The engineering of a strategy to accelerate the scientific and technological development of the USSR at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s

Annotation

The critical importance of ensuring technological sovereignty for the Russian Federation dictates the need to develop an accurate, scientifically sound, state scientific and technical policy based on the accumulation of all positive historical experience. The purpose of the publication is to study the problem of attempts to develop an optimal strategy for accelerating the scientific and technical development of the USSR at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. The novelty of the study is determined by the study of aspects of the problem that have not been previously considered in the scientific literature, as well as the introduction into scientific circulation of documents from the collection of the Central Committee of the CPSU of the Russian State Archive of Modern History that have been declassified to date. The basic theory in the course of the study was the theory of modernization; the most important principles were the principles of historicism, objectivity and reliability. The reasons that determined the need to reorganize the management system of the scientific and technical sphere, search for new effective mechanisms capable of activating innovation processes were identified. The conclusion is formulated that the incoming information about the progressive technological backwardness of the USSR in a number of key industries forced the authorities to carry out various types of reorganizations, adjust plans, redistribute funds, but the expected long-term results and overcoming negative trends could not be achieved. The following were identified as the reasons: adherence to previous approaches, crisis of economic science, lobbying of departmental interests, often – incompetence of managers, and their confidence that the growing resource potential will ensure technological renewal. As a result, instead of large-scale radical measures, private ones were taken, which did little to stimulate the production of new modern equipment, modernization of production. The economic reforms that had been initiated were curtailed.

Keywords

• scientific and technical policy
• scientific potential
• economic reforms
• modernization
• innovation processes
• technological lag
• blocking factors
• scientific and technical competition
• personnel policy
• foreign experience
• research and development
• innovation system
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Contribution of the authors

Bodrova E. V. – development of the research concept, analysis of scientific literature and collected materials, generalization, writing of the original text, formulation of conclusions; Kalinov V. V. – collection and analysis of archival documents, revision of the text, formulation of conclusions, technical preparation of the text.

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