Ivan Michurin

Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin

My hero is Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin. He was a great Russian scientist, a practitioner of selection.

He was born in 1855 in a poor family. He had to leave school studies and start working. He did different jobs until he saved enough money to buy some land. Michurin tried to breed fruit for the cold climate of North-Central Russia.

In 1920 a selection genetic station was established on the basis of Michurin's garden. Ivan Michurin made a great contribution to the development of genetics. His method of crossing geographically distant plants was widely used by other selectionists.

Throughout all his life Michurin had worked to create new sorts of plants. He introduced over 300 new varieties. Thanks to Michurin we can grow apple, pear, cherry, grape, apricot, sweet cherry in northern parts of Russia as well as in our region with its hush climate.