LEADER 05006nam 2200601Ia 450 001 9910449733403321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-8047-6459-X 024 7 $a10.1515/9780804764599 035 $a(CKB)1000000000002440 035 $a(OCoLC)70770690 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10042890 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000278980 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11225187 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000278980 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10259972 035 $a(PQKB)10795047 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3037448 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3037448 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10042890 035 $a(OCoLC)923699724 035 $a(DE-B1597)581391 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780804764599 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000002440 100 $a20010425d2001 my 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aEinstein and Soviet ideology$b[electronic resource] /$fAlexander Vucinich 210 $aStanford, Calif. $cStanford University Press$dc2001 215 $a1 online resource (303 p.) 225 0 $aStanford nuclear age series Einstein and Soviet ideology 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-8047-4209-X 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tPreface -- $tContents -- $tIntroduction -- $t1 The Early Soviet Reception of Einstein's Theories -- $t2 The Scientific Community and the Theory of Relativity -- $t3 Early Stalinism and Einstein's Theory -- $t4 Stalinism After the War: The Climax of Marxist Attacks -- $t5 Turning Points -- $t6 Accommodations to Einstein's Theory of Knowledge -- $t7 Approaches to the General Theory of Relativity and Cosmology -- $t8 Einstein's Humanistic Influence -- $t9 Einstein in the Light of Perestroika -- $tConclusion -- $tNotes -- $tGlossary -- $tReferences Cited -- $tIndex 330 $aThis book traces the historical trajectory of one of the most momentous confrontations in the intellectual life of the Soviet Union?the conflict between Einstein's theory of relativity and official Soviet ideology embodied in dialectical materialism. Soviet attitudes toward Einstein's scientific and philosophical thought passed through several stages. During the pre-Stalin era, Marxist philosophers clashed over the problem of defining dialectical materialism in relation to the ongoing revolution in science. This controversy produced a full spectrum of Marxist attitudes toward the theory of relativity, ranging from complete acceptance to total rejection. Disunity also prevented Marxist writers from interfering with the work of those Soviet physicists who produced a rich literature extolling the theory of relativity. During the Stalin era (1929-1953), conflicting forces in Marxist thinking were eliminated, and complete unity was established and firmly guarded by the state. Marxist theorists declared war on "idealistic" principles built into Einstein's scientific work. State harassment of leading physicists accused of idealistic digressions persisted throughout the Stalinist era. Several leading proponents of Einstein's ideas perished in political prisons. Despite all these pressures, some leading physicists used every opportunity to reaffirm their fundamental agreement with the theory of relativity as one of the fundamental contributions to twentieth-century scientific thought. The post-Stalinist period (1953-1985) gradually evolved into a profound transformation of every domain of social and cultural life, and Einstein's scientific and philosophical legacy was no exception. Whereas Stalinist writers tried to reformulate Einstein's principles to accommodate dialectical materialism, post-Stalinist thinkers, much more familiar with modern physics than their predecessors, attempted to make Marxist philosophy sufficiently flexible to absorb the guiding principles of the theory of relativity. A wide range of Einstein's ideas, previously regarded as symptoms of bourgeois decadence, was now hailed as a cornerstone of the Marxist philosophy of science. The post-Stalinist era also produced an extensive and appreciative literature on the humanistic aspect of Einstein's thought. The short-lived period of perestroika (1985-1991) accelerated the de-Stalinization process, post-Stalinist gains were solidified, and the theory of relativity was increasingly shorn of ideological burdens, thus removing one of the last remnants of the Stalinist war on science. 606 $aCommunism and science$zSoviet Union$xHistory 606 $aCommunism and science 607 $aSoviet Union$xPolitics and government 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aCommunism and science$xHistory. 615 0$aCommunism and science. 676 $a530/.0947/0904 700 $aVucinich$b Alexander$f1914-2002.$051140 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910449733403321 996 $aEinstein and Soviet ideology$91976219 997 $aUNINA