Bodrova E.V., Kalinov V.V.

Conclusions of experts of State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Science and Technology on the state of scientific and technical potential of the country in the second half of the 1960s and prospects for development of the potential. Pp. 33-44.

UDC 94(47).084.9″196″

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2025.87.2.004

 

Abstract. The problem is investigated on the basis of newly opened archival documents that were sent to the central party and state bodies in the second half of the 1960s. The new facts make it possible to determine the nature of interaction between the agencies responsible for the scientific and technical sphere in the USSR, to analyze the technical and economic indicators given in the materials, as their authors had sufficient information and qualifications, to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed recommendations. It is concluded that a comparative analysis of the materials prepared by the Committee on Science and Technology and the General Report of the State Planning Committee, the USSR Academy of Sciences and the State Committee on Science and Technology (SCST), sent to the Central Committee of the CPSU in February 1968, proves that the authors of the first document were better informed, persistent in their endeavor to draw the attention of the central authorities to the most complex issues that existed at that time in science and economics, and proposed necessary practical recommendations, based on Russian and foreign experience. However, the final report version contained less critical assessments the recommendations were more general and not so categorical. The SCST specialists rightly drew special attention to the importance of the development of the instrument-making and chemical industries, metallurgy, machine building, capital construction, development and production of computers, and the need to reorganize management in the scientific and technical sphere. On the one hand, the SCST tried to take into account all the innovations and trends in technological revolution. Yet they followed the traditional sectoral approach, so proper inter-sectoral coordination could not be achieved, the measures to ensure interaction between the defense and civilian sectors of science, to accelerate the process of implementation of R&D results into production were also unsuccessful.

 

Keywords: state policy in science and technology, USSR, State Committee on Science and Technology (SCST), technological lag.

 

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