Good call.

I tracked it down: [37] is from a book called “The Lady Tasting Tea” by retired statistician David Salsburg, pages 147-149. While I’m sure he’s knowledgeable about statistics, he doesn’t seem to have any special qualifications regarding history.

:::spoiler I also went to the trouble of tracking down a pdf:

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The claims about the government of the USSR seeing statistics as “an insult” seem to be partially his own speculation and partially the speculation of a statistics journal from the 50’s, rather than being drawn from any kind of official statements. The only claims that seem to have something to do with material reality are:

1. The parts about the Vestnik Statistiki, which was not shut down (as the text seems to imply) but rather was adopted as an official publication of the Central Statistical Administration (TsSU), an organizations whose existence seems to fly in the face of this “the Soviets hated statistics” narrative.

2. A couple researchers leaving the field of statistics, which could have happened for any number of reasons.

I see absolutely nothing that suggests the study of statistics was banned or sidelined in any way.