„Counter-Revolutionary Dinosaurs“: A Popular History of the Gobi Paleontological Expeditions under Socialism“ by Philipp Kohl25.10.2026 {en}
On 26 October 2026 from 6 pm (German time), we cordially invite you to an online lecture in which PD Dr Philipp Kohl (LMU Munich) will shed light on an episode in the history of science that is as unexpected as it is revealing. In “Counter-Revolutionary Dinosaurs”: A Popular History of the Gobi Paleontological Expeditions under Socialism, Dr Kohl will explain how dinosaur discoveries in the Gobi Desert became a political issue caught between Soviet ideology, Mongolian literature and Polish research ambition.
To the lecture*: https://spk-berlin.webex.com/spk-berlin/j.php?MTID=m87a6b2c411d73ca0604a496d79739d92
Abstract:
The talk will offer a popular history of the Gobi desert as a site for paleontological exhibitions with a focus on scientists from socialist countries, particularly the Soviet Union and Poland. It will depart from the observation that this story did not begin as one of scientific expeditions but as a literary history. After Roy Chapman Andrews’s sensational discovery of the first dinosaur eggs in 1923, Soviet culture experienced its first dinosaur rush, long before the launch of the first Mongolian Paleontological Expedition of the Academy of Science in 1946. Although the expedition leader, Ivan Efremov, was one of the most prolific Soviet writers of science fiction, he did not write any fictional accounts about the Gobi expeditions. His 1956 travelogue Road of Winds makes rather dry reading. And the Moscow Paleontological Museum, having run out of space after assembling the Mongolian dinosaur skeletons, stayed closed to the public between 1954 and 1987.
In order to explain why dinosaurs were not particularly popular under Stalin, the talk will not only look at the political constraints of paleontology at the onset of the Cold War in the Mongolian People’s Republic, a contested geopolitical zone between the USSR and China. It will also discuss the Soviet expedition’s (non-)reception in the first socialist novel of Mongolian literature, Chadraabalyn Lodoidamba’s In the Altai (1951). And it will compare the Soviet researchers to their 1960s Polish successors under Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, whose results were widely popularized in exhibitions, films, and a dinosaur park.
https://blog.crossasia.org/crossasia-talks-philipp-kohl/
The lecture will be held in English. If you have any questions, please contact us: ostasienabt[at]sbb.spk-berlin.de.
*The lecture will be streamed and recorded via Webex.
By participating, you grant the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and its subordinate institutions free of charge all rights of usage of pictures and videos taken of you during this lecture presentation. This declaration of consent is valid in terms of time and space without restrictions and for usage in all media, including analogue and digital usage. It includes image processing and the usage of photos in composite illustrations. German law will apply.
Further information at https://blog.crossasia.org/crossasia-talks/.
Source: CrossAsia Talk: „Counter-Revolutionary Dinosaurs“: A Popular History of the Gobi Paleontological Expeditions under Socialism“ by Philipp Kohl. Oct. 26 2026, 6pm (German time), H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online „CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.“
