Советская интеллигенция в американской научно-популярной литературе: новая биография академика Д. К. Беляева. Рец. на кн.: Дугаткин Л., Трут Л. Как приручить лису (и превратить в собаку): сибирский эволюционный эксперимент
The soviet intelligentsia in American popular science literature: new biography of academician D. K. Belyaev. Review to: Dugatkin L., Trut L. How to tame a fox (and turn it into a dog): Siberian evolutionary experiment

Summary/Abstract: The soviet intelligentsia in American popular science literature: new biography of academician D. K. Belyaev. Review to: Dugatkin L., Trut L. How to tame a fox (and turn it into a dog): Siberian evolutionary experiment. Moscow: Alpina non-fiction, 2019. 296 p., Intelligentsia and the World, 2021, no. 2, рр. 120—128. The presented publication is a review of a biographical book devoted to the life and work of Academician Dmitry Konstantinovich Belyaev (1917—1985). The review carefully analyzes this biography, highlights its strengths and weaknesses. It is noted that the authors of the reviewed book were professional and qualified biologists. One of the co — authors is a colleague of D. K. Belyaev at the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Another co-author is a well-known American popularizer and historian of science. The specific structure of the book is particularly noted. Stories dedicated to the biography of D. K. Belyaev are adjacent to fragments describing the features of a particular historical period. Between them there are paragraphs about current problems of genetics. Such a structure, according to the reviewers, is both a strong and a weak side of the book. It allows you to better understand certain issues, but also complicates the perception of the material as a whole. The authors of the biography focused on the unique experiment on the domestication of foxes, which Academician D. K. Belyaev conducted in the 1960s and 1980s. These studies of the scientist received the greatest resonance in world science. Reviewers highlight the book’s shortcomings and shortcomings. Among them, not always careful editing of the text, ignoring some sources. Certain periods of Soviet history, such as “Lysenkoism”, are treated too simply and one-sidedly. Also in the book there are specific phrases that are clearly intended for foreign readers. The general conclusion of the reviewers: despite the shortcomings, this book is an interesting attempt at a scientific biography of D. K. Belyaev and can be useful to a wide range of readers.

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