The Struggle for Influence

Abstract

The most frequent characterization of the relationship between the political leadership of the Soviet Union and Soviet science is one of dominance and submissiveness, respectively. Most authors have emphasized Communist Party control of scientists’ careers, their access to foreign scientific publications, and interaction with their foreign colleagues in the Soviet Union and the ability of scientists to travel abroad.¹ Additionally, the granting of residence permits and the selection of talented personnel by institutes were also determined in small or large part by party functionaries. In some cases, the Party even determined the direction of a particular science and its research priorities. For example, the Party claimed that Soviet science in the fields of biology, physics, and cybernetics was unique and thus different from Western bourgeois science. This ‘difference’ between Western and Soviet science meant that Soviet scientists had to engage in philosophical debates over the validity of Western science and its usefulness for Soviet science. Using philosophical arguments, the Party intruded into the realm of scientific disagreements and ultimately supported a particular viewpoint for philosophical or political reasons rather than supporting a particular conclusion based on the analysis of scientific data. Probably the most infamous philosophical debate occurred when Trofim D. Lysenko and his ‘false-science’ attacked Mendelian genetics as non-Marxist. Supported by the Party, Lysenko’s triumph led to the curtailment of the fields of biology and genetics in the Soviet Union for some twenty years.²