Breeding methods I. Ivan Michurin short biography Outstanding achievements of I.V.

A quarter of a century ago, the name of Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin was known to everyone, his discoveries were proclaimed the highest achievement of science, and any gardener proudly called himself a "Michurinite". Today, if anyone remembers this name, then, on average, in the form of a myth about an eccentric who, for some unknown reason, crossed an apple tree with a pear.

"Michura" from the estate "Vershina »

To understand Michurin, you need to take a closer look at the era with which the formation of his personality is connected. The reforms of Alexander II in the 1860s gave rise to a generation that rejected the ideals of the fathers and naively believed in the omnipotence of science.

So was Michurin's father, whom he slyly called "a rural worker" in Soviet times. In fact, Vladimir Ivanovich belonged to an old, albeit impoverished, noble family. The Michurins, whose surname comes from the dialect word "michura - which means gloomy, taciturn, - have long owned the village of Dolgoye in the Ryazan region. There, in October 1855, the future genius of selection was born. His father, not listening to his parents, married the girl Masha "from the simple." For this, he was disinherited and forced to earn money by gardening in his small Vershina estate. Despite the title of nobility, they lived poorly and sadly - before Vanya, the spouses had six children, but none of them lived even a year. In 1859, Maria Petrovna herself died of a fever.

Under the blows of fate, Vladimir Ivanovich did not break down. He not only took care of his estate, but also introduced new methods of gardening in the district, published articles in the St. Petersburg magazine Sadovodstvo, and taught peasant children to read and write in his spare time. The son was left to himself and enthusiastically ran to the garden, to the apiary, to the forest, studying everything that lived and grew there.

Vanya loved gardening since childhood - even despite the fact that at the age of three, when his parents planted seedlings, he tried in every possible way to participate in the process, spun under his feet and was eventually beaten. Weeping bitterly, the boy wandered home, returned from there with a salt shaker and began to sow salt over the loosened bed. Seeing such diligence, the father gradually began to involve the offspring in gardening. By the age of twelve, he knew and knew more than many adult gardeners, he was fluent in complex methods of grafting plants. Not without harm to health: falling from an apple tree, he injured his knee and since then walked, leaning on a stick.

But in the Pronsk district school, Vanya was a solid C student. Writing and mathematics seemed boring to him, and he was looking forward to the weekend to run away to his homestead. More than once received remarks for disrespect to teachers.

Michurin was never the benevolent good-natured fellow portrayed by Soviet biographers. He showed infinite kindness only to plants and animals. He was unfriendly with people, and often rude - especially when he was prevented from doing what he loved. In this he resembled another self-taught inventor, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Their fates are surprisingly similar: both struggled with poverty and misunderstanding of others, both at the end of their lives tasted state honors under the Soviet regime and acquired a lot of students. They even died in the same year, although Tsiolkovsky was born two years later. True, Michurin, unlike his "twin", never considered himself a genius. But he had a cherished dream - to achieve ripening in the cold Russian latitudes of southern peaches, lemons, grapes. Having seen enough of the meager life of fellow countrymen, he wanted to sweeten it with fruits - what could be nobler?

Father fully approved of Vanino's desire, but convinced him that he must first learn. He began to prepare his son for admission to the famous Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, but then thunder struck - the "progressive master" Vladimir Ivanovich went bankrupt. "Vershina" was sold for debts, I had to part with my dreams of a lyceum. His uncle placed him in a local gymnasium, but a year later Michurin was expelled from there - he refused to take off his hat to the director. To top it off, his father fell ill with a severe kidney disease, and Ivan became the breadwinner of a small family.

In 1872, he got a job as a clerk at a railway station in the town of Kozlov, Tambov province. This small town became his home for the rest of his life. Here he met his life partner - the daughter of a worker, Alexander Petrushina. The young people got married in 1875, soon a son, Nikolai, was born, followed by a daughter, Maria. Twelve rubles a month, which Michurin received on the railroad, was barely enough to feed him. And soon he quit his job altogether, deciding to devote himself entirely to his favorite gardening.

Kozlovsky suffering in a damp hut

The street on which Michurin rented a house was called Piteynaya because of the abundance of taverns standing on it. However, the Kozlovites not only drank, but also ate - the city was buried in the greenery of trees, and vegetables and fruits ripened perfectly on the local black soil. Russified Frenchman Romain Dulno briskly traded in seedlings of southern apple and cherry trees brought from abroad. True, very soon the capricious guests froze and withered - the winters in Kozlov were not severe in the southern way.

Michurin decided to rectify the situation. For experiments, he rented an empty estate with a garden from the merchant Gorbunov and moved his family there. Very soon there was nowhere to step in the house from pots, boxes, boxes with seedlings. Three rooms, a kitchen, a pantry and, of course, a garden housed 600 species of plants - lemons, oranges, roses, magnolias, exotic araucaria and yucca, and even Virginia tobacco. The children were sick, the wife began to grumble. I had to move to a more spacious house, but after a couple of years it turned out to be filled to capacity. It was also tight with money, although Michurin had golden hands - at one time he alone, without any help, installed electric lighting at the Kozlov station. The head of the depot, engineer Graund, then said: “Give up your garden, Mr. Michurin! You are a first-class electrician." Instead, Ivan Vladimirovich quit his job and opened a workshop for repairing watches, sewing machines and other small equipment. In addition, he monitored the serviceability of the clocks at the station - together they accumulated about 40 rubles a month.

In 1887, Michurin learned that the priest Yastrebov was selling a large plot of land not far from the city, on the banks of the Lesnoy Voronezh River. With difficulty saving money, the gardener moved there. For the sake of acquiring the coveted plot, he put the whole family on a starvation ration - white bread and sugar on weekends, meat on holidays. For a long time, tyurya made from bread with onions and liquid tea became the main food. To save money, the Michurins manually dragged sacks of earth and boxes of seedlings from the city.

Daughter Maria recalled: “Father forgot about clothes, about food, about the need and lack of money of the family, and invested all his meager income in extracting the seeds that interested him. The mother went to meet him, also denying herself everything necessary. Endless hauling of water, planting plants, digging and loosening the ridges during the day, writing and reading at night took away the strength of the father.

Efforts were not in vain - after five years, slender rows of young apple trees, pears, cherries appeared on the former wasteland. For the first time in Kozlov, peaches, apricots, and grapes grew here. In 1888, Michurin bred his first frost-resistant hybrid - the Princess of the North cherry, after the revolution it was renamed the Beauty of the North.

Things were difficult - not having the necessary education, the self-taught person trusted the "authoritative" opinion of the Moscow gardener Grell. He argued that it was easy to develop new varieties - it was enough to graft southern fruit plants to local, more unpretentious ones. Michurin tried to do this for a long time, but the seedlings died.

Then he moved on to a more complex method - artificial crossing and a long change in the properties of the resulting hybrids. He saw that different varieties of apples or plums produced viable hybrids within a few years. And the further these varieties are by kinship and geographical location, the better their hybrids adapt to local conditions. This happened with the Chinese apple tree, to which he grafted delicate European varieties - kandil, bellefleur, pepin and others. The hybrid apples were large, juicy and hardy at the same time, like their Chinese ancestor.

Michurin tried to repeat the same operation with beret and duchesse pears, renklod plums, and other heat-loving fruits. It was difficult until the gardener understood the reason: the black soil on his site was too fat and "spoiled" his hybrids, reducing their resistance to frost. I had to again look for a new site, transport property there, cut out funds from the meager budget for seeds and seedlings.

In 1899, Michurin moved to the Donskoy settlement, which became his final refuge. By that time, the children, who were tired of messing with the garden to death, left him - the daughter got married, and the son got a job as a mechanic at the station. Ivan Vladimirovich and Alexandra Vasilievna could hardly cope with a large household. Hard work, malnutrition, spending the night in a damp hut undermined the health of both. There were other problems: the local priest Father Khristofor got into the habit of Michurin. He asked, and then demanded to leave the "ungodly" breeding of new breeds, which confuses the minds of the parishioners. The gardener, who was not distinguished by humility, showed the guest to the door. The boys dragging ruddy Michurin fruits also interfered. The owner of the garden either ran after them with a stick, or tried to exhort them, but it was of little use.

"Russians are not for sale"

And yet, by 1905, Michurin had already bred quite a few hybrid varieties: apple trees "Kandil-Chinese", "Renet bergamot", "Northern Saffron", pears "Bere Zimnyaya" and "Bergamot Novik", plum "Renklod Reforma". Having crossed ordinary mountain ash with black chokeberry, he received a new useful berry - chokeberry. Tried to grow frost-resistant grapes.

And the flowers in his garden were blooming so that the Frenchman Dulno was thrilled with admiration: “You, Monsieur Michurin, need to sell roses. Listen to me and you will get rich!” But Ivan Vladimirovich, as a true fanatic of science, was indifferent to money. Of course, he traded his seedlings and flowers, but clumsily, almost at a loss. Having suffered with the merchants, who chose bouquets for an hour - “Ah, sir, these flowers are not at all in my taste!” - stopped trading and ran away to his favorite garden.

At the turn of the century, this science experienced a real revolution - the experiments of the Czech monk Gregor Mendel gave rise to the doctrine of genes. Michurin did not understand and did not accept this theory. For many years, fiddling with plants, he did not see any genes. He knew how to get new varieties by crossing and long selection, and in the spirit of Charles Darwin, he considered this selection - natural or artificial - the main engine of evolution. The doctrine of invisible particles transmitting the hereditary properties of species seemed to him absurd.

However, on the eve of the revolution, Michurin had more important concerns than the fight against genetics. In 1915, a powerful flood flooded his nursery, destroying many valuable hybrids. That same summer, a cholera epidemic hit Kozlov. Helping to treat the sick, Ivan Vladimirovich's wife, the last person close to him, became infected and died. And soon he received another refusal from the authorities in subsidies for the development of horticultural farming. There were many such refusals, and each deeply wounded Michurin - did his country really need him?

Unexpected recognition came from across the ocean. Michurin was visited three times by a representative of the US government, Frank Meyer, who bought seedlings of the varieties he bred. Later, the gardener said that the American persuaded him to leave, promising him big money and even a steamer for the export of plants. But in response he received a proud: “Russians are not for sale!”

Caressed by October

Having learned about the October Revolution, Michurin wrote in his diary: "I will work, as before, for the people." Soon the commissars came to the nursery and declared it a state one. True, the owner was left in charge and allocated a solid salary - they say, under the patronage of a local Bolshevik, whom the gardener once hid from the police.

The nursery expanded - he was given the land of the liquidated monastery. Michurin could no longer cope with the farm, and an experienced agronomist Iosif Gorshkov was sent to help him, and then numerous student interns. In 1921, Michurin apples and pears came to an exhibition in Tambov, and soon they were known in Moscow. The secretary of the Council of People's Commissars, Nikolai Gorbunov, who was no stranger to horticulture, heard from someone about the self-taught Kozlov and told Lenin about him. He was delighted and sent to Michurin to visit the "all-Union headman" Mikhail Kalinin. The old intellectual, feeding the people with miracle fruits, became a godsend for Soviet propaganda. In addition, he willingly played the role allotted to him, praising the party and its leaders.

For this, Ivan Vladimirovich received not only fame, but also tangible material benefits. His nursery grew from 8 to 20, and then to 100 hectares. More than a hundred people worked there, who day and night monitored the condition of freshly grafted hybrids. Expeditions delivered new plant species to Michurin from the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Far East. He conducted experiments with ginseng, lemongrass, actinidia. In 1928, the nursery was renamed the breeding station named after Michurin. Soon the first horticultural college was opened in Kozlov - also named after Michurin. And in 1932, this name was given to the city itself, it has not been renamed to this day.

To the honor of the breeder, he did not become proud, did not turn into a noisy gentleman. The man who gave the name to his own city was still modest, walking around in the same shabby canvas jacket and felt hat. As before, every day he went out onto the porch to feed the sparrows - he knew them “by sight”, and gave each one his name. He picked up wounded birds in the forest, nursed them and kept them at home for a long time. He even managed to tame frogs - having heard his steps, they crawled ashore and waited for a treat in the form of dry flies.

Hostage of intrigue

Meanwhile, passions boiled around the old scientist. In 1929, a young Ukrainian agronomist, Trofim Lysenko, sent him an article on vernalization, a new method for turning winter crops into spring crops. In the letter, Lysenko stressed that his method was developing Michurin's doctrine of the decisive importance of external influence for evolution. After reading the letter, the old man shrugged his shoulders: he repeatedly called for the promotion of new varieties only after rigorous testing. He explained that the methods of creating new varieties work only in experienced and caring hands - such as his hands.

But Lysenko was not interested in such "little things" - he correctly understood the general line of the party. After collectivization and famine in the first half of the 1930s, Stalin needed to increase crops as quickly as possible and feed the country. Lysenko with his vernalization came in handy, and the leader liked his method - not to look for some genes under a microscope, but to influence plants decisively and offensively! This is the only way to turn winter wheat into spring wheat, rye into barley, and potatoes into pineapples...

All this Lysenko presented under the name of "Michurin biology", although Ivan Vladimirovich never recognized him as his student. Hiding behind the portrait-icon of a well-known breeder, Lysenko managed to remove Academician Nikolai Vavilov from the post of president of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences and soon took his place, becoming an all-powerful dictator in biology for twenty years.

But Michurin no longer cared about that. In early 1935, doctors diagnosed him with stomach cancer, but, despite the pain, he worked in the garden until the last day of his life. On June 7, he died and was solemnly buried in the square near the technical school he founded. On the sides of the grave, like guards, stood four apple trees - "Kandil-Chinese", "Bellefleur-Chinese", "Pepin-Chinese" and "Pepin-Saffron".

Michurin died, and Lysenko continued to destroy genetics, throwing Russian science in this area far back. Putting forward his theories, he invariably covered himself with the name of "teacher". It is no wonder that the debunking of Lysenko during the years of the “thaw” affected Michurin as well. His books were published less and less, and criticism against him sounded more and more often. It was argued that all his achievements were a bluff of party propaganda. His nursery - now the All-Russian Research Institute of Genetics and Selection of Fruit Plants - has been threatened more than once with closure. But it works and, what is most interesting, continues to develop new varieties.

Indeed, in addition to confusing theories, Michurin left to his students and to all of us the main lesson - the garden will bear fruit under any sane authority, only if it is looked after with patience and love. In this case, the garden can also become a pillar of the state.

Michurin Ivan Vladimirovich (10/15/27/1855, Vershina estate, Ryazan province 06/07/1935, Michurinsk, Tambov region), Soviet biologist, founder of the scientific selection of fruit, berry and other crops in the USSR; honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1935), academician of VASKhNIL (1935). Born into the family of a small landed nobleman. In 1875, he rented a piece of land in Kozlov (about 500 m 2), where he began work on collecting plant collections and breeding new varieties of fruit and berry crops. In 1899, he acquired a new plot (about 13 hectares) on the outskirts of the city, where he transferred his plants and where he lived and worked until the end of his life.

Only under Soviet rule were Michurin's works appreciated and widely developed. On the basis of the Michurinsky nursery, in 1928, the Breeding and Genetic Station of Fruit and Berry Crops was organized, which in 1934 was reorganized into the Central Genetic Laboratory named after I.I. I. V. Michurina.

Michurin made a great contribution to the development of genetics, especially fruit and berry crops. In the laboratory of cytogenetics organized by him, the structure of cells was studied, experiments were carried out on artificial polyploidy. Michurin studied heredity in connection with the laws of ontogenesis and external conditions and created the doctrine of dominance. Michurin proved that dominance is a historical category that depends on heredity, ontogenesis and phylogenesis of the original forms, on the individual characteristics of hybrids, and also on the conditions of education. In his works, he substantiated the possibility of changing the genotype under the influence of external conditions.

Michurin is one of the founders of the scientific selection of agricultural crops. The most important issues developed by Michurin: intervarietal and distant hybridization, methods of raising hybrids in connection with the patterns of ontogenesis, dominance control, mentor method, evaluation and selection of seedlings, acceleration of the breeding process with the help of physical and chemical factors. Michurin created the theory of selection of initial forms for crossing. He found that the farther the pairs of crossed producing plants are separated from each other in the place of their homeland and the conditions of their environment, the more easily hybrid seedlings adapt to environmental conditions in a new area.

Crossing of geographically distant forms was widely used after Michurin and many other breeders. Michurin developed the theoretical foundations and some practical methods of distant hybridization. He proposed methods for overcoming the genetic barrier of incompatibility during distant hybridization: pollination of young hybrids at their first flowering, preliminary vegetative convergence, the use of an intermediary, pollination with a mixture of pollen, and more.

In the 1930s he opposed research in genetics and eugenics.

In the USSR, Michurin varieties are zoned: apple trees Pepin saffron, Slavyanka, Bessemyanka Michurinskaya, Bellefleur-Chinese and others, Bere winter Michurina pears, Nadezhda Krupskaya, Fertile Michurina cherries, etc. , cherries and other southern crops. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

Russian and Soviet biologist, founder of the scientific selection of fruit, berry and other crops in the USSR, honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1935), academician of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (1935).

Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin was born on October 15 (27), 1855 in the Vershina forest dacha near the village of Pronsky district of the Ryazan province (now in) in the family of an impoverished small estate nobleman, retired provincial secretary V. I. Michurin.

I. V. Michurin received his primary education at home, and then at the Pronsk district school, devoting his free and vacation time to gardening. He graduated from college in June 1872. His father prepared him at the gymnasium course for admission to the Alexander Lyceum, however, the sudden illness of his father and the sale of the estate for debts made their own adjustments to these plans.

In 1872, I. V. Michurin entered the 1st Ryazan classical gymnasium, but in the same year he was expelled from it "for disrespect to the authorities." Then he had to move to, the county town of the Tambov province, in which he spent all his later life.

In 1872-1876 I. V. Michurin worked at the station of the Ryazan-Ural railway. At first he was a commercial clerk in a commodity office, from 1874 he held the position of a commodity cashier, and then one of the station master's assistants. In 1876-1889, I. V. Michurin was a fitter of clocks and signaling devices on the section of the railway -.

Struggling with a constant lack of funds, I. V. Michurin opened a watch workshop in the city, at his apartment. He devoted his free time to work on the creation of new varieties of fruit and berry crops. In 1875, I. V. Michurin rented a plot of land (about 500 sq. m), where he began work on collecting plant collections and breeding new varieties of fruit and berry crops. In 1888, he acquired a new plot (about 13 hectares) on the outskirts of the city, where he transferred his plants and where he lived and worked until the end of his life. Since 1888, this area near the settlement has become one of the first breeding nurseries.

In 1906, the first scientific works of I. V. Michurin, devoted to the problems of breeding new varieties of fruit trees, saw the light of day. In 1912, the works of the scientist-breeder were awarded the Order of St. Anna, 3rd degree, in 1913 - the badge "For labors in agriculture" in memory of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.

With the establishment of Soviet power in 1917, I. V. Michurin immediately declared his readiness to cooperate with the new administration. His work was appreciated and widely circulated. The scientist took part in the agronomic work of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, advised agricultural specialists on selection, combating drought, raising crop yields, attended local agronomic meetings.

In 1920, he instructed the People's Commissar of Agriculture S. P. Sereda to organize the study of scientific works and practical achievements of I. V. Michurin. On September 11, 1922, the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee M. I. Kalinin visited the scientist. On November 20, 1923, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR recognized the experimental nursery of I. V. Michurin as an institution of national importance. On the basis of the Michurinsky nursery, in 1928, the Breeding and Genetic Station of Fruit and Berry Crops was organized, which in 1934 was reorganized into the I. V. Michurin Central Genetic Laboratory.

The works of the scientist were awarded orders (1931) and the Red Banner of Labor (1926). During his lifetime in 1932, the city was renamed to. I. V. Michurin died on June 7, 1935 and was buried on the territory of the collection nursery of the I. V. Michurin Fruit and Vegetable Institute (now Michurin State Agrarian University).

IV Michurin made a great contribution to the development of genetics, especially fruit and berry plants. He became one of the founders of the scientific selection of agricultural crops. He developed the theoretical foundations and some practical methods of distant hybridization. A talented experimenter, honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, full member of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, IV Michurin entered science as the creator of over 300 plant species.

“We cannot expect favors from nature; to take them from her is our task!”
I.V. Michurin

Ivan Michurin was born on October 27, 1855 in the Ryazan province in the Pronsky district. His great-grandfather and grandfather were small estate nobles, military people, participants in numerous campaigns and wars. Michurin's father, Vladimir Ivanovich, having received an excellent home education, served as an inspector at an arms factory in the city of Tula. Against the will of his parents, he married a girl of the bourgeois class and soon after that, with the rank of provincial secretary, he retired, settling in a small estate inherited called Vershina, located near the village of Yumashevka. He was a well-known person in the district - he was engaged in beekeeping and gardening, communicated with the Free Economic Society, which sent him special literature and seeds of agricultural crops. Working tirelessly in the garden, Vladimir Ivanovich made various experiments with ornamental and fruit plants, and in winter taught peasant children to read and write at home.

In the Michurin family, Ivan Vladimirovich was the seventh child, but he did not know his brothers and sisters, since out of all seven in infancy, only he survived. Reality met the future great biologist extremely harshly - Vanya was born in a cramped and dilapidated forester's lodge. The miserable situation was explained by the fact that his parents were forced to get away from the violent, nervous grandmother on the father's side. Living with her under the same roof was absolutely unbearable, and there was no money to rent your own corner. Winter was approaching, which, quite possibly, a small child in a forest hut would not have survived, but soon the grandmother was taken to a lunatic asylum, and the Michurin family returned to the estate. This only happy period in the life of the family passed very quickly. When Vanya was four years old, his mother, Maria Petrovna, who was in poor health, died of a fever.

Michurin himself grew up as a strong and healthy child. Deprived of maternal supervision, he spent a lot of time on the banks of the Prony River, fishing, or in the garden with his father. The boy watched with interest how the plants grow and die, how they close in on themselves in the rains and how they languish in the drought. All the questions that arose in the head of the observant Ivan found a fascinating and lively explanation by Vladimir Ivanovich. Unfortunately, over time, Michurin Sr. began to drink. Their house became unhappy, and the few guests and relatives stopped appearing at all. Vanya was rarely allowed out to play with the village boys, and left to himself, he spent days on end in the garden of a huge beautiful estate. Thus, digging, sowing and collecting fruits became the only games that Michurin knew as a child. And his most valuable treasures and favorite toys were the seeds that invisibly hide the germs of the future life. By the way, little Vanya had a whole collection of seeds of various colors and shapes.

Michurin received his initial education at home, and after that he was sent to the Pronsk district school. However, Ivan found a common language with his peers with great difficulty - for him, the recognizable, lasting and real world for life was the plant world. While studying, he continued to spend all his free time digging in the ground of his beloved estate. Already at the age of eight, the boy perfectly mastered various methods of grafting plants, masterfully performed such complex and incomprehensible wood operations as ablactation, copulation and budding for modern summer residents. As soon as the lessons ended, Michurin collected books and, without waiting for a cart from the Vershina, set off on a many kilometers journey home. The road through the forest in any weather was a real pleasure for him, because it made it possible to communicate with his good and only comrades - every bush and every tree on the way were well known to the boy.

In June 1872, Michurin graduated from the Pronskoye School, after which Vladimir Ivanovich, having collected the last pennies, began to prepare him for entering the St. Petersburg Lyceum at the gymnasium course. However, soon the relatively young father suddenly fell ill and was sent to a hospital in Ryazan. At the same time, it turned out that the financial affairs of the family were going worse than ever. The Michurin estate had to be mortgaged, remortgaged, and then completely sold for debts. His paternal aunt, Tatyana Ivanovna, took care of the boy. It should be noted that she was a well-educated, energetic and well-read woman, treating her nephew with great care and attention. During his school years, Michurin often visited her small estate, located in Birkinovka, where he whiled away the time reading books. Unfortunately, Tatyana Ivanovna, ready to sacrifice everything for Vanya, could barely make ends meet herself. Uncle, Lev Ivanovich, came to the rescue, who got the boy into the Ryazan gymnasium. However, Michurin did not study long at this educational institution. In the same year, 1872, he was expelled from there with the wording "for disrespect to his superiors." The reason was the case when the high school student Michurin, due to an ear disease and severe frost (or perhaps simply out of horror in front of the authorities), did not take off his hat on the street in front of the director of the educational institution. According to biographers, the real reason for Michurin's expulsion was his uncle's refusal to bribe the leadership of the gymnasium.

Thus ended Michurin's youth, and in the same year Ivan Vladimirovich moved to the city of Kozlov, the surroundings of which he did not leave for a long time until the end of his life. There he got a job as a commercial clerk at a local station belonging to the Ryazan-Ural railway. His monthly salary, by the way, was only twelve rubles. He lived in a modest hut, standing in the railway village of Yamskaya. The rude attitude of the authorities, the monotonous work, the sixteen-hour work shift and the bribery of fellow clerks - such was the situation in which Michurin was in those years. The young man did not take part in friendly drinking parties; Two years later, Ivan Vladimirovich was promoted - a quiet and executive young man took the place of a commodity cashier, and soon became one of the assistants to the head of the station. Life gradually began to improve, Ivan could well consider himself lucky - in tsarist times, leading work on the railway was considered a prestigious occupation. From his high position, Ivan Vladimirovich derived a kind of benefit - he began to visit repair shops and master plumbing. He worked there long and hard, puzzling over various technical problems for hours.

A year later, having accumulated a small capital, Michurin decided to get married. His choice fell on the daughter of a local worker, Alexandra Vasilievna Petrushina, an obedient and hard-working girl who became a friend and assistant to the great naturalist for many years. It should be noted that the impoverished noble relatives of Michurin were so outraged by his unequal marriage that they announced deprivation of their inheritance. It was an arrogant, but completely empty gesture, since there was nothing to inherit anyway. And only Michurin's aunt, Tatyana Ivanovna, continued to correspond with him. And soon after the wedding in 1875, Ivan Vladimirovich rented the empty estate of the Gorbunovs, located in the vicinity of Kozlov, with an area of ​​​​about six hundred square meters. Here, having planted various fruit plants, he began his first selection experiments. Years later, Michurin would write: "Here I spent all my free time from work in the office." However, at first Ivan Vladimirovich had to experience severe disappointment due to lack of knowledge and inexperience. In subsequent years, the breeder actively studied all kinds of domestic and foreign literature on horticulture. However, many of his questions remained unanswered.

After a short time, new difficulties came - Ivan Vladimirovich, in a conversation with his colleagues, allowed himself to say too much about his boss. The latter found out about this, and Ivan Vladimirovich lost the well-paid position of assistant chief of the station. With the loss of a place, the financial situation of the young spouses turned out to be the most deplorable, close to poverty. All the money accumulated by Michurin was spent on renting land, and therefore, in order to order very expensive books on botany, seedlings and seeds from around the world from abroad, as well as buy the necessary equipment and materials, Ivan Vladimirovich had to tighten his belt and start earning money on side. Upon his return from duty, Michurin stayed up until late at night, repairing various instruments and repairing watches.

The period from 1877 to 1888 in the life of Ivan Vladimirovich was especially difficult. It was a time of hard work, hopeless need and moral upheaval due to failures in the field of acclimatization of fruit plants. However, here the iron patience of the gardener was manifested, who continued to stubbornly fight all the problems that arose. During these years, Ivan Vladimirovich invented a sprayer "for greenhouses, greenhouses, indoor flowers and all kinds of crops in the open air and in greenhouses." In addition, Michurin drew up a project for lighting the railway station where he worked, using electric current, and subsequently implemented it. By the way, the installation and repair of telegraph and telephone sets has long been a source of income for the breeder.

By that time, a unique collection of fruit and berry plants of several hundred species had been collected at the Gorbunovs' estate. Ivan Vladimirovich noted: “The estate I rented turned out to be so crowded with plants that there was no way to continue to do business on it.” In such conditions, Michurin decided to cut costs even more - from now on, he scrupulously and to the penny took into account all expenses, entering them in a special diary. Due to extreme poverty, the gardener himself repaired old clothes, sewed mittens on his own, and wore shoes until they fell apart. Sleepless nights, malnutrition, metal dust in the workshop and constant anxiety led to the fact that in the spring of 1880 Ivan Vladimirovich showed serious signs of a health disorder - he began to have pulmonary hemoptysis. To improve his health, Michurin took a vacation and, having closed the workshop, moved with his wife out of town, spending the summer in the miller's house, located near a luxurious oak forest. Beautiful and healthy countryside, sun and fresh air quickly restored the health of the breeder, who devoted all his time to reading literature and observing forest plants.

Shortly after returning home, Ivan Vladimirovich moved the entire collection of plants to the new estate of the Lebedevs. He bought it, by the way, with the help of a bank, and immediately (due to lack of funds and numerous debts) he mortgaged the land. It was in this place that the first unique Michurin varieties were bred. However, after a couple of years, and this patrimony was overflowing with plants.

In the autumn of 1887, the breeder learned that a certain priest, Yastrebov, was selling a plot of land of thirteen hectares near the village of Turmasovo, located seven kilometers from the city on the banks of the Lesnoy Voronezh River. After examining the ground, Michurin was very pleased. The whole autumn and winter of 1887-1888 was spent on feverish fundraising with labor reaching exhaustion, and finally, in May 1888, after the sale of all planting material, the deal took place, and half of the land was immediately mortgaged. It is curious that the Michurin family, which by that time had grown to four people (the gardener had a daughter, Maria, and a son, Nikolai), had only seven rubles left in cash. Due to lack of money, all the plants from the Lebedev plot were carried by members of the Michurin family on their shoulders for seven kilometers. In addition, there was no house in the new place, and they lived in a hut for two seasons. Recalling those years, Ivan Vladimirovich said that their diet included only vegetables and fruits grown by themselves, black bread, and “a chick of tea for a couple of kopecks.”

Years of hard work flowed by. In place of the hut, a real, albeit small, but real log hut arose, and the neglected wasteland around turned into a young garden, in which Ivan Vladimirovich, like a demiurge, created new forms of life. By 1893, thousands of hybrid seedlings of pear, apple and cherry trees were already growing in Turmasovo. For the first time in fruit growing in central Russia, winter-hardy varieties of apricot, peach, oil rose, sweet cherry, mulberry tree, cigarette tobacco and almonds appeared. At Michurin, plums were growing, unprecedented in these lands, grapes were bearing fruit, the vines of which wintered under the open sky. Ivan Vladimirovich himself, who finally changed his railway worker's cap for a wide-brimmed farmer's hat, lived in the nursery all the time.

It seemed to Michurin that his dreams of a secure and independent life devoted to creative activity were close to being realized. However, an unusually cold winter came and the southern, as well as Western European varieties of its plants, suffered terrible damage. After that, Ivan Vladimirovich realized all the unsuccessfulness of the method he had tested of acclimatizing old varieties with the help of grafting and decided to continue his work on breeding new varieties of plants through the directed cultivation of hybrids and artificial crossing. With great enthusiasm, the breeder took up the hybridization of plants, but these works required considerable financial injections.

It should be noted that by that time Michurin had organized a trading nursery in Turmasovo, which, however, was not widely known. In this regard, one of the most pressing issues for the biologist was still the issue of supporting his family. However, the gardener did not lose heart, placing great hopes on the sale of his unique varieties. In the twelfth year of breeding work, he sent out to all parts of the country a “Complete Price List” of fruit and ornamental shrubs and trees, as well as seeds of fruit plants available on his farm. This collection was illustrated with drawings by the gardener himself, who had an excellent command of both graphics and complex watercolor techniques. Michurin's price list had nothing to do with the advertising catalogs of trading companies and was more of a scientific guide for gardeners than a genuine price list. In his diary relating to that period, the breeder noted: “I gave up to twenty thousand catalogs to the obviously conscientious peddlers of apple trees, conductors and conductors for distribution on trains ... From the distribution of twenty thousand catalogs, a hundred customers will be obtained ... ".

Finally, the autumn of 1893 came - the long-awaited time for the first release of seedlings grown in the nursery. Michurin believed that the price lists and his articles in various magazines, which broke the centuries-old routine in horticulture, would bear fruit. He was firmly convinced that there would be many orders, but he was severely disappointed - there were practically no buyers. In a vain hope of a sale, the breeder spent his last pennies on magazine and newspaper advertisements, and also sent new catalogs through acquaintances going to auctions and fairs for distribution to merchants and the public. Despite this, in the first years of the trading nursery, Michurin met only distrust and indifference, both on the part of reputable gardeners and acclimatizers, and on the part of ordinary residents.

In 1893-1896, when thousands of hybrid seedlings were already growing in the garden of Ivan Vladimirovich, a new thought came to Michurin's brilliant mind, which led to important and great consequences. The biologist discovered that the soil of his nursery, which is a powerful black soil, is too oily and, by “spoiling” the hybrids, makes them less resistant to the devastating “Russian winters”. For the breeder, this meant the merciless elimination of all hybrids that were doubtful in their cold resistance, the sale of the Turmasovsky plot, as well as the search for a new, more suitable place. Thus, almost all the many years of work on the foundation of the nursery had to be started anew, seeking funds from new hardships. A less persistent person would have been broken by such a state of affairs, but Ivan Vladimirovich had enough determination and strength to move to a new stage in his research work.

After a long search, he finally found a piece of useless, abandoned land in the vicinity of the city of Kozlov. It belonged to a local official and was a washed-out alluvium, which abounded in ravines, swamps, channels and streams. During the flood, which was especially turbulent here, the entire land was covered with water, and even large, mature trees were washed out in low places. However, there was no cheaper and more suitable land, and the breeder decided to move his nursery here. In 1899, he sold the old place and, together with his family, moved to the suburban settlement of Donskoy for the winter. Throughout the summer of 1900, while the new house was being built, he lived in a hastily knocked down barn. By the way, Ivan Vladimirovich designed the two-story house himself, and also calculated an estimate for it. To the great chagrin of Michurin, the transfer of his nursery to a new soil ended in the loss of a significant part of the unique collection of hybrids and original forms. As before, he courageously survived this, and his assumptions about the importance of the Spartan education of hybrids were fully and completely justified. The gardener noted: “When raising seedlings on thin soil, under a harsh regime, although a smaller number of them had cultural qualities, they were quite resistant to frost.” Subsequently, the site became the main department of the Michurin Central Genetic Laboratory, and the biologist himself worked in this place until the end of his life. Here, using various technologies developed by him, the breeder proved the practical possibility of overcoming the non-crossing of many species, and also achieved the development of hybrid seedlings of the required quality, which develop very poorly under normal conditions.

In 1905 Ivan Vladimirovich turned fifty years old. And the more his skill as a gardener improved, the more unsociable his character became. In addition, despite the fact that Michurin had already bred many outstanding varieties, official science refused to recognize the achievements of the biologist. The breeder, by the way, sent his work to all specialized magazines, wrote to the emperor himself, reproaching him, as well as all bureaucratic Russia for criminal inattention to the fruit and berry industry, wrote to various ministries, drawing the attention of bureaucrats to gardening, as the most important mission of man on Earth. There is a story about how once Michurin sent an article to a Moscow gardening magazine about his new method of cutting cherries. The editors knew that cherries are not cut, and they refused to publish, explaining with the phrase: "We write only the truth." Enraged, Ivan Vladimirovich dug up and, without any written accompaniment, sent a dozen rooted cuttings of sweet cherries. In the future, he did not respond to pleas to send a description of the method, nor to tearful apologies. Michurin also refused state subsidies, so as not to fall, in his own words, into slavish dependence on departments, since "every given penny will be taken care of by its best use." In the summer of 1912, the office of Nicholas II sent a prominent official, Colonel Salov, to the gardener in Kozlov. The gallant military man was extremely surprised by the modest appearance of the Michurin estate, as well as by the poor outfit of its owner, whom the colonel at first mistook for a watchman. A month and a half after Salov's visit, Ivan Vladimirovich received two crosses - the Green Cross "for work in agriculture" and Anna of the third degree.

By that time, the fame of the gardener's hybrids had spread throughout the world. Back in 1896, Ivan Vladimirovich was elected an honorary member of the Breeders American Scientific Society, and in 1898 the All-Canadian Congress of Farmers, who met after a harsh winter, was surprised to note that all varieties of cherries of American and European origin had died out in Canada, with the exception of "Fertile Michurina" from Russia. The Dutch, well versed in flowers, offered Ivan Vladimirovich about twenty thousand royal rubles for the bulbs of his unusual lily, smelling like a violet. Their main condition was that this flower would no longer be grown in Russia. Michurin, although he lived in poverty, did not sell the lily. And in March 1913, the breeder received a message from the US Department of Agriculture with a proposal to move to America or sell a collection of plants. In order to stop encroachment on hybrids, the gardener broke such a sum that US agriculture was forced to surrender.

Meanwhile, the Michurin garden kept growing. The most daring plans of Ivan Vladimirovich were carried out as if by magic - before the revolution, more than nine hundred (!) Plant varieties, ordered from Japan, France, the USA, Germany and many other countries, grew in his nursery. His hands were no longer enough, the breeder wrote: "... loss of strength and poor health quite persistently make themselves felt." Michurin thought about involving street children in household work, but the world war intervened in these plans. The biologist's commercial nursery stopped working, and Ivan Vladimirovich, who was exhausted, again struggled to make ends meet. And the new year of 1915 brought him another misfortune, which almost destroyed all hopes for the continuation of research work. In the spring, the raging river overflowed its banks and flooded the nursery. Then severe frosts hit, burying many valuable hybrids under the ice, as well as a school of two-year-olds determined for sale. This blow was followed by an even more terrible second. In the summer, a cholera epidemic broke out in the city. Michurin's kind and sensitive wife took care of one sick girl and became infected herself. As a result, the young and strong girl recovered, and Alexandra Vasilievna died.

The loss of the closest person broke the great biologist. His garden began to fall into disrepair. Out of habit, Michurin still looked after him, but did not feel the same enthusiasm. All offers to help - rejected, and sympathizers - despised. At some point, news of the October Revolution reached Ivan Vladimirovich, but he did not attach much importance to this. And in November 1918, an authorized comrade from the People's Commissariat for Agriculture came to him and announced that his garden was being nationalized. The horror of the situation shocked Michurin, knocking him out of his usual rut and bringing a complete cure for mental illness. The breeder, immediately going to the nearest Soviets, indignantly declared there that it was impossible to take and take away everything from him like that ... The Soviet government reassured the gardener - he was informed that he would be left at the garden as head. And soon, numerous assistants and students were sent to Ivan Vladimirovich. Thus began the second life of Michurin.

Attention to the work of the breeder, to his personality and to his experience fell upon the biologist like an avalanche. The authorities needed new public idols, and somewhere in the higher spheres Michurin was appointed as such. From now on, his research was financed unlimitedly, Ivan Vladimirovich received official rights to conduct the affairs of the nursery at his own discretion. All his life, this torch of science dreamed that the wall of indifference around him would not be so discouragingly impenetrable, and at once received indisputable, popular and complete recognition. From now on, on every suitable occasion, Michurin exchanged telegrams with Stalin, and an important change appeared in his long-term daily routine - now from twelve to two in the afternoon he received delegations of scientists, collective farmers and workers. By the spring of 1919, the number of experiments in the Michurin garden had increased to several hundred. At the same time, the previously unsociable Ivan Vladimirovich advised agricultural workers on the problems of raising productivity, combating drought and selection, participated in the agronomic work of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, and also spoke to numerous students eagerly catching every word of the master.

It should be noted that Michurin, a bright supporter of the scientific organization of labor, at the age of forty-five (in 1900) established a strict daily routine, which remained unchanged until the very end of his life. The breeder got up at five in the morning and worked in the garden until twelve, with a break for breakfast at eight in the morning. At noon he dined, then until three in the afternoon he rested and read newspapers, as well as special literature (after the revolution he received delegations). From 3 pm until evening, Ivan Vladimirovich again worked in the nursery or - depending on the weather and circumstances - in his office. He had supper at 9 pm and worked on correspondence until midnight, and then went to bed.

A curious fact, when Ivan Vladimirovich had a losing streak, he temporarily broke away from his beloved plant world and moved on to other jobs - he repaired watches and cameras, worked on mechanics, modernized barometers and invented unique tools for gardeners. Michurin himself explained this by the need to "refresh mental abilities." After the break, he took up his main activity with renewed vigor. The multifunctional office of the naturalist served him at the same time as a laboratory, an optics and mechanics workshop, a library, and also a forge. In addition to numerous barometers and secateurs, Ivan Vladimirovich invented and made a device for measuring radiation, an elegant distillation apparatus for distilling essential oil from rose petals, a grafting chisel, a cigarette case, a lighter, and a special machine for stuffing cigarettes with tobacco. He designed a biologist and a lightweight internal combustion engine for his own needs. In his experiments, he used electricity generated by a hand-held dynamo he had assembled. For a long time, the breeder could not afford to buy a typewriter, in the end he made it himself. In addition, he invented and built a metal portable portable furnace in which he soldered and forged his equipment. He also had a unique workshop for making models of fruits and vegetables from wax. They were reputed to be the best in the world and were so skillful that many tried to bite them. In the same office-workshop, Michurin received visitors. Here is how one of them described the room: “Behind the glass of one cabinet there are test tubes, flasks, flasks, jars, bent tubes. Behind the glass of another - models of berries and fruits. On the tables are letters, drawings, drawings, manuscripts. Everywhere, where there is only space, various electrical appliances and apparatuses are placed. In one corner, between a bookshelf and a workbench, is an oak cabinet with all sorts of carpentry, plumbing, and turning tools. In other corners, garden pitchforks, hoes, shovels, saws, sprayers and secateurs. On the table - a microscope and magnifiers, on a workbench - a vise, a typewriter and an electrostatic machine, on a bookcase - notebooks and diaries. On the walls - geographical maps, thermometers, barometers, chronometers, hygrometers. There is a lathe by the window, and next to it is a carved cabinet with seeds received from all over the world.

The gardener's second life lasted eighteen years. By 1920, he had developed more than one hundred and fifty new hybrid varieties of cherries, pears, apple trees, raspberries, currants, grapes, plums, and many other crops. In 1927, at the initiative of a prominent Soviet geneticist, Professor Iosif Gorshkov, the film South in Tambov was released, which promoted Michurin's achievements. In June 1931, the breeder was awarded the honorary Order of Lenin for his fruitful work, and in 1932 the ancient city of Kozlov was renamed Michurinsk, turning into an all-Russian center of horticulture. In addition to large fruit nurseries and fruit growing farms, the Michurin State Agrarian University and the Michurin Research Institute of Fruit Growing subsequently appeared there.

The students of the great biologist told legends about how Michurin could talk for hours with dying plants, and they returned to life. He could also enter any unfamiliar courtyard and the huge watchdogs did not bark. And from hundreds of seedlings, with some supernatural instinct, he culled out those that were not viable. The disciples tried to replant secretly rejected seedlings, but they never took root.

Almost the entire winter of 1934-1935, despite age-related ailments, Ivan Vladimirovich worked actively, without violating the established regime for decades. As always, delegations came to him, and the closest students were always with him. In addition, Ivan Vladimirovich corresponded with all the leading breeders of the Soviet Union. In February 1935, the seventy-nine-year-old scientist suddenly fell ill - his strength weakened, he lost his appetite. Despite his condition, Michurin continued to engage in all ongoing work in the nursery. Throughout March and April, between attacks, he worked hard. At the end of April, the Main Sanitary Directorate of the Kremlin, together with the People's Commissariat of Health, appointed a special consultation, which discovered stomach cancer in the patient. In connection with the serious condition of the patient in mid-May, a second consultation was organized, which confirmed the diagnosis of the first. Doctors were constantly at the gardener, but throughout May and early June, Michurin, who was on artificial nutrition, tormented by severe pain and bloody vomiting, continued to look through correspondence and advise his students without getting out of bed. He constantly called them, gave instructions and made changes to the work plans. There were a great many new breeding projects in Michurin's nursery - and the students, in choked, interrupted voices, informed the old gardener about fresh results. The consciousness of Ivan Vladimirovich died out at nine o'clock in the morning thirty minutes on June 7, 1935. He was buried next to the agricultural institute he created.

Based on the materials of the book by A.N. Bakharev "The Great Transformer of Nature" and the site http://sadisibiri.ru.

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