Sokolov, Boris Pavlovich

Born Aug. 31 (Sept. 12), 1897, in Kharkov. Soviet botanist and plant breeder. Academician of the V. I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences (from 1956); Hero of Socialist Labor (1972).

In 1923, Sokolov graduated from the Kharkov Agricultural Institute. Two years later he established the Soviet Union’s first corn selection laboratory at the Dnepropetrovsk (now Sinel’ni-kov) Experimental Station. In 1930, Sokolov became director of the corn selection and seed-growing section of the Ukrainian Scientific Research Grain Institute (since 1956, the All-Union Scientific Research Corn Institute). In 1932 he created and began distributing the first domestic corn hybrids, Pervenets and Us-pekh. He has developed, independently or with others, a total of 18 hybrids and four varieties of corn.

Sokolov has been a member of the Soviet Committee for the Defense of Peace since 1966. He has been awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1951), the Lenin Prize (1963), the Order of Lenin, four other orders, and a number of medals.