Stalin's plan to cross apes with humans


According to recently uncovered secret documents, the Soviet dictator and mass murderer Josef Stalin ordered Russia's top animal breeding "scientist," Ilya Ivanov, to create a "living war machine" to fill the ranks of the Soviet Army. "I want a new invincible human being," Stalin told Ivanov, "insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat."

Ivanov dutifully went about his business, trying to inseminate human volunteers with monkey sperm—an experiment which, for obvious reasons, was a complete failure. Ivanov was sentenced to five years of exile in Central Asia for his half-witted breeding notions. But the episode in Soviet history shows out of touch the Stalin and the Soviet elite were with human nature. They were trying to impose a regimen that did not accord with the basic predispositions of human beings. In their frustration, they sought to create a new man by mixing the reproductive materials of chimps with humans. Can there be anything more pathetic?

Posted: Wed - December 21, 2005 at 09:34 AM          

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