Stalin And The Soviet Science Wars

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Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars

Author : Ethan Pollock
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2021-05-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9781400843756

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Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars by Ethan Pollock Pdf

Between 1945 and 1953, while the Soviet Union confronted postwar reconstruction and Cold War crises, its unchallenged leader Joseph Stalin carved out time to study scientific disputes and dictate academic solutions. He spearheaded a discussion of "scientific" Marxist-Leninist philosophy, edited reports on genetics and physiology, adjudicated controversies about modern physics, and wrote essays on linguistics and political economy. Historians have been tempted to dismiss all this as the megalomaniacal ravings of a dying dictator. But in Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars, Ethan Pollock draws on thousands of previously unexplored archival documents to demonstrate that Stalin was in fact determined to show how scientific truth and Party doctrine reinforced one another. Socialism was supposed to be scientific, and science ideologically correct, and Stalin ostensibly embodied the perfect symbiosis between power and knowledge. Focusing on six major postwar debates in the Soviet scientific community, this elegantly written book shows that Stalin's forays into scholarship can be understood only within the context of international tensions, institutional conflicts, and the growing uncertainty about the proper relationship between scientific knowledge and Party-dictated truths. The nature of Stalin's interventions makes clear that more was at stake than high politics: these science wars were about asserting that the Party was rational and modern, and about codifying the Soviet worldview in a battle for the hearts and minds of people around the globe during the early Cold War. Ultimately, however, the effort to develop a scientific basis for Soviet ideology undermined the system's legitimacy.

Stalin's Great Science

Author : A. B. Kozhevnikov
Publisher : Imperial College Press
Page : 392 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Science
ISBN : 1860944191

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Stalin's Great Science by A. B. Kozhevnikov Pdf

World-class science and technology developed in the Soviet Union during Stalin's dictatorial rule under conditions of political violence, lack of international contacts, and severe restrictions on the freedom of information. Stalin's Great Science: The Times and Adventures of Soviet Physicists is an invaluable book that investigates this paradoxical success by following the lives and work of Soviet scientists ? including Nobel Prize-winning physicists Kapitza, Landau, and others ? throughout the turmoil of wars, revolutions, and repression that characterized the first half of Russia's twentieth century.The book examines how scientists operated within the Soviet political order, communicated with Stalinist politicians, built a new system of research institutions, and conducted groundbreaking research under extraordinary circumstances. Some of their novel scientific ideas and theories reflected the influence of Soviet ideology and worldview and have since become accepted universally as fundamental concepts of contemporary science. In the process of making sense of the achievements of Soviet science, the book dismantles standard assumptions about the interaction between science, politics, and ideology, as well as many dominant stereotypes ? mostly inherited from the Cold War ? about Soviet history in general. Science and technology were not only granted unprecedented importance in Soviet society, but they also exerted a crucial formative influence on the Soviet political system itself. Unlike most previous studies, Stalin's Great Science recognizes the status of science as an essential element of the Soviet polity and explores the nature of a special relationship between experts (scientists and engineers) and communist politicians that enabled the initial rise of the Soviet state and its mature accomplishments, until the pact eroded in later years, undermining the communist regime from within.

Stalin and the Scientists

Author : Simon Ings
Publisher : Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
Page : 491 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2017-02-21
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780802189868

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Stalin and the Scientists by Simon Ings Pdf

“One of the finest, most gripping surveys of the history of Russian science in the twentieth century.” —Douglas Smith, author of Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy Stalin and the Scientists tells the story of the many gifted scientists who worked in Russia from the years leading up to the revolution through the death of the “Great Scientist” himself, Joseph Stalin. It weaves together the stories of scientists, politicians, and ideologues into an intimate and sometimes horrifying portrait of a state determined to remake the world. They often wreaked great harm. Stalin was himself an amateur botanist, and by falling under the sway of dangerous charlatans like Trofim Lysenko (who denied the existence of genes), and by relying on antiquated ideas of biology, he not only destroyed the lives of hundreds of brilliant scientists, he caused the death of millions through famine. But from atomic physics to management theory, and from radiation biology to neuroscience and psychology, these Soviet experts also made breakthroughs that forever changed agriculture, education, and medicine. A masterful book that deepens our understanding of Russian history, Stalin and the Scientists is a great achievement of research and storytelling, and a gripping look at what happens when science falls prey to politics. Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction in 2016 A New York Times Book Review “Paperback Row” selection “Ings’s research is impressive and his exposition of the science is lucid . . . Filled with priceless nuggets and a cast of frauds, crackpots and tyrants, this is a lively and interesting book, and utterly relevant today.” —The New York Times Book Review “A must read for understanding how the ideas of scientific knowledge and technology were distorted and subverted for decades across the Soviet Union.” —The Washington Post

Science in Russia and the Soviet Union

Author : Loren R. Graham
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 354 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : Science
ISBN : 0521287898

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Science in Russia and the Soviet Union by Loren R. Graham Pdf

By the 1980s the Soviet scientific establishment had become the largest in the world, but very little of its history was known in the West. What has been needed for many years in order to fill that gap in our knowledge is a history of Russian and Soviet science written for the educated person who would like to read one book on the subject. This book has been written for that reader. The history of Russian and Soviet science is a story of remarkable achievements and frustrating failures. That history is presented here in a comprehensive form, and explained in terms of its social and political context. Major sections include the tsarist period, the impact of the Russian Revolution, the relationship between science and Soviet society, and the strengths and weaknesses of individual scientific disciplines. The book also discusses the changes brought to science in Russia and other republics by the collapse of communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Soviet Fiction Since Stalin

Author : Rosalind J. Marsh
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 364 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 1986
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0389206091

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Soviet Fiction Since Stalin by Rosalind J. Marsh Pdf

No one with an interest in Soviet writing of the last thirty years will want to ignore this book.

The Making of a Soviet Scientist

Author : R. Z. Sagdeev
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 362 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 1994
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : UOM:39015032532379

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The Making of a Soviet Scientist by R. Z. Sagdeev Pdf

Writing with extraordinary candor, Dr. Sagdeev reveals startling details of the most politically sensitive scientific issues of the Cold War years. He identifies the key players in the Soviet nuclear weapons program (nearly all of whom he worked with) and recounts the internal battles over SDI technology and his own role in killing Russia's own "Star Wars" program.

The Making of a Soviet Scientist

Author : Roald Z. Sagdeev
Publisher : Wiley
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 1994-04-20
Category : Science
ISBN : 0471020311

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The Making of a Soviet Scientist by Roald Z. Sagdeev Pdf

The critically acclaimed memoir that rips the curtain of secrecy off the world of Soviet science "Revelations and insights about the Soviet space program . . . It is good that such a wise man will live among us for a while." --The New York Times "A rare, valuable, insider's look at the Soviet military industrial machine."--Publishers Weekly "I found it fascinating . . . important not only to scientists, but also for those who fashion government politics generally."--Herman Feshbach Institute Professor Emeritus Massachusetts Institute of Technology "A real contribution to the literature of the space age."--Chicago Sun-Times "This is a powerful yet charming account of the Soviet Union's scientific, space, and military enterprise, characterized by Sagdeev's frank and insightful style mixed with delightful humor and humanity."--Charles H. Townes Nobel Laureate in Physics University of California, Berkeley "For all who are interested in the interaction of science and society, and in the nature of the Soviet Union as seen by a keen observer who was at the same time an 'insider' and a dedicated humanist, this book is highly recommended." --Physics Today

The Perversion Of Knowledge

Author : Dr. Vadim J. Birstein
Publisher : Basic Books
Page : 512 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2009-09-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780786751860

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The Perversion Of Knowledge by Dr. Vadim J. Birstein Pdf

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.

The Private World of Soviet Scientists from Stalin to Gorbachev

Author : Maria Rogacheva
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2017-07-10
Category : History
ISBN : 9781107196360

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The Private World of Soviet Scientists from Stalin to Gorbachev by Maria Rogacheva Pdf

A major new contribution to understanding the transition of Soviet society from Stalinism to a more humane model of socialism.

Soviet Science and Engineering in the Shadow of the Cold War

Author : Hiroshi Ichikawa
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 196 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2018-09-27
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781351374224

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Soviet Science and Engineering in the Shadow of the Cold War by Hiroshi Ichikawa Pdf

The 1950s were a vital time in the history of science. In accordance with the intensification of the Cold War, many scientific talents were mobilized to several military-related research and development projects not only in the United States, but also in the Soviet Union. Contrary to the expectation of General Leslie Groves, a leader of the Manhattan Project, the Soviet Union succeeded in their nuclear weapon development in a very short time. And then, by the end of the decade, mankind reached the dawn of the Atomic Age proper with the beginning of the operation of the world’s first civil nuclear power plant in Obninsk in 1954. The risky and costly developments of new weapons such as rockets, jet warplanes, and computers were achieved by the Soviet Union in a very short time after World War ? in spite of the heavy economic damage caused by the battles with German troops in Soviet territory. Why were such a great number of scientific talents mobilized to various Soviet Cold War research and development projects? What were the true natures, and real consequences of the rushed Cold War projects? How did Soviet scientists approach the nuclear age? Thanks to the study of formerly classified Soviet archives, a more nuanced view of Soviet society has become possible. To resolve the above-mentioned questions, Ichikawa analyses the complicated interactions among various factors, including the indigenous contradictions in the historical development of science in the Soviet Union; conflicts among the related interest groups; relationships with the political leadership and the military, the role of ideology and others.

Stalinist Science

Author : Nikolai Krementsov
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 1996-11-25
Category : Science
ISBN : 1400822149

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Stalinist Science by Nikolai Krementsov Pdf

Some scholars have viewed the Soviet state and science as two monolithic entities--with bureaucrats as oppressors, and scientists as defenders of intellectual autonomy. Based on previously unknown documents from the archives of state and Communist Party agencies and of numerous scientific institutions, Stalinist Science shows that this picture is oversimplified. Even the reinstated Science Department within the Central Committee was staffed by a leading geneticist and others sympathetic to conventional science. In fact, a symbiosis of state bureaucrats and scientists established a much more terrifying system of control over the scientific community than any critic of Soviet totalitarianism had feared. Some scientists, on the other hand, developed more elaborate devices to avoid and exploit this control system than any advocate of academic freedom could have reasonably hoped. Nikolai Krementsov argues that the model of Stalinist science, already taking hold during the thirties, was reversed by the need for inter-Allied cooperation during World War II. Science, as a tool for winning the war and as a diplomatic and propaganda instrument, began to enjoy higher status, better funding, and relative autonomy. Even the reinstated Science Department within the Central Committee was staffed by a leading geneticist and others sympathetic to conventional science. However, the onset of the Cold War led to a campaign for eliminating such servility to the West. Then the Western links that had benefited genetics and other sciences during the war and through 1946 became a liability, and were used by Lysenko and others to turn back to the repressive past and to delegitimate whole research directions.

Soviet Scientists Remember

Author : Maria A. Rogacheva
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 203 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2019-11-21
Category : History
ISBN : 9781498574358

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Soviet Scientists Remember by Maria A. Rogacheva Pdf

Maria Rogacheva’s Soviet Scientists Remember gives voice to one of the most prominent and educated groups in the late USSR: scientists. Lifting the veil of secrecy that covered scientists during the Cold War, this book brings together six first-person accounts of residents of the formerly closed scientific town of Chernogolovka. In their interviews, scientists talk about growing up in Stalin’s Russia and surviving the Great Patriotic War, their decision to join the scientific intelligentsia, and the outstanding opportunities that were available to them in the heyday of the Cold War. They reflect on their daily lives in a privileged scientific community and their relationship with the Soviet state and the Communist Party. Soviet Scientists Remember sheds light on how ordinary people experienced the transformation of Soviet society after Stalin’s death, as well as its tumultuous transition to the post-Soviet era in the 1990s.

International Science Between the World Wars

Author : Nikolai Krementsov
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 222 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2004-08-02
Category : History
ISBN : 9781134267996

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International Science Between the World Wars by Nikolai Krementsov Pdf

What is international science and how does it function? This book answers these questions through a detailed study of international congresses on genetics held from 1899 to 1939. It presents a portrait of international science as a product of continuous interactions that involved scientists and their patrons within specific political, ideological, and disciplinary contexts. Drawing on a variety of archival sources - ranging from Stalin's personal papers to the records of the Gestapo and from the correspondence among scientists in different countries to the minutes of the Soviet government's top-secret meetings - it depicts the operations of international science at a time of great political tensions. Krementsov breaks with the view of science as either inherently national or quintessentially international, examining instead the intersection between national and international agendas in scientists' activities. Focusing on the dramatic history of the Seventh international genetics congress, he investigates contradictions inherent to scientists' dual loyalties to their country and their science. Through analysis of negotiations among three groups of actors involved with the organization of the congress, Krementsov examines the role of ideologies, patronage, and personal networks in the operations of international science.

Science and Technology in the Global Cold War

Author : Naomi Oreskes,John Krige
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 467 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2014-11-07
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780262326117

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Science and Technology in the Global Cold War by Naomi Oreskes,John Krige Pdf

Investigations of how the global Cold War shaped national scientific and technological practices in fields from biomedicine to rocket science. The Cold War period saw a dramatic expansion of state-funded science and technology research. Government and military patronage shaped Cold War technoscientific practices, imposing methods that were project oriented, team based, and subject to national-security restrictions. These changes affected not just the arms race and the space race but also research in agriculture, biomedicine, computer science, ecology, meteorology, and other fields. This volume examines science and technology in the context of the Cold War, considering whether the new institutions and institutional arrangements that emerged globally constrained technoscientific inquiry or offered greater opportunities for it. The contributors find that whatever the particular science, and whatever the political system in which that science was operating, the knowledge that was produced bore some relation to the goals of the nation-state. These goals varied from nation to nation; weapons research was emphasized in the United States and the Soviet Union, for example, but in France and China scientific independence and self-reliance dominated. The contributors also consider to what extent the changes to science and technology practices in this era were produced by the specific politics, anxieties, and aspirations of the Cold War. Contributors Elena Aronova, Erik M. Conway, Angela N. H. Creager, David Kaiser, John Krige, Naomi Oreskes, George Reisch, Sigrid Schmalzer, Sonja D. Schmid, Matthew Shindell, Asif A. Siddiqi, Zuoyue Wang, Benjamin Wilson

Stalin's Wars

Author : Geoffrey Roberts
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 524 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2006-01-01
Category : History
ISBN : 0300112041

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Stalin's Wars by Geoffrey Roberts Pdf

This breakthrough book provides a detailed reconstruction of Stalin’s leadership from the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 to his death in 1953. Making use of a wealth of new material from Russian archives, Geoffrey Roberts challenges a long list of standard perceptions of Stalin: his qualities as a leader; his relationships with his own generals and with other great world leaders; his foreign policy; and his role in instigating the Cold War. While frankly exploring the full extent of Stalin’s brutalities and their impact on the Soviet people, Roberts also uncovers evidence leading to the stunning conclusion that Stalin was both the greatest military leader of the twentieth century and a remarkable politician who sought to avoid the Cold War and establish a long-term detente with the capitalist world. By means of an integrated military, political, and diplomatic narrative, the author draws a sustained and compelling personal portrait of the Soviet leader. The resulting picture is fascinating and contradictory, and it will inevitably change the way we understand Stalin and his place in history. Roberts depicts a despot who helped save the world for democracy, a personal charmer who disciplined mercilessly, a utopian ideologue who could be a practical realist, and a warlord who undertook the role of architect of post-war peace.