Stalin and the Scientists: A History of Triumph and Tragedy, 1905-1953
Stalin and the Scientists: A History of Triumph and Tragedy, 1905-1953
Starting in 1856 and giving a sweeping view of Russian history, this book was not exactly what I was expecting when I picked it up. For someone whose knowledge of Russia comes largely from classic literature, movies, celebrity, and sports, the historical background was genuinely helpful in understanding why Russia developed the way it did. When the book explains the country’s sheer size and its difficulty producing at scale, it becomes easier to see how the Russia of today grew out of the Russia of the past.
What I also did not expect was how fundamental science was to the state and the politics of the country. Throughout its history, Russia has been both closely aligned with science and deeply opposed to it at a fundamental level. The book touches on well-known figures like Dmitri Mendeleev (father of the periodic table) and Ivan Pavlov (of classical conditioning fame), while also placing them in conversation with other scientists of the time. The period covered was one of remarkable scientific abundance, spanning genetics, psychiatry, and even early atomic research. What is most fascinating is seeing how these scientists learned from one another, often through extended stays in European salons and universities, and realizing how central science was to government and political thought.
During this period, the separation between scientific disciplines largely did not exist. Social science, psychiatry, and biology were sometimes treated as one field and sometimes as many. It was an era of exploration and discovery but embedded in debates over nature versus nurture were ideas about order - how society should function and how individuals should fit within it. Marxism itself was viewed as a science, and many revolutionary ideas grew from that framework. The Bolsheviks under Lenin subscribed to a very specific scientific mindset, and through it, the organization of Russian society repeatedly fell in and out of favor.
The book moves back and forth between these ideas. At times, it focuses closely on the lived experiences of scientists doing experiments, teaching, and discovering the world around them. At other moments, it examines the broader “idea” of science as the undercurrent shaping political movements and factions. This narrative approach works well. We learn, for example, that Pavlov, a Nobel laureate, watched colleagues at his university literally starve to death. Russian science often depended on foreign patrons simply to keep researchers fed and warm, which was surprising. The book also explores early ideas about automation and automatons, including a period when the state outlawed education in favor of teaching only factory work, believing the two were effectively the same. And all of this is still just the first half of the book. Then comes Stalin...
Stalin operated under one prevailing belief: science should serve the state. Under that philosophy, Russia produced extraordinary scientists while simultaneously failing, often catastrophically, to keep its citizens alive. The second half of the book focuses more heavily on Stalin and Trofim Lysenko - who is not someone anyone should want in a position of power - and somehow manages to highlight even worse working conditions than starvation.
If nothing else, this book stands as a testament to the power of ideas and to the people devoted to improving the world through discovery. I found it genuinely fascinating, especially the section on the seed library and its relationship to famine. While the author breaks the fourth wall too often, speaking directly to the reader and foreshadowing what comes next, the book’s ambition is hard to ignore. I would recommend it to readers with a strong interest in Russian history or in the uneasy, often dangerous intersection of science and state power.
Book essay contributed by Kim Hiltwein. Kim Hiltwein has been with the Pritzker Military Museum & Library since 2021 and is currently acting as the Databases & Communications Administrator.
*Copies of this book are available in the physical library and as an eBook for members.