T.D./

The President; & Members,
Academy of Sciences,
Moscow, U.S.S.R.

Dear Sirg

We - the botanists and geneticists of America - have noted
with regret the recent news of the dismissal of V.N. Sukachev
and others from their posts as editors of Botanicheskii Zhurnal,
Since we are led to understand that this action was taken as a
result of their criticism of /Lysenko (Bot. Zhurn. 43:1135, 1958 -
Of"Some problems of Soviet biology"). While not wishing to
interfere in the private affairs of a national academy, we are
impelled in this instance to express our disapvroval of the
action. A reinstatement of Lysenkoism may be expected to lead
again to a suppression of many fertile fields of genetic science,
which, soundly based on a body of objective data, are generally
accepted outside the U.S.S.R. As members of the international
fraternity of scientists, we feel that ideological curbs on the
free pursuit of research in any country tend indirectly to
hamper the progress of us all.

We hope you will seriously reconsider your recent decision
and its implications. We make this enpeal in a genuine svirit
of constructive criticism, confident that, if similar circum-
stances arose here, we would receive expressions of opinion from
our colleagues abroad, including yourselves, and that we would
accord them the sympathetic attention they deserve.

(President, N.A.S. of U.S.A.)

n Bot. Soc. Am.

" Gen. Soc.

etc.?