Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov inspects the ruins of an astronomical observatory in 1946

Sergey Ivanovich, the younger brother of the geneticist Nikolai Ivanovich, was a physicist and the founder of a school of physical optics. In 1945 he became President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and held the post until 1951.

Nikolai Vavilov was arrested in 1940 on charges of sabotage in agriculture, undermining the collective farms, and of leading a non-existent anti-Soviet organisation, the Labour Peasant Party. The outstanding and world-renowned geneticist was sentenced to death, which was then commuted to 20 years' imprisonment. He died of starvation in a Saratov prison in 1943.

Sergey Ivanovich was untouched by the repressions that had engulfed his brother.

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov inspects the ruins of an astronomical observatory in 1946

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

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