Nikolai Vavilov. The Scientist Who Wanted to Feed the Whole World and Died of Hunger

One of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, Nikolai Vavilov dreamed of ending hunger in the world, but in 1943 he himself died of hunger in a Saratov prison. Not backing down from scientific challenges or the most complex expeditions to the wildest corners of the Earth, Nikolai Vavilov could do nothing against the onslaught of the cynical demagogue and opportunist Trofim Lysenko. The purge of geneticists set domestic science back a whole generation and caused immense harm to the country. Reconstructing the story of how the greatest humanitarian mission led Nikolai Vavilov to a death by starvation, Peter Pringle relied on newly discovered archival documents, personal and official correspondence, vivid reports from expeditions, previously unpublished family letters and diaries, as well as eyewitness accounts. This deeply humane and vivid narrative paints a very lively image of a brilliant scientist, a life lover, and a crusader who, until his last days, never parted with his great dream.