Sinclair McKay

Seeds of hope in the siege of Leningrad

A Russian biologist’s dream of creating the world’s first seed bank is thwarted by Stalin’s paranoia and the Nazi invasion. But the pioneering project remains a potent symbol of hope

Nikolai Vavilov. [Alamy] 
issue 16 November 2024

  • The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City Under Siege

    Simon Parkin

    Sceptre, pp. 384, £25

The idea was revolutionary – yet there was something ancient at its heart. The scientist Nikolai Vavilov, arriving in Petrograd in 1921 to take the helm of the Bureau of Applied Botany and Plant Breeding, was on a sacred mission: to make, in his words, ‘a treasury of all known crops and plants’.

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