Is Leshanko the Best Scientist in the USSR?

Vavilov does not like Leshanko but he has to be very careful about how he goes about opposing him. Vavilov is Boushi, an upper middle class background and that is toxic in the Soviet Union this period. Most of the actual talented scientists in the USSR are people who had grown up wealthier because they were able to afford to go to college as young men rather than have to support their families. There's not a lot of hard scrabble scientists like Leshanka.