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Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6 SECRET ST-CS~01-169-72 July 1972 in the literature in 1934, 1936, and 1937 (62). After 1937 further experiments in the field of parapsychology were forbidden. During Stalin's time, any attempt to study paranormal phenomena might have been interpreted as a deliberate attempt to undermine the doctrines of materialisn. 4. (S/NFD) According to Dodge (63) in 1964, the Aerospace Technology Division of the Library of Congress reviewed the Soviet literature in an unpublished bibliography entitled, "Soviet Parapsychology" (ATD Report U-64-77). At that time, academic opposition to para- psychology in the USSR had reached its zenith which led ATD observers to the reasonable conclusion that official Soviet support or funds for parapsychological research were unlikely and that investigation in this area might be terminated. 5. (U) The above conclusion was apparently misguided because of events that occurred in 1959 and.1960. In 1959 a book entitled Mysterious Phenomena of the Human Psyche was published in the USSR. Its author was Professor L.L. Vasilev, head of the Department of Physiology of Leningrad University and a corresponding member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (64). A year later, Professor Vasilev was given state funds to establish at the University appropriately equipped laboratories for the study of telepathy, The published findings from this laboratory attracted attention and began to find repercussions in the columns of the non-specialized: periodical press (65-70). This was followed by a publication in 1962 by Kazhinskiy (71). Following the example of Leningrad, other cities, including Moscow, Kiev, Novosibirsk and Kharkov, established similiar laboratories and research centers, at which not only the phenomena described in world literature were examined, but a study was made of parapsychic features displayed by Soviet citizens. The journal Science and Religion (72) has published many articles on Soviet parapsychology, including a discussion of whether it was worth-while continuing research in this field (1965). Affirmative, though extremely cautious, replies to this question were given by Vice President of the Academy of Sciences, N.N. Seminov, by Academicians M.A. Leontovich, A.L. Mints and G.M. Frank, and by Professors A.N. Leontev and V.F. Asmus (73). This brief survey brings the study of paranormal phenomena up to the time when studies of a more pertinent nature to this report have begun. 23 NO FOREIGN DISSEMINATION Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6