Great Soviet Encyclopedia Research Articles

Statistical Conceptions in the Soviet Union Examined from Generally Accepted Scientific Viewpoints

A NUMBER of the conceptual premises upon which statistical science and practice have long been based have recently been attacked and discarded as harmful to statistical development in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It seems incumbent upon statisticians in other countries to study the Soviet theses, to determine the extent to which differences are real and not merely semantic, and to take issue with those appear to undermine the structure of upon which their own work is founded. The present paper is intended as a preliminary analysis of this kind and its conclusions should be regarded as tentative. The Soviet attack, in the writer's opinion, can best be interpreted as a new phase of the ancient conflict between dogma and science. The dogmas upon which it leans have the essential characteristics of those in a revealed religion. Pretending to be scientific, these dogmas are actually anti-scientific in spirit and in the consequences which would follow their general acceptance. They are part of a new orthodoxy which seeks to impose revelation and arbitrary theological dictates upon the reason and the scientific judgments of men. Freedom of and expression are incompatible with theocracy and they are debarred from Soviet statistical doctrine. In order to support this interpretation I must describe the recent promulgation of Soviet statistical doctrine in some detail. This occurred during a two day Conference on Methodology at the Central Statistical Administration of the USSR in Moscow on February 20-2I, I950. A summary record has been published and appears in translation in the official journals of some other countries.' Soviet leaders have previously pronounced orthodox doctrines in art and literature, economics, biology, and in other scientific fields. I am among those who felt there was reason to hope tllat as an important tool for scientific analysis, statistics could escape such a doctrinal imposition. This hope has been unfounded. The conference was opened by the Chief of the Central Statistical Administration, Mr. V. N. Starovskiy. He explained that harmful bourgeois influences and anti-Marxist distortion in Soviet statistical science and literature hamper its development. He identified the main obstacle to the development of statistical science as the formal mathematics school of thought which considers statistics (to be) a universal science for the study of nature and society based ultimately on the mathematical law of large numbers and not on MarxistLeninist theory. A report on the correct theoretical basis of statistics was then given by Mr. V. A. Sobol of Mr. Starovskiy's staff. Statistics, said Mr. Sobol, is a social science, whose tasks and theoretical foundation are formulated in the works of Lenin and Stalin. Its tasks are to aid in the building of a communist society. Its theoretical foundation rests upon historical materialism and (communist) political economy. Incorrect views, which insidiously lean upon the theory of probability, have been expressed by such writers as Academician V. S. Nemchinov, who supported the chromosome theory of heredity at the 6 August I948 session of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Among others tainted with heresy were Mr. I. Yu. Pisarev (also of Mr. Starovskiy's staff) who was the author of the article on Statistics in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Following Sobol's report, according to the record. there was lively discussion. Most of *A paper contributed to the Twenty-Seventh Session of the International Statistical Institute and published here with permission of the Institute and the Indian National Committee for the International Statistical Conferences of 195'. See, e.g., Vestnik Statistiki, c. I, 1950 (publication of the Central Statistical Office of the Ukrainian S.S.R.); and Statisticky Zpravodaj, Rocnik XIII, I5 rijna 1950, Cislo 809, pp. 253-69 (Statistical Bulletin published by the State Statistical Office of Czechoslovakia).

Statistical Conceptions in the Soviet Union Examined from Generally Accepted Scientific Viewpoints

A NUMBER of the conceptual premises upon which statistical science and practice have long been based have recently been attacked and discarded as harmful to statistical development in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It seems incumbent upon statisticians in other countries to study the Soviet theses, to determine the extent to which differences are real and not merely semantic, and to take issue with those appear to undermine the structure of upon which their own work is founded. The present paper is intended as a preliminary analysis of this kind and its conclusions should be regarded as tentative. The Soviet attack, in the writer's opinion, can best be interpreted as a new phase of the ancient conflict between dogma and science. The dogmas upon which it leans have the essential characteristics of those in a revealed religion. Pretending to be scientific, these dogmas are actually anti-scientific in spirit and in the consequences which would follow their general acceptance. They are part of a new orthodoxy which seeks to impose revelation and arbitrary theological dictates upon the reason and the scientific judgments of men. Freedom of and expression are incompatible with theocracy and they are debarred from Soviet statistical doctrine. In order to support this interpretation I must describe the recent promulgation of Soviet statistical doctrine in some detail. This occurred during a two day Conference on Methodology at the Central Statistical Administration of the USSR in Moscow on February 20-2I, I950. A summary record has been published and appears in translation in the official journals of some other countries.' Soviet leaders have previously pronounced orthodox doctrines in art and literature, economics, biology, and in other scientific fields. I am among those who felt there was reason to hope tllat as an important tool for scientific analysis, statistics could escape such a doctrinal imposition. This hope has been unfounded. The conference was opened by the Chief of the Central Statistical Administration, Mr. V. N. Starovskiy. He explained that harmful bourgeois influences and anti-Marxist distortion in Soviet statistical science and literature hamper its development. He identified the main obstacle to the development of statistical science as the formal mathematics school of thought which considers statistics (to be) a universal science for the study of nature and society based ultimately on the mathematical law of large numbers and not on MarxistLeninist theory. A report on the correct theoretical basis of statistics was then given by Mr. V. A. Sobol of Mr. Starovskiy's staff. Statistics, said Mr. Sobol, is a social science, whose tasks and theoretical foundation are formulated in the works of Lenin and Stalin. Its tasks are to aid in the building of a communist society. Its theoretical foundation rests upon historical materialism and (communist) political economy. Incorrect views, which insidiously lean upon the theory of probability, have been expressed by such writers as Academician V. S. Nemchinov, who supported the chromosome theory of heredity at the 6 August I948 session of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Among others tainted with heresy were Mr. I. Yu. Pisarev (also of Mr. Starovskiy's staff) who was the author of the article on Statistics in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Following Sobol's report, according to the record. there was lively discussion. Most of *A paper contributed to the Twenty-Seventh Session of the International Statistical Institute and published here with permission of the Institute and the Indian National Committee for the International Statistical Conferences of 195'. See, e.g., Vestnik Statistiki, c. I, 1950 (publication of the Central Statistical Office of the Ukrainian S.S.R.); and Statisticky Zpravodaj, Rocnik XIII, I5 rijna 1950, Cislo 809, pp. 253-69 (Statistical Bulletin published by the State Statistical Office of Czechoslovakia).