Bourgeois pseudoscience

[[File:Andrei Sergeyevich Bubnov (1884-1938).jpg|thumb|right|165px|{{wpl|Andrei Bubnov||,}} People's Commissar for Education, executed in 1938]]
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'''Bourgeois pseudoscience''' was an [[snarl word|epithet]] used by the [[Soviet]]s, especially the [[Joseph Stalin|Stalinists]], to [[denialism|dismiss]] any [[science]] that was inconvenient to their [[ideology]]. Whereas bourgeois pseudoscience in the Soviet Union began with [[Darwinism]], Soviet [[ideology]] was not inherently opposed to Darwinism, since the Soviets at times taught Darwinism as part of [[dialectical materialism]].<ref name=krementsov/>{{rp|73}} The problem was the [[Modern synthesis|Modern Synthesis of evolution]] (1936-1947), which reconciled [[Gregor Mendel#Mendelian genetics|Mendelian genetics]] with [[natural selection]].<ref name=krementsov/>

The concept of bourgeois pseudoscience developed from the fallout of the failed Seventh International Genetics Congress that was to be held in Moscow, and had been approved by the Soviet Politburo in 1937.<ref name=krementsov>''Stalinist Science'' by Nikolai Krementsov (1997) Princeton University Press. ISBN 069102877X.</ref>{{rp|58}} Simultaneously however, and before the Congress could be organized, the Great Terror (or Great Purge) of 1936-1938 was taking place. Many prominent Soviet geneticists, including all geneticists connected with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the organizer of the congress died in the purge.<ref name=krementsov/>{{rp|61}} Following the purge of the geneticists, Trofim Lysenko (a [[Proletariat|proletarian]] agronomist) was appointed as head of the national agricultural academy (VASKhNIL), setting the stage of Soviet [[Lysenkoism]] in opposition to [[Darwinism]] as official state policy.<ref name=krementsov/>{{rp|61,66}} Lysenko was opposed to genetics, considering it a pseudoscience, thus Darwinism also came to be considered a pseudoscience after the field became reconciled with genetics. Initially, Darwinism was referred to as bourgeois science by communists in the 1920s,<ref name=krementsov/>{{rp|24-25}} by 1947 Lysenko had written to [[Stalin]], referring to Darwinism as bourgeois pseudoscience.<ref name=krementsov/>{{rp|160}}

Other natural and social sciences labeled as "bourgeois pseudoscience" included:
*[[Comparative method|Comparative linguistics]] (Soviet Union, c. 1921-1950), insofar as it disagreed with the Marxist {{wpl|Japhetic theory}} of language<ref>"'Combating Bourgeois Pseudoscience': A Campaign for National Priorities in Science and Technology and Soviet Higher Education Institutions" by I. V. Sidorchuk (2020) ''Perspectives of Science and Education'', 43(1), 354-365. doi:10.32744/pse.2020.1.25.</ref><ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303668076_Hybridity_Marrism_and_the_Problems_of_Language_of_the_Imperial_Situation Hybridity: Marrism and the Problems of Language of the Imperial Situation] by Marina Mogilner (2016) ''Ab Imperio'' 2016(1):27-68. doi:10.1353/imp.2016.0023.</ref>
*Cybernetics{{efn|Precursor to [[Computer|computing]], [[artificial intelligence]], [[cognitive science]], complexity science, and robotics.}} (Soviet Union, 1953-1958)<ref>"Innovation in Science-The Case of Cybernetics in the Soviet Union" by David Holloway (1974) ''Science Studies'' 4(4):299-337.</ref>
*[[Psychology]] (China, 1966-1976)<ref>"Psychology in China: A review dedicated to Li Chen" by Zhong-Ming Wang (1993) ''Annual Review of Psychology'' 44:87-116. doi:10.1146/annurev.ps.44.020193.000511.</ref><ref>[https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/35476/chapter-abstract/303846373?redirectedFrom=fulltext 6. China] by Yeh Hsueh & Benyu Guo (2012) ''The Oxford Handbook of the History of Psychology: Global Perspectives'', edited by David B. Baker (ed.) Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199940424.</ref>
*[[Sociology]] (Soviet Union),<ref>"2.1 The Stalinist Social Order: Sociology as Bourgeois Pseudoscience" by Tomás Kolosi & Ivan Szelényi. In: ''Sociology in Europe'', edited by Birgitta Nedelmann et al. (1993) De Gruyter. ISBN 311013845X.</ref>{{rp|145-146}} China (1952-)<ref>''The Anthropology of China: China as Ethnographic and Theoretical Critique'' by Stephan Feuchtwang & Charlotte Bruckermann (2016) Imperial College Press. ISBN 1783269847.</ref>{{rp|22}}

==Gallery of people purged for genetics==
In addition to Bubnov (above), a few of Soviet geneticists and genetics promoters who were purged during the Great Terror were:<ref name=krementsov/>{{rp|60-61}}
<gallery>
File:Vavilov in prison.jpg|{{wpl|Nikolai Vavilov||,}} botanist and [[geneticist]], died in prison under harsh conditions in 1943
File:Levit SG.jpg|{{wpl|Solomon Levit||,}} physician and geneticist, executed in 1938
File:Gorbunov Nikolai Petrovich.jpg|{{wpl|Nikolai Gorbunov||,}} deputy head of organizing the International Genetics Congress, executed in 1938
File:Chernov Mikhail Aleksandrovich.jpg|Mikhail Chernov, commissar of agriculture, executed in 1938
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Abiotic oil]], another great Soviet scientific achievement
*''[[Deutsche Physik]]''
*[[Sound science]], for the [[capitalist]] pig-dog version

==External links==
*[http://humanism.su/en/articles.phtml?num=000066 Pseudoscience is a Path to the Middle Ages] by Ehduard Kruglyakov
*Dmitri N. Shalin. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100527192421/http://www.unlv.edu/centers/cdclv/archives/articles/shalin_sge.pdf Sociology for the Glasnost Era: Institutional and Substantial Changes in Soviet Sociology.] ''Social Forces'', Volume 68:4,  June 1990. (archived from May 27, 2010)

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Denialism]]
[[Category:Political terms]]
[[Category:War on science]]

Categories: Communism, Denialism, Political terms, War on science