Stalinist Science

Divided Dreamworlds? The Cultural Cold War in East and West

“…50 It is in this vein that an article in one factory newspaper declared that conveniences are 'not trifles, nor secondary things' because 'both the mood of people and their labour productivity' depend upon their availability, as on the very manner in which daily life is organised. 51 Two new residents confirmed this when they wrote to Evening Leningrad claiming that the joy they felt each day upon coming home to their new flat instilled in them the sense that life was improving -something that made their work in industry also 'merrier'. 52 Other workers moving | 149 into new apartments with bright, spacious rooms were apparently also inspired to work more efficiently.…”

“…Reviews of Heredity and Its Variability appeared in all the major biology journals, including the Journal of Heredity, American Naturalist, Chronica Botanika, Physiological Zoology, Nature and Discovery. 51 Dunn wrote a letter to the editor of Science requesting to publish a review of the work; however, his letter gave no indication that he was in any way involved with the book's publication. Dunn also noted that since he was chairman of the American-Soviet Science Society he felt it was important that the work of Russian scientists be better known in the United States.…”

“…Neither was this mixture of suspicion and enthusiasm limited to the post-World War ii period. 51 For instance, the notion that cultural activities should be dedicated primarily to educational ends was common among British socialists already in the late nineteenth century. Their struggle for the reduction of working hours went hand-in-hand with growing concern over how workers should best spend their leisure time, and worries over the impact of commercial entertainment.…”

Anticipation in hereditary disease: the history of a biomedical concept

“…In the West, genetics became increasingly quantifiable and molecular with the discovery of the nature and structure of genetic material and the development and elaboration of new experimental systems within the field of molecular biology. This led in turn to a further discrediting of nonMendelian forms of heredity, including cytoplasmic inheritance, as these sorts of neo-Lamarckian forms of heredity ran counter to the dominant Mendelian paradigm promoted in the West (Sapp 1987) and were linked to Soviet Lysenkoism and the destruction of the field of classical genetics by the Communist regime in the USSR (Krementsov 1997;Harper 2008;Pringle 2008). During the Cold War, Western scientists pursuing research into nonMendelian forms of heredity found their work under political as well as scientific scrutiny as Lamarckian/Lysenkoist views were equated with radical left-leaning or Communist ideologies which could result in the loss of grants from funding agencies like the Rockefeller Foundation (Krige 2006).…”

The politics and contexts of Soviet science studies (Naukovedenie): Soviet philosophy of science at the crossroads

“…12 As such, the formation of this Institute within the Communist Academy signaled that the Academy was moving beyond the boundaries of social sciences, ''… gradually turning into a scientific-methodological center …,'' as the resolution of the 12th Party Congress stated in 1923(David-Fox 1997. During the twenties, several specialized research institutes devoted to meta-studies of science were established under the auspices of the Communist Academy, supplementing teaching curricula in history and philosophy of science, which became a prominent part of the 9 On the history of the Communist Academy see David-Fox (1997); Krementsov (1997). 10 Published in English translation as Historical Materialism: A System of Sociology (Bukharin 1925).…”