Vasilii Nikolaevich Slepkov, geneticist and ‘‘Mensheviking idealist’’

Abstract

V.N. Slepkov only had seven years left after his first publication until he was forced to quit his scientific work. Nevertheless he left his mark both in genetics as one of the pioneers in the studies of radiation mutagenesis in Russia, and in philosophy, being a prominent representative of dialectical materialism in biology in the second half of the 1920s. In January of 1933 Slepkov was arrested and, while the investigation falsely accused him of counterrevolutionary activities, at Kazan State University where he worked, Slepkov as well as his students were condemned for `Mensheviking idealism' before, and after, his arrest.