1 00:00:22,834 --> 00:00:27,333 ♪ ♪ 2 00:00:27,467 --> 00:00:32,066 TYSON: To be human has been to know the torment of hunger. 3 00:00:35,266 --> 00:00:38,266 There was once a man who dreamed that through science, 4 00:00:38,767 --> 00:00:42,066 we could make a world where no one would ever perish from hunger. 5 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:44,667 And famine would be no more. 6 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:47,667 He gave us a treasure to fulfil that promise, 7 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:50,667 but he faced a terrible choice at a moment of reckoning. 8 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:54,000 To lie about science and live, 9 00:00:54,133 --> 00:00:57,700 or to tell the truth and face certain death. 10 00:00:59,166 --> 00:01:04,633 (theme music plays) 11 00:01:23,967 --> 00:01:30,333 ♪ ♪ 12 00:01:49,300 --> 00:01:54,967 ♪ ♪ 13 00:02:09,266 --> 00:02:11,934 TYSON: For the first couple of hundred thousand years that 14 00:02:12,066 --> 00:02:15,533 we were human, we were wanderers living beneath the stars. 15 00:02:16,767 --> 00:02:19,100 We gathered plant life and hunted animals. 16 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:22,567 Until about ten or 12,000 years ago, 17 00:02:23,066 --> 00:02:25,934 when our ancestors invented a new way to live. 18 00:02:26,900 --> 00:02:30,266 Think of those geniuses who were the first to realize that 19 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:32,834 inside the plants they foraged, 20 00:02:32,967 --> 00:02:35,066 was a means to make another plant. 21 00:02:36,133 --> 00:02:38,333 A seed. 22 00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:42,667 (thunder) 23 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,133 (rain) 24 00:02:45,867 --> 00:02:50,200 That discovery led to the single most fateful choice our species ever made. 25 00:02:51,567 --> 00:02:54,266 They could continue to wander in small bands, 26 00:02:54,734 --> 00:02:57,800 or they could settle down to grow and raise their food. 27 00:02:58,633 --> 00:03:02,800 This required sacrifices for rewards that would not come until much later. 28 00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:07,567 For the first time, we were thinking about the future. 29 00:03:11,500 --> 00:03:13,667 Of course, these decisions weren't made in an instant. 30 00:03:14,467 --> 00:03:16,900 They unfolded over generations. 31 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:19,800 That seems like a long time ago in human terms, 32 00:03:20,433 --> 00:03:22,800 but in the great sweep of cosmic time, 33 00:03:22,934 --> 00:03:25,266 it was less than a half a minute ago. 34 00:03:26,633 --> 00:03:30,867 This Cosmic Calendar compresses all of the last 13.8 billion years 35 00:03:31,767 --> 00:03:34,834 since the big bang into a single calendar Earth year. 36 00:03:35,467 --> 00:03:39,000 Midnight on December 31 is right now. 37 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:43,367 Every month is a little more than a billion years. 38 00:03:44,266 --> 00:03:47,433 Every day, a little less than 40 million years. 39 00:03:48,033 --> 00:03:51,900 And all of humanity's proudest achievements unfold 40 00:03:52,033 --> 00:03:55,066 in the last couple of minutes of cosmic time. 41 00:03:55,867 --> 00:03:58,467 That's how new we are to the universe. 42 00:04:00,367 --> 00:04:03,100 Our ancestors began to domesticate animals and 43 00:04:03,233 --> 00:04:06,700 plants less than 30 seconds ago on the Cosmic Calendar. 44 00:04:07,734 --> 00:04:10,867 For the first time, the wanderers were settling down. 45 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:15,033 And building things to last for more than a single season. 46 00:04:15,900 --> 00:04:18,333 They dared to touch the future. 47 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:22,200 Their tower of Jericho still stands. 48 00:04:22,667 --> 00:04:25,233 Was it a watchtower for protecting the city from invaders? 49 00:04:26,100 --> 00:04:28,500 Or just a way to get closer to the stars? 50 00:04:30,100 --> 00:04:33,200 It took 11,000 work days to build. 51 00:04:34,133 --> 00:04:35,900 Something that could only be possible with the 52 00:04:36,033 --> 00:04:38,900 food surpluses that agriculture provided. 53 00:04:41,133 --> 00:04:43,734 This is the world's oldest stairway. 54 00:04:44,834 --> 00:04:49,300 It was already 5,000 years old before the first Egyptian pyramid was built. 55 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:55,467 To climb it is to follow in the footsteps of 300 generations. 56 00:04:57,500 --> 00:05:01,533 Isn't it astonishing that people who had barely ceased wandering, 57 00:05:01,667 --> 00:05:04,600 we're able to create something of such permanence? 58 00:05:12,667 --> 00:05:15,367 The rich and varied hunter-gatherer diet, 59 00:05:15,500 --> 00:05:18,533 of plants, insects, birds and other animals, was replaced. 60 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:24,200 City dwellers largely subsisted on a few carbohydrate crops. 61 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,033 And when the rains didn't come or a fungus afflicted the grain, 62 00:05:28,967 --> 00:05:31,500 there was hunger on a massive scale. 63 00:05:31,633 --> 00:05:33,467 Famine. 64 00:05:35,667 --> 00:05:39,867 Famines caused by drought and British colonial mismanagement 65 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:44,300 in India in the 18th century killed ten million people. 66 00:05:45,467 --> 00:05:47,934 In China, during the famines of the 19th century, 67 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:51,800 more than 100 million people perished. 68 00:05:52,967 --> 00:05:55,066 The great hunger in Ireland, 69 00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:57,600 also a result of British imperial policy, 70 00:05:57,734 --> 00:05:59,700 starved a million to death and 71 00:05:59,834 --> 00:06:03,467 forced another two million to flee the country in search of a living. 72 00:06:04,467 --> 00:06:09,200 The Brazilian drought and pestilence of 1877 was comparable. 73 00:06:09,567 --> 00:06:13,400 In a single province, more than half died of starvation. 74 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,367 The dead remain uncounted from the famines that wracked 75 00:06:17,500 --> 00:06:21,500 Ethiopia, Rwanda and the Sahel in Africa. 76 00:06:22,834 --> 00:06:25,033 For a couple of thousand years, 77 00:06:25,166 --> 00:06:29,066 ever since records were kept, somewhere on Earth, 78 00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:32,000 people in great numbers have starved. 79 00:06:36,367 --> 00:06:40,934 Could agriculture become a science with a predictive theory as reliable as gravity? 80 00:06:42,166 --> 00:06:46,967 One that could consistently produce breeds able to stand up to drought and disease? 81 00:06:48,166 --> 00:06:51,500 Farmers and herders knew the advantages of preferentially 82 00:06:51,633 --> 00:06:54,767 selecting the hardiest specimens for crossbreeding, 83 00:06:54,900 --> 00:06:57,467 to produce a more successful hybrid. 84 00:06:57,600 --> 00:06:59,934 This was known as artificial selection. 85 00:07:00,900 --> 00:07:03,500 But the mechanism of how those traits were passed on to 86 00:07:03,633 --> 00:07:07,066 succeeding generations remained a complete mystery. 87 00:07:08,767 --> 00:07:11,100 This is Down House. 88 00:07:11,433 --> 00:07:13,767 Charles Darwin's home, where he lived with his wife 89 00:07:13,900 --> 00:07:16,266 Emma and their ten children. 90 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:19,400 He was hardly the authoritarian Victorian patriarch. 91 00:07:19,967 --> 00:07:23,133 But instead a tender, loving father who delighted 92 00:07:23,266 --> 00:07:25,066 in his children's ridicule. 93 00:07:27,066 --> 00:07:29,333 This is the garden he planted. 94 00:07:30,133 --> 00:07:33,567 This place is a strangely pastoral setting for the most 95 00:07:33,700 --> 00:07:36,567 influential revolutionary in the history of thought. 96 00:07:38,100 --> 00:07:42,266 Even now, there are people who are afraid of his idea. 97 00:07:47,300 --> 00:07:50,467 Charles Darwin discovered that species, including ours, 98 00:07:51,367 --> 00:07:54,767 evolve over time through a process of natural selection. 99 00:07:55,500 --> 00:07:58,333 The environment rewards those best adapted to its changing 100 00:07:58,467 --> 00:08:02,934 realities with survival and with new generations of offspring. 101 00:08:03,467 --> 00:08:07,133 Darwin demystified the external reality of life, 102 00:08:07,934 --> 00:08:12,100 but no one had any idea what the inner mechanisms of evolution were. 103 00:08:14,633 --> 00:08:17,100 At that same moment, an abbot at a rural monastery 104 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:22,467 in what is now the Czech Republic was trying to become a science professor. 105 00:08:23,133 --> 00:08:26,767 Gregor Mendel flunked his qualifying exam both times. 106 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:31,300 The only career path open to him was to become a substitute teacher. 107 00:08:32,100 --> 00:08:33,467 So in his spare time, 108 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:35,800 he took up the study of pea plants. 109 00:08:37,300 --> 00:08:39,533 He bred tens of thousands of them, 110 00:08:39,667 --> 00:08:42,100 carefully scrutinizing their height and their shape 111 00:08:42,700 --> 00:08:45,467 and the color of their pods, their seeds and flowers. 112 00:08:47,633 --> 00:08:50,967 Mendel was searching for a predictive theory of breeding. 113 00:08:51,166 --> 00:08:53,934 So that you could know in advance exactly what you would 114 00:08:54,066 --> 00:08:57,233 get when you crossed a tall plant with a short one, 115 00:08:57,367 --> 00:08:59,400 and a green pea with a yellow one. 116 00:09:02,567 --> 00:09:05,834 Mendel found that you would get a yellow pea every time. 117 00:09:09,233 --> 00:09:11,400 We didn't have a word for the power of the yellow over 118 00:09:11,533 --> 00:09:13,266 the green until Mendel coined it. 119 00:09:14,100 --> 00:09:16,667 He called that quality "dominant." 120 00:09:17,066 --> 00:09:19,934 And to his delight, he found that he could predict what would 121 00:09:20,066 --> 00:09:22,834 happen in the next generation of peas after that. 122 00:09:25,433 --> 00:09:28,200 One in four pea plants would be green. 123 00:09:29,567 --> 00:09:33,834 Mendel named the hidden trait that popped up in the next crop, "recessive." 124 00:09:34,867 --> 00:09:37,100 There was something he called "factors," 125 00:09:37,467 --> 00:09:41,333 hidden inside the plants that caused particular characteristics. 126 00:09:41,967 --> 00:09:45,033 And they operated by a law that Mendel could describe 127 00:09:45,166 --> 00:09:47,667 with a simple equation, like gravity. 128 00:09:50,367 --> 00:09:52,900 Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel didn't know it, 129 00:09:53,033 --> 00:09:55,467 but the two scientists were deciphering the mysterious 130 00:09:55,600 --> 00:09:58,800 workings of life at the very same moment. 131 00:10:01,266 --> 00:10:04,600 (barking) 132 00:10:04,734 --> 00:10:07,633 Darwin presented the evidence for a oneness with all life. 133 00:10:08,433 --> 00:10:11,166 That despite our pretensions to a mystical higher birth, 134 00:10:12,066 --> 00:10:15,533 we were actually relatives to the other beasts and vegetables. 135 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:19,667 As much a part of the natural world as any other living thing. 136 00:10:23,066 --> 00:10:25,667 Mendel discovered that there were laws governing the 137 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:28,500 way life's messages were passed on. 138 00:10:28,867 --> 00:10:32,066 The substitute teacher had invented a whole new field of science. 139 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:36,967 But nobody noticed for 35 years. 140 00:10:38,900 --> 00:10:41,700 He died never knowing that the world would come to see him 141 00:10:41,834 --> 00:10:44,200 as a giant in the history of science. 142 00:10:45,900 --> 00:10:47,900 Mendel's work was resurrected at the beginning of 143 00:10:48,033 --> 00:10:51,867 the 20th century and he had no more vigorous defender 144 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:54,834 than the British zoologist William Bateson. 145 00:10:55,667 --> 00:10:58,800 It was Bateson who named the new field of science devoted 146 00:10:58,934 --> 00:11:01,266 to studying these factors. 147 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:03,200 Genetics. 148 00:11:04,133 --> 00:11:05,934 Bateson and his colleagues worked on developing 149 00:11:06,066 --> 00:11:08,934 new breeds of plants and animals. 150 00:11:09,767 --> 00:11:13,467 He believed that science and freedom were indivisible 151 00:11:13,767 --> 00:11:16,300 and that's how he ran his laboratory. 152 00:11:17,467 --> 00:11:19,000 (inaudible chatter) 153 00:11:19,133 --> 00:11:20,867 TYSON: Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov, 154 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:22,700 a visiting botanist from Russia, 155 00:11:22,834 --> 00:11:25,166 took Bateson's credo deeply to heart. 156 00:11:25,300 --> 00:11:27,867 He wanted to use the new field of genetics to learn 157 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:30,400 how to feed the world. 158 00:11:31,333 --> 00:11:34,934 He was on his honeymoon but science was his passion. 159 00:11:35,233 --> 00:11:38,166 Even as a child, Vavilov had a sense of urgency. 160 00:11:39,166 --> 00:11:42,967 "Too little time, too much to do," was his lifelong refrain. 161 00:11:44,133 --> 00:11:46,533 (panting) 162 00:11:50,233 --> 00:11:51,700 (grunts) 163 00:11:54,734 --> 00:11:57,066 TYSON: How could he have known what was coming? 164 00:12:05,467 --> 00:12:08,633 TYSON: The idea that our planet is a single organism, 165 00:12:08,767 --> 00:12:12,400 a unity, has a ring of hollow sentimentality for many people. 166 00:12:13,767 --> 00:12:16,266 But it's just a scientific fact. 167 00:12:18,266 --> 00:12:21,633 Something is about to happen here, in remote Southern Peru, 168 00:12:22,767 --> 00:12:27,400 in the year 1600 on February 19 at 5:00 PM. 169 00:12:29,367 --> 00:12:32,533 Unsuspecting multitudes and distant foreign capitals 170 00:12:32,667 --> 00:12:36,000 will never know how this event reached around the world 171 00:12:36,133 --> 00:12:38,266 to torment and kill them. 172 00:12:39,033 --> 00:12:40,400 (explosion) 173 00:12:49,633 --> 00:12:53,333 This nasty mixture of sulfuric acid and volcanic ash 174 00:12:53,467 --> 00:12:56,367 will block the sun's rays from reaching Earth. 175 00:12:56,900 --> 00:13:00,333 Some of the sunlight will be absorbed here in the stratosphere. 176 00:13:01,533 --> 00:13:05,567 The eruption of Huaynaputina volcano remains to this day 177 00:13:05,700 --> 00:13:09,100 the largest explosion in South America in recorded history. 178 00:13:13,367 --> 00:13:15,300 Winter is coming. 179 00:13:16,467 --> 00:13:18,667 Volcanic winter. 180 00:13:23,834 --> 00:13:25,266 For the people of Russia, 181 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:28,333 it brought the worst winter in six centuries. 182 00:13:28,633 --> 00:13:31,166 For two years, even the summer temperatures would fall 183 00:13:31,300 --> 00:13:33,166 below freezing at night. 184 00:13:33,500 --> 00:13:36,467 Two million people, a third of Russia's population, 185 00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:38,667 would die from the resulting famine. 186 00:13:38,967 --> 00:13:42,066 It led to the downfall of the Tsar Boris Godunov and 187 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:46,467 all because of a volcano that erupted 8,000 miles away in Peru. 188 00:13:47,867 --> 00:13:51,066 This was not the last famine in Russian history. 189 00:13:51,367 --> 00:13:53,500 Drought and famines occur frequently. 190 00:13:53,633 --> 00:13:56,266 But it wasn't until nearly three centuries later, 191 00:13:56,400 --> 00:14:00,533 in 1891, that the magnitude of suffering was again as ghastly. 192 00:14:02,467 --> 00:14:05,667 Winter came early that year and the crops failed. 193 00:14:06,700 --> 00:14:09,834 Tsar Alexander III was slow to respond. 194 00:14:10,233 --> 00:14:13,433 Wealthy Russian merchants continued to export grain at 195 00:14:13,567 --> 00:14:16,500 a profit even as millions went hungry. 196 00:14:17,233 --> 00:14:20,834 All the Tsar had to offer his starving subjects was "famine bread." 197 00:14:22,066 --> 00:14:26,600 A miserable mixture of moss, weeds, bark and husks. 198 00:14:29,166 --> 00:14:31,500 Half a million Russians perished, 199 00:14:31,633 --> 00:14:33,800 while the aristocracy and the wealthy feasted on fresh 200 00:14:33,934 --> 00:14:37,500 strawberries from the south of France and clotted cream from England. 201 00:14:38,633 --> 00:14:41,600 The Russian Revolution would not explode for another 30 years, 202 00:14:42,767 --> 00:14:45,900 but many historians believe that this famine 203 00:14:46,033 --> 00:14:49,667 was the spark that ignited the long fuse. 204 00:14:50,433 --> 00:14:53,266 It was to make a lasting impression on the hero of 205 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:56,900 our story, Nikolai Vavilov. 206 00:15:00,233 --> 00:15:02,333 This is the Vavilov family. 207 00:15:02,467 --> 00:15:04,834 The parents were born into poverty but had worked their 208 00:15:04,967 --> 00:15:06,800 way up into the upper middle class. 209 00:15:07,533 --> 00:15:10,300 All four of the children would grow up to become scientists. 210 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:12,633 (gasping) 211 00:15:15,367 --> 00:15:17,734 TYSON: Sergey became a physicist. 212 00:15:24,333 --> 00:15:26,467 Nikolai grew up to be a botanist. 213 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:29,166 (screams) 214 00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:36,633 NIKOLAI: Don't come near me. 215 00:15:36,767 --> 00:15:39,066 If you touch me, I'll jump. 216 00:15:39,834 --> 00:15:43,567 TYSON: Even as a boy, Vavilov was never one to back down. 217 00:15:45,100 --> 00:15:48,467 In 1911, Russia was the largest grain exporter on Earth, 218 00:15:49,233 --> 00:15:52,066 despite the fact that its farming methods were antiquated. 219 00:15:52,567 --> 00:15:55,367 The Petrovsky Institute was the only place in Russia where 220 00:15:55,500 --> 00:15:58,233 scientists could hope to modernize food production 221 00:15:58,367 --> 00:16:00,033 through the new science of genetics. 222 00:16:01,300 --> 00:16:04,367 But it was still a matter of controversy. 223 00:16:04,500 --> 00:16:06,100 YELENA: Debate topic for today, 224 00:16:06,233 --> 00:16:09,066 is plant selection a science or not? 225 00:16:09,667 --> 00:16:10,867 MAN: It is not a science. 226 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:12,233 A farmer knows best. 227 00:16:12,367 --> 00:16:15,066 He's been sowing the larger seeds and crossbreeding 228 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:17,433 the fattest animals for thousands of years. 229 00:16:18,533 --> 00:16:20,600 What do we scientists have to offer them? 230 00:16:21,100 --> 00:16:23,767 Except fancy equations to confuse the peasants. 231 00:16:24,667 --> 00:16:27,633 They don't want that. They want bread. 232 00:16:27,767 --> 00:16:31,166 VAVILOV: The farmer has wisdom and is worthy of our respect. 233 00:16:31,300 --> 00:16:34,633 But tragically, he lacks the predictive powers of science. 234 00:16:35,166 --> 00:16:37,233 They cannot foretell which traits will dominate 235 00:16:37,367 --> 00:16:39,100 or which will be recessive. 236 00:16:39,700 --> 00:16:42,767 The farmer plays roulette and he's about as successful 237 00:16:42,900 --> 00:16:44,500 as the average gambler. 238 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 Cotter Captioning Services.