http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vision_remota/esp_visionremota_9a.htm

At the height of the Cold War, a new twist to weapons development occurred. The Soviet Union systematized its investigations in to how to harness the paranormal and use it for military purposes. What in other times was seen as magic or witchcraft - laying a curse, predicting the future, having second sight - had already gained scientific respectability in the USSR with the recognition of clairvoyance and the acceptance of psychic phenomena; research into telepathy had started in the Soviet Union in the twenties and thirties. However it was stopped by Stalin, who thought it smacked of idealism and superstition.