Faust Versus Mephistopheles? | Kim Smirnov

 Where does knowledge lead - does it benefit man or will it prove to be his undoing? This con­troversy between Faust and Mephistopheles in Goethe’s Faust is a sort of key to this book by the Soviet journalist Kim Smirnov. Reflecting on let­ters sent in by his newspaper readers, the author talks to outstanding Soviet scientists-Academicians Victor Ambartsumian, Yevgeny Velikhov and Bonifaty Kedrov, to name but a few-about the interdependence between the socio-political and moral positions of the researcher, what ways he can or cannot take to reach the truth and his moral courage.