During the Soviet years, Russian science was touted as one of the greatest successes of the regime. Russian science was considered to be equal, if not superior, to that of the wealthy western nations. The Perversion of Knowledge, a history of Soviet science that focuses on its control by the KGB and the Communist Party, reveals the dark side of this glittering achievement.Based on the author's firsthand experience as a Soviet scientist, and drawing on extensive Russian language sources not easily available to the Western reader, the book includes shocking new information on biomedical experimentation on humans as well as an examination of the pernicious effects of Trofim Lysenko's pseudo-biology. Also included are many poignant case histories of those who collaborated and those who managed to resist, focusing on the moral choices and consequences. The text is accompanied by the author's own translations of key archival materials, making this work an essential resource for all those with a serious interest in Russian history.[Contain tables.]
Публицистика18+Vadim J. Birstein
THE PERVERSION OF KNOWLEDGE
THE TRUE STORY OF SOVIET SCIENCE
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.
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.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
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
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