It was interesting that when we spoke to these people, invariably they found a way to work it into the conversation that they were not party members. They seemed to take a great deal of pride in it, and justifiably so, I think. As we broaden our contacts with Russian scientists, it is important to realize that the best ones may well have been ones we heard very little of during Cold War times. One interesting thing about Russian science, as told to me by a lab director there, is that in communist times, there was more freedom in physics, at least professionally, than there was in the society at large. Therefore physics had a relatively easy time attracting the brightest people, since often these people were the ones who also valued freedom.
Bright people can have more freedom than they used to in any profession.
Several people told us how science is funded there. For instance at the Institute for Applied Physics at Nizhny Novgorod there are four levels. First of all there is everyone's basic pay, which is so little as to be almost meaningless. Second there is internal competition for funds for science projects, which can add some to the salaries of the winners. Third there is the Soros foundation which supports some work there.