 Автор: Simon Ings Название: Stalin and the Scientists: A History of Triumph and Tragedy 1905-1953 Издательство: Faber & Faber Год: 2016 ISBN: 978-0571290079 Язык: English Формат: pdf, epub Размер: 18,9 mb Страниц: 528
Simon Ings weaves together what happened when a handful of impoverished and underemployed graduates, professors and entrepreneurs, collectors and charlatans, bound themselves to a failing government to create a world superpower. And he shows how Stalin's obsessions derailed a great experiment in 'rational government'.
Stalin and the Scientists tells the story of the many gifted scientists who worked in Russia from the years leading up to the Revolution through the death of the “Great Scientist” himself, Joseph Stalin. It weaves together the stories of scientists, politicians, and ideologues into an intimate and sometimes horrifying portrait of a state determined to remake the world. They often wreaked great harm. Stalin was himself an amateur botanist, and by falling under the sway of dangerous charlatans like Trofim Lysenko (who denied the existence of genes), and by relying on antiquated ideas of biology, he not only destroyed the lives of hundreds of brilliant scientists, he caused the death of millions through famine.
But from atomic physics to management theory, and from radiation biology to neuroscience and psychology, these Soviet experts also made breakthroughs that forever changed agriculture, education, and medicine. A masterful book that deepens our understanding of Russian history, Stalin and the Scientists is a great achievement of research and storytelling, and a gripping look at what happens when science falls prey to politics.
Preface Prologue: Fuses (1856–1905)
PART ONE: CONTROL (1905–1929)
1 Scholars 2 Revolutionaries 3 Entrepreneurs 4 Workers 5 Exploring the mind 6 Understanding evolution 7 Shaping humanity
PART TWO: POWER (1929–1941)
8 ‘Storming the fortress of science’ 9 Eccentrics 10 The primacy of practice 11 Kooperatorka 12 The great patron 13 ‘Fascist links’ 14 Office politics 15 ‘We shall go to the pyre’
PART THREE: DOMINION (1941–1953)
16 ‘Lucky stiffs’ 17 ‘Can I go to the reactor?’ 18 ‘How did anyone dare insult Comrade Lysenko?’ 19 Higher nervous activity 20 ‘The death agony was horrible’ 21 Succession
Epilogue: Spoil Acknowledgements Bibliography Index
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