Josef Stalin Attempted to Breed Ape-men, Breeding Human Females With Male Apes

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin attempted to create a powerful, subservient army of ape-men by crossing human females with male apes. "I want a new invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat," Stalin was quoted in Moscow newspapers. The leadership was quick to respond, with the Politburo ordering the Soviet Academy of Science to build a "living war machine" in 1926.

Intended for use in both military and intensive industrial work like constructing railroads, Staling demanded the cross-breed should be of 'immense strength, but with an underdeveloped brain.' The Russian leadership viewed the mutants as a core part of the plan to strengthen the weakened Soviet Union and power the first of its Five Year Plans for quick industrialization.

Apes, most likely chimpanzees, were captured in the 1920s, and Stalin ordered Russian scientist Ilya Ivanov to perform the horrific research. Ivanov was the Soviet's top animal husbandry expert, having set up the world's first racehorse artificial breeding center.

His first attempt was to capture chimps and impregnate them with human spermatozoa. When that didn't work, he tried the opposite. He procured an agreement with a provincial governor in the African country of Guinea whereby patients in a local hospital could be used for inter-breeding, so long as they volunteered for it.

In a shock to Ivanov, but perhaps to no one else, not a single woman would agree to interbreed with an ape. The research returned to Russia, at the Suchumi Monkey Colony, a Soviet Primate Center. A document discovered in state archives describes the efforts: human trials for hybridization (female human with ape spermatozoa) were to be conducted on no less than five women. They could proceed only with the explicit written permission of the target female. Besides acknowledging the risk, she would also have to be isolated to prevent natural human breeding from confusing the results.

Unsurprisingly, the entire misguided project was considered a failure. Ivanov, like many Soviet scientists who failed, was arrested and sent for five years of exile in Kazakhstan. He died shortly after from illness.

Nature and logic implies that no pregnancies resulted, though rumors of continued efforts at Soviet Forced Labor camps continued through the 50's. The results of this research are fodder for conspiracy theorists today, particularly those in the 'bigfoot' camp. 

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Sources:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17630955-13762,00.html
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13482528,00.html
http://www.bigfootencounters.com/hominids/stonehill.htm