.
584
00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:21,667
They waited at the ready,
like a pack of Dobermans,
585
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:24,200
straining to be
unleashed on the institute.
586
00:38:24,900 --> 00:38:27,767
The botanists were now
down to a ration of two slices
587
00:38:27,900 --> 00:38:29,667
of bread per day.
588
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:32,066
But still, they
continued their work.
589
00:38:32,433 --> 00:38:36,867
In a way, the German army
was the least of their worries.
590
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:40,033
(yelling)
591
00:38:43,567 --> 00:38:45,633
KRIYER: If only
Vavilov were here.
592
00:38:45,767 --> 00:38:47,867
I feel so lost without him.
593
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:51,834
STCHUKIN: Dear comrade,
as painful as it is,
594
00:38:51,967 --> 00:38:55,266
we must accept that
he's gone forever.
595
00:38:55,667 --> 00:38:58,600
TYSON: But Vavilov
was alive... barely.
596
00:38:59,967 --> 00:39:04,100
He had been moved to another
prison in another city.
597
00:39:04,367 --> 00:39:08,200
VAVILOV: I am 54 years old,
with a vast experience and
598
00:39:08,333 --> 00:39:11,467
knowledge in the
field of plant breeding.
599
00:39:12,300 --> 00:39:15,133
I would be happy to
devote myself entirely to
600
00:39:15,266 --> 00:39:17,433
the service of my country.
601
00:39:17,567 --> 00:39:22,400
I request and beg you to allow
me to work in my special field,
602
00:39:22,533 --> 00:39:25,233
even at the lowest level.
603
00:39:25,367 --> 00:39:27,400
TYSON: But no
answer ever came.
604
00:39:27,533 --> 00:39:30,000
The state had
decided not to shoot him.
605
00:39:30,133 --> 00:39:32,500
They had a crueler fate
in mind for the man who did
606
00:39:32,633 --> 00:39:36,533
more than any other to
eliminate famine and hunger,
607
00:39:36,667 --> 00:39:40,066
he would be deliberately
and slowly starved to death.
608
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:50,333
TYSON: 800,000 other
human beings had starved
to death in Leningrad.
609
00:39:50,633 --> 00:39:54,700
Besieged by the German forced
from September of 1941 until
610
00:39:54,834 --> 00:39:59,100
January of 1944, the
city somehow still managed
611
00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:03,000
to hold out against
the relentless assault.
612
00:40:03,500 --> 00:40:06,800
The meager rations of two
slices of bread a day had
613
00:40:06,934 --> 00:40:10,166
run out long before, and
the protectors of Vavilov's
614
00:40:10,300 --> 00:40:14,333
treasure began to succumb to
hunger amidst the plenty that
615
00:40:14,467 --> 00:40:17,834
their sacred honor
prevented them from consuming.
616
00:40:20,700 --> 00:40:24,266
Botanist Alexander Stchukin,
specialist in groundnuts.
617
00:40:42,533 --> 00:40:47,266
Liliya Rodina, expert on oats.
618
00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:58,767
Dimitry Ivanov,
world authority on rice.
619
00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:07,100
The botanists
perished from hunger,
620
00:41:07,233 --> 00:41:11,333
and yet not a grain of
rice in the collection
was unaccounted for.
621
00:41:30,900 --> 00:41:34,033
And what of Vavilov's
nemesis, Trofim Lysenko?
622
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:36,967
He maintained his death
grip on Soviet agriculture
623
00:41:37,100 --> 00:41:40,200
and biology for
another two decades,
624
00:41:40,333 --> 00:41:42,934
until three of Russia's
most distinguished scientists
625
00:41:43,066 --> 00:41:47,200
publicly denounced
him for his pseudoscience
and his other crimes.
626
00:41:49,433 --> 00:41:52,900
And what of Vavilov's brother,
Sergey, the physicist?
627
00:41:53,900 --> 00:41:57,734
Stalin made him chairman of
the Soviet Academy of Sciences.
628
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:03,233
After Stalin's death and
the recognition of the damage
629
00:42:03,367 --> 00:42:06,200
he and Lysenko had
done to the Soviet Union,
630
00:42:06,333 --> 00:42:10,567
Nikolai Vavilov could once
again be talked about in public.
631
00:42:10,900 --> 00:42:14,467
The Institute of Plant
Industry was renamed after him,
632
00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:17,600
and it still thrives.
633
00:42:17,900 --> 00:42:21,133
And this is here because
of his life and work.
634
00:42:21,266 --> 00:42:24,000
This Svalbard Global Seed
Vault is buried deep beneath
635
00:42:24,133 --> 00:42:26,367
the Earth at the
top of the world.
636
00:42:26,500 --> 00:42:31,667
It can hold
four and a half million
kinds of seeds underground.
637
00:42:32,100 --> 00:42:36,834
So why didn't the
botanists at the Institute
eat a single grain of rice?
638
00:42:37,266 --> 00:42:40,433
Why didn't they distribute
the seeds and nuts and potatoes
639
00:42:40,567 --> 00:42:43,633
to the people of Leningrad
who were dying of starvation
640
00:42:43,767 --> 00:42:45,700
every day for
more than two years?
641
00:42:47,767 --> 00:42:50,500
Did you eat today?
642
00:42:50,633 --> 00:42:54,033
If the answer is yes, then
you probably ate something that
643
00:42:54,166 --> 00:42:57,633
descended from the seeds that
the botanists died to protect.
644
00:42:59,033 --> 00:43:02,800
They gave their lives for us.
645
00:43:05,633 --> 00:43:11,967
If only our future
was as real and precious
to us as it was to them.
646
00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:55,633
Captioned by
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