Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, Eastern Europe; The Soviet Union, Volume V

861.4212/7–849: Airgram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Kirk) to the Secretary of State

[Extracts]
confidential

Moscow, July 8, 1949.

A–713. Eugene Varga’s name has appeared in the Soviet press for the first time since his recent confessional (reEmbtel 1093, April 29). He is listed as one of the members of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences, USSR, who will direct the “practical application of scientific and technical achievements to the national economy”. This may possibly signify that Varga has, in the words of the reference telegram, taken the “first step on the road to complete restoration” as a topflight economic theorist.

Of some interest is the manner in which the announcement made its appearance as well as the names of the other Soviet scientists and theoreticians associated with Varga in this project—notably Lysenbo¹ and A. F. Joffe.²

Soviet authorities, for reasons best known to themselves, chose the June 26th issue of Sovetskaya Litva as the medium for publication of a brief undated Tass item, a translation of which appears in the following paragraph.³

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Coincident with Varga’s reappearance in good company, his chief opponent throughout the Varga “affair”, K. V. Ostrovityanov, received his first public chastisement in the form of a signed article which appeared in Culture and Life, June 30.⁴

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This criticism of Ostrovityanov does not necessarily mean his eclipse by a reascendant Varga but it is interesting to note the coincidence of the publication of the criticism and the news of Varga’s new assignment. Future developments will be watched carefully and reported as they occur.

Kirk

1. Trofim Denisovich Lysenko was an agronomist and biologist, a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, whose unorthodox theories in genetics on the influence of heredity or environment in determining the characteristics of organisms had recently provoked a bitter conflict, which persisted for many years, among scientists in the Soviet Union and the Western World.
2. Abram Fëdorovich Ioffe was an eminent and influential physicist of much versatility, a professor and organizer, and a member of the Academy of Sciences.
3. Not printed. This Tass bulletin stated that “a series of organizational questions was considered” at the meeting of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences. The better to solve these problems of the practical application of achievements to the national economy “responsibility was divided among various members of the Presidium” who were qualified in particular fields. Varga was assigned responsibility “for economics and law.”
4. The detailed criticism of Konstantin Vasilyevich Ostrovityanov, as the Director of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences, for the unsatisfactory work of the State-Planning Publishing House (Gosplanizdat), which had failed “to guarantee the preparation of serious technical works on the most imporant problems of socialist economy”, is omitted.