January 12, 1954

Russian Science

Russia in the past has produced a few truly outstanding scientists, such as Mendeleyev and Pavlov. Russian publications indicate that in recent years there has been a great increase in the number of scientists being trained and the amount of scientific work being done. In the number of published scientific papers Russia seems now to rank second among the nations of the world, with the United States first. The quality of the work is good, and some of the scientists show great originality and brilliance.

Probably the greatest handicap under which Russian scientists work is the necessity of keeping their scientific ideas in conformity with arbitrary political and ideological dicta. For five years the Russian geneticists have been held down by the Lysenko ban on the gene theory of heredity, and since 1950 the chemists have been forbidden to use the resonance theory of molecular structure. It is a fundamental principle that science progresses through the consideration of all facts and all imaginable theories, and the restrictions imposed on Russian scientists may well have prevented them from making some important discoveries.

Another difficulty is the lack of contact between the Russian and the Western scientists, which interferes with the interchange of scientific knowledge, causes much duplication and wasted effort, and handicaps both the East and the West. The whole world benefits from new basic scientific discoveries, and scientists everywhere look forward to a future of world-wide collaboration.