CORRESPONDENCE

Science in an occupied country Restoring good SIR - is an independent country on Sciences were lost. They were allowed to manners the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea that was return to Latvia only after 1956, but many occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. On died from cold and hunger in the inhumane ®SIR Simon Wolff (Nature 16 June that year, the conditions of Siberian exile. 377,192;1995) attacks peer review as prac­ received an ultimatum to change the gov­ The invention of the atomic bomb at the tised by journals and funding agencies. We ernment and to permit the Red Army to end of the Second World War increased the cannot speak for journals, but can com­ cross the Latvian borders. The next day, prestige of science. That was one of the ment from the perspective of a major Soviet tanks filled the streets of towns and main reasons why, at the end of the 1940s, British medical research charity that has villages of Latvia. The government retreat­ by command from Moscow, academies of always taken peer review very seriously and ed. The invaders appointed a new one. sciences were founded in all the Soviet continually reviews its procedures. We have The attitude of the Soviet occupiers republics. The Latvian academy was found­ also recently contributed to reviews of the towards Latvian intellectuals is typified by ed in 1946; in 1990, it included 20 separate UK peer review process with both the the fate of Professor Jillijs Auskaps, the institutes employing 4,668 people, of whom Association of Medical Research Charities minister of from 1938 to 1940, 1,059 held at least a doctorate. During that and the Royal Society. who had formerly been rector of the univer­ period we made some successful investiga­ Wolff says that there is "total collapse of sity. AuSkaps had been active in the organi­ tions especially in physics and chemistry. peer review within journals and by grant­ zation of science. Immediately following But some of those entering science did not making organizations". This misrepresents the occupation he was dismissed, forbidden have high intellectual abilities or were not the system, exaggerates the difficulties and to teach at the and even to live in sufficiently interested in science - and unnecessarily questions the integrity of the capital, Riga. In June 1941 he was much of the laboratory equipment was out­ organizations that are an essential part of deported and imprisoned, and in August dated. Restrictions were imposed on us. All the scientific community and, in our view, 1942 he was executed in Sverdlovsk. His investigations about marshlands, even strive to serve it well. We are constantly 'crime' was being a Latvian patriot. The botanical, were secret. The Soviet gover­ amazed and humbled by the trouble next minister of education in Latvia, Jiilijs nors believed that marshlands were primar­ reviewers take on behalf of the community Lacis, a popular novelist, although appoint­ ily an obstacle to enemy armies and should in general and the Wellcome Trust in ed by the occupiers, was arrested in January be kept secret. Facts about industrial pollu­ particular: rarely are their efforts grven 1941 and died in prison in Astrakhan in tion of land and water were not published. recognition or thanks. Reviewers devote December that year. His successor was an Similarly, all data about epidemic diseases long hours to reading the proposals, sup­ insignificant man from Moscow. were secret. porting documents and often the relevant Science in independent Latvia in the After restoration of the independence of literature, both extant and as pre-prints. 1920s and 1930s was concentrated in the the Republic of Latvia (Parliamentary Dec­ Their reports are frequently long and not newly founded Latvian University in Riga laration of Independence on 4 May 1990) infrequently as detailed as the application; where professors had good links with col­ there began a period of transition of the they are rarely other than honourable in leagues in other European . On economic system from "socialism" to a intent and objectively critical in content. the day of the occupation, the Iron Curtain "free market". But the government of We do not recognize the "bad-tempered fell, and direct communication with the Latvia can afford to spend only 0.35 per nature of science", at least as it concerns West, as well as the flow of chemicals and cent of gross national product on science. our activities. equipment, stopped. The activities of the In these conditions, there is a fast deterio­ The Wellcome Trust, for its part, goes to university were restricted and the faculties ration of science that can be characterized considerable lengths to consult a large of theology and philosophy were closed. by the number of investigators with a doc­ body of reviewers, both from the United The deans of six faculties lost their posts on torate working in the institutes of the Lat­ Kingdom and overseas, using both the per­ 14 June 1941 when 15,000 Latvian citizens vian Academy of Sciences: 1,059 in 1990, sonal knowledge of our expert staff and were deported overnight to Siberia in 854 in 1992 and 696 in 1995. The salary of advisers and electronic databases and locked cattle-wagons1. Among those an assistant is about US$80 a month and retrieval systems. In the grant year deported were ten professors and more that of a professor US$180. 1994-95, the Wellcome Trust used more than a hundred students of the Latvian The remaining scientists are trying to than 3,600 reviewers on more than 2,100 University. keep up their work in the hope of better grants, of whom 34 per cent were based In July 1941, the Soviet occupation of times. In Latvia, as well as in and overseas. We ensure that reviewers are not Latvia was succeeded by German occupa­ in Estonia, we receive aid from some over-used by checking in our database pre­ tion. The Latvian University was not foreign foundations, notably the Soros cisely how frequently individuals are asked restored and there was only limited activity Foundation. Some of our young scientists to review for us. We do not believe that the at the "University in Riga". All Jewish pro­ are able to study at universities and to work process is generally regarded, or ever fessors and students were arrested, impris­ in laboratories in Western Europe and in should be regarded, as nothing more than a oned in the Riga ghetto and executed. the United States. Meanwhile, we are seek­ marketing exercise. It is, warts and all, gen­ Many students were conscripted into the ing a new platform for the science of the erally accepted as the best method to eval­ German army. When that army retreated in formerly occupied Latvia- incorporation uate scientific research. 1944 and a second Soviet occupation into European science 2• Neither the peer-review process nor the became inevitable, most of the remaining Peteris Ozoli.,S Wellcome Trust or other grant-funding professors fled into exile in and Department of Physiology, agencies are perfect: they do not however Sweden. They were afraid of deportation by Latvian Institute of Experimental deserve to be traduced. the Soviets and other forms of genocide and Clinical Medicine, Michael J. Morgan against Latvians. o. Vacie5a iela 4, (Chairman, Science Funding) In March 1949 there was another mass­ Riga LV-1004, Latvia The Wei/come Trust, deportation of Latvians to Siberia. This L These Names Accuse: Nominal list of Latvians deported 183 Euston Road, time the locked cattle-wagons carried to Soviet Russia in 1940-41. 2nd edn (Latvian National London NW1 2BE, UK Foundation, Stockholm. 1982). 42,000 people. Hundreds of talented stu­ 2. Dickson, D.• Abbott. A. & Levitin, C. Nature372. 591-610 dents and scientists of the new Academy of (1994). • Sadly, Simon Wolff died on 25 November. 0 NATURE · VOL 378 · 7 DECEMBER 1995 533

© 1995 Nature Publishing Group