Boris L. Astaurov—the First President of the Vavilov All-Union Society of Geneticists and Breeders

摘要

On October 27,2004, there was a centenary celebration of the outstanding biologist, organizer of science, the first director of the Kol'tsov Institute of Developmental Biology, first president of the Vavilov All-Union Society of Geneticists and Breeders, founder and first editor-in-chief of the journal Ontogenez (Soviet Journal of Developmental Biology) academician Boris L, Astaurov. Being a direct witness and participant of the development of genetics, Astaurov prized very much our scientific heritage, took care about the priorities of Soviet scientists and Soviet genetics and its outstanding contribution to the world biology. He wrote a series of remarkable papers on the history of biology and activities of its representatives, such as Ch. Darwin,G. Mendel, N..I. Vavilov, N.K. Kol'tsov, S.S. Chetverikov, N.K. Belyaev, N.V, Timofeev-Ress-ovsky, V..V. Sakharov, V.P. Ostryakova-Varshaver, V.B. Kedrovsky, A.E. Gaisinovich and others. Lessons of the history of Russian science and adhesion to the progressive traditions of the Soviet genetic school helped him to determine the main trends of its development.