Did Stalin force Soviet scientists to create a human-chimpanzee hybrid?

Technological and scientific progress increased rapidly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which aroused universal interest in all new and sometimes very strange scientific possibilities. Humanzee human-monkey hybrid soldiers formed one of these possibilities.

It was the era of steel, Railways, the factory system, and eugenics. But before the whole of Europe turned towards extreme nationalism and amazing personalities who campaigned for the production of a sublime human breed, the idea of hybridizing humans with monkeys occurred to the Russian scientist, who succeeded only in hybridizing a variety of mammals, including zebras. But his name was not Joseph Stalin. It was Ilya Ivanov, who researched the possibility of human-ape hybridization long before Stalin was politically successful.

Thanks to articles published by pro-scientific creationist organizations over the years, Ivanov's strange experiments mixed with Stalin's, assuming that he asked scientists to produce a breed of human-ape hybrid soldiers who would be extremely strong and would serve in a formidable Soviet army. Such plans were not in Stalin's sights. Indeed, such a fighting force had never been of interest to Ivanov. All he wanted to do was prove the possibility of human hybridization.

The real story behind Ivanov's being able to secure a small sum from the Soviet government to conduct artificial insemination experiments on humans and chimpanzees is more curious than rumors, but equally outrageous.

It's easy to blame Stalin, but he was not responsible

Joseph Stalin is an easy sign to blame him for many evils, he was really guilty-in many cases - but the suggestion that he somehow encouraged, financed or directed a project to create a hybrid race of humans and apes supporting the Soviet army with a model of super-soldiers is not only absurd, but also false.

Scientific progress of the XIX and early XX centuries certainly proved the fertility of the Earth for the most brutal and morally degenerate experiments and programs. One need only look at the corruption that has befallen eugenics to understand that the scientifically empowered, politically and financially powerful in the world were eager to use “science” to subjugate the population and enable control over them. However, the creation of that hybrid was not under Soviet eyes. But it was the creationists of the twentieth century who began to promote the pseudo-story as a means of strengthening their arguments against the theory of evolution.

One academic journal incorrectly entered Stalin's name in its pages.

Publications of creationists based their claims about Stalin's guilt on one newspaper article written by the Russian scientist Kirill Rusyanov. Since academic journals are usually peer-reviewed, the source seemed legitimate, until someone read the original article and realized that rusyanov was writing about a former Russian scientist, Ilya Ivanov, who had already conducted-or tried to conduct - some experiments on artificial insemination of female chimpanzees with human sperm, as well as insemination of women with chimpanzee sperm.

No name of Stalin, evidence of his influence or approval was found anywhere from the Ivanov case or the article by rusyanov. And it is quite possible that Stalin knew about the case or read about it in the newspapers, just like everyone else.

If not Stalin, who led the human-monkey hybridization campaign

Ilya Ivanov was a highly respected scientist known for his extreme dedication to the creation of new and fantastic scientific possibilities that appeared at the turn of the twentieth century. Despite – or perhaps because of his passion, Ivanov was not necessarily asking if something should be done, if it was technically possible. He had no big moral problem.

He spent most of his career working with livestock to improve horse breeding, however, he became known all over the world for his studies and successes in artificial insemination. He was able to produce hybrids of cattle, including a combination of donkey and zebra known as “zedonk”.

Moreover, anyone who believes that the Soviet leadership persuaded Ivanov to explore the possibilities of human-monkey hybridization should look back to Ivanov's past, where he spoke, wrote, and lectured on the possibility of human-monkey hybridization as early as 1910.

Ivanov received funding for his experiments after the Bolshevik Revolution.

During the years following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Ivanov thought the time might be right to approach the new regime for funding. But not for the development of Super-Warriors, but for general artificial insemination procedures similar to what he has already done before; although, of course, this time it will be much more controversial since it will involve humans. However he did not get much support, and none of it came from Stalin.

In 1924, the Soviet government, specifically the Soviet Finance Committee, after the approval of the "Soviet Academy of Sciences", awarded Ivanov the equivalent of 10,000 dollars to explore the possibilities of human-ape hybrids. The event was very prestigious, and the famous scientist Ivan Pavlov was present for the occasion.

Ilya Ivanov is considered the first to inseminate female chimpanzees with human sperm:

Supplied with the grant money he had recently received, Ivanov and his team arrived at a research station in French Guinea in March 1926. Local hunters would catch chimpanzees in the wild and return them to the scientists at the research station to do their experiments.

In the end, Ivanov ended up getting three young female chimpanzees, who were soon inseminated with human sperm. But the vaccination did not work.

He tried to vaccinate women from French New Guinea without their consent.

After the failure of the chimpanzee insemination, Ivanov decided to inseminate African women without their knowledge with chimpanzee sperm. He planned to do this on the pretext of a standard medical examination. But fortunately, the governor of French Guinea rejected his plan. Ivanov was forced to return to Russia, where he soon developed another plan for human experimentation.

After returning to Russia, five women volunteered to be inseminated with chimpanzee sperm:

After returning home to Russia, Ivanov set out to implement his latest scheme to create a human-ape hybrid. They sent him 20 chimpanzees from Africa, and the idea was to form a Soviet chimpanzee incubator. But all the animals died before they arrived in Russia except for four.

Ivanov brought the remaining four to a warmer region of the Soviet Union. Then he managed to convince five local women to agree to artificial insemination with chimpanzee sperm. But again he was unable to experiment, as the last four chimpanzees died shortly after arrival.

The motive and catalyst for Ivanov's work was the refutation of certain religious beliefs.

Part of the Soviet embrace of Ivanov's experiments was due to their relationship to Darwin's theory of evolution. Ivanov's thinking was based on the work of Darwin, who believed that the reproduction of humans by apes would indicate their close relationship to the evolutionary tree. This, in turn, will prove the superiority of science over religion, which is a significant part of the Soviet project to deny religion and rid people of it.

Given Ivanov's “at least partial” motivation in this regard, it is no wonder that his failure to produce a human being has added fuel to the creationist Christian fire.

Ivanov's failed experiments inspired creationists to declare that Darwin's theories were wrong:

Creationists and evangelical Christians, even in the early part of the twentieth century, saw great value in promoting the failure of Ivanov's experiments. The inability of humans and chimpanzees – closely related according to Darwinism – to reproduce will refute Darwin's theory.

It was this moment that provoked the widespread popularization of the story that Stalin was creating human-ape hybrid soldiers, because it allowed opponents of Darwinism to discredit the scientist, his theory, and Stalin's reputation at the same time.

The idea of hybridizing monkeys with humans was not in his favor in the end.

By the time Ilya Ivanov ran out of government funding, the scientific community was also tired of the idea of human-monkey hybridization. The constant growth of nationalism throughout Europe led leaders and citizens to explore a different approach to eugenics.

While the original concept involved parents being able to improve their children's genes-potentially eliminating disease or choosing things like eye color – nationalists such as the Nazi Party saw eugenics as the way to get rid of populations with “lower” race and encourage “better” human specimens to hybridize more of their offspring. In short, the idea of an Aryan “race of Masters” quickly replaced the concept of human-ape hybrid soldiers. It was not long before the concept of eugenics became scientifically and socially unacceptable.

The Soviets embarked on a purge of “inferior " humans, among whom was Ivanov.

Many political movements end up liquidating their personnel. Look, for example, at what happened to Robespierre after the French Revolution. The scientist Ilya Ivanov did not reach the brutal, violent end that the French leader met, but when Stalin decided to conduct a purge of the Soviet scientific community in 1930 – one of many purges of intellectuals during his reign in 1930 – Ivanov was arrested, accused of inciting a counter-revolutionary movement, and exiled to Kazakhstan, where he died two years later.

This was not the end of the monkey-human hybrid idea:

It turned out that Ivanov's thoughts did not die with him completely. In the unusual case of chimpanzee Oliver, an eccentric chimpanzee known for his human-like behaviors such as walking and smoking, it was said that the origin of man is a genetic mixture between humans and chimpanzees. In addition to its striking appearance, reports have indicated that it has 47 chromosomes, while a normal chimpanzee has 48 chromosomes, apparently making it closer to a human, who has 46 chromosomes.

Oliver's DNA was tested in 1996, through which these claims were refuted. Tests have shown that he has all 48 chromosomes, the same as a normal chimpanzee. But Oliver's unusual appearance still arouses curiosity.