The USSR Academy of Sciences and the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences organised in Moscow on November 24, 1987 a scientific symposium as well as a formal ceremony to commemorate the centenary of the birth of N. I. Vavilov. The symposium and ceremony were attended by over 2000 Soviet geneticists and plant breeders in addition to a few invited guests from outside. I had the privilege of being invited to attend the ceremony and address the symposium on Genetic Conservation: from Microbes to Man.
