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The Forbidden Garden
The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice
By Simon Parkin
Table of Contents
About The Book
From the award-winning author of The Island of Extraordinary Captives, the riveting, untold true story of the botanists at the world’s first seed bank who faced an impossible choice during the Siege of Leningrad: eat the collection to prevent starvation, or protect their life’s work to help end world hunger?
In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad—now St. Petersburg—and began the longest blockade in recorded history, one that would ultimately claim the lives of nearly three-quarters of a million people. At the center of the besieged city stood a converted palace that housed the world’s largest collection of seeds—more than 250,000 samples hand-collected over two decades from all over the globe by world-famous explorer, geneticist, and dissident Nikolai Vavilov, who had recently been disappeared by the Soviet government. After attempts to evacuate the priceless collection failed and supplies dwindled amongst the three million starving citizens, the employes at the Plant Institute were left with a terrible choice. Should they save the collection? Or themselves?
These were not just any seeds. The botanists believed they could be bred into heartier, disease-resistant, and more productive varieties suited for harsh climates, therefore changing the future of food production and preventing famines like those that had plagued their countrymen before. But protecting the seeds was no idle business. The scientists rescued potato samples under enemy fire, extinguished bombs landing on the seed bank’s roof, and guarded the collection from scavengers, the bitter cold, and their own hunger. Then in the war’s eleventh hour, Nazi plunderers presented a new threat to the collection…
Drawing from previously unseen sources, award-winning journalist Simon Parkin—who has “an inimitable capacity to find the human pulse in the underbelly of war” (The Spectator)—tells the incredible true story of the botanists who held their posts at the Plant Institute during the 872-day siege and the remarkable sacrifices they made in the name of science.
In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad—now St. Petersburg—and began the longest blockade in recorded history, one that would ultimately claim the lives of nearly three-quarters of a million people. At the center of the besieged city stood a converted palace that housed the world’s largest collection of seeds—more than 250,000 samples hand-collected over two decades from all over the globe by world-famous explorer, geneticist, and dissident Nikolai Vavilov, who had recently been disappeared by the Soviet government. After attempts to evacuate the priceless collection failed and supplies dwindled amongst the three million starving citizens, the employes at the Plant Institute were left with a terrible choice. Should they save the collection? Or themselves?
These were not just any seeds. The botanists believed they could be bred into heartier, disease-resistant, and more productive varieties suited for harsh climates, therefore changing the future of food production and preventing famines like those that had plagued their countrymen before. But protecting the seeds was no idle business. The scientists rescued potato samples under enemy fire, extinguished bombs landing on the seed bank’s roof, and guarded the collection from scavengers, the bitter cold, and their own hunger. Then in the war’s eleventh hour, Nazi plunderers presented a new threat to the collection…
Drawing from previously unseen sources, award-winning journalist Simon Parkin—who has “an inimitable capacity to find the human pulse in the underbelly of war” (The Spectator)—tells the incredible true story of the botanists who held their posts at the Plant Institute during the 872-day siege and the remarkable sacrifices they made in the name of science.
About The Author
© Rory Murphy
Simon Parkin is an award-winning British journalist and author. A contributing writer for The New Yorker, he has also written for The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, New Statesmen, the BBC, and other publications. He is the author of The Island of Extraordinary Captives (winner of the Wingate Literary Prize), A Game of Birds and Wolves, and Death by Video Game, and his work has been featured in The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He was named a finalist in the Foreign Press Association Media Awards and is the recipient of two awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. Parkin lives in West Sussex, England.
Product Details
- Publisher: Scribner (October 15, 2024)
- Length: 384 pages
- ISBN13: 9781668007662
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Raves and Reviews
"Simon Parkin vividly relates the tragic yet inspiring story of Vavilov and his team’s dedication to the [seedbank]. . . . Using the diaries and letters of the botanists, as well as later-recorded oral histories, Parkin paints a suspense-filled record of this harrowing time in history." —BookPage (starred review)
“A beautifully-written account of one of the most extraordinary and little-known episodes of the Second World War—a scientific feat and act of collective self-sacrifice the consequences of which continue to be felt today.” —Adam Higginbotham, New York Times bestselling author of Midnight in Chernobyl and Challenger
"Sometimes, in history’s darkest hours, people of principle and vision find their way to astonishing acts of heroism. Simon Parkin’s crisp, vivid prose thrusts us into the harrowing siege of Leningrad during World War II to tell a story of almost unfathomable selflessness. Inspired by their charismatic leader, Nikolai Vavilov, scientists at the world’s most important seed bank risked—and gave—their lives to safeguard their collections for the good of future generations. The Forbidden Garden reveals, in harrowing detail, the terrible damage that ideology paired with violence can inflict on human beings and on their cultural and scientific achievements. Against this painful backdrop, Parkin offers a soaring account of the courage, generosity, and love of which humanity is capable in its finest moments. The Forbidden Garden is a crucial, humbling book." —Victoria Johnson, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic
"An astonishing achievement; I was riveted and could barely put it down." —Jonathan Dimbleby, author of Endgame 1944 and Operation Barbaross
"Parkin has unearthed a quite extraordinary tale of a man lost in time, Nikolai Vavilov, a world-renowned botanist whose life and work is a metaphor for the tragedy and mendaciousness of the Soviet system under Stalin. . . . Determined to protect his legacy, not knowing that he would perish in Stalin’s gulags, Vavilov’s protégés faced a stark choice: Protect and save the vast collection for science, or, bow to official pressure, and allow the seedbank to feed a starving population. All whilst German bombs dropped around them. It is a thrilling and life-affirming story." —Iain MacGregor, fellow of the Royal Historical Society and author of The Lighthouse of Stalingrad
“An astonishing achievement. Simon Parkin has turned a few lines in the history books about Soviet botanists and their unique seed collection during the Nazi siege of Leningrad into a riveting story about the loyalties of scientists in wartime. Should the botanists protect the seeds for science and humanity as their famous disappeared leader, Nikolai Vavilov, would have wanted, or eat them to stay alive? Their suffering and sacrifice brings into focus the key role scientists play today in challenging the new crop of anti-science politicians.” —Peter Pringle, author of The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov and Food, Inc
"What an impressive achievement this book is. Moving, mordant, crushingly sad, and often horrifying, The Forbidden Garden is a useful reminder of how much human drama there remains to excavate from the ruins of the Second World War. Indeed, Simon Parkin has proved himself to be a human dowsing rod for such stories—and, in the meantime, become one of my favorite writers of literary-historical narrative alive." —Tom Bissell, journalist and author of Apostle and The Disaster Artist
“A hugely moving piece of work, full of unforgettable images and moments, and centered on a compelling drama. The Forbidden Garden is fascinating, vivid, and gripping book that will leave you feeling as though you have lived through the siege of Leningrad.” ––Henry Hemming, author of Four Shots in the Night: A True Story of Spies, Murder, and Justice in Northern Ireland
"A gripping, harrowing history of science amid war and starvation, The Forbidden Garden recovers in astonishing detail the efforts of Soviet botanists to maintain their country’s most precious seed collection through the siege of Leningrad. It is an unforgettable tale of devotion to science, seeds, and the future." —Professor Helen Anne Curry, historian of science and author of Endangered Maize: Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction
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