In November 2022, it will be 135 years since the birth of the world-renowned scientist Mykola Ivanovych Vavilov, whose life is a scientific and civic feat.
In Ukraine, funds are being raised for the construction of a memorial sign to Academician Mykola Vavilov at the Dzhogil Pass in the Vyzhnytsia Raion of Chernivtsi Oblast.
One of the directions of his scientific research was the study of the origin of cultivated plants, among which a special place was occupied by emmer wheat (*Triticum dicoccum* Schrank), a species of wild ancient wheat. Its introduction into cultivation took place in the 7th millennium BC in the region of Syria and Lebanon. In the first millennium BC, it reached the territory of Europe. But by what route? This question remained a mystery until August 1940, when during an expedition in the Putylskyi Raion of Chernivtsi Oblast, Mykola Vavilov found wild emmer wheat in household plots and natural populations. Prior to this, samples of this wheat had been collected by the researcher in the Balkans. This allowed him to suggest that emmer wheat spread through the Balkans to the Ukrainian Carpathians (into Ukraine), and subsequently throughout Europe. Currently, emmer wheat is being involved in the breeding process to create particularly valuable wheat varieties.
On August 6, 1940, during the aforementioned expedition to the Ukrainian Carpathians, Mykola Vavilov was arrested by a special NKVD group from Moscow. Subsequently, he was designated an "enemy of the people" and spent a full year on death row. Before being sent to a labor camp to serve his sentence, he fell ill and on January 24, 1943, was admitted to the prison hospital in Saratov; 2 days later, he passed away.
The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine petitioned for the allocation of land to install a memorial sign to Academician Mykola Vavilov at the site where he was arrested and which became the scientist's last natural laboratory.
Fundraising for the construction of the memorial sign has begun.
Further details can be found on the website of the M.I. Vavilov Ukrainian Society of Geneticists and Breeders.
Funds as charitable contributions can be sent to the bank account of the M.I. Vavilov UTGiS:
City of Kyiv, Raiffeisen Bank Aval JSC
MFO 380805,
EDRPOU 21676925,
IBAN: UA38 3808 0500 0000 0026 0012 4706 4
Funds should be sent with the note "For the construction of the memorial sign to M.I. Vavilov".