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Part of
Science and Democracy: Controversies and conflicts
Edited by Pierluigi Barrotta and Giovanni Scarafile
[Controversies 13] 2018
► pp. 165–184

Chapter 9
The political use of science

The historical case of Soviet cosmology

From 1927 Stalin imposed several restrictions on scientific community, as well as the ideological distinction between ‘progressive’ and ‘bourgeois’ science. Dialectical materialism became a dogma for Soviet astronomy: only the cosmological model of an infinite and eternal Universe seemed to be really ‘scientific’, since it appeared to exclude God. Claiming a beginning of space and time, the Big Bang theory was generally interpreted as a ‘bourgeois’ invention supporting creationism. Ideological influence on cosmology increased after 1945. The situation changed with Stalin’s death (1953), when Soviet astronomers undertook a serious confrontation with Western cosmology. My aim is to expose the strategies used by the Stalinian astronomy to oppose Western cosmology and the aspects of the new debate with it after 1953.

Keywords: Big Bang, politics, cosmology, diamat, ideology
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The premises
    • 1.The cosmological background
    • 2.The dialectical materialism (diamat)
    • 3.Partiinost’ (партийность)
  • From the new economic policy (NEP) to the first five-years plan (1928)
  • The Stalinian age (1928–1953)
    • 1.The change of atmosphere
    • 2.The main aspects and strategies of the Stalinian astronomy
      • 2.1Political defamation
      • 2.2Alternative collocation or interpretation of the astronomical empirical data
      • 2.3Liquidation of the ‘enemies’
      • 2.4Ideological conferences
      • 2.5Direct political interferences
    • 3.The last years of the Stalinian astronomy: the Ždanovščina
  • Soviet cosmology in the Čruščëvian era (1953–1964)
  • Soviet cosmology in the Brežnëvian era (1964–1982)
  • Soviet cosmology during Gorbačëvian era (1985–1991)
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 23 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cvs.13.11ste
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