Vasilii Stepanovich Pustovoit

Born Jan. 2 (14), 1886, in the village of Taranovka, in present-day Zmiev Raion of Kharkov Oblast; died Oct. 11, 1972, in Krasnodar. Soviet selective breeder. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1964 and of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1956. Hero of Socialist Labor (1957 and 1963); Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1969). Became a member of the CPSU in 1963.

Pustovoit graduated from the Kharkov Agricultural School in 1907 and from the Kuban’ Agricultural Institute in 1926. From 1908 to 1924 he was an instructor at the Kuban’ Agricultural Technicum (until 1918 the Kuban’ Agricultural School), and from 1926 to 1930 he was the head of the subdepartment of genetics, selective breeding, and seed-raising at the Kuban’ Agricultural Institute. In 1912, Pustovoit organized the Kruglik Plant Breeding and Experiment Station (since 1932 the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Oil Crops) at the Kuban’ Agricultural School. From 1935 to 1972 he headed the department of selective breeding and seed-raising of oil crops and the laboratory of sunflower breeding at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Oil Crops.

Pustovoit was one of the first to breed sunflowers with high oil content. He worked out highly effective systems for the improved raising of sunflower seeds. He developed 20 broom-rape-resistant sunflower varieties with a high oil content (up to 57 percent in dry seeds). These varieties include Peredovik VNIIMK 8883, VNIIMK 6540, and Smena. In 1974, varieties bred by Pustovoit occupied more than half the varietal sunflower plantings in the USSR; in foreign countries about 1 million hectares have been planted with varieties developed by Pustovoit.

Pustovoit was a deputy to the third, fourth, fifth, and eighth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. He was awarded three Orders of Lenin, an Order of the October Revolution, three other Soviet orders, various medals, and three orders of foreign countries. He was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1946 and the Lenin Prize in 1959.