Hajzenberg, Lisenko i „Suhoji“: nauka i tehnologija u totalitarizmu
Heisenberg, Lysenko i „Sukhoi“: Science and Technology in Totalitarianism

Summary/Abstract: A brief introduction into the complex topic of science and technology in totalitarian systems of the 20th century (Soviet communism and German nationalsocialism) is given. The emphasis is placed, in a Popperian spirit, on the essential incompatibility of the scientific method and the totalitarian ideological dogma. As George Orwell emphasized in 1984: „In Newspeak there is no word for ’Science’. The empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of Ingsoc.“ This conflict cannot be overcome due to its structural nature, and efforts have been expended in the totalitarian state mostly to hide it under the cover of massive propaganda rethorics and sophistry. In contrast to unfounded fame and hype, as well as a veil of mysticism still reigning in connection with the alleged great successes of science and technology in totalitarian states, the historical reality suggests something very different. Case studies such as „aryan physics“, national-socialist Wunderwaffe projects, lysenkoism or the tragic absence of ecological conscience in countries of the so-called real socialism all show that pseudoscience is more likely to fill the ideological and social needs of the totalitarian elites. Authenthic science has in the best case been tolerated in such systems, and more often than not was marginalized and exposed to ideological purges in the best spirit of the Orwellian doublethink. The mysticism surrounding the alleged successes of totalitarianism in science and technology is mostly a consequence of the long-term propaganda and the lack of real education in places otherwise infected by a degree of nostalgia toward totalitarianism. One of multiple distorsions of reality brought about by this tendency is underestimation and neglect of many scientists and engineers who were at the forefront of dissident movements.

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