Good call.

I tracked it down: [37] is from a popsci 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.

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 but rather used as an official publication of the Central Statistics Administration (TsSU)

2. A couple researchers leaving the field of statistics

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

I have heard of this before, but I haven’t looked into it much. There’s a book on the early PRC and statistics (that I haven’t read) that goes into the relationship between socialism and statistics - https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179476/making-it-count