Vadim Birstein: The Perversion of Knowledge

1.1 Main changes in the NKVD/KGB structure, 1917–present

1.2 List of the VCheKa/KGB chairmen, 1917–present

2.1 Changes in subordination of Special Secret Laboratory No. 1, 1939–1978

3.1 Dates of Mairanovsky’s biography

3.2 Events surrounding the Beria and Merkulov trials

The original VCheKa-KGB building at Lubyanka (Dzerzhinsky) Square, 1926

The main yard of Vladimir Prison, 1998

Lavrentii Beria, 1938

Lavrentii Beria, 1946

Vsevolod Merkulov, 1945

The corner of Bol’shaya Lubyanka Street and Varsonofyevsky Lane, 1997

A corridor inside Vladimir Prison, 1990

Nikolai Blokhin, 1956

Aleksei Speransky with students, 1952

Academician Gleb Frank, 1951

Presidium of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1950s

Monument to the victims of Stalin’s terror, 1997

Dalstroi: Main Directorate for Building in the Far East

EKO: Economical Department

FAPSI: Federal Government Communications and Information Agency

FSB: Federal Security Service

GEU: Main Economic Directorate

Gidroproekt: Directorate for Projecting, Planning, and Research for Hydrotechnical Construction

GKO: State Committee of Defense

Glavgidrostroi: Main Directorate of Camps for Hydrotechnical Construction

Glavlit: Main Directorate on the Literature and Publishing Houses

Glavmikrobioprom: Main Administration of the Microbiological Industry

Glavpromstroi, or GULPS: Main Directorate of Camps for Industrial Construction

Glavsortupr: Main Directorate of Seed Varieties

Goelro: State Energy Committee

Gosizdat: State Publishing Company

GosNIIOKhT: State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology

Gosplan: State Planning Committee

GPU: State Political Directorate

GTU: Main Directorate of Transportation

GUGB: Main Directorate of State Security

GUILGMP: Main Directorate of Camps of the Mining Metallurgic Industry

IEB: Institute of Experimental Biology

IEM Gamaleya: Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology

IMEMO: Institute for World Economy and International Relations

INO: Foreign Department

IVAN: Institute for Oriental Studies

JAC: Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee

KEPS: Commission for the Study of Natural-Productive Forces

KGB: Committee of State Security

KI: Committee on Information

KTPH: Kazan Psychiatric Prison Hospital

KUBU: Commission to Improve Living Conditions of Scientists

MGB: USSR Ministry of State Security

Minmedbioprom: Ministry of the Medical and Microbiological Industries

MOIP: Moscow Society of Naturalists

Narkompros: Commissariat of Education

Narkomzdrav: Commissariat of Health

Narkomzem: Commissariat of Agriculture

NEP: New Economic Policy

NKVD: People’s Commissariat of the Interior

NTO: Scientific Technology Section of the VSNKh

NTS: Popular Labor Alliance of Russian Solidarists

OAU: VCheKa Administrative-Organizational Department

OGPU: United State Political Directorate

OMNI: Society of Moscow Scientific Institute

OO: Special Department

OOT: Department of Operational Equipment

OSO: MGB Special Board

OSS: Office of Strategic Services

OTU: Operational-Technical Directorate

OVD: Department for Investigation of Especially Important Cases

PBO: Petrograd Armed Organization

Politotdel: Political Department

RFYaTs-VNIITF: Russian Federation Nuclear Center

RNP: Russian National Party

ROVS: White Russian Military Union

RSFSR: Russian Federation

SMERSH: Military Counterintelligence

SO: Secret Department

SOD: Council of Men in Public Life

SOE: Special Operation Executive

SOU: Secret-Operational Directorate

Sovinformburo: Soviet Information Agency

Sovmin: Council of Ministers

Sovnarkom: Council of People’s Commissars

StB: Czechoslovak Security Service

SVR: Foreign Intelligence Service

TKP: Labor Peasant Party

TseKUBU: Central Commission to Improve Living Conditions of Scientists

TsNIIST: Central Scientific Investigation Institute for Special Technology

VARNITSO: All-Union Association of Workers of Science and Technique to Assist the Socialist Construction

VASKhNIL: All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, or Agricultural Academy

VCheKa: All-Russian Extraordinary Commission

VIEM: All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine

VIR: All-Union Institute of Plant Breeding

VNII: Genetika All-Union Research Institute of Genetics and Selection of Microorganisms

VNII-1: All-Union Research Institute One for Gold and Rare Metals

VNIRO: All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography

VRK: Military-Revolutionary Committee

VSNKh: Supreme Council of National Economy

VTsIK: All-Russian Central Executive Committee

VTsSPS: All-Russian Council of Trade Unions

DRAWING UPON THE many new sources that have appeared since the Soviet Union was dissolved, including materials from the KGB archives, Dr. Birstein offers a detailed and fascinating account of how the so-called poison laboratory was established under the auspices of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD (People’s Commissariat of the Interior). Headed from the 1930s to the 1950s by a biochemist and physician named Grigory Mairanovsky, this laboratory served as the base for inhumane and cruel medical experiments on unsuspecting prisoners who had been condemned to death by the notorious Soviet judicial system. The usual procedure was for those conducting the experiments to lure the victim into complacency by feigning a straightforward medical examination and then, under the guise of a legitimate medication, injecting poison into the victim. The resulting deaths, observed through secret peepholes with detachment by the physicians, were often excruciatingly painful and agonizing.

Those participating in these terrible experiments on humans justified their actions by considering them in the context of a larger war against the enemies of the Soviet people. These poisons were part of their arsenal of weapons in this war, and they were operating on the orders of the highest Soviet authorities. But, as Dr. Birstein demonstrates, the perpetrators of these experiments were in fact sadistic criminals with no regard for human life. Furthermore, the scientists and doctors involved in these biomedical projects sacrificed the integrity of the entire Soviet scientific community by making scientific research a tool of the totalitarian state.