Stalinist sci fi, part 1: Gorilla Warfare

Isn't Christmas dreary? No cricket 'til tomorrow (and then only in Oz), no pubs, no bookshops, no bands playing...after chatting with some rellies and downing a few beers around the table I find myself drawn back to the net, and to odd stories like this one...

SOVIET dictator Josef Stalin ordered his scientists to cross humans with APES to create an invincible breed of Red Army soldiers, secret documents show. Archive papers say the Kremlin chief demanded his Planet of the Apes warriors be “resilient and resistant to hunger”. He said they should be of “immense strength but with an underdeveloped brain”. He also wanted them to work on railway construction.

Labs and ape skeletons have been found in the Black Sea town of Suchumi in Georgia by workmen building a kids’ playground.
It is thought the apes were among creatures captured for research during the 1920s project, which cost Stalin £8,500 — more than £1million in today’s money. Scientist Ilia Ivanov was ordered to breed the mutants. He had already tried to create a super-horse by crossing the animals with zebras.

OK, I should tell you this article comes from The Sun. If it helps any, Sky News is running a variant here, with some very unpleasant extra details...