Cover not available
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
References
Ambartzumian, V.
(1953) Das Weltall [The universe]. Sowjetnaturwissenschaft, 1, 278–291.Google Scholar
Aristov, G.
(1939) Itogi dekabr’skoi sessii gruppy astronomii Akademii Nauk SSSR [Results of the December session of the astronomical group of the Soviet Academy of Sciences]. Astronomičesky žurnal, 16 (2), 68–79.Google Scholar
Blokhintsev, D.
(1937) The advance of theoretical physics in the Soviet Union in twenty years. Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion, 12 (5), 542–549.Google Scholar
(1976) The hypothesis of the expanding universe. Soviet physics doklady, 21 (7), 387–388.Google Scholar
Bronštein, M.
(1931) Sovremennoe sostoyanie relyativistskoi kosmologii [On relativistic cosmology]. Uspekhi fizičeskik nauk. Mosca, 31 (1), 124–184.Google Scholar
(1933) On the expanding universe. Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion, 4 (3), 73–82.Google Scholar
(1936) Über den spontanen Zerfall der Photonen [On the spontaneous decay of photons]. Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion, 10 (5), 686–688.Google Scholar
Bronštein, M. & Landau, D.
(1934) Über den zweiten Wärmesatz [On the second law of thermodynamics]. Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion, 5 (1), 114–119.Google Scholar
Bronšten, V. & McCutcheon, R.
(1995) V. T. Ter-Oganezov, ideologist of Soviet astronomy. Journal for the history of astronomy, 26, 325–347. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dialectical materialism
(1975) In A. Prokhorov, Great soviet encyclopedia (3rd edition), 8, pp.187–192. London-New York: MacMillan Educational Corporation.Google Scholar
Doroškevič, A. & Novikov, I.
(1964) Mean density of radiation in the metagalaxy. Soviet physics doklady, 9 (2), 111–113.Google Scholar
Eigenson, M.
(1940) Cosmological relativity. Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Sciences de l’URSS, 26, 751–753.Google Scholar
Emin, I.
(1963) Russian-English physics dictionary. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Engels, F.
(1947) Ludwig Feuerbach. Offenbach am Main: Bollwerk-Verlag Karl Drott.Google Scholar
(1952) Dialektik der Natur [Dialetics of nature] Berlin: Dietz Verlag.Google Scholar
Epstein, P.
(1952) The diamat and modern science. Bulletin of the atomic scientists, 6, 23–34.Google Scholar
Eremeeva, A.
(1995) Political repression and personality. Journal for the history of astronomy, 26 (4), 297–324. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Friedmann, A. A.
(1922) Über die Krümmung des Raumes [On the curvature of space]. Zeitschrift für Physik, 10 (1), 377–386. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gamow, G. A.
(1970) My world line. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
Graham, L.
(1993) Science in Russia and the Soviet Union. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Haley, J. E.
(1983) The confrontation of dialectical materialism with modern cosmological theories in Soviet Russia. Doctoral work, Santa Barbara (California).Google Scholar
Hoyle, F.
(1989) Frontiers in cosmology. In M. Bappu, Cosmic perspectives (pp.97–107). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kojevnikov, A.
(1996) Games of Soviet democracy. Berlin: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte.Google Scholar
Ičsanova, V.
(1995) Pulkovo-St.Petersburg. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Krat, V.
(1936) Note on the expansion of the universe. Astronomische Nachrichten, 258 (6188), 346–350.Google Scholar
Lemaître, G.
(1927) Un univers homogène de masse constante et de rayon croissant [A homogeneous universe of constant mass and increasing radius]. Annales de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles, 47, 79–89.Google Scholar
(1946) L’hypothèse de l’atome primitif [The primeval atom hypothesis]. Neuchâtel: Éditions du Griffon.Google Scholar
Lenin
(1946) Materialismo ed empiriocriticismo [Materialism and empiriocriticism]. Milan: Edizioni Universitarie.Google Scholar
(1969) Über Wissenschaft [On science]. Berlin: Dietz Verlag.Google Scholar
Lifšitz, E.
(1946) On the gravitational instability of the expanding universe. Journal of physics of the USSR, 10, 116–129.Google Scholar
Masevič, A.
(1957) A meeting of the commission for cosmogony. Soviet astronomy, 1 (2), 306–307.Google Scholar
McCutcheon, R.
(1985) The purge of soviet astronomy. Doctoral work, Washington DC.Google Scholar
(1989) Stalin’s purge of Soviet astronomers. Sky & telescope, 78 (4), 352–357.Google Scholar
Moore, P.
(1992) Fireside astronomy. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Naan, G. I.
(1965) Über die Unendlichkeit des Weltalls [On the infinity of the universe]. In G. Kröber, Philosophische Probleme der modernen Kosmologie [Philosophical problems of modern cosmology] (pp.89–115). Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
(1976) Cosmology. In A. Prokhorov, Great soviet encyclopedia (3rd edition) (pp.188–190), London-New York: MacMillan Educational Corporation.Google Scholar
Novikov, I.
(1983) Evolution of the universe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
On the planning of astronomical research in the Ussr
(1932) Astronomičesky žurnal, 9, 318–319.Google Scholar
Parenago, P.
(1951) Mir zvezd [The world of stars]. Moscow: Akademy Nauk SSSR.Google Scholar
Partiinost’
(1978) In A. Prokhorov, Great soviet encyclopedia (3rd edition), 19, pp.295–297. London-New York: MacMillan Educational Corporation.Google Scholar
Petrov, V.
(1940) Nekotorje voprosy cosmology [Some questions of cosmology]. Pod znamenem marksizma, 7, 113–128.Google Scholar
Pius, XII.
(1951) Le prove dell’esistenza di Dio alla luce delle moderne scienze naturali [The proofs for the existence of God in the light of the modern natural science]. In M. Sorondo, I Papi e la scienza nell’epoca contemporanea [Popes and science in the contemporary time] (pp.118–129). Rome: Pontifical Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Prokofieva, I.
(1950) Conférence sur les questions idéologiques de l’astronomie [A conference on the ideological questions of astronomy]. La pensée, 28, 10–20.Google Scholar
Sadler, D.
(1960) Transactions of the IAU: 10th General Assembly held at Moscow 12–20 August 1958. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Šafirkin, V.
(1938) O stroenii vselennoi i nekotorych reaktsionnych ideach burzhuaznoi kosmologii [On the structure of the Universe and some reactionary ideas of bourgeois cosmology]. Pod znamenem marksizma, 7, 115–136.Google Scholar
Sitter, W. d.
(1932) Kosmos. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Šklovsky, I.
(1969) New information on the age of the universe. Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 79, 381–383.Google Scholar
Soviet scientists on Marx
(1933) Priroda, 5–6, 4–16.Google Scholar
Stalin
(1929) Probleme des Leninismus [Problems of Leninism]. Wien: Verlag für Literatur und Politik.Google Scholar
(1930) Politischer Bericht des ZK der KP(B)SU [Political report of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Soviet Union]. Moscow: Zentralvölker-Verlag.Google Scholar
(1949) Anarchismus oder Sozialismus? [Anarchism or socialism?]. Berlin: Dietz Verlag.Google Scholar
(1952) Reden in Wählerversammlungen [Speeches to voters assembly]. Berlin: Dietz Verlag.Google Scholar
Stenico, M.
(2015) La ragionevole creazione: cosmologia moderna, ideologie del XX secolo e religione [The reasonable creation: modern cosmology, 20th century ideologies and religion]. Trento: Fondazione Museo storico del Trentino.Google Scholar
Struve, O.
(1935) Freedom of thought in astronomy. The scientific monthly, 40, 250–256.Google Scholar
Synthesis of light elements in a big-bang model universe
(1978) Soviet astronomy, 22 (1), 1–6.Google Scholar
Sunyaev, R.
(2004) Zeldovich: reminiscences. London: Chapman & Hall/CRC. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ter-Oganezov, V.
(1930) Otkrytoe pis’mo sovetskikh astronomov Rimskomu Pape [Open letter of Soviet astronomers to the Pope of Rome]. Izvestia, 17 March, p. 2.Google Scholar
(1937) Za iskorenenie do kontsa vreditel’stva na astronomicheskom fronte (For the eradication of all wrecking on the astronomical front). Mirovedenie, 26 (6), 373–377.Google Scholar
The appeal of the All-Union Academy of Science to all the scientists of the world
(1932) Astronomičesky žurnal, 9 (3–4), 125–128.Google Scholar
Vucinič, A.
(2001) Einstein and soviet ideology. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Ždanov, A.
(1935) Soviet literature: the richest in ideas. In: A. Ždanov, Problems of soviet literature (pp.15–24). Moscow: Cooperative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the USSR.Google Scholar
(1950) On literature, music and philosophy. London: Lawrence & Wishart.Google Scholar
Zeldovič, Y.
(1964) The theory of the expanding universe as originated by A. A. Fridman. Soviet physics uspekhi, 6 (4), 475–494. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1966) The “hot” model of the universe. Soviet physics uspekhi, 9 (4), 602–617. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1969) The “hot” universe. Vestnik of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 39 (4), 38–46.Google Scholar
Zeldovič, Y. & Novikov, I.
(1967) Cosmology. Annual review of astronomy and astrophysics, 5, 627–648. DOI logoGoogle Scholar