Pigs Wearing Booties Earn Scorn of Red Press

deJong-Lambert, William

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2840-0_6

William deJong-Lambert²

Part of the book series: Archimedes ((ARIM,volume 32))

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Abstract

On August 27, 1951 a dispatch came over the AP wire entitled, “Pigs Wearing Booties Earn Scorn of Red Press.” Soviet scientist L.K. Greben had been criticized by Izvestia for trying to improve a breed of hogs by putting boots on their feet. Greben was working with a herd of pigs from the Ukrainian plains. The piglets were developing hereditary lameness, a problem Greben attempted to correct by treating them with penicillin and ostrich grease, and making footpaths for them to walk on. After such methods proved fruitless Greben decided to shoe the hogs in special footwear. Izvestia wondered why he did not simply introduce new blood into the herd, and quoted a statement he had made at the VASKhNIL session: “The preparation of zootechnicians in the universities on the basis of formal genetic principles brings confusion to the minds of young, specialists to this very day, and hinders us from including properly in general practice the raising of the productivity of animal breeding.”

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Notes

1.
Theodosius Dobzhansky, in a review of Kh. F. Kushner, “Michurinist Methods of Obtaining New Breeds of Animals,” Priroda, 27–34. See, “Animal Breeding Under Lysenko,” The American Naturalist 88, no. 840 (1954): 165–7.
2.
“Pigs Wearing Booties Earn Scorn of Red Press,” B: Z67 Conway Zirkle Papers “An Appraisal of Science in the U.S.S.R.” The American Philosophical Society.
3.
Medvedev, The Rise and Fall of T.D. Lysenko, p. 135; Joravsky, The Lysenko Affair, pp. 156, 159; Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science, pp. 226–7.
4.
Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science, p. 185.
5.
Safonov, Land in Bloom, pp. 487–9.
6.
Medvedev, The Rise and Fall of T.D. Lysenko, p. 184; Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science, pp. 223–5; Valery Soyfer, “Stalin and Fighters Against Cellular Theory,” Studies in the History of Biology 3, no. 2 (2011): 83–96.
7.
Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science, p. 210; Gajewski, “Lysenkoism in Poland,” pp. 426–7; Berg, Acquired Traits, pp. 154–5.
8.
Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science, pp. 229–30, 342, ft. 37; Gajewski, “Lysenkoism in Poland,” pp. 427–8.
9.
See for example, “Pope Prays for People When Told Stalin News,” The New York Times, March 5, 1953; “Dollar Bonds of Russia, Satellites Get Whirl Here on Stalin’s Illness,” The New York Times, March 5, 1953; “Deaths Shroud Stalin Family Life in Mystery,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 5, 1953; “Moscow News Causes Stock Price Slump,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 5, 1953; “The Stilled Stalin,” Washington Post, March 5, 1953.
10.
“Magazine Says Reds Hope to Bring Stalin Back to Life,” Los Angeles Times, March 5, 1953.
11.
Gajewski, “Lysenkoism in Poland,” p. 429; “Newspaper Clippings #2 (Lysenko),” B: L563 Isadore Michael Lerner Papers. Newspaper – Z. The American Philosophical Society.
12.
For other examples of Haldane’s contradictory positions see Adams, “Last Judgment,” p. 459.
13.
Clark, JBS, pp. 209–10.
14.
Correspondence, Ruth Shipley to Leslie Clarence Dunn, April 9, 1953. B: D 917 L.C. Dunn Papers. Oral History Records. The American Philosophical Society.
15.
B: D 65 Dobzhansky Papers. Dunn, Leslie Clarence #1; The Reminiscences of L.C. Dunn, pp. 1145–64.
16.
Ibid.
17.
Ibid.
18.
Carlson, Genes, Radiation and Society, pp. 274–303.
19.
Correspondence, SAC, Indianapolis to Director, FBI, September 8, 1952. Subject: Muller, Hermann J. Freedom of Information/Privacy Acts No. 1024867-000. Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S Department of Justice. Washington, D.C. 20535.
20.
Elof Axel Carlson. Lecture. New York, NY. June 10, 2005; Muller’s FBI files contain numerous documents emphasizing that by the 1950s he believed the Soviet Union was even a greater threat to human civilization than atomic warfare.
21.
Carlson, Genes, Radiation, and Society, pp. 372–4.
22.
HUAC Executive Session Transcripts—RG 233. Box 2. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
23.
“Scientists Demand Greater Freedom,” New York Times, July 25, 1953; “Government Rule of Science Argued,” New York Times, July 26, 1953.
24.
William L. O’Neill, A Better World: The Great Schism: Stalinism and the American Intellectuals (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982), p. 298.
25.
Conway Zirkle, “Citation of Fraudulent Data,” Science 120, no. 3109 (1954): 189–90.
26.
“Scientists Demand Greater Freedom,” New York Times, July 25, 1953; “Government Rule of Science Argued,” New York Times, July 26, 1953; “Lysenko Scored in U.S.,” New York Times, March 27, 1954.
27.
“Lysenko Censure Backed by Pravda.” New York Times, March 27, 1954; J.M., “Letter on Lysenko,” Soviet Studies 6, no. 1 (1954): 105–6; Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science, pp. 211–2, 231–2.
28.
“Lysenko Scored in U.S.,” New York Times, March 27, 1954.
29.
See Harold Lee, Roswell Garst: A Biography. Henry A. Wallace Series on Agricultural History and Rural Studies (Ames, IA: University of Iowa Press, 1984); and Richard Lowitt and Harold Lee, eds., Letters from an American Farmer—The Eastern European and Russian Correspondence of Roswell Garst (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois Press, 1987).
30.
Another more well-known example of this same phenomenon was Stalin’s fascination with skyscrapers in the United States. See Vladmir Paperny, Architecture in the Age of Stalin: Culture Two, trans. John Hill and Roann Barris (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
31.
Krishna R. Dronamraju, If I Am To Be Remembered: The Life and Work of Julian Huxley and Selected Correspondence (Singapore: World Scientific, 1993), p. 109.
32.
Ibid, p. 110.
33.
Ibid, p. 109. See also Box 104, folder 8. Julian Sorell Huxley – Papers, MS 50, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.
34.
Medvedev, The Rise and Fall of T.D Lysenko, p. 72; “‘Who’s Again Who’ Listed in Soviet,” New York Times, September 14, 1958.
35.
“Lysenko, Stalin’s Protege, Out as Soviet’s Scientific Chieftain,” New York Times, April 10, 1956.
36.
Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science, p. 243.
37.
Clark, JBS, p. 224.
38.
Clark, JBS, p. 232.
39.
Clark, JBS, pp. 235–6.
40.
“Haldane, Geneticist, Quits Britain For India Which Has No G.I.’s,” New York Times, July, 25, 1957.
41.
Julian Huxley, Memories, vol. II (New York: Harper and Row, 1973).
42.
Krishna R. Dronamraju, “On Some Aspects of the Life and Work of John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, F.R.S., in India,” Notes and Records of the Royal society of London 41, no. 2 (1987): 222–3.
43.
J.B.S. Haldane, “Biological Possibilities for the Human Species in the Next Ten Thousand Years,” in CIBA Foundation Symposium, ed. G.E.W. Wolstenhome (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1963), pp. 337–60.
44.
Anatoly Zak, “The True Story of Laika the Dog,” Available online at http://www.space.com/news/laika_anniversary_991103.html. Downloaded, January 21, 2005.
45.
“Fifteen News Questions,” New York Times, July 21, 1957.
46.
“Party Dogma Found to Hinder Some Areas of Soviet’s Science,” New York Times, July22, 1959.
47.
“Khrushchev Pays Lysenko Tribute,” New York Times, April 11, 1957.
48.
Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science, p. 254.
49.
“French Say Chemical Injection May Change Heredity of Ducks,” New York Times, July 23, 1957; “Lysenko Defends His Theory Anew,” New York Times, December 15, 1957.
50.
“Russians Revise Genetics Papers,” New York Times, August 21, 1958; “Blood Types Tied to Some Diseases,” New York Times, August 22, 1958; “Soviet Criticized on Genetics Issue,” New York Times, August 28, 1958.
51.
“Party’s Meeting in Soviet Lively,” New York Times, January 11, 1959; Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science, p. 262.
52.
Putrament, “How I Became a Lysenkoist,” p. 444.
53.
Correspondence, Zhores Medvedev to David Joravsky, October 20, 1964. Correspondence, David Joravsky to H.J. Muller, October 27, 1964. B: L563 Lerner. Medvedev, Z.A.—materials 1962–1964. The American Philosophical Society. Medvedev’s estimate was probably not meant to be precise, but more a reflection of his own perception of how much it cost Khrushchev to support Lysenko. In his biography of Andrei Sakharov, Richard Lourie writes that item 14 on the 15 counts listed against Khrushchev was, “failing to heed Academician Sakharov’s protest against ‘Lysenko’s nonsense.’” Richard Lourie, Sakharov: A Biography (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2002), p. 182.
54.
Joravsky, The Lysenko Affair, pp. 169–86; Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science, pp. 253–70.
55.
Conway Zirkle, Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1959).
56.
Ibid, p. 52.
57.
See also Conway Zirkle, “Some Biological Aspects of Individualism,” in Essays on Individuality, ed. Felix Morley (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958), pp. 37–62.
58.
Ibid, p. 123; See also Loren Graham’s reference to Zirkle in Science and Philosophy in the Soviet Union, p. 473, ft. 3.
59.
Ibid, pp. 106, 424, 443.
60.
Ibid, pp. 93, 110.
61.
See Julian Huxley and A.C. Haddon, We Europeans: A Survey of “Racial” Problems (New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1936). Though Huxley was far from enlightened when it came to “race,” his book is typically considered as part of a process of replacing the anthropological, with a new biological, view of race. See also Dunn and Dobzhansky, Heredity Race and Society, cited above.
62.
The views of Marx, Engels, Prezent, Lysenko et al. were not, of course, nearly as simplistic as Zirkle portrayed. See also Kouprianov, “The ‘Soviet Creative Darwinism’ (1930s–1950s)”; For a comparative account of Darwin’s reputation in Russia, see Yasha Gall and Mikhail B. Konashev, “The Reception of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in Russia: 1920s to 1940s,” in The Reception of Charles Darwin in Europe, vol. 2, ed. Eve-Marie Engels (London and New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008), pp. 502–21.
63.
Zirkle, Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene, pp. 72–6.
64.
Zirkle, Evolution, Marxian biology, and the Social Scene, pp. 457–8.
65.
Harry Gershenowitz, “Professor Zirkle’s Vitriolic Attack on Lamarck,” Indian Journal of History of Science 9, no. 13 (1984): 261–71.
66.
For a notably different response to Picken’s book see Mark H. Haller’s review in American Anthropologist 71, no. 5 (1960): 993.
67.
Ibid, pp. 204–5.
68.
Ibid, p. 211.
69.
Mark H. Haller’s review in American Anthropologist 71, no. 5 (1960): 993.
70.
Zirkle, Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene, pp. 491–2.
71.
Theodosius Dobzhansky, “Evolution, Marxian Biology and the Social Scene,” Science 129, no. 3361 (1959): 1479–80; L.C. Dunn, “Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene,” American Journal of Human Genetics 11, no. 4 (1959): 385–6.
72.
See Joravsky, The Rise and Fall of T.D. Lysenko and Graham, Science and Philosophy in the Soviet Union.
73.
Dunn, “Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene,” p. 386.
74.
Dobzhansky, “Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene,” p. 1479.
75.
Ibid.
76.
Correspondence, Conway Zirkle to L.C. Dunn, September 15, 1959. B: D917 Dunn. Zirkle, Conway.
77.
Correspondence, Theodosius Dobzhansky to Isadore Michael Lerner, August 11, 1959. B: L563 Lerner. Dobzhansky, Theodosius #3, 1958–1959. The American Philosophical Society.
78.
Carleton Putnam, Race and Reason: A Yankee View (Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1961).
79.
Ibid, p. 19.
80.
The Reminiscences of Theodosius Dobzhansky, pp. 451–2.
81.
See “Rejection of ‘Color’ as the Test of a Crime,” New York Times, December 8, 1964; “Letters to the Times: Negro-White Fusion,” New York Times, December 15, 1964; “Letters to the Times: Negro-White Fusion,” New York Times, January 2, 1965; “Letters to the Times: Negro-White Fusion,” New York Times, January 15, 1965; “Letters to the Times: Negro-White Fusion,” New York Times, February 20, 1965.
82.
See for example, Correspondence, Julian Huxley to H.J. Muller, April 1, 1964. Series III, Box 34, folder 4. Julian Sorell Huxley – Papers, MS 50, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University; Correspondence, Eugene Kelly to H.J. Muller, May 20, 1963. Box 34, folder 5. Julian Sorell Huxley – Papers, MS 50, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University; Correspondence, H.J. Muller to Julian Huxley, May 23, 1963. Box 34, folder 5. Julian Sorell Huxley – Papers, MS 50, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.
83.
Muller was far more concerned about the former than the latter—in large part because he believed it was necessary for the U.S. to test atomic weapons for use against the Soviet Union (Carlson, Genes, Radiation and Society, p. 354). Nevertheless, he was by no means, as indicated by the incident with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission indicates, silent on this issue.
84.
“President Alerts Mayors on Attack,” New York Times, December 3, 1954.
85.
Correspondence, H.J. Muller to M. Hersnat, December 11, 1954. Series: Correspondence 1910–1972, Box 1. Muller MSS, Lilly Library, Indiana University.
86.
“AEC Accused of Blocking A-Report,” The Washington Post and Times Herald, September 17, 1955.
87.
Ibid.
88.
“AEC Explains Blocking of Muller’s A-Report,” The Washington Post and Times Herald, September 18, 1955.
89.
“Muzzling Dissent,” The Washington Post and Times Herald, September 20, 1955.
90.
“U.S. Bomb Pile Set at Several Tons of T.N.T. for Every Person on Earth,” The Washington Post and Times Herald, September 21, 1955.
91.
“Banned Atomic Paper is Opposite of ‘Alarmist’,” The Washington Post and Times Herald, November 6, 1955.
92.
Dronamraju, “On Some Aspects of the Life and Work of John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, F.R.S., in India,” p. 216.
93.
Correspondence, Th. Dobzhansky to I.M. Lerner, January 25, 1960. B: L 563 Lerner. Dobzhansky, Theodosius. Circular Letters—Travel #3. The American Philosophical Society.
94.
Theodosius Dobzhansky, Mankind Evolving: The Evolution of the Human Species, Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman Memorial Lectures (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 1962).
95.
William Shockley, “Models, Mathematics, and the Moral Obligation to Diagnose the Origin of Negro I.Q. Deficits,” Review of Educational Research 41, no. 4 (1961): 369–77; Walter Sullivan, “Was the Caveman Smarter Than We Are?” New York Times, January 24, 1971.
96.
“Research Grants Made,” New York Times, July 13, 1959, 50; “Academy Cites Seven for Science Work,” New York Times, April 28, 1958; “Guggenheim Fund Grants $1,500,000,” New York Times, April 20, 1959; “Television,” New York Times, September 17, 1966; “Dobzhansky Gets Degree,” New York Times, April 4, 1968; “Geneticist Reports Seeing Start of a New Species,” New York Times, March 13, 1967; “Museum Will Close for Centennial Day,” New York Times, April 6, 1969.
97.
The Reminiscences of Theodosius Dobzhansky, p. 463.
98.
Ibid.
99.
Ibid, p. 467.
100.
Ibid, p. 464.
101.
Ibid, p. 466.
102.
Ibid.
103.
The Reminiscences of L.C. Dunn, p. 778.
104.
See, for example, Bentley Glass, The Quarterly Review of Biology 27, no. 1 (1952): 60–1; Karl Sax, Isis 41, no. 2 (1950): 238–9.
105.
The Reminiscences of L.C. Dunn, p. 779.
106.
The Reminiscences of L.C. Dunn, pp. 163–4.
107.
Ibid, p. 690.
108.
Ibid, pp. 780–2.
109.
The Reminiscences of L.C. Dunn, pp. 797–8.
110.
Ibid, p. 797.
111.
Correspondence, Th. Dobzhansky to L.C. Dunn, July 13, 1961. B: D65 Dobzhansky Papers. Dunn, Leslie Clarence #2. The American Philosophical Society.
112.
The Reminiscences of L.C. Dunn, p. 1026.
113.
Ibid.
114.
The Reminiscences of L.C. Dunn, pp. 1024, 1027.
115.
The Reminiscences of L.C. Dunn, pp. 1045–8.
116.
V.I. Lenin, Materialism and Empirio-Criticism (Moscow, Russia: Foreign Languages Publishing House), p. 163.
117.
The original version appears in Joseph Petzoldt, Einfurhrung in die Philosophie der reinen Erfahrung (Leipzig, B.G. Teubner, 1900–1904), p. 37. Lenin’s is a simplified version of Petzoldt’s diagram. It may be worth having a look at the original to think more deeply about what Lenin was doing with his diagram. See also Hudson and Richens reference to the book in The New Genetics, p. 23.

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deJong-Lambert, W. (2012). Pigs Wearing Booties Earn Scorn of Red Press. In: The Cold War Politics of Genetic Research. Archimedes, vol 32. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2840-0_6

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