Soviet Cryogenics?

[Omnis]

Right now I'm in the process of fleshing out the back story for a possible novel. One of the central characters is a former Soviet scientist who developed a reliable method of cryogenic suspended animation as part of program for eventual manned missions to the outer solar system. It was also considered - and rejected as too outlandish - by the General Staff of the Red Army as a possible method of surviving a full-scale nuclear exchange (by placing key political, scientific and military personnel in cryogenic hibernation until radiation levels were reduced to a point of survivability). The project was ultimately abandoned when the Soviet Union collapsed, and the researcher in question subsequently began selling his technology on the black market, where it is used to conduct illegal experiments on human subjects.

My question is, did the USSR conduct any significant real-life experiments with cryogenic freezing? If so, around what time period? Also, what kind of scientific degree would a Soviet researcher have pursued if he intended to enter this type of field? Right now, my character's "biography" has him graduating from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University (which in the Soviet period was the Moscow Higher Technical School) in 1958 with a degree in Biomedical Technology (which could be somewhat problematic from a historical perspective as this is actually a course offered at Bauman in the present day - I'm unsure whether or not this course would have existed in 1958). Also, what are some specific departments or branches of the Soviet military or scientific establishment that might have been involved in projects such as I've just described?

 

[The Holy Drunk]

Cryogenics is the broad study of cold's effects on objects. Cryonics is putting people in an icebox. I only say that as the confusion could lead you to reading some very boring essays about refrigerators.

Biomedical Technology sounds quite modern. I imagine any such experiments would be biologists and chemists working together but I have no clue just spit balling.

I'm far from an expert on these topics but two areas that might be of interest is looking into the USSR's real cryogenics research, which focused on dealing with the extreme cold of space on Soviet rockets. Look into NPO Geliymash, the modern successor company to the old state industry, I think they have some history pages (can't link due to my greenhorn status).

Also it could be very interesting to look into Soviet cosmism. Even before 1917 the Bolsheviks had a small utopian wing inspired oddly by an Orthodox priest, which saw true communism as eternal life (plus the resurrection of everyone who had ever lived). This movement looked towards science, and believed the eternal Proletarian would conquer space, as the endless distances would not age him - this movement got badly mangled by Stalin's purges but also bled off into fringe ideas that preceded modern transhumanism.

These kind of crazy ideas usually need an overly driven voice, particularly in somewhere like Soviet Russia. Perhaps a dedicated Cosmist who also works in the space/cryogenics programme is the leading light of cryonics, the Obi-Wan to your Luke?

 

[Bowler1]

I suspect this thread should have been posted under general writing discussion where it would have received a lot more attention.

Ignoring the qualifications, I think the premise of your plot is easily believed and could even be dressed up as cold war secrecy, which is why no-one has heard of this project. So with a sprinkle of cold war mania, you can pretty much write whatever you want, or I think so anyway. The cold war being the cold war, I’d be very surprised if there was no work done in this area by either side. All sorts of mad hatter projects got the green light, I’ve heard of cryogenics, so this idea is a very mainstream science idea. So write away, I think readers would easily accept your premise and not worry if your background details were not 100% accurate or fully researched.

 

[Omnis]

Thanks for the response! I think this will help. Very interesting point about Cosmism. I had actually never heard of this idea until now, but I think it may bear looking into...

 

[Dave]

The research facility will no doubt be in Siberia too. Their first success was reviving a Mammoth from a glacier which ran amok in the lab and had to be shot.

I'd also say that degree courses in Biomedical Science would not exist in 1958, but a Biochemist with a PhD in the subject would be no problem. Can't you write to the Bauman Moscow State Technical University? They probably have some kind of historian or a museum. Maybe a holiday in Moscow for you for some further research.

I'd also say that the Cold War secrecy can hide a wealth of plot problems for you. The Cosmism is interesting. I hadn't heard of that before either.

 

[The Holy Drunk]

Very interesting point about Cosmism. I had actually never heard of this idea until now, but I think it may bear looking into...

Glad I could help. Its always interesting unearthing fringe social and political movements. Cosmism's vaguely religious trappings make it all the more satisfying as a contrast to the atheist USSR.

As Dave and Bowler1 said the Cold War threw up plenty of secret, frankly bizarre, experiments and projects. Adding in real oddities like Cosmism could help blend your fiction into the real Soviet Union.

Anyway enough from me. Make sure you keep us posted on the writing. I'm fascinated by the extremely underutilised Soviet side of the Cold War, plus tales of government experiments. Its a lovely idea.

 

[Omnis]

I should maybe clarify the role played by the "Cold War" background in my novel. It's actually not the central thrust of the story, although I am planning to explore it in significant detail (my ultimate goal being to require as little as possible suspension of disbelief on the part of my audience). The story begins in the present day, with the main character, a 19-year-old student in nursing school, being severely injured and rendered comatose in a late night car crash along with her mother. Both of them then have the misfortune of winding up in a hospital secretly on the payroll of an underground research institute using the cryogenic technology I mentioned beforehand. The doctor in charge pronounces them clinically dead, smuggles them out of the hospital on a plane to the institute, and leaves two cadavers in their place. At the institute, they are both cryogenically frozen as part of a long-term "centennial" research project to test the limits of the technology.


Meanwhile, the main character's father, a homicide detective, uncovers the fraud on the hospital's part and is able to secure the arrests of all the staff involved. However, he is unable to find out what really happened to his wife and daughter (the hospital staff was given only limited information by the institute) and the case goes cold. Unwilling to give up the search, he resigns from the police force and becomes a private detective specializing in missing persons. He then spends the rest of his life trying to find out the truth of what happened to his wife and daughter, leaving a detailed journal of his findings (which uncovers much - but not quite all - of the information surrounding the abandoned Soviet project).

Over the next 200 years or so, the main character and her mother are kept in cryogenic storage as the project changes hands multiple times over the years (their black market value constantly increasing due to their unique genetic profiles and their status as "living artifacts"). The main character is finally released from storage when a researcher from the Martian colonies discovers her father's journal and does some of his own digging to find out the complete truth about the cryogenic project and where she's being kept (although her mother's location remains a mystery). Using some political and legal wrangling, he convinces the Martian government to dispatch a special ops team for a rescue operation on Earth, citing her value as an endangered living link to the past (Earth has by this time come under the control of a totalitarian regime seeking to erase significant parts of the planet's prior history). After the team successfully rescues and revives her, she is then forced to adapt to life in the 23rd century and becomes a key element in a developing conflict between Earth and its various colonies throughout the solar system.

What I'm hoping to do is give the book a sort of real world "Tom Clancy" feel that then seamlessly transitions into a somewhat more fantastical narrative - albeit one that incorporates as much hard science as possible and which could be genuinely believable given the passage of time involved.