"For the members of the institute, the most pressing question was how – or if – they could protect the seed bank from their own hunger. The first member of the institute to die of starvation was Vavilov’s former secretary, Pavel Gusev, just two months into the siege..."

Jessie Childs reviews #SimonParkin's #TheForbiddenGardenOfLeningrad

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n02/jessie-childs/resident-bean-expert

#SiegeOfLeningrad #WWII #SovietHistory #SovietScience #SeedBanks #biodiversity #NikolaiVavilov #books @bookstodon @histodons