McGruff
Banned
Guess I could have put this in the "furry" thread.
From http://thescotsman.scotsman.com Tue 20 Dec 2005
Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors
Super-troopers: Stalin wanted Planet of the Apes-like troops, insensitive to pain and hardship.
Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors
The Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents.
Moscow archives show that in the mid-1920s, Russia's top animal breeding scientist, Ilya Ivanov, was ordered to turn his skills from horse and animal work to the quest for a super-warrior.
According to Moscow newspapers, Stalin told the scientist: "I want a new
invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the
quality of food they eat."
In 1926 the Politburo in Moscow passed the request to the Academy of Science
with the order to build a "living war machine". The order came at a time when
the Soviet Union was embarked on a crusade to turn the world upside down,
with social engineering seen as a partner to industrialisation: new cities,
architecture, and a new egalitarian society were being created.
The Soviet authorities were struggling to rebuild the Red Army after bruising
wars.
And there was intense pressure to find a new labour force, particularly one
that would not complain, with Russia about to embark on its first Five-Year
Plan for fast-track industrialisation.
Mr Ivanov was highly regarded. He had established his reputation under the
Tsar when in 1901 he established the world's first centre for the artificial
insemination of racehorses.
Mr Ivanov's ideas were music to the ears of Soviet planners and in 1926 he
was dispatched to West Africa with $200,000 to conduct his first experiment in
impregnating chimpanzees.
Meanwhile, a centre for the experiments was set up in Georgia - Stalin's
birthplace - for the apes to be raised.
Mr Ivanov's experiments, unsurprisingly from what we now know, were a total
failure. He returned to the Soviet Union, only to see experiments in Georgia
to use monkey sperm in human volunteers similarly fail.
A final attempt to persuade a Cuban heiress to lend some of her monkeys for
further experiments reached American ears, with the New York Times reporting
on the story, and she dropped the idea amid the uproar.
Mr Ivanov was now in disgrace. His were not the only experiments going wrong:
the plan to collectivise farms ended in the 1932 famine in which at least
four million died.
For his expensive failure, he was sentenced to five years' jail, which was
later commuted to five years' exile in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan
in 1931. A year later he died, reportedly after falling sick while standing
on a freezing railway platform.
From http://thescotsman.scotsman.com Tue 20 Dec 2005
Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors
Super-troopers: Stalin wanted Planet of the Apes-like troops, insensitive to pain and hardship.
Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors
The Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents.
Moscow archives show that in the mid-1920s, Russia's top animal breeding scientist, Ilya Ivanov, was ordered to turn his skills from horse and animal work to the quest for a super-warrior.
According to Moscow newspapers, Stalin told the scientist: "I want a new
invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the
quality of food they eat."
In 1926 the Politburo in Moscow passed the request to the Academy of Science
with the order to build a "living war machine". The order came at a time when
the Soviet Union was embarked on a crusade to turn the world upside down,
with social engineering seen as a partner to industrialisation: new cities,
architecture, and a new egalitarian society were being created.
The Soviet authorities were struggling to rebuild the Red Army after bruising
wars.
And there was intense pressure to find a new labour force, particularly one
that would not complain, with Russia about to embark on its first Five-Year
Plan for fast-track industrialisation.
Mr Ivanov was highly regarded. He had established his reputation under the
Tsar when in 1901 he established the world's first centre for the artificial
insemination of racehorses.
Mr Ivanov's ideas were music to the ears of Soviet planners and in 1926 he
was dispatched to West Africa with $200,000 to conduct his first experiment in
impregnating chimpanzees.
Meanwhile, a centre for the experiments was set up in Georgia - Stalin's
birthplace - for the apes to be raised.
Mr Ivanov's experiments, unsurprisingly from what we now know, were a total
failure. He returned to the Soviet Union, only to see experiments in Georgia
to use monkey sperm in human volunteers similarly fail.
A final attempt to persuade a Cuban heiress to lend some of her monkeys for
further experiments reached American ears, with the New York Times reporting
on the story, and she dropped the idea amid the uproar.
Mr Ivanov was now in disgrace. His were not the only experiments going wrong:
the plan to collectivise farms ended in the 1932 famine in which at least
four million died.
For his expensive failure, he was sentenced to five years' jail, which was
later commuted to five years' exile in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan
in 1931. A year later he died, reportedly after falling sick while standing
on a freezing railway platform.
