Lysenko's Destruction of Soviet Genetics

Trofim Lysenko's politically backed rejection of Mendelian genetics dominated Soviet biology from the 1930s to 1960s, imprisoning over 3,000 real geneticists and ravaging crop yields by 50% during famines. His Lamarckian pseudoscience wasted at least $500 million in Soviet funding on doomed experiments, a cost 30% higher than the Constellation program cancellation at #5 relative to GDP. This policy directly killed millions through agricultural failure.