On August 6, 1940, in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, civilians approached the expedition leader. Academician Nikolai Vavilov, who had traveled to more than fifty countries and collected the world's largest seed collection in an effort to rid humanity of hunger forever, never returned. Two and a half years later, he died of exhaustion in a Saratov prison.

In this film:
— Persia's "drunken bread" and the law for which Vavilov was called the Mendeleev of biology
— expeditions to Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and the Andes: where wheat, potatoes, and rye originated
— the Irish potato famine and why monotony is dangerous for all of humanity
— Lysenko, "Bravo, Comrade Lysenko!" And how the authorities banned an entire science
— the investigation, the verdict, and the final book, which was never found
— the siege: institute employees died of starvation next to the seeds and didn't touch a single grain
— the "Doomsday vault" on Spitsbergen and why seed collections are needed today
— what's on your plate: thirty plants a week, legumes, nuts, sauerkraut—what major studies say
— five tips for health and memory after sixty

Timecodes:
0:00 Prologue August 6, 1940
2:15 The Merchant's Son
6:02 Drunken Bread
8:19 Saratov
10:41 The Seed Hunter
17:01 The Price of Monotony
19:31 Family
21:44 Lysenko
28:15 Arrest
34:34 Seeds of the Blockade
36:31 Return of the Name
41:54 Bread Today
45:15 What's on Your Plate
52:13 Five Tips
56:14 A Handful of Seeds

SOURCES: N. I. Vavilov, "Five Continents"; N. I. Vavilov, "The Law of Homologous Series in Hereditary Variability" (1920) and "Centers of Origin of Cultivated Plants" (1926); S. Reznik, "Nikolai Vavilov" (ZhZL); M. Popovsky, "The Case of Academician Vavilov"; Yu. N. Vavilov “In a long search”; Keys A. et al. "The Biology of Human Starvation" (1950); Hasher L. et al., 1977; Fazio L. et al., J Exp Psychol Gen, 2015; Marshall B., Warren R., 1984; Asseng S. et al., Nature Climate Change, 2015; McDonald D. et al., mSystems, 2018 (American Gut); Darmadi-Blackberry I. et al., Asia Pac J Clin Nutr, 2004; Reynolds A. et al., The Lancet, 2019; Bao Y. et al., NEJM, 2013; Aune D. et al., BMJ, 2016; Estruch R. et al., NEJM, 2018 (PREDIMED); Wastyk H., Sonnenburg J., Sonnenburg E. et al., Cell, 2021; Morris M. C. et al., Alzheimer's & Dementia, 2015 (MIND); Simons L. et al., Med J Aust, 2006 (Dubbo); Bauer J. et al., JAMDA, 2013 (PROT-AGE); FAO reports on the state of food security and on plant genetic resources.

🎞 Illustrations: archival photographs from open sources; the newsreel "Leningrad in Struggle" (1942) and the newsreel from 1936 are public domain, Wikimedia Commons; excerpts from the film "Svalbard Diverseeds" © Markus Schmidt, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

📌 Each film is a long process: we study books, memoirs, and scientific articles, verify every fact, select archival photographs and newsreels, write the script, and edit. If you spot any inaccuracies, please let us know in the comments, and we'll fix them.

🎙 The narration is voiced using speech synthesis.

⚕️ The nutrition and health advice in the film is for informational purposes only and does not replace a doctor's consultation.

If you relate to the stories of people who warned us, subscribe to the channel and let us know in the comments: what old varieties, recipes, or seeds are kept in your family?

#Vavilov #NikolaiVavilov #famine #blockade #science #history #USSR #health #BeyondThisEra