The Russian Humanzee Experiments

In "The Island of Doctor Moreau," Wells envisions a fictional island inhabited by hideous humanoid beasts created by the island's namesake, the disgraced Dr. Moreau. While Wells' literary classic is considered to be a work of fiction, at the turn of the twentieth century real experiments were taking place in an attempt to crossbreed humans with the animal kingdom. The most famous of these experiments were conducted by Russian biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov.

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Ivanov spent many years attempting to artificially inseminate chimps and orangutans with human sperm. As early as 1910, Ivanov presented his thesis to the World Congress of Zoology and it was agreed that Ivanov would receive funding for his research into creating the human-ape hybrid known as the "humanzee."

Try as he might, Ivanov's experiments were a colossal failure. By the time 1929 rolled around, Ivanov decided to reverse the experiment and hoped that by using human volunteers he could produce a viable pregnancy using orangutan sperm. Ivanov was able to recruit five eager volunteers, but this experiment was forced to be halted when his last surviving orangutan died.

By 1930, the once celebrated zoologist was under the scrutiny of Russian scientists. Ivanov and many of his colleagues were dismissed for their various bizarre experiments and later that year Ivanov would be placed under arrest. He spent the rest of his years in exile until he died of a stroke in 1932.

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No one is quite sure what motivated Ivanov's experiments nor what he had hoped to accomplish. One theory is that Ivanov wanted to prove that humanity could be changed in unique and creative ways. Proving Darwin's theories factual by successfully breeding man with apes meant that there were beastly instincts within man that scientist could find a way to eliminate. Not to mention that it would be a slap in the face to the church, something the Bolsheviks wanted desperately to eliminate.

Given the popularity of positive eugenics at the time, this theory would support why the Socialist Bolsheviks would back these absurd experiments. Eliminate a man's need to compete and promote positive traits necessary for communal living.

There are, of course, other theories on why Ivanov would dedicate two decades to this research. Some say that Ivanov was hoping to create a sort of ape-like super soldier. Whatever the case may have been, his work was for nothing. Not only was Ivanov the laughing stock of the Soviet scientific community but his research would become relatively unknown until the 1990s when the Russians publicly released a majority of their Soviet-era archives.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Ivanovich_Ivanov
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19926701-000-blasts-from-the-past-the-soviet-ape-man-scandal/