LAUSR

The fate of radiobiology and in particular radiation genetics in the Soviet Union was difficult and dramatic. In the period of 1948-1965, a political campaign, based on the theory of T. D. Lysenko, rejected classical genetics, banned such research and persecuted "classical" geneticists. After the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty was signed on August 5, 1963, Belarusian authorities started closing down radiobiological centers. Many radiobiologists were obliged to go abroad. Then the Chernobyl disaster in May 1986 changed the political direction - research on radiobiology and radiation genetics became relevant again. The only medical effect of the Chernobyl disaster was thyroid cancer, but radiation was not the only reason for that. A lot of criminal mistakes of the Soviet government and the Ministry of Health increase the cancer rate. The history of science is always complicated, and nowadays there are some unanswered questions and contradictory issues in the field of radiobiology, for instance, uncertainties in estimating radiation risks. It is necessary to keep in mind a lot of limitations and qualifications that demonstrates that there are no simple answers in this science.