Academician tsitsin. Main botanical garden

Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939), VASKhNIL (1938; vice-president in 1938-1948). Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1968, 1978); Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1978) and the Stalin Prize of the second degree (1943).

Biography

Born December 18, 1898 in Saratov. Coming from a poor peasant family, as a teenager he worked at a factory in Saratov.

During the years of the civil war, Nikolai Vasilievich was a military commissar, defending the Soviet Republic with weapons in his hands. The Soviet government opened the way to education for the young worker. He studied at the workers' faculty, and then at the Saratov Agricultural Institute.

Graduated from the Saratov Institute of Agriculture and Melioration (1927).

After graduating from the institute, he worked at the Saratov Agricultural Experimental Station. Communication with such outstanding breeders as N. G. Meister, A. P. Shekhurdin, P. N. Konstantinov determined the further direction of the young scientist’s work. From the very beginning, he was interested in the problem of creating more productive varieties of the main food crop - wheat - based on distant hybridization. While working as an agronomist at one of the departments of the Gigant grain farm in the Salsky district of the Rostov region, Tsitsin crossed wheat with wheatgrass and for the first time received a wheat-couch grass hybrid, which was the beginning of his work in this direction. He widely involved in crossing wild and cultivated plants that had gone through independent evolutionary paths that determined their genetic isolation. Research carried out by scientists in this direction has made it possible to create new varieties of plants.

In 1931-1937 he was the head of the laboratory of wheat-couch grass hybrids organized by him, in 1938-1948 he was the chairman of the State Commission for Variety Testing of Agricultural Crops under the USSR Ministry of Agriculture, in 1940-1957 he was the head of the laboratory of remote hybridization of the USSR Academy of Sciences, since 1945 he was the director of the Main Botanical Garden of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Chairman of the Board of the Council of Botanical Gardens of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The main works are devoted to the distant hybridization of plants. By crossing wheat with couch grass, he received a new type of wheat (Triticum agropynotriticum). Author of varieties of wheat-couch grass hybrids. Honorary member of a number of academies of socialist countries. President (1958-1970) and Vice-President (since 1970) of the Soviet-Indian Society for Friendship and Cultural Ties.

Member of the CPSU (b) since 1938. Delegate of the XXth Congress of the CPSU. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st, 3rd and 4th convocations.

Scientific works

• - Chief Editor

Awards and prizes

• Stalin Prize of the second degree (1943).
• Lenin Prize (1978)
• Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1968, 1978).
• He was awarded five orders of Lenin (according to other sources - seven orders), the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, as well as medals.

Perpetuating the memory of N.V. Tsitsina

Memorial plaque to Academician N.V. Tsitsinu installed on the House on the embankment

Memorial plaque to Academician N.V. Tsitsinu is installed at the main building of the Botanical Garden. N. V. Tsitsina RAS

The main botanical garden in Moscow is the largest in Europe. It has collected a myriad of collections of various plants that are found on all continents and in all climatic zones of the planet. On a vast territory there are different varieties of representatives of the flora, planted using the latest techniques of landscape design. For more than 70 years, the garden has literally flourished, expanded and is one of the main cultural sites of the capital.

The history of the formation of the Main Botanical Garden

GBS was founded in April 1945 as one of the events to celebrate the 220th birthday of the USSR RAS. More than 360 hectares of land were allocated for the organization of a botanical garden in the Ostankino forest park.

The first mention of this land dates back to 1584. Then the territory belonged to the princes of Cherkasy. After some time, she passed Sheremetev and received the name "Ostashkovo village." Together with the estate located here, the forest park zone was the dowry of Varvara Cherkasskaya, the wife of Peter Sheremetev. Over time, the English Park was created. This was done by Count Nikolai Sheremetev, the owner of Ostankino. In order to create a natural landscape, the earl hired a gardener originally from England. Limes, oaks and maples, viburnum and honeysuckle were planted on the vast area of ​​the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 5 ponds were dug, the water to which came from the Kamenka River.

A unique forest area of ​​the Russian capital was allocated for the formation of the largest botanical garden in Europe. And only thanks to the activities of the researchers, it was possible to save the fragments of the ancient grove, oak forest and forest intact. From the day of its foundation and for 24 years, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR transferred to the ownership of the GBS the land on which the main expositions are now located.

The first director of the park is Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin. Actually, that's why the GBS RAS bears his name. Nikolai Vasilyevich is the founder of the garden, under his leadership the territory was landscaped and scientific and laboratory events were held.

From the first days of the existence of the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after N.V. Tsitsin, well-known scientists worked in it, which had a positive effect on the timing of construction and the subsequent development of the park. Today, 150 researchers work here. The GBS RAS also trains scientific personnel - about 200 people have studied at the postgraduate course for the entire time of its existence.

From the moment the garden was founded, the leadership recognized the expediency of exchanging experience and the results of scientific research with other botanical gardens of the USSR. To achieve this goal in 1948 began the periodic production of serial printed publications. The materials presented in the articles told about all the important moments in the world of botany and in the life of the Main Botanical Garden in particular.

Since 1976, GBS RAS has been cooperating with the United States on the problem of protecting endangered plants. In order to preserve the environment, joint expeditions are regularly carried out to the regions of the USA and the CIS countries.

Description of the forest park zone

The park covers a total area of ​​361 hectares. Of these, 52 hectares are allocated to the park area, the same amount is occupied by the reserved oak forest. Expositions are located on another 150.4 hectares. GBS RAS has a huge number of plants. The collections include the flora of all countries that were once part of the USSR, tropical and subtropical, cultivated and flower-decorative plants. In total, more than 8,000 forms and varieties, about 8,200 species, are collected here, and the total number of taxa is about 16,300 elements.

Structural and non-structural formations

The main botanical garden named after N. V. Tsitsina in Moscow includes departments:

• dendrology;
• flora;
• ornamental plants;
• plant protection;
• tropical and subtropical plants;
• distant hybridization;
• cultivated plants;
• implementation of the latest developments.

And labs:

• plant biotechnology;
• physiology and biochemistry;
• landscape architecture;
• plant physiology and immunity;
• herbarium.

Also, the structural scientific division includes a branch located in the city of Cheboksary - the Cheboksary Botanical Garden.

Non-structural scientific subdivisions include the group of chemosystematics and evolutionary plant biochemistry. In addition, scientific support units have been organized in the botanical garden, including the Altai stronghold and other production services responsible for maintaining the garden and conducting research work. Since 1947, the scientific library has been operating, which is a department of the Library of Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Schematic representation of the Main Botanical Garden named after N. V. Tsitsin

The layout of the GBS RAS is best seen on the map. Several entrances lead to the botanical garden from different sides:

• main - from the street. Botanical;
• from the hotel "Ostankino";
• from the side of st. Komarova;
• from the metro station - Vladykino station.

The following objects are numbered on the diagram:

• arboretum;
• reserved oak forest;
• rose garden;
• shady garden;
• coastal plants;
• continuously flowering plants;
• exposition of plants of natural flora;
• Japanese garden;
• cultivated plants;
• natural forest;
• laboratory;
• stock greenhouse;
• new greenhouse.

Collection funds

On the area allotted for the Main Botanical Garden of Moscow, several expositions dedicated to different parts of the world have been recreated:

• "Caucasus".
• "European part of Russia".
• "Middle Asia".
• "Far East".
• "Siberia".
• "Useful Plants"

The greenhouse is a place where plants are grown and then delivered to all botanical gardens located on the territory of Russia and the USSR countries. The collection began with the orchid family: a little over 100 hybrids of Paphiopedilum and 120 Cattleya, 140 other orchid genera. All of them were brought from Germany in 1947. Today, the collection has expanded significantly, it has been supplemented with other types of plants. In total there are more than 1120 pieces. Of these, 300 hybrids and 222 subspecies and forms of orchids.

New greenhouse

Recently, the construction of a new greenhouse was completed within the Main Botanical Garden. The building is a structure, over 33 m high and about 9,000 m² in area. Several blocks are formed here, each of which meets certain climatic conditions. So, in the new greenhouse there are blocks "Wet forests", "Tropics" and "Subtropics". To create a naturalistic landscape, cascades of pools, rivers, waterfalls and reliefs were organized, trail systems were laid, artificial rocks and grottoes were formed. Here you can even make tropical fog and "cause" rain - all so that the plants develop in their usual conditions.

Interesting facts, or why you should visit the park

1. A unique opportunity to get acquainted with plants growing in our country and abroad.
2. Japan in Russia - cherries and azaleas grow in the Japanese garden, a gazebo is installed and there is a small pond. This is a great place for those who want to be alone with themselves.
3. Within the Main Botanical Garden. Tsitsina (GBS RAS) there is an opportunity to take a walk in the forest, in which a wide variety of trees grow, for example, catalpa, white locust, Japanese quince, North American thuja, hornbeam and much more.
4. Several reservoirs strewn with water lilies have been created here, near which it will be pleasant to relax.
5. In the greenhouse, which was already mentioned above, you can visit the tour. Who doesn't want to be in the tropics among the bustling metropolis?

It will be interesting to know that the Moscow Botanical Garden is a participant in many international exhibitions. GBS was awarded 30 diplomas, the collection of more than 100 gold, silver and bronze medals.

Other information

How to get to the botanical garden? GBS RAS is located on the street. Botanicheskaya, building 4. You need to take the metro to the VDNKh station, from there by trolley bus to the Botanichesky Sad stop. From the metro station "Vladykino" to the GBS RAS can be reached on foot.

- (1898 1980) Russian botanist and breeder, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939) and VASKhNIL (1938), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1968, 1978). Proceedings on distant hybridization of agricultural plants. Lenin Prize (1978), State ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- [R. 6 (18) 12.1898, Saratov], Soviet botanist, geneticist and breeder, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939), VASKhNIL (1938; vice president in 1938‒48), Hero of Socialist Labor (1968). Member of the CPSU since 1938. He graduated from the Saratov Institute of Agriculture and ... ...

TSITSIN NIKOLAY VASILIEVICH- Years of life 12/18/1898–07/17/1980 Born in Saratov. Graduated from the Saratov State Institute of Agriculture and Melioration (1927). Doctor s. X. Sciences (1936), Academician of VASKhNIL (1938). An outstanding scientist botanist, breeder and geneticist. ... ... Biographical encyclopedia of RAAS, VASKhNIL

Tsitsin, Nikolai Vasilievich- Tsitsin Nikolai Vasilyevich (1898 1980), Russian botanist and breeder. Proceedings on distant hybridization of agricultural plants. Received high-yielding wheat-couch grass hybrids resistant to lodging and diseases, created a spring variety ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1898 1980), botanist and breeder, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939) and VASKhNIL (1938), Hero of Socialist Labor (1968, 1978). Proceedings on the distant hybridization of agricultural plants. USSR State Prize (1943), Lenin Prize (1978) ... encyclopedic Dictionary

- [р.6(18) Dec. 1898] owls. botanist and breeder, acad. (since 1939) and valid. member VASKHNIL (since 1932). Member CPSU since 1938. Dep. Top. Council of the USSR of the 1st, 3rd and 4th convocations. In 1927 he graduated from Int. x va and land reclamation in Saratov and worked in the All-Union Institute of ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia

- (1898, Saratov - 1980, Moscow), botanist, geneticist and breeder, academician (1939), VASKhNIL (1938; vice president in 1938-48), Hero of Socialist Labor (1968, 1978). He graduated from the Saratov Institute of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (1927). ... ... Moscow (encyclopedia)

Surname Tsitsin, Konstantin Georgievich (born 1960) Russian statesman Tsitsin, Nikolai Vasilyevich (1898 1980) Soviet botanist and breeder, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and VASKhNIL See also Titin Tsitsianov ... Wikipedia

Nikolai Vasilyevich (1898-1980), botanist and breeder, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939) and the All-Union Agricultural Institute of the NIL (1938), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1968, 1978). Proceedings on the distant hybridization of agricultural plants. Lenin Prize (1978), ... ... Russian history

Nikolay Vasilievich [b. 6 (18) 12.1898, Saratov], Soviet botanist, geneticist and breeder, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939), VASKhNIL (1938; in 1938 48 vice president), Hero of Socialist Labor (1968). Member of the CPSU since 1938. Graduated from Saratov ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

If we cover the sights of the capital, which every person simply must visit, then the list of the most important of them will certainly include the Main Botanical Garden, which bears the name of its first director Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin. Located in the eastern part of Moscow, next to VDNKh, the Botanical Garden welcomes its guests from late April to mid-October. Before the opening of each season, as well as after its completion, regular plantings of cultivated plants are carried out in the garden.

Botanical address, opening hours

The nearest metro station from the GBS is Vladykino, from which bus route 76 runs to the place, on which those who wish to visit the largest botanical garden in the country will travel only 4 stops to the Ostankino hotel. Starting April 29, GBS operates daily from 10 am to 8 pm. The season ends on October 19th. Guests who are going to visit the expositions should carefully read the opening hours. Some expositions are closed 2 days a week for preventive maintenance. Such an exposition as the "Japanese Garden" has a shortened opening hours from Tuesday to Friday.

A wide range of expositions and greenhouses

Includes a diverse collection of plants brought from all over the world. The beginning of the richest botanical collection of the country was laid in the spring of 1945. Since then, outstanding botanists and breeders have been working on replenishing the expositions. Guests of the garden can visit the following expositions:

• The famous "Japanese garden".
• Europe's finest collection of tropical aquatic plants.
• "Arboretum".
• "Rose garden".
• "Continuous Blooming Garden"
• "Exhibition of Cultivated Plants".
• "Shadow Garden"
• Numerous greenhouses.
• Exposition of natural flora.
• Collection of flowering ornamental plants.

GBS card

If the plans for the near future include visiting how to get to the place, you can look at the location map. Trust me, you won't regret this tour! In addition to the expositions already described, there are: protected oak forest, heather garden and natural forest areas on the territory. Employees of the laboratory building help to keep track of all this splendor, and the stock greenhouse helps to keep the collections in their original form. GBS botanists and breeders do not want to rest on the laurels of past achievements and plan to expand existing collections, as well as build new expositions.

Botanical Garden (Moscow), how to get to a visitor

If the guests of the capital are poorly oriented in the area, especially if they decide to visit the GBS for the first time, then it will be useful for them to find out the following: the main thing is to find the route to the Vladykino metro station on the metro maps. From the station to the main entrance to the expositions, you will have to walk about 10 minutes. The main gates are located on the side of Botanicheskaya Street. In addition to the main entrance, there are several gates around the perimeter of the garden. On the way from the subway exit you will see a small gate. There are also entrances from the border with VDNKh.

Traveling by personal transport

Many nature lovers travel by private transport, so the question arises when they want to visit the Botanical Garden (Moscow): "How to get to the place from Dmitrovskoye or Altufevskoye highway, and which route is better to choose?" passes through the Otradnoye area up to the territory of the GBS. If you drive along Dmitrovskoye Highway, then you will need to get to the intersection with Bolshaya Akademicheskaya Street.

Public transport routes from VDNKh metro station

Of course, the Vladykino metro station is not the only one from where you can take a bus and go to the Botanical Garden (Moscow). How to get to the place by getting off at the metro station "VDNKh"? Bus routes 24, 85 and 803 run to the country, as well as trolleybuses 9, 36 and 73.

How much are entrance tickets?

Children under 7 years of age accompanied by adults, as well as pensioners, can use the territory free of charge. For all other categories of the population, the cost of entry is:

• For adults - 50 rubles
• For students and schoolchildren - 30 rubles.

As you can see, the entry fee is purely symbolic. Next, we follow the most popular expositions. Entrance to the rose garden and to the exposition of decorative flowers costs 100 rubles per adult. Discounts are available for children and seniors. Adult tickets to view the unique exposition "Japanese Garden" on weekdays cost 150 rubles (due to the shortened opening hours), on weekends and holidays - 200 rubles. Now we have learned, having decided to explore the Botanical Garden (Moscow), how to get to it, and how much the entrance tickets cost. It remains to decide with which exposure to start the inspection.

Anniversary of the Botanical Garden

In 2015 GBS celebrates its 70th anniversary. The opening of the huge glass building of the New Greenhouse is planned for this significant event. The entire surrounding area is cleaned and ennobled daily. And already now we can safely say that the celebrations will be held in conditions of perfect order and beauty. Since the opening took place at the end of the Great Patriotic War, much attention is paid to exhibits brought from Germany, which can be viewed in the Stock Greenhouse.

Best Exposures

We have already learned a lot about the Botanical Garden of Expositions, briefly covered the history of its creation. The real gem of the project is the rose garden. It is also worth noting the significance of two special expositions. It will be about the collection of tropical plants and the "Japanese Garden". No other botanical garden throughout Europe has such an extensive collection of coastal plants. Among them are wild, cultivated and flowering specimens. If you have a great desire to admire the cherry blossoms, brought to the Botanical Garden (Moscow) many years ago, reviews of which are distributed everywhere, welcome to the "Japanese Garden". People who once saw this miracle will never forget it. Delicate fragrant flowering trees create a unique atmosphere of peace and tranquility. Orchids, bonsai, miniature trees miraculously carry visitors far to the East, to the Land of the Rising Sun.

Rose garden

If we talk about the rosary, we should start with the history of the exposition. Back in the middle of the last century, the scientist breeder Ivan Shtanko brought out amazing varieties of roses that instantly became popular even abroad. To this day, the varieties Aurora, Yasnaya Polyana and Morning of Moscow are very popular outside of Russia. The total area occupied by the rose garden is 2.5 hectares. In total, more than 270 different varieties of prickly beauty grow on the territory of the GBS. If we measure the number in the bushes, then the figure will be about 6,000 units. Over the long history of the exposition, the best varieties of roses from all over the world have been collected here. Many foreign rose research firms consider it an honor to cooperate with such a well-known organization as the Botanical Garden (Moscow). The GBS address in all the years of its existence has repeatedly become the destination for considerable gratuitous gifts from partners.

To complete the picture, there are numerous ponds and reservoirs framed by century-old oaks on the territory. There is an exposition called "Natural flora", which includes trees and shrubs from different regions of the country. These include:

• plantings
• Types of forests of Siberia.
• Representatives of cultures of the Far East forest.
• Saplings imported from Central Asia.
• Caucasian plantings.

Visitors, walking around the territory, can get acquainted with the standard of landscape design of the 50s of the last century, which is presented in the exposition "Garden of Continuous Flowering".

In conclusion, I would like to wish aesthetic pleasure and unforgettable moments of unity with nature, which the Botanical Garden (Moscow) is able to give its guests. Now everyone knows how to get to the breeding paradise.

It was a bright head in which ideas blossomed one after another. He was a man who, with all the fibers of his soul, strove to create something new, to promote botanical and breeding science. Like many prominent scientists, he was with oddities, which, as they say, suited an uneducated peasant rather than an academician with an all-Union name (it was claimed that he “removed damage” from a village healer or called at scientific conferences to follow the Chinese version and exterminate all sparrows that allegedly spoil crops). But we know him before as the leader of projects on an all-Union scale.

It was this man who was the first to head VDNKh (which opened under the name VSHV - the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition 76 years ago). It was he who became at the helm of a grandiose work: first he opened and headed the Main Botanical Garden in Moscow, and then coordinated the creation of a network of botanical gardens throughout the Union. All this is he, Nikolai Tsitsin, a native of our city, who took the first steps in selection work here.
The warm season, for obvious reasons, is the best period for the work of a scientist involved in breeding, genetics, botany, and the most significant achievements of Nikolai Vasilyevich fall precisely in the spring-summer: April 14 (the victorious spring of 1945!) Is considered the day the Botanical Garden was founded in Moscow , and August 2, 1939 - the opening day of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition. However, a sad date also falls on the "top of summer": exactly 35 years ago, on July 17, 1980, Academician Tsitsin died.
Let's remember this man, another great Nikolai of Russian genetics and selection, closely associated with Saratov...

Nikolay-second Russian selection
If you pronounce the words “Nikolai”, “genetics” and “Saratov” one after another, then the first association will, of course, be Nikolai VAVILOV. The brilliant scientist was not lucky: the city where he first promulgated his famous law of homological series, the city where he was called "Mendeleev from biology", brought him misfortune, hunger and death. The namesake of Nikolai Ivanovich, Nikolai Vasilievich Tsitsin, probably did not possess the dizzying flight of thought of his colleague, the depth of the development of the problem, the extraordinary exclusivity of ideas (however, this is a field for judgments and assessments exclusively of specialists. - Auth.) But Nikolai II from biology luckier. Significantly more. He lived a long successful life, STALIN himself trusted him, he succeeded in the practical implementation of most of his projects, ideas, and initiatives. Of course, this is happiness for the scientist.
The accomplishments of Nikolai Vavilov are striking even in the geography of the colossal selection work: as is known, N. I. was the first European who passed with a caravan through the mountainous Kafiristan, an impregnable region of Afghanistan; Vavilov was in the Sahara, in Ethiopia, in Syria, he happened to drive away hungry lions from himself and fight robbers, right under the bullets taking away grain for the future collection. Having visited America, Africa, China and Japan, the Middle East and Central Asia, on the peaks of Tibet and the Andes, he collected colossal material - a precious collection of plant seeds, the likes of which no one has collected.
The life and work of Tsitsin, especially at an early stage, is not so bright and does not strike the eye with a variety of forms and scientific approaches. The future academician was born on December 18, 1898 in Saratov into a poor family. After the death of his father, his mother gave Nikolai to an orphanage. He began to work as a teenager - a messenger, a telegraph operator, a packer in a factory. In the Civil War, he sided with the Reds, fought, in particular, participated in the defense of Tsaritsyn. With the end of hostilities, N.V. returned to Saratov and took up the post of head of the cult department here and became a member of the provincial communications committee (organizational skills were already manifested then). Having only a primary education, he decided to continue his studies - first at the workers' faculty, and then at the agronomic faculty of the Saratov Institute of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. In 1927, a young agronomist found a job at the Saratov Agricultural Experimental Station (later the Research Institute of the South-East). Here he met with people who changed his life, including biologists-breeders Georgy MEISTER, Alexei SHEKHURDIN and future academician Peter KONSTANTINOV.
The fate of Tsitsin was decided: he finally decides to engage in scientific selection, and a little later social and organizational activities for the implementation of large-scale research projects will be added to it.

Wheat + wheatgrass = food security?
Another meeting that had a huge impact on Tsitsin was a meeting with Ivan Michurin. Nikolai Vasilyevich visited Michurin's garden while still a student, and he said: “Anyone can cross wheat with wheat. Now, if we could find a stronger producer for her, then it would be another matter ... "
The task of obtaining unpretentious varieties of wheat capable of feeding the country was then, at the end of the 20s of the 20th century, more acute than ever. The terrible famine in the Volga region was still fresh in my memory, collectivization and a new famine - the beginning of the 30s - were inexorably approaching. And then Tsitsin, inspired by the words of Michurin, decided to cross wheat ... with wheatgrass. It was a bold decision: attempts to literally mix the grain with the chaff, to cross the symbol of the country's food security with a malicious weed could, I beg your pardon, easily equate to sabotage, and the conversation with the "pests" was then short. But Tsitsin took a chance and won: having started work on obtaining couch grass-wheat hybrids in Saratov, in 1932 he moved to Omsk, where he headed a specialized laboratory (later it would become the Siberian Research Institute of Grain Economy).
... Now, from time to time, reproaches are heard against Tsitsin: they say, he lived in the "agricultural era" of the infamous Trofim LYSENKO and partly agreed with his views. Perhaps some of these reproaches are justified, and Nikolai Vasilyevich preferred not to oppose Lysenko in his activities and really used a certain administrative resource. How else? Clouds were already gathering over Vavilov, a purge of the scientific community was already being prepared ... They were preparing, so to speak, to separate the wheat from the chaff ... But it was necessary to work. However, even before the Great Patriotic War, N.V. nevertheless quarreled with Lysenko, and he ordered the experimental fields of Tsitsin to be plowed.
It is believed that the main goal that Tsitsin set for himself was the creation of perennial wheat. On this project, he moved forward, in this area of ​​​​work he caught the eye of the country's top leadership. Agricultural experts interpret: if the noble wheat and the harmful wheatgrass were combined in the "golden" proportion, it would be an agricultural revolution. The first full-fledged hybrid Tsitsin received after the war, however, in the next generations, either wheatgrass genes took over, and the grain was too small, and the harvest was unprofitable, then wheat genes prevailed - but then the culture was sick.
And the “golden mean” for creating a hardy and tenacious, like wheatgrass, and nutritious and fruitful, like wheat, cereals are still being sought.

Main projects of life: exhibition and garden
In 1938, Nikolai Tsitsin was appointed director of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition under construction in Moscow. Last year, the capital celebrated the 75th anniversary of the opening of this grandiose exhibition project. In Saratov, the event remained, in principle, unnoticed, although the main hero of the occasion was a native of our city.
... On August 2, 1939, more than 10 thousand people came to the opening of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow, Marshal VOROSHILOV, MOLOTOV and Anastas MIKOYAN arrived. However, the one whom Tsitsin was waiting for more than anyone else did not honor. Maybe for the better: the leader did not witness a slight embarrassment when Nikolai Vasilyevich pulled the cable to raise the flag of the exhibition, but something jammed and the flag did not fly up.
However, the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition was a huge success even with a jammed flag: in the first year (in 1939 it worked for only two and a half months), three and a half (!) Million people visited it. The next year - five months of work and 4.5 million Muscovites and guests of the capital got acquainted with the latest achievements of agriculture, among which were the achievements of Tsitsin. In 1941, the exhibition was supposed to switch to the format of a permanent work, but was closed a month after the opening of the exhibition. For obvious reasons ... And Academician Tsitsin, vice-president of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, left for Alma-Ata, where he continued hard work on the issues of reworking the nature of plants and in 1943 received the Stalin Prize: “I will still introduce into the practice of state and collective farms the new perennial and annual varieties of hybrid wheat.<…>In order to strengthen the power of the Red Army, I ask you to transfer the money for the award awarded to me, 100,000 rubles, to a special fund of the High Command, ”he wrote to the person whose name the award awarded to N.V. was named.
The war has not yet ended, the victorious volleys in Berlin have not died down, and Tsitsin is at the head of a new project - the Main Botanical Garden. As contemporaries testify, Tsitsin was very attentive to the implementation of this large-scale initiative, corrected the project documentation, developed the layout of the garden, tried to fit the new object as gratefully as possible for nature into the unique protected oak forest, into the special picturesque landscape of this place. I happened to visit the Main Botanical Garden more than once, now bearing the name of N.V. Tsitsina, a truly amazing place, whoever has not been - deign to visit!
An interesting fact: the basis of the GBS greenhouse was made up of plants from the personal winter garden of Reichsmarschall GOERING, taken from Potsdam. Moreover, not only the flora was transported - the entire structure was dismantled and reassembled in place in the new garden.
As you know, Nikolai Vasilyevich remained the permanent leader of both the exhibition and the botanical garden of the capital until his death. In the same way, he did not stop a huge research work, even a short description of which would not fit in this material. Being in leading positions in domestic science, he has always been in the center of public attention. They talked about him a lot, willingly and in different ways: someone talked about how he sent orchids to Ekaterina FURTSEVA, and to Yuri GAGARIN - cacti, which the First, as you know, collected all his short life. Someone sarcastically recalled (was it or not?) how Academician Tsitsin, for a moment, the chairman of the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation, allegedly called on young naturalists in the 50s to exterminate sparrows, by analogy with the experience of the “great helmsman” MAO. The author of the Moscow anthem “My dear capital”, Mark LISYANSKY, is credited with a malicious epigram: “The birds have fallen silent, / The bees are not buzzing. / Academician Tsitsin / Silence is embraced ...” (I hope that the dream of an elderly scientist is meant). But, I think, it was clear to both comedians and envious people that in front of them was a man of colossal research culture, experience and patience.
P.S. On September 10 this year, it will be exactly 30 years since the bust of Nikolai Vasilyevich Tsitsin was solemnly unveiled at the intersection of Rakhov and, of course, Vavilov streets. Then, in September 1985, the widow of Academician Alla Andreevna, as well as the entire color of the Saratov administrative, industrial, scientific and agricultural elite, were present at the opening of the monument.
Nikolai Vasilievich always loved color.