Petr Ivanovich Lisitsyn

Born Jan. 7 (19), 1877, in the village of Teliatinki, in present-day Suvorov Raion, Tula Oblast; died Feb. 20, 1948, in Moscow. Soviet scientist and plant breeder. Academician of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences (1935).

Lisitsyn graduated from Moscow University in 1902 and from the Moscow Agricultural Institute in 1905. He was one of the organizers of plant selection and seed production in the USSR. From 1908 to 1929 he worked at the Shatilov Experimental Station (now the P. I. Lisitsyn Orlov Oblast Agricultural Experimental Station). From 1929, Lisitsyn held the chair of selection and seed production of field crops at the K. A. Timiriazev Moscow Agricultural Academy.

Lisitsyn’s principal works are on the biology and selection of red clover. By 1972 the following varieties bred by Lisitsyn had been developed and regionalized: Lisitsyn winter rye, Bogatyr’ buckwheat (bred in collaboration with other scientists), and varieties of rye, oats, clover, buckwheat, and flax. The recipient of the State Prize of the USSR in 1948, Lisitsyn also was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and various medals.