Institute of Plant Industry

Вавилова (ВИР)),[2] as it is officially called since 2015, is a research institute of plant genetics and seed bank, located in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

He was a strong proponent of Lamarckism (the theory that changes to an organism's body during its life would be inherited) and rejected Mendelian hereditary genetics.

[4][5][6] This fitted Josef Stalin's world view, as it was seen as a marxist rejection of heritage in favour of environment, but Vavilov objected to it.

They protected the seeds from German fire bombs, extreme cold, rodents, and their own hunger - as they would rather starve to death rather than eat the collection.

[3] [7][8] The story of the institute during the siege of Leningrad was dramatized in Jessica Oreck's 2019 feature film One Man Dies a Million Times.