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Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Systemic Correspondence between Scientists and Making of Scientific Diplomacy in the Early Cold War

Never officially enforced or renounced, Lysenkoism in socialist Yugoslavia was propagated since 1945 and lingered on well into the 1950s, even after the Tito-Stalin Split precipitated an early and dramatic de-Stalinization. In 1952, students in Sarajevo revolted against the lectures in “reactionary” biology by professor Mirko Korić (1894–1977) and demanded to be taught Michurinist biology instead. University authorities investigated Korić’s ideological transgressions. However, what was supposed to be an easy dismissal of a faculty member, threatened to become an international scandal at a time when socialist Yugoslavia could hardly afford tensions with its new Western allies. Determined to put up a fight, Korić wrote to his former schoolmate, Milislav Demerec (1895–1966), now one of the most influential geneticists in the world and director of a large U.S. research institute, asking for help. Indeed, Demerec pressured the Yugoslav authorities, exploiting Yugoslavia’s sensitive geopolitical situation in the early 1950s. Through this case study, the paper will examine what letters between individuals—one of the most ubiquitous historical sources—could achieve at a time of unprecedented importance of high diplomacy during the early Cold War. Personal correspondence such as this complicates the notion of a Cold War scientific diplomacy, especially in a country that was just starting to develop a comprehensive scientific policy, such as Yugoslavia. As opposed to a relatively slow pace of developments in state-sponsored scientific diplomacy, correspondence between fellow scientists was much more dynamic and reveals a readiness to address a number of politically sensitive issues that high diplomacy often worked hard to suppress.

History of science ; Cold War ; science and politics ; transnational networks

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