In a letter to Fredrick Lasalle in 1861, Karl Marx stated that "Darwin’s work is most important and suits my purpose in that it provides a basis in natural science for the historical class struggle. One does, of course, have to put up with the clumsy English style of argument. Despite all shortcomings, it is here that, for the first time, ‘teleology’ in natural science is not only dealt a mortal blow but its rational meaning is empirically explained." (The quote is from a Marxist Web site, www.marxists.org)
The competent Russian biologists were killed or imprisoned for teaching genetics.
True enough, due to the influence of Trofim Lysenko, a Russian biologist who was a court favorite of Joseph Stalin and, to a lesser extent, Nikita Khrushchev. I am not aware Lysenko opposed evolution, just mainstream genetics.
Lysenko destroyed biology in the Soviet Union, along with all its competent practitioners. This happens when politics and ideology replace methodology in science.