Stalin and the Scientists

by Simon Ings

student in St Petersburg, 1;

  education overseas, 1;

  professor at Moscow University, 1;

  organises famine relief, 1;

  liberal campaigner, 1, 2;

  elected to Academy of Sciences, 1;

  in Ukraine during civil war, 1;

  assistant minister of education, 1, 2;

  in Kiev during civil war, 1;

  and biogeochemistry, 1;

  in Kiev, 1, 2;

  in Crimea, 1, 2;

  in Paris, 1;

  returns to Russia, 1;

  lobbies for uranium programme, 1.

  See also Kadets; nöosphere

  vernalisation, 1; early studies, 1;

  American interest in, 1, 2;

  large-scale tests begun, 1;

  national trials, 1, 2;

  in practice 1

  ‘Virgin Lands’ campaign, 1

  Vladimirsky, Mikhail Fedorovich (1874–1951), 1

  Vogt, Oskar (1870–1959), 1, brain studies in Moscow, 1,

  invites the Timofeev-Ressovskys to Berlin, 1,

  director of the Institute of Brain Research, Berlin-Buch, 1, 2, 3

  Vogt-Mugnier, Cécile (1875–1962), 1, 2, 3, 4n25

  Volga river, mechanisation of, 1

  Vygotsky, Lev Semyonovich (1896–1934), 1, 2, 3; and the campaign for a Marxist psychology, 1;

  theory of art, 1;

  and child psychology, 1;

  at the White Nursery, 1;

  The Historical Meaning of the Crisis in Psychology (1927), 1, 2;

  ill-health, 1;

  and cultural–historical psychology, 1

  Vyshinsky, Andrei Ianuarevich (1883–1954), 1, 2, 3

  Wells, Herbert George (1866–1946), 1

  wheat: genetic study of, 1; means of reproduction, 1;

  vernalisation of 1, 2, 3;

  T. Lysenko’s scheme to force outcrossing, 1, 2.

  See also vernalisation, branching wheat

  White Nursery, 1

  White Sea Canal, 1, 2, 3

  Whites (anti-Bolshevik forces), 1, 2

  X-rays: used to determine gene size, 1; used to induce mutations, 1, 2

  Yagoda, Genrikh Grigorievich (1891–1938), 1

  Yakovlev, Yakov Arkadevich (1896–1938), promotes work of T. Lysenko, 1, 2, 3; edits Peasants’ Gazette, 1,

  Commissar of Agriculture 1,

  impatient with N. Vavilov, 1, 2;

  refuses to denounce N. Vavilov, 1;

  killed in Great Purge, 1

  Yakushevsky, E. S. (1902–89), 1, 2

  Yavorsky, Boleslav Leopoldovich (1877–1942), 1

  Yevdokimov, Yefim Georgievich (1881–1940), 1, 2

  Zaitsev, Gavriil Semenovich (1887–1929), 1

  Zalkind, Aron Borissorovich (1888–1936), 1, 2

  Zamyatin, Yevgeny Ivanovich (1884–1937), 1, 2, 3; We (1921), 1

  Zaporozhets, Anton Kuzmich (1895–?), 1

  Zavadovksy, Boris Mikhailovich (1895–1951), populariser of science, 1; attacks N. Koltsov’s eugenics, 1;

  director of VARNITSO, 1, 2;

  questions validity of August Session of Lenin Academy, 1

  Zavadovsky, Mikhail Mikhailovich (1891–1957), 1, 2

  Zavenyagin, Avrami Pavlovich (1901–56), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5n15

  Zazetsky, Lev (1920–?), 1

  Zeldovich, Yakov Borisovich (1914–87), 1

  Zhdanov, Andrei Alexandrovich (1896–1948), foments cultural revolution, 1;

  oversees collectivisation in Nizhny Novgorod, 1;

  succeeds S. Kirov as Leningrad Party leader, 1;

  supports open debate in genetics, 1;

  directs Leningrad during seige, 1;

  and KR affair, 1;

  influence over culture, 1, 2, 3;

  deteriorating health, 1;

  and G Malenkov, 1, 2;

  misdiagnosis and death, 1

  Zhdanov, Yuri Andreyevich (1919–2006), 1, 2, 3

  Zhebrak, Anton Romanovich (1901–65), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Zhukov, Georgy Konstantinovich (1896–1974), 1

  Zhukovsky, Peter Mikhailovich (1888–1975), 1

  Zimmer, Karl Günter (1911–88), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Zinoviev, Grigory Yevseevich (1883–1936), 1, 2, 3

  About the Author

  Simon Ings is the arts editor of New Scientist magazine. His novels include The Weight of Numbers and Wolves. His science writing includes The Eye: a Natural History. He divides his time between a sweltering glass-walled penthouse in Dubai and what may be London’s coldest flat, writing and reviewing for broadsheets and magazines including Nature and The Spectator. He blogs sporadically at www.simonings.com

  Also by the Author

  fiction

  HOT HEAD

  HOTWIRE

  HEADLONG

  CITY OF THE IRON FISH

  PAINKILLERS

  THE WEIGHT OF NUMBERS

  DEAD WATER

  WOLVES

  non-fiction

  THE EYE: A NATURAL HISTORY

  Copyright

  First published in 2016

  by Faber & Faber Ltd

  Bloomsbury House

  74–77 Great Russell Street

  London WC1B 3DA

  All rights reserved

  © Simon Ings, 2016

  Design by Faber

  Image © Michael Nicholson / Getty

  The right of Simon Ings to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

  ISBN 978–0–571–29009–3