2025-01-13
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The Inspiring Scientists who saved the world's first seed bank
By Simon Parkin Somewhere in the sky above,
the mosquito drone of a plane's propeller neared.
Since Abram Kamaras had begun to commute by train from Leningrad, now St.
Petersburg, to the suburban town of Pavlovsk earlier in the summer of 1941,
attacks by enemy planes had become a frequent cause of delay.
Through the carriage window, Kamaras saw the road was littered with bodies.
These men, women,
and children had been killed by German planes which had strafed and bombed the crowds of refugees
as they fled towards the city.
As Camaraz caught the silhouette of a German Stuka cresting the horizon,
the driver stopped the train and ordered the passengers to run to a nearby ditch for cover.
Kamaraz, 36, was a potato specialist,
one of about 50 botanists who worked at the Plant Institute, the world's first seed bank.
Situated off St.
Isaac's Square in the center of Leningrad,