History of Winter Wheat breeding rise at the South of Ukraine since the end of XIX century till the beginning of October Revolution by the example of Breeding department at Odessa Research Field is represented. Odessa Research Field was established in 1894 to study the agrotechnics of agricultural crops, in particular, Winter Wheat. The Breeding department at Odessa Research Field was established in 8th of March, 1912, and headed by Private- Docent of Novorossiysk University, A.O. Sapegin. The main procedure applied in breeding was individual multifold selection of elite ears from the existing local blends and artificial crossing of lines selected to the purpose of improving economically valuable characteristics and identifying the inheritance. Five years of breeding (1912-1917 pp.) resulted in creation of three Winter Wheat varieties: Kooperatorka (0194), Zemka (0158) and Stepniachka(0119). In 1918, the Council of People’s Commissars of USSR has parted the Breeding department of Odessa Research Field to independent Odessa agricultural breeding station recognizing development of plant varieties by the Department.

Unique features of Myronivs’ka 808 variety have provided its triumph in agricultural production in the former Soviet Union and other countries. Myronivs’ka 808 has become one of the most popular varieties in terms of sown areas (in 1971 over 9.5 million hectares) in the world production. Up to now the variety has been cultivated in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan. Myronivs’ka 808 variety gained leadership in the global selection process as a source of high grain quality, high productivity, general adaptability and plasticity. Using germplasm of this variety enabled to develop over 400 wheat varieties including 350 winter varieties and 60 spring varieties.