SOVIET SCIENCE AND THE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL REVOLUTION: GREAT EXPECTATIONS AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES (1960–1970) | |||
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Year | 2024 | Number | 4 (85) |
Pages | 135-144 | Type | scientific article |
UDC | 94(47)“1960/1970” | BBK | 63.3(2)6 |
Authors | Tikhonov Vitaliy V. |
Topic | 300TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY SCIENCES |
Summary | The article characterizes the development of Soviet science in the conditions of the scientific and technical revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. The work is based on the analysis of factual and conceptual achievements of historical science with the involvement of documents from the Russian State Archive of Modern History and the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The theoretical models of the scientific and technical revolution (NTR) that existed in the USSR and developed Western countries are analyzed. It is pointed out that the theory of NTR, unlike the concept of post-industrial society, did not allow a comprehensive look at the development of the socio-economic structure. Special attention is paid to the development of information technologies in the Soviet Union, as well as to the problem of introducing innovations into real production. Based on the documents of the Central Committee of the CPSU, it is demonstrated that the Soviet leadership did not understand that the USSR was lagging behind the world leaders in the introduction of electronic computing technology. It is concluded that the Soviet Union managed to create a grandiose scientific and technical complex, which, for a number of reasons, did not become a full-fledged locomotive of the transition to a new technological order. In the Soviet economy, “administrative pressure” played a special role, but it allowed solving only a limited range of problems and did not provide an opportunity for comprehensive rebuilding of the economy. The Soviet leadership thought in terms of the industrial era, the regulated economy lacked incentives for innovation, often lacked the necessary technologies and resources, and the system itself reproduced an inertial development model. | ||
Keywords | scientific and technical revolution, post-industrial model, Soviet science, electronic computing, scientific policy | ||
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