Editing Stalinism (section)

=== Ideological repression and censorship ===
{{Main|August Uprising|Stalinist repressions in Azerbaijan|Stalinist repressions in Mongolia| Dekulakization|Doctors' plot| Anti-cosmopolitan campaign|Industrial Party Trial|Sharashka| Night of the Murdered Poets|UPTI Affair|Wrecking (Soviet Union)|1931 Menshevik Trial|Pavlovian session|Law of Spikelets|Blacklisting (Soviet policy)|Shakhty Trial|Korets–Landau leaflet}}
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|quote='''Cybernetics''': a reactionary pseudoscience that appeared in the U.S.A. after World War II and also spread through other capitalist countries. Cybernetics clearly reflects one of the basic features of the bourgeois worldview—its inhumanity, striving to transform workers into an extension of the machine, into a tool of production, and an instrument of war. At the same time, for cybernetics an imperialistic utopia is characteristic—replacing living, thinking man, fighting for his interests, by a machine, both in industry and in war. The instigators of a new world war use cybernetics in their dirty, practical affairs.
|source="Cybernetics" in the ''Short Philosophical Dictionary'', 1954<ref>Quoted in {{harvnb|Peters|2012|p=150}}. From {{cite book |editor1-first=Mark M. |editor1-last=Rosenthal |editor2-first=Pavel F. |editor2-last=Iudin |title=Kratkii filosofskii slovar |trans-title=Short Philosophical Dictionary |edition=4th  |location=Moscow |publisher=Gospolitizdat |date=1954 |pages=236–237 }}</ref>
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Under Stalin, repression was extended to academic scholarship, the natural sciences,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Service |first1=Robert |title=Stalin: A Biography |date=2005 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-01697-2 |page=307 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hSWK6Dh4wRgC&dq=stalin+repression+natural+science&pg=PA307 |language=en}}</ref> and literary fields.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kemp-Welch |first1=A. |title=Stalin and the Literary Intelligentsia, 1928–39 |date=27 July 2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-21447-1 |page=222 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P-y-DAAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+repression+natural+science&pg=PA222 |language=en}}</ref> In particular, Einstein's [[theory of relativity]] was subject to public denunciation, many of his ideas were rejected on ideological grounds<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vucinich |first1=Alexander |title=Einstein and Soviet Ideology |date=2001 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-4209-2 |pages=1–15, 90–120|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f_-lAYZzP1UC |language=en}}</ref> and condemned as "bourgeois idealism" in the Stalin era.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert Vincent |title=Russia, the Roots of Confrontation |date=1985 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-77966-2 |page=181 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yhjO-9aB0nwC&dq=stalin+einstein+bourgeois+idealism+theory+of+relativity&pg=PA181 |language=en}}</ref>

A policy of ideological repression impacted various disciplinary fields such as [[genetics]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stanchevici |first1=Dmitri |title=Stalinist Genetics: The Constitutional Rhetoric of T. D. Lysenko |date=2 March 2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-351-86445-9 |page=9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qCUlDwAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+genetics+repression&pg=PA9 |language=en}}</ref> [[cybernetics]],<ref name="Univ of North Carolina Press">{{cite book |last1=Zubok |first1=Vladislav M. |title=A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev |date=1 February 2009 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-9905-2 |page=166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3j2VJj1hs1EC |language=en}}</ref> [[biology]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Riehl |first1=Nikolaus |last2=Seitz |first2=Frederick |title=Stalin's Captive: Nikolaus Riehl and the Soviet Race for the Bomb |date=1996 |publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation |isbn=978-0-8412-3310-2 |page=199 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RycjxBr15NAC&dq=stalin+genetics+repression&pg=PA199 |language=en}}</ref> [[Marxism and Problems of Linguistics|linguistics]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harrison |first1=Selig S. |title=India: The Most Dangerous Decades |date=8 December 2015 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-7780-5 |page=149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9jbWCgAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+linguistics+repression&pg=PA149 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gerovitch |first1=Slava |title=From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics |date=17 September 2004 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-57225-5 |pages=41–42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QirR7QYPFZQC&dq=stalin+linguistics+repression&pg=PA41 |language=en}}</ref> [[physics]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Krylov |first1=Anna I. |title=The Peril of Politicizing Science |journal=The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters |date=10 June 2021 |volume=12 |issue=22 |pages=5371–5376 |doi=10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c01475 |pmid=34107688 |s2cid=235392946 |language=en |issn=1948-7185|doi-access=free }}</ref> [[sociology]],<ref name=eaw8-9>Elizabeth Ann Weinberg, ''The Development of Sociology in the Soviet Union'', Taylor & Francis, 1974, {{ISBN|0-7100-7876-5}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=RXwOAAAAQAAJ&q=sociology+disappeared&pg=PA8 Google Print, pp. 8–9]</ref> [[psychology]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ings |first1=Simon |title=Stalin and the Scientists: A History of Triumph and Tragedy, 1905–1953 |date=21 February 2017 |publisher=Open Road + Grove/Atlantic |isbn=978-0-8021-8986-8 |pages=1–528 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OYz1DAAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+Pedology+banned&pg=PT64 |language=en}}</ref> [[pedology]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ings |first1=Simon |title=Stalin and the Scientists: A History of Triumph and Tragedy, 1905–1953 |date=21 February 2017 |publisher=Open Road + Grove/Atlantic |isbn=978-0-8021-8986-8 |pages=1–528 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OYz1DAAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+Pedology+banned&pg=PT64 |language=en}}</ref> [[mathematical logic]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Avron |first1=Arnon |last2=Dershowitz |first2=Nachum |last3=Rabinovich |first3=Alexander |title=Pillars of Computer Science: Essays Dedicated to Boris (Boaz) Trakhtenbrot on the Occasion of His 85th Birthday |date=8 February 2008 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-3-540-78126-4 |page=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GFX2qiLuRAMC&dq=stalin+repression+mathematics&pg=PA2 |language=en}}</ref> [[economics]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gregory |first1=Paul R. |last2=Stuart |first2=Robert C. |title=Soviet Economic Structure and Performance |date=1974 |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=978-0-06-042509-8 |page=324 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JyiTAAAAIAAJ&q=stalin+repression+mathematics |language=en}}</ref> and [[statistics]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Salsburg |first1=David |title=The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century |date=May 2002 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-8050-7134-4 |pages=147–149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ej9xytYdkyAC |language=en}}</ref>

[[Pseudoscientific]] theories of [[Trofim Lysenko]] were favoured over scientific genetics during the Stalin era.<ref name="Univ of North Carolina Press" /> Soviet scientists were forced to denounce any work that contradicted Lysenko.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wrinch |first1=Pamela N. |title=Science and Politics in the U.S.S.R.: The Genetics Debate |journal=World Politics |date=1951 |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=486–519 |doi=10.2307/2008893 |jstor=2008893 |s2cid=146284128 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2008893 |issn=0043-8871|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Over 3,000 biologists were imprisoned, fired,<ref name=":2">{{cite book| last1 = Birstein| first1 = Vadim J.| title = The Perversion Of Knowledge: The True Story Of Soviet Science| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=2XqEAAAAQBAJ| publisher = Perseus Books Group| date = 2013| page = | isbn = 978-0-7867-5186-0| access-date = 2016-06-30| quote = Academician Schmalhausen, Professors Formozov and Sabinin, and 3,000 other biologists, victims of the August 1948 Session, lost their professional jobs because of their integrity and moral principles [...]}}</ref> or executed for attempting to oppose Lysenkoism and genetic research was effectively destroyed until the death of Stalin in 1953.<ref name="Soyfer Nature" /><ref name=":3">{{cite book |last1=Soĭfer |first1=Valeriĭ. |title=Lysenko and The Tragedy of Soviet Science |date=1994 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |location=New Brunswick, N.J. |isbn=978-0-8135-2087-2}}</ref> Due to the ideological influence of [[Lysenkoism]], crop yields in the USSR declined.<ref>{{cite web |last=Wade |first=Nicholas |title=The Scourge of Soviet Science |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-scourge-of-soviet-science-1466192179 |website=[[Wall Street Journal]] |date=June 17, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Swedin |first=Eric G. |title=Science in the Contemporary World : An Encyclopedia |url=https://archive.org/details/sciencecontempor00swed |url-access=limited |date=2005 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, California |isbn=978-1-85109-524-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sciencecontempor00swed/page/n181 168], 280}}</ref><ref name="Soyfer Nature">{{cite journal |last=Soyfer |first=Valery N.  |author-link=Valery Soyfer |title=The Consequences of Political Dictatorship for Russian Science |journal=Nature Reviews Genetics |date=1 September 2001 |volume=2 |issue=9 |pages=723–729 |doi=10.1038/35088598 |pmid=11533721 |s2cid=46277758 }}</ref>

Orthodoxy was enforced in the [[cultural sphere]]. Prior to Stalin's rule, literary, religious and national representatives had some level of autonomy in the 1920s but these groups were later rigorously repressed during the Stalinist era.<ref name="Censorship: A World Encyclopedia">{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Derek |title=Censorship: A World Encyclopedia |date=1 December 2001 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-79864-1 |page=2083 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gDqsCQAAQBAJ&q=stalin+mass+censorshipI&pg=PA2092 |language=en}}</ref> [[Socialist realism]] was imposed in artistic production and other creative industries such as [[music]], [[film]] and [[sport]] were subject to extreme levels of political control.<ref name="Censorship: A World Encyclopedia"/>

[[Historical negationism|Historical falsification]] of political events such as the October Revolution and the Brest-Litovsk Treaty became a distinctive element of Stalin's regime. A notable example is the 1938 publication, [[History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks): Short Course|''History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)'']],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Suny |first1=Ronald Grigor |title=Stalin, Falsifier in Chief: E. H. Carr and the Perils of Historical Research Introduction |journal=Revolutionary Russia |date=2 January 2022 |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=11–14 |doi=10.1080/09546545.2022.2065740 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546545.2022.2065740 |language=en |issn=0954-6545}}</ref> in which the history of the governing party was significantly altered and revised including the importance of the leading figures during the Bolshevik revolution. Retrospectively, Lenin's primary associates such as Zinoviev, Trotsky, [[Radek]] and Bukharin were presented as "vacillating", "opportunists" and "foreign spies" whereas Stalin was depicted as the chief discipline during the revolution. However, in reality, Stalin was considered a relatively unknown figure with secondary importance at the time of the event.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bailey |first1=Sydney D. |title=Stalin's Falsification of History: The Case of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty |journal=The Russian Review |date=1955 |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=24–35 |doi=10.2307/126074 |jstor=126074 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/126074 |issn=0036-0341|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In his book, ''[[The Stalin School of Falsification]]'', Leon Trotsky argued that the Stalinist faction routinely distorted political events, forged a theoretical basis for irreconcilable concepts such as the notion of "Socialism in One Country" and misrepresented the views of opponents through an array of employed historians alongside economists to justify policy manoeuvering and safeguarding its own set of material interests.<ref name="The Stalin School of Falsification">{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=The Stalin School of Falsification |date=13 January 2019 |publisher=Pickle Partners Publishing |isbn=978-1-78912-348-7 |pages=vii-89 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PF2LDwAAQBAJ&q=stalin+school |language=en}}</ref> He cited a range of historical documents such as private letters, telegrams, party speeches, meeting [[minutes]], and suppressed texts such as [[Lenin's Testament]].<ref name="The Stalin School of Falsification"/> British historian [[Orlando Figes]] argued that "The urge to silence Trotsky, and all criticism of the Politburo, was in itself a crucial factor in Stalin's rise to power".<ref>{{cite book |last=Figes |first=Orlando |title=A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924 |pages=802 |publisher=[[Pimlico]] |date=1997}}</ref>

Cinematic productions served to foster the cult of personality around Stalin with adherents to the party line receiving [[USSR State Prize|Stalin prizes]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nicholas |first1=Sian |last2=O'Malley |first2=Tom |last3=Williams |first3=Kevin |title=Reconstructing the Past: History in the Mass Media 1890–2005 |date=13 September 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-99684-2 |pages=42–43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-bjaAAAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+film+directors+cult+of+personality&pg=PA42 |language=en}}</ref> However, film directors and their assistants were still liable to mass arrests during the Great Terror.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nicholas |first1=Sian |last2=O'Malley |first2=Tom |last3=Williams |first3=Kevin |title=Reconstructing the Past: History in the Mass Media 1890–2005 |date=13 September 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-99684-2 |pages=42–43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-bjaAAAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+film+directors+cult+of+personality&pg=PA42 |language=en}}</ref>
Censorship of films contributed to a [[mythology|mythologizing]] of history as seen with the films ''First Cavalry Army'' (1941) and ''[[The Defense of Tsaritsyn|Defence of Tsaritsyn]]'' (1942) in which Stalin was glorified as a central figure to the [[October Revolution]]. Conversely, the roles of other Soviet figures such as Lenin and Trotsky were diminished or misrepresented.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nicholas |first1=Sian |last2=O'Malley |first2=Tom |last3=Williams |first3=Kevin |title=Reconstructing the Past: History in the Mass Media 1890–2005 |date=13 September 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-99684-2 |pages=42–43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-bjaAAAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+film+directors+cult+of+personality&pg=PA42 |language=en}}</ref>