ISSN 1022-7954, Russian Journal of Genetics, 2008, Vol. 44, No. 10, pp. 1127–1133. © Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2008.Original Russian Text © E.A. Keshman, 2008, published in Genetika, 2008, Vol. 44, No. 10, pp. 1301–1308.

1127

Prof. Vladimir Pavlovich Efroimson was among themost prominent geneticists of Russia, a student ofN.K. Kol’tsov, one of the pleiad of the “first levy genet-icists”, who carried on their backs the heavy burden ofstruggle with persecution of genetics in this country.Efroimson discovered the formula for mutation fre-quency in human genes (1932). He was a most promi-nent expert in genetics and breeding of silkworm,which was the topic of his Candidate and Doctor of Sci-ence dissertations (1941 and 1947, respectively).Efroimson was the author of the first Russian mono-graph on human genetics,

Introduction to MedicalGenetics

(1964), the book that was the first step in therevival of human genetics in the Soviet Union. Efroim-son was a veteran of the Second World War, who was

on field service since 1941 to 1945 and was awardedwar decorations. Efroimson was twice persecuted, in1932 and 1949, spent 10 years in Stalin’s camps, andfor almost a quarter century was divested of science. Heis the author of three monographs and over 100 scien-tific papers and editor of numerous books on variousgenetic issues. He found his place in the history of ourscience not only as an outstanding researcher, but alsoas an unblinking fighter for the truth, uncompromisingenemy of antiscientific trends in biology, fervent advo-cate of genetics, and a moral standard of a true scientist.

Vladimir Pavlovich Efroimson was born in Moscowon November 21, 1908. He was an exclusively giftedperson, had a phenomenal memory, read in all Euro-

To the 100

th

Anniversary of Vladimir Pavlovich Efroimson (1908–1989)

“I am to be of use to people ratherthan use them.”V. P. Efroimson

DOI:

10.1134/S1022795408100013

Vladimir Pavlovich Efroimson (1908–1989)

1128

RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF GENETICS

Vol. 44

No. 10

2008

KESHMAN

pean languages, and was as fluent in German as in Rus-sian. He spoke English, Polish, and Italian, andthumbed through books yet remembering everythingfor a long time.

Having entered in 1925 the Biological Division withthe Physical and Mathematical Faculty of the MoscowUniversity, Vladimir Pavlovich went in for genetics atthe Department of Experimental Zoology;N.K. Kol’tsov, G.I. Roskin, M.M. Zavadovsky,M.P. Sadovnikova-Kol’tsova, and S.L. Frolova were histeachers.

In 1929, Vladimir Pavlovich was expelled from theUniversity, formally, for failing to pay the membershipfees. However, the actual reason was that the 20-year-old student was the only person who at a universitymeeting advocated Prof. Sergei Chetverikov, whomthey were firing from the Moscow State University for“his sympathy with Mensheviks and low efficiency ofresearch”.

Being expelled from the University, Vladimir Pav-lovich managed to continue his scientific activities atthe Roentgen Institute and then, at the Institute of Silk-worm Breeding in Tbilisi (Georgia). There, he startedto study the effect of X-rays on heredity. He wrote tenscientific papers in 3 years, whose topics were the effect

of temperature on transgenation, a discovery of a newgene in the Drosophila Y chromosome, transmutationaction of X-rays, problems in genetic evolution, theeffects of certain genes on silkworm viability, andabout the action of external factors on the sex ratio insilkworm. He wrote from Georgia to his father: “It isnow possible to solve just in one year the problems insilkworm breeding that were previously unsolvable for20–30 years. Recently, it appeared possible to devise acompletely new and most promising breeding method.”[1]. In 1930, Kol’tsov evaluated the works of the youngscientist as follows:

“…The results (obtained at the Roentgen Institute)shaped into several papers ready for publication, threeof which I reviewed.

The main works are on the induction (or accelera-tion) of mutations by X-rays. Thanks to excellent con-ditions for these works at the Roentgen Institute withthe Narkomzdrav (People’s Commissariat for Health),Efroimson succeeded in stating the experimental prob-lem on the background of quantitative accounting of thenumber of produced Drosophila lethals depending onthe absolute X-ray dose (ionizing ability). He used themost appropriate intricately composed Drosophila linesand obtained sufficiently precise results. The definiteconclusion of the author—that radiation intensity innature is insufficient for explaining the natural transmu-tational process in Drosophila—is of a very importanttheoretical value. In his work, this conclusion is con-firmed by a summary of the newest (over the lastmonths) literature data. This paper should be publishedas soon as possible due to its highest interest for Rus-sian geneticists…

The second paper is a report on the experimentalverification of the study by Goldschmidt published insummer of 1929 on the effect of a high temperature onmutations. It is the first such verification in Moscow,undertaken completely independently. The verificationgave negative results, but this in no way minimizes itsimportance.

The third work is a detailed study of a new mutationobtained in the experiment on inducing Drosophilamutations with radium. The author develops theassumption that the new gene that he found is localizedon the Y chromosome, which is the phenomenon of par-ticular interest in Drosophila.

Efroimson prepared two more papers—“Transmu-tation Action of X-rays on

Dr. melanogaster

GermlineCells” and “Variegated Mutations and Their GeneralImportance”; however, I have not seen these papers.Undoubtedly, Efroimson did not waste time that hespent outside the University. During this year, he hasmatured as an active researcher. It would be most desir-able to give him the possibility to complete the Univer-sity course and acquire all the rights connected with thegraduation.” [2].

Vladimir Efroimson was not reinstated at the Uni-versity. However, he at this particular time came to

Spring 1943, the First Belarusian Front.

RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF GENETICS

Vol. 44

No. 10

2008

VLADIMIR PAVLOVICH EFROIMSON 1129

solution of the problem that had not been even formu-lated before, namely, the determination of mutation fre-quency in human genes. This problem appeared solv-

able based on the equilibrium of mutations and selec-tion. Vladimir Pavlovich twice reported this work at theseminars of Kol’tsov.

Epidemiologists of the 33

rd

Army of the First Belarusian Front, spring 1943.

Practice in chemical and epidemiological military intelligence, the First Belarusian Front, spring 1943.

1130

RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF GENETICS

Vol. 44

No. 10

2008

KESHMAN

On December 29, 1932, Efroimson was arrested…Overall, 35 persons were arrested and convicted

under the case no. 1000/109 on an anti-Soviet terroristorganization. Besides Efroimson, biologists P.B. Gof-man, E.A. Kadoshnikova, A.S. Bobrov, and L.V. Ferriwere arrested.

They wanted from Efroimson the informationagainst Kol’tsov. He did not write a denunciation andon May 15, 1933, was sentenced to 3 years of laborcamp by the Special Commission with the Board of theJoint State Political Directorate.

Three years of labor camp. Gornaya Shoriya, Altai.Construction of the Chuisky Tract. Unbelievably hardconditions. Harassing labor. A killing hunger. Accord-ing to Efroimson’s own words, it was the only period inhis life when he ceased thinking about genetics. “Takemy word, two months of coldness, starvation, diggingclay, and conveying it in wheelbarrows are enough toturn a winged specialist who knew 4000 pages of Ger-man, Russian, and English poetry by heart into an ani-mal thinking only about eating,” wrote VladimirEfroimson in 1988 recollecting the Altai camp [3].

Efroimson was released from the camp in 1935.Two month later, he was in Tashkent, at the MiddleAsian Institute of Silkworm Breeding, whereN.K. Belyaev and B.L. Astaurov worked before andhad brilliantly organized the silkworm breeding. Dur-ing his work in Tashkent, Efroimson prepared fivepapers (only one of them was published) and a compre-hensive monograph on silkworm genetics (withN.A. Kosminsky as a coauthor; the book was not published).

Efroimson worked 16–18 hours a day, without inter-ruption, weekends, and vacations, sometimes evenspending nights at the lab. The main direction of hisresearch was emergence of embryonic lethal mutationsand their concentration in silkworm. He discovered thebasic fact of a widely correlated response of silkwormto selection and to several external factors. This corre-lation in the behavior of several traits in silkworm wasexplained by the fact that all these traits were under thecontrol of the common endocrine system, whose activ-ity level determined their joint variation. Selection forany trait leads to a correlated change in all the remain-ing traits. Based on the discovered pattern, Efroimsondeveloped a rapid method for testing silkworm breedsand lines that was able to detect the concealed shiftsduring breeding. This method allowed the breeding toavoid fruitless efforts of many years in producing newcultivars and breeds, which under commercial condi-tions gave very low results owing to this particular cor-relation between negative traits.

However, in September 1938, he was fired from theInstitute due to “a low efficiency” and “impossibility touse” him. The experimental silkworm lines (bred foreight to ten generations) were destroyed. The accom-plices of Lysenko could not excuse Efroimson for hisfidelity to principles, honesty, and consistency in hisvindication of scientific positions in biology and genet-

ics. After several months of unemployment, Efroimsonmanaged to get a job at the silkworm breeding stationnear Kharkov, in Merefa. However, they did not allowhim to work again, and Efroimson had to teach Germanin a secondary school of the town of Kupyansk.

In 1940, Efroimson obtained the permission to passthe candidate of science exams, submitted a monographon silkworm genetics for publication, and presented hisCandidate of Science dissertation on “Genetic andBreeding Studies of Silkworm”. Astaurov, an officialopponent for the dissertation, estimated it very high. Inhis review for the dissertation, Astaurov wrote, “Thework of V.P. Efroimson is an informative and interest-ing consolidation of experimental and theoretical stud-ies connected with the urgent problems in theoreticaland applied silkworm breeding. Moreover, several sec-tions of this work expand beyond the particular silk-worm genetics and breeding and present an undoubtedinterest for the general theory of artificial breeding…

Note that the author is undoubtedly the best expertin breeding and genetic literature on silkworm in theSoviet Union…” [4].

The dissertation was defended at the Kharkov Uni-versity on Wednesday, June 18, 1941. Then the warbroke out and interrupted Efroimson’s research.

In 1941, Efroimson got into the team of biologistsfrom the Kharkov University who were hastily retaughtfor laboratory doctors. The university was evacuated.Efroimson found himself in Tambov, wherefrom all the“youth” was mobilized; by foot they reached the rail-way junction Vol’sk (east of Saratov) and then Saratov.Here they proposed Efroimson to demobilize, but heremained in the acting army. Since August 1941 toNovember 1945, he went through the war with the 49

th

and then 33

rd

Armies of the First Belarusian Front,being an epidemiologist, health officer, interpreter, anda participant of combat intelligence.

After the war, Efroimson returned to genetics andrapidly completed his Doctor of Science dissertation.

Prof. I.E. Lukin, working at that time at the KharkovUniversity, wrote: “V.P. Efroimson is one of the mostenergetic and self-denying researchers I have ever metin my life. He worked literally round the clock forget-ting about rest, personal needs, comfort, and so on. Hedevoted all his inexhaustible energy to the study of silk-worm, one of the most important applied objects. Dur-ing a short period, he carried out a tremendous workand in 1947 submitted voluminous Doctor of Sciencedissertation. This dissertation was successfullydefended at the session of the Scientific Council of theKharkov University, and the Council by common con-sent asked the All-Union Certification Commission toapprove the applicant as a Doctor of Biology.

After the dissertation defense, Efroimson even moreenergetically continued his work on further improve-ment of silkworm breeding. He attracted a number ofstudents and graduate students to this work and in every

RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF GENETICS

Vol. 44

No. 10

2008

VLADIMIR PAVLOVICH EFROIMSON 1131

possible way assisted their development into research-ers standing on their own feet” [5].

At the Department of Darwinism and Genetics withthe Kharkov University, Efroimson lectured the foun-dations of scientific genetics and taught laboratorypractice. In his lectures, he based on the state-of-the-artworld achievements in genetics and criticized the“innovations” of Lysenkoists, thereby causing theiranger, especially after the review of T. Lysenko’s bookby T.G. Dobzhansky, published in English in 1947, wastranslated and distributed among Kharkov biologists.

On February 23, 1948, Efroimson was fired from theKharkov University according to the order of the Dep-uty Minister of higher Education for “the behavior cov-ering with shame the high status of higher schoolteacher”.

Being unemployed but understanding well the dan-ger over genetics and the entire biological science,Efroimson gathered up the bulk of Lysenkoist litera-ture, analyzed all the “innovations” of the Lysenkoschool, and wrote a basic work entitled “On the Crimi-nal Activity of T.D. Lysenko (Memorandum to theDepartment of Science of the Central Committee of theAll-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, comprising15 signatures). Efroimson decided that he was the par-ticular person that had to remove the scales from theeyes of the leaders and show the true situation in genet-ics and overall agricultural and biological sciences. Heconveyed this work to the Department of Science of theCentral Committee.

Then, the August Session of the Lenin All-UnionAcademy of Agricultural Sciences (VASKhNIL) tookplace. Efroimson wanted to speak at this Session; how-ever, his friends and colleagues convinced him to aban-don this plan, as they had grounds to be afraid for him,being once repressed.

Nonetheless, Efroimson was arrested on May 24,1949 and accused of anti-Soviet propaganda and slan-der about the Soviet Army.

Efroimson rejected all the items of this accusationyet was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment. At thattime it was Steplag, Dzhezkazgan. The main part of hissentence, Efroimson spent as a common labor and in1953 worked in the camp medical unit; there, he didclinical tests and continued his research. He discoveredand described the so-called Dzhezkazgan fever, whosevector was local ticks. The paper with the results wassubmitted to the Medical Office with the Gulag (ChiefAdministration for Labor Camps).

In February 1955, Efroimson was released from thecamp but was deprived of the possibility to live in Mos-cow. Thus, he stayed in Klin, visiting every now andthen the Lenin Library and recently organized Instituteof Scientific and Technical Information (VINITI),where he was involved in preparing abstract for jour-nals. However, he considered his prime duty to repeathis memorandum against Lysenko, which he submittedto the USSR Office of Public Prosecutor in 1956.

Chetverikov compared this labor of Efroimson to thecleaning of Augean stables. And added here that “one isto be a Hercules to clean these stables.”

Efroimson was vindicated on July 31, 1956. Heworked as a bibliographer at the Library of Foreign Lit-erature, wrote papers, notices, and reviews in geneticsand delivered lectures at the Moscow Society of Natu-ralists (MOIP). The first paper by Efroimson—“On theBook

The Main Issues of Michurin

’

s Genetics

byN.I. Feignison”—was published in the

Bulletin of theMOIP

[6]. He wrote this paper and submitted it to theMOIP, however; two “elder biologists,” B.N. Vasin andT.E. Lepin, were indicated as the authors. The name ofvindicated Efroimson was added at the very lastmoment.

Efroimson returned to science, human genetics,which he was deprived of in 1932. The genetic sciencehad come a long way over these 25 years. While theschool of Soviet genetics and medical genetics in the1930s occupied a leading position in the world, theyhad to start actually from nothing in the 1950s. As earlyas 1961, Efroimson wrote the book

Introduction toMedical Genetics

, which was published only in 1964after an outrageous fight with Lysenkoists, yet rather

V.P. Efroimson, associate professor of the Kharkov StateUniversity, 1948.

1132

RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF GENETICS

Vol. 44

No. 10

2008

KESHMAN

strong at that time. For many years, this was the onlybook on medical genetics available for thousands ofphysicians in this country.

Since 1961, Efroimson worked at the MechnikovInstitute of Vaccines and Sera, first, at the Departmentof Information and then, when the All-Union Certifica-tion Commission returned him the Doctor of Biologydegree, as a senior researcher at the Department ofImmunology. Concurrently, he studied the controlmechanisms involved in the immunity, carcinogenesis,radiation sickness, and immunogenetics and preparedthe monograph

Immunogenetics

, which was publishedin 1971. This book was far ahead of its time. Efroimsonformulated the foundations of the general theory ofinnate and acquired immunity, and based on this theory,prophetically wrote in the last chapter that “Study of thebalanced polymorphism in connection with the selec-tion that generated it caused by pathogenic microbesand study of the factors of species-specific innateimmunity must eventually give to the medicine surpris-ingly specific antimicrobial drugs.”

In the early 1960s, Efroimson became a member ofthe Scientific Council for Genetics with the USSRAcademy of Sciences. One after another, his papers arepublished in the journal

Tsitologiya

(Cytology), collec-tions of papers

Problemy kibernetiki

(Problems inCybernetics), and

Zhurnal VsesoyuznogoKhimicheskogo obshchestva imeni D.I. Mendeleeva

(Journal of the Mendeleev All-Union Chemical Soci-ety; several issues of this journal was dedicated to theproblems in evolution and theoretical biology). The fol-lowing articles in the Great Medical Encyclopedia werewritten by Efroimson:

Human Heredity

(coauthoredwith S.N. Davidenkov),

Somatic Mutations, Immuno-genetics,

and

Inherited Diseases.

In almost every issueof the biological series

Novye knigi za rubezhom

(NewBooks Abroad), Efroimson published summaries (moreprecisely, detailed reviews) of the foreign books mostimportant for geneticists, including

An Introduction toGenetics

by C.M. Begg,

Principles of Human Genetics

by C. Stern et al., and others. He also wrote additionalchapters to the translation of Stern’s book and created

Sbornik zadach po genetike cheloveka

(Problem Bookin Human Genetics), which became an indispensablehandbook for educating young physicians.

In 1967, Efroimson was appointed the Head of theDepartment of Genetics with the Moscow ResearchInstitute of Psychiatry, Ministry of Public Health. Dur-ing an extremely short period, he organized a number ofbrilliant genetic and epidemiological examinations; heguided several absolutely novel works for the medicalgenetics in this country, including the genetics of ner-vous diseases, oligophrenias, psychoses, epilepsies,and schizophrenia. The result of this works is dozens ofpapers and several basic monographs, including

Gene-tika oligofrenii, psikhozov, epilepsii

(Genetics of Oligo-phrenia, Psychoses, and Epilepsies; together with M.G.Blyumina),

Genetika psikhicheskikh boleznei

(Genetics

of Psychic Diseases; V.P. Efroimson andA.A. Prokofyeva-Belgovskaya, Eds.), Russian–Polishcollection of papers

Problemy meditsinskoi genetiki

(Problems in Medical Genetics; V.P. Efroimson, Ed.,1970), and

Kurs lektsii po meditsinskoi genetike

(

Course of Medical Genetics

; V.P. Efroimson, Ed.,1974).

Within the wide range of his interests, the maindirections are yet distinctly evident—the role of hered-itary factors in the human immunity, human populationgenetics, selection as the cause of balanced humanhereditary polymorphism, and genetics of innate abnor-malities. Analyzing the materials collected at his lab onhereditary diseases, he bravely postulated a repeatedindependent emergence of mutations in the same geneand their local spreading owing to the founder effect.

Unfortunately, in 1975 the new administration of theInstitute forced Efroimson to retire “according to hisown free will.” This was the period of his high tide inresearch; he left numerous unfinished works and unful-filled plans.

In 1976, Efroimson was invited to the Kol’tsovInstitute of Developmental Biology as a consultant pro-fessor and worked there until the end of his life.

During his last years, Efroimson focused hisresearch on the genetics of intellect, formation of ethi-cal principles in human evolution, and interplay andinterdependence of biological and social components inthe establishment of man.

The three books written by Efroimson during thelast 13 years of his life were

The Genetics of Genius

[7],

Pedagogical Genetics

[8], and

Genetics of Ethics andEsthetics

[9]; they were published only after his death.These works reflect his highest scientific erudition andhis deep conviction that the human hereditary heteroge-neity is inexhaustible and that the human nature harborstremendous potential. The hereditary biological factorsdetermining an elevated mental performance discov-ered by Efroimson assist in explaining the phenomenonof genius and lift the science to the new level of under-standing of the role of genotype and environment inestablishment, development, and implementation of thehuman brain and intellect potentials.

Efroimson’s deep knowledge of history, an evolu-tionary approach to solving the global problems of theestablishment of man as a species, humanism, and thebelief in a high destination of man were reflected in thelast books written by this outstanding geneticist.Efroimson was unfairly blamed for biologizing; thiswas the reason why these books were not publishedduring his life. Efroimson gave an integrated analysisof the biological components for the biosocial object,which is man as a species. The main conclusion madeby Efroimson is that it is necessary to study the specificbiological features of humans that would enhancerevealing, developing, and effectuating the potentialresources of human intellect. Undoubtedly, Efroimson,a professor in genetics, touched the issue of ethics as an

RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF GENETICS

Vol. 44

No. 10

2008

VLADIMIR PAVLOVICH EFROIMSON 1133

integral feature of the species

Homo sapiens.

The paperby Efroimson “The Pedigree of Altruism” published injournal

Novyi mir

(New World) in 1971 [10], titled,became a sort of manifesto of Efroimson’s deep convic-tion in ineradicability of the ethical component in thehuman society.

Efroimson used to repeat that “

Homo sapiens

is

Homo ethicus.

And the ethics for a sapient man is basedon the simplest principle—I am to be of use to peoplerather than use them.” He adhered to this moral imper-ative all his life long.

Efroimson died on July 21, 1989 in Moscow and wasburied in the family grave in the Donskoe Cemetery.

SOURCES

1. Letter to father of September 27, 1931. Caseno.

1000/109 OGPU, Central Archive of the FederalSecurity Service (Ministry of State Security), OSF,no.

R-36060, vol. 6.

2. Autograph of N.K. Kol

’

tsov, June 02, 1930, addressed tothe University administration. Archive of E.A. Keshman.

3. Letter to Tat

’

yana L

’

vovna Ferri of November 02, 1988. Let-ters of T.L. Ferri are published in

Chelovek

, nos. 5–6, 2008.4. Case no. 2568, Central Archive of the Federal Security

Service, no. R-10561, p. 170.5. Case no. 2568, Central Archive of the Federal Security

Service, no. R-10561, p. 169.6. Efroimson, V.P. et al.,

Byull. MOIP

, 1956, vol. 61, no. 4,pp. 95–105.

7. Efroimson, V.P.,

Genetika genial

’

nosti

(The Genetics ofGenius), Moscow: Taideks Ko, 2002 (Library of thejournal

Ekologiya i zhizn

’

(Ecology and Life), series

Ustroistvo mira

(The System of the World)).8. Efroimson, V.P.,

Pedagogicheskaya genetika.Rodoslovnaya al

’

truizma

(Pedagogical Genetics. ThePedigree of Altruism), Moscow: Taideks Ko, 2003(Library of the journal

Ekologiya i zhizn

’

(Ecology andLife), series

Ustroistvo mira

(The System of the World)).9. Efroimson, V.P.,

Genetika etiki i estetiki

(Genetics ofEthics and Esthetics), Moscow: Taideks Ko, 2003(Library of the journal

Ekologiya i zhizn

’

(Ecology andLife), series

Ustroistvo mira

(The System of the World)).10. Efroimson, V.P., The Pedigree of Altruism,

Novyi mir

,1971, no. 10, pp. 198–213.

E.A. Keshman