In the early twentieth century, Russian biologist Ilya Ivanov was highly acclaimed as an artificial insemination pioneer. Ivanov put his talents to use improving the horses of the Russian Empire, inseminating mares with sperm from the best stallions. When the communists took over, Ivanov continued his work on behalf of new masters. One of them was Stalin, who as seen below, wanted Ivanov to breed an ape-man hybrid for the Red Army.
Communist Human-zee Hybrids?
In the early twentieth century, Russian biologist Ilya Ivanov was highly acclaimed as an artificial insemination pioneer. Ivanov put his talents to use improving the Russian Empire’s horses, inseminating mares with sperm from the best stallions. When the communists took over, Ivanov continued his work for Russia’s new rulers. One of them was Stalin, who thought that it would be great if the Soviet Union had supermen to serve in the Red Army and perform the most challenging labor tasks.
It began in 1926, when Stalin stated that the communist state could surely use “a new invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat”. Such hardy people would be ideal soldiers for the Red Army. In peace time, they could perform prodigies as shock workers for the most demanding labor projects needed to advance the communist state. He ordered Ivanov to look into it, and the illustrious biologist figured that what best fit the bill would be a hybrid crossbreed of humans and apes.
Finding Soviet Females for Insemination by Male Chimps Was Easier Than Finding Female Chimps to Inseminate by Soviet Men
Ilya Ivanov decided to approach the issue from both ends. Female humans would be inseminated with male chimp sperm, and chimpanzee females would be inseminated with male human sperm. The first option was easier, and a research facility was established in Georgia for that purpose. There, female human volunteers were to be inseminated with male chimp sperm, and the resultant human-ape hybrid babies were to be raised. The second alternative turned out to be tougher. Chimpanzee volunteers of the fairer sex were harder to find in the USSR.
So Ivanov travelled to Guinea, French West Africa, to inseminate female chimps with human sperm. Unsurprisingly, the project was unsuccessful. Ivanov failed to impregnate a single female chimp with human sperm. When he returned to the USSR, his disappointment was doubled when he discovered that not a single human female in the Georgia research facility had been impregnated with chimp sperm. Stalin was not happy. A disgraced Ivanov was eventually sentenced to five years imprisonment, later commuted to five years internal exile in Kazakhstan, where he died in 1932.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
History Halls – Stalin’s Favorite Scientist, and His Quack Pseudoscience That Killed Millions
New Scientist, August 20th, 2008 – The Soviet Ape-Man Scandal
Scotsman, The, December 20th, 2005 – Stalin’s Half-Man, Half-Ape Super Warriors
