The Perversion of Knowledge: The True Story of Soviet Science

Vadim J. Birstein THE PERVERSION OF KNOWLEDGE THE TRUE STORY OF SOVIET SCIENCE

To Kathryn

There is only one hope… it is absolute openness and the absence of any secrecy in science. Only thus can we hope that the scientists who succeed will be those who do not confuse exceptional human beings with experimental animals.

—B. Müller-Hill, Murderous Science

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

—V. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Tables

1.1 Main changes in the NKVD/KGB structure, 1917–present

1.2 List of the VCheKa/KGB chairmen, 1917–present

2.1 Changes in subordination of Special Secret Laboratory No. 1, 1939–1978

3.1 Dates of Mairanovsky’s biography

3.2 Events surrounding the Beria and Merkulov trials

Photos

The original VCheKa-KGB building at Lubyanka (Dzerzhinsky) Square, 1926

The main yard of Vladimir Prison, 1998

Lavrentii Beria, 1938

Lavrentii Beria, 1946

Vsevolod Merkulov, 1945

The corner of Bol’shaya Lubyanka Street and Varsonofyevsky Lane, 1997

A corridor inside Vladimir Prison, 1990

Nikolai Blokhin, 1956

Aleksei Speransky with students, 1952

Academician Gleb Frank, 1951

Presidium of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1950s

Monument to the victims of Stalin’s terror, 1997

LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Dalstroi: Main Directorate for Building in the Far East

EKO: Economical Department

FAPSI: Federal Government Communications and Information Agency

FSB: Federal Security Service

GEU: Main Economic Directorate

Gidroproekt: Directorate for Projecting, Planning, and Research for Hydrotechnical Construction

GKO: State Committee of Defense

Glavgidrostroi: Main Directorate of Camps for Hydrotechnical Construction

Glavlit: Main Directorate on the Literature and Publishing Houses

Glavmikrobioprom: Main Administration of the Microbiological Industry

Glavpromstroi, or GULPS: Main Directorate of Camps for Industrial Construction

Glavsortupr: Main Directorate of Seed Varieties

Goelro: State Energy Committee

Gosizdat: State Publishing Company

GosNIIOKhT: State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology

Gosplan: State Planning Committee

GPU: State Political Directorate

GTU: Main Directorate of Transportation

GUGB: Main Directorate of State Security

GUILGMP: Main Directorate of Camps of the Mining Metallurgic Industry

IEB: Institute of Experimental Biology

IEM Gamaleya: Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology

IMEMO: Institute for World Economy and International Relations

INO: Foreign Department

IVAN: Institute for Oriental Studies

JAC: Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee

KEPS: Commission for the Study of Natural-Productive Forces

KGB: Committee of State Security

KI: Committee on Information

KTPH: Kazan Psychiatric Prison Hospital

KUBU: Commission to Improve Living Conditions of Scientists

MGB: USSR Ministry of State Security

Minmedbioprom: Ministry of the Medical and Microbiological Industries

MOIP: Moscow Society of Naturalists

Narkompros: Commissariat of Education

Narkomzdrav: Commissariat of Health

Narkomzem: Commissariat of Agriculture

NEP: New Economic Policy

NKVD: People’s Commissariat of the Interior

NTO: Scientific Technology Section of the VSNKh

NTS: Popular Labor Alliance of Russian Solidarists

OAU: VCheKa Administrative-Organizational Department

OGPU: United State Political Directorate

OMNI: Society of Moscow Scientific Institute

OO: Special Department

OOT: Department of Operational Equipment

OSO: MGB Special Board

OSS: Office of Strategic Services

OTU: Operational-Technical Directorate

OVD: Department for Investigation of Especially Important Cases

PBO: Petrograd Armed Organization

Politotdel: Political Department

RFYaTs-VNIITF: Russian Federation Nuclear Center

RNP: Russian National Party

ROVS: White Russian Military Union

RSFSR: Russian Federation

SMERSH: Military Counterintelligence

SO: Secret Department

SOD: Council of Men in Public Life

SOE: Special Operation Executive

SOU: Secret-Operational Directorate

Sovinformburo: Soviet Information Agency

Sovmin: Council of Ministers

Sovnarkom: Council of People’s Commissars

StB: Czechoslovak Security Service

SVR: Foreign Intelligence Service

TKP: Labor Peasant Party

TseKUBU: Central Commission to Improve Living Conditions of Scientists

TsNIIST: Central Scientific Investigation Institute for Special Technology