Trofim Denisovich Lysenko was born into a peasant family in Karlivka. His upbringing was steeped in traditional farming practices, which would later heavily influence his rejection of modern genetics in favor of experiential methods. This background provided him with a deep understanding of practical agriculture, but lacked formal scientific training in genetics and evolutionary biology.

Lysenko graduated from the Kyiv Agricultural Institute, marking a formal step in his agricultural education. While this institution provided him with a foundation in agronomy, it did not equip him to critically assess or fully grasp the complexities of Mendelian genetics, which were being rapidly developed at the time. This lack of a strong foundation in modern genetics would later prove crucial to the propagation of his erroneous theories.