You may recall an article I linked to years ago on Slate about whether or not human DNA is compatible with any other animals. Stalin had the same questions (and who doesn’t‽), and in fact had a small program where they tried to mate humans with monkeys. Apparently those monkeys’ decedents are still hanging around the Research Institute of Experimental Pathology and Therapy in Abkhazia!
Few townspeople use the fancy name anymore; they just point toward the building on the hill and speak of the “monkey sanctuary”. The 286 surviving animals are descended from the thousands that populated the laboratories of the Soviet Union’s preeminent primate research institute.
[…]
Many of the monkeys escaped into snowy winters and harsh wilderness, or were freed by sympathetic bystanders who realized they were starving, unwittingly dooming many to death from exposure. In the wildest days of bloodletting, with primates running loose, some of the soldiers took to keeping baby monkeys perched on their shoulders as surreal mascots. Only a few of the animals survived in their cages, kept alive by a few stalwart staff members and tenderhearted locals.