Social Scientists and War Criminals

In: New politics: a journal of socialist thought, Band 6, S. 77-87

Abstract

Discusses the Harvard Russian Research Center's post-WWII clandestine recruitment of former supporters of General Andrei Vlasov, a Soviet prisoner of war who organized an army of other Soviet prisoners for the Germans. An overview of prominent Vlasovists, notably Nicholas Poppe & Leo Dudin, & their respective escapes to Western Europe is presented; it is contended that the Vlasovists' knowledge of Soviet affairs was highly valued by US authorities & scholars. In conjunction with the Carnegie Corp, the State Dept wished to promote Soviet defections to the US as a means of augmenting information about the USSR. The reconnaissance mission of sociologist Talcott Parsons to Germany, designed to recruit potential Soviet defectors, & the Harvard Russian Research Center's organization of prominent Soviet defectors under the cover of the Munich Instit research contingent are discussed. Parsons's involvement with the Harvard Russian Research Center & relations between governmental & research institutions deserve additional critical attention. J. W. Parker