Utopian visions charted the course of scientific endeavors in the early decades of the Soviet Union. This philosophy was taken to its logical extreme by the Communist Party under Joseph Stalin (above). The Stalinists rejected scientific theories and scientific evidence when they did not conform to political ideology. The severest manifestation of this approach took place within scientific disciplines concerned with human nature. Physical anthropology—encompassing the evolution, genetics and behavior of the human species—was affected because its subject matter touched on one of the main objectives of communism: The creation of the "new Soviet man" who was to represent the culmination of human evolution under socialism.

Commentary from the March-April 1993 issue of American Scientist.