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In the 1920s, a Soviet biologist named Ilya Ivanov tried to crossbreed humans with various other primate species. He was responsible for groundbreaking breakthroughs with artificial insemination. With Ivanov’s use of artificial insemination, he was able to use a stallion's sperm to fertilize up to 500 mares. Most stallions could only father 20–30 mares through natural mating.
This made him popular among horse breeders, who came all across the globe to work with him. He had more ambitions then just horse breeding, and his interests revolved around hybridization between species. More specifically, Ivanov wanted to see if humans could reproduce with their closest known relatives.
Ivanov decided the best route to take with his project was to inject several female chimpanzees and orangutans with human sperms. He started his experiments when they were green lighted by the Soviet Department of Scientific Institutions in 1926. None of his subjects succeeded in becoming pregnant.
Undeterred, Ivanov then tried to experiment with human women and ape sperms. However, he wasn't able to put his plans into motion from both opposition from his superiors and the death of his last orangutan "sperm donor." Any further tests were prevented when Ivanov was hit by a purge and ended up exiled and imprisoned in what is now Kazakhstan.
I heard some very sensationalist rumors that he was somehow trying to build "super soldiers" for the Soviet government (something that a History Channel "documentary" Monsterquest touched upon). However, evidence for this is nonexistent, and I've heard more plausible reports that Ivanov's intentions was to discredit religion.
Ivanov’s “Humanzee” experiments are one of the little known but fascinating stories of the dark side of science. His works sound like something out of B-graded horror movie. I find it fascinating about how different the ethics of science was during the 1920s then today. On a side-note, I wonder how the world would have reacted if Ivanov’s experiments successfully made a hybrid offspring?
Sources:
1.https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19926701-000-blasts-from-the-past-the-soviet-ape-man-scandal/
2.https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/primate-diaries/stalins-ape-man-superwarriors/
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