A U-turn in Soviet irrigation: The controversy on drainage, 1947-1950

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This article examines the controversy over soil salinization that pitted proponents of drainage against promoters of Vasilii Vil´iams’ grassland rotations during the great “ideological discussions” that agitated scientific circles during late Stalinism. The controversy between the former, the drenazhniki, led by Viktor Kovda, and the latter, the travopol´shchiki, gathering around Vagram Shaumian, shows that, despite a considerable ideological polarization, the discussions could be resolved with the adoption of pragmatic economic parameters. If the detractors of drainage lost, although Trofim Lysenko’s triumph at the August 1948 session of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VASKhNIL) should have given them victory, it was because the supporters of drainage offered a solution compatible with irrigation expansion projects. Lysenko, at the height of his fame, nonetheless had to agree with the partisans of drainage, correct his own theoretical convictions and disown his allies. This pragmatism allowed the ideological lock on the extension of irrigation to be lifted little by little.